Long Chen and Zhiqing had just finished finding a place where they decided to stay the night.
It was in the middle of a forest which fortunately didn't have any beasts living inside. It was also a peaceful forest, far away from the closest human city.
In the center of the forest, Long Chen started setting up the tent while Zhiqing helped him.
"This looks better."
Finishing setting up the camp, Long Chen nodded in satisfaction.
"Yeah. Good work," Zhiqing complimented Long Chen.
She knew that Long Chen wasn't going to answer her about what happened with Mingyu in detail. That's why he had ignored the topic last time. Noticing that, she dropped the matter for the night.
She was going to go over it again when it was morning and asked Long Chen when his mind was fresh after a good sleep.
"Let's sleep," Long Chen said as he started walking inside the tent.
Zhiqing also walked inside only to find Long Chen lying on the mattress with his eyes closed.
'Hmm? He fell asleep so fast?' she thought as she frowned. Didn't he just enter a few moments before her? He was pretty fast. Was he really that sleepy?
He usually would not have slept so fast. They might have had some good time, but he didn't do that, which seemed out of character for him.
'The day must be really hard on him to make him so tired,' Zhiqing thought as she walked closer to Long Chen.
She sat down beside him. Something still felt suffocating. A strange aura was still around Long Chen, but it wasn't as bad as before. She could bear it this time.
Bringing her face closer to Long Chen's face, she kissed his cheeks lightly as she whispered, "Sweet dreams. Everything's going to be fine soon."
After saying that, she also laid down beside him and closed her eyes.
As Zhiqing laid behind Long Chen, closing her eyes, Long Chen opened his eyes.
Raising his hand, he gently touched his cheeks.
He closed his eyes again and, this time, fell asleep for real.
...
"Wake up! It's morning!"
Zhiqing was sleeping peacefully when she heard a loud voice. "Hmm, let me sleep."
"It's already afternoon. Get up. We'll be late."
Long Chen was already up and prepared to leave, but Zhiqing was still sleeping.
Amidst his constant nagging, Zhiqing opened her eyes slowly. "You can't even let me sleep in peace, can you?"
"I wouldn't have disturbed you if I wasn't late already. Get up. We're leaving," Long Chen said. "I'll remove the tent. You get to in the meantime."
He stepped out and started removing the tent.
....
After getting prepared, Long Chen called out for the snake monarch to take them.
"Hmm? You seem different?"
As soon as Snake Monarch came out, he also noticed something strange in Long Chen.
"Yeah, I changed my hairstyle. That must be what you noticed," Long Chen replied in sarcasm.
"Hmm? Your hairstyle? Now that you mention it, I do see the change. Your hair looks worse than before and shorter," Snake Monarch commented, gazing at the hair of Long Chen.
"I was being sarcastic, you idiot. My hair is the same," Long Chen snorted, rolling his eyes. "Anyways, get bigger. We need to leave."
"Not so fast. Where's Mingyu? Last time I left you at the palace because her life was in danger and you were worried. Is she safe now? Did you beat whoever wanted to kill her?" Snake Monarch asked.
"Enough nonsense. Are you going to listen to me, or should I make a snake soup to feed Little Snow today?" Long Chen jokingly said while changing the topic. "She would like you."
"Ah, Are you threatening this King? Do you think it will work? It's obviously not going to work!" the Snake Monarch said as he started getting bigger. "I would take you with me but not because I'm scared!"
"Whatever reason, as long as it works for me," Long Chen commented, not bantering much.
Picking Zhiqing up in his arms, he started walking in the air to land on top of the Snake Monarch.
"Go south. I'll tell you direction when we need to change it," Long Chen commanded the Snake Monarch before he closed his eyes.
The Snake Monarch started flying, not arguing much. Even though he said he wasn't scared, he didn't know why but he had a feeling that Long Chen hadn't joked when he talked about making Snake Soup. He didn't want to end up on the plate of little Snow even if he died.
...
"This is the Portal?"
Back in the other Esteria Empire, the Emperor brought Wu Lia to the special portal that was going to lead him to this world.
"This is better. I'll use it," Wu Lia told the Emperor as he walked inside the portal formation.
The formation started shining slowly, and the light soon filled the entire room.
The light soon disappeared, but strangely, Wu Lia, who looked like a young boy, was still standing there. He hadn't disappeared.
"This formation can't support me. My strength is too much for it," Wu Lia muttered as he frowned.
He gazed back at the Emperor and commanded, "Bring me sixty-seven origin stones!"
"Sixty-seven? That's all stock I have. If I use that, our Empire won't have any left," the Emperor pointed out.
"Do you think your Empire would be left if you don't give me? Are you bringing it to me, or should I do it myself?" Wu Lia threatened the Emperor.
His threat was subtly hinting that he was going to destroy the Empire if he didn't get what he wanted.
The Emperor could only sigh as he nodded his head. He started walking away. "I'll bring it for you."
"That's like a good boy. It's good that he isn't stubborn. If he knew that I couldn't even attack him, he wouldn't have listened," Wu Lia muttered as he smiled wryly.
He looked down at the formation and started complaining, "Such crude formation. If only they had better masters to craft this formation with the Dark Crafting Method, it would have been able to support me without Origin stones. Whatever, I lack time. I can't correct it or complain."
After a few minutes, the Emperor came back with a bag full of beautiful shining stones that were giving out no energy. It didn't have any Qi inside them, but it had something even better.
The Origin Stones had original energy that Heavenly Warriors and Demons used for themselves.
Humans couldn't even use this for cultivation. They could only use this for other things.
The Emperor gave the stones to Wu Lia.