"Xingan?"

"Hmm?"

"You are so beautiful."

"Thank you."

"Xingan?"

"Hmm?"

"You are so soft and warm."

"...umm, thank you."

"Xingan?"

"Yes?"

"Do you love me?"

Li Ming's hands, which were busy in separating fruits in different baskets, immediately stopped in their tracks as the question registered in her mind.

She turned to look at the Evernight Lord who was bringing two baskets filled with ripened oranges.

He stopped beside her and crouched down to look at her eyes.

"Do you?"

A soft smile appeared on Li Ming's lips and her eyes started sparkling at his question. The way he was holding his breath and the slight nervousness that only she could notice in his eyes, was too adorable to look at.

She raised her hands to cup the warm but soft cheeks of the Evernight Lord as she asked, "Can you wait a little for my reply?"

Ruoshan smiled softly at her question as he slightly bent forward to kiss her lightly on her forehead.

There was no judgment or sadness in his eyes. He was just smiling at her with his eyes filled with warmth and fondness.

"I've waited for 50,000 plus years for you. A few more years doesn't matter that much. I can always wait for your reply because deep down our souls already know the answer."

His sweet words were enough to make her heart melt. Therefore she didn't even notice as she leaned forward and kissed his cheeks.

Zhang Yong, who was back in his dragon form, stared at the two blushing figures who were not even able to look straight into each other's eyes.

"Can you two be any more shameless? For Heaven's sake, you are not in your bed chamber but in an open field where anyone can see the two of you."

The dragon spoke as he reprimanded the two of them. It was cute seeing a palm-sized dragon being angry at two grown-up humans...err...immortals.

Li Ming was pulled away from the Evernight Lord with a strong force and she nearly lost her balance.

"Aah! It's time for me to retire for my night tasks. See you later!" She didn't give Ruoshan any chance to stop her before teleporting inside the magical mansion.

Zhang Yong followed behind her and the wards around the magical mansion immediately closed to keep the Evernight Lord from following her.

It took her quite some time to understand exactly how the wards around the magical mansion and Xiao Tiantang worked.

She had her doubts about why only her mates were able to enter into her spaces but she finally got her answer while reading an ancient book on soulmates.

Since Li Ming was the master of both these spaces and the wards that were protecting the magical mansion and Xiao Tiantang were connected to her through her energy and soul, they also recognized the Immortals as her mates.

Her soul and energies which were connected to both her mates and the spaces opened a connection between her mates and her spaces.

Since they were her mates and didn't pose any kind of danger to her, the wards immediately surrendered to them, allowing them to enter into her spaces.

After searching for some more and asking Mallow about it, she finally found out that she could stop her mates from entering into her spaces if she wanted, because in the end, she was the actual owner and the spaces needed to follow her orders.

Though she decided to not use this newfound power. She wasn't actually unhappy at the thought that they could enter into her spaces without her permission.

However, she informed them that she would put the wards up against them whenever she would need extreme privacy.

No one raised any question against her decision nor did they show any unhappiness about it.

They just silently listened and accepted her decision.

"Do you have any special plans for the evening?" Zhang Yong asked as he changed into his human form.

Li Ming raised her eyebrow at him as if asking 'What are you doing?'

"I'm tired of the dragon form, I want to be a human for some time. Also, I'm not sticking to you like the Evernight Lord." Zhang Yong replied while shrugging his shoulders.

Li Ming shook her head as she continued walking towards the front porch of the mansion.

The sun appeared bright orange as it reached the horizon, showering the area in its last few golden rays of the day.

"I'm going to take a look at the Prime Minister's manor. It's been quite some time since I last paid them any attention." Li Ming replied to Zhang Yong's initial question as she entered into the mansion.

The two inches high heels immediately disappeared, covering her feet in fluffy slippers.

Her long white dress also changed into a long-sleeved sweatshirt and a pair of pajamas. The temperature inside the mansion immediately adjusted according to her clothes so that she would not feel uncomfortable due to too much heat or cold.

Zhang Yong silently followed behind her as they reached the third floor of the mansion. A soft smile playing on his lips as he thought about watching the poor state of Prime Minister Zhu.

The Shadow Lord had never liked the Prime Minister but he was too lazy...cough cough...busy to pay any attention to him.

Finally, his Ming'er had finally taken care of the monster. At least she was already halfway there to push him over the cliff.

During last December when the people of the underground slave market appeared in the Dongji village for a new batch of children, Li Ming was already prepared.

With the help of Wei Rong, she planned a meeting with General Wei.

She collected all the evidence that she had found about the slave market. The list of the names that Old Mo provided her. The map of the Xi Qiu market and the Slave market. The information about the number and placement of guards around the Slave market.

The shops and people in Xi Qiu City who were either involved in the Slave Market or at least knew about it, and the list of the orphanages that were selling children to the slave market, Li Ming collected all of these before her meeting with General Wei.

It took her nearly a month to collect all this information. She always ended up draining all her spiritual energy as she had to use teleportation powers and invisibility spell almost all the time.

Zhang Yong and sometimes even Ruoshan accompanied her during these days to help her find as much information as she could.

Though taking care of this wasn't a big deal for either of the Immortals, but Li Ming had already informed them to not involve themselves in her matter.

The two of them were only allowed to accompany her to take care if she somehow failed to teleport out of the city due to losing too much energy.

The day Li Ming finally met with General Wei she had collected a lot of information about the slave market.

Only two days were left before the arrival of the people from the Slave market and Li Ming had to make sure that she could save her people from the clutches of those monsters.

As she presented all the evidence in front of General Wei, she was surprised to see that the General was not even shocked by such a huge revelation.

He already had his doubts about the crimes of Prime Minister Zhu. General Wei had also succeeded in collecting some evidence about the Prime Minister's corruption and fraud during his period as an official.

Though that evidence was not enough to put Prime Minister Zhu in any kind of danger.

Li Ming also got to know that General Wei was working on the mission of finding more evidence about Prime Minister Zhu's crimes at the Emperor's order.

Of course, General Wei was shocked to see a young girl carrying so much information about the secret activities of Prime Minister Zhu even when it was hard for even him, General Wei, to find these evidence.

But since Miss Li was introduced to him by his own two sons and they both promised that the young lady was a nice and good-hearted person, he didn't ask any question to her.

After helping General Wei and his second in command in planning a perfect timed raid on the Slave market, Li Ming took her leave.

Just as a group from the slave market were preparing to visit Dongji village, an entire troop of around three hundred soldiers surrounded Xi Qiu City.

General Wei had already sealed the teleportation array house and all the escape routes of Xi Qiu City.

It was almost impossible for Prime Minister Zhu to get out of this situation unharmed.

Little did they expected the Prime Minister to come up with a way to drive most of the harm out of his way, though he lost too much that day to stay sane anymore.