Zu An was speechless. What do you mean, all I did was sleep with an empress? What, are there a few more empresses I can sleep with out there?

Mi Li said, “I heard most of your conversation with that sly vixen, too. I reckon you were probably bullied quite badly by the emperor, and you were even flogged yesterday. That was why you poured out all of your revenge on the empress out of anger.”

Zu An was embarrassed as he said, “You’ve witnessed a poor side of me.”

Mi Li’s expression remained serious as she remarked, “No, I think you did quite well.”

Zu An really was confused now. He really didn’t know whether Mi Li was really angry, or if she was being ironic.

Mi Li could see through his thoughts. She harrumphed and said, “I’m being honest. You’re destined to become this world’s strongest man. How can you be afraid of the slightest thing? The emperor did whatever he wanted to you. Over time, he could leave behind a shadow in your heart, making you too scared to go against him.

“It wasn’t that big of an issue when your cultivation was lower, but at higher levels of cultivation, it could affect you more and more. It could even become an inner demon that would prevent you from making any progress.”

Zu An jumped in fright. “Is it really that bad?”

Mi Li replied, “Low level cultivators like you cultivate the body and ki. Once you reach a higher level, the main focus is on cultivating the soul. Cultivating the soul requires a powerful will. The stronger your heart, the easier it becomes to make your soul stronger. On the contrary, if there are gaps in your mentality, it’s easy for problems in your cultivation to arise.”

Zu An shivered inside. Mi Li’s cultivation level was incredibly high, so he trusted her experience. At the same time, he was glad that he had such an attractive teacher and friend to accompany him, which would save him a lot of time compared to others.

Mi Li continued, “I originally planned to find a chance to warn you about that, but you actually took this step on your own. Very good, you’re worthy of being… ahem, worthy of being the man whom I beat down so viciously, but still refused to yield.”

Zu An shook his head in embarrassment. “All I did was sleep with a woman out of anger, yet you’re putting me on a pedestal. I'm even getting a bit embarrassed.”

“Someone as shameless as you can become embarrassed?” Mi Li rolled her eyes. She continued, “Still, you have to be careful. That vixen seems to have ulterior motives.”

Zu An looked a bit distressed as well. “I know she has other plans, but I just can’t figure them out.”

Mi Li gave him a strange look. “She wants your body, obviously.”

Zu An blushed. “You shouldn’t joke like that. Even though the two of us haven’t done much, she’s definitely not the type to do stupid things out of lust.”

Mi Li laughed and said, “What are you thinking about? I was talking about your transcendent aptitude.”

“Transcendent aptitude?” Zu An was stunned. He had almost forgotten about that.

Mi Li said, “She seems to have some internal injuries, and she wants to use your body to heal herself. She seemed to have used some charming technique to take some of your blood essence, and that was what startled me awake. But because that method didn’t hurt your foundation, I decided not to bother you.”

Zu An suddenly realized what was happening. No wonder it had felt as if there were countless little mouths sucking at him inside of the empress’ body! At the time, he had been amazed at just how amazing this woman felt, but it turned out she was using these tricks on him!

Mi Li sounded a bit confused as she continued, “Your transcendent aptitude blood makes your blood essence extremely useful to any cultivator. Under normal circumstances, there’s no way she would let you go if she knew about it. She would have sucked you dry.”

Zu An subconsciously rubbed his neck, feeling some lingering fear.

Mi Li mused, “But if she didn’t know about your transcendent aptitude, then why would she make such a huge sacrifice? Why would she exchange her body for your blood essence?”

Zu An’s thoughts moved quickly. He suddenly thought of something. “She probably deduced something when she was talking to Chuyan…”

Then, he gave her a rough explanation of how he had sent Chuyan to ask Liu Ning for help.

Mi Li’s brows furrowed slightly. “Tell your stupid wife to not blab about how you healed her in the future. Otherwise, it might easily bring you great harm.”

“How could she have anticipated that the empress would have such thoughts? She’s quite sharp normally. She was probably just a bit confused out of worry.” Zu An subconsciously defended Chu Chuyan.

Mi Li’s expression sank. “You don’t have to do that affection stuff in front of me. She’s not even here. I was just reminding you to be careful about this.”

Zu An saw that her expression was off and quickly said in apology, “Okay, I’ll warn her later.” As the mood was a bit strange, he quickly changed topics. “By the way, did you already get rid of all of the poison?”

“How can the Red Tears of Lady Xiang be that easy to get rid of?” Mi Li harrumphed. However, her expression still eased when she sensed his concern. “But I’ve managed to get it under control. I won’t have to suddenly fall asleep again like before.”

Zu An was extremely happy to hear that. “That’s great!”

Mi Li gave him an ambiguous look. “Are you being honest? Are you not scared of having another person constantly nagging you?”

Zu An chuckled. “Of course I’m being honest. As for my business, you already saw it all anyway. I’m quite fond of myself in that aspect, so it’s not as if I’m scared of being seen.”

Mi Li had watched the entire thing between him and Chu Chuyan anyway. Wait, didn’t she possess Chu Chuyan back then? Then doesn’t that mean…

Mi Li’s thoughts seemed to have reached a similar point. There was a blush on her pretty cheeks, and her expression was a bit unnatural as well. “Ahem, who has the time to watch you? Let me make it clear right now, okay? We’re still going to do things the way we did before. Don’t rely on me when you encounter danger, or else you’ll never become someone truly strong.”

“Okay.” Zu An’s expression also softened when he looked at her.

Mi Li subconsciously tugged on her clothes. She couldn’t help but feel that this fellow seemed to be able to see right through her. She quickly changed the topic. “Right, did you find any of the things I asked you to find?”

Zu An knew that she was talking about the treasures that could help her rebuild her body. “Sorry, I looked through the Embroidered Envoy database, but I wasn’t able to find any information.”

Mi LI’s brows furrowed. “Could it be that all of those ingredients already went extinct over time?”

Zu An consoled her. “There’s no need for you to be too worried. Perhaps it’s just that their names changed over time. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it in mind. I’ll have way more resources at my disposal in the future, so it’ll become easier for me to find them.”

A smile returned to Mi Li’s face. “I guess you have some conscience. However, I’ve been feeling quite strange recently. I feel as if we’re close to finding something for some reason.”

“Is that true?” Zu An was shocked. Mi Li was an expert with high cultivation. There was no way she was just bluffing. There had to truly be a trail of fate.

“Yeah. But you don’t have to force anything; just do what you’ve been doing.” Mi Li was surprisingly optimistic. “Alright, tell me what’s happened all this time.”

Zu An began to chat with her, telling her about the various things that had happened. For some reason, he felt a strange sense of security whenever he was at her side.

Even though Mi Li wouldn’t admit to it, she experienced something similar. To a certain degree, they were both outsiders in this world, so they shared a natural feeling of loneliness. They felt a sense of warmth from each other.

As she listened to Zu An’s experiences, Mi Li’s frown grew deeper. In the end, she said bluntly, “You really have no other skills apart from courting girls.”

Zu An was speechless. Sis, are you praising me or putting me down here?

Mi Li continued, “You’re only getting some small favors and gratitude out of the things you do. Even though your relationship with them is good, why would they help you at a crucial time?”

“Don’t tell me I need to get people of my own or something?” Zu An suggested.

Mi Li still shook her head. “That’s not it. Your current strength isn’t high enough, so even if you try to gather some people, it’ll still be useless. Furthermore, doing that will only draw bad attention from the emperor.”

“Then what do I do?” Zu An was getting a headache.

Mi Li’s eyes flickered brightly as she exclaimed, “There are two things you can do!”