Chapter 269: My Lord, Let’s Exercise
For a fleeting instant, where the quilt met her body, the woman’s figure was exposed before the man’s eyes—only to be covered up again almost immediately.
Nan Xun lay sprawled across his chest and asked with a bright smile,
“My lord, am I heavy?”
Gong Mo Ran reached out from beneath the quilt and patted the back of her head.
“Stop fooling around. I’ll rest for a bit, then I need to get up.”
Nan Xun wriggled on him like a little caterpillar, inching her way until they were face to face. In a very soft, extremely shy voice, she asked,
“My lord, it’s still early… should we maybe… exercise a little?”
Gong Mo Ran froze for a moment. He thought it over, then said,
“That’s fine. Although it’s later than usual, I can teach you a simple sword routine.”
Hearing this, Nan Xun became even more embarrassed.
“My lord, you really are very… subtle with your words. Th-then let’s start. If we delay any longer, everyone will be getting up.”
Gong Mo Ran nodded.
And so, the two of them moved at the same time.
One lay flat on the bed, waiting to be “favored.”
The other got up, preparing to get out of bed.
Nan Xun: ……
Gong Mo Ran: ……
The air grew so awkward it seemed to solidify. Nan Xun suddenly burst into a bout of dry laughter, quickly yanking the quilt— which had slipped down when he sat up—back over herself, wrapping herself up tight.
“Uh… my lord, you should go practice swordsmanship first. I suddenly feel a little unwell, so I won’t accompany you. Heh… hehe…”
As she spoke, she turned over with the quilt, presenting him with her back.
Gong Mo Ran didn’t leave.
He lowered the bed curtains, lay back down, and turned the little bundle she’d wrapped herself into back around.
From behind the pale gauze curtains came the man’s voice—calm, with a hint of amusement.
“Duoduo, if there’s something you want in the future, you can just tell this seat directly. There’s no need to be so… subtle. Sometimes this seat is rather inflexible and can’t quite catch the implication.”
Nan Xun wanted to crawl into a crack in the floor. One hand clawed at the bed so hard she nearly dug a hole through it.
“Duoduo, did you truly mean… to accompany this seat in sword practice?”
“Ah… n-no… not that… um… actually, I just misspoke earlier.”
Nan Xun’s face turned as red as a monkey’s backside.
Alright, fine. It was really because she’d been too muddled last night. Even though she remembered waking up, many of the sensations were already fuzzy. Little pervert Nan Xun very much wanted to have another intense bout of adult exercise with the National Preceptor—this time fully conscious.
Perhaps she’d been influenced by the bluntness of the prehistoric people from her previous world. She thought it—and just went ahead and said it to the big boss.
Only now did she realize this was an ancient world that valued subtle beauty. What she’d said earlier was outrageously forward.
The man patted her head and explained seriously,
“Duoduo, next time. This short amount of time isn’t enough—it would be too brief.”
Nan Xun: ……!!
As for when Gong Mo Ran eventually left, Nan Xun couldn’t remember anymore. She buried her entire face into the soft pillow and refused to get up.
Yes. She had temporarily lost all face.
It wasn’t until the maidservants knocked on the door and brought in hot water for bathing that Nan Xun finally pulled her face out of the pillow.
After such a wild night, a bath was indeed in order—just that it was already early morning…
The National Preceptor’s main hall never allowed servants to enter. Yet this time, after knocking, the maids and matrons carried the bathing items straight into the inner chamber. Without the National Preceptor’s personal orders, they wouldn’t have dared.
Nan Xun secretly glanced at the women delivering the water and saw that their expressions were perfectly normal, eyes straight ahead.
After bathing, feeling refreshed, Nan Xun didn’t go out.
She stayed curled up in the big boss’s inner hall, touching this and that, straightening anything she found out of place.
Until she accidentally noticed a yellow-covered book coated in dust. She leaned back on Gong Mo Ran’s favorite couch and began flipping through it.
The book had no title. Inside were records of strange, unfathomable witchcraft techniques and formations.
At first, Nan Xun only intended to skim it casually, but the later contents completely drew her in.
In the inherited memories of the Zui Li clan, there were several witchcrafts and formations similar to those recorded here—but what was written in this book was far more ruthless and domineering, like an enhanced and refined version of what she remembered.
Especially the final formation—once activated, everyone in the entire Southern Yun Kingdom’s imperial palace would likely die unnatural deaths.
Nan Xun’s gaze darkened. She snapped the book shut and carefully returned it to its original place.
At that moment, Little Eight suddenly spoke up:
“Damn it, since you didn’t go all saucy with the big boss, why didn’t you call me?! I was afraid of seeing something I shouldn’t, so I didn’t even dare open my five senses fully!”
Nan Xun lay back on the couch, yawned, and said lazily,
“I wanted to, but the big boss thought the morning time was too short and rejected my proposal for morning exercise.”
Little Eight:
“Holy crap! As expected of Nan Xun—having the nerve to propose something like that without shame. It’s already a miracle the big boss didn’t get scared off.”
“By the way, this big boss is really pure-hearted. Do you know how much his evil thought value dropped last night while you two were… fighting demons? Eighteen points! In less than half a year, his evil value dropped to forty-nine—below half already! I thought a big boss who’d lived this long would be super hard to seduce, but who knew… heehee… I was so excited last night I ran five laps around the Star Space. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be seeing such a calm Lord Eight right now!”
Nan Xun really didn’t feel that Little Eight looked very calm.
“Little Eight, don’t celebrate too early. This time, I still haven’t found the root of the big boss’s evil thoughts. I can feel it—there’s something buried deep in his heart. Something terrifying. This big boss is different from the previous ones. His evil thoughts aren’t formed from many small things piling up. If it’s caused by a single event, then his obsession with that matter has likely sunk deep into his bones.”
Little Eight was startled by her analysis. After hesitating, it said,
“When you put it like that… I suddenly remembered the big boss’s true identity.”
Nan Xun: ……
Heh. Why did she feel like Little Eight had known from the start and deliberately kept it from her—only deciding now that the timing was right to come clean?
Little Eight cleared its throat and began its story:
“A very, very long time ago, before the world split into four, the Great Zhou Kingdom ruled all under heaven. The last emperor of Great Zhou incurred a romantic debt outside—he got involved with a beauty skilled in witchcraft. Later, it was discovered that this beauty was actually the Holy Maiden of the Witch Clan. The Holy Maiden’s powers were heaven-defying, and somehow a saying spread: He who gains the witch maiden gains the world.
“At that time, Great Zhou was already rotten to the core. Yet, perhaps because of the witch maiden’s presence, several peasant uprisings all failed. Later…”
Nan Xun couldn’t help interrupting, puzzled:
“Then the Witch Clan’s Holy Maiden must’ve been drop-dead gorgeous. How did she end up falling for such an incompetent emperor?”
Little Eight snorted.
“You don’t get it. Back then, the Great Zhou imperial family specialized in producing beautiful men. That emperor might’ve been useless at ruling, but his looks were top-tier. This is a world that judges by faces~”
Nan Xun: ……
