At this moment, Princess Irena was washing her body in the tent. Her silver hair hung down, and her jewel-like emerald eyes stared at the wooden bucket in front of her.
Without saying much, Irena wiped her body with a cloth. Normally, as a princess in the royal capital, it would be impossible for her to bathe in such a simple, even crude manner.
But marching into war meant the conditions were different. Moreover, for the sake of the citizens in the royal capital and the future of the Hill Empire, she felt that just having water to rinse off was already quite a luxury.
"...Father and the others have all turned into monsters. The assassins today must have been sent by them," Irena murmured.
But she was not afraid.
Why wasn't she afraid?
It seemed to be because they now had the power to stand against the royal capital. Irena understood her own importance—legitimacy. Only her existence could guarantee the legitimacy of this northern expedition.
Otherwise, Kaiaolen would face not only pressure from the enemy but also pressure from the public.
With a rustle, the tent flap behind her was suddenly pushed open, and a figure walked right in. "Yo, Princess, let me stay with you tonight."
Irena's body instantly stiffened. She turned her head in apparent disbelief, and the moment she saw Ye Chuan standing behind her...
"E-Eek?!!!!!!!"
"Where is Torres?!"
"Oh, you're taking a bath." Ye Chuan took a glance, though from this angle he couldn't see much of anything, only Irena's back.
There were still some water droplets on it.
Perhaps because Irena was a half-elf, her skin was quite nice, so snow-white that it could rival those of immortal cultivators.
"Lord Xi-Xi Xi, could you please step out?" Irena covered herself, her face so flushed it looked as if it could drip water.
"What are you blushing for?" Ye Chuan asked.
Irena froze for a moment. "What... what am I blushing for?"
Ye Chuan's question actually left Irena stunned.
What did he mean? Shouldn't she be shy? A boy her age had just barged in while she was taking a bath.
"The royal family has all turned into monsters, and you are one of the few royals left. If we succeed this time, you'll be the future queen. Can't you be a little more composed when things happen, instead of acting like a little girl?" Ye Chuan crossed his arms and said.
Irena blanked out for a long while, feeling that Ye Chuan's words actually made sense.
Why was she panicking so much? Should she really be shy?
"Turn around, let's have an open and honest chat," Ye Chuan said.
"This..."
"You can't even do this... Sigh, the future of the Hill Empire." Ye Chuan shook his head.
"I-I'll turn around, okay!" Irena turned around with a flushed face, not even knowing why she was doing it.
But she somehow felt it was the right thing to do.
However, when Irena turned around, she found that Ye Chuan was no longer standing behind her. Instead, he was lying on the bed not far away.
"I'm just resting for a bit. You can continue your bath," Ye Chuan said, looking at his phone.
"Lord Xi-Xi Xi? Aren't you going to look?"
Hearing this, Ye Chuan glanced at her. "Look at what? I just wanted you to stay composed when things happen, not to look at anything."
"Why, do you really want to show me?"
"!"
Irena hugged her towel tightly. After a few seconds, she puffed out her cheeks. "Lord Xi Xi, you're mean."
The sound of splashing water resumed. The tips of Irena's ears were still tinged with red as she asked, "Lord Xi Xi... why did you come to my tent?"
"The bed on my side is too small and uncomfortable to lie on. Yours is pretty good," Ye Chuan said.
Still, since he was marching into battle, he figured he might as well bring a better bed along next time—it would just be stuffed into his inventory space anyway. Or maybe he should just log off and rest.
While Ye Chuan was lost in thought, Irena had appeared beside him at some point—
From Ye Chuan's angle, he could see Irena's waist-length silver hair and her faintly discernible waistline.
"You're not going to wear clothes?"
"You were right, Lord Xi Xi. I shouldn't act like a little girl. I... must shoulder the future of the Hill Empire," Irena said.
"..."
"I was just saying that casually," Ye Chuan said.
"Uh, really?"
"When it comes to growing up enough to shoulder responsibilities..." Ye Chuan turned to look at Irena and said,
"It's not something you can achieve just by talking about it. What you need to do is make up your mind and start with the little things."
"When you look back one day and see everything you've done, you'll finally understand, 'Oh, so that's how it is. I've grown up without even realizing it.'"
Irena listened quietly to everything Ye Chuan said, fiddling with her fingers. "Lord Xi Xi, what you said makes a lot of sense."
"Achoo!"
Irena suddenly let out a small sneeze. The next second, she felt a weight on her shoulders as a warm bathrobe was draped over her back.
"...?" Irena subconsciously gripped the soft fabric of the robe.
"I'll be charging you for that," Ye Chuan said, immediately adding,
"Until you save this country, I'll put it on your tab for now."
"Thank you..."
"You're welcome."
"Lord Xi Xi, you really are a strange person..."
"Not strange at all."
Irena suddenly covered her mouth and giggled softly. "Is that so?"
"Lord Xi Xi."
"Hmm?"
"Do you have a partner?" Irena's question brought Ye Chuan back to his senses. "Yeah, I have several."
"Several... I see." Irena couldn't help but ask curiously, "So Lord Xi Xi is already married."
"Not yet. Where I'm from, I haven't reached the legal age for marriage," Ye Chuan said, then asked,
"What is the marriage age in the Hill Empire?"
"Twelve."
"Just send me to the electric chair." Ye Chuan hadn't expected the marriageable age in the Aether Continent to be so young. It seemed every place was indeed different.
Never mind.
Ye Chuan waved his hand dismissively. "I'm tired too."
With that said, Ye Chuan closed his eyes, preparing to just log off directly.
Irena stared blankly at Ye Chuan, ultimately not saying anything more.
Meanwhile, outside the tent—
"Torres, aren't you going to rest?" Elara happened to pass by the princess's tent and asked curiously when she saw Torres standing at the entrance.
"The princess was just attacked. It's better if I stay here and stand guard."
"Oh, I see. Have you seen my teacher?"
Hearing this, Torres pointed behind him. "He's inside."
"It's already so late, what is Teacher doing inside with the princess..."
"Shoo, shoo, kids shouldn't know so much." Torres waved her off, dismissing Elara's gossipy thoughts.
"I'm not a kid!"
Elara retorted, but she had no intention of disturbing Ye Chuan, so she turned and left.
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.
