Chapter 188
Chapter 188: Seizing the Future!
"That's all there is to it, sir!"
Little Sparrow finished making up the gold-silk soft couch inside Phoenix Roost Pavilion and turned around, smiling brightly at Jiang Nan.
"Afterward, the Phoenix Sovereign arrived and quelled that rebellion."
"You became famous in a single battle, shaking the entire Dragon-Summer Imperial City."
"And I was taken in by the Phoenix Sovereign to serve as her personal handmaiden, right up until now."
Having finished her account, she gave a courteous bow.
"This servant still needs to return and report to the Phoenix Sovereign, so I won't disturb you further."
"Please rest well, sir!"
Jiang Nan sat beside the table and gave a faint nod.
After Little Sparrow closed the door and withdrew, Jiang Nan stroked his chin.
From the lengthy recollection Little Sparrow had just shared, he had extracted a great deal of critically important information.
"So that's how it is…"
"Apart from those with the special bloodline of the 【Moon Eye】."
"Other Dragon kin—even him—are unable to activate a Domain."
Jiang Nan muttered to himself, resolving one of the doubts weighing on his mind.
No wonder his 【Dragon God Imperial Armor】, after leveling up, came with a built-in basic anti-Domain resistance!
So this was a 【Patch】 defense mechanism deliberately crafted by the Dragon kin to prevent encountering enemies wielding high-tier Domains in actual combat!
He recalled the scene from before—the battle against the Arashin-kai's 3rd Seat, Dusk, in the sky ten thousand meters up.
If Dusk had been replaced by someone whose stats could actually match his own,
while also commanding a powerful Domain,
he would, without question, have fallen at a disadvantage.
"The role a Domain plays is still far too critical."
"I just wonder whether that Gu Yue Xu Yu from back then is still alive."
"If she is still alive…"
Jiang Nan let out a cold laugh.
Then he'd find her and gouge that 【Moon Eye】 out of her once more!
After all, the one who had promised to spare her was the Dragon God of a past life.
What did any of that have to do with him—Jiang Nan—in this life?
The debts of a past life: this life refuses to honor any of them.
Of course, favors are a different matter.
Selective forgetfulness of past obligations—that's the Tier 0 meta strategy.
"Time to rest… the tournament is tomorrow."
Having cleared his thoughts, Jiang Nan removed his coat, flipped onto the gold-silk soft couch, closed his eyes, and settled in to rest.
……
Forest of the Middle Grove.
Compared to the quiet stillness of Phoenix Roost Pavilion, the atmosphere in the main hall could only be described as burning with anxiety.
The Phoenix Sovereign was pacing back and forth across the floor in bare feet.
Her face was etched with the conflicted look of someone both desperate to gain and terrified to lose, while her jade hands kept wringing the hem of her robe.
‘I actually told him to get lost just now?’
‘Would he end up hating me because of it?’
‘He has no memories right now—what if he genuinely gets angry and just walks away…’
Creak~
The main hall doors were pushed open, and Little Sparrow stepped lightly inside.
The Phoenix Sovereign seized Little Sparrow by the shoulders and demanded urgently.
"How did it go, how did it go?! Was everything arranged? He didn't leave, did he?"
"All sorted!"
Little Sparrow flashed an OK sign. "Sir has already settled into Phoenix Roost Pavilion and is resting."
"Phoenix Sovereign~"
"Since you're this worried, there's no point aimlessly pacing around here—why not go share the bed?"
Hearing this, the Phoenix Sovereign first froze—then her cheeks flushed scarlet all the way to her ears!
She waved her hands in frantic denial, even tripping over her words from agitation.
"L-Little Sparrow! You wretched girl, what on earth are you babbling about?!"
"This Sovereign… This Sovereign is a grand First Princess—how could she possibly do something as shameless as sneaking into someone's bedding in the dead of night?!"
"If word got out, wouldn't This Sovereign become the laughingstock of the world—some lovesick fool?!"
Watching her mistress put on this miserable proud-yet-pitiful act,
Little Sparrow rolled her eyes helplessly.
She seized the Phoenix Sovereign by the arm, forced her down to sit on the steps, and plopped herself right beside her.
"Phoenix Sovereign, playing hard to get is so last season!"
"Those worldly rules were made up by bored people with nothing better to do after a full meal!"
Little Sparrow shook her head in exasperation. "Think carefully for yourself—do you even remember how old we are this year?"
Caught off guard, the Phoenix Sovereign mumbled in a slightly guilty voice.
"Ugh… at least… at least over 5,000, right?"
"Then what more needs to be said!"
Little Sparrow shot to her feet and launched into a tirade with both hands on her hips: "Over 5,000 years old!"
"Put it nicely, and you'd say we've been guarding our purity for love!"
"But put it bluntly…"
"We are the most supremely, utterly, incomparably…"
"Old!"
"Dusty!"
"Maids!"
"Old… old dusty maids?!"
The Phoenix Sovereign's eyelid twitched violently, feeling as though her heart had been stabbed 3 times straight through.
"That's right! Old dusty maids!"
Little Sparrow threw all restraint to the wind and cried out shamelessly.
"Over 5,000 years, my dear Phoenix Sovereign!"
"The plumbing's practically rusted shut!"
The Phoenix Sovereign listened, stunned for 2 seconds, then glared at Little Sparrow with blazing shame and fury, roaring.
"You wretched girl! You…"
"How dare you say something so crude and indecent!!!"
Yet faced with her mistress's fury, Little Sparrow not only showed no fear—
she turned right around and fired back with even greater force!
"And whose fault is that?! Isn't it entirely because the Phoenix Sovereign has been too much of a turtle?!"
Little Sparrow cried out in righteous anguish. "You might as well stop calling yourself the Phoenix Sovereign and just rename yourself the Turtle Sovereign!"
"Dragging Little Sparrow along to suffer right alongside you!"
"If I were in your position, back when we were still in the Blazing Flame Realm, when the Dragon God hadn't yet fully grown into his power—"
"I wouldn't have thought twice—I'd have knocked him over the head with a club, dragged him back to the palace, and gotten the deed done!"
"Once the rice is cooked, let's see him try to run!"
"But what did you do?! You chose to wait!"
"Wait! Just kept on waiting!"
"Sat there like a fool waiting until the ends of the earth!"
"Waited until he ascended to godhood!"
"Waited until he died in battle!"
"Waited even until he's now been reincarnated as a human!"
Little Sparrow grew more heated with every word, pressing forward step by step.
"And that's even setting all of that aside—you're already at a ripe old age, yet here you are acting like some teenage girl, all coy and hesitant!"
"Still playing the whole 【Faithless Man, Come Coax Me】 routine!"
"Can't you just be decisive and go straight for a 【Bold Princess Seizes Her King】?!"
"And think carefully—sir has lost his memories right now!"
"He's long forgotten that damned past-life vow he swore about never taking a wife for the rest of his life!"
"Heaven itself is handing you the perfect opportunity to act!"
"If not now, when?!"
Faced with Little Sparrow's relentless barrage, the Phoenix Sovereign was driven back step by step until she nearly crumpled onto the steps altogether.
But there was no denying it…
This wretched girl was making a terrifyingly sound argument!
The Phoenix Sovereign bit her red lip and seized Little Sparrow's arm.
"Then… then what do you think I should do right now?"
Seeing her mistress finally come around, Little Sparrow immediately broke into a mischievous grin.
"Simple~"
Little Sparrow dropped her voice, leaning in with a sly gleam in her eye.
"Your Highness simply needs to change into your most alluring clothes, slip quietly into the bedding at 【Phoenix Roost Pavilion】…"
"And leave the rest to this servant!"
As she spoke, Little Sparrow conjured a pink paper parcel from her bosom as if from thin air.
"What is this?"
The Phoenix Sovereign was puzzled.
"Hehe, this is a Great Chu specialty."
"I went out today specifically to find the pig farmer in the village… oh wait!"
"I mean I had it mixed by the most experienced old physician in the village!"
Little Sparrow thumped her chest with absolute conviction. "Just a tiny bit of smoke, and even a rock could be set ablaze!"
"Absolutely potent!"
Looking at that suspicious packet of powder, the Phoenix Sovereign's face turned completely scarlet.
But the moment Jiang Nan's face flashed through her mind,
she ultimately gritted her teeth and nodded in agreement.
……
Phoenix Roost Pavilion. Dead of night.
The night was dark and the wind was high.
Jiang Nan was fast asleep.
A rustling sound arose.
The Phoenix Sovereign, wearing nothing but a single layer of red silk sleepwear, lifted Jiang Nan's covers and slipped inside.
Skin barely a hand's breadth apart, feeling the warmth radiating from the body beside her, the Phoenix Sovereign was so nervous her very breathing froze.
She lay there stiff as a wooden plank, completely unable to move, her mind a total blank.
And at that very same moment.
On the rooftop of Phoenix Roost Pavilion.
Little Sparrow had changed into a night-stalking suit from gods-knew-where and was lying flat on the tiles.
"This place has fallen into disrepair over the years—there's just such a gap in the tiles right here, making it the perfect spot to administer the product!"
Little Sparrow snickered, produced a bamboo tube, and lit the Great Chu specialty.
Then she pressed it to the gap in the tiles, ready to blow the pink smoke down into the room below.
However, a blunder broke out inside the room first.
The Phoenix Sovereign, who had been lying rigid beside Jiang Nan, was just working up the courage to inch a little closer.
When at that moment, the sleeping man beside her seemed to shift—and then!
The Phoenix Sovereign suddenly felt herself prodded by some unspeakable something…
"!!!"
The Phoenix Sovereign's composure shattered in an instant!
"Mmph! This… this really is beyond impossible after all!! This is far too mortifying!!"
She let out a wail of despair, flung the covers back, and burst from Phoenix Roost Pavilion in a dead sprint!
Meanwhile, up on the rooftop.
Little Sparrow was still bent over, blowing away at the smoke with great enthusiasm, completely unaware of what had just transpired inside.
Right as she was blowing with full gusto, the long-neglected tile beneath her foot suddenly gave way!
"Oh no!"
Little Sparrow yelped, lost her balance, and smashed straight through the rooftop.
Person and tile plummeted directly from above—
Thud!
Little Sparrow landed squarely on the large bed, not an inch to either side.
"Ow ow ow ow…"
Little Sparrow rubbed her bruised backside and, the moment she raised her head,
caught a glimpse through the wide-open door of her mistress's red figure fleeing in frantic disarray.
Little Sparrow panicked at once, kneeling on the bed and bellowing through the open door.
"Hey! Phoenix Sovereign! What are you running for?! The arrow is already nocked—how can you just retreat now?!"
Just as she was fuming and about to scramble to her feet to chase that insufferable Turtle Sovereign back,all of a sudden,a wave of heat blasted from behind her, washing over the nape of her neck!
In an instant, Little Sparrow broke into a cold sweat all over!
"N-no way…"
Little Sparrow swallowed hard and turned her neck inch by agonizing inch.
There, on the pillow behind her.
The man who had supposedly been fast asleep had, at some unknown point, opened both eyes.
Jiang Nan, having inhaled an overdose of the Great Chu specialty,
combined with the stimulation of his Dragon bloodline, had completely lost control!
He leaned slightly forward.
"My apologies."
"Dragon Nature… has awakened."
Faced with this Dragon God on the verge of losing control,
Little Sparrow's mind went completely blank—yet her body responded with perfect honesty.
Since her mistress had already fled, this long and endless night, with the drug now in full effect…
someone had to bear it!
Little Sparrow shut her eyes, steeled her heart, and reached out her hand directly…
and seized hold of the future.