Chapter 862: Confessing Love
“Absolutely!” How could He Li give up such a great chance to make some contributions? He quickly rushed over and recalled the inscriptions on the stele. “Above chaos rests dark clouds; the Heavenly Gate opens wide. The great sun returns to the Golden Palace; the Southern Star moves around the Alioth. The Imperial Canopy lies in purple; elegant music enters Zheng. Those who understand shall receive eternal life…”
Sure enough, there were dark clouds, a heavenly gate, a great sun, a golden palace, and other such diagrams. He just had to match up the diagrams. Unfortunately, whenever he matched up two of them and tried to match more, the ones matched already would start rotating and mess up the order. He tried all sorts of different things, but unfortunately, he couldn’t figure it out at all. He broke out into a cold sweat.
Zhao Ruizhi, having seen He Li fail, walked over and pushed him aside. “Trash. You couldn’t even take care of something so easy.”
After saying so, he began to rotate the pillars himself. Four of them were soon matched, as he paid close attention the entire time. But when he worked on the last two, he discovered that no matter what he did, it would ruin the other pillars that he had already correctly matched. He frowned. He tried a few more times, but he just couldn’t match all six. He also ended up quite helpless.
He Li had to hold back his smile. He thought to himself, What are you cursing at me for? I thought you were formidable or something, but this is it? Of course, there was no way he would ever say these things out loud.
Zhao Ruizhi couldn’t keep up his calm exterior anymore. He turned around and looked at Zu An. “You said earlier that you could activate this mechanism?”
“But of course,” Zu An said proudly.
Zhao Ruizhi harrumphed. “In that case, you do it. If you can’t do it, I’ll immediately make you understand what regret means.”
Zu An shook his head. “You’ll immediately kill me if I help you with this mechanism. I’m not that stupid.”
Zhao Ruizhi said seriously, “Don’t worry, there are so many here to serve as witnesses. I promise I won’t kill you as long as you activate this mechanism.”
“Your word is as good as a fart. You were just about to lash out a moment ago.” Zu An sneered.
Zhao Ruizhi was angered by Zu An’s words. It had already been a long time since anyone had dared to speak to him like this.
You have successfully trolled Zhao Han for +444!
But for the sake of obtaining what he really wanted, he endured his anger and said, “I can make a vow if you don’t trust me.”
Zu An shook his head. “This dungeon’s elements are unstable. A vow might not work.”
Zhao Ruizhi was shocked. After all, only someone like him could sense the abnormalities in the world. How had this fellow noticed that? “You’re refusing this and that, so what do you want?” he snapped, annoyed.
Zu An said, “Let’s not talk about oaths, but rather interest. There will be all sorts of mechanisms to solve in this dungeon, and you’ll need me to solve almost every one of them. We’ve only finished the first floating continent; there are two more to come. That grand palace will definitely have all sorts of even more complex puzzles. If you injured me beforehand and I couldn’t help you with any of the mechanisms to come, causing you to fail to obtain the immortality you’ve sought out for so long, wouldn’t that become your life’s greatest regret?”
He obviously wouldn’t trust the emperor that easily, but he had to temporarily appease him. Similarly, he also wanted to reach the highest palace, find the first emperor’s secrets, and obtain the latter half of the Primordial Origin Sutra. With Mi Li’s help, he would practically be fighting in his home territory. He could use the palace’s layout to have a chance against the emperor.
“But this is an exchange of mutual interest. Since I’m helping you obtain eternal life, what can you offer me?” Zu An asked.
Zhao Ruizhi’s face darkened. “Didn’t I promise to let you live? I’ve already given you that, yet you want more?”
“Isn’t this life of mine a bit too insignificant compared to eternal life?” Zu An looked as if he didn’t care at all. “I’m not interested in getting scammed like that. We can all just die here if you want.”
He Li was starting to even feel some admiration. This kid really was something! He was gambling with his very life here! He wished he could negotiate with the emperor as well, but he would lose confidence whenever they faced each other.
Bi Linglong bit her lips tightly. Even though her rationality told her that the emperor would probably agree because of his obsession with immortality, she was still worried. She was extremely curious what Zu An would ask for.
“Fine, I’ll just treat you leniently then. What do you want?” Zhao Ruizhi planned to appease this fellow first, to have him help with acquiring immortality. Then, he would slowly settle things afterward.
Zu An pointed toward Bi Linglong. “I want her!”
Zhao Ruizhi erupted with rage. “You’re courting death!” A ferocious aura erupted from him.+ However, Zu An continued to stand in place, staring right back at him without a sliver of fear.
He Li was already beyond amazed. This kid really is amazing! Even I would kneel! Zu An and the crown princess have already done so many things to anger the emperor, and yet the emperor couldn’t cross the floating islands and do anything about it. Now, Zu An is asking for the crown princess right in front of the emperor’s face? He was extremely curious as to how the emperor would reply.
Bi Linglong had been worried about Zu An’s safety, but how could she have predicted that he would ask for such a thing? She blushed immediately. What am I going to do with you…
She couldn’t even describe how she was feeling right now. She didn’t know why he would demand something like that! Wasn’t he poking at the emperor’s Achilles heel? But rationality was one thing, and emotions were another; moreover, more women were emotional.
Zu An was taking such a huge risk to ‘confess his love’ to her. Her heart pounded as she thought, Does he really care about me? As for Zu An’s safety, she instead stopped worrying about that. As someone from the royal family, she knew what the emperor was like.
As long as he had a chance at obtaining immortality, what did a trifling woman count for? Furthermore, it was only a vocal promise. Any politician would always be prepared to go back on their word at any time. As for bringing shame to the royal family, that didn’t matter either, because he just had to silence everyone present. That way, no one would ever know that he made such an embarrassing promise.
Zu An calmly said, “You want eternal life, so I’ll help you. After you obtain eternal life, you’ll have endless women, so why do you have to cling to her? If you really aren’t willing, just kill us now. You can seek that fleeting eternal life yourself then.”
Zhao Ruizhi’s expression changed several times. In the end, he coldly said, “Fine, but that’s based on the premise that you really can help me.”
He had already made his decision. Once Zu An helped him enter that palace, he would instantly blast that guy to smithereens to vent out his resentment. He was no longer in the mood to slowly torment Zu An anymore.
He Li and the other soldiers had been waiting for the emperor to rip Zu An apart. They hadn’t expected to hear such a reply. The royal family’s moral principles really were lacking! You can even give away your own wife? Wait, is this your wife or your daughter-in-law…
“As expected, your majesty is generous!” Zu An laughed out loud. Then, he turned around and grabbed Bi Linglong’s hand. “From now on, you’re mine.”
Bi Linglong was getting a bit dizzy. It all felt like an illusion, and yet it was all real. Her face was completely red. She opened her mouth, but she didn’t know what to say.
Should she face him with a look of happiness? Her bashfulness as a lady made it impossible for her to do that in front of so many people. But she might hurt Zu An if she said anything else. That was why she decided to just say nothing.
Zhao Ruizhi’s eyelids twitched. “Solve this mechanism first! Or else I’ll kill both of you right now!”
You have successfully trolled Zhao Han for +766 +766 +766…
Zu An said with a laugh, “Relax, it’s easy enough.”
He jogged over to the pillars and spun them around. He took mental notes of which pillars would rotate when he spun one pillar, and he spun all of them a few times. After testing out all of them, he wrote down a series of digits on the ground.
Zhao Ruizhi was getting impatient. “What the hell are you doing?”
Zu An shot right back, “What the hell do you know? This is called linear algebra! This is the culmination of a certain world’s wisdom.”