Chapter 2193: The Third Phase

His eyes drifted toward the ginseng soup next to him. “This emperor was clearly not scared, and yet I was growing weaker by the day. It is probably because of this ginseng soup, right?”

Concubine Yuan Ji forced a smile and asked, “Could it be that your majesty has encountered too many unimaginable things and has become a bit overly suspicious?”

Zu An chuckled. “I met Yuanji when I was wandering around the underworld.”

Concubine Yuan Ji’s expression immediately changed. “Those are all things of the past, so why is your majesty still bringing such a thing up?”

Zu An sneered. “Yuanji tried to harm me again and again. I have nothing but disgust toward him. When I saw his ghost, I tried to taunt him with our relationship, and yet I ended up hearing Jiancheng giving him advice. Despite Yuanji’s irritable nature, he actually ceased his anger when he heard what Jiancheng said, which means he definitely found the advice reasonable.”

Concubine Yuanji asked curiously, “I wonder what they said?”

“'He’s taunting you on purpose. Don’t forget that your wife…'” Zu An repeated everything word for word. “Even though the ghostly official brought them away and I couldn't hear what else they said, once I pieced together all of the information, it was enough for me to guesswhat was happening.”

Zu An’s gaze immediately became sharp. “I reckon the real Concubine Yuan Ji already died a long time ago. They probably only said that because they already saw her soul in the underworld. Who exactly are you?”

Concubine Yuan Ji suddenly laughed. She put on an extremely flirtatious smile as she replied, “Your majesty suspects that there is something wrong with me just because of these reasons? Isn’t that a bit too far-fetched?”

“Of course that wasn’t all.” Zu An remained calm. “While I was there, the underworld judge clearly added twenty years of life for me, but history recorded that I passed away in the twenty-third year of my rule. So where did the remaining ten years go?

“Since the underworld judge added to my lifespan, there couldn’t be any mistakes unless I encountered something unexpected that prevented me from dying a natural death. Between that and the ghost scaring this body to the point that an illness reached between my heart and diaphragm, I was sure that there was someone near me who wanted my life. After thinking it over, you are the most likely culprit out of everyone around me.”

Concubine Yuan Ji’s expression changed several times. Her eyes also became cold as she asked, “How do you know that you will die in the twenty-third year of the Zhenguan Era? Just who was it that told you?”

“Answer my question first.” Zu An remained calm.

The second Tang Emperor was quite famous in Chinese history, and he was pretty well known on the internet of Zu An's previous world too. As someone who was a keyboard warrior in the past, Zu An had frequently debated with people on historical forums. He clearly remembered that the second emperor had ruled for twenty-three years. As such, when he confirmed that Underworld Judge Cui had added twenty years to his lifespan, he immediately realized that there was something wrong.

Concubine Yuan Ji suddenly laughed. Her figure became indistinct, and another pretty face appeared in place of hers.

When he saw the two little horns on her head, Zu An was stunned. “A dragon woman?”

‘Concubine Yuan Ji’ laughed and said, “Your highness is surprisingly knowledgeable. I am indeed a dragon woman, the daughter of the Dongting Dragon King. In the past, I was married to the Jing River Dragon King’s second son, but I was terribly humiliated. Fortunately, I received… ahem, fortunately, I was rescued from that abyss of suffering.”

Zu An had never expected her to have such an identity. He could vaguely remember his experience as the Jing River Dragon King in the previous phase. At the time, when he investigated the Dragon Palace, there seemed to have been some hedonistic sons that were truly despicable. Among them, the second son’s wife had even gone missing for many years. Those sons’ behavior really had been hard for him to endure.

But at the time, Zu An was focused on solving the trial and didn’t regard the matter with much importance. He could never have expected that the disappeared daughter-in-law would actually take the place of Concubine Yuan Ji and hide in the Imperial Palace!

“So the execution of the Jing River Dragon King was the result of you pulling the strings behind the scenes?” Zu An asked with a strange expression. After all, he had been the Jing River Dragon King in the previous phase, and he hadn’t fully adjusted away from that viewpoint yet.

Wait, I've been sharing a bed with her all this time. To a certain degree, weren’t we actually…

“He deserved it!” the dragon woman said coldly. “Back then, as the manager of eight rivers, he threatened and blackmailed our Dongting Manor. Otherwise, why would I be willing to marry that scoundrel of a son? After our marriage, I was abused repeatedly by him, and yet no one seemed to care at all. Later, I learned that all of this was because my father had offended him in the past, so he made the Water Manor’s people humiliate me like that!”

Zu An nodded. “That’s right. The Jing River Dragon King indeed courted his own death.”

When he thought about how the Jing River Dragon King’s first reaction was to kill Yuan Shoucheng when he heard about him, and then he actually brazenly dared to go against the imperial edict for the sake of winning a bet, he knew the dragon king was clearly undisciplined and out of control.

When she heard that he agreed with what she said, a relieved smile appeared on the dragon woman's face.

Immediately after, Zu An frowned. “But why did you harm me?”

The dragon woman shook her head. “I didn’t harm you, but you were a key part of the plan. I did my best to service you, so you weren’t really losing out…”

Zu An continued to ask, “What plan?”

A hint of fear flashed across the dragon woman’s face. Then, she said with a harrumph, “You still haven’t told me how you know what year you will die in, so why would I tell you?”

Zu An thought of something and said, “The bodhisattva told me, of course.”

“What? She even told me to…” The dragon woman’s expression changed greatly and she suddenly cried out in alarm. “No, I didn’t say anything, spare me!”

Immediately after, she screamed miserably. Her entire body surged with flames and burned up into nothing in the blink of an eye.

When he saw that, Zu An felt some lingering fear. After all, this was a woman who had served him morning and night. Even though he knew that she had been up to no good, he still couldn't help but sigh when he saw her die so tragically.

A streak of light suddenly appeared in the sky. Then, all of his fine hairs stood on end. He felt a life and death crisis descend...

Just then, however, everything shattered, and the scene before his eyes disappeared. Zu An realized that he was now in an empty void.

“Congratulations, you have passed the second phase,” the voice of the giant statue said.

“What was going on earlier?” Zu An asked in shock. In that instant, even breathing had become a bit difficult.

“You discovered a certain truth and was about to be killed by a powerful being. Fortunately, these are merely time fragments, so that was why I was able to promptly rescue you,” the giant statue replied.

Zu An became silent for a moment.

I was too rash just now. I didn't expect that being to actually target me directly.

“What exactly did the second phase test?” he asked curiously.

“The first was your acting skill - whether or not the Great Tang Dynasty’s people would suspect anything strange,” replied the giant statue.

“It’s that simple?” Zu An had suspected something like that, but it was still surprising to find out that this was truly part of the test.

“It isn’t simple,” the giant statue said seriously. “After all, the Great Tang Dynasty had many capable individuals. For example, Wei Zheng did not only gain various abilities after he died, despite what he said; he actually cultivated immortal arts ever since he was young. That was why he was chosen to become a member of the underworld’s Goodness Appreciation Ministry. There were quite a few other individuals like him in the Great Tang Dynasty, and there was even someone like the dragon woman who shared your bed. Fooling all of them is no easy task.”

Zu An was secretly glad that he hadn't overestimated himself, realizing that less was more in this trial. That was why he had acted like an ordinary person the entire time and taken on the role of Li Shimin.

The giant statue continued, “The second was to see if you could cross the barrier of life and death. If not for the fact that the underworld judge replenished your life, you would have really died in the second part of the trial.”

Zu An didn’t reply, as he was busy thinking about some things. If not for the fact that he had watched Journey to the West before, he wouldn't have known that his life could be prolonged like that. Then what kind of end would befall those who hadn’t seen that show, but participated in this trial anyway? He could vaguely feel some kind of predestination, as if this trial was made with him personally in mind.

“Of course, the hardest part was the third part, which was seeing if you would notice the true killing intent around you. You were actually able to expose the dragon woman, which surprised me.” The giant statue sighed and said, “It was to the point that you already started the third phase ahead of time.”

Zu An shivered and quickly asked, “What does the third phase test?”

“The third phase has already begun,” the giant statue replied.

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