Getting a Sugar Mommy in Cultivation World!!

Wen Ji closed her eyes. Her voice broke. "She peeled his soul apart while he was still alive."

A long, horrible silence fell over the room.

"I begged," she whispered. "I begged her to stop. I said I'd do it. Anything. Just stop…"

She opened her eyes again. " And she smiled. She said, "Fear makes the best leash."

Noah's fingers tightened subtly on Xin Yan's shoulder.

"So I took his place. I came to the palace, built a new identity, and did what she told me. Told me to gain the Emperor's trust or at least get past the arrays that block soul senses around the palace, as they can also hinder our spirit traveling and expose our whereabouts."

Noah nodded in understanding. "So you became the concubine to gain access to the inner palace."

Wen Ji confirmed with a faint nod.

The emperor interjected in between as he was more concerned about something else, "What kind of information did she want to look for?"

Wen Ji paused and looked the old man in the eye and responded as calmly as she could, "It was a legend regarding the past of the Quan Empire, how the founder of the empire had a semi-saint weapon that could part the seas without even using his qi."

When she had just reached this point, the emperor's eyes widened in shock and realization. He sucked in a deep breath and looked at the woman deeply; killing intent flashed through his eyes, but it dispersed as soon as it came.

Although Wen Ji failed to sense it, Noah did, but he understood the things going on in his mind and did not say anything and chose to stay silent.

Wen Ji continued, her voice quieter now, "She wanted to know everything—everything—about that weapon. She believed it still existed, hidden somewhere."

The emperor's face remained expressionless, but a faint tremble in his clenched fist betrayed the storm within. His lips pressed into a tight line.

"She tasked me," Wen Ji continued, "with finding all the information I could gather about this weapon and sending it to her. I had to confirm if this weapon existed or not, and if it did, I had to find its whereabouts."

Barely able to calm himself, the emperor said steely, "There is no way you could find anything about something that does not even exist."

He turned to look at Noah and asked, "I am confused. Why go through so much trouble when she can control me directly and have all the secrets extracted from my mind?"

Noah sighed and offered a plausible explanation: "If she made a move at you and influenced your actions in their favor, it would have caught the attention of the eyes they did not want on them."

The emperor did not have to think for long before a name popped up in their heads: "The ancient families that have hidden themselves from the world?"

He did not need Noah's confirmation to realize that he had arrived at the correct analysis.

He took a sharp breath and spoke, "I want you to be done with curing everyone in the castle as soon as possible. This is getting out of hand… I believe it is time we inform the hidden families about this incident as well."

Noah hummed in agreement, "I will finish it by the end of this week and get back to you. Your Majesty can inform the hidden families, and I think they might have already heard about what happened at the temple."

Emperor Quan also agreed with his words, "If that really is the case, they might have already sent someone to investigate this matter by now."

After a few more questions and answers, the emperor walked out of the room, leaving Noah to deal with Wen Ji. He punished her by ordering her to comply with anything Noah needed and help him in any way possible.

Not only that, if Noah wanted to punish the woman in any other way, he was fit to deal with her as he pleased.

For the next seven days, Noah focused on curing the cursed ones in the castle using the prism. Xin Yan helped him as well while they used Wen Ji to assist them… Well, they did not really need her, but they used her like a servant to get anything they needed.

The woman was also willing to comply since it was a better alternative than dying.

As Noah continued his task within the palace walls, the Quan Empire received two interesting visitors.

Far to the north, past the mist-veiled ridges that framed the Quan Empire's natural borders, two figures crossed into the empire, unannounced and unnoticed.

The first was a woman dressed in plain white robes, yet nothing about her felt simple. Her steps made no sound. Her presence brought a chill that clung to trees and stones alike. Her face was obscured by a veil woven of nine-eyed spider's silk, and her eyes, when briefly visible, shimmered with an old, impossible blue—sky before the sky.

The second figure was a tall man with long hair the color of dusk, tied loosely with a jade clasp. He wore a plain-looking robe that was adorned with expensive materials that even the empire found difficult to spend extravagantly on.

Together, they paused atop a rocky cliff, overlooking the fertile riverlands that marked the heart of the Quan Empire.

"This world," the man said with clear distaste, "what a disgusting qi quality."

The woman made no comment. Instead, she turned her face toward the southwest, her head tilting slightly.

"It happened here," she murmured. Her voice sounded distant, like something remembered rather than heard. "The attack at the temple. The person who did it had the power to control the people with a snap of his fingers…"

Her distant voice made the man raise an eyebrow. "Now that is a dangerous power for a mortal to have; we shall take it off their hands before they harm someone."

With the self-righteous tone, the man charged forward on his own, and without saying anything, the woman followed behind.