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That way, Meng Fuyao was able to answer to the innocent folk of the nation. At least, she'd found them a very competent manager.

Duan Ming Era, on the 21st night of the fifth month. The lanterns bobbed dimly in the Yongchang Palace as Meng Fuyao walked in circles slowly around the room. After a while, she looked up at Ji Yu and smiled. ”Mn, this puppet does look very much like me, remember to look after 'me'.”

Ji Yu nodded silently, then said, ”Do you really have to do it?”

”Of course.” Meng Fuyao packed her bag and added, ”Can you tell your Master that you're already my subordinate now? If he dares to cross the line one more time, I'll fire you.”

Ji Yu retreated silently.

It was deep into the night, and the sky was pitch black without a single star. After a while, a shadow crept out from Yongchang Palace.

After walking several steps, a white flash suddenly appeared and shot straight towards the shadow, and after a moment of struggle, the night fell silent again.

Lord Yuan Bao dug headfirst into Meng Fuyao's robes.

'I know you're going to Fufeng, bring me along! I want to find that Jin Gang and seek revenge!”

”Yuan Bao, tell me, what do you intend to do after finding that Jin Gang? Kill it? Boil it? Skin it?”

Meng Fuyao was leaning against a tree, poking Lord Yuan Bao's head with a blade of grass. The hamster was currently assuming a Tarzan pose, narrowing its eyes as it sniffed the cold night air, thinking dreamily, 'Ah… This is the smell of home drifting in the wind from far away… We're getting closer and closer to home…' Just as it was deeply immersed in its nostalgia, it suddenly heard Meng Fuyao's words and turned to glare at her unhappily.

Meng Fuyao returned its glare with equal displeasure. 'When you were begging me to bring you out, you were still so humble and polite, now that you're out, you immediately turn on me, truly like a master, like pet!'

She was feeling rather melancholic as she looked at the view around her. Acres and acres of wild plains that stretched infinitely into the horizon, hiding all kinds of strange plants, flowers, and shrubbery. The blue sky seemed high up and far away, with snow-capped mountains dotting the horizon. When she squatted down and leveled her vision, the wind came rushing from the mountaintops, sending a whoosh through the plains, whispering the song of the tribe. It was as if everything had come alive.

This was Fufeng's borders, the separation between Dawan and the sphere of influence of the three tribes of Fufeng, and also Ya Lanzhu's home country. After crossing the border from Xuanji was a grassy plain that extended all the way to the inner region of Fufeng. Fufeng's inner region was complicated, filled with all kinds of plains and mountains. The winter was harsh with little snow, and the summer was hot with a lot of rain; sandstorms were abundant during spring, and autumn was dry and cool. The farther north they traveled, the worse the weather, but at least for now, it was still rather comfortable.

Meng Fuyao stretched lazily and lay down, gnawing on a blade of grass. She'd heard that Fufeng was huge with little people, and indeed, that was the case. After walking for a whole day, apart from her own guards and a whole lot of birds, she hadn't seen a single human. Only today did she finally notice nomadic establishment at the bottom of a river.

The guards began pitching their tents, the white canvases looking like pearls scattered across the plains. This time, when she had come to Fufeng, she had not brought 3,000 guards like when she had gone to Xuanji. Instead, she had only selected the best 300, apart from leaving Ji Yu behind to lead the Dahan Army to keep watch over the Dawan Imperial Palace, Tie Cheng, and Yao Xun were both to follow her, and she had already sent men to Dahan to summon Yao Xun. Camping in this area was in order for Yao Xun to catch up with them.

As for whether Ya Lanzhu would come along, it was up to her. Chasing after her love and going home were both important, so it was up to her to decide for herself.

Meng Fuyao propped a leg up and swung it distractedly. She had no interest in becoming an Empress. When she had accepted the position, it was but to gain power and facilitate her plan, for the sake of revenge. Later, she would give Dawan away randomly. Besides, they wouldn't dare disregard her homeland. Her life's goal had always been to do one thing; go home.

She wanted to go home.

To Fufeng, not just because there were many unusual treasures there to help her break through the ninth level of Cleaving Nine Heavens, but even more because, in order to go to Cangqiong, she had to go pass through Fufeng. In other words, she had already begun the road back home, and if there were no setbacks, she wouldn't go back to Dawan.

In her sleeping chambers within the Inner Palace, she'd written a letter to Ji Yu, requesting him to open it only three years later. Three years later, if she hadn't returned, it meant that her wish had finally come true, she was finally able to bid goodbye for real to this godforsaken Five Regions Continent.

After thinking up to this point, she felt a little excited. However, the excitement only lasted a fleeting moment before a wave of sadness once again washed over her—leaving, leaving forever, she, Meng Fuyao, would disappear from this world completely as though she were dead, yet she wasn't able to shake off the marks that this world had left on her. She had created too many memories in this world, and while she was desperately sprinting towards her mother, she had avoided saying goodbye to the beloved friends and family she had left behind… And those very people were the reason for her glorious memories here and were equally difficult to part with. However deep the memories of her mother were, these people had also left deep marks within her life.

And she, as she traversed along her thorny path, her once steel-like heart had slowly begun to hurt. Could it be that she would have to live with the memories of both worlds, missing her mother in her previous life in this world and once she'd return to her previous life, to miss the… family of this world?

Yes, family, they too were family who had accompanied her, helped her, protected her, loved her. They were the warmest hands which held her through the darkest moments of her life and the people who kept the flame of hope burning within her.

Them.

Them, whom she had met along the way, who had managed to entrench themselves within her bones.

Zhan Beiye, Ya Lanzhu, Zong Yue, Tie Cheng, Yao Xun, Ji Yu, Little Seven, Lord Yuan Bao, and Lord Yuan Bao's master… Zhangsun Wuji.