“No way! I think you should just lock me up somewhere, I definitely don’t want to be with you,” said Ye Lang.

“It’s not safe locking you up anywhere, keeping you close to me is the best.” Zhao Yarou shook her head. If Ye Lang wanted to, there were not many places in this world that could hold him.

“If you keep me with you, aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you and escape?” asked Ye Lang.

“You can try!” Zhao Yarou glared at him.

“Scrap that, you’re too unpredictable,” said Ye Lang.

“Hey! YOU’RE unpredictable!” roared Zhao Yarou. She seemed to recall an incident about something Ye Lang said.

“What? That was a compliment!” said Ye Lang.

“I don’t need your compliments! Also, if you promise me honestly that you will not leave Soaring Sky nor will you leave my side, I’ll grant you freedom to go wherever,” said Zhao Yarou.

“Why don’t you just kill me? Isn’t that more efficient?” Ye Lang wondered why she didn’t just kill him. She could definitely do it.

Why go through all the trouble? Why grant him freedom?

“If I kill you, who will be there to watch when I conquer the world? Ye Lang, everything I do is for you to watch,” whined Zhao Yarou resentfully.

“What are you talking about?” Ye Lang was confused.

“Whatever! Forget about it if you don’t understand. Wait till I conquer the world, then you will.” Zhao Yarou smiled, not wanting to dwell on the topic.

“Are you really going to invade the entire mainland?” Ye Lang asked, confused. The price of becoming empress of the mainland was just too huge, no sane person would do it.

Soaring Sky Empire already spanned a huge area. She should learn to be content with what she had instead of paying such a huge price. How many people would die from war? And most of these deaths would come from Soaring Sky.

“Yes! I want to unite the world and become the one and only empress,” said Zhao Yarou.

“You absolute madwoman! Do you know how many people will die, how many families will be broken, how many people will lose their homes if you do this?” said Ye Lang. He did not want to see any wars. If wars did not cost so much blood, he wouldn’t care but this was not the case.

“One general’s task results in ten thousand skeletons. This was what you taught me. You said sacrifice cannot be avoided in the pursuit of a goal,” said Zhao Yarou.

“I taught you that? When?” asked Ye Lang. He couldn’t recall any time he had taught her this, though it sounded like him.

“You take your time to figure it out!” said Zhao Yarou.

“If you’re doing this, I will definitely stop you,” said Ye Lang.

“I know! That’s why I made you come here,” she said with a grin.

“Do you really think you can keep me in here?” Ye Lang furrowed his brows.

“Yes for now but I’m not sure about the future,” she said while ignoring his response. She grabbed his hand and walked inside.

“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll escape? You should just be efficient and kill me,” said Ye Lang directly. At this point, he did not consider that if she really killed him, he would never see this world nor his loved ones ever again.

“I’ve said this before, I won’t kill you! As for you escaping, I have made my preparations. You won’t be able to escape,” she said confidently. She had the perfect plan.

“Hmmph! There’s nowhere I can’t escape from! Where are you bringing me?”

“To the ancient ruins, of course. There are many questions for you to answer in there,” she said.

“I will never help solve your problems, you madwoman. I don’t know if you’ll use my stuff for murder,” he refused.

“If I had a weapon that was powerful enough to scare the world into submission, don’t you think the number of sacrifices would be much smaller?” Zhao Yarou looked at him.

“…”

Ye Lang was silent for a moment. Admittedly, she was right. If one side had the absolute advantage, the other side would not struggle much. They would either surrender immediately or be exterminated in the blink of an eye.

If wars could be settled in a second, then the sufferings experienced by the commoners would be almost zero. The longer war dragged on, the more they suffered.

If they couldn’t prevent a war, shortening it was actually a good thing.

“Close the doors, do not let anyone out, including the ones with my order token!”

When they entered the ancient ruins, Zhao Yarou ordered the entrance guards to seal the place. Other than her, no one was allowed out.

“Zhao Yarou, I shouldn’t have saved you. I should’ve let you drown,” said Ye Lang.

“There’s no use for regret now! You must’ve felt good, did my lips taste sweet?”

“You stunk, it was sticky and absolutely disgusting,” said Ye Lang immediately.

“YOU’RE disgusting!” She glared at him and asked weakly, “Is that true? Or was there something in the water?”

“No, I lied. Your lips didn’t feel like anything,” he shrugged.

“…”

When they entered the ancient ruins, Ye Lang felt the familiar atmosphere of alchemy. He liked this place. He had wanted to stay longer but couldn’t.

If Zhao Yarou put him on house arrest in here, he wouldn’t mind.

Ye Lang knew he wouldn’t be able to escape this time, at least not right now. When he entered, he had seen the place. It was more difficult to escape than the palace.

At the same time, Ye Lang wanted to stay too. Zhao Yarou would be more at peace while he stayed and did his research here, perhaps more quiet.

If Ye Lang escaped now, Zhao Yarou would definitely formulate more plans to catch his loved ones as hostage. With her madness, it would be too difficult to stay on guard all the time.

That was why Ye Lang stayed.

When he entered, he realised that it was quite different from when he was last here. Previously, it was empty but now there were many people inside.

This was because Zhao Yarou had focused her resources on this site. She wanted to use the technology from this place to conquer the entire mainland.

[Countdown to finale chapter: T-13]