Chapter 110 – Grand Finale

Five full years have passed since the great battle at Dunshi Immortal Mountain. The demons who came with such ferocity back then were quickly driven back to the demon realm by the alliance formed by the righteous path.

If Jing Huan had followed the normal process of waiting tens of thousands of years for the nourishment of the seven emotions and six desires of ascension cultivators to rebuild her demon body.

Even if Liu Changning defeated her, it wouldn’t have caused her soul to scatter.

The only fault was that she was too impatient. The demon body rebuilt using demonic secret methods violated karmic laws and was rejected by heaven and earth. She could no longer be immortal.

After Jing Huan’s death, Liu Changning personally destroyed the emotionless Dao scriptures using primordial chaos qi.

The spirit realm returned to the peace of ten years ago. The ten major sects of the cultivation world suffered severe losses during the years of demon invasion.

In order to quickly nurture new disciples, in recent years the elders of various sects have jointly opened multiple secret realms to cultivate new disciples. After this, outstanding talents emerged frequently. Among them, Dunshi Immortal Palace had the most outstanding disciples.

The status of Dunshi Immortal Palace in the spirit realm is no longer what it used to be.

The two ascension stage patriarchs of the cultivation world married and both resided at Dunshi Immortal Mountain. The sect’s status subtly surpassed the other nine major sects.

As the palace master of the Immortal Palace, Pei Ziyuan sometimes gets so busy with sect affairs that he disappears for days.

When Liu Changning feels bored on her own, she would go to the inner disciples’ lecture hall to take a look. Sometimes when she’s in a good mood, she would give pointers and impart Dao principles to the inner disciples.

Her teachings are always unconventional, but due to her unique insights into the Dao, the scriptures she teaches are almost unheard of in ancient texts, yet extremely beneficial.

Many rising talents have emerged from Dunshi Immortal Palace in recent years, most of them inspired to enlightenment during her teachings.

As such, it is said among the people that there is a Cloud Patriarch on Dunshi Immortal Mountain, and receiving a word of guidance from her smooths the path to immortality.

Of course, being worshipped is not necessarily a good thing. Recently, Palace Master Pei’s temper has been getting stranger, frequently getting jealous and angry. Liu Changning has fallen into the predicament of placating a man.

The old cadre may seem extraordinarily talented, a genius in cultivation who excels at everything she learns.

But when it comes to the skill of coaxing men, she is still hopelessly clumsy.

The other day, an immortal’s cave dwelling suddenly appeared in Yong Province. Pei Ziyuan was invited by the major sects to go open the secret realm.

Because of her outstanding appearance, the newly joined male disciples of the ten major sects did not recognize Liu Changning. When she went along, she often attracted endless admirers and was the center of attention. In the past it was fine, the phoenix would just secretly sulk, and could be coaxed in bed to get over it.

But in recent days, his jealousy has been growing stronger. To avoid trouble, this time she did not accompany him down the mountain, but stayed at the sect gate.

After finishing her daily meditation, with nothing to do, Liu Changning calculated with her fingers that at his speed, he should be returning to the sect gate soon.

Recently, for some unknown reason, the phoenix has been particularly fond of eating sour preserved fruits from the mortal realm.

The newly bought preserved fruits would be eaten clean in just two or three days.

Thinking of his greedy appearance, tenderness welled up in Liu Changning’s heart. She tidied up her clothes and flew out of the sect gate on Cangming.

There is a preserved fruit shop in the northwest alley of Qiyuan Town. The shopkeeper is a middle-aged woman not very old in years. Her husband has good craftsmanship and is skilled at pickling preserved fruits, while she is responsible for selling at the counter.

As soon as Liu Changning stepped over the threshold, the middle-aged shopkeeper recognized her and greeted her with a smile: “Has the lady come to buy fruits for your husband again? You’re just in time, my husband is pregnant and pickled some green apricots himself a few days ago that are just ready to eat. Would you like to buy some to take back? Although there’s not much, it’s good for a snack, but it’s a bit sour on the teeth.”

The shopkeeper was not a fawning person. Although she sensed Liu Changning’s extraordinary demeanor, she had a smile on her face from beginning to end, friendly but not ingratiating.

Half of the coldness on Liu Changning’s body faded away. She nodded and said, “Mm, my husband at home has been craving sour things lately. How many green apricots do you have in your shop? I’ll take them all. Also help me pack some of the other almond preserves.”

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper hesitated for a moment, then took out paper bags to pack the preserved fruits.

She looked at Liu Changning, wanting to speak but holding back. Finally she couldn’t help but kindly advise, “Green apricots are sour and not good for the stomach if eaten too much. My lady must not indulge your husband’s whims. I’ve noticed you’ve been buying preserved fruits more and more frequently lately. If your husband at home is not pregnant, it’s fine to eat some, but if pregnant, he can only taste a little. My husband is pregnant recently and craving sour things, but I only dare to let him eat one piece of candied fruit a day.”

The shopkeeper knew she was talking too much, her voice getting smaller and smaller as she secretly glanced at Liu Changning, seeing her expression indeed did not look good.

She lowered her head nervously.

Liu Changning’s almond eyes narrowed slightly, and she didn’t speak for a long while. She finally turned to take the paper bag handed over by the shopkeeper.

She pondered for a moment, then looked at the middle-aged woman and asked with a strange expression, “Shopkeeper, was there anything special about your husband when he was pregnant?”

Hearing this, the nervous shopkeeper’s expression relaxed slightly. She tied up the opened preserved fruits into a knot and said with a wry smile, “I don’t know what other pregnant men are like, but my husband’s temperament changed greatly when pregnant. He often gets angry. He doesn’t like to eat meals, and just wants to suck on preserved fruits all day…”

When Liu Changning walked out of the preserved fruit shop, she felt her body was somewhat floating. She never expected to have a child, it came so unexpectedly, yet so perfectly timed.

She thought of that life as Prime Minister Liu Changning, and that person’s longing for children.

Not being able to fulfill that wish for him was ultimately the greatest regret.

Now, that little regret was about to be made up for.