When Zhang Han arrived, he didn’t think too much.
The Heavenly Demon Skin enabled him to absorb the physical energy of other races to disguise himself. It was very powerful.
There was, however, one flaw—the blood.
If Si Nan, Lord of Dragon Scale City, checked Zhang Han’s blood, he would find something different.
Unfortunately, there was no “if” in the world, and Si Nan was still immersed in surprise.
After Zhang Han walked out of the door, three maids hurriedly greeted him.
“Concubine Lan, breakfast will be ready in an hour.”
“Okay. I’ll have breakfast when I get back. Now I’m going out for a walk.”
After leaving a few words, Zhang Han walked out of the gate and went straight to the Holy Hall. He planned to go to the herb garden first.
On his way there, he encountered more than a dozen people, most of whom were in the Earth Realm.
When they saw “Concubine Lan”, they were in high spirits. They hastily cupped their hands and greeted her. “Concubine Lan.”
Everything now changed. Even the other two concubines greeted “Concubine Lan” respectfully.
Now, everyone in the city knew that Concubine Lan was pregnant. Her status rose straight to the pinnacle, and she was second only to the lord.
Zhang Han nodded slightly in response to them.
The two concubines were dissatisfied. After walking far away, one snorted and said, “In the past, when Concubine Lan saw us, she had to respectfully call us elder sister. But just now, she merely nodded her head. Ha, once a person wins the favor of the lord, she’ll change so fast and become domineering.”
The other one echoed her view. “Couldn’t agree more. That b*tch is too good at pretending. She can be arrogant only when she’s pregnant. Let’s see how she continues to be arrogant after she gives birth to the baby!”
“Shh, keep your voice down. If others hear you, they’ll gain information that can be used against you.”
“…”
Zhang Han did hear them, but he didn’t care, for he was not the real Concubine Lan.
“Thankfully, I kept a piece of her foot bone.”
Zhang Han had already come up with an idea to take precautions.
After muttering to himself, he arrived at the Holy Hall. Ignoring the precious Holy Spirit Water, he went straight to the herb garden.
“Concubine Lan.”
Zhang Han saw an expert at the Heaven Peak Stage and dozens of his subordinates in the herb garden. When they saw “Concubine Lan”, they all greeted her with nods.
The Lord had said that Concubine Lan was free to enter and leave all areas in the City Lord’s Mansion.
“Hmm.”
Zhang Han nodded slightly and moved straight to the central area, where there were 15 kinds of sixth-grade spirit treasures. He would take them first.
There were countless spiritual herbs in the whole herb garden, and Zhang Han was tempted by many things.
“Concubine Lan, what are you doing?”
The keeper, who was at the Heaven Peak Stage, was shocked and asked in a hurry when he saw “Concubine Lan” walk to one sixth-grade treasure, ready to take action.
“I’ll take some back and plant them in the Lanting Courtyard,” Zhang Han replied.
“You can’t do that, Concubine Lan.”
The keeper frowned and glanced at the subordinate next to him. The subordinate understood and quickly left to inform the lord.
Zhang Han thought for a while and asked, “Why not?”
“The herb garden and Top-grade Crystal Palace are the most important places to refine the Holy Spirit Water. No mistakes are allowed to be made. Right now, there are only 15 types of sixth-grade treasures, so you can’t transplant them,” the keeper replied.
“Why can’t I transplant them in my yard for a few days? Can you bear the responsibility if something happens to my health?”
Zhang Han borrowed power to do evil, trying to find out where his bottom line was.
If he couldn’t get all 15 kinds, taking some of them back was okay too.
He was not greedy, but he didn’t expect that the answer he would get was contrary to his wishes.
“Not a single one is allowed to be taken away. The roots of these 15 kinds of sixth-grade treasures have integrated with the herb garden. Not to mention how complicated it is to take them out, it will affect the energy of the herb garden and the production of the Holy Spirit Water. Isn’t it enough for you to drink three glasses of Holy Spirit Water every day, Concubine Lan?”
The keeper’s tone calmed down, yet he still took a tough stance. No one was allowed to take away any of the sixth-grade treasures.
At this moment, Zhang Han fell silent and looked ahead.
Two minutes later, several figures appeared ahead of him, and he began to act.
Luckily, Zi Yan had taught him to display some delicate expressions.
Under everyone’s gaze, “Concubine Lan” looked aggrieved.
“Why can’t I? You!”
As she spoke, she covered her lower abdomen with her hands, and pain could be seen all over her face.
“Huh?”
Seeing this, the keeper was a little confused. “What’s going on? You were fine just now, but why are you in pain when the lord shows up?”
“Hmm?”
All of a sudden, a questioning tone and a jet of horrendous pressure pervaded the air.
The keeper’s face changed a bit, and he quickly lowered his head.
“My lord.”
“Concubine Lan, don’t get angry. Don’t hurt your baby.”
Si Nan’s pressure dissipated, and he walked over to “Concubine Lan”. “Why do you want to take sixth-grade treasures back?”
“Because, because after I came here yesterday, I dreamed of these things. I didn’t see them after getting up and felt empty and uneasy, so I wanted to take some back. I promised to send them back sometime later, but he didn’t agree, and his tone was rather cold. I’m so scared.”
The face of “Concubine Lan” turned a little pale.
Then Si Nan flared up and his eyes shot daggers at the keeper.
“My lord, I, I’m just acting impartially.”
“Right now, everyone in the entire Dragon Scale City knows that Concubine Lan is pregnant. How dare you offend her?” Si Nan said coldly.
The keeper was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.
“Isn’t this woman too good at pretending? She’s obviously fine!” the keeper complained inside.
“I admit my mistake.”
“I’ll fine you a month’s wage. Tell everyone that Concubine Lan is free to do almost everything in the three holy lands, including the Holy Hall. Set the operation to the minimum limit.”
The minimum limit meant that the circulation wouldn’t be seriously affected.
The keeper’s face turned a little stiff as he heard that. He didn’t expect his lord to give “Concubine Lan” so much power.
Nevertheless, he knew very well that his lord was just soothing her. How could he genuinely punish his trusted subordinate?
No, he wouldn’t.
The keeper was out of sorts and whispered secretly to himself, “My lord was just acting. His acting skills are as superb as yours, Concubine Lan.
“Hehe, you’re still too naive when compared with my lord.”
After that, he stepped back a few meters and left the field to his lord.
“Concubine Lan, if you take away all the sixth-grade treasures, it’ll affect the circulation. Hence, you can only take half of them, which is seven, at most.”
“My lord, that’s what I mean. Just now, he didn’t agree even if I wanted to take just one away. His tone was particularly cold. I was pretty cold all over and felt a pain in my lower abdomen right then…”
Zhang Han behaved as if he felt so wronged.
That made Si Nan’s expression calm down a little.
Seeing this, the keeper couldn’t bring himself to say anything. Given his lord’s expression, he was truly a bit angry.
The wrath of his lord would lead to wholesale slaughter, and that was no joke.
At this point, he was indeed sort of scared.
“Tell everyone that anyone who has any slight influence on Concubine Lan during her pregnancy will be killed!”
City Lord Si Nan’s tone was calm, and his subordinates all bowed in agreement.
“Don’t be furious, Concubine Lan. I’ll accompany you to transplant the treasures now.”
Si Nan smiled at Concubine Lan again.
“Thank you, my lord.”
Right after that, they took the tools in the herb garden and began to dig out sixth-grade spirit treasures. Sure enough, it was challenging to dig them out.
An hour and a half later, they dug out a five-meter blue willow branch as thick as an arm.
“My lord, I like that very much too.”
Seizing the opportunity, Zhang Han quickly selected the good ones, which gave Si Nan a headache.
Si Nan had no choice but to grant his wishes.
“Let’s do it!”
Soon, the higher-ups of the City Lord’s Mansion knew that they were digging sixth-grade treasures in the herb garden.
In a room on the third floor of the mansion, two people at the Heaven Peak Stage were drinking tea.
One of them was the man who went to the Lanting Courtyard with Si Nan that day.
They were the right-hand men of Si Nan. Standing in front of the window, they could see the two figures in the herb garden.
“Concubine Lan is pregnant. It did cost our lord a fortune, for he even intended to transplant half of the sixth-grade treasures for her.”
The other slightly taller man sighed.
“What our Lord values is not Concubine Lan, but the child in her womb. External City Lords are allowed to return to the King’s Domain to raise their children only when their descendants win in the Battle of Cities. That represents the resources that may enable our lord to go further. Initially, the younger brother of our lord almost succeeded, but unfortunately, in the Battle of Cities, he was killed by the second son of the Lord of Lingxi City. In a few more years, the Lord of Lingxi City may return to the King’s Domain. The second reason is that our lord wants to defeat the Lord of Lingxi City.”
“However, the Lords of Lingxi City and White Lotus City are about to come the day after tomorrow. Upon hearing the news, the Lord of Lingxi City will surely spend more resources to nurture his descendants.”
“So what if he has loads of resources? Instead of purely valuing strength, the King’s Domain cares more about whether or not the bloodline of his descendants is awakened. If the City Lords don’t have any descendant with an awakened bloodline, then they’ve made no contributions. Nonetheless, if they succeed in doing such a thing, they’ll be able to return to the King’s Domain.”
“Indeed, there are not many resources in the outer area. Even if there are some good things, they are still in the hands of the Beast Kings. If we take them wantonly, we have to be on guard lest we cause a beast tide. I didn’t expect that there would be foreign martial artists here. They came from a secret land, but it’s a pity that we can’t enter it. Even those in the King’s Domain don’t know what’s there. If the gate opens one day, we may have other opportunities when we go there.”
“How is that possible? They’re just a bunch of nonentities used to train our soldiers. Since they need to fight for opportunities here, they must have fewer resources over there. I don’t even need to think about it.”
“…”
Under their gazes, their lord and “Concubine Lan” dug out seven sixth-grade treasures with their own hands.
It took them more than 10 hours to do that, and one day passed.
Back at the Lanting Courtyard, the servants transplanted them in a small garden in front of Concubine Lan’s room. The planting was done in a simple way because it wouldn’t take long for these resources to be taken back.
Of course, that was what most people in the City Lord’s Mansion thought.
They would soon know whether they could take them back or not.
The next day, after getting up early, “Concubine Lan” sat in the small garden for 10 minutes and went out again.
She went to the Holy Hall again.
When the keeper of the herb garden heard the news, he went into hiding.
“Don’t let me see her!”
To his surprise, she didn’t come at all, but the keeper of the Holy Hall had a headache.
“Concubine Lan, you really can’t scoop the Holy Spirit Water out anymore. If its surface is lower than the line, it’ll affect the speed of production. Normally, we can only get one drop a year. If we consume treasures, we can get a few more drops. You’ve already filled 19 large bottles. That’s enough.”
“Not only do I have to drink every day, but I also have to put these bottles beside those treasures. I’ll be in a good mood if I look at them a few times every day. If I can’t see them, I’ll feel empty. Do you want me to be in a bad mood?” “Concubine Lan” was blaming the keeper, but she didn’t slow down and filled three more bottles.
“I didn’t mean that.” The keeper was frightened and added, “You can’t scoop the Holy Spirit Water out anymore. If you don’t stop, I’ll go and find the lord now and let him stop you.”
“Well, okay. This is enough. Ask someone to send them to the Lanting Courtyard later.”
After saying this, “Concubine Lan” left quickly and headed for the next destination, the Top-grade Crystal Palace!
After “Concubine Lan” left, the keeper of the Holy Hall wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“This amount is enough for Concubine Lan to drink for a year if she drinks three glasses every day. I’m going to meet the lord later. She can no longer be supplied with the Holy Spirit Water in the future. The amount of the Holy Spirit Water is one-third less. It’s too scary.”
