Watching the scroll laid out before him tremble violently, Chen Hao who was lying on the bed suddenly got up and stood on the bed, retreating a few steps away from the scroll as he looked at Zhao Chong with alarm and asked, "What's happening here? Why do I feel like this scroll is about to explode?"

Unfortunately for Chen Hao, no sooner had his words fallen than the scroll suddenly hissed as it tore apart, emitting a wisp of white smoke. When the white smoke had dissipated, the scroll had turned into fragments, each piece marked with scorch marks.

"I guess since you defeated the demon within the painting, the sealing power inside self-destructed the scroll!" Zhao Chong explained, frowning.

"Oh!" Chen Hao feigned an epiphany, though he was very clear about what was actually happening.

"You fool, aren't you going to tell Zhao Chong about this?" At that moment, Ye Yuqiao's voice suddenly rang in Chen Hao's mind.

Chen Hao chuckled to himself, "Your Majesty, you're willing to talk to me now, I thought you were angry and ignoring me! Your Majesty, you decide, I'll listen to you."

Ye Yuqiao's brows furrowed at this, and she then sent a covert message to Chen Hao, "Who said I wasn't angry! I'll settle the score with you after they leave! Still, tell Zhao Chong about it, perhaps he can help us find the other scrolls."

"Zhao Chong!" Ye Yuqiao's voice suddenly turned very low, filled with cold chills.

Zhao Chong turned around, giving Ye Yuqiao a slight smile, and said with deference, "What does Your Majesty command?"

After her usual expressionless face returned, Ye Yuqiao told Zhao Chong everything Chen Hao had learned about the legend of the ancient city from the scroll.

After listening, Zhao Chong appeared very surprised and exclaimed, "No wonder the Great Ancestor told my grandfather to guard this scroll at all costs. It's not because he feared the demon sealed within it might escape, but because he wanted to protect the piece of the map to the ancient city hidden inside the scroll!"

Zhao Chong paused and then looked at Chen Hao, asking, "So in the end, you must have gotten that piece of the map, right?"

Chen Hao's face showed embarrassment as he thought that admitting it would be the same as admitting he had just pretended not to know why the scroll had shattered. He said, "I didn't get it. Just as I was about to take action, an earthquake happened, and after spending a long time in the dark, I returned to this real world."

"A long time?" Lin Huashan asked in surprise, "Didn't you come back with us?"

"A day in the real world, a month in the painting. I only returned a minute later than you to the real world, but it was already nearly half an hour in the painting," Chen Hao explained.

"A minute, half an hour?" Lin Huashan looked blank, as she, living within the painting, was unaware of these units of time.

"Oh!" A gleam suddenly flashed in Chen Hao's eyes as he got off the bed and came to Zhao Chong, looking at Lin Huashan and saying, "Gao Fu Shuai, this young lady is named Lin Huashan; both her father and mother are from the Netherworld, and they met and had her in the painting. Now both of her parents have passed away, and they've entrusted me to bring her back to the real world. Now there's something I'd like to trouble you with."

"Ah!" Lin Huashan suddenly let out a sharp scream, then tears cascaded down her face as she cried out in anguish.

"Huashan, what's wrong?" Chen Hao looked at Lin Huashan in bewilderment.

Lin Huashan pointed at the charred and broken pieces of the scroll on the bed, crying as she said, "With the scroll destroyed, the world inside must also be gone. Doesn't that mean my parents' Yin Souls are gone too?"

Hearing Lin Huashan say this sent a shiver through Chen Hao's heart. However, he quickly remembered something Liu Xuan had said to him when they first met, and he went over to Lin Huashan, patting her shoulder to comfort her, "Well, that might not necessarily be the case. As the saying goes, 'An instant in your eyes could be a millennium in another person's world.' Perhaps at the moment before the scroll burned, your parents had already spent a thousand years together in the painting."

With these words from Chen Hao, Lin Huashan looked confused.

Ye Yuqiao, standing to the side, smiled slightly at this, looking at Chen Hao with a hint of trance, feeling that after spending more than twenty days in the painting, Chen Hao had changed a bit.

Zhao Chong, standing behind Chen Hao, saw the expression with which Ye Yuqiao looked at Chen Hao, and his face darkened with a bitter taste in his heart.

Chen Hao picked up a piece of the scroll beside the bed and explained, "It may just be a small piece to us, but for your parents, it was already a sufficient piece of heaven and earth. Do you understand?"

Lin Huashan nodded, seemingly comprehending yet not quite understanding.

After a pause, Chen Hao spoke to Lin Huashan with a heartfelt tone, "Huashan, the mortal world and its modern society may not be suitable for you to live in, which is why you will follow this tall, rich, and handsome man to the Netherworld to live there. That's where your parents once called home."

With hot tears streaming down her face, Lin Huashan shook her head and said, "Chen Hao, are you abandoning me?"

"Haha," Chen Hao lifted his head to wipe away Lin Huashan's tears and said, "Once I've finished some things, I will come to the Netherworld to find you, and also..."

Chen Hao was too shy to say the rest aloud, only completing the sentence in his mind. Besides, Ye Yuqiao could hear anyway.

"Okay! I'll wait for you to come find me!" Lin Huashan cried and nodded her head.

"Zhao Chong," Ye Yuqiao turned to Zhao Chong, her tone no longer icy, "Please take care of this young lady from now on!"

Zhao Chong hummed in response, saying, "Your Majesty, rest assured, I'll take good care of her!"

The night had deepened!

Zhao Chong had already taken Lin Huashan away.

Shooting Chen Hao a glare, Ye Yuqiao was about to leave in a huff.

"Your Majesty the Queen!" Chen Hao held Ye Yuqiao tightly from behind her waist, "Aren't you not angry anymore? Besides, just now I was only chatting with your great-grandfather inside the painting. Do you know what he was saying?"

Flushes of red instantly spread across Ye Yuqiao's cheeks. She had seen what Chen Hao was thinking about through her connection with the Nether King's Heart: The Ancestor of the Nether King, turned into a sandrock demon, was discussing the dowry with Chen Hao.

Chen Hao gently turned Ye Yuqiao's body to face him, holding her close, and said, "Your Majesty the Queen, stay with me tonight. It has been over twenty days since I've had a good look at you!"

Ye Yuqiao looked at Chen Hao, thought for a moment, and then said, "I'll stay, but you have to promise me you won't do anything bad!"

"Alright!" Chen Hao said dejectedly, then picked Ye Yuqiao up and carried her to bed.

...

Forty thousand years earlier.

The Netherworld.

Inside the Crown Prince's residence.

A man hurried into the courtyard where the Crown Princess Consort resided.

At that time, the Crown Princess Consort was sitting leisurely in a pavilion in the courtyard, seemingly in a good mood.

"Your Highness, something terrible has happened!" The man kneeled before the Crown Princess Consort, speaking urgently.

"What's the hurry?"

"The common girl who was graced by the Crown Prince's presence last month is pregnant!"

"How preposterous!" The Crown Princess Consort stood up abruptly, her face ashen with rage. After a pause, her eyes shot daggers as she said, "This child must not be born."

"Your Highness, I have already thought of a way!" The man looked up at the Crown Princess Consort with a sycophantic smile, "It's said that there's a mirror..."

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