Poisonous Goddess: I'm just lazing around in the mortal realm.

Shen Mu sat on the round stool, nervously clutching his robe.

He stared intently at Thirteen, completely losing his usual aloof demeanor. Instead, he resembled a helpless child, both expectant and fearful of the answer to his question.

"What did you say?"

Thirteen was somewhat surprised when her eyes, which were peeking out from under the covers, met his gaze.

In an instant, Thirteen felt his face burning even hotter.

"I mean... I wanted to ask if you would be willing to go to the Southern Barbarians with me. However, this battle will likely be quite arduous. Don't worry, I will ensure your safety."

Shen Mu's expression made Thirteen realize that he wasn't joking.

Even now, she still doesn't understand why Shen Mu wanted to ask for her opinion.

Obviously...

In her limited memories, apart from the time she spent in the mortal realm, she seemed not to know Shen Mu.

"Why did you go to the Southern Barbarians? What about Sun Youzhi?" Although Thirteen did not admit her identity in front of Shen Mu, she knew that Shen Mu had saved her from Sun Youzhi.

This is beyond doubt.

Shen Mu's expression tightened.

"The Emperor of Nanyang assigned me to accompany the Crown Prince and protect his safety; this was the task he gave me in the mortal realm."

“But you don’t care about the trivial matters of the mortal world.” Thirteen retorted quietly. She naturally understood that Shen Mu only had a convenient identity in the mortal world to capture the Demon Lord.

Fortunately, they searched for Sun Youzhi's whereabouts in the mortal realm.

But right now, she still can't bring herself to suddenly ask to go to the Southern Barbarians and temporarily put everything in the capital.

Unless there is a sufficient reason.

Shen Mu glanced at her without revealing his thoughts. It turned out that he was right. Only she could understand him so well.

"Yes, but Sun Youzhi has been hidden by the An family."

"The An family? The Duke of Anguo or the Consort An?"

Thirteen was somewhat surprised and poked her head out. Even though the dark room was truly airtight, she was already drenched in sweat.

But her blushing face only added to her girlish shyness in Shen Mu's eyes.

Shen Mu subconsciously lowered his head and coughed lightly.

"It's Duke Anguo. Do you remember the information you got from the eighth floor of Zuixianlou?"

"The information you received? You mean the assassin who attempted the assassination at Fengya Zhai?"

"That's right. At that time, the message from Zuixianlou said that the three assassins came from the Western Regions, but after my investigation, I found that they were spies left in the capital by the Southern Barbarians."

"Did the southern barbarians do this?"

It was clear that Thirteen was hearing this news for the first time.

On the Emperor's birthday, while Shen Mu and the officials were confronting each other in the main hall, she had already been lying in wait in the Mingyue Palace and almost attacked Zhou Jinghuai.

Many things happened afterward, which prevented her from ever getting a final conclusion about the Fengyazhai assassination case.

Therefore, she was also completely astonished and somewhat incredulous.

Shen Mu nodded.

“That’s right. At first, I also thought that although the strength of the Southern Barbarians was comparable to that of the Western Regions, it was clear that they couldn’t establish themselves in the capital city of Nanyang with just their people, unless…”

"Unless there's an inside agent in the capital?" Thirteen naturally thought of Shen Mu's next words.

She also had her doubts about why the Western Regions, which had always maintained good relations with Nanyang, would send someone to assassinate a court official from Nanyang.

He was neither a powerful minister who held real power in the court, nor a prince of the court.

The difficulty of the assassination and the final result were simply disproportionate.

“I found out long ago that the mole was the Duke of Anguo. The Duke of Anguo had been embezzling and accumulating wealth when he was in charge of the construction of the Bright Moon Palace, but unexpectedly, he was caught by Lord Qin of the Imperial Guard when he contacted the spies of the Southern Barbarians…”

Shen Mu's gaze dimmed. Although he had already found out the real culprit, he was also currently fishing for clues, so he couldn't give the Qin family an explanation.

Thirteen spoke softly at this moment.

"So Duke Anguo was killing someone to silence them."

She couldn't help but recall how she had tried to kill Zhou Jinghuai in the Bright Moon Palace. Although she was completely focused on Zhou Jinghuai at the time, she had clearly seen him.

The pit in Mingyue Palace was filled with old, rotten wood that couldn't support the entire palace at all.

If the fire was an accident, then it was this fire that saved Duke Anguo's life!

A fire completely destroyed all the evidence of his embezzlement and corruption!

Thinking of this, Thirteen's expression turned serious. She knew that the people of Nanyang had been suffering greatly these past years, and such a wasteful and extravagant construction of palaces was unacceptable.

Instead, it became a den of thieves where the Duke of Anguo amassed wealth!

“The Duke of Anguo deserves his punishment and will eventually be punished. But now that he has colluded with the Southern Barbarians, I think that Sun Youzhi, who had his arm cut off by me and wants to find a safe place to recover, should also be sent to the Southern Barbarians to escape our sight.”

"Southern Barbarians? Why are you so sure he'll go?" Thirteen frowned.

"You only know one side of the story. Demon Lord Chongming's magic can conjure more than just one Sun Youzhi."

This news was also sent by Shen Mu's adoptive father through a long journey.

In fact, in order to find the second 'Sun Youzhi' hiding on the southern border, many of the Azure Feather Divine Lords lost their lives.

"I can't even beat one of them..." Thirteen couldn't help but laugh in anger. Even Sun Youzhi almost killed her in the mortal world, let alone another one.

Shen Mu touched his nose somewhat awkwardly and whispered a reminder.

"Yes, three."

"What?" Thirteen was somewhat incredulous. Three people?

“I can’t beat three of them. You’re taking me to the Southern Barbarians now. Aren’t you sending me to my death?” Thirteen felt that this matter was even more absurd. If it were just one Sun Youzhi, she would have schemed against him.

But she couldn't defeat three men no matter what!

"But I'm worried about your safety, though I'm also asking for your opinion. After all, I'm not entirely confident that the people I can leave in the capital can guarantee your safety."

Shen Mu looked at Thirteen; this was the only thing he wasn't sure about.

After all, they had already made progress in identifying the person from the Shen residence who was sending messages out.

But right now, if all of them were to be transferred to the Southern Barbarians to capture Sun Youzhi, he feared that a second 'Sun Youzhi' would emerge and take the opportunity to harm Thirteen.

After all, besides them, only Sun Youzhi would know that Thirteen has temporarily lost the protection of divine power and is no different from an ordinary person.

Upon seeing this, Thirteen finally understood what Shen Mu meant.

She stared blankly at Shen Mu. It sounded like he was indeed listening to her opinion, but somehow it sounded rather strange to her.

It seemed as if she had thought about it for a long time before finally understanding.

"Shen Mu! You recognized me a long time ago, didn't you?"

She was somewhat exasperated, realizing that when Shen Mu deliberately asked her if she knew about the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, he was testing her.

But he himself fell into the old fox's trap and answered his questions truthfully!