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Chapter 4098: Ulterior Motives

The little girl pouted, looking disinterested. "I don't want to go."

If any cat or dog could participate in this Heavenly Yuan List competition, wouldn't the previous preliminaries be meaningless?

Mo Lian immediately understood his little empress's meaning and chuckled, pinching her cheek. "Don't worry, the academies planning to participate in the Heavenly Yuan List competition will have to provide substantial resources to enter."

"Additionally, they'll also have to participate in the preliminaries. The preliminary period is three days, but the intensity and danger should be even greater than what we encountered when we last went to Fengmu Forest."

"Moreover, after their preliminaries, they'll have almost no time to rest before directly proceeding to the finals."

Qiao Mu took the paper from his hand, read the instructions and regulations, and nodded. "With such harsh conditions, and Jiawei Academy agreeing to them, there must be ulterior motives." It wasn't that the little girl was being overly conspiratorial; it was just that trying so hard and thanklessly to join this competition, and even insisting on inviting everyone from Royal Academy to Jiawei City for the match?

It looked like a conspiracy no matter how you viewed it.

Mo Lian smiled faintly, picked up the little girl, and walked towards the direction of the bath.

No matter what their schemes are, if they dare to plot against them, they'll just smash them to death.

The little girl clutched a corner of his lapel, lifted her large eyes, and looked at him warily. "What are you doing in broad daylight?"

Mo Lian blinked, looking innocently at his wife. "Taking a bath?"

"Why take a bath in broad daylight!" The little deadpan was a bit speechless.

"To get clean so your husband can take a nap with you!"

"Qiao Qiao, when you were little, you used to take a nap every day! Now that you're a few years older, you seem to nap less."

"Nonsense!" The little deadpan stubbornly retorted. "Which day do I not spend cultivating?"

Who naps? Your whole family naps!

Mo Lian chuckled, rubbing his head against hers. "Qiao Qiao, be good. Eating well and sleeping well will make our baby grow up... Ouch! Why did you hit your husband's head?"

The afternoon sun slowly swept across the window sill.

A small, precious beast lay motionless, devoid of life, basking in the sunlight, yet radiating a bright melancholy...

The bustling port was filled with various ships, large and small. There were towering ships moored at the dock and luxurious painted boats slowly approaching the shore.

More often, large cargo ships, one after another, were busy loading and unloading, coming and going incessantly.

Madam Qiao Qiao stood at the bow of a ship, dressed in a moon-rose colored long gown, her head adorned with a jade phoenix hairpin seemingly poised for flight. Her small, unadorned face held its usual lack of expression.

Cradling a plump, precious beast, the little deadpan leaned next to the Crown Prince, looking around at her surroundings for a while before tilting her head to glance at the Crown Prince. "Are we there?"

Because she had never been to Jiawei City, and the teleportation talisman array wasn't guaranteed to teleport them directly into the city, Mo Lian and Qiao Mu, along with Tong and their group, had teleported nearby. Seeing that they weren't far from Jiawei City, they decided to take a boat, feeling it was more reliable.

"Ah ha ha ha ha! Fellow student Qiao, fellow student Mo, you've finally arrived, ah ha ha ha ha!" A hearty laugh came from directly ahead.

Qiao Mu and the others looked up to see Instructor Ma from the Cultivation Hall, leading seventeen or eighteen students, approaching with joyful faces, their expressions of "you've finally arrived" brimming with relief.