Chapter 2183: Third Challenge

His gaze drifted to the ginseng soup beside him. "I clearly wasn't frightened, yet my body is growing weaker day by day. I'm afraid it's because of your ginseng soup."

Princess Yuanji forced a smile. "Your Majesty, perhaps the things you've encountered recently have been too bizarre, so it's understandable that you're a bit paranoid." Zu An smiled. "When I visited the Underworld that day, I saw Yuanji."

Hearing this, Princess Yuanji's expression changed. "Those are all things of the past. Why must Your Majesty bring them up again?"

Zu An scoffed. "Yuanji tried to harm me repeatedly, and I detest him greatly. After seeing his ghost, I deliberately provoked him with the matter between you and me. But then I heard Jiancheng advise him, and given Yuanji's volatile nature, he actually stopped being angry after hearing that remark. Clearly, he thought Jiancheng's words made sense."

Princess Yuanji asked curiously, "What did he say?"

"He deliberately provoked you," Zu An repeated word for word, "'You've forgotten, little sister-in-law...' Although the ghost escorts took them away, so I didn't hear the rest of what was said, by combining all this information, I can completely guess what it was."

Zu An's gaze suddenly sharpened. "The real Princess Yuanji should have died a long time ago, right? You must have seen her ghost in the Underworld, which is why you said that. Who exactly are you?"

Princess Yuanji suddenly laughed, her smile particularly charming. "For Your Majesty to suspect me based solely on these things is really a bit far-fetched."

"Of course, it's not just this," Zu An said, his expression calm. "In the Underworld, Judge Cui clearly added twenty years to my lifespan. But it's currently the tenth year of Zhenguan, and historically, I will die in the twenty-third year of Zhenguan. Where did the missing ten years go?"

"Since the judge added to my lifespan, it naturally shouldn't be less, unless some accident occurs that prevents me from dying a natural death. Combined with the fact that I was inexplicably scared into a severe illness by a ghost, I am very certain there's someone near me who can take my life at any time. Thinking it over, you are the most likely person among those around me."

Princess Yuanji's expression changed several times, and her gaze turned cold. "How do you know you will die in the twenty-third year of Zhenguan? Who exactly told you?"

"You answer my question first." Zu An's expression was calm. Emperor Taizong of Tang is a very famous emperor in Chinese history, and in his previous life, he was a very prominent figure on the internet. As an internet keyboard warrior back then, he often argued with people on history forums and clearly remembered that Emperor Taizong reigned for twenty-three years.

So, after confirming that Judge Cui had added twenty years to his lifespan, he immediately realized something was wrong.

Princess Yuanji suddenly smiled, her figure blurring and transforming, immediately revealing another beautiful face.

Noticing two small horns on her head, Zu An was startled. "A Dragon Girl?"

The Dragon Girl smiled. "Your Majesty is indeed well-informed. I am indeed a Dragon Girl, the daughter of the Dragon Lord of Dongting. I was originally married to the second son of the Jing River Dragon King, but I was abused and humiliated. Fortunately, I was... *cough*, fortunately, I was rescued from that suffering."

Zu An hadn't expected her to have such an identity. He vaguely remembered that in the previous stage, as the Dragon Lord of Jing River, when he investigated the Dragon Palace, there seemed to be several sons, each more useless than the last. And the second daughter-in-law had been missing for many years.

Their conduct was truly beneath contempt. At the time, Zu An was preoccupied with finding a way out of the situation, so he hadn't really paid attention to this matter. He never would have imagined that the missing daughter-in-law had actually replaced Princess Yuanji and was lurking in the imperial palace.

"So, the execution of the Jing River Dragon Lord was actually orchestrated by you behind the scenes?" Zu An's expression was odd. After all, he had only just been the Jing River Dragon Lord in the previous stage, and his mindset hadn't quite shifted yet.

"Wait, they had been sharing a bed for all these days. In a sense, weren't they... incestuous?"

"He deserved it!" the Dragon Girl said coldly. "Back then, he relied on his identity as the Chief of the Eight Rivers to coerce our Dongting. Otherwise, why would I have married his scoundrel son? After I married him and was abused, he didn't care at all. Later, I accidentally learned that I had offended him many years ago, and that's why he deliberately had the people of his water mansion humiliate me like that!"

Zu An nodded. "Indeed, the Jing River Dragon Lord truly deserved to die." He thought of how the original Jing River Dragon King, upon learning about Yuan Shoucheng, had immediately grabbed his sword to attack him. Later, to win a bet, he even dared to openly defy and secretly alter an imperial decree. Clearly, he was accustomed to acting lawlessly.

Hearing him agree with her, a trace of a gentler smile appeared on the Dragon Girl's face. "But why did you try to harm me?"

Zu An's expression immediately darkened.

The Dragon Girl shook her head slightly. "I wasn't trying to harm you. You're merely a crucial part of the plan. I've served you diligently these past days, so you haven't lost anything..." Zu An pressed, "What plan?"

A trace of fear flashed across the Dragon Girl's face, and she immediately huffed. "You still haven't told me how you know what year you'll die, or who told you."

Zu An's heart stirred. "Of course, the Bodhisattva told me."

"That's impossible, she also told me..." At this moment, the Dragon Girl's face suddenly changed drastically, and she cried out in panic, "No, I haven't said anything! Spare me!"

Following a piercing scream, her entire body burst into flames. Almost instantly, her entire body burned into ash and smoke.

Seeing this scene, Zu An felt a pang in his heart. After all, this was a woman who had served him day and night. Although he knew she had ill intentions, seeing her die so horribly still filled him with a sense of regret.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the sky. Immediately after, the hair on his entire body stood on end, as if a life-or-death crisis was imminent.

Just then, everything around him shattered, and everything before his eyes vanished.

Zu An regained his senses and found himself in a void.

"Congratulations, you have passed the second stage."

At this moment, the voice of the giant statue echoed in the void.

"What just happened?" Zu An felt a lingering fear; in that instant, he had even felt a sense of suffocation.

"You just uncovered a certain truth and were about to be obliterated by a powerful entity. Fortunately, these stages are merely spacetime slices, so I was able to rescue you in time." The voice of the giant statue replied.

Zu An pondered for a moment. That had been quite risky; he hadn't expected that entity to directly attack him.

"What exactly was the test for the second stage?" He was somewhat curious.

"First, it tested your acting skills and whether the Tang officials would discover anything unusual about you." The voice of the giant statue replied.

"That simple?" Although Zu An had had such a guess before, he hadn't expected it to actually be a test.

"It's not simple at all," the voice of the giant statue said, somewhat seriously. "You must understand that there are many extraordinary individuals among the Tang officials. For example, Wei Zheng didn't gain various supernatural powers only after death, as he claimed. He cultivated immortal arts from a young age, which is why he was chosen as the Judge of the Good Deeds Department in the Underworld."

"In the Tang imperial court, there are many other such talented and unusual individuals, especially people like the Dragon Girl. It's not easy for you to fool everyone."

Zu An secretly rejoiced that he hadn't tried to be clever. He had realized in time that this test was one where the more he did, the more mistakes he would make, so from beginning to end, he had acted like an ordinary person, truly like a mortal Li Shimin.

The giant statue continued, "The second test was whether you could pass through the gate of life and death. If the Judge of the Underworld hadn't extended your lifespan on the Book of Life and Death, you would have truly died in this second stage of the test."

Zu An did not respond, but was deep in thought. If he hadn't happened to have read the story of *Journey to the West* in his previous life, he probably wouldn't have known that life could be extended in such a way. How would others who hadn't read *Journey to the West* have solved this? A faint sense of destiny arose in his heart, as if this stage was tailor-made for him.

"Of course, the most difficult was the third test: detecting the true killing intent around you. It truly surprised me that you were able to discern the Dragon Girl's true identity." The giant statue's voice was filled with emotion. "You have even begun the third stage ahead of time."

Zu An's heart tightened, and he hastily asked, "What is the assessment for the third stage?"

"The third stage has already begun." The voice of the giant statue replied.