156: Chapter 156 There really isn't a single drop left! My husband, you have to believe me!

Lu Chen sat up abruptly.

The movement was so fast that the wind it created blew back half of the thin quilt.

Nangong Ziyi's bare shoulders and half of her back were exposed to the morning light.

The red-gold spirit patterns of the Heavenly Yin Fire God Physique flowed along her spine, gathering into two flame patterns at the small of her back.

Startled, she instinctively shrank back into the quilt, her peach blossom eyes widening as her previous smugness faded by a good thirty percent.

Lu Chen didn't look at her.

He raised his right hand and pressed his palm downward.

The Emperor's Might emerged silently.

It wasn't a casual dissipation, but an intentional release—a lockdown with clear directionality.

At that moment, the cabin of the Flying Boat was enveloped by the Great Emperor's field; the air suddenly stagnated, and even the clouds passing outside the window seemed to have been paused.

Nangong Ziyi's breath hitched.

Her Xiantai Fourth Layer cultivation was nothing before the Emperor's Might; her body froze instinctively, unable to move even a finger.

Lu Chen turned his head.

His expression was serious.

As a dignified Great Emperor Peak, his gaze was serious to the extreme at this moment, devoid of any laziness or nonchalance.

In its place was the gravity of a man who had been drugged, pinned down, and drained all night, erupting with concern for his dignity and future personal safety upon waking up.

“Nangong Ziyi.”

His voice was very low, each word jumping out one by one.

“Give me an honest account.”

“That [the great emperor is also crazy]... is there really none left?”

Nangong Ziyi huddled in the quilt, exposing only her head and two eyes.

Her peach blossom eyes looked up at him from the edge of the quilt; the smugness was gone, replaced by the specific, aggrieved watery shimmer of someone who had just been scolded.

She shook her head frantically.

Her head shook like a rattle, her messy long hair swaying back and forth on the pillow; she didn't even bother to brush away the few strands stuck to the corner of her mouth.

The quilt slid down two inches from her shoulders, revealing her collarbones and the initial curve below them; several faint red marks left from last night were particularly eye-catching on her fair skin.

She grabbed the corner of the quilt with one hand and pulled it up, trying to wrap herself tightly.

But the quilt wasn't large to begin with; covering the top meant exposing the bottom, and a section of her fair, tender calf peeked out from the end, her toes curled from tension.

“There's no more!”

Her voice trembled, her throat still possessing that raspy quality from screaming herself hoarse last night, sounding both soft and weak.

“Truly, not a single drop is left! Husband, you must believe me!”

She reached a hand out from the quilt, fingers spread, waving it in front of Lu Chen while gesturing a tiny distance with her fingertips.

“I only stole a fingernail's worth from my aunt! Just that much! It was all used up last night! Really!”

Lu Chen let out a laugh—a short snort from his nose that carried the meaning of 'I'll believe you when pigs fly.'

He knew this group of women all too well.

First there was Jiang Yi, who drugged the wine in the Jiang Family ancestral home with the first version of 'the great emperor is also crazy,' nearly turning him into a human Pill Furnace.

Then there was Nangong Waner, who did it again in the Nangong Family's spirit tea with double the dosage; he had been forced to pin her to the couch for a thorough investigation.

Now it was Nangong Ziyi's turn; she had stolen the medicine, yet its potency hadn't decreased in the slightest.

What kind of genes did the Nangong Family have? Was drugging a man's tea ancestral? Was the first rule of their family motto 'If you can't marry him, drug him'?

Lu Chen wasn't afraid of Nangong Ziyi; he was afraid of the precedent.

What if that ignorant little girl Ye Qingxian learned this in the future?

What if a deep-thinking woman like Ji Ziyue got her hands on it?

What if one day he drank water, ate a fruit, or smelled a flower's fragrance, and this stuff was mixed in?

As a Great Emperor Peak, he could withstand the Heavenly Tribulation and the myriad Daos, but he couldn't withstand a pot of tea from those close to him.

This was more terrifying than ascending to the Immortal Realm to work in the mines.

“Not enough,” Lu Chen stared at her, his tone brook no argument. “Words alone are useless.”

He extended his right hand, palm up.

“Hand over all your Storage Pouches, spatial rings, and Magical Artifacts.”

“I will search them personally.”

Nangong Ziyi's peach blossom eyes blinked twice.

She curled her lip with an expression that said, 'Fine, do whatever you want!'

Fumbling under the quilt, she threw three Storage Pouches, two spatial rings, a short sword Magical Artifact, plus a Nangong Family communication jade token onto the bed in a heap.

They landed with a series of clinks and clatters.

After throwing them, she sat up in the quilt, her long hair hanging over her chest just enough to cover the vital spots, chin tilted up as her peach blossom eyes stared straight at him.

“Everything is here.”

She paused for a beat, tilted her head, and the corners of her mouth curled up.

“Do you want to search my body too?”

She raised both arms and lifted her legs in an open posture, the quilt sliding down her waistline.

“Do you want to search down here too? I certainly can't hide anything in there, but if you're worried—”

“Forget it!”

Lu Chen whipped the quilt back over her, using precise force to wrap her tightly from the neck down.

His face darkened further.

He knew she couldn't hide anything there, but what if during the search, his useless 'little brother' refused to back down again?

It would be another long bout of effort, and by then, it wouldn't be clear who was venting whose 'fire.'

Lu Chen took a deep breath and gathered the pile of storage artifacts before him.

“You're the one who said there's none.”

He picked up the first Storage Pouch and probed it with his Divine Sense.

“If I find any! My temper is going to be very explosive!”

He turned his head, staring at Nangong Ziyi who was bundled into a ball in the quilt.

“Not only will your little bottom be smacked raw by me.”

He paused for a beat, the corners of his mouth twitching downward.

“But you'll inevitably have to spend a lot of 'oral effort' to vent my fire. I'm telling you, I have a lot of fire right now.”

Nangong Ziyi laughed inside the quilt.

It wasn't a laugh of fear, but the kind of playful laugh that came after being scolded, carrying the lingering charm of having succeeded in a prank.

She poked her head out from the quilt, messy hair clinging to her face, her peach blossom eyes curving into two crescent moons.

“Husband, you don't believe me?”

Her voice was still raspy, but the tone rose slightly with a coquettish lilt at the end.

“I have a lot of fire right now too.”

She licked her lips; as her fragrant tongue brushed over them, she looked even more enchanting, the curve of her mouth widening.

“If we're venting fire, then let's vent it. Who's afraid of who?”

She reached out a finger and tapped the air.

“You definitely won't find anything; there really is no more.”

She paused for half a breath, her peach blossom eyes glancing toward Lu Chen's waist and abdomen, her voice dropping half a pitch with the certainty of someone who had experienced it firsthand.

“Just like your body—it's truly been squeezed dry by me. Not a single drop left.”

Lu Chen pinched his lips and didn't respond.

It wasn't that he didn't want to, but he was afraid that as soon as he spoke, he would be led away by this girl's rhythm and somehow end up rolling around together again.

With a grim face, he glanced at Nangong Ziyi.

The girl huddled in the quilt, her peach blossom eyes full of an innocent expression that said, 'Go ahead and search! I didn't lie to you.'

Lu Chen did not relax; he secretly vowed.

Even if he had to turn this little girl's undergarments inside out today, he had to find every possible remnant and destroy it completely.

The Great Emperor's battle to defend his chastity had officially begun; this concerned his future happy life!