Lady Providence of the God Realm’s Inspection Bureau dwelled in a place known as the Profound Pavilion, located on the centermost of the God Realm’s nine continents.
The God Emperor himself had chosen the location. Its territory was scenic and extremely vast, overlooked both mountains and rivers.
Who knew how many old fogies of the God Realm drooled over the place? But no matter how much they itched to claim it, they dared not complain.
In truth, the pavilion had been intended to house her clan as well.
But as far as outsiders knew, although the residence was vast enough to contain hundreds of thousands of her clansmen, Lady Providence was the only person living there. Her clan lived on the northwestern continent, in the lands of the Yao Race, instead.
“Sigh…”
In her bedroom, Lady Providence collapsed onto the bed in exhaustion. From time to time, she sighed.
She’d only just returned from the God Emperor’s palace.
Xiao Ting, true to his word, had filed a report on her. As a result, the God Emperor had just called her to his palace for questioning
She’d been stuck in the Divine Palace waging verbal warfare against that damned geezer Xiao Ting for three whole days.
She was mentally exhausted.
Creak.
Suddenly, someone pushed open the door to her room. Lady Providence acted as if she hadn’t heard, and continued lying sluggishly on the bed.
“Were you just at the God Emperor’s?” said a relaxed voice.
There was another person in the Profound Pavillion. If word got out, the entire God Realm would be thrown into an uproar.
Lady Providence only shrugged her shoulders and said, “That old bastard Xiao Ting tattled on me, so the God Emperor called me in to ask some questions.”
Pay attention.
If you paid attention, just now Lady Providence’s tone was extremely casual. From this, it was clear that she saw the woman who’d just arrived as an equal, and furthermore, that they had an extremely close relationship.
If this were to spread, it would cause an even greater uproar. After all, in the God Realm, no matter who you were, Lady Providence always appeared distant and unreasonable.
Once, some of her clansmen had begged her for help, but she heartlessly rejected even them.
For her to speak so casually with someone now meant that the other person’s status needed to be taken seriously.
“Xiao Ting, the old fart, really reported you to the God Emperor?” replied the woman, her tone contemptuous; she called Xiao Ting an “old fart” despite his status as an emperor of the God Realm. “He’s really got guts. Didn’t he realize that, given your relationship with the emperor, reporting you wouldn’t amount to anything?”
“It’s true,” said Lady Providence with a shrug, not bothering to feign modesty. “not just anyone can sway my relationship with the God Emperor.”
“Even so, don’t speak with such certainty. At the end of the day, the old man’s still an emperor and still controls all tribulation lightning. Even the God Emperor’s gotta give him some face, or he wouldn’t have called me in for questioning at all, much less for three whole days.”
“Then, did you run into any problems?” asked the women, eyebrows raised.
“Naturally, there were no big issues,” smiled Lady Providence calmly. “That said, he only reported me this time because he had no other choice.”
“Petty tricks,” said the woman, just as contemptuously as before
“It was just a petty trick, sure, but at times like this, these sorts of petty tricks are more useful than anything else,” said Lady Providence. “Anyway, that son of yours is really quite impressive; his fortune is even on par with the God Emperor’s. Tell me, how exactly did you manage to have a son like that?”
The woman’s face stiffened momentarily, then, nervously, she asked “Is…. Is Zichen okay?”
“He’s doing really well! I took care of him personally; what could possibly have gone wrong?”
Lady Providence smirked, then plucked a fruit out of the air. “During my trip to the lower realms, I was contaminated with a bunch of mortal karma. Shouldn’t you make it up to me somehow?”
“Is that my fault?”
The woman just rolled her eyes at Lady Providence, and said, “All I did was ask you to go check on Zichen for me. I never said you had to intervene. You meddled recklessly and got stained with karma, and now you want me to compensate you?”
“Hey hey hey, how can you be so unreasonable? I meddled, but that was to save your son and your daughter-in-law.”
“And what about Xia Liuli?” said the woman coolly, “You lost quite a lot giving your bells to that girl. They contain around half of your power. How could you give them to someone else just like that? Even if it was to repay her kindness, you needn’t have gone that far.”
Lady Providence’s expression was somewhat unnatural as she replied, “they were originally hers anyway.”
After saying this, she took another bite of the fruit, but she found herself unable to enjoy its flavor any longer.
She simply tossed the fruit to the side and said
“Nevermind all that about repaying kindnesses. Your son’s fortune is just too heaven-defying. The way I see it, the God Realm absolutely won’t accept him. Even if that geezer Xiao Ting hadn’t acted, the other old monsters or even the God Emperor himself might’ve stepped in to sabotage him.”
“It’s true,” nodded the woman.
“Can you stop acting so indifferent? Even if you’re a saintess, you ought to have at least some emotion. He’s your son! Really, when I first brought you here to my residence, you weren’t like this at all," said Lady Providence, scowling furiously. "Could it be that you didn't just inherit the Saint of Seven stars' secret knowledge, but also their personality?”
Lady Province glowered, but the woman remained calm.
“He has his own destiny," she said unhurriedly despite Lady Providence's rage. "Will worrying about it make any difference? You ought to understand this even better than I do."
“Then have you considered how he’ll come to the God Realm in the future?” she asked, “Xiao Ting insisted that ninety-nine bolts of heavenly lightning is the limit, but the power of tribulation lightning doubles with each bolt. If your son plans to overcome a ninety-nine bolt tribulation and ascend, he doesn't have much hope."
“I’ve already divined his future. In this life, he has three chances to step into the God Realm.”
“Three chances?”
“Mm,” said the woman, nodding calmly, “The first was the opportunity you just gave him, the second is the upcoming Struggle for the Three Realms, and the third is his tenth reincarnation.
“His tenth reincarnation?,” frowned Lady Providence. “Hasn’t he only reincarnated nine times?”
“Then he’ll just have to reincarnate again," she said, her face finally showing traces of emotion. "He only has these three chances. If he misses all three, he has no hope of ascending.”
No matter what she said, Ye Zichen was her son. She couldn't be completely detached.
“Then I suppose all I can do is wish the little guy good luck. I personally quite hope he manages it; if he does, the God Realm might become much more interesting, “ laughed Lady Providence.
“Nevermind him, on your trip you entered the mortal realm, did you encounter anyone interesting? No need to bring up Xia Liuli; I've already discerned all that."
“On this trip to the lower realms, I actually did run into two rather interesting people.”
“One of them is Xiao Yumei, right? Then who's the other one?"
“The Heavenly Palace's Chang’e!”