The two women spent a full half hour in the bathroom, scrubbing themselves clean over and over. Honestly, it was all psychological—they just kept washing and washing.
"Whoa, Xiaoyue, your skin is so fair now!" As she spoke, Faye Shangguan ran her hand over Cynthia Murong: "Wow, it’s so soft and springy!"
"You’re no different!" Cynthia Murong shot back, not to be outdone, and gave Faye Shangguan a quick pat in return.
"Hey! How dare you take advantage of me!"
"Ah! Don’t touch me there!"
……
Hearing all the commotion from the bathroom, Ian Song’s face darkened. He felt an urge to use his Clairvoyant Vision to peek, but in the end, he forced himself to resist.
After their playful scuffle, the two women suddenly realized they didn’t have any clean clothes. Their old clothes were covered in grime and smelled awful—no way they’d ever put those back on.
"What do we do now?" The two women looked at each other, stumped.
In the end, after some discussion, they decided to have Ian Song buy them a new set of clothes.
"Ian, could you buy us a set of clothes?"
Faye Shangguan called out from the doorway.
"Already got it covered. Open the door and I'll hand them to you," Ian Song’s voice came from outside.
"Ian, you’re the best!"
Faye Shangguan exclaimed happily, instinctively pulling open the door—then immediately screamed, "Ah! Close the door!"
Turns out Faye hadn’t noticed that Cynthia wasn’t standing behind the door, so Ian Song got a full view.
Bang!
Faye snatched the two outfits from Ian’s hands and slammed the bathroom door shut.
Outside, Ian Song couldn’t help but smile faintly. Not a bad payoff for going out of my way to buy them clothes.
"Faye, how could you do this? I’ve been—!"
Cynthia Murong glared at Faye Shangguan, full of indignation.
"Heh, getting seen doesn’t cost you any flesh," Faye said nonchalantly, shoving a set of clothes into Cynthia’s arms. "Hurry up and get changed!"
"Easy for you to say—it wasn’t you he saw!" Cynthia was so annoyed by Faye’s casual attitude that she was practically grinding her teeth.
"Fine, next time you can look back at him and call it even!"
"Faye Shangguan, I’m going to kill you!"
……
Half an hour later.
Ian Song left the hospital with Cynthia Murong and Faye Shangguan, and called Big-Beard Zhang to let him know Cynthia hadn’t broken her leg and could return to filming tomorrow.
After dropping the two women off at the set, Ian Song flashed back to Riverstone City.
He’d kept in touch with Hannah Han by phone during this time, but had been too guilty to actually come back to Riverstone.
At eight o’clock that night, Ian Song and Hannah Han were cuddled together on the villa’s living room sofa, watching TV.
"Hannah, there’s something I need to come clean about," Ian said, taking a deep breath.
"Oh? What is it? Don’t tell me you’ve got another woman out there?" Hannah teased.
Suddenly, Ian fell silent.
When Hannah realized Ian wasn’t answering, her heart skipped a beat. Could it be true—he really had another woman? She immediately sat up straight, staring at Ian: "You really do have another woman? Who is she? What does she do? How long have you been together?"
As she fired off question after question, Hannah felt her chest tighten with anxiety, and she even felt like crying.
"Well, it’s… not just one," Ian said, face full of embarrassment.
"What? More than one? How many?" Hannah’s voice suddenly shot up, a mix of anger and laughter. Her pretty face turned icy, as if covered in frost.
Ian mumbled, "Right now… it’s eleven."
"Eleven?" Hannah’s face flashed with disbelief, like she was about to faint from rage. Her eyes went completely cold; she stood up from the sofa and strode toward the bedroom. This was too much—not only did he have other women, he had eleven at once! What did he take her for?
Seeing Hannah storm off to her room in a fury, Ian Song could only sigh helplessly.
The other women could get along because they came from different worlds—places where men could have multiple wives. That made it easier for them to accept each other's existence. But Hannah was from the Main World, raised on the ideal of monogamy; it was nearly impossible for her to accept Ian having other women.
Of course, he could forcibly change her mind with spiritual power if he wanted to, but Hannah was the woman he truly loved, so he’d never do that.
Five minutes later.
Hannah emerged from the bedroom in a fresh outfit, carrying her purse. She didn’t even glance at Ian, heading straight for the villa door.
Ian thought about chasing after her.
But he’d barely stood up before sitting back down again. He knew Hannah was too angry to listen to anything right now—it was better to let her cool off first.
"You two, follow her. Don’t let anything happen to her!"
Ian instructed the Leng sisters, Lena and Sierra.
"Yes, sir!"
Lena and Sierra Leng responded and quietly followed after Hannah.
Hannah walked some distance, then instinctively glanced back. Seeing Ian hadn’t chased her, she felt even colder inside. Tears welled up, and she thought, 'You’re really this heartless!'
That night, Hannah left Riverstone City and returned to her hometown.
When Ian heard the news, he sighed again, thinking back on all the little moments with Hannah. He felt a strange, restless frustration.
Just then—
His phone rang.
It was the Head of State’s secretary, asking him to come to the Inner Palace—the Head of State had urgent business to discuss.
Ian frowned slightly. Why call him to the Inner Palace at a time like this? Had something major happened? With all the Immortal Gates wiped out, what could possibly require his personal attention?
Still puzzled, Ian flashed over to the Inner Palace and swept his senses—immediately spotting the Head of State and nine Cabinet Elders.
"You’re here—please, have a seat!"
The Head of State stood up politely, and the nine Cabinet Elders followed suit. Times had changed—they now saw Ian Song as an equal, not a junior.
"So, what’s happened?" Ian asked directly after sitting down.
"This intelligence just came in from the War‑Emblem Directorate!"
The Head of State handed Ian a file.
Ian took the file and skimmed it quickly. His eyes flickered with surprise: the report said that land-god and mountain-god shrines all over the country were sending dream-messages to villagers, demanding incense offerings.
Even stranger, those villagers who didn’t get a dream or failed to go worship were punished by the land-gods and mountain-gods—falling ill or growing weak.
Forcing people to offer incense and punishing those who refused—how was this any different from banditry?
Unable to contain his anger, Ian set down the file and asked, "What did the War‑Emblem Directorate find out?"
Elder Shi shook his head. "The results were very disappointing."
"Then leave it to me. I’ll investigate this myself!" Ian said. Land-gods and mountain-gods are the lowest tier of deities in myth—if they’re showing up, could other mythical gods appear as well?