Please teach me, Elder Brother
Mo Fan's words left the Empress stunned for a moment, unable to react.
After a while, she finally came to her senses.
Her phoenix eyes widened, and for the first time in thousands of years, her expression underwent such a dramatic change.
'Is he... teasing me?'
The Empress was somewhat shaken. She had ruled Tianxuan for hundreds of years, and her cultivation had reached the fourth rank of Martial Emperor. In this world, who did not treat her with the utmost respect?
Forget about teasing her —no one even dared to call her by her name!
Yet here was this man, this handsome, mysterious Mo Fan, who not only dared to call her by her given name but also wanted to coax her into calling him 'brother'?
"Senior, please stop joking!" The Empress's face was cold as she squeezed the words through her teeth.
Throughout her life, Han Su had never been teased like this. If it weren't for him revealing so many secrets about her father and brother, and if he didn't have the potential to help her solve Tianxuan's current crisis, she would have rushed forward to fight him!
To hell with his titles of War Emperor, War Saint, or whatever! I won't tolerate this humiliation!
Mo Fan laughed. The Empress was naturally aloof and accustomed to being revered.
In this dreamscape, Mo Fan was almost omnipresent and omnipotent. Even if he angered the Empress, there was nothing she could do to him.
He intended to take this opportunity to push her boundaries step by step.
A man has to be thick-skinned to flirt, after all.
Looking at the Empress, Mo Fan's expression turned serious. "I'm not joking. Call me brother, and I will teach you."
The Empress couldn't hold it in any longer. This was no longer teasing; this was a blatant provocation!
Although the Empress had never been in a romantic relationship, she wasn't clueless.
'What is this guy up to?'
Her aura began to surge, and the temperature in the misty dreamscape plummeted. Frost formed in the air and slowly descended.
With a frown, she condensed an ice shard in midair, sharp and fierce, and sent it hurtling straight toward Mo Fan's face!
As the Empress of Tianxuan, she would not be humiliated!
'To hell with any secrets or solutions for Tianxuan's crisis. I want you dead!'
Unfortunately, the result disappointed the Empress.
The energy she gathered for this strike was immense, a blow filled with rage and genuine fury.
Even an ordinary Martial Emperor, let alone a newcomer to the rank, would struggle to withstand it.
But as soon as she launched the attack, she regretted it.
She suddenly realized she couldn't lock onto Mo Fan's energy!
The higher the cultivation, the greater the control over space in a battle!
Those with cultivation above Martial King could traverse space. Whoever controlled space controlled the battle.
However, the Empress found that despite being a fourth-rank Martial Emperor, capable of creating small spaces, she couldn't lock onto this seemingly insignificant Mo Fan.
She was astonished, thinking that without a lock, the attack might be missed.
Yet Mo Fan remained seated, sipping tea, unaffected by the cold around him. His face remained rosy, and the tea in his cup continued to steam.
The ice shard didn't pierce through and splatter blood.
Instead, Mo Fan's body generated a strange ripple, causing the shard to change direction midair, passing through the ripple and ultimately crashing into the ground, creating a massive icy crater.
Mo Fan, however, was unscathed. Even his white clothes bore no signs of damage. The place he sat was now a deep, concave pit.
The stone stool, having lost its support, floated in the air, undisturbed and unscathed.
The Empress was shocked. What was his cultivation, to so effortlessly neutralize my attack?
Seeing the Empress's reaction, Mo Fan caught a trace of astonishment in her beautiful eyes.
The goal was achieved: to attract a woman, especially one as noble and aloof as the Empress, you must continually provoke her emotions.
Only when her emotions change because of you can you occupy a place in her heart, even if it's a negative one.
Extreme emotions can turn into their opposites; hate taken to the extreme becomes love. Mo Fan wasn't worried at all.
He smiled, and waved his sleeve, and the bottomless icy pit the Empress had created instantly restored itself as if nothing had ever happened.
Then he tapped the table lightly with two fingers, causing all the ice shards in the space to quickly melt. The space returned to its misty, ethereal state.
"Han Su, as a girl, you shouldn't be so hot-tempered," Mo Fan said with a light laugh.
The Empress fell silent. Witnessing Mo Fan's seemingly supernatural abilities, she felt a bit of despair.
Although she hadn't used her full strength just now, with the abilities Mo Fan had displayed, even if she went all out, she wouldn't be able to do anything to him.
To her, Mo Fan's strength was far beyond hers! If Mo Fan wanted to attack her, she might not even be able to withstand a single move.
However, she didn't know that Mo Fan could only act dominantly in this dream realm. If they were to actually fight, Mo Fan probably wouldn't be able to withstand even a single breath.
Moreover, even in this dream realm, Mo Fan was still powerless against her. But the Empress had already formed a preconceived notion.
"What exactly do you want?" The Empress took a deep breath and regained her aloof demeanour.
Mo Fan spread his hands and feigned helplessness. "I don't want anything, just for you to change how you address me. 'Senior' makes me sound old."
"Really?" The Empress looked at Mo Fan skeptically. High-level cultivators often had peculiar quirks but for someone like Mo Fan, who had lived for nearly a thousand years, to dislike being called old?
Who ever heard of that? Forcing someone to call him brother?
Mo Fan nodded earnestly. "Of course it's true. I was very close friends with your brother Han Feng. You calling me 'Senior' makes us seem like we're from different generations. Your brother might crawl out from the grave to beat me up!"
If Crown Prince Han Feng knew that centuries later, someone would impersonate as his friend to deceive his sister, he might indeed crawl out of his grave to strangle Mo Fan!
Looking at Mo Fan's serious expression, the Empress felt a bit helpless. Why was he so particular about this?
After thinking it over, she realized that he was right. If he was her brother's good friend, calling him 'Senior' was indeed inappropriate.
Judging by his behaviour, he didn't seem to harbour any ill intentions towards her or the Tianxuan Empire. On the contrary, he seemed more inclined to help her.
Given the precarious situation of the Tianxuan Empire, she couldn't afford to let her pride get in the way. Abandoning a bit of dignity was a small price to pay.
'The people of Tianxuan respect, admire and love me. If I sacrifice a bit of my pride for them, so be it.'
Besides, he was indeed her brother's friend.
After thinking it over for a long time, the Empress seemed to have found a reason to convince herself.
She couldn't beat him in a fight, and she couldn't come up with another solution. What else could she do?
Gritting her teeth, the Empress barely managed to squeeze out a barely audible sentence: "Please... please teach me, Elder brother."