Wuchen struck, his body a blur, fast as lightning, unleashing the full might of a Third Grade expert.
Su Chen, in stark contrast, looked utterly stupefied. He stood frozen in place like a wooden dummy, as if he'd been scared witless.
"Heh heh!"
'Looks like I was overthinking things.'
'The Black-robed Envoy must have fallen to some other expert in the palace. And you... you're barely seventeen or eighteen. What kind of power could you possibly have? Even if you started your cultivation in the womb, you'd be at the peak of the Fifth Grade at most...'
Mockery flashed in Wuchen's eyes.
However...
In the next instant...
BOOM!
A golden radiance burst from beneath Su Chen's dark robes. His muscles bulged, revealing a framework of iron bones and steel sinews. A terrifying, blood-red flame erupted around his body, coalescing into a single punch to meet the attack.
"The Eighteen Golden Body Technique?"
"And you've cultivated it to the peak of the Fourth Grade?"
Wuchen's eyes widened in utter disbelief.
This was a First-grade Technique! Its cultivation difficulty was in a different league from techniques like the Martial Arts Bureau's Barbarian Bull True Qi. Without a century-old Treasure Medicine, someone of Su Chen's age would have struggled just to get started.
But Su Chen hadn't just mastered it; he had reached the peak of the Fourth Grade...
In other words, if he had only started practicing the Eighteen Golden Body Technique after taking it from the Black-robed Envoy, then he had achieved this in less than six months. His talent couldn't simply be described as "extraordinary"—he was a Demon born to throw the world into chaos!
BAM!
The two figures collided.
The blood-red flame was instantly extinguished.
Su Chen was sent flying backward like a discarded sack, crashing heavily into a room on the first floor of the Library Pavilion.
The gap between the peak of the Third Grade and the peak of the Fourth Grade was simply too vast.
"The Library Pavilion's good-for-nothing?"
"If someone like you is considered a good-for-nothing, then what does that make people like me, who only reached the peak of the Fourth Grade in their thirties and the end of the Third Grade in their fifties or sixties?"
"But this is where it ends for you."
"To think someone with your talent would betray the Holy Sect. If I don't kill you, I won't be able to eat or sleep."
Wuchen sneered and walked over.
He was certain Su Chen was already dead from that blow.
A Peak Fourth Grade cultivator was as weak as an ant before an ordinary Third Grade expert, to say nothing of a Peak Third Grade master like himself.
"Like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. Utterly foolish."
Wuchen sneered and scanned the Library Pavilion, searching for clues.
Next, it was time to search the Library Pavilion thoroughly. The body had to be hidden here.
All the eunuchs in the Imperial Palace knew that this Eunuch Su barely left the Library Pavilion once a year. Given how remote the building was, where else could he have hidden the body?
'In the herb garden!'
Wuchen's eyes lit up. He saw at a glance that the herb garden was slightly raised, higher than the surrounding flagstones.
'Dig!'
He used his duster as a shovel.
Gang Qi swirled around it as he began to dig furiously.
He unearthed a skeleton.
'Huang Yi? Or the Black-robed Envoy?'
'Neither!'
'Keep digging!'
Another skeleton!
'Still not them!'
As he kept digging, Wuchen's heart began to pound with dread. 'This little Library Pavilion is hiding dozens of skeletons? That young Eunuch Su... is he really so ruthless? A killer who doesn't even bat an eye?'
Before long, the courtyard was filled with a small mountain of skeletal remains, reeking of decay.
Wuchen felt a wave of dizziness but paid it no mind.
"Found them!"
Wuchen was ecstatic when he finally unearthed the last two skeletons.
One of the skeletons was as black as ink. Even after six months, it still emanated a corrosive stench. The moment Wuchen's hand touched it, he felt a sharp, stinging pain—poison still lingered on the bones.
'How is this possible!'
'A poison this potent... not even a Third Grade Poison could achieve this.'
Wuchen's heart hammered in his chest.
He checked the time and felt a growing sense of urgency.
By now, Emperor Jianwu had probably finished his discussion with Zhang Gui, the Chief Eunuch of the Eastern Depot. 'Given how close Zhang Gui is to Su Chen,' he thought, 'he'll likely head straight for the Library Pavilion the moment he leaves Jinluan Hall.'
'I have to hurry!'
Wuchen grabbed Huang Yi's skeleton, sliced open his wrist to draw blood, and began chanting an incantation. He was performing some kind of tracking Secret Technique.
Not long after...
BOOM!
A crimson light flared up from Huang Yi's skeleton.
"Huang Yi actually succeeded?"
"Damn it!"
"She retrieved our Holy Sect's Secret Treasure from the Royal Treasure Vault... To perform such an unparalleled service, only to fall in this place..."
Wuchen seethed with indignation.
Just then, a quiet voice spoke from behind him.
"So this is the little thing you Black Abyss people are looking for?"
"I have you to thank, by the way."
"Otherwise, even after looting the corpse that night, I never would have found it. Hidden inside an internal organ, was it?"
Wuchen's scalp went numb, and every hair on his body stood on end. An icy chill washed over him from head to toe.
'Su Chen?!'
'He's not dead!'
'How is that possible!'
'With a blow like that... forget one Peak Fourth Grade expert, even ten or twenty of them would have been instantly annihilated.'
'How is he still alive?'
"Bastard!"
"In that case, I'll just have to kill you again!"
Wuchen roared, mustering the Gang Qi in his body. He raised his duster, preparing to strike a second time.
However, as he tried to mobilize it, the Gang Qi in his body vanished into thin air.
THUD!
He collapsed powerlessly to the ground as a hand punched straight through his chest and snatched the crimson light.
'How?'
'I've been poisoned.'
'But when?!'
"The rare and exotic flowers in my courtyard? They're all poisonous. Each has its own unique properties. Stay in this yard for longer than it takes to eat a meal, and the poison will seep right into your heart..."
"That's why I always live alone in the Library Pavilion and never let anyone linger."
"But you... you went and destroyed all of them. The toxins they released were ten times more potent."
"What a pain."
"Now I have to replant them all."
"And you dug up all the bodies. Now I have to bury them all over again... and there's one extra."
Su Chen withdrew his arm, casually tossing the object in his hand. It was a crimson Fire Pearl, a round orb the size of an egg. Faintly visible inside was a small, black snake, coiled and sleeping.
'What is this thing?'
Su Chen was curious.
"Give me back... the Holy Sect's Secret Treasure..."
Wuchen's eyes widened. He stared at Su Chen, realizing that aside from some shock to his internal organs and a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth, Su Chen was completely unscathed.
His handsome face was unblemished, his eyes as bright as stars. His flesh was firm, his blood and Qi were surging. Wuchen's attack hadn't even managed to seriously injure him.
'Is this really a Peak Fourth Grade cultivator?'
'If someone told me he was a Peak Third Grade expert just like me, I'd probably believe them.'
"Actually, I'm seriously injured."
"If you don't believe me, try hitting me again."
Su Chen said.
"Die!" Wuchen roared, unleashing a final, hate-filled strike, burning his remaining vitality for one last palm attack.
BAM!
Su Chen met the attack with his own fist. Even with his blood-red flame burning, he couldn't completely block the hate-fueled strike of a Third Grade expert.
He was sent flying.
Blood streamed from his nose and mouth, his aura weakening. He looked utterly wretched.
Then, in the next instant, Wuchen's eyes bulged.
'What was he seeing?'
He saw something—what looked like Qi—circulating once through Su Chen's body. His severe injuries instantly lessened. After another circuit, they were reduced to mere minor wounds.
The handsome, smiling youth.
It should have been a beautiful sight, but to Wuchen, it was a vision of absolute terror.
"Demon Fiend!"
"Monster!"
"You... you're not human..."
Wuchen clutched his pierced chest and stumbled backward.
"Oh my."
"You found me out."
BAM.
With a single punch, Su Chen blew his head apart.
Then, with practiced ease, Su Chen tossed the corpse of the second-ranked Xuan Character agent into the open grave. He then began putting the other bodies back, one by one. Soon, the herb garden looked untouched.
"Finally, all cleaned up."
Before Su Chen could even wipe the sweat from his brow, a figure walked into the courtyard. She wore a fiery red dress, and a grass tassel hung from her waist.
"Why have all your flowers and plants been uprooted?"
'Another one?'
Su Chen glanced to the side.