In the quiet room, a lonely wind carried in the cold snow, leaving a thin dusting on the floor—a perfect reflection of Su Chen's current mood.
The tree may crave stillness, but the wind will not cease.
The inevitable has arrived.
When he made a scene at the entrance of the Martial Arts Bureau, he knew this day would come.
'He never should have stepped out of the Library Pavilion that day.'
"Huang Jiu! Why don't you answer?"
The Black-robed Envoy, perhaps thinking Su Chen doubted his identity, frowned. He pulled a palm-sized half of a brass token from his robes, on which the character for "nine" was faintly visible.
The Black Lotus Token! The proof was here!
"Sigh..."
Seeing the Token, Su Chen reluctantly rummaged around, finally finding the other half—a dust-covered brass token—in a crack by his bed.
'The body's previous owner had belonged to a reclusive cult, the Black Abyss Holy Sect. It specialized in emerging during years of great disaster to bewitch the masses and recruit members. The original owner was young and fanatically devout, so he was quickly noticed. After a bit of sweet-talking, he gave up his manhood to come to the Great Liang Imperial Palace and become a Eunuch.'
'He was, however, just an idle pawn of the lowest rank, a sleeper agent.'
'Heaven One, Earth Three, Profound Six, Yellow Nine.'
'Of the nineteen secret agents under the Black Lotus Saint, he was at the very bottom of the hierarchy.'
'If it weren't for Zhang Gui's meteoric rise—gaining the favor of a Noble Consort and on the verge of becoming Vice Chief Steward—a sleeper agent like him might have died of old age without ever being activated.'
"You bastard!"
"You place the token personally bestowed by the Saint so carelessly? Do you have any respect for the Holy Assembly? For the great Saint who has shown you a mountain of grace?!"
The Black-robed Envoy roared, his eyes practically shooting flames.
Su Chen remained silent, at a loss for words.
'He didn't know what to say.'
Soon, the two halves snapped together, forming the eerie Black Lotus on the token's face.
"Black Abyss Holy Sect, salvation for all! The Saint descends to save us from our suffering!"
The Black-robed Envoy's eyes blazed with fanaticism. He held the Token aloft and kowtowed respectfully, naturally bowing to the great Black Lotus Saint it represented. When he saw Su Chen still standing, another wave of fury washed over him.
"Huang Jiu, do you have any respect for the Holy Assembly at all?"
Again, Su Chen said nothing.
'Had it been the original owner, he probably would have already performed a sliding kowtow.'
'But he wasn't the original owner.'
'What did this damn Holy Sect have to do with him?'
'He hadn't inherited a single shred of the original owner's feelings.'
"Forget it."
"Tomorrow, the Seventh Prince will come to the Library Pavilion. He will seek you out for questioning. He's just a cripple who can't cultivate. I'm giving you a bottle of poison. Find a way to kill him with it!"
"Regardless of whether you succeed, you are to kill yourself on the spot immediately after administering the poison. I'm taking the Token back. This matter must not be connected to the Holy Sect in any way..."
With that, the Black-robed Envoy tossed a white porcelain bottle to Su Chen.
He could faintly see the violently toxic powder inside sizzling like acid.
THUD!
The poison bottle hit the ground.
Not only did Su Chen not catch it, he took two steps back, dodging as if it were something foul.
"Huang Jiu!!!"
This time, the Black-robed Envoy was thoroughly enraged.
A terrifying power, a torrent of Qi and blood, surged beneath his black robes.
"Assassinate the Seventh Prince..."
"Could the Holy Sect perhaps choose someone else? I'd like to serve the Holy Sect loyally for a few more years. Is that possible, sir?"
Su Chen said nervously, wringing his hands.
'Who was the Seventh Prince?'
'Even hiding away in a desolate place like the Library Pavilion, he'd heard the man mentioned more than once.'
'The Old Emperor had several sons, and three of them were considered dragons among men.'
'The Eldest Prince, the Second Prince, and the Fifth Prince, the legitimate son of Noble Consort Zhang.'
'The very day the Old Emperor recovered from his illness, he had summoned the Eldest Prince to the Imperial Palace and personally twisted his head off.'
'Afterward, he purged the court of Civil and Military Officials.'
'Rumor had it the Eldest Prince had grown impatient and orchestrated that shocking event in the Imperial City—the assassination attempt on that rainy night...'
Now, the only ones left with a chance to inherit the throne were the Second Prince and the Fifth Prince.
'Although the Seventh Prince was unable to cultivate and spent his days in brothels enjoying music, he and the Second Prince were full-blooded brothers who relied on each other. Their bond was incredibly deep.'
'Everyone in the Imperial Palace knew about his own connection to Zhang Gui.'
'Forcing him to assassinate the Seventh Prince...'
'Clearly, the Holy Sect wanted to incite a deadly conflict between the Fifth Prince and the Seventh Prince's camp. After the assassination, regardless of the outcome, insignificant, ant-like Eunuchs like him and Zhang Gui would be dead for sure.'
'Being ground to dust and having his ashes scattered would be getting off easy.'
'The Su Chen of today was not some simple-minded fool like the original owner, who could be bamboozled after just a few words.'
'A Longevity monster like him would get stronger just by staying alive. He'd have to be tired of living to get involved in something so dangerous.'
"Huang Jiu, you have no choice. This is the will of the great Black Lotus Saint. Sacrificing your life for our grand plan is an honor for you, and for all of us!"
The Black-robed Envoy's gaze turned completely cold.
Who was this man? He was the leader of the three Black-robed Envoys serving under the Saint, a Peak Third Grade master of Horizontal Refining.
An insignificant Eunuch like Su Chen, an ant with no cultivation, couldn't hope to make the slightest wave against him, whether he was willing or not.
"I don't want to die. Is that an option?"
Su Chen picked up the bottle from the ground and looked at the Peak Third Grade master of Horizontal Refining.
"Hah!"
The Black-robed Envoy just sneered.
Su Chen swapped it for another White Jade Porcelain Bottle he was holding and asked again, "Do I have any other chance?"
"Ants don't get to choose."
"Of course,"
"you could also try to kill me."
The Black-robed Envoy's smile was pure mockery.
"Alright!"
Su Chen nodded.
'If I have to try, I'll try.'
He flung the poison from the Secret Medicine Bottle in his hand.
"The Saint predicted you might turn traitor. What can a mere Fifth-Grade Secret Poison do to me? Hahaha! I'm a Peak Third Grade! In this Imperial Palace, no one below the Second Grade can harm a hair on my head..."
The Black-robed Envoy laughed wildly. He took a single step, shattering the floor tiles. A gale swept through the Library Pavilion, threatening to obliterate the poison powder hanging in the air.
"I'll peel the skin from your face and have someone else wear it to assassinate the Seventh Prince!"
"Traitors die!"
He came roaring forward.
Qi and blood surged through his body. His terrifying muscles and bones bulged, threatening to burst his black robes. The breath from his nostrils looked like streams of white silk. His skin took on a golden sheen, glowing as if his body had been forged from solid gold.
The Path of the Body: Marrow Cleansing Third Grade Realm.
With such an imposing aura, the Black-robed Envoy was clearly an extraordinary master, even among Third Grade experts. Within the Eunuch hierarchy, he would be at least a Vice Chief Steward.
However, facing the attack from this Third Grade master of Horizontal Refining, Su Chen's expression didn't change.
'Five...'
Su Chen had just begun to count.
In the next instant, the Black-robed Envoy's formidable aura plummeted.
He looked on in horror, blood streaming from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The powerful flesh and blood of his peak physique began to rot at an incredible speed. In that one instant, his entire cultivation was destroyed.
"Poison?!"
"Aaargh! What is this poison? It's not my Red Snake Secret Medicine at all..."
The Black-robed Envoy shrieked like a squawking duck. He stared at Su Chen in terror, unable to believe that a lowly pawn, a former vagrant and beggar, could possess a Secret Poison of at least the Third Grade.
In Great Liang, a Third Grade master was powerful enough to command respect and even establish their own sect.
A poison capable of killing a Third Grade master.
A Secret Poison of this caliber... forget about the wildly popular Eunuch Zhang Gui, or even Noble Consort Zhang. Not even the Second Grade Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace could possibly possess such a thing.
Even for the Old Emperor, who ruled the world, a Third-Grade Secret Poison was an absolutely forbidden power. He would never bestow it upon anyone in the Imperial City, but would instead clutch it tightly in his own hands.
"It's not a Third-Grade Secret Poison. It's Second Grade. The legendary Heart-devouring Powder, you see."
Su Chen said nonchalantly.
In his final moments, the Black-robed Envoy's eyes bulged with disbelief, his expression a spectacular sight.
'Second Grade Heart-devouring Powder?!'
'Their Holy Sect didn't even possess such a peerless poison, yet this lowly mud-caked peasant had it...'
THUMP!
In the next instant, the Black-robed Envoy's rotting body exploded. It was reduced to a blackened skeleton reeking of terrifying poison, his powerful Third Grade flesh and blood melting into a puddle of corpse fluid on the floor. Everything on his person was corroded into nothing by the horrific poison.
'A Peak Third Grade... I actually managed to kill such a powerful figure?'
Su Chen clicked his tongue in amazement.
'Heart-devouring Powder specializes in killing High Grade Cultivators. Its effect on low-grade Cultivators, or even mortals, is minimal.'
'The normal version of Heart-devouring Powder, concocted from fifty-year-old poisonous herbs, takes five breaths to become fatal.'
'But this version, concocted from hundred-year-old herbs, was more than three times as potent. In less than a single breath, the poison reached the vital organs. Even a Third Grade master who had tempered their skin, flesh, sinews, bones, and marrow to the absolute limit could not resist it.'
Su Chen had a total of two bottles. He'd used one to kill a Peak Third Grade, and now he had one left.
'This stuff is really useful.'
'It spreads rapidly through True Qi and blood Qi. The more powerful the expert, the more dangerous it is for them. Conversely, it doesn't immediately endanger a weak person like me. Looks like I'll have to concoct a few more bottles of this in the future.'
A Third Grade master from Black Abyss was dead.
A Peak Third Grade wasn't a common cabbage you could pick anywhere. Each one was a humanoid monster capable of suppressing an entire region or single-handedly slaughtering a city's population. They were the absolute cream of the crop in terms of combat power. The Black Abyss was in for a major shock.
Gazing at the wind and snow outside the Library Pavilion, Su Chen knew that he was in for a world of trouble.
'But if they wanted me dead, it was better for this Black-robed Envoy to die first.'
'I don't compete, I don't covet, I don't make enemies. Why did they have to disturb my peaceful life...?'
"Sigh."
With a sigh, Su Chen pulled on a pair of gloves made from fish intestines. He started cleaning up the puddle of corpse fluid, then dragged the poisoned skeleton of the Peak Third Grade Black-robed Envoy toward a large pit he was digging in the medicinal herb garden in the Library Pavilion's small courtyard.
The poisoned skeleton and the corpse fluid would make excellent fertilizer for his poisonous herbs.
CRACK!
An unusual sound echoed.
Two items had fallen from the poisoned skeleton.
"This is..."
Su Chen rubbed his hands together, a little excited.
'Logically speaking, the body of a Peak Third Grade master of Horizontal Refining is harder than steel. Since the Black-robed Envoy's entire body was corroded away, nothing should have been left.'
'But if something did survive, it had to be a treasure.'
Two items!
A dark, unremarkable, and crude iron token! And... a broken piece of a rib.
Su Chen couldn't make heads or tails of the Black Iron Token.
But when Su Chen crushed the broken bone, something resembling human skin hidden inside rapidly unfurled, revealing dark golden characters and diagrams of a small figure circulating energy.
Looking at the writing on the Human Skin Secret Scroll, Su Chen read the words aloud.
"Created by Old Demon Gujue, a First-grade Technique... the *Eighteen Golden Body Technique*..."