'Who is this person? He's acting like brothers with Steward Zhang Gui, a favorite of the Noble Consort... I've never heard of him. And a person like that is still just a little black-robed eunuch?'
Under the awestruck gazes of numerous eunuchs, Su Chen, a mere black-robed eunuch, walked into the Martial Arts Bureau under Zhang Gui's personal escort. Behind him, the wails of the gatekeeping little eunuch could still be heard.
"Godfather! God-uncle! I was wrong!"
"Spare me!"
SLAP. SLAP. SLAP.
As he spoke, the gatekeeping little eunuch knelt on the ground, slapping his own face relentlessly, as if he wished he could just ruin it completely.
Su Chen hadn't wanted to be in the limelight, but today he had attracted a great deal of attention.
The Library Pavilion was simply too remote.
It was over a half-hour walk from the areas where eunuchs normally moved about. It was no wonder he hadn't heard a single whisper about Zhang Gui's promotion to Steward of the Martial Arts Bureau.
The current Zhang Gui, favored by Noble Consort Zhang, had been granted a Secret Medicine that allowed him to step into the ranks of Fourth Grade cultivation ahead of schedule. He had even bypassed the standard process for prospective stewards, leaping over a group of old eunuchs who had been Peak Fourth Grade prospects for years to become the new Steward of the Martial Arts Bureau.
He was basking in glory, his prestige unmatched for a time. Even the Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace had taken notice of this rising star among the eunuchs.
'The Martial Arts Bureau probably isn't a place a black-robed eunuch like me should be entering.'
Along the way, they passed many eunuchs from the Martial Arts Bureau, including some who were Fourth Grade cultivators, but without exception, they all bowed to Zhang Gui in salute.
Even Su Chen got a taste of this glory.
"It's fine. Rules are made to be broken."
"You have a share in my good fortune."
Zhang Gui called over his god-sons to introduce them to Su Chen.
"Get a good look at this God-uncle of yours. In this palace, you'd better keep your eyes peeled for me. You are to show your God-uncle the same respect you show me."
With his hands behind his back, Zhang Gui finished speaking and dismissively waved away his god-sons with a cold, arrogant air. He then reverted to the cheerful and lively demeanor he had when it was just the two of them.
He rummaged around in his room, found two bottles of White Confucian Wine, and handed them to Su Chen.
"You get half of this heaven-sent fortune of mine. If it weren't for your soap and Perfume, how would I ever have gotten the chance to win the Noble Consort's favor?"
"Just say the word, and I'll pave the way for you to leave the Library Pavilion and become a Green-robed Eunuch. In the future, when I become a Chief Eunuch, you'll be the Second Supervisor. Even if you can't practice cultivation..."
Zhang Gui was still the same Zhang Gui. Even after becoming the Noble Consort's favorite, someone even the Chief Steward had to look up to, he still confided in Su Chen and spoke from the heart.
Inside the Martial Arts Bureau, Su Chen felt like he was on pins and needles.
After all, he was a fake eunuch. Even though he did his best to keep his body hunched over, he was still afraid someone would notice something was off.
What's more...
...he also had the identity of a sleeper agent for a mysterious organization.
Causing such a big commotion...
'If I get noticed, I'm finished.'
Right now, Su Chen just wanted to hurry back to the Library Pavilion and lie low.
The tallest tree catches the most wind.
He shouldn't have come out at all.
「Soon.」
Su Chen gave the list of things he wanted to Zhang Gui.
"These are all herb seeds. What do you want them for? I suppose that makes sense. You're not willing to show your face, and you can't pass the time with cultivation. Planting some herbs in that cold, silent Library Pavilion is a good way to kill time."
"It's a bit tricky, but I can get them all for you right now. As it happens, one of the little eunuchs in the pharmacy is my god-son."
「In the blink of an eye.」
With just a few words from Zhang Gui, the herb seeds were placed in front of Su Chen.
「Before he left.」
At the entrance of the Martial Arts Bureau, looking at Zhang Gui who was seeing him off, Su Chen couldn't help but offer a few more words of caution.
"'A swift horse on a spring breeze, seeing all of Chang'an's blossoms in a day.' The waters in this palace run deep. It's best not to be too conspicuous."
"I know."
Though Zhang Gui said he knew, his eyes showed he was unconcerned. It was clear he wasn't taking the advice to heart.
"Sigh."
Shaking his head,
Su Chen left.
He was a long-lived monster and a fake eunuch hiding in the Imperial Palace. Terrified of being exposed, he didn't dare make friends.
Zhang Gui was one of the very few friends he had.
He really didn't want anything to happen to him.
But there was nothing he could do. People don't listen to advice. Perhaps only after suffering a disaster would they be able to calm down.
Upon returning to the Library Pavilion, Su Chen immediately tried to ripen the seeds to prepare the poison, but his Longevity True Qi couldn't penetrate them.
It was then that Su Chen realized with a start that he had to wait for the seeds to sprout and take on a basic form before his Longevity True Qi could have a ripening effect.
It was just like when he had ripened that Thousand-year-old Ginseng King.
'If I had known earlier, I would have asked for some younger herbs.'
'Forget it.'
'I'm not going out anymore.'
'It'll keep me from getting caught up in any more trouble.'
Su Chen paced back and forth in the Library Pavilion. He finally chose a spot in the courtyard, pried up the floor tiles, and cleared out a small medicinal plot of about ten meters, where he planted the seeds.
"All done."
"Once they sprout, I can ripen the Secret Medicine."
「The twenty-third year of Tianwu. December, winter.」
A month had passed.
Autumn was completely gone.
Scattered snowflakes drifted down from the sky. It was about to snow.
During this time, a troubled Zhang Gui had come to visit several times. They drank together, and in his drunken dreams, he slurred some words and cried until he was unconscious.
Su Chen learned some of Zhang Gui's secrets.
The next day, after sobering up, Zhang Gui looked at Su Chen in silence and left without a word.
After that, he gradually came by less and less.
「On this day.」
The seventh of December.
Su Chen was in the Library Pavilion, idly reading miscellaneous books and tending to his medicinal plot. A little eunuch carrying a food box walked in from outside.
He looked vaguely familiar, and his face still bore the faint traces of swelling that had gone down.
"This boy, Xu Xiaohan, pays his respects to God-uncle."
"Thank you, God-uncle, for not pursuing my offense that day."
"Otherwise, with Godfather's style, this little one would have long been mucking out the stables and sleeping in the pigsty."
"From now on, if God-uncle needs anything, just send Han to run errands."
The food box was opened.
Inside was Su Chen's favorite White Confucian Wine, as well as some braised chicken.
Su Chen nodded.
Zhang Gui was quite thoughtful. He hadn't forgotten what he'd told him before and had actually sent his god-son to bring him White Confucian Wine and braised chicken every day.
"Very well."
"Deliver my meals three times a day. You are not to stay the night. I don't like others disturbing my peace and quiet here."
He knew.
Now that he knew Zhang Gui's secrets, Zhang Gui was bound to never be as close to him as he once was.
Sending Han over was likely also a way to monitor him and ensure he didn't leave again.
'But what Zhang Gui doesn't know is that as time flows on, what does the rise and fall of this Dynasty, the changing of eras, mean to me? It's nothing more than sand, stones, and grass—not worth mentioning at all.'
'Even dynasties will decay, and even Grandmasters will grow old and die. Only I am like an evergreen tree...'
Su Chen tended to his medicinal garden.
Today was the harvest.
Su Chen dug up the budding poison herbs one by one. Streams of True Qi flowed into them, and soon, hundred-year-old toxic herbs appeared.
'The Hundred Poison Medicine Book says that a poison powder made from fifty-year-old herbs can kill a Peak Third Grade expert in an instant and even threaten a Martial Arts Second Grade master.'
'My hundred-year-old herbs are definitely more than twice as potent. They should be able to poison a Second Grade, or maybe even kill a Peak Second Grade expert instantly.'
Su Chen began to prepare the mixture.
「Soon.」
He had two large bottles of poison powder.
A major reason he chose the Heart-devouring Poison Powder was that it was very simple to concoct and almost impossible to mess up. The only difficulty was that high-year herbs were extremely hard to collect.
But for Su Chen, that wasn't a problem. As long as an herb sprouted, he could control its age to whatever he wanted.
If he weren't afraid that a higher age would alter the herb's properties, Su Chen would have even been tempted to test the toxicity of a thousand-year-old Heart-devouring Poison Powder.
'With this, I finally have some ability to protect myself in this Imperial Palace.'
'You have to know... '
'...that the few First-Grade Marquises and the Purple-robed Chief Eunuch of the Liang Country are only at the Martial Arts First Grade.'
In the past, it was always Zhang Gui who came to chat with him, recounting the shifting tides of the Imperial Palace. Now, it was Han.
Nearly half a year had passed since the assassination attempt three months ago, and the Old Emperor's butcher's knife had finally turned toward the Imperial Palace.
On this day, Han was somewhat excited.
A Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace had been imprisoned and was executed in his cell that very night. This meant Zhang Gui, a Double Peak Fourth Grade with combat power approaching the Third Grade, had a chance to move up.
He wasn't qualified to be the Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace, but by relying on Noble Consort Zhang's favor, if he could catch the Emperor's eye, there was a slim chance he could become the Vice Chief Steward.
Once he was promoted, every one of his god-sons would be given a post with power and profit. Some might even become Stewards themselves.
Su Chen saw all of this.
He didn't care about any of it.
Even becoming Chief Steward of the Inner Palace wasn't enough for Zhang Gui's ambition. Purple-robed First Supervisor was more like it.
「That night.」
Su Chen was startled awake.
A cold wind, carrying snow, blew into his quiet room. He opened his eyes, leaped up, and stared coldly at the uninvited guest in the room.
His greatest fear had come to pass.
In the room, the black-clad man revealed a pair of cold eyes and stared at him.
"The time has come to activate you, our sleeper agent."