Su Chen's hand, which had been loosening the soil, paused slightly as he looked out of the courtyard.
Outside the courtyard.
A handsome, elegant man stood there, reeking of alcohol. He wore brocade clothes, was draped in a fox-fur cloak, and held an exquisite hand warmer. Dressed entirely in white, he blended in perfectly with the vast, snowy scenery.
In the Imperial Palace, only a Prince was permitted to wear white.
The Crown Prince wore white cloud-brocade robes embroidered with dragons.
This was a rule established by the ancestors of the Great Liang Dynasty.
But this rule had long since been broken. In the final years of the Dynasty, the muddle-headed Old Emperor had successively granted cloud-brocade dragon robes to three different Princes, leading to an intractable struggle between them.
The Little Eunuch serving Su Chen was already scared witless, prostrated on the ground.
But Su Chen did not kneel.
Su Chen simply went back to loosening the soil. He already knew who had arrived.
The Seventh Prince!
"How audacious! You dare not kneel before a nobleman?"
A sharp rebuke came from outside the courtyard. Two Royal Guards in Silver Armor reached for the swords at their waists, their eyes flashing with malice as they stared at Su Chen.
They were both Fourth-Grade Cultivators.
In Great Liang, Cultivators held a revered status. A common prince who couldn't cultivate, if not for his immensely powerful full brother—the Second Prince—would likely not even have Fifth-grade Cultivators willing to follow him.
"Are you here about the perfume and soap?"
Su Chen suddenly asked.
Upon hearing this, the Seventh Prince raised a hand, and the Royal Guards who were about to rush in backed away.
"How could you tell?"
he asked.
Then, he sniffed the floral fragrance clinging to his clothes and chuckled, sitting down beside Su Chen on his own accord.
"Do you know what that man, Zhang Gui, is up to now?"
"With those two items, the perfume and soap, he won the favor of the Noble Consort. He killed a virtuous minister and his entire family as a pledge of loyalty, received a token from the Criminal Department, and now operates outside the palace. In just a few short months, he's made a name for himself as the 'Life-Reaping Eunuch,' known for raiding homes and wiping out entire families."
"I've heard about you. Like me, you have no talent for cultivation. Zhang Gui will just use someone like you and toss you aside. Why not come over to my side? I can introduce you to my Imperial Brother…"
Before the Seventh Prince could finish speaking, Su Chen, as if he understood something, cut him off and turned to the Little Eunuch prostrated beside him.
"Did Zhang Gui set up a business? Is he raking in a fortune every day with the soap and perfume?"
The Little Eunuch looked completely bewildered.
'That makes sense.'
'A low-level eunuch like him would never hear news from outside the palace.'
The Seventh Prince, on the other hand, frowned. It was clear that what Su Chen had said was true.
Otherwise, a man of his dignified princely status would never have come in person.
'But are the formulas for soap and perfume really that hard to reverse-engineer?'
Su Chen thought for a moment, and then it dawned on him.
'These ancient people only know how to cultivate; how could they possibly understand the power of a technology tree? Zhang Gui must be keeping the formula under tight wraps, which is why they've come to me to get it.'
"You want the secret formula?"
"Yes."
The Seventh Prince nodded.
"Is this stuff that profitable in the outside world?"
The Seventh Prince fell silent.
'It was far more than just profitable.'
'It was practically a gold mine.'
From princes and generals down to landlords and country gentry, every noble young master and lady was utterly obsessed with the products. It had even reached the point of tipping the balance of power in the struggle between the two competing princes.
All this time, thanks to his wealth and the backing of Great Liang's richest merchant, his Imperial Brother had been able to keep Noble Consort Zhang's faction firmly suppressed. But now, the situation was showing signs of a reversal.
Soon, the title of Great Liang's wealthiest merchant might even change hands.
"It seems you truly know nothing."
"Do you think a Treasure Pill that can help a Peak Fourth Grade cultivator break through to the Third Grade is so easy to come by?"
"If he didn't have money, how else could Zhang Gui have obtained an opportunity to reach the Third Grade?"
"Name your price."
"I want the formula!"
Su Chen didn't say anything. He truly didn't need money. If he were to sell the Thousand-year-old Ginseng King he had hidden in the Library Pavilion, he could afford to buy half the Imperial City.
"Zhang Gui, you're not being very honorable," Su Chen said suddenly, looking off in a certain direction.
The next moment,
a sedan chair, carried by four Green-robed Eunuchs, appeared before Su Chen's eyes.
He was dressed in a red robe, with a handsome face, a tall build, and a pair of deep, cold eyes.
The bearing of today's Zhang Gui, in every gesture, was completely different from before.
"We're brothers, you and I. Why be so formal? What's mine is yours, isn't it?"
Zhang Gui stepped down from his sedan chair, speaking with a gentle smile. He showed not a hint of the dignified presence of the Vice Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace, nor the imposing might of a Third-Grade Bone Marrow Cleansing Powerhouse.
"Zhang Gui…"
The Seventh Prince frowned at Zhang Gui. He bit back the insult, "castrated dog," and scurried away dejectedly.
Soon,
only Su Chen, Zhang Gui, and his four trusted eunuch sedan bearers were left in the courtyard.
"Are you still adapting well?"
"If you want to leave the Library Pavilion, I can immediately have someone pave the way for you. I could start you off as a Blue-robed Steward in the Martial Arts Bureau…"
Zhang Gui sat down in front of Su Chen, just as he had in the past, holding two bottles of White Confucian Wine with a smile.
But now,
their statuses were worlds apart—one in the heavens, the other on the earth.
"The Library Pavilion is nice. I have no cultivation, so I can't be a Blue-robed Steward. You know me—I like quiet and don't like to be disturbed. The Seventh Prince's visit was already quite a bother."
As Su Chen spoke, the next moment, Zhang Gui grabbed his arm. A dense wave of True Qi circulated through Su Chen's body, yet it found nothing.
A First-Grade Horizontal Refining Technique.
Before the Eighteen Golden Body Technique was activated, Su Chen was no different from an ordinary person.
"You really have no cultivation?"
Zhang Gui frowned.
"Isn't it perfectly normal for me not to have any cultivation?"
Su Chen shrugged.
"But someone from outside the palace told me your identity isn't so simple. He said that one night, he sent a friend to find you, and that friend was never seen again…"
"You should know, he was a Third-Grade expert."
Evidently, the person from outside the palace Zhang Gui mentioned was the Black Lotus Saint, and the so-called "friend" was the previous Vice Chief Steward, the Black-robed Envoy, Eunuch Xu.
"Huh?"
"A Third-Grade expert?"
"If I ran into someone like that, would I still be alive?"
"You've got to be kidding me."
Su Chen said with a grin.
Beside Zhang Gui, his trusted eunuch bearers all glanced at Su Chen with contempt.
'Kill a Third-Grade expert?'
'As if this ant of a Little Eunuch was worthy!'
'They had all heard of Su Chen from the Library Pavilion. He was just a lucky brat who happened to save Lord Zhang Gui's life that one night. How dare he act so casually in front of Vice Chief Steward Zhang, with no sense of propriety or respect for his superiors? He deserved to be killed.'
'A guy who can't cultivate should have the self-awareness of being a worthless piece of trash.'
Su Chen naturally felt their disdainful glares but showed no reaction.
Zhang Gui, however, noticed their looks. He frowned, turned to one of them, and said,
"You have something to say?"
"Speak your mind."
The Green-robed Eunuch felt emboldened, instantly understanding. 'So Vice Chief Steward Zhang also detests this boy who's leveraging a past favor.' He immediately began to berate Su Chen.
"Lord Zhang Gui is the Vice Chief Steward! What is your status? A mere exile to the Library Pavilion—"
SPLAT!
The next instant,
the Green-robed Eunuch was sliced in two at the waist.
"I told you to speak your mind, and you really dared to do it,"
Zhang Gui said, his gaze chilling.
The other three Green-robed Eunuchs were scared out of their wits and immediately dropped to their knees.
"Scram!"
As if granted a great amnesty, the three Green-robed Eunuchs scrambled and crawled their way out of the Library Pavilion.
Once all outsiders were gone,
Zhang Gui finally reverted to his true self. With his hands clasped behind his back, he sized Su Chen up with his deep eyes. Su Chen simply smiled back at him. Unable to discern anything, Zhang Gui sighed.
"Do you want to get out of the palace for some fresh air?"
"As the new year approaches, some people are getting restless."
"When the storm hits, it will be immense, sweeping through the Imperial City. I'm afraid I won't be able to protect you here in the Imperial Palace when that happens!"
Su Chen raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
"Are you going to make your move?"
"Not going to wait until you become the Purple-robed First Supervisor?"
Su Chen looked at Zhang Gui.
That night, when he was dead drunk, Zhang Gui had spoken the treacherous words of a man who wanted to kill the Emperor. Near the Imperial Study, Su Chen hadn't saved a eunuch suffering an undeserved disaster, but an assassin—the eunuch Zhang Gui—who wanted to kill the Emperor...
Zhang Gui didn't belong to any Secret Sect; he was just truly audacious. He had castrated himself and come to the Imperial Palace with the sole intention of killing the Emperor.
"I knew it."
"I shouldn't have had those two cups of wine."
Zhang Gui gave Su Chen a long look, then sighed.
His next words were world-shattering.
"Why do you think the one who's still alive is actually the Old Emperor?"