Time flew by, and the years passed in the blink of an eye.
On the seventh day of the third month in the Twenty-fourth Year of Tianwu, spring had arrived and the flowers were in bloom. In the Library Pavilion, a hundred flowers blossomed, their exotic fragrances filling the courtyard. Su Chen stood quietly, a scroll in hand, dressed in a black robe.
'This must be my first spring since I transmigrated.'
Su Chen felt a sense of disorientation.
In the Twenty-third year of Tianwu, the Old Emperor was assassinated. At the very end of the seventh month, he had transmigrated over and experienced that turmoil in the Imperial Palace.
Now, almost a year had passed.
The Seed of Longevity within him remained a nascent root, swaying slightly on its own without any wind. It hadn't changed in the slightest. Su Chen was stuck at the Perfection stage of the Fifth Grade Inner Qi Realm.
Clearly, not enough time had passed for the Seed of Longevity to continue its growth.
Fortunately, time was the one thing he had in abundance.
"Is Master Su here?"
Outside the Library Pavilion, a little green-robed eunuch was looking at Su Chen with reverence.
With Zhang Gui's rise to power, all his followers had benefited.
Although Xu Xiaohan was cautious and meticulous when serving Su Chen, and couldn't exactly Call the Wind and Summon the Rain in the rear palaces, he had still become a figure of some renown.
His talent wasn't weak, either. He had consumed a great deal of the Secret Medicine gifted by Zhang Gui and had forced his way to the Fourth Grade Realm last month, truly securing his position as a Blue-robed Steward.
The little eunuch outside the courtyard was Xu Xiaohan's adopted godson.
"The Martial Pavilion Pass Token has been retrieved."
"Master Su, when might you be free?"
The Green-robed Eunuch asked.
In the Palace, the color of one's robe represented status. For a green robe to show such reverence to a black-robed eunuch, Su Chen was the sole exception.
The Martial Pavilion was a truly vital area of the Inner Palace.
The Library Pavilion only contained ordinary books.
The Martial Pavilion, on the other hand, housed Cultivation Techniques and even Arcane Techniques. It was of the utmost importance and had always been personally guarded by the Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace and the Second Red Robe Chief Steward.
Even though Zhang Gui had Third-Grade Cultivation and held the authority of the acting Chief Steward of the Martial Arts Bureau, he had to concede many benefits and spend a great deal of time to acquire this Martial Pavilion Pass Token for Su Chen.
"I'm just an idle person in this Palace. Let's go now."
The Imperial Palace had countless halls and pavilions, as well as rockeries and stone forests—a beautiful and overwhelming sight.
They proceeded on their way.
As they passed a certain palace, Su Chen paused slightly. The place was eerily silent, yet the sound of a shrewish woman's savage cursing could be heard.
Qingfeng Palace.
The Cold Palace for the concubines.
"My son will be the Emperor soon! When that time comes, I'll have all of you killed!"
"Killed!"
"I'll kill all of you!"
A beautiful woman, dressed in coarse cloth that was worse than what a Palace Maid wore, was disheveled and filthy. With a crazed look on her face, she was being held down on the ground by several Green-robed Eunuchs, who were continuously lashing her with a thick, coarse towel soaked in saltwater.
The beautiful woman was in her thirties. Even disheveled and raving, her peerless beauty was undeniable. Su Chen, of course, recognized her.
'To think that Noble Consort Zhang, once the most stunning beauty of the rear palaces and hailed as the top Noble Consort, has fallen to such a miserable state.'
At the peak of her power, a single word from Noble Consort Zhang could shake the entire imperial court.
Unfortunately, with the deaths of the Old Emperor and the Fifth Prince, and the Purple-robed First Supervisor's purge of the court, the current Noble Consort Zhang had long since become a madwoman in the Palace whom anyone could bully.
Su Chen left.
The world was a kaleidoscope of changes. One moment you see a tower reaching for the heavens; the next, it has crumbled to dust, leaving only broken walls.
The Martial Pavilion was immense, standing nine stories tall. Each story was ten zhang high, just like Su Chen's Library Pavilion, making the entire structure nearly a hundred zhang—over three hundred meters—tall. The Martial Pavilion was like a sharp sword piercing the clouds, holding within it the three-hundred-year cultivation heritage of Great Liang.
"So you're Zhang Gui's sworn brother?"
The Vice Chief Steward of the Martial Pavilion, a eunuch nearing fifty with salt-and-pepper hair, looked at Su Chen with great interest. He sized him up, then shook his head and lamented.
"No blood or qi. It seems you really are a mortal. I truly don't know why Zhang Gui would pay such a high price to obtain this Token for you..."
"You're seventeen and still haven't stepped through the Cultivation Gate. This is all you'll ever amount to in this life."
"You may read all the books on the first three floors. The floors above that contain cultivation texts related to the Third, Second, and First Grades, and even the legendary Grandmasters. You are not to set foot there..."
After speaking, the Vice Chief Steward of the Martial Pavilion waved his hand, dismissing him.
Su Chen stepped into the Martial Pavilion alone.
'Strange.'
'My blood and qi are surging, seven times that of a Martial Arts Prodigy at the Perfect Fifth Grade Realm. I can understand him not being able to see my Longevity True Qi, but why can't he even detect my Perfect Fifth Grade Blood and Flesh Realm?'
Su Chen wasn't intentionally hiding it.
This wasn't the first time this had happened.
If he didn't make a move, everyone else assumed he was a mortal with no cultivation whatsoever. It was as if a layer of concealment covered his body, hiding everything about him.
'Still, this is for the best.'
Stepping into the Martial Pavilion, he saw countless books suspended in stone coffers in mid-air, glittering like stars in the night sky.
"What technique do you seek?"
The Martial Pavilion Chief Eunuch, dressed in a red robe with graying hair, sat cross-legged in the center like a piece of rotting wood. His eyes were firmly shut, as if he couldn't open them.
Su Chen didn't dare to underestimate this man.
The First Red Robe Chief Steward of the Inner Palace.
A Peak Second Grade, or perhaps even a former First Grade.
In the eunuch hierarchy, he was the number one person beneath the Purple-robed First Supervisor. Even the Purple-robed First Supervisor, who was like a Supreme Emperor, had to show this old eunuch some respect.
But Su Chen knew very well.
This old eunuch was on the verge of death.
Unlike the Purple-robed First Supervisor, who had merely feigned frailty on that one night, this First Red Robe Chief Steward had very little lifespan left. In Su Chen's eyes, the man's Vitality was like a candle in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.
"I'm not seeking a technique, just browsing."
"I've finished reading the books in the Library Pavilion, so I came to take a look at the cultivation texts in the Martial Pavilion."
With that said, Su Chen began to browse the books on his own.
The First Red Robe Chief Steward didn't speak again, appearing as if he had fallen asleep.
For the next half a month, whenever Su Chen had free time, he would hang the Martial Pavilion Pass Token from his waist and come to the Martial Pavilion to read. He wasn't particularly interested in the cultivation techniques or killing arts.
After all, no matter how powerful the cultivation techniques on the first three floors were, they couldn't possibly compare to a Peak First Grade technique, or even a Grandmaster Technique like the *Eighteen Golden Body Technique*.
And no matter how powerful the killing arts, how could they possibly withstand a punch backed by blood and qi ten times that of a Martial Arts Prodigy at the Perfect Realm? In the face of Absolute Power, they were useless.
"Interesting."
"Do such Demon Fiends really exist in this world?"
"A Demon Fiend repaying a debt of gratitude... interesting, very interesting."
In the Martial Pavilion, having reached an amusing part of a story, Su Chen couldn't help but laugh out loud.
In this world, at least within the borders of Great Liang, there was no shortage of Demon Fiends. They lurked between cities, and only Cultivators could travel safely. Any mortal who encountered one would die.
Whether one followed the Path of Qi or the Path of the Body, without Secret Techniques or Treasure Medicine, even someone as strong as a Peak First Grade cultivator—hailed as a Junior Grandmaster—would still only have a lifespan of a hundred years, or perhaps even less.
The Demon Fiends had even shorter lifespans. To live longer, they had no choice but to eat more humans, devour Cultivators, and swallow the Human Spirit Energy that only humans possessed, all to slowly extend their short lives by a small amount.
Those Demon Fiends that lived for over a hundred years were, without exception, powerful Second or even First Grade Great Demons, and had devoured at least ten thousand people.
"You came to the Martial Pavilion just to read idle books?"
"Do you have any idea how precious this Martial Pavilion Pass Token is?"
The Vice Chief Steward of the Martial Pavilion looked at Su Chen in disbelief, his face twitching.
Moreover, what astonished him even more was that even someone with poor cultivation talent should have had some sort of epiphany after reading so many cultivation texts. They should have started to absorb the qi of heaven and earth, or produced their own Qi to start on the Path of Qi, or triggered the boiling of their own blood to start on the Path of the Body.
But this Su Chen... after half a month, there was no reaction at all. It was as if…
"...it's as if he has no cultivation talent whatsoever. What a waste of a token."
Su Chen said with a smile, handing the Martial Pavilion's Token back.
He had pretty much finished reading everything on the first three floors.
The Token was expiring, and he no longer needed it anyway.
"Just a useless mortal. He just got lucky and became Chief Steward Zhang's sworn brother. It's only because Chief Steward Zhang values his relationships. If it were me, I would have taught a waste like him a lesson and made him stay far away from me long ago."
The Vice Chief Steward of the Martial Pavilion spoke with contempt.
However, "Elder Chu..." He looked up and his expression immediately became deferential. He trotted over, wanting to attend to the First Red Robe Chief Steward.
But at this very moment, the eyes of this white-haired First Red Robe Chief Steward, who truly resembled a piece of withered, dying wood, were fixed on Su Chen. He uttered a series of shocking words.
"Qi like a dragon, blood like a tiger, body like a furnace... a dragon-tiger Blood Flame..."
"Isn't this the Fifth Grade Blood and Flesh Realm that only exists in legends?"
"No."
"Did I see it wrong?"
The First Red Robe Chief Steward rubbed his eyes, only to find that the vision he had just seen—of a blood-flame dragon and tiger soaring a thousand zhang into the sky—was just a hallucination from his drowsy state.
The Little Black-robed Eunuch before him had an ordinary aura and nothing special about him. He was just one of the countless mediocre mortals in Great Liang.
"He's just a mortal."
"Elder Chu."
"You must have been mistaken."
"He's just an ordinary eunuch who got lucky. Zhang Gui only keeps him around out of nostalgia for old times."
"If it weren't for Zhang Gui, I wouldn't even give a little eunuch like him a second glance."
The Vice Chief Steward said slowly.
On this day, after reading through all the books on the first three floors of the Great Liang Martial Pavilion, Su Chen had an epiphany. He finally crossed that threshold and reached Fifth Grade Perfection. His blood and qi surged like a dragon and a tiger, and the blood throughout his body boiled, burning like a fire.
Fifth Grade Perfection, ten times the blood and qi of a Martial Arts Prodigy!
The Blood Flame Realm, a state that, like a Grandmaster, existed only in ancient legends!