Chapter 2333: Under the Heavenly God's Eyelid, They Pulled a Trick

The guards sent her body back to Aunt Zeng's room, performed their respects, and left.

As for Xiao Yu and the other two maidservants, she instructed her subordinates to deal with them, and on the way went to the storeroom to retrieve some sealing beads and preservative medicines.

Xiao Yu had always opposed her in life and even made her wear tight shoes a few times, but Mei Wuniang followed Jiuyou's instructions, striving to maintain her persona of "beautiful but not too bright," and did not stoop to her level; otherwise, given her original temperament, she would have at least ruined Xiao Yu's face.

Now, this woman died silently in the secret chamber.

Whether alive or dead, she was utterly worthless, merely a tool, merely consumable.

This is the true portrait of the vast majority of maidservants in the Heavenly Palace. Mei Wuniang originally thought that Aunt Zeng, as the mastermind and the most trusted elder beside the master, could rely on deep master-servant bonds to escape this label, but who knew that at the very end she still could not avoid it.

After locking the door, Mei Wuniang leaned against it, slowly sliding down to sit on the floor, cold sweat beading out from her back one drop at a time.

How fortunate—if Aunt Zeng had pointed her instead of Xiao Yu to go upstairs earlier, then now it would be her who needed to have her corpse collected!

It turned out she had already walked once before the gates of hell.

Now she finally understood why Jiuyou the Great Emperor repeatedly warned her to be careful and cautious in the Heavenly Palace, not to unleash even a bit of her calamitous nature, not to unleash even a bit of her talent for maneuvering.

In this place, her beauty could only serve a limited purpose.

In this place, her cleverness and intelligence instead easily invited deadly disaster.

Isn't Aunt Zeng the best example? The most trusted servant of the old master Yun, yet she was not a delicate heart and liver? But what of it?

A servant is a servant, unable to overturn her fate or become a master.

Jiuyou the Great Emperor sees all minutely; from the moment she entered Aunt Zeng's vicinity, he rather wanted her to skillfully use her persona and keep distance from Aunt Zeng. He did not want her to actively use her beauty and cleverness to climb to the top layer, because he saw too clearly that in the Heavenly Palace there is no so-called top layer—everyone is a slave of the heavenly god.

The closer one gets to the master Yun and the heavenly god, the more secrets one knows, and the closer one is to death!

Aunt Zeng had been by the old master's side for over thirty years, having heard countless secrets. How could the Heavenly Palace allow her to leave alive?

Her fate was nearly sealed; once Mei Wuniang became her confidante, she would be more easily implicated—just like Xiao Yu.

Now, she had more important things to do. Mei Wuniang drew a deep breath, bowed respectfully before Aunt Zeng's corpse, and then sobbed mournfully a few times:

"Aunt Zeng, rest assured, your kindness to me is heavier than mountains; I will personally send you back to your hometown! Now, now first I must preserve your appearance for you, otherwise the journey is long and you cannot return to your homeland in your finest guise."

Though she was weeping, these words, each word like a cuckoo crying blood, were full of genuine feeling.

Most importantly, she could speak them slowly and clearly.

Aunt Zeng was already dead; she had just checked, and even the soul was not in the body. So these words were spoken specifically for the "omniscient existence" to hear.

The Plucking Stars Pavilion is the heavenly god's earthly abode; once the heavenly god's divine sense sweeps over here, all filth and suspicion cannot escape—at least that is how the Heavenly Palace itself promotes it.

Mei Wuniang also knew of a maidservant who was bold to the point of recklessness/ignorant and fearless, often stealing other maidservants' belongings; the palace investigated several times but found nothing on her, so she thought her actions were unknown to anyone. Later, she secretly sold Heavenly Palace intelligence to officials of Wang Ting.

This time she was exposed; the Heavenly Palace sent people to capture her on the spot and hang her publicly.

It shows that "the god's gaze" is not baseless, only that some minor matters the heavenly god simply does not bother with, seeing them but pretending not to.

When handling Aunt Zeng's corpse, even though this was Mei Wuniang's private secret chamber, her every step still had to be extremely careful to avoid arousing the heavenly god's suspicion.

Since the new master Yun assigned her to send Aunt Zeng back to her hometown, then Tong Yiyi personally arranging Aunt Zeng's appearance and preservation is necessary work, and the heavenly god has no need to interfere.

After death, the body begins to decay and needs timely handling.

In the past, the Heavenly Palace had a high-ranking elder pass away, and there was a fixed set of procedures for handling the aftermath; as a senior maidservant, Tong Yiyi had handled it no fewer than three or four times, so she was quite practiced.

She first pasted cold-ice talismans on the four corners of the room, and the temperature quickly dropped to freezing.

Lowering the temperature preserves freshness.

Then she took out several sealing beads and sealed the deceased's mouth, nose, ears, and all other orifices one by one.

Aunt Zeng had also been a cultivator in life, her physique surpassing ordinary people by much; as long as she was made into a leakless body, the speed of decay would be greatly reduced.

Then Mei Wuniang repeatedly applied the special medicinal liquid to the deceased's body, then dressed her neatly and groomed her appearance.

After completing this step, the disposition work was temporarily concluded. Mei Wuniang stood up, bowed before the corpse, and quickly left this cold chamber.

Though the steps for handling the corpse seemed proper, in fact she had tampered with them, so at this moment she was also anxious and uneasy.

But after waiting for over an hour, still no one came to trouble her.

Mei Wuniang's heart then slightly relaxed.

Although the Plucking Stars Pavilion is an area often swept by the heavenly god's divine sense, handling an old woman's corpse is something the heavenly god probably does not want to look at much, let alone scrutinize closely?

So here there is space for her to operate.

……

The demon emperor and his ministers were holding court when, suddenly, a long bell toll came from the east.

"Dong——"

One after another, piercing the dusk, echoing through most of Lingxu City.

A total of thirty-six tolls.

Upon hearing the third toll, Nie Xiaolou was moved: "The master lord has finally departed."

The foremost person below the heavenly god, the master Yun who had held power in the Heavenly Palace for nearly a hundred years, finally passed away.

"The old fogey refused to relinquish power even in death; the Heavenly Palace has waited for this day—how long have we waited?" The demon emperor's massive jiao body slid down from the pillar, "I'll go first. You and the officials follow later up the mountain."

Nie Xiaolou bowed in assent.

Outside the hall, white clouds drifted year-round; the demon emperor's slender body glided past the white jade balustrade and vanished into the mist.

Nie Xiaolou then saw auspicious clouds swirling toward Mount Xushan, the jiao's azure form appearing and disappearing in the mist, truly wondrous.

This is truly called riding clouds and driving mist.

In the blink of an eye, the great hall was left with only him.

Nie Xiaolou exhaled a puff of white vapor, turned, and strode out boldly. This place has rules; he cannot casually leap over the balustrade like the demon emperor.

These matters made his steps feel a little heavy.

The old master had long been at odds with the demon emperor, but his passing was truly not a good thing.

He was old, his wrists smooth and unaggressive, always maintaining the balance of struggle.

With his departure, the next master of the Heavenly Palace would soon be selected. Those two candidates are still young, and their performance compared to the old master is far more radical.

No matter who assumes the position of chief envoy, the relationship between the Heavenly Palace and the Demon Emperor will face a great test.