Chapter 2242: Frail and Weak

The Emperor was scared half to death by Eunuch Li and kept shouting loudly at the Imperial Guards, "Imperial Guards, protect me, protect me, there’s an assassin!"

A squad of Imperial Guards, weapons in hand, sprinted over and surrounded the Emperor tightly in the middle.

The leader of the Imperial Guards ran up in front of the Emperor and asked, "Your Majesty, where is the assassin?"

The Emperor, furious and flustered, pointed at Eunuch Li and said, "Are you all blind or what? He... he... he is the assassin."

Everyone turned their heads to look and saw Eunuch Li straddling Zhao Yin, raining his fists down on him like crazy.

Zhao Yin was lying on the ground, hands over his head, howling in pain.

He was feeling utterly miserable inside, having no idea what he’d done wrong, why he was suddenly getting this vicious beating from Eunuch Li for no reason at all.

Eunuch Li’s actions represented the Emperor’s will. Could it be that the Insect Person had gone missing and the Emperor was taking it out on him, deliberately having Eunuch Li teach him a lesson? Zhao Yin’s body hurt and his mind was in chaos; he didn’t hear the Emperor shouting for the Imperial Guards to seize Eunuch Li at all.

"Ah!"

Eunuch Li let out a strange sound. His eyes turned blood-red, and the normally frail and sickly him suddenly became monstrously strong.

After being struck once by an Imperial Guard, he immediately got off Zhao Yin, his pair of blood-red eyes glaring viciously at the attacker.

Eunuch Li looked somewhat terrifying. The Imperial Guard backed away several steps with a swish, then remembered that Eunuch Li didn’t know any martial arts and wasn’t supposed to be scary, so he raised his weapon and moved in again.

"Ah!"

Eunuch Li charged forward like a madman, hoisted that Imperial Guard up in one go, raised him over his head, and with all his strength slammed him hard toward the others.

"Ah...!"

The Imperial Guard let out a miserable scream. Luckily the others caught him, so it was only a scare and no real harm.

"What’s wrong with Eunuch Li?"

The others were all stunned. Eunuch Li had served as a eunuch in the Imperial Palace for decades; he’d always been weak and sickly, and now that he was old, he was even more fragile and feeble, basically had no strength at all. But now he had suddenly become incredibly strong—this was truly shocking.

"Yeah, what’s wrong with Eunuch Li?" Everyone stared at one another in bewilderment.

Only at this moment did the Emperor remember Long Rui’s words, so he hurriedly said to everyone, "Everyone be careful, Eunuch Li might have gone into a possessed state."

"Possessed? What possessed state?"

They’d been stationed in the Imperial Palace year in, year out; they had no idea what big events had happened outside.

Everyone looked completely dumbfounded. The Emperor was so anxious he didn’t know what to do: "Just listen to me and you won’t be wrong—don’t go near him, right, right, loose arrows, loose arrows and shoot him dead!"

As the saying goes, betray once and you’ll never be tolerated again. The Emperor didn’t care whether he was possessed or not—Eunuch Li had dared to hunt him down today, so even if he had served him all these years, he was doomed to die.

The Emperor had given the order—who would dare disobey?

The leader of the Imperial Guards immediately took out his bow, pulled an arrow from the quiver on his back, aimed at Eunuch Li, and loosed it with a vicious snap.

"Pfft!"

The arrow pierced straight through his heart, hitting Eunuch Li right in the chest. He suddenly came to his senses, lowered his head to watch the bright red blood slowly flowing out, then lifted his head in disbelief to look at the Emperor, trembling as he raised a hand to point at the Emperor...

"Your Majesty, you... you... why are you doing this to me?"

Before Eunuch Li could finish speaking, he collapsed to the ground with a thud and never moved again.

Eunuch Li was dead, and the Emperor let out a sigh of relief.

The Emperor: "Hurry up and carry him away. Just looking at him is bad luck."

An Imperial Guard stepped forward to turn Eunuch Li’s corpse over. As soon as he flipped him, Eunuch Li’s eyes were wide open, a look of dying with unresolved grievance frozen on his face.