Chapter 345

The twenty-fourth year of Jiajing, October 15th, early morning.

Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

The Emperor sat cross-legged on the couch, eyes closed, focusing his mind, digesting the insights gained after his clash with Li Miao in the illusion of stillness and illumination.

Before starting, the two estimated that after half a month of clashes, the Emperor's martial arts could recover to over eighty percent. But after trying today, the two were surprised to find that the progress might be much better than previously estimated.

At the beginning of the clash with Li Miao, the few Li Miaos in the Emperor's original heart illusion were flimsy, like bubbles, perhaps not even as useful as the skeletons in the Emperor's original heart illusion during the battle at the Imperial Mausoleum.

But as the time they spent clashing in the illusion grew longer, the Emperor found that the Li Miao in his illusion seemed to gradually become "real."

From the beginning, when he would be directly blasted apart by Li Miao, after a day of clashing, he could already slightly delay Li Miao's offensive.

If it continued to develop at this rate, after half a month, perhaps the three Li Miaos in the Emperor's illusion could all have a bit of Li Miao's charm... then the Emperor's martial arts might recover to over ninety percent.

So while Li Miao was out, the Emperor was also racing against time to constantly calculate and simulate Li Miao's moves and martial arts in his heart, in order to speed up the formation of the Li Miao in the illusion.

And opposite the Emperor, Zhu Zai was sitting in a chair drinking tea, looking as if he were composed, but his fingers constantly twisting his beard exposed that his heart was not calm.

The hall was quiet.

Suddenly, footsteps came from outside.

The Emperor suddenly opened his eyes, flashed into the hall, and blocked Zhu Zai behind him. Zhu Zai also clenched his fists, and the two focused their eyes outside the hall.

The two were here waiting for Li Miao.

But the footsteps of the person walking over were small and light, definitely not Li Miao's footsteps.

Zhu Zai frowned, thinking to himself: "Could it really be a 'lure the tiger away from the mountain' tactic?"

A moment later, a thin figure stepped into the hall.

When they saw the person clearly, the Emperor and Zhu Zai were both stunned.

This person was actually a young eunuch. Thin, hunched back, patches on his sleeves, clearly not high-ranking in the palace, just responsible for sweeping, cleaning, and such chores.

And most importantly, this person had no martial arts.

Loose muscles, floating footsteps, rapid breathing, cold sweat on his forehead, as if he had run for a while and hadn't caught his breath yet. The sweat was blown by the wind, forming fine salt grains on his forehead.

Zhu Zai thought his martial arts were poor and he had misjudged, looking at the Emperor for confirmation, but the Emperor nodded at him.

That's right, this person really had no martial arts.

This person appearing here at this time must have something fishy. But to go to such great lengths, using Yan Song as bait to lure Li Miao away, just to have such a small eunuch with no martial arts come over?

There must be a demon if things are abnormal; Zhu Zai and the Emperor both focused and waited for the little eunuch to approach.

The little eunuch ran into the hall, his gaze swept over the two, and finally nailed onto the Emperor.

And then, he suddenly knelt on the ground.

"Your Majesty."

The Emperor was stunned for a moment.

The voice, he had never heard it. But this tone, without any ups and downs, without any emotion, stirred up a piece of memory from his remaining few memories.

"Liu Jin?"

He asked.

"Your Majesty."

The little eunuch pressed his forehead to the ground and answered softly.

"Are you okay?"

The Emperor said hesitantly.

"What do you want to do?"

"Just wanted to take a look at you."

A tone without emotion, without ups and downs, a flat narrative, making it hard to believe the sincerity of the speaker.

But just as the Emperor said to Li Miao during the day, in his remaining memories, Liu Jin was indeed extremely loyal to him. This was one of the few things he could confirm after being planted with the Gu worm. It's just that the person Liu Jin was loyal to was not the current Emperor.

Killing intent had already surged in the Emperor's heart. After looking at Zhu Zai, he raised his hand and lifted the little eunuch up through the air, sharp internal energy pressed against his heart meridian and poured into his body, checking while holding his life in his hand.

But upon checking, the Emperor suddenly frowned.

"You..."

The little eunuch was fixed in mid-air, his hands and feet torn straight by internal energy, as if they would break at any moment. And the internal energy in his body was ruthlessly destroying his meridians.

In this bone-chilling pain, the little eunuch said expressionlessly.

"Your eyes are like torches."

"That's right, I'm already dead."

The Emperor suddenly let go, and the little eunuch fell to the ground with a thud.

Zhu Zai on the side asked suspiciously.

"Your Majesty, what does that mean?"

"Liu Jin, is already dead?"

The Emperor was silent and did not speak.

Just at this moment, there was a loud bang outside the hall, as if some heavy object had fallen, shaking the ground. Immediately, Li Miao's voice came in.

"Commander, literally, this person Liu Jin no longer exists in this world."

The voice came from far to near, and when the tail sound landed, Li Miao also stepped into the hall.

His clothes were neat, without any damage, and there were no bloodstains on his body, as if he had just gone out for a stroll.

Hearing his voice, the little eunuch who fell on the ground turned his gaze and nailed it onto him, saying coldly.

"Li Miao."

"Dead people don't talk."

Li Miao said, and actually raised his hand and punched out.

Without any struggle or process, the little eunuch immediately became a pool of liquid spilled on the ground.

Zhu Zai frowned.

"Big Li, why did you kill him just like that... Also, what do you mean by saying he is a dead person?"

"How is Yan Song, did something happen?"

Li Miao didn't care, shook off the blood on his fist, walked to the table, sat down, and took a sip of tea before saying.

"An Qisheng is there, Yan Song wasn't killed."

"An Qisheng is indeed much stronger than Zheng Anqi. If I didn't fight for my life, I couldn't break his protective internal energy, and his other means haven't been revealed yet... He is worthy of being the Master of Yingzhou. Fighting alone, neither I nor the Emperor is his opponent."

"But he seems to be in a strange state, he didn't fight me. I was also afraid they would take the opportunity to exert force here, so I came back."

"As for Liu Jin..."

Li Miao glanced at the pool of blurry blood in the hall.

"Let's put it this way, what you see now is just a piece of corpse that retains a trace of Liu Jin's consciousness."

Li Miao looked at the Emperor.

"The Emperor is right, he is indeed very loyal to you."

"He doesn't have the aptitude to master Profound Observation, and with his martial arts, it's hard to play any role... So he took a different path, letting An Qisheng cut his 'nature' into pieces and randomly plant them on many people."

"As for himself, he is probably already a corpse without consciousness."