Chapter 396

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

Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

The Emperor sat cross-legged on the couch, closing his eyes and focusing his mind, digesting the insights after his clash with Li Miao in the Jizhao Illusion during the day.

Before starting, the two estimated that after half a month of clashing, the Emperor's Wu Gong 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, those Li Miaos in the Emperor's original mind illusion were ethereal, like bubbles, perhaps not even as useful as the skeletons in the Emperor's original mind illusion during the battle at the Imperial Mausoleum.

But as the time the two clashed 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 smashed by Li Miao, after a day of clashing, he was already able to delay Li Miao's offensive a little.

If it developed according to this trend, 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 Wu Gong might be able to recover to over ninety percent.

So when Li Miao was out, the Emperor was also racing against time to constantly calculate and simulate Li Miao's moves and Wu Gong 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 on a chair drinking tea, looking as if he were at ease, but his fingers constantly twisting his beard revealed that his heart was not calm.

The hall was quiet.

Suddenly, a sound of 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 looked at the outside of the hall with concentration.

The two were here waiting for Li Miao.

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

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

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

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

This person was actually a young eunuch. Thin, with a hunched back, and patches on his clothes, he was clearly of low status in the palace, just responsible for cleaning and washing.

And most importantly, this person had no Wu Gong.

Muscles loose, footsteps floating, breathing rapid, forehead covered in cold sweat, 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 Wu Gong was poor and he had misread, looking at the Emperor for confirmation, but the Emperor nodded at him.

That's right, this person really had no Wu Gong.

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

If something is abnormal, there must be a demon; Zhu Zai and the Emperor both waited with concentration, waiting for the eunuch to approach.

The eunuch ran into the hall, his gaze sweeping 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, evoked a piece from his remaining memories.

"Liu Jin?"

He asked.

"Your Majesty."

The eunuch pressed his forehead to the ground and replied softly.

"Are you okay?"

The Emperor hesitated and said.

"What do you want to do?"

"Just wanted to see 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. Only, the one Liu Jin was loyal to was not the current Emperor.

The Emperor's heart had already surged with killing intent, and after looking at Zhu Zai, he raised his hand and lifted the eunuch through the air, sharp true energy pressing against his heart meridians, pouring into his body, checking while holding his life in his hand.

But upon checking, the Emperor suddenly frowned.

"You..."

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

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

"Your eyes are like torches."

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

The Emperor suddenly let go, and the 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 to the ground, 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 eunuch who had fallen to the ground turned his gaze, nailed it onto him, and said coldly.

"Li Miao."

"Dead people shouldn't talk."

Li Miao said, actually raising his hand and throwing a punch.

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

Zhu Zai frowned.

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

"How is Yan Song, did something happen?"

Li Miao didn't care, flicked the blood off his fist, walked to the table, sat down, and drank a cup of tea before saying.

"Zheng Anqi Sheng is there, I didn't kill Yan Song."

"Zheng Anqi Sheng is indeed much stronger than Zheng Anqi. If I don't risk my life, I can't break his protective true energy, and his other means haven't been revealed yet... worthy of being the Master of Yingzhou, fighting alone, neither I nor the Emperor are his match."

"However, his state seems not quite right, 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 blurred 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.

"Your Majesty is right, he is indeed very loyal to you."

"He didn't have the aptitude to cultivate Xuanlan, and with his Wu Gong, it's hard to play any role... so he took a different path, letting Zheng Anqi Sheng cut his 'nature' into pieces and randomly plant them in many people."

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

(End of chapter)