For some unknown reason, the Seventh Prince didn't come the next day.
Inside the Library Pavilion, Su Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
He didn't like trouble.
And he didn't like people coming to the Library Pavilion to disturb his life.
It was for the best that the Seventh Prince wasn't coming.
'After all, I'm a Eunuch. If a Prince were to arrive, should I kneel and pay respects, or not?'
"Master Su."
"The bluestone bricks in the Library Pavilion are all cracked."
"It's so cold that even the stone bricks have frozen and cracked. The craftsmen who maintain the Library Pavilion must have cut corners. If you catch a cold because of this, Master Su, just watch—Godfather will have all their heads chopped off."
Xu Xiaohan bossily ordered two Black-robed Eunuchs around. They carried several bluestone bricks to replace the ones that the Peak Third-Grade Black-robed Envoy had shattered the night before.
'They would probably never imagine that the corpse of a Peak Third-Grade expert had lain here just last night.'
In a flash, the first floor of the Library Pavilion was pristine again, with no trace of a fight remaining.
Outside the Library Pavilion, the snow fell heavier and heavier.
Winter was growing colder.
A few more days passed, and the Library Pavilion returned to its usual tranquility. It was too remote, and with the paths now blocked by accumulated snow, no one would make a special trip out here.
Except for Xu Xiaohan.
As the weather turned cold, Su Chen stopped even bothering to sweep.
He spent his days wrapped in a blanket on his recliner, hugging a stove and dozing off.
Today.
The twenty-seventh of December.
For the first time in a while, it wasn't snowing.
The sky had cleared up.
Su Chen was lazily sunbathing in his recliner, waiting for Han to bring him his meal. This landlord-like lifestyle was truly comfortable.
Aside from not being able to bully people, it was practically the divine life he had dreamed of in his previous existence.
"Phew!"
Su Chen exhaled a breath of turbid air and opened his eyes.
Inside his body, the slowly growing Longevity True Qi had finally reached its limit and was no longer increasing.
There weren't the one hundred strands of Longevity True Qi he had expected.
Inside his body,
there were only sixty-eight strands of Longevity True Qi.
'What's going on?'
'I clearly had seventy strands of Longevity True Qi at my peak before.'
'Why have I regressed again...?'
Su Chen was puzzled.
Just as Su Chen was preoccupied with his thoughts,
Han returned, carrying a food box.
It was already past mealtime, a first in a long while. But Han's expression was clearly one of extreme excitement. He started shouting before he had even stepped over the threshold of the Library Pavilion.
"Master Su, he did it!"
"Godfather did it!"
"He's become the Vice Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace!"
Han was ecstatic.
'Even knowing that the Lady Noble Consort was strongly backing Zhang Gui, it still felt incredible that Zhang Gui had actually become a Vice Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace.'
'Zhang Gui's cultivation was a definite weakness.'
'Even if his talent was excellent, nearing that of a Martial Arts Prodigy, his hastily achieved Double Peak Fourth Grade cultivation—even if it gave him combat power approaching the Third Grade—was still only the Fourth Grade Realm. A Vice Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace had to be at least Third Grade.'
'What's more, he had to compete with several veteran eunuchs of Third-Grade Cultivation for this one Vice Chief Steward position...'
"Did he become Chief Steward Luo's deputy?"
Su Chen asked.
Han shook his head, saying excitedly,
"The Fifth Prince personally bestowed a Secret Medicine to help Godfather break through to the Third Grade Marrow Cleansing Realm! He wasn't competing for that powerless, titular deputy position under Chief Steward Luo, but for the Vice Chief Steward position that directly oversees the Martial Arts Bureau."
Han was exceptionally thrilled.
A position in the Martial Arts Bureau, whether Vice Chief Steward or Steward, was considered a cut above others of the same rank. This was truly a joyous occasion.
This made Su Chen even more confused.
The Martial Arts Bureau's one chief and one deputy positions were all filled. Where did a vacancy come from?
In the past three years in the Imperial Palace,
it was only recently that a vacancy for a Vice Chief Steward had opened up after one Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace was imprisoned and died, and a Vice Chief Steward was promoted to Second Grade to automatically fill the spot...
Wait a minute.
Su Chen's eyes widened. He subconsciously glanced at the medicinal field where the Black-robed Envoy's body was buried and felt the corroded, rough Black Iron Token at his waist.
'Could it be?'
'This token is actually a Vice Director of the Imperial Palace Order?!'
Holy shit!
'A Eunuch Vice Chief Steward at the Horizontal Refining Third Grade Level?'
Sure enough,
Han began his excited explanation.
"That Vice Chief Steward of the Martial Arts Bureau under the Second Prince, Eunuch Xu, left the palace on orders twenty nights ago. But after he returned, he didn't go back to the Martial Arts Bureau where he was on duty. He just vanished into thin air."
"They searched the entire Imperial Palace but found no trace of him. A position like that can't be left vacant for more than seven days, so more than ten days ago, the Second Prince and the Fifth Prince started fighting over it, both openly and behind the scenes."
"And now, Godfather has succeeded."
'Twenty days ago... wasn't that the night the Black-robed Envoy activated me, his sleeper agent?'
'The timing matched up.'
Su Chen asked a couple more questions.
Sure enough,
this missing Eunuch Xu was a Peak Third-Grade Marrow Cleansing Expert, famous even among Third Grade cultivators for his Horizontal Refining Golden Body.
When Xu Xiaohan wasn't looking, Su Chen secretly took out the token and rubbed it. Just as he suspected, he could faintly tell it was made of Cold Moon Iron, a material used exclusively for the waist tokens of Third-grade Cultivators in the Imperial Palace.
Furthermore, he could faintly make out the word "Xu"...
Case closed.
'The Black-robed Envoy was really part of the eunuch hierarchy, at the Vice Chief Steward level.'
Even if it was unintentional,
Su Chen had still been drawn into the struggle and had helped strengthen the Fifth Prince's faction.
After all,
with the recent death of a Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace, the other Chief Stewards were terrified and didn't dare make contact with any of the princes. The Vice Chief Steward was the highest-ranking eunuch a prince could win over.
However, none of this had anything to do with Su Chen.
He didn't want to get involved any further.
He just wanted to live his quiet little life peacefully in the Library Pavilion.
Soon,
the food box was unpacked. This time, there was no White Confucian Wine, but there was roasted chicken. The dishes were clearly made by a chef from outside the palace. At the very bottom of the box were the low-year medicinal herbs that Su Chen had told Han to get.
"Master Su, I don't know what misunderstanding you and Godfather have, but he hasn't come to the Library Pavilion these past few days."
"But during this time, Godfather has been thinking of you, Master Su."
"Last night, he passed by the Library Pavilion and paused at the gate for a long time. He didn't come in because he was afraid of disturbing your rest. Then, the very next day, he had me leave the palace to get you this whole table of your favorite foods."
"Godfather also said that today is your birthday, so you should eat something good."
The meal was lavish, with roasted chicken, goose, and braised pork belly. Some of the dishes weren't prepared in the style of this world; they were favorites of Su Chen's from his past life that he had mentioned once. He hadn't expected Zhang Gui to remember.
As for the birthday, it was probably the original owner's. Su Chen didn't actually remember when it was and was surprised to learn it was today.
Su Chen took a bite. It wasn't poisoned.
He began to eat heartily.
Even if it were poisoned, he wouldn't be afraid. A while ago, he had accidentally gotten some ground medicinal poison powder on his hand. Just as he was frantically searching for an antidote, he discovered that a single circulation of Longevity True Qi through his body...
...had completely dispersed the toxin's effects.
He wasn't just a longevity monster; he was a longevity monster immune to all poisons.
This reassured Su Chen quite a bit.
After all,
before his Horizontal External Cultivation was fully developed, he would inevitably have to deal with poisons. If he accidentally poisoned himself to death, it would be the biggest joke of all.