"He's so strong!"
"Is this the Chief Eunuch's true power?"
'He's truly worthy of being the one I aspire to be. Right now, I, Zhu Xiao, am only third on the Yellow List, but one day I'll be just like my adoptive father—first on the Martial Arts List, at the pinnacle of the world, clashing with Grandmasters…'
"HAHAHA!"
'If we can't topple the Great Liang dynasty today, then we'll just wait! Once I reach Peak First Grade and Adoptive Father becomes a First Generation Grandmaster, we'll turn this whole country upside down!'
The Feminine Eunuch Zhu Xiao laughed with wild excitement, his robes whipping in the wind. His body moved like a flash of lightning as he chased after the departing Purple Robe.
Behind him.
Su Chen, who had been fleeing, came to a sudden halt. He stood in silence, not looking where the Purple Robe had vanished, but gazing at the distant Library Pavilion. A faint sigh escaped him.
'With your Innate Lifespan, you should have had another month to live...'
'Why did you have to do this?'
At that moment, powerhouses from all over had gathered inside and outside the Imperial City, awaiting the outcome of the battle. They had personally witnessed the unparalleled bearing of the Purple-robed First Supervisor, Zhang Gui, the greatest traitor in the world.
However.
Only Su Chen knew the truth.
'Zhang Gui has reached his limit.'
'That clash of palms with the Great Demon Fiend completely burned away the last of his life force!'
'He's going to die!'
Su Chen, who had been about to flee the Imperial Palace, stopped. He changed direction and headed for the quietest, most secluded corner of the palace—the Library Pavilion where he had lived for nine years.
Sure enough.
The Library Pavilion was empty.
Save for a single figure in a Purple Robe, who stood with his hands clasped behind his back. He was looking up at the moon, waiting for Su Chen beneath the courtyard's solitary Hibiscus Tree.
The peak of the world, Purple-robed Zhang Gui.
A terrifying powerhouse who was destined to reach the Grandmaster Realm.
However.
He no longer had a future.
"You've come."
Zhang Gui turned. He looked at Su Chen, who stood outside the Library Pavilion wearing a Ghost Face mask and a black robe, and smiled faintly. He looked just as he had when they first met, his eyes like deep pools, a slight smile on his lips. A bottle of White Confucian Wine hung from his waist.
The bottle of White Confucian Wine was covered in fresh blood.
Beneath his robes, Zhang Gui's body—perfected in the Path of the Body, a Leakless First Grade physique—was oozing blood. The skin beneath his clothes was like shattered porcelain, covered in a web of bloody fissures…
"I saved this bottle of wine especially for you."
"I was planning to drink it with you after sending the Emperor to his death and wiping out Great Liang's hidden masters. But I never expected… dozens of Grandmasters died in this battle, and—COUGH COUGH—even I'm about to die…"
In just that short time, Zhang Gui's purple robes had become soaked through. Sticky blood dripped down, forming a pool at his feet.
Even so,
Zhang Gui kept a smile on his lips as he looked at Su Chen, as if he weren't the one about to die.
"Here."
"This wine is still drinkable."
"Thankfully, before I die, I've managed to fulfill the promise I made to you. One less regret! 'If I become the Purple-robed First Supervisor, then I grant you the red robe of second-in-command…'"
Su Chen took the White Confucian Wine. For the first time, the bottle felt impossibly heavy in his hands, and Zhang Gui's palm was ice-cold.
In his vision,
Zhang Gui, who was already like a candle flickering in the wind, had only a spark of Spirituality remaining.
Not even he could save him now.
"I can't save you."
Su Chen's voice was hoarse.
Even Longevity True Qi, which could mature Thousand-Year Treasure Medicines and protect one's heart meridian to preserve Vitality, had its limits. This was a matter of Innate Lifespan.
"I know."
"I know you have ways to extend a person's life, to increase their Vitality."
"But this Heaven-Devouring Demon Technique of mine is too tyrannical. It doesn't burn simple lifespan; it burns Innate Lifespan. Otherwise, with my talent, no matter how brilliant, how could I have possibly reached Peak Dual First Grade by my thirties, let alone fight a Grandmaster…"
Beneath the Hibiscus Tree, Zhang Gui looked up at the Bright Moon. He reached out his right hand, his gaze distant, as if trying to grasp the moon itself, and spoke softly.
"I just wanted to see you one last time before I die. You, my only friend."
In the courtyard, Su Chen sat on a stone bench. He wiped the dust from a teacup, poured the blood-stained White Confucian Wine, and listened in silence as he drank.
"My real name isn't Zhang Gui. It's Zhu Gui. Zhu, as in the Zhu Country on the border!"
"For a Thousand-Year Treasure Medicine that appeared in Zhu Country, the Tianwu Emperor had the Border Army slaughter my entire nation. Of the whole Royal Race of Zhu, I was the only one to escape to Liang Country with my life…"
"For revenge, I took another's identity and became a Eunuch. I was meticulous, cautious, burning to avenge my people. But without the resources of Zhu Country, what did it matter if I was a Martial Arts Prodigy? I was no better than dirt…"
"I had already fallen into despair. But then I met you. I was given a chance, and I soared. Wealth, cultivation, power... I obtained it all."
"Do you know?"
"When I found out the Old Emperor was dead, I was ready to give up on revenge."
"But then I learned a secret…"
Su Chen knew what this secret was: the Old Emperor wasn't dead. Emperor Jianwu was the Tianwu Emperor. The Old Emperor had taken the identity of his fifth son, killed his seventh son for his heart, and ruled for nine years as the Lord of the Revival of Great Liang.
"Emperor Jianwu is actually the Tianwu Emperor, isn't he?"
Su Chen said.
"HAHAHA!"
Zhang Gui looked at Su Chen and laughed.
"No!"
"It's not him!"
"I never thought you'd investigate this—you, who cares nothing for power, beauty, or anything else. I was starting to think there was nothing in this world that could hold your interest."
"But it's really not him. There has never been any Emperor Jianwu, Tianwu Emperor, or even the previous generation's Emperor Wen of Liang, or the generation before that's Emperor Liang Yu. None of these people ever existed."
"There has only ever been the Grand Ancestor of Great Liang. He's also the Great Demon Fiend you saw in the Tianwu Tower. Of course, he was once human…"
"Great Liang has never had a succession of emperors! Why did the Deposed Emperor, the Seventh Prince, die? Why did that Purple-robed First Supervisor pay him no mind? Because he wasn't the Emperor meant to take the throne!"
"The Grand Ancestor of Liang obtained some kind of Evil Technique. He continuously murders his own children, devours their hearts, and steals their identities. That's how he became Emperor Liang Yu, then Emperor Wen of Liang, then the Tianwu Emperor, and now Emperor Jianwu... he's lived for three hundred years."
"Across three hundred years and many 'emperors,' that useless Seventh Prince was ironically the only true successor—the second real emperor of Great Liang. But it wasn't long before the Grand Ancestor of Liang took the identity of the fifth son, ascended the throne as Emperor Jianwu, and forced everything back onto his intended path…"
"This…" Su Chen's eyes flew wide.
'Great Liang has only ever had one emperor? I was wrong!'
'How could Great Liang harbor such a secret?'
A single emperor, turned into a Demon Fiend, living for three hundred years.
"Unfortunately."
"The seven of us Grandmasters, our informant in Tianwu Tower, two First Supervisors, and several other defecting First Grade masters… we all made our move on the night of the full moon, when he was supposed to be in a deep slumber. More than ten Junior Grandmasters… and we still couldn't win!"
Blood was streaming from all seven of Zhang Gui's orifices, but he paid it no mind. His eyes, still like deep pools, turned to the bare Hibiscus Tree in the courtyard, and his gaze grew distant once more.
"Su Chen… ah, Su Chen."
"I don't know what your secret is, but nine years have passed. I look like a man in his thirties now, yet you still have the same youthful face as the day I first met you."
"You have to be more careful!"
"After I'm gone, there'll be no one left to protect you, to secretly clean up your messes…"
In that instant, Zhang Gui's features aged with terrifying speed. His full head of black hair turned snow-white, the color spreading in a flash. In the blink of an eye, his flesh withered, and he took on the appearance of a Decaying old man, radiating an aura of imminent death.
"I wish I could see the Hibiscus Flowers of Zhu Country bloom one more time…"
Zhang Gui's eyes gradually lost their light. He was about to die.
"Sigh."
'So that's how it was.'
'No wonder the disappearances of those Vice Chief Stewards in the Library Pavilion never caused a stir in the palace…'
Su Chen drank the last of the White Confucian Wine, his heart heavy. The wine had never tasted so bitter.
The next instant.
A wisp of white True Qi shot into the bare branches of the Hibiscus Tree. In a flash, white leaves unfurled, and one by one, Hibiscus Flowers with a silvery sheen bloomed across its crown.
In the courtyard, a Hundred Flowers bloomed and countless leaves turned a vibrant green. The hibiscus tree shimmered beneath the moon.
"Su Chen! Live a good life… live for me, too…"
"The Hibiscus Flowers… are so beautiful!"
"A pity… I can no longer… drink White Confucian Wine… with you…"
Su Chen walked over. He looked at the withered, purple-robed figure, still standing with his hands clasped behind him, head tilted up as if admiring the flowers. He was no longer breathing.
Zhang Gui was dead.
At that moment, the bottle of White Confucian Wine fell from Su Chen's hand, shattering on the ground.
DRIP. DROP.
It began to rain.
Su Chen looked up at the falling rain, a strange expression on his face, somewhere between a sob and a smile. The heavy, hollow feeling in his heart refused to dissipate.
He collapsed to the ground, leaning against the blooming Hibiscus Tree as rain washed over him, soaking his face and blurring his vision.
"Why is the rain salty…? Why is it so salty…?"
"Why does the White Confucian Wine taste so bitter tonight?!"
For the first time in nine years, he felt an intense surge of pain and anguish.
The intensity of the emotions was overwhelming.
「On this night.」
The seventh year of the Jianwu era, the third day of the seventh month.
Night.
A torrential downpour.
The Thousand-year-old Ginseng King in Su Chen's robes slowly withered. Thirty-two streams of Longevity Qi flowed out from the Treasure Medicine and into his body. Now, one hundred streams of Longevity True Qi were gathered.
The Seed of Longevity, which had already sprouted roots, began to tremble. It grew rapidly, becoming the length of a finger, resembling a tiny sapling.
On this night, the bottleneck in the Path of Qi that had trapped Su Chen for nine years finally loosened.
One hundred streams of Longevity Qi filled him, converging into a flood like rivers flowing into the sea, surging through his entire body.
He had reached the Second Realm!