Chapter 45: The Prince

“Who exactly are you?”

Xu Han looked at Su Chen with a somewhat meaningful gaze.

“Who am I? I am your Grandpa Su!” Su Chen cursed angrily.

In an instant, everyone present gasped in unison.

He was seeking death.

A mere black-clad figure dared to provoke this bloodthirsty Director of the West Depot?

With his purple robes hanging in authority, within the Imperial Palace, this Director was the supreme overseer! Moreover, he possessed unparalleled power and the merit of helping the Emperor ascend the throne.

In terms of ruthlessness, even the legendary Zhang Gui could not hope to match him.

“You still dare to curse me?”

“Good!”

“Very good! Today, I shall let you taste the might of the West Depot...”

The three hundred Jin Yi Fanzi (Brocade Guards), the strongest being only of the third rank, looked like tigers and wolves with ferocious eyes. They flashed cruel smiles at this man standing at the pinnacle of the martial rankings.

“Slap his mouth until it's bloody!” the Jin Yi leader roared.

“It indeed deserves to be slapped bloody,” Xu Han added.

“The Director is right! This lowly one will slap it bloody personally right now...” Hearing Xu Han's praise, the Jin Yi leader became exceptionally excited, his face twisting into a fawning, sycophantic smile.

*Slap!*

He was slapped to the ground.

“I was talking about you.”

Xu Han withdrew his hand.

Then, he pressed both hands downward.

In an instant, a surging wave of furious energy erupted. The three hundred Jin Yi Fanzi were all swept away, clearing a path.

“Xu Ge from the Library, right?”

“I know now.”

“You all may leave.”

Xu Han glanced at Su Chen's palace token. He had struck his own men merely to clear a path for Su Chen and the others.

The people present looked at one another, having no idea what was going on in the mind of this bloodthirsty Director of the West Depot.

“Quick, leave!”

“If you don't leave now, you truly won't be able to get away.”

“If you keep kneeling, the West Depot might not kill you, but the Imperial Guards will strike!”

“I am fine!”

“The Emperor will not kill me, a high official!”

“But you are different...”

The official spoke in a hoarse voice, driving away the nearby maids and eunuchs. Only then did they snap out of their trance; fear took over, and they fled in a panic.

Before leaving, they all bowed respectfully to this official who had stood up for the people.

“If it can move the Emperor, what does it matter if I die!”

Only Xiao Xuanzi kept his neck stiff. Despite being pushed by the official, he remained motionless, determined to let his head spill blood at the palace gates...

“What on earth have I done...”

Su Chen calmed down.

He was filled with regret.

After reaching the fourth rank of Longevity, he had used Shape-Shifting to disguise himself as Xu Ge for so long that he had actually caught the youthful temperament of the original owner, acting with such impulsiveness and flashiness.

Fortunately, he hadn't made a move, so he hadn't been exposed.

“Still not leaving?”

“You little brat, always causing trouble for me!”

“If I had known, I wouldn't have let you out of the house just now. How many times have I told you? We are just ordinary eunuchs. In this palace, we can't even offend the Imperial Guards, yet you go and offend the masters of the West Depot?”

“My apologies, masters of the West Depot. Thank you, masters, for sparing our lives...”

Su Chen cursed while bowing repeatedly to the wailing West Depot guards, apologizing profusely, before dragging Xiao Xuanzi straight back to the pharmacy.

The commanders of the Three Guards, hidden in the shadows, were speechless.

“Who is this little eunuch? He was the most arrogant just now, even daring to curse the Director of the West Depot. Good heavens, he actually remembers he's just an ordinary eunuch...”

“It is strange. Xu Han is a mass murderer; since returning to the Imperial City, he has slaughtered entire families without hesitation. What happened to him today?”

The area had been cleared.

The official, who had been kneeling at the palace gates, finally turned to look at Xu Han. His eyes were complex as he cupped his hands and said in a hoarse, grateful voice

“I accept this favor.”

“Thank you! For my sake, please grant these unfortunate people a way to live...”

“To think this eunuch thief actually has a kind side...”

So that was it.

He was doing it for the official's sake.

No wonder!

The silhouettes of the people present shifted as they realized the truth.

However.

Xu Han, clad in his bright red python robe, looked toward the direction where the eunuchs had departed. It took a long time before he turned back, as if he had only just heard them, his cold eyes staring at the official.

Then, he let out a cold sneer.

“Heh!”

“Give you face? But... what kind of thing are you?”

The official froze.

If not for him, then for whom?

Among everyone just now, he was the most prominent and held the highest status. The rest were merely ordinary eunuchs and maids, like floating duckweed or scraps of wild grass...

“We're leaving.”

Xu Han flicked his sleeves, and the West Depot withdrew.

In the end, this act of kneeling at the palace gates to demand justice for the people failed to move the young Emperor; perhaps he simply found the official too annoying.

The young Emperor casually dispatched a blue-robed attendant to knock the official unconscious and sent him back to his residence in the Imperial City.

Inside the palace, the young Emperor looked at the memorials on his imperial desk, each reporting on the emergence of demons and the mass slaughter of refugees. His body trembled, and he suddenly slammed the table.

He was ecstatic.

Looking at the white-robed man, he said

“Master Chu, the million refugees from the three commanderies are being used as a gift, supplied for their consumption. I wonder if they are satisfied?”

“When exactly will they release the first First-Rank demon into the palace to assist me!”

“That night, a Wind-Snow Grandmaster wiped out Chief Steward Fu Gui with a single sword. The First-Rank created by that remnant of demonic cultivation is simply too weak; it is not even as good as a Second-Rank prodigy.”

“Since the strongest First-Rank in the world is a demon, then I want that strongest First-Rank demon to be my wings, to control the world.”

The young Emperor appeared possessed, treating human lives like grass; he was already more demonic than the demons themselves.

...

...

Back at the pharmacy, all was calm.

A few more days passed.

It remained the same.

“It seems I wasn't exposed.”

“It makes sense.”

“With Shape-Shifting, I became a different person long ago. How could Xu Han recognize me with just a few words?”

Su Chen shook his head, lying on a rocking chair. In this cold weather, leaning against the stove, he drifted into a daze, returning to his former appearance.

As for Xiao Xuanzi, he huddled in a corner without a word, looking as though he had lost all hope, just as he did on the day he first arrived at the pharmacy after being castrated.

Weak, pitiful, and helpless.

This was because news from the palace had spread everywhere. After the kneeling at the palace gates, the official had submitted blood-stained memorials twice and refused to rise from his kneeling position during court sessions. This enraged the young Emperor, who directly dismissed the official, nearly ordered his death, and finally exiled him from the city...

As for the million refugees...

The Imperial Court ignored them.

Now, half of them had already become fodder for the demons.

Natural disasters, chaos, the end of a dynasty—it was the era when demons would descend from the mountains to wreak havoc upon the world, and the Great Liang possessed all of these...

The twelfth year of Jianwu, late February.

Night.

Slightly cold.

Su Chen was shaken awake.

In fact, he had been awake for a long time. With his cultivation level, he had sensed the newcomer long ago; he simply acted as an ordinary eunuch, as he shouldn't have such alertness.

“Wake up, quickly!”

“Something has happened to Her Ladyship!”

Linglong looked panicked as she pulled Su Chen toward the Cold Palace.

Su Chen's heart sank.

He thought of the child in Consort Luo's womb. He wasn't sure how to address him—the Jianwu Emperor, the Grand Ancestor of Liang, or the son of Consort Luo?

Soon, they reached the Cold Palace.

Su Chen saw that Consort Luo was dead. The eunuch Gao Yao was kneeling on the ground, trembling uncontrollably. There was also a young child sitting in a chair, playing with a jade cup in his hands.

The child smiled as he looked toward Su Chen, revealing a youthful face that shared thirty percent of the Jianwu Emperor's features and seventy percent of his spirit.

“You have finally come.”

“I don't know how I should address you.”

“Eunuch Xu of the Pharmacy!”

“Or should it be Eunuch Su of the Library?”