Chapter 4: Burying the Corpse on a Snowy Night

In the quiet room, the lonely wind blew in, carrying cold snow that accumulated in a thin layer on the floor, much like the state of Su Chen’s heart at this moment.

The trees desire stillness, but the wind will not cease.

What was meant to come had finally arrived.

When he made such a scene at the entrance of the Martial Affairs Bureau, he knew this day would come.

He shouldn't have stepped out of the library that day.

"Huang Jiu! Why do you not respond?"

The man in black, perhaps thinking Su Chen was doubting his identity, frowned and took a palm-sized brass token from his robes. A character for "nine" was faintly visible on it.

The Black Lotus Token! The token was here!

"Sigh!"

Seeing the token, Su Chen reluctantly rummaged around, finally finding the other half of the dust-covered brass token in the seam of his bed.

The original owner belonged to a hidden cult called the Black Abyss, which specialized in emerging during years of great disaster to bewitch people and recruit members. The original owner had been young and fanatically devout, quickly gaining favor. After being sweet-talked, he abandoned his identity as a man and came to the Great Liang Imperial Palace to become a eunuch.

However, he was merely a low-level, idle pawn.

Heaven One, Earth Three, Profound Six, Yellow Nine.

Among the nineteen secret agents under the Black Lotus Saint, he was at the very bottom.

If not for Zhang Gui’s rapid rise to power and the favor of the Imperial Concubine, putting him on the verge of becoming the Deputy Chief Eunuch, a pawn like him would never have seen the day he was activated.

"You scoundrel!"

"The token personally bestowed by the Saint, and you keep it in such a sloppy manner! Do you have any regard for the Holy Society, or for the Saint who has shown you such great grace?!"

The Black-Clad Envoy roared, his eyes spitting fire.

Su Chen remained silent, not knowing what to say.

Soon, the two tokens were joined together, forming the strange black lotus on the front.

"The Black Abyss Holy Cult, saving all living beings; the Saint descends upon the world to deliver us from suffering!"

The Black-Clad Envoy’s eyes were filled with fanaticism. Holding the token, he bowed respectfully—naturally, he was bowing to the Black Lotus Saint represented by the token. Then, seeing Su Chen still standing, he grew angry again.

"Huang Jiu, do you have any regard for the Holy Society at all?"

Su Chen remained silent.

If it were the original owner, he would have likely performed a prostrating kowtow by now.

But he was not the original owner.

What did this ridiculous cult have to do with him?

He hadn't inherited a single shred of the original owner's emotions.

"Forget it."

"The Seventh Prince will come to the library tomorrow. When he does, he will question you. He is nothing but a cripple who cannot cultivate. I will give you a bottle of poison; find a way to kill him!"

"Regardless of success or failure, you must commit suicide on the spot after poisoning him. I am taking this token back; this matter must not be linked to the Holy Cult in the slightest..."

As he spoke, the Black-Clad Envoy tossed a white porcelain bottle to Su Chen.

Faintly, one could see the volatile, toxic powder inside hissing like sulfuric acid.

*Thud!*

The poison bottle hit the ground.

Su Chen didn't catch it; instead, he stepped back twice, avoiding it.

"Huang Jiu!!!"

The Black-Clad Envoy was now completely enraged.

Terrifying blood-energy surged beneath his black robes.

"Poison the Seventh Prince..."

"Could the Holy Cult choose someone else? I would like to serve the Holy Cult for a few more years. Do you think that’s possible?"

Su Chen rubbed his small hands together, speaking nervously.

Who was the Seventh Prince?

Even hiding in this desolate library, he had heard people talk about him more than once.

The old Emperor had seven sons, all of whom were like dragons and phoenixes among men.

The First Prince, the Second Prince, and the Fifth Prince, born to Imperial Concubine Zhang.

On the day the old Emperor recovered from his illness, he summoned the First Prince to the palace and twisted his head off with his own hands.

Afterward, he purged the civil and military officials in the court.

Rumor had it that the First Prince couldn't wait any longer and had orchestrated that shocking change in the imperial city, the assassination on that rainy night...

From then on, the only ones left with a chance at the throne were the Second Prince and the Fifth Prince.

Although the Seventh Prince could not cultivate and only knew how to frequent brothels and listen to music, he was the full brother of the Second Prince, and they relied on each other with a deep bond.

Within the palace, his relationship with Zhang Gui was known to everyone.

Ordering him to poison the Seventh Prince—it was clear the Holy Cult wanted to provoke a life-and-death struggle between the Fifth Prince and the Seventh Prince. After the poisoning, regardless of the outcome, a lowly ant of a eunuch like him and Zhang Gui would undoubtedly die.

Being ground to dust would be the least of their worries.

The current Su Chen was not the simple-minded fool the original owner had been, someone who could be tricked in a few sentences.

As an immortal monster like him, he could keep getting stronger just by living honestly. Only a fool looking for death would get involved in such a dangerous affair.

"Huang Jiu, you have no choice. This is the will of the Black Lotus Saint. Giving your life for our grand plan is your glory, and ours!"

The Black-Clad Envoy’s gaze turned completely cold.

Who was he?

The head of the three Black-Clad Envoys under the Saint, a peak Third-Rank hard-body cultivation expert.

Su Chen, a lowly eunuch, an ant without cultivation, could not stir up any trouble in his hands, whether he was willing or not.

"I don't want to die. Do you think that's okay?"

Su Chen picked up the white jade bottle and looked at this peak Third-Rank hard-body expert.

"Hah!"

The Black-Clad Envoy sneered and did not answer.

Su Chen swapped the other white porcelain bottle into his hand and asked again, "Do I still have a chance?"

"Ants have no choice."

"Of course."

"You can also try to kill me."

The Black-Clad Envoy wore a mocking smile.

"Alright!"

Su Chen nodded.

Might as well try.

He tossed the secret medicine bottle in his hand, scattering the toxic powder.

"The Saint already anticipated you might betray us. What can this mere Fifth-Rank secret poison do to me? Hahaha! I am a peak Third-Rank! In this palace, unless a Second-Rank expert strikes, no one can harm me in the slightest..."

The Black-Clad Envoy laughed wildly. With one step, the blue bricks shattered, and a fierce wind whipped up, ravaging the library. The toxic powder in the air was about to be crushed into nothingness by him.

"I'll peel off your skin, and I can still arrange for someone to assassinate the Seventh Prince in your identity!"

"Traitor, die!"

He roared as he charged.

His blood-energy surged, his terrifying muscles and bones bursting through his black robes, expanding violently. The breath from his nose and mouth was like a white stream, and his skin glowed with a layer of gold, as if his body were forged from solid gold, shining brilliantly.

The Path of the Body, Third-Rank Marrow Cleansing Realm.

With the Black-Clad Envoy’s might, he was an extraordinary expert even among Third-Rankers, and in the eunuch hierarchy, he would definitely be at least at the level of a Deputy Chief Eunuch.

However, facing the assault of this Third-Rank hard-body expert, Su Chen’s expression did not change.

"Five..."

Su Chen began to count.

The next instant, the powerful aura on the Black-Clad Envoy plummeted.

He grew terrified, blood leaking from his seven orifices. His powerful flesh and blood, which had reached its peak, began to rot rapidly at this moment. His entire cultivation was废掉 (destroyed) in an instant.

"Poison?!"

"Ah! What is this poison? This is not my Red Snake secret medicine at all..."

The Black-Clad Envoy let out a scream like a duck’s quack. He looked at Su Chen in horror, unable to believe that a lowly pawn born of a refugee beggar would possess a secret poison of at least Third-Rank.

A Third-Rank expert could already dominate a region and establish a sect in Great Liang.

To be able to poison a Third-Rank expert to death—such a secret poison, let alone the red-hot eunuch Zhang Gui or Imperial Concubine Zhang, even the Second-Rank Chief Eunuch of the Inner Palace could not possibly possess it.

Even in the hands of the old Emperor who owned the world, a Third-Rank secret poison was an absolutely forbidden power; he would never bestow it upon anyone in the imperial city, keeping it tightly in his own grasp.

"It’s not a Third-Rank secret poison, but a Second-Rank one—the legendary Heart-Devouring Powder."

Su Chen said calmly.

Before dying, the Black-Clad Envoy’s eyes widened, filled with disbelief, his expression exceptionally vivid.

Second-Rank Heart-Devouring Powder?!

Such peerless poison, not even their Holy Cult had it, yet this lowly mud-legged peasant actually had it...

*Thud!*

The next instant, the Black-Clad Envoy’s rotting body exploded, turning into a black skeleton filled with terrifying toxic power. His Third-Rank strong flesh and blood turned into a pool of corpse water on the ground, and everything on him was corroded away by the terrifying poison.

"A peak Third-Rank, such a formidable figure, was actually killed by me?"

Su Chen clicked his tongue in wonder.

Heart-Devouring Powder was specifically designed to hunt high-rank cultivators; for low-rank cultivators or even mortals, the effect was minimal.

A standard Heart-Devouring Powder made from fifty-year-old poisonous herbs required five breaths of time to kill.

But this one, prepared with hundred-year-old herbs, was more than three times as violent. In less than a breath, the poison reached the internal organs. Even a Third-Rank expert, who had refined their skin, flesh, tendons, bones, and marrow to the extreme, could not resist it.

Su Chen had two bottles in total; he had killed one peak Third-Rank, and one bottle remained.

"It really is useful."

"It spreads rapidly along the true energy and blood-energy. The more powerful the expert, the more dangerous it is. Conversely, it won't immediately endanger a weak person like me. It seems I should prepare a few more bottles in the future."

A Third-Rank expert of the Black Abyss was dead.

A peak Third-Rank was not a head of cabbage; each one was a humanoid monster capable of suppressing a region and washing a city in blood alone. This was absolute high-end combat power; the Black Abyss was likely about to have an earthquake.

Looking at the wind and snow outside the library, Su Chen knew he would likely have trouble in the future.

"But if you want me dead, it's better to let this Black-Clad Envoy die first."

"I don't fight, I don't compete, I don't hold grudges against anyone. Why must you disturb my peaceful life..."

"Sigh."

Su Chen let out a sigh, put on gloves made of fish intestines, and cleaned up the pool of corpse water. Dragging the toxic skeleton of the peak Third-Rank expert, he dug a large pit, intending to bury it in the medicinal field of the library’s small courtyard.

This toxic skeleton and the corpse water would serve as perfect fertilizer to nourish the poisonous herbs.

*Click!*

A strange sound.

Two items fell out of the toxic skeleton.

"This is..."

Su Chen rubbed his hands, feeling somewhat excited.

Logically speaking, the body of a peak Third-Rank hard-body expert was harder than metal and iron. The Black-Clad Envoy had been completely corroded away; there shouldn't have been anything left on him.

But if it could remain, it must be a treasure.

Two things!

A rough, pitch-black iron plate! And a broken rib...

Su Chen couldn't make sense of the black iron plate.

However, for the broken bone, Su Chen crushed it. Inside, something like human skin was hidden, which rapidly unfolded, revealing dark golden handwriting and a diagram of a small person practicing martial arts.

Looking at the handwriting on the human-skin secret scroll, Su Chen read it aloud.

"Created by the Old Demon of Solitude, a First-Rank cultivation technique, 'The Sixteen-Foot Golden Body Art'..."