Chapter 14: Undercurrents

Dressed in a red robe, Zhang Gui was the only Chief Eunuch still walking the grounds of the inner palace. His power was overwhelming; as the sharpest claw under the First Overseer of the Purple Robe, that was no mere figure of speech.

If the First Overseer of the Purple Robe was the Emperor, then Zhang Gui was currently the Crown Prince.

"Do you know how the court and the public are cursing you right now?"

Su Chen was brewing tea for Zhang Gui in the courtyard.

Zhang Gui stood with his hands behind his back. A year had passed, and with power in his grasp, he was high-spirited and full of vigor. He was no longer that cautious, timid eunuch in green robes; now, a single word from him could decide the life or death of countless people.

"It’s nothing more than the usual foul language, calling me a 'eunuch dog' and the like."

"The one they curse the most is likely not me, but the current First Overseer of the Purple Robe."

"However, they only dare to curse in their hearts. To his face, they still have to respectfully call this First Overseer—a peak First-Rank master who suppresses the Heaven-Slaying Master’s Mansion—'His Nine-Thousand-Year-Old Highness'."

Zhang Gui didn't care in the slightest, smiling as he admired the exotic flowers and plants blooming in the courtyard.

When all is said and done, this world is still a world of cultivators.

With demons and monsters wreaking havoc, it was naturally impossible for it to be like a mundane dynasty where the Emperor was supreme and held absolute power.

The old Emperor’s ascension had been approved by the various First-Rank foundations of the Heaven-Martial Tower.

As for this new Emperor...

Heh.

He wasn't someone who hid his light or played the fool; he was a truly useless prince who only knew how to indulge in pleasure. If it weren't for the fact that he was the only surviving son of the old Emperor, it would never have been his turn.

"What have you been busy with lately?"

"Killing people to refine pills."

Su Chen thought he had misheard.

"I said, I am killing people to refine pills."

"You know, demons can refine the faint human spiritual energy hidden within the human body by eating people, gaining the effect of increased longevity. I am currently killing people to refine pills..."

Zhang Gui said this with a smile, as if the killing he spoke of was as trivial as slaughtering chickens or dogs.

Su Chen’s hand paused. The teacup filled quickly, and the scalding hot water spilled over.

The air was a bit too silent.

After a long while.

A faint sigh.

"Don't tell me these things. I'm not interested. It's quite good here in the Library."

Xu Xiaohan was indeed more like Su Chen’s foster son. Regarding what happened in the Library that night, he hadn't told anyone, not even Zhang Gui.

In Zhang Gui’s eyes, and in everyone else’s eyes, Su Chen remained that useless person with no talent for cultivation, hiding away in the Library.

"In this world, only cultivation offers a way out."

"I have said before, if I become the First Overseer of the Purple Robe, you will be the Second Overseer in red."

"Life is but a hundred years. You and I cannot enjoy the pleasures of beauty, but power is right before your eyes, within your reach. As long as you say the word, I can pave the way for you to rise to greatness."

"If we can accumulate enough merit, the First Overseer will personally take action to clear your meridians and set you on the path of cultivation."

Zhang Gui tried to persuade him with earnest words.

Su Chen remained silent.

Since that night, Su Chen had known that while this First Overseer of the Purple Robe might be among the strongest below the Grandmaster level, he was already a hundred years old. Even if he had gathered such immense vitality from somewhere, longevity was still longevity.

If he didn't extend his life, this First Overseer would pass away within a year.

It was no wonder that even after participating in the prince's rebellion, Zhang Gui could still rise to such heights, reaching a level no other Chief Eunuch had ever attained.

"I might as well tell you."

"The old Emperor asked this First Overseer to leave the Heaven-Martial Tower on the condition that he refine human blood longevity pills. Join me, and we will bathe in blood; when the time comes, boundless wealth will be in our hands..."

Hearing this, Su Chen turned his teacup upside down and remained silent.

"Think it over carefully."

Zhang Gui left.

Three miles after walking out of the Library, eunuchs arrived with a sedan chair. Zhang Gui’s trusted subordinate, his adopted son, immediately stepped forward, wanting to ask a question but hesitating.

"I tested him."

"He doesn't want power, and he doesn't want the opportunity to cultivate."

"In the entire palace, even the First Overseer of the Purple Robe can be seen through, but I cannot see through my friend who is merely an ordinary eunuch. I truly cannot understand it."

"Life is but a hundred years; does he really want nothing at all?"

Zhang Gui’s brows were tightly locked.

His trusted son hesitated and asked, "Foster father, should we continue with the plan? If the plan fails and we are branded as rebels, I fear it will implicate Eunuch Su..."

"Proceed!"

"The old Emperor is dead, so the grudges are settled? How could that be? What I want is for this Great Liang to fall into chaos, for the imperial power to change hands, and for the Liang royal surname to vanish into smoke. I cannot care about anything else now..."

Zhang Gui’s eyes were filled with madness.

...

...

"What is Zhang Gui doing?"

In the Library, Su Chen summoned Xu Xiaohan to ask about Zhang Gui’s recent activities.

Only then did Su Chen realize with horror just how great Zhang Gui’s power had become.

The Eastern Depot!

The current Martial Affairs Bureau was almost identical to the Eastern Depot of the Ming Dynasty from his previous life.

It operated under the name of the First Overseer of the Purple Robe.

When the eunuchs of the Martial Affairs Bureau carried out missions, they could mobilize the Imperial Guards, and even the "Martial-Slaying Guards," who were composed entirely of cultivators and stationed outside the city...

In the Imperial City, Zhang Gui raided homes and exterminated clans, using the name of the First Overseer of the Purple Robe to fabricate charges against officials who opposed him. He killed so many that heads rolled, causing public outrage and divine resentment.

Was it all just to refine human blood longevity pills?

Su Chen didn't think so.

"Let him be."

Su Chen couldn't control it, nor could he manage it.

After all, in the palace, Zhang Gui was the Chief Eunuch, and outside, he was the notorious Superintendent of the Eastern Depot (the head of the Martial Affairs Bureau).

Su Chen was merely a lowly eunuch in black, the very bottom of the eunuch hierarchy.

"Master Su."

"After a full year in the palace, you can change into the green eunuch robes."

Xu Xiaohan couldn't help but remind him.

"Is that so?"

Su Chen was surprised.

Soon, a young eunuch delivered a brand-new set of green eunuch robes to Su Chen.

Eunuch Su, having been in the palace for a year, finally had a new "skin." The green eunuch robe, adorned with flowers, birds, fish, and insects, was clearly a garment that only senior eunuchs could wear.

Time flew by.

In the blink of an eye, another month passed.

A shocking piece of news spread throughout the palace.

The new Emperor was getting married.

He was marrying the only granddaughter of the Northern-Suppressing Marshal.

Such a marriage clearly had deep significance; it meant that the Northern-Suppressing Marshal, a pillar of the military and a First-Rank martial artist, was standing firmly behind the new Emperor.

For this, the new Emperor specifically bestowed a royal title upon his father-in-law.

A First-Rank martial artist receiving a royal title was not particularly strange.

The Northern-Suppressing Marshal became the Prince of the North.

The only prince with a different surname in the new dynasty, or even the old one.

"Master Su, if you ask me, this Northern-Suppressing Marshal has the guts of a bear; he actually dares to challenge the First Overseer. The First Overseer is the number one First-Rank master in the world."

Xu Xiaohan chattered away in the courtyard.

It was only because Su Chen’s Library was too desolate and devoid of people that he could say such things; otherwise, he would have been thrown into the water dungeon by the next day.

Su Chen, who was loosening the soil in the Library courtyard, had a different opinion.

The First Overseer was old and frail.

The Northern-Suppressing Marshal was still vigorous, only seventy years old, having served three dynasties. Among the current First-Rank martial artists, he was still in his prime and exceptionally capable of fighting.

Now that the First Overseer was nearing his end, even with the human blood longevity pills, he might not be able to take action many more times.

The human blood longevity pill was created by imitating the way demons ate people.

The first one could extend life by a year.

The more one took, the more the effect diminished exponentially.

The First Overseer clearly wasn't taking it for the first time, otherwise, he wouldn't have broken through the hundred-year barrier.

Another month passed.

The power structure within the palace gradually changed. The new Emperor slowly reclaimed his authority, and his voice carried more and more weight in the deep palace and even in the imperial court.

He cultivated confidants and accepted the loyalty of officials, showing a bit of the old Emperor’s style and looking more like an emperor.

Then.

The next day, the Emperor died.