Chapter 40: Gone

"It's been three years."

"This is the first time I've returned to my original appearance."

"I've almost forgotten how stunning my face is."

In front of the bronze mirror, after a moment of self-scrutiny, Su Chen opened a secret compartment beneath the medicine cabinet. Inside were three precious medicines he had meticulously selected and prepared for his breakthrough into the Second Rank Viscera Realm.

A three-year-old Blood-Exploding Vine!

A one-year-old Bone-Tempering Grass!

And a nascent Marrow-Drilling Flower!

Blood, bone, and marrow.

Once these three types of herbs exceed a hundred years in age, they become peerless holy medicines corresponding to the Body Refining realms. Their value is immeasurable, and they are extremely rare, nearly extinct in the world.

Even after three years of searching, Su Chen had only managed to find these three, and because their age was almost unusable, they had finally fallen into his hands.

"Once I step into the Fourth Rank of the Longevity Qi Realm, using the Fifth Rank ability [Accelerate Precious Medicine] will require me to dispel the [Shapeshifting] I used to enter the Fourth Rank. It's quite a hassle."

"Originally, to strike the Second Rank Viscera Realm, the Five Viscera Grass and Six Fu Leaves corresponding to this realm would have been more suitable. Unfortunately, the last time those two appeared was a hundred years ago, during the reign of Emperor Liangwen..."

Su Chen left the pharmacy.

The commotion caused by accelerating precious medicine would be quite large.

He had no intention of exposing his true identity.

Dark clouds rolled, covering the bright moon.

Night.

Pitch black.

Walking through the somewhat deathly silent imperial palace, Su Chen walked with his hands behind his back. Soon, he arrived before a towering, nine-story pavilion built of red bricks and green tiles, spanning several thousand square meters.

Thick snow covered the courtyard and the hibiscus tree standing tall in the center, which was now nothing more than a half-dead stump.

"The Library... so Xiao Hanzi really did build it?"

Stepping into the Library, Su Chen stroked the bare, half-dead hibiscus tree, recalling that night of wind, rain, and slaughter, and the friend who had died looking at the sky beneath this very tree.

"Perhaps you were right."

"Perhaps Great Liang truly deserves to die."

Su Chen murmured.

In the next moment.

The wind and snow surged. From the roof of the Library, a figure in blue robes shot out. His eyes were as sharp as lightning, locking onto Su Chen, and his voice boomed like rolling thunder.

"Presumptuous!"

"Who are you? How dare you trespass into the Library!"

"This is the territory of my Master Xu! A mere little thief dares to set foot here? Leave your life behind!"

Boom!

In the next instant.

A wave of air tumbled, carrying wind and snow.

The blue-robed man struck fiercely.

He was a peak Third Rank expert! Even within the Imperial Palace, he was a figure of some standing; a stomp from him would make the snow of the entire palace tremble.

He was even qualified to serve as a Deputy Chief Manager, a position beneath one but above ten thousand.

Even further up.

He had the potential to touch the peak of power: the red-robed officials.

However.

To this, Su Chen only pressed a single finger down.

"Annoying!"

In an instant.

A dignified Third Rank expert of the peak Marrow-Cleansing Realm was forced straight down from mid-air. Unable to move an inch, he was pressed into the courtyard, forced to kneel before Su Chen.

"Second Rank?!"

"Ah!"

"Wearing black robes... how can you be Second Rank?"

The blue-robed man screamed, his soul nearly fleeing his body, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

With a fleeting glance, he saw the black eunuch robes.

He had assumed this was just a blind, small-time eunuch thief he could kill with a casual wave, but who could have imagined such a colossal figure! An existence at the level of the Grand Eunuch.

Moreover, even if he were Second Rank, the man before him felt like an extremely seasoned existence among the Second Rank—perhaps a terrifying old monster at the peak of the Second Rank, with prospects for the First Rank...

Good heavens!

How could he encounter such a being tonight?

Was he an assassin? Had someone come to assassinate the Emperor of Great Liang again, only to be intercepted by him?

The blue-robed figure cried out in his heart, filled with despair. He felt death waving at him; he feared he would be silenced by this powerful Second Rank expert.

"Second Rank?"

"You aren't exactly wrong."

Su Chen responded indifferently.

Although he was also a Third Rank Marrow-Cleansing expert, having fought his way through the Blood-Flame, Nine-Nine Thunder, and Jade Marrow realms at their absolute limits, he was a different species entirely from a normal Third Rank Marrow-Cleansing expert.

Calling him Second Rank was not an exaggeration.

After all.

Who had ever seen a Third Rank Marrow-Cleansing expert suppress a peak Second Rank Fury-Gang Realm expert with a mere wave of a hand?

"Which godson are you to Xiao Hanzi? To be stationed here in the Library, you must be a confidant among his confidants."

"Has he stepped into the Second Rank Fury-Gang Realm?"

In the courtyard, snow fell heavily. Su Chen, hands behind his back, looked up at the tree and the bright moon above the dark clouds.

"Wait."

"That voice sounds so familiar..."

The blue-robed man, who had been trembling in terror thinking he was about to be killed, suddenly looked up at the black eunuch robes. His body shook violently as a terrifying thought surfaced in his mind.

The Library, under the hibiscus tree.

A Second Rank expert!

And.

He liked wearing black eunuch robes...

He thought of a person.

A person who had vanished without a trace for three years, causing Emperor Jianwu such fury that a manhunt was issued across the nine provinces, yet could not be found.

The First Supervisor in purple robes from the Heavenly Martial Tower had personally stated that this "useless person of the Library" possessed talent far exceeding Zhang Gui...

"Eunuch Su!"

"Is it you?"

"It's me! It's Xu Zhuzi!"

The blue-robed man asked, trembling.

To this.

Su Chen glanced at him sideways.

Boom!

The blue-robed man shuddered.

A youth under the moon, dressed in black robes, with features as beautiful as a painting and a heroic temperament. He was three parts more handsome than the women of the world and three parts more dashing than the men; one look was enough to ensure he would never be forgotten.

It really was Lord Su!

In three years, Lord Su hadn't changed a bit. Even in his thirties, he looked exactly the same. The only change was that he had entered the Second Rank, and an extremely powerful, veteran Second Rank at that...

Does this not mean...

Under normal cultivation, Lord Su has the potential to become the youngest First Rank Grandmaster in the world!

Perhaps even.

The only Human Grandmaster within the borders of Great Liang!

"Hiss!"

The blue-robed man sucked in a breath of cold air.

Having traveled north and south with Xu Xiao Han and witnessed countless demons and secrets, he knew exactly what a Human Grandmaster represented...

"No impression."

Su Chen glanced at this Xu Zhuzi.

"After Master Xu, I have always been the one delivering the food to this Library..."

Now, Su Chen had an impression.

"However."

"You should go back to sleep."

"Staying awake tonight will not benefit you..."

Su Chen flicked his sleeve. The pre-prepared Star-Dazing Grass powder drifted with the wind and snow, enveloping the entire Library. In an instant, the blue-robed man and all the little eunuchs in the Library fell into a deep slumber.

At this moment.

The dark clouds retreated. Under the bright moon, the faint moonlight shone upon Su Chen's black robes. He reached out and pressed his hand against the half-dead tree.

In an instant.

White leaves bloomed, and hibiscus flowers shimmering with silver light burst into full bloom upon the canopy.

"I knew it."

"This tree looks much better with flowers!"

Amidst the swirling snow, the hibiscus bloomed.

Beneath the tree.

A youth began his breakthrough into the Viscera Realm.

The surging Longevity Qi, like a rushing river, split into three streams and poured into the three precious medicines of blood, bone, and marrow Su Chen had prepared. In an instant, they teemed with life, growing continuously.

Ten-year medicine!

Hundred-year medicine!

Thousand-year precious medicine!

Even as they were accelerated to the level of thousand-year precious medicine, the Longevity Qi continued to pour in frantically. A thousand-year medicine was not the limit; Su Chen wanted to push them further, to the level of two-thousand-year medicine...

However.

In the end, he could not achieve it.

In an instant.

The Longevity Qi ran dry.

"One thousand two hundred years... is that the limit?"

Su Chen whispered.

Simultaneously.

The surging medicinal fragrance of the three thousand-year precious medicines could no longer be suppressed. Su Chen had no intention of suppressing it either. At this moment, the scent alerted countless cultivation experts in the nearby imperial palace.

"Is this the aura of thousand-year precious medicine?"

"Hiss!"

"Thousand-year precious medicine has appeared in the Great Liang Palace! As expected, even if Great Liang is in decline, the foundation left by the founding Grandmaster and the three hundred years of plunder from the nine provinces is not to be underestimated!"

"Seize it!"

"No matter what, we must enter the palace and seize it for ourselves!"

"Thousand-year precious medicine! It's thousand-year precious medicine! If I can get my hands on it, I will not only recover rapidly but also advance further to become a powerhouse among the First Rank!"

At this moment, the fragrance of the three thousand-year medicines did not just drift through the inner palace; it also reached the ears of those hiding in the depths of the palace, such as the leader of the Black Abyss Sect, as well as the First Rank experts of the Great Zhou outside the palace, all of whom had turned bloodshot eyes.

Countless robes fluttered in the wind and snow as they stormed through the palace gates and pavilions, heading toward the Library.

The appearance of thousand-year precious medicine would surely be followed by a storm of blood.

Tonight.

There would be no peace in the Great Liang Imperial Palace.

And that was exactly what Su Chen wanted to see!

"The storm has arrived!"

Holding the three thousand-year precious medicines, standing beneath the silver-glowing hibiscus tree, Su Chen watched the violent figures approaching through the wind and snow, their robes billowing.

Among them were Second Rank red-robed managers, withered old men filled with the aura of death like corpses, wealthy and plump bosses in fine silks, and armored First Rank experts of the Great Zhou...

Without exception.

They all had eyes filled with greed, expressions of madness, and violent, murderous auras, staring fixedly at the three portions of thousand-year precious medicine emitting the exotic fragrance in the Library.

"You want them?"

A smile played on Su Chen's lips. In the next instant, he opened his mouth wide and, right before the eyes of all these peak Second Rank and First Rank experts, swallowed all three portions of the thousand-year precious medicine in one gulp.

In an instant.

He burst into loud laughter.

"You want them? They're gone!"

"I ate them."

"Hahaha!"

At this moment, a heaven-shaking killing intent boiled over as countless figures converged upon the Library.

"You... deserve to die!"

(End of Chapter)