The imperial city was vast, and even if everyone searched separately, it would take time to find him.
Moreover, the imperial city might contain hidden mechanisms and dangers that Liang Yinqiu and the others couldn't handle.
Not to mention the possibility that Qin Shi Huang's soul was right before their eyes, yet they couldn't discover it.
Therefore, Lin Zhitong decided to proceed with her own method.
She leaped onto the rooftop of a palace and surveyed the entire imperial city from above.
A strange light flowed through her purple irises. This world, buried underground for two thousand years, was originally shrouded in mist. But now, in her eyes, it was filled with many colors.
Black represented death and malevolent energy.
Dark blue indicated ghost and yin energy.
Green signified poison and miasma.
Various colors drifted through the imperial city, imperceptible to ordinary people.
"What kind of energy should Qin Shi Huang have?"
Lin Zhitong mused, "This imperial city is filled with foul energies. It's somewhat unrealistic to search for Qin Shi Huang based on yin energy."
At this moment, Lin Zhitong suddenly remembered that Qin Shi Huang was a proud son of heaven, surrounded by dragon energy.
Dragon energy?!
What color was dragon energy?
As Lin Zhitong was contemplating, she suddenly caught a glimpse of purple energy in her eyes.
Lin Zhitong's gaze instantly locked onto the purple energy, and a realization dawned in her mind: "Purple energy is auspicious energy, associated with emperors and sages. Qin Shi Huang must also possess purple energy!"
Looking across the entire imperial city, only the inner palace in the east contained purple energy, quite a distance from the western inner palace where Lin Zhitong and the others were.
"Sister-in-law, did you see something?!" Long Feicheng asked from below.
Lin Zhitong retracted her gaze, leaped down from the rooftop, and while mentally issuing commands to Hei Chuanlu and Taohua Ying to head to the eastern inner palace, she walked towards Hu Hai:
"What is special about the eastern inner palace?"
Hu Hai was startled and then asked in surprise, "Father Emperor is in the inner palace?"
"Yes," Lin Zhitong did not conceal it.
Hu Hai thought for a moment and replied, "In the east, there is the Zhiluo Palace. It was my father Emperor's favorite place because Afangnu lived there."
Lin Zhitong was slightly moved. It seemed Qin Shi Huang truly cared deeply for Afangnu, choosing to be sealed in Zhiluo Palace even in his final moments.
She turned to everyone and said, "Let's go to Zhiluo Palace!"
Everyone immediately gathered their things and set off for Zhiluo Palace.
Now that Qin Shi Huang's location was found, Lin Zhitong knew there was no need to rush. She had also decided to bring Hu Hai along, which was why she hadn't left everyone behind to go alone.
On the way, Long Feicheng had expected the physically frail experts to slow them down. To his surprise, these experts moved swiftly, almost running, and were as excited as if they had been injected with stimulants.
Conversely, Long Feicheng was beginning to tire. Grabbing A Gong's clothes, he panted, "A Gong, can you make me a horse to ride? I can't run anymore!"
A Gong replied helplessly, "My paper figures on the ground have been depleted. I can only make simple ones now, and they can't carry you."
"Damn it, what's with these experts!" Long Feicheng grumbled. "They were so pitiful, weak, and helpless in the outer city, why are they running so fast now!"
Luo Ning chuckled, "They heard they could see Qin Shi Huang with their own eyes, they got so excited that they're pushing themselves like this."
"Indeed, to personally witness Qin Shi Huang from two thousand years ago would likely be something they, as scholars, could never have imagined in their lifetimes," He Xiping added with a smile.
Seeing Long Feicheng's face turn pale and showing signs of nausea from running, Lin Zhitong reluctantly summoned Ta Xue.
She patted Ta Xue's head and said, "Little Dragon, why don't you ride Ta Xue?"
Long Feicheng looked at the tall, majestic horse with a hint of fear, "Will it kick me?"
"It's hard to say," Lin Zhitong wasn't sure, as Ta Xue only allowed her and Yan Shouyi to ride it.
She had never let anyone else ride Ta Xue, but she was certain Ta Xue was proud and wouldn't easily allow others on its back.
After all, Ta Xue was once the mount of General Qing Jiang. Besides General Qing Jiang and Princess Yu Shu, who else was worthy of riding it?
Long Feicheng, unable to run any further, hesitantly approached Ta Xue and said in a placating tone, "Good horse, good horse, just let me ride you for a little while, please don't kick me!"
Weng Qianxiang jeered, "Brother Long, why are you talking to a horse like a sycophant!"
"Get lost!" Long Feicheng shot Weng Qianxiang a glare.
He mustered his courage and climbed onto the horse's back. To everyone's surprise, Ta Xue did not resist.
Ta Xue remained as calm as ever, showing no aversion to Long Feicheng, even treating him as if he were Yan Shouyi or Lin Zhitong.
This left Lin Zhitong utterly bewildered.
Seeing this, Long Feicheng chuckled heartily, "Haha! See? Even a lickspittle gets everything in the end!"
Clearly, even Long Feicheng himself hadn't expected to so easily ride Ta Xue.
Weng Qianxiang, seeing Long Feicheng sitting proudly on Ta Xue's back, became envious.
His physical condition wasn't great either, and he was even a bit "delicate." After running from the surface to underground all day, his legs were already weak.
So Weng Qianxiang also ran to Ta Xue's front and said obsequiously, "Ta Xue… no, Brother Xue, will you let me ride you too?"
Ta Xue tilted its mouth and snorted, completely ignoring Weng Qianxiang.
Weng Qianxiang cheerfully said, "If you don't refuse, then you agree, okay? I'm getting on!"
Saying this, Weng Qianxiang grabbed Long Feicheng's trouser leg to climb up.
Who knew that just as Weng Qianxiang was about to climb up, Ta Xue suddenly struggled in anger, directly throwing Weng Qianxiang to the ground, causing him to fall ungracefully on his backside!
"Ouch!"
Weng Qianxiang fell to the ground, clutching his backside and grimacing, "Ooh... what's going on!"
Long Feicheng held the reins, scratching his head, "Why would Ta Xue let me ride it, but not you?"
Lin Zhitong also found it strange. She gently stroked Ta Xue's head and said, "Ta Xue has a peculiar temperament, I can't quite figure it out."
"Let's just walk steadily," Wang Ji Wang said, helping Weng Qianxiang up from the ground. "Old Yan is still in the coffin."
Wang Ji Wang was relatively serious, unlike the flippant Long Feicheng and Weng Qianxiang. He was reminding everyone that this was not a time for joking.
Thus, everyone focused their attention, stopped dwelling on Ta Xue's issue, and quickened their pace.
After walking for a considerable time, the group finally arrived outside Zhiluo Palace.
Upon seeing Zhiluo Palace, Hu Hai felt a sense of loss, as if faced with the ephemeral nature of things, and his eyes welled up.
How glorious Great Qin once was, and now only a dusty imperial tomb remained.
Two figures descended from the sky, one man and one woman, one black and one red. They were Hei Chuanlu and Taohua Ying, who had arrived here much earlier.
Lin Zhitong asked, "Why didn't you go in?"
Taohua Ying shook her head, "Miss, it's not that we didn't go in, but there is a power within this palace that prevents us from entering."