The oil lamp in the room suddenly flickered, a sign of good fortune, but Hong Si Xiang's silver eyebrows arched slightly, as if displeased. His aged right hand steadily picked up a fried peanut with his chopsticks. Without much fanfare, he slowly swallowed the mashed peanut, savoring the nutty flavor between his teeth, then raised his cup and drank before standing up.

"It's been many years since anyone in this palace came for a stroll," Grand Eunuch Hong murmured, his eyes somewhat cloudy and unfocused as he gazed out the window, his finger gently flicking.

The courtyard gate was open.

Like two tightly drawn bows, the chopsticks in Grand Eunuch Hong's hand were activated by powerful and profound *zhenqi*. With two almost simultaneous "tsst" sounds, they instantly shattered the window in front of him, shooting straight into the dark corner outside the gate, aiming for Wu Zhu's face!

The chopsticks carried wind as they pierced the air, their momentum astonishing. If they hit their mark, the person struck would feel as if they had been shot by two powerful bows. This Grand Eunuch Hong's casual flick of the finger possessed such divine power, it was truly terrifying.

For some reason, Wu Zhu's reaction seemed a bit slower than usual tonight. Failing to turn in time, his right shoulder's clothing was torn by the chopsticks.

*Tsst!* The chopsticks slanted into the muddy ground, their ends still trembling slightly.

Outside the courtyard, the old Grand Eunuch Hong looked at the visitor in brown clothing, his brows twitching slightly. The other person's face and head were entirely covered by a hood, making it impossible to discern their appearance.

"Who are you?" Grand Eunuch Hong asked, his face plastered with a smile, making him appear like a humble servant. But it was clear that he was far more dangerous than he seemed.

Wu Zhu was wearing completely new brown clothes tonight, which felt a bit odd. He followed Fan Xian's plan to the letter, holding his head high as if "looking" at the other person, and then said in a hoarse voice, "Apologies, a misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding? Perhaps lost?" Grand Eunuch Hong's smile widened. "To get lost to the point of ending up in the imperial palace, you are the first. Five days ago, you should have come once already. I have been waiting for you. I am very curious as to who you are. I think, apart from those few old friends, no one else would be so bold."

Wu Zhu forcefully added a touch of panic to his voice, but he was not skilled at concealing his emotions, so it sounded somewhat fake. "Bound by family and state, I had no choice but to enter. It is inconvenient to pay respects with my true face. I hope senior will forgive me."

Grand Eunuch Hong frowned, his smile vanishing. The other person acknowledged himself as a junior, which meant he was likely a disciple of those old monsters. Judging by the other person's skill, he was at least a super-strong expert among the ninth rank, capable of infiltrating the imperial palace without being discovered by anyone but himself. However, the other person's voice was clearly distorted by deliberately manipulating his throat muscles, so it was impossible to gather any useful information from his accent.

"This is the imperial palace, child," Grand Eunuch Hong sighed. "Surely you can't come and go as you please?"

As he spoke, he extended his right hand, and his entire body began to glide across the ground. In an instant, he was in front of Wu Zhu, his withered hand reaching towards Wu Zhu's face.

…

…

Wu Zhu's face, hidden beneath the black cloth, remained expressionless, but he knew the other person had misjudged his abilities. Now was an excellent opportunity to kill the other person—to kill or not to kill? For the Wu Zhu of the past, it wouldn't be a question, but tonight it was a problem.

His brain calculated extremely quickly, immediately determining that even if he killed the other person now, he would likely pay some price. Most importantly, it might alert other guards in the palace, causing great trouble for Fan Xian's subsequent actions.

So he retreated, crouched, and raised his elbow.

Beneath his elbow was an ordinary steel sword. The sword's edge swept upwards, stabbing towards Grand Eunuch Hong's wrist. The calculation was precise, and more importantly, the contained, unfocused sword intent caused the person the sword pointed at to momentarily lose his composure.

But Grand Eunuch Hong was no ordinary person. He gave a sinister smile and shouted in a shrill voice, "Feint to the left?" There was a hint of surprise in his words, but his hand did not slow. His left hand shot out from his sleeve like a soaring dragon, striking towards Wu Zhu's chest. This palm carried wind, its strength powerful, already among the top techniques in the world.

Wu Zhu retreated again, straightened his knees, and swung his elbow horizontally.

The green sword in his elbow was held in front of him, as if he were about to commit suicide, but it precisely guarded his chest, blocking Grand Eunuch Hong's withered palm with exquisite skill.

"Feint to the front?" Grand Eunuch Hong's voice became even shriller. He retracted his palm, and his entire body began to shake from the waist up, looking extremely strange. After a muffled groan, the old Grand Eunuch converted decades of *zhenqi* cultivation into countless streams of energy, spraying them forward, trying to bind Wu Zhu.

Wu Zhu didn't give him the chance at all, coldly retreating two more steps. These two steps seemed simple, but in a battle between such top experts, they were taken with leisurely ease, avoiding any threat from the streams of energy. But his body swayed, clearly affected by the disturbance of Grand Eunuch Hong's decades of *zhenqi*, appearing somewhat disheveled.

Grand Eunuch Hong's wrinkles deepened, and he looked at him coldly, saying, "Don't think you can deceive the world by changing the direction of your sword. Now that this old man has taken a fancy to you in this forbidden palace, you will stay."

Wu Zhu slightly raised his head to "look" at him, not knowing what he was feeling inside. His next step was to clasp his hands in salute.

Grand Eunuch Hong was startled with a frown!

…

…

A rustling sound filled the air. Wu Zhu turned his back, acting as if the Grand Eunuch behind him didn't exist, and ran towards the palace wall, his speed extremely fast, turning into a trail of dust as he stepped across the grass.

Carrying the sword behind his back was a simple posture, but it was a perfect defense.

"Feint to the rear?" A sinister light flashed in Grand Eunuch Hong's eyes. Without shouting for the palace guards, he shook his arms, and his whole body became like a black bird with a thin torso and extremely wide wingspan, chasing after him.

In a short while, the two of them arrived at the tall palace wall, one in front and one behind. Grand Eunuch Hong coldly looked at the brown-clad man in front, wanting to see what methods he could use to jump over the wall.

Wu Zhu directly rushed to the bottom of the palace wall, not slowing down at all. His right foot stomped heavily on the stone at the base of the palace wall, and the stone instantly sank into the mud. One could imagine how terrifying the power of this kick was. And his forward momentum was converted into upward force by this shock, his entire body being lifted into the air, floating up the dark palace wall like a ghost.

With this leap, he had already traveled a distance of thirty feet. As his momentum waned, he thrust his ordinary long sword deeply into the wall, and his body, using the force of the sword, flipped over and was thrown out of the high wall like a stone!

Grand Eunuch Hong grunted, finally realizing that the other person had calculated everything in advance. *Zhenqi* surged from his body, and at the moment he was about to hit the palace wall, he floated up as well, but his posture was graceful, relying entirely on a mouthful of *zhenqi*, appearing much more elegant than Wu Zhu's previous violence.

Leaping to thirty feet, the thin, old Grand Eunuch lightly pressed a finger on the sword hole left by Wu Zhu, borrowing the force to rise again. Out of the palace wall, he drifted down the smooth wall outside the palace like a large bird in the darkness.

In the process of drifting down, his eyes were like an eagle's, staring intently at the brown figure moving incredibly fast in the Kyoto night ahead, giving a sinister smile, silently passing through the treetops and the residences, following him.

The contest between the two top experts did not make any noise, so the guards in the palace did not notice anything.

———————————————————————————

Like a rat squatting in the darkness beneath the palace wall, Fan Xian slightly turned his head to listen to the faint sound of the wind, stood up, gently brushed the grass and dust from his buttocks, and pressed his hands on the smooth palace wall.

He did not have Wu Zhu's powerful body, nor Grand Eunuch Hong's profound internal energy cultivation, but his *zhenqi* circulation method was different from all the martial arts experts in this world. He could even climb the slippery moss-covered cliffs outside Danzhou City, let alone this palace wall.

This was Fan Xian's greatest reliance.

Like a bat that couldn't fly, he slowly climbed up the palace wall, though slow, it was very steady, and he definitely wouldn't fall. If it suddenly turned into daylight, if someone was watching from afar, they would definitely find a sudden ugly black dot on the vermilion palace wall.

Climbing over the palace wall, carefully avoiding possible sentries, Fan Xian's feet finally safely landed on the grass in the palace. When he was sitting in meditation outside the palace wall, he had reviewed the palace map he designed in his mind several times. Now standing in the imperial palace, looking at the vast palace complex under the night sky, and listening to the faint sound of the distant drumbeats, Fan Xian felt slightly nervous and excited.

The map now seemed to become clear and visible channels. After his last adjustment of breath, he disappeared into the night of the imperial palace, not only without making a sound, but his speed was not slowed down at all. Relying entirely on the memory in his mind, and taking advantage of the cover of rockeries and flowers, he advanced towards his destination. His method was extremely similar to Wu Zhu's method, but there were also some slight differences, after all, his calculation ability was still not as good as Wu Zhu's.

The night was already late, and most of the people in the palace were asleep.

Fan Xian hid in the darkness outside the Han Guang Hall, confirming that there were no top experts in the inner palace, and the real guards with swords seemed to be in the front hall and corner towers. This realization made him frown. The protection of the court's imperial palace was so weak, it was really a very risky thing. What if Northern Qi sent experts to invade on a large scale?

As a petty thief breaking into the forbidden palace, he also had a heart of worrying about the country and the people. Fan Xian was really a wonderful person, but his calculation was actually a bit superfluous. You must know that in this world, only the most top figures in the world could leap over the fifty-foot-high wall without alarming the guards. If such a grandmaster expert really came, ordinary guards would not seem to have any effect.

He forgot that he was the only one who knew Spiderman kung fu.