Chapter 1 Ye Chuxiao's Decision

Ye Chuxiao, upholding humanitarianism, sought Ran Xing's opinion.

Of course, his agreement wasn't within Ye Chuxiao's considerations.

Taking Ran Xing to see Ying Shu, to obtain more benefits and convenience, wasn't something to be done immediately.

Ye Chuxiao still needed to filter which information Ying Shu could know.

As well as the way she would know it, and the best timing.

If these were handled well, they could also provide Ye Chuxiao with sufficiently effective conveniences.

Clearly, now wasn't a good time.

Ye Chuxiao thwarting Jin Buyi's plans again would be a major negative in Ying Shu's eyes.

Before she subjectively felt Jin Buyi, and certain invisible pressures, no matter how Ye Chuxiao played his cards, Ying Shu would still look for opportunities to lean towards Jin Buyi again.

As for the Disciples of Original Purpose who died in the previous conflict?

Ying Shu only needed a passable explanation; she wouldn't care about these people's lives or deaths in essence.

He sealed Ran Xing's five senses, blocked all perception, and even used a talisman to seal and slow down his thinking ability before storing him in the Ba Snake Pouch.

Ye Chuxiao transformed, changing into Ran Xing's appearance.

Then he put on a cloak, passing quietly and quickly through the streets and crowds, heading straight towards the Daheng Imperial Palace as if without a care in the world.

If there was still any place that retained more clues related to Xiao Chi, it would be the Daheng Imperial Palace.

The special nature of the Imperial Palace gave it certain time capsule attributes.

Perhaps traces of Xiao Chi still remained within.

Moreover, whether it was the uniquely positioned Eldest Princess or the powerful Empress Dowager, they should both have a certain degree of understanding of the late emperor played by Xiao Chi's incarnation.

Ye Chuxiao needed to engage in a dialogue with them.

But with Ye Chuxiao's public identity, it would be difficult to communicate with them sincerely... unless he first went to the eunuch's chamber for a snip.

"Xiao Chi entrusted control of his body to Jin Buyi with confidence, which shows he has enough confidence in regaining everything."

"This confidence may come from certain people within the Hidden Dynasty, or perhaps from those in power within the Daheng court." Ye Chuxiao cleared his mind and began to review things internally again. Regardless of whether these ideas were subjective, only with a direction could there be a conclusion; staying in place would only lead to self-disturbance.

"Among them, the Empress Dowager is indeed the most worthy of suspicion. She has enough ability and strength to help Xiao Chi return. In the future described by Ye Chuqi, 'Jin Buyi' took over Daheng almost effortlessly. Without the Empress Dowager's assistance, it wouldn't have been so easy." Ye Chuxiao first grasped an obvious clue.

"And the real Xiao Chi and the Empress Dowager... or some other person in power, must have a certain coded agreement. Otherwise, Jin Buyi secretly sending people to spread the news that the late emperor was not dead, but only in secluded cultivation after faking his death, shouldn't have caused the court to react as it has."

As he walked, Ye Chuxiao re-deduced the information he had.

He couldn't guarantee the accuracy of the deduction, but he couldn't stop thinking.

Every time he deduced a possibility, he would be one step closer to the real Xiao Chi.

"No! It shouldn't just be one person or some people. People's hearts are easily changed. Yesterday's staunch loyalty can easily turn into today's wild ambitions. Everything is just an opportunity."

"If I were Xiao Chi, I would never bet all my expectations on uncontrollable human hearts."

"Assuming I were in Xiao Chi's position, I would have at most, and at least, three preparations. The first preparation should be Xiao Bao'er in the Yunmeng Cauldron. He represents the part of Xiao Chi as an Immeasurable cultivator. As long as this part meets Jin Buyi, who is on the verge of stepping into the Immeasurable Realm again, Xiao Chi will be able to return. If I guessed correctly, Xiao Chi returned through this first preparation in the future Ye Chuqi described."

"And the second preparation is what I speculated earlier, that there is a group of people prepared as hidden pieces by Xiao Chi. They either actively or passively, without even knowing it, undertake this task and will have an extraordinary effect at the appropriate time. Among them, the most eye-catching is the half-dragon, half-human Eldest Princess. She exists in the name of a princess but lives in seclusion. At the same time, there are rumors that she is a successor of Xiao Chi. From the perspective of an 'Eldest Princess,' these are quite contradictory. Even her existence itself actually damages the royal family's face, and she shouldn't be living so carefree."

"The Eldest Princess is only used as a bargaining chip to control Yuan Meng; this is too extravagant. The actual input and output aren't symmetrical."

"As for the third preparation... perhaps it is some unknown switch, a locked trigger that activates at a certain time. It should be fixed, mechanical, and extremely difficult to interfere with. It is the last insurance left by Xiao Chi."

Why was Ye Chuxiao certain that there were only three preparations at most?

Because if Xiao Chi was a qualified planner, he should be very clear that leaving appropriate alternative plans was to prepare a way out for himself.

But if there were too many alternative plans, they would interfere with each other greatly. The more long-term and far-reaching the plan, the more this would be the case.

In fact, those presets that span long periods of time are usually extremely simple in their principles and core, and not complicated.

Because the more complicated they are, the easier it is for them to be seriously distorted and deformed over time.

The Daheng Dynasty was vast.

But the positions at the top were still few.

This was a common problem of any power organization, and if this small peak was filled with too many variables, these variables themselves would interfere with certain expected results.

Ye Chuxiao passed through the crowd and walked through one market after another. He was now close to the imperial city.

Ordinary people had become scarce. Along the wider avenue, those heading to the imperial city by carriage or on horseback were officials in official robes or armor.

They were all essentially cultivators, and their cultivation levels were mostly not weak.

But now, they were indifferent to Ye Chuxiao, who was walking past them, seemingly slowly but actually quickly.

The artifact cloak had an excellent concealment effect, and coupled with Ye Chuxiao's extraordinary cultivation, even if he broke into the imperial city in broad daylight, no one would notice.

However, Ye Chuxiao still stopped at the foot of the imperial city.

In Ye Chuxiao's vision, the imperial city was not only covered by multiple intersecting formations that didn't overlap in the same spatial concept, but also had an Intent Realm great cultivator covering the entire imperial city with some kind of artifact characteristic with warning and defensive properties at a very consistent frequency.

Of course, in addition to these, the Divine Capital Six Guards were also patrolling strictly, traveling within a fixed range according to the activity trajectory determined each month... This part was mainly used to guard against other people and was ineffective against Ye Chuxiao.

"The formations overlap but don't coincide, which can effectively prevent someone from forcibly breaking in with an artifact with Interstice-like attributes."

"Interstice characteristics belong to ignoring spatial fixity, forcibly transferring from one point to another, so that the obstacles between these two points are completely ignored."

"But if the set landing point is itself placed on another layer of formation, this jump is meaningless."

"Of course, if the power is strong enough, you can choose to ignore it and directly push it horizontally. No matter how many layers of formations there are, you can just blow them all up with one punch."

Ye Chuxiao walked while calculating, and slipped smoothly from a gap in the first layer of formation.

Then it was Ye Chuxiao's time to perform.

With his flexible movements and his ultimate understanding and comprehension of formations, he fully demonstrated what it meant to repeatedly jump horizontally in the spatial field of vision.

Clearly it was just the simplest shuttle action, but he regarded this interlocking large formation, which resembled the most complex Luban Lock, as nothing.

"No matter how complex a formation is, it has its inevitable shortcomings, and those are its formation eyes."

"The so-called formation eyes, whether weak or strong, are ultimately the energy release basis of the entire formation. Without these foundations, without the release of this energy, even the most complex formation can only be regarded as empty talk."

"As long as you grasp the trajectory of energy flow, coupled with a little bit of formation knowledge and movement speed, there is no large formation that you can't pass through."

Jumping lightly, Ye Chuxiao penetrated the imperial palace quietly and silently.

What really made him feel a little pressure was still the domain covering the entire imperial city, and the artifact characteristics blessed in the domain.

"Logically speaking, no matter how strong the Intent Realm is, it can't continuously drive the artifact to cover the domain, but since I entered the palace, about an incense stick's time has passed, and the superposition of the domain and the artifact characteristics has been unfolding almost uninterruptedly at a higher frequency."

"This doesn't conform to the common sense of cultivation... but this domain also seems to lack some 'initiative.' It doesn't seem to be manipulated by living people. It seems this is another one of the Daheng Dynasty's foundations, perhaps involving some ghastly operations!"

Ye Chuxiao didn't excessively investigate the principle. After entering the inner palace, he went straight to the Kunling Palace where the Empress Dowager lived.

The overall layout of the entire Daheng Imperial Palace was like a dragon and phoenix embracing. Standing at the foot of the imperial city and looking at it, the surroundings were square and solemn.

But if you could overlook the imperial city from a high position, it would not be difficult to find that it was actually circular.

The Kunling Palace was located on the phoenix crown of the phoenix shape, and it faced the Dragon Pearl location of the Qianyang Palace across the lake.

It involved many needs and principles of numerology, feng shui, and formations. If the emperor and empress lived in the two palaces respectively, the dragon and phoenix would combine and transform into the Daheng's fortune, with an endless trend, and the blessing of many sons and many grandchildren.

Now, the Empress Dowager had been living in the Kunling Palace for a long time and refused to move into the Fude Palace. The little emperor could only continue to live in the Chuyang Palace where the crown prince lived in order to avoid this feng shui.

The feng shui of the dragon and phoenix embracing was a good thing for Ye Chuxiao.

Because he was a man of pure yang, if he rashly entered a complete feng shui pattern, it would inevitably affect the pattern, destroy the balance, and attract attention.

Now the balance didn't exist in the first place, so there was naturally no such thing as destruction.

The Kunling Palace was mainly built with gold and wood, painted with red lacquer, and ancient bird seal characters were engraved on the walls like paintings.

The wide twelve main doors were all tightly closed.

The eunuchs standing at the door all faced outwards, staring at all directions.

But Ye Chuxiao entered the Kunling Palace quietly, like a speck of dust.

He saw that the originally dignified and atmospheric palace was now hung with layers of colorful gauze.

Maidens like fairies in paintings held jade grease, sandalwood, rubbing cloths, and warm water, and stood in various inconspicuous corners, waiting for the summons of the master of the palace.

In the very center of the main hall, a cyan-colored inkstone was enlarged and transformed into a luxurious pool.

Inside the jade bottle hanging in mid-air, abundant spiritual liquid was gushing out, continuously injecting into the pool.

On the left and right hanging paintings, all kinds of beautiful young men were depicted.

They would occasionally come out of the paintings and then enter the pool, causing the mistress of the pool to giggle constantly.

"This... is she playing this wild?" Ye Chuxiao stood on the edge of the pool. After just one glance, he felt that ninety percent of his private documents had been wasted.

"Not to mention the spatula area, even the Baka area hasn't seen anything so wild..."

"This is really an eye-opener!"

"The rumored Empress Dowager looks very well-maintained. She has everything she wants, and her appearance is impeccable, but this taste... is really a bit caught me off guard."

Ye Chuxiao said that he couldn't appreciate it, and even felt a little nauseous.

"Generally, it wouldn't be so exaggerated. If it's so exaggerated, it can only be said that she has suffered some setbacks in certain stages..."

"The Empress Dowager is playing it wild, but in reality, it's no different from using a magic penetration staff. These beautiful young men are just products of spells, not real people."

"Could it be that Xiao Chi never touched the Empress Dowager before? So the Empress Dowager came up with such a method to stimulate Xiao Chi, but it went too far the more she played?"

Ye Chuxiao scratched his chin and slowly retracted his surprised gaze.

"That's not right! My reasoning doesn't hold up. If that's the case... how did the current little emperor come about?"

Ye Chuxiao watched for another five minutes before suddenly taking action, instantly covering the pool with his domain.

The artifact pagoda was released, suppressing the space, and then he casually created an illusion.

To others, everything continued.

Play the music, keep dancing.

This was enough to show that the five minutes of observation by Ye Chuxiao was purely to endure the nausea and collect information, not out of his own curiosity and desire to explore.

In an instant, the world turned upside down, and only the two people in the enclosed space knew that the situation had changed.

The Empress Dowager's cultivation was also not weak. Although she hadn't entered the Intent Realm, she was a Wisdom Realm cultivator and had already stood at the upper level of the cultivator circle.

Of course, if the "Xiao Chi Rebellion" in the history books hadn't caused a significant reduction in the Daheng harem's military preparations, those concubines, palace maids, and eunuchs with powerful cultivation bases accumulated since the founding of the country would be much more numerous.

The Empress Dowager wouldn't be able to be so carefree and compete with the little emperor for power in the court.

After a brief moment of confusion, the Empress Dowager submerged most of her body in the pool to conceal herself to a certain extent, and then said sternly: "Who is it?"

"What kind of evildoer dares to tease me?"

Ye Chuxiao smiled and said, "Tease? Compared to what you just did, Empress Dowager, where am I?"

"If I were Xiao Chi, regardless of whether I was really dead or faking it, I would be so angry that I would jump out of my coffin."

Ye Chuxiao didn't follow the normal routine and do things gradually. He went straight to the point from the beginning.

Of course he had to go straight to the point!

Now the Empress Dowager was in a state of panic. She had been caught in an ugly state, so no matter how calm she looked on the surface, she must be panicking inside.

At this time, if he didn't directly start the fight, would he wait for her to sort out her mentality before coming again?

As for whether or not he had exposed some information.

This information was related to Xiao Chi. What did it have to do with Ye Chuxiao?

If it was exposed, then it was exposed?