Chapter 181 In Here

In the billowing smoke, above the black elixir furnace, a pair of scarlet lights appeared, filled with agility and consciousness, seemingly surveying everything around.

Xue San quietly retreated a few steps, feeling that he was already inconspicuous, and now, it was best to be even less so.

The red-robed eunuch walked to the front of the furnace.

With a wave of his arm, a gust of wind suddenly swept through the palace, and after the thick smoke dispersed, a pixiu (a mythical Chinese hybrid creature considered a powerful protector) phantom was revealed.

This pixiu was entirely black, as if a splash of ink had come to life from a painting, but its imposing aura was undeniable. The only thing different from the black was its pair of bright red eyes, which carried supreme majesty.

"The spirit of the pixiu has left its body," the red-robed eunuch muttered to himself.

"Roar!"

Immediately afterward,

The pixiu let out an angry roar, and the elixir furnace began to tremble violently.

"It wants to completely escape the restraints of the furnace!"

The red-robed eunuch immediately stepped forward, forming hand seals, and wind gathered around him.

"Suppress!"

Then,

A talisman appeared above the pixiu's spirit.

The pixiu raised its head, looking at the talisman above.

After forming the seal, the red-robed eunuch pressed down with both hands.

The talisman fell with a crash!

The pixiu's body strained to support itself, remaining standing even as the talisman touched it.

It was clear that it really wanted to get out.

In fact,

The red-robed eunuch hadn't been talking to himself earlier; the purpose of his words was simply to get the two subordinates of Marquis Pingxi to help.

Just as A Ming had immediately sensed that this red-robed eunuch was extraordinary, the red-robed eunuch had felt that the blood energy of this person, A Ming, was very peculiar.

Alchemists are actually more sensitive to this.

And the dwarf had opened the elixir furnace mechanism so easily, which was enough to prove that these two were capable.

But,

The problem was,

Whether it was A Ming or Xue San, getting them to cause trouble was no problem, but extinguishing fires? Unless their lord personally ordered it, they really didn't have that kind of initiative.

Right now, they were in a state of enjoying the show, with expressions of concern and tension on their faces, but in their hearts, they actually wished the pixiu spirit could come out and wander around, so they could see a big spectacle.

A Ming even asked:

"Why can't this pixiu come out?"

In everyone's established thinking, their lord's pixiu was very well-behaved and docile, and the other three pixiu were also diligent mounts.

Zi Ke directly shouted:

"You wouldn't have resentment in your heart after being suppressed for one or two hundred years?"

This explanation made sense.

Even a loyal and obedient pixiu would have its temperament twisted after being imprisoned here for so many years, not to mention that this one had been suppressed precisely because of its fierce and unruly nature.

"Roar!"

On top of the elixir furnace, the pixiu roared again, and the talisman shattered immediately.

Immediately afterward,

It was as if something had finally been severed between the furnace and the pixiu's body.

No,

To be precise,

A claw suddenly protruded from beneath the elixir furnace.

Only about a fifth of that claw still had some flesh and blood, most of it was already bone, radiating an ancient aura.

Xue San felt that it was a shame that Liang Cheng wasn't here; that zombie would definitely like this kind of thing.

Zi Ke's arrangement was interrupted by the appearance of that claw, and the second talisman failed to take shape in time, allowing the pixiu phantom above the elixir furnace to completely break free and pounce down.

Zi Ke pierced the palm of his right hand with the fingernail of his left index finger, and as blood flowed out, he drew a spell in front of him.

"Seal, suppress, banish!"

"Buzz!"

However,

The pixiu phantom, freed from the elixir furnace, displayed an unbelievable agility, and in an instant, split into three.

Zi Ke's sealing technique had taken shape, but he couldn't really implement it and strike out.

The opportunity was fleeting, and the three pixiu phantoms pierced through the palace gate and landed on the open space outside, instantly merging into one.

"Wuwuwu..."

Like the wails of the dead, endless crying could be heard faintly all around.

The pixiu spirit raised its front hooves,

Stomping hard on the ground,

As if venting some unknown emotion.

However, it didn't cause any sand or rocks to fly, and the bluestone bricks on the square weren't damaged in the slightest, but the horror of this aura could indeed be clearly felt.

………

"Protect the Emperor! Protect the Emperor!"

Rows of armored soldiers rushed to the entrance of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, forming a battle formation.

Shields in front, crossbows behind, and guards with sabers on both wings.

At the same time,

Wei Zhonghe, who had been serving in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, personally stepped forward, with eight red-robed eunuchs behind him.

Thanks to the existence of the palace elders, the eunuchs in the Yan Kingdom's palace had basically all practiced the art of Qi refining, with varying levels and talents, but undeniably, the higher the level of the Qi refiner, the higher the position of the eunuch.

Ji Chengjue also walked to the entrance of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, with Marquis Pingxi, Zheng Fan, standing beside him.

A group of important officials also came out to watch.

At this time,

Dark clouds were already rolling above the palace, and many people recognized that this kind of phenomenon was reminiscent of the time when Cang Fuzi of the Qian Kingdom entered Yanjing and severed the dragon vein.

And at that time, the pixiu phantom had already appeared outside the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

The red-robed eunuch followed closely behind, wanting to stop it.

Further away,

A Ming and Xue San were leisurely almost as if they had melon seeds in their pockets, but when they saw their lord standing there, they immediately realized that the situation seemed a little complicated.

At this moment,

Eunuch Wei leaped up,

Two green ribbons shot out from his sleeves, like two whips, directly lashing at the pixiu phantom.

Qi refiners are truly the experts when it comes to dealing with these spiritual entities.

However,

This time, the pixiu still chose to dodge, its figure moving quickly, not in an exaggerated tumbling way, but in a mirror-like shift.

The construction of the palace emphasized the layout of formations and feng shui. The elixir furnace was the formation eye, and the pixiu had been trapped within it for a hundred years, and had long formed some kind of resonance with the palace's aura.

This was actually its home field.

Eunuch Wei's several attempts failed to achieve any results. Greatly alarmed, he dared not move too far forward, fearing that the pixiu would suddenly surge forward and endanger His Majesty.

At this moment,

Li Liang Shen appeared with a great sword. He was now in charge of the defense of the capital, and the most important part of the capital's defense was the palace.

The previous thunderclap was enough for a strong man of his level to quickly capture and sense it, so his appearance at this time was only natural.

However, just as Li Liang Shen was about to make a move, he was stopped by Wei Zhonghe:

"Go protect the Emperor!"

Li Liang Shen was somewhat puzzled. Although he wasn't a Qi refiner, his sword energy was enough to shatter some spiritual entities once his strength reached a certain level.

"This isn't an ordinary pixiu spirit; it carries the incense of the Great Yan's national destiny!"

This pixiu had been suppressed in the elixir furnace for a hundred years, and that elixir furnace had been used by the palace elders to refine it. After Cang Fuzi severed the dragon vein, the elders retrieved the Daoist orthodoxy and luck from Mount Tianhu to replenish the national destiny, which was essentially done with this elixir furnace, and in essence, with the pixiu beneath the furnace as the medium.

Qi refiners liked to pay attention to this.

Li Liang Shen didn't really believe in this, but his current identity was awkward. He was a criminal who had been reused by the new Emperor, and was even promised that he would be sent to the front lines to lead troops when needed in the future.

At this time, no matter how much he himself didn't believe in these things, he absolutely couldn't show it by acting willfully.

He wasn't Zheng Fan,

Zheng Fan dared to touch the new Emperor's sore spots over and over again, and the new Emperor seemed to be used to it.

But if others dared to do this, hehe, did they really think that the Ji family Emperors were all good-tempered?

Therefore,

Li Liang Shen retreated directly to the front of the army formation in front of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, stabbing a great sword into the bluestone brick and standing firm.

"Follow me to seal and force it back!"

Eunuch Wei ordered, and the red-robed eunuchs behind him all took action together, forcibly casting spells with Eunuch Wei as the core, trying to block the pixiu phantom's maneuvering space.

The safest way was to suppress it, back to that palace, back to that elixir furnace.

The situation suddenly fell into a stalemate.

The Emperor stood there, watching for a long time, and couldn't help but feel a little annoyed.

It could only be said that,

Worthy of being the Emperor who most resembled his father,

He inherited the distrust and rejection of these Qi refiners and alchemic arts that Emperor Yan had when he was alive.

Back then, when Cang Fuzi tried to threaten him by severing the Great Yan's dragon vein, Emperor Yan laughed and urged him to hurry up and do it, and then ordered the Yan army to go south and attack Qian!

And Ji Chengjue had lost his mother since he was a child, and had tasted the coldness of the world under his own father's suppression. It was actually very difficult for this kind of person to place any hope in ethereal things, because they often understood a truth: what was in front of them, no, what was in their hands, was what they truly possessed.

Wei Zhonghe was afraid of breaking something, and didn't dare to make a heavy move. The way he was grinding around made the Emperor extremely disgusted.

He had just been discussing state affairs with the important officials, especially when the Right Deputy Prime Minister suggested that Marquis Pingxi be the Prime Minister. Although the Emperor wouldn't allow it, he sincerely felt that this proposal was very interesting.

Maybe it could happen in the future.

The surname Zheng as Prime Minister, Prime Minister Zheng, hehe.

But unfortunately,

Because of this inexplicable matter, he had been delayed here for so long.

If it had just suddenly snowed, and everyone had brought out warm, well-heated wine to talk about zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and appreciate the snow, it wouldn't have been anything, but at this time, they could only stand and watch;

In the Emperor's eyes,

It was no different from a group of ignorant men and women watching a shaman perform.

The Son of Heaven,

Was experiencing a sense of humiliation.

"Pass on my decree, order Wei Zhonghe to exterminate this rebellious beast!"

The Chu people regarded the Fire Phoenix spirit as a god,

The Yan people, on the other hand, cultivated the pixiu into a mount.

Some things are really different in the bones.

No matter what you are, if you dare to be presumptuous in front of me, you must bear the wrath of the Son of Heaven!

"Your Majesty, you mustn't!"

"Your Majesty, think twice!"

The ministers around him immediately began to advise.

It was better to believe something than nothing. They had all heard rumors about a pixiu in the palace, and now that they had really seen it, they were naturally reluctant to discard this auspicious omen.

It was fine if they didn't respect it, but how could they self-destruct?

"Marquis Pingxi."

"Your subject is here."

"Relay my decree."

"Your subject obeys."

Marquis Zheng stepped forward, took a saber from a guard beside him, walked outside the army formation, and stood beside Li Liang Shen.

He shouted:

"His Majesty decrees that Eunuch Wei quickly exterminate this fiend without delay!"

Wei Zhonghe hesitated upon hearing this, but in the end, he didn't dare to disobey the decree and said:

"Change formation, kill!"

The previous blockade had turned into a kill.

However,

Just as the formation was changing,

The pixiu figure dispersed again, one turning into two, two turning into four, and four turning into eight. In an instant, countless pixiu phantoms had split off on the square in front of the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

And in an instant, they roared and pounced madly towards the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Eunuch Wei and the red-robed eunuchs quickly stopped them, and this time, they didn't hold back, and most of the phantoms were directly shattered.

Li Liang Shen held his great sword horizontally in front of him,

Sword energy erupted,

Not a single straggler could get past him.

Marquis Zheng also silently breathed a sigh of relief, and the magic pill in his chest became quiet.

However,

At this moment,

An extremely strange scene appeared;

The pixiu phantom seemed to appear out of thin air, passing through Wei Zhonghe and the others' interception, bypassing Li Liang Shen, and jumping over the guard formation in front of the Hall of Mental Cultivation,

Directly,

Appearing in front of the Emperor.

Some of the ministers around him instinctively retreated in fright, while others instinctively pounced towards the pixiu phantom to protect His Majesty.

And the Son of Heaven,

Maintained his standing posture,

Without moving.

"Roar!"

The pixiu's roar

Made many ministers nearby feel dizzy and extremely painful, as if an ear-splitting sound wave had appeared in their ears.

Many of the guards nearby were forcibly enduring this pain to protect the Emperor, including Li Liang Shen, whose figure had already flashed over.

However,

Everyone who was capable of making a move stopped subconsciously at this moment.

Because this pixiu phantom was very, very close to the Emperor; in fact, its nose had already touched the Emperor's body.

Although this was just a phantom and couldn't cause any real damage, it could devour a person's soul.

If this pixiu was likened to an assassin, then at this moment, the assassin's blade was actually resting on the Emperor's neck.

It wasn't that the red-robed eunuch, Wei Zhonghe, and Li Liang Shen hadn't done their duty in protecting him; it was purely because this was the palace, but it was also the pixiu's home field.

Wei Zhonghe had entered the palace from the Prince's residence, but this pixiu had lived in the palace for who knew how many years.

Everyone was afraid to move.

The pixiu's phantom seemed to be carefully smelling the scent on the Emperor's body.

Those scarlet eyes occasionally revealed a thoughtful and puzzled light.

And the Emperor, from beginning to end, just stood there, without retreating or showing fear.

Ji Lao Liu could joke around with Zheng Fan without any airs, but in front of his ministers, in front of these guards, he was the Emperor.

He had to maintain the appearance of the Son of Heaven.

You,

Resemble him greatly,

But,

You are not him.

The pixiu's figure began to fade.

Then,

It dissipated,

And in an instant,

It appeared hundreds of feet away again.

No one had time to care about it at this moment, and they all swarmed to completely protect the Emperor.

The Emperor himself wasn't nervous, but the eunuchs around him were really scared to death.

At this moment,

Someone exclaimed,

"It's gone to the Hall of Offering Spirits!"

Back when Ji Lao Liu's royal grandfather was on the throne, he advocated alchemic arts and built many halls and temples in the palace.

After the late Emperor ascended the throne, he punished those alchemists and left the Taoist temples and Buddhist temples, which were renovated and used as offices for various departments, improving the officials' working conditions.

The Hall of Offering Spirits was also preserved. It had once housed the royal grandfather's spirit, and now, the late Emperor's coffin was also placed there.

The Great Yan's ancestral system was that the new Emperor would first ascend the throne and then manage the state funeral, and during the funeral, the prime minister was assassinated by the "barbarians," and the new Emperor issued an edict declaring war on the barbarians.

With the war starting, the state funeral continued to be postponed.

Now that the war had just ended, it was reasonable to choose a date to allow the late Emperor's coffin to enter the imperial mausoleum.

But now, because there hadn't been time yet, the coffin was still in the Hall of Offering Spirits.

The direction in which the pixiu phantom was heading was precisely there.

The Emperor pushed away the guards around him,

And said:

"Don't allow that beast to disturb the late Emperor's rest."

……

Zheng Fan had been to the Qian Kingdom's palace, where the officials lived in warm rooms in winter, wearing only a robe and baring their chests. The Fan family's ancestor also had a warm room that was spring all year round.

By the same token, different layouts and designs could seek warmth, and naturally, they could also provide cooling.

The Hall of Offering Spirits was inherently colder than the outside, and also had the addition of ice blocks.

In addition, there was cold jade in the late Emperor's coffin to prevent the body from rotting.

At the entrance of the Hall of Offering Spirits,

There were many guards, called the spirit-guarding guards.

They saw the appearance of the pixiu phantom and immediately stepped forward to stop it.

But in the next moment, the pixiu's phantom disappeared again.

Immediately afterward,

The pixiu's phantom appeared inside the Hall of Offering Spirits, with the late Emperor's coffin in front of it.

Found it,

So,

You were here.

For nearly two hundred years, it had slept at the bottom of the palace.

It had witnessed many Emperors being hailed with long life in this palace;

But only,

Only this one could resonate with it.

You,

Me,

Are trapped in this palace, enduring boundless pain;

You,

Can sense my existence, can see me, can resonate with me.

You,

Live very hard,

Me,

The same.

Once,

It had said to this Emperor, the only one it had respected and valued in two hundred years,

Extend your hand,

Me,

Can extend your lifespan.

The Regent of the Chu Kingdom was actually using this method, so he was confident that he could live long, and that he could clean up the broken bottles and jars and start over.

But Emperor Yan chose to leave this palace and go to the back garden.

Every day, he took pills that would bring him great pain, squeezing his potential in order to support himself for a few more days, waiting, waiting for the two Princes to enter the capital.

He was taking pills, but he disdained the true god in the elixir furnace.

The last time,

Was not long ago,

Emperor Yan returned to the palace.

The pixiu called out to him again,

Me,

Can give you, a longer life, you need it, you desire it, you hate, hate yourself, that Heaven won't grant you more years!

For hundreds of years,

I have coldly watched the birth and death of many generations of Emperors,

This is the first time,

Truly,

To look at an Emperor properly.

You are worthy of my descent!

……

And at that time,

In the Imperial Study,

Emperor Yan took a nap.

Eunuch Wei was serving carefully beside him.

In his sleep,

Emperor Yan suddenly uttered three words,

Making Eunuch Wei tremble in fear.

Those three words,

Were:

"Beast, get out!"

——————

The community was without power for a day today, which affected my writing, I will try to have another chapter before 12 o'clock, hold on everyone!