Great Li Martial God

"Chief Eunuch, we cannot keep dragging this out. If anything happens to His Highness the Crown Prince, neither of us will be free of blame."

The purple-robed Daoist's expression was one of barely concealed urgency, while the white-haired elderly eunuch beside him only stared darkly at the courtyard where Li Musheng and his group were, saying not a single word.

"In the entire Great Xuan imperial palace right now, the only one who might have any hope of besting that young man is perhaps the Old Ancestor within the palace."

The white-haired eunuch finally spoke slowly, but then his tone shifted, "However, unless it concerns the very survival of the Great Xuan imperial palace, the Old Ancestor will never show himself lightly. His Highness the Crown Prince's safety is naturally important, but it is not enough to warrant the Old Ancestor taking personal action."

At those words, the purple-robed Daoist's brow furrowed deeply as he looked at the white-haired eunuch, "Then are we simply going to watch and do nothing?"

The white-haired eunuch was silent for a brief moment, then slowly shook his head, "That man's objective is His Majesty. Until he achieves his goal, His Highness the Crown Prince and the others should be safe for the time being."

As he said this, the white-haired eunuch glanced at the purple-robed Daoist, narrowing his eyes slightly, "And this servant never said anything about doing nothing."

At those words, the purple-robed Daoist showed an unusual expression and looked at the white-haired eunuch with suspicion, "Does the Chief Eunuch already have a good plan in mind to deal with that young man and rescue His Highness and the consorts?"

A faint look of contempt settled on the white-haired eunuch's pallid, aged face, "The Daoist is not a person of the palace, and naturally does not know it as well as this servant does."

The purple-robed Daoist's expression shifted slightly, seeming to grasp the white-haired eunuch's meaning, "The Chief Eunuch intends to use the palace's mechanisms against that man."

"Precisely."

The white-haired eunuch gave a slow nod, "In terms of raw martial power, this servant may be unable to do anything against him. But if he enters the 'Earth Vault Mystery Hall' that was constructed at such tremendous effort within this palace, then even if his martial cultivation surpasses a Martial Saint, he will not escape its mechanisms alive."

At those words, the purple-robed Daoist's expression turned thoughtful, though his brow soon furrowed again, "But if we simply stand here and do nothing, how do we lure him into the mechanisms?"

The white-haired eunuch looked at the purple-robed Daoist, then once again turned his gaze toward the courtyard where Li Musheng and his group were, and said with a slow narrowing of his eyes, "That is not something this servant or the Daoist should be doing. That falls to His Highness the Crown Prince."

At those words, the purple-robed Daoist's expression shifted slightly, but he quickly followed the white-haired eunuch's gaze and said, "The Chief Eunuch means that His Highness should be the one to lure that man into the mechanisms?"

But almost immediately, the purple-robed Daoist shook his head again, "How can the Chief Eunuch be certain that His Highness would do this, or that he would have a way of getting that man to fall for it?"

At those words, the white-haired eunuch waved a dismissive hand, "That depends on His Highness's resourcefulness and capability. If he can manage it, then he will have won a great deal of favor in His Majesty's eyes and be held in even higher regard."

As he said this, the white-haired eunuch fixed the purple-robed Daoist with an indifferent look, "The situation at hand, though it is a crisis for His Highness, is equally a test."

"If His Highness lacks the fortitude and cannot keep his head in a crisis and adapt under pressure, then how will he ever be fit to sit on the throne?"

The purple-robed Daoist's brow creased slightly. He could not help feeling that the eunuch's reasoning was hardly sound. Using a life-and-death crisis as a so-called test for the Crown Prince seemed an unreasonably harsh way to go about things.

But just at that moment, the white-haired eunuch suddenly spoke, cutting through the purple-robed Daoist's train of thought.

"His Highness the Crown Prince truly lives up to being the one His Majesty values most among the princes."

At those words, the purple-robed Daoist stirred and followed the white-haired eunuch's line of sight.

In the distance, Crown Prince Zhao Kuang could be seen walking out from the gates of the courtyard where Li Musheng's group had been, and appeared to be leading Li Musheng and his party deeper into the Great Xuan imperial palace.

"His Highness has not disappointed. The direction he is heading is precisely where the Earth Vault Mystery Hall is located."

The white-haired eunuch let out a thin, effeminate sound, seemingly in good spirits, and gave a quiet clap of his hands. He turned to look at the purple-robed Daoist beside him, "The Daoist and this servant need only sit back and watch. If that man can be trapped in there, this palace will have gained one more formidable puppet to command."

Seeing how confident the white-haired eunuch was in the palace's mechanisms, the purple-robed Daoist considered briefly, and in the end said nothing more.

...

At the same time, the Director of the Hidden Intelligence Bureau of Great Li had transformed into a fleeting blur, racing through the Great Xuan imperial palace at full speed.

Yet no matter where he concealed himself, the eunuch experts behind him always seemed to find him at once.

"They must have some special method of tracking me. It seems there is no way to stay in this Great Xuan imperial palace any longer tonight."

The Director of the Hidden Intelligence Bureau glanced back. In the darkness behind him, beyond the two eunuchs he had already clashed with, there was now a third martial expert whose cultivation was no lesser than theirs. The Great Xuan imperial palace was clearly sending more and more people in an attempt to capture him.

The Director withdrew his gaze and turned his head in the direction of an area he had noticed earlier, where the true qi of heaven and earth had churned with disturbance and powerful martial experts had exchanged blows. Those experts' strength had not been below his own.

The Director guessed the commotion might be connected to Li Musheng. After all, the only other person who had broken into the Great Xuan imperial palace tonight was Li Musheng.

He had no way of knowing at this moment how far along Li Musheng's efforts to rescue his Senior Sister had come, and for the time being he had no intention of investigating. The matter had been entrusted to Li Musheng, and whatever the outcome, it would have to wait until after tonight.

He himself had already been inside the Great Xuan imperial palace for no short time. Beyond being hunted by the eunuch experts behind him, he had already fallen into the palace's traps and mechanisms twice during that time. Had he not been well versed in formation and mechanism arts himself, and had those traps failed to hold him, he would likely have been captured long ago.

This made the Director of the Hidden Intelligence Bureau fully appreciate that the Great Xuan imperial palace's reputation was well deserved, and that it was far more dangerous than he had imagined.

And the palace would never tolerate an outsider running loose within it. If the three eunuchs behind him still could not bring him down, it would almost certainly dispatch even more experts.

If he stayed any longer, his situation would only grow more perilous.

With that thought, the Director of the Hidden Intelligence Bureau withdrew his gaze from the distance, and with a single movement launched himself at speed toward the outer edges of the palace.

The three eunuch experts behind him gave immediate chase, showing no intention of letting him go.

But barely after they had pursued him for a stretch, all three suddenly came to a sharp halt, staring ahead with expressions of utter shock.

In their line of sight, an enormous palm wreathed in rolling true qi had extended from a palace building ahead at some unknown moment. In the blink of an eye it reached upward with a swift, thunderous grab and seized the fleeing Director of the Hidden Intelligence Bureau directly, pulling him down and out of sight into the palace below.

The three eunuchs who had stopped dead exchanged glances, each at a loss for words.

Clearly, whoever had made that move from within the palace was one of the hidden experts residing there.

What they did not know was that person's identity. And what shook all three of them to the core was that the martial aura the figure had let slip while making that move, even perceived from a great distance, had been enough to make their hearts and bodies tremble.

All three understood that whoever had acted possessed martial cultivation that far exceeded their own, and was perhaps even more terrifying than the several Chief Eunuchs who served at the emperor's side.

With that realization, none of the three eunuch experts dared make so much as a rash movement, nor did any of them dare question the matter of someone seizing the Director of the Hidden Intelligence Bureau.

They only performed a bow of greeting from a respectful distance, and called out with careful reverence, "Many thanks to the Senior for capturing the intruder. Your servants dare not disturb Senior's cultivation any further. Does Senior have any further instructions?"

At those words, the palace building in the distance fell silent for a moment, then an extremely aged voice carried out from within, "You may withdraw."

At those words, the three elderly eunuchs naturally dared not say anything further. They bowed together in unison, then withdrew the way they had come, vanishing into the night in a matter of breaths.

...

At the same time, led by Crown Prince Zhao Kuang, Li Musheng and his party arrived before a vast, imposing palace building deep within the imperial grounds.

The palace before them was built with extraordinary opulence, surpassing every other palace building Li Musheng and his group had seen within the imperial grounds.

"Could this be the Great Xuan emperor's sleeping quarters?"

One of the Great Xuan martial world experts showed an unusual expression and called out to Crown Prince Zhao Kuang ahead.

At those words, Zhao Kuang stopped before the great golden dragon doors, gilded and carved with writhing dragons. The few eunuchs standing guard at the entrance looked up to see Zhao Kuang and the crowd following behind him, and all wore deeply puzzled expressions.

Zhao Kuang only gave them a dismissive wave, "Stand to the side."

The eunuchs did not understand, but they all acknowledged the order together and stepped aside at once.

Zhao Kuang strode forward, pushed open the great doors gleaming golden in the glow of the palace lanterns, and walked directly into the ornately decorated, resplendent hall within.

"This is not my father's sleeping quarters. It is a decoy."

Zhao Kuang walked as he spoke, explaining at an unhurried pace, "There are countless people under heaven who wish my father dead. A cunning hare keeps three burrows. Those who do not know better would assume that a palace this lavish must be the emperor's quarters, but they would be wrong."

At this, Zhao Kuang stopped suddenly and turned to look back at Li Musheng behind him, "This place looks like the emperor's quarters, but in truth it is the most dangerous trap in the entire palace."

The moment his words fell, the great doors of the palace slammed shut.

At once, a thunderous rumbling of enormous turning gears rose up, and the ground beneath everyone's feet plummeted rapidly downward. Simultaneously, thick walls of refined iron drove out from above their heads, cutting off the only remaining way back completely.

The Great Xuan martial world experts gathered inside had absolutely no time to react, and every one of them changed expression sharply.

The Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit was the first to recover and act. In the blink of an eye he launched several Fire Cloud Divine Palm strikes upward, slamming into the heavy iron walls above their heads.

The Fire Cloud Divine Palm blasted through the iron walls, which were several chi thick, but from the walls above came a surge of mercury laced with toxic vapors, pouring directly down toward the people below.

At the sight, the assembled Great Xuan martial world experts all showed alarmed expressions and immediately moved to command the true qi of heaven and earth around them, attempting to form a barrier that would block the toxic mercury from above.

But in that moment, everyone made a horrifying discovery. The true qi of heaven and earth inside this palace was extraordinarily thin, bordering on nonexistent.

This meant that even the Heaven-Human experts among them had absolutely no way of drawing on the true qi of heaven and earth.

With no other choice, everyone circulated the true qi within their own bodies, condensing it into a barrier at a distance to plug the hole the Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit had blasted open and block out the toxic mercury.

Only then did the assembled martial world experts fix their gazes on Zhao Kuang with eyes full of killing intent.

But without Li Musheng saying a word, even though every one of them wanted nothing more than to strike this despicable Crown Prince dead on the spot, all of them held back and did not move.

"Young hero, this dog Crown Prince lured us here to trap us all in one net. Please let this old man act and flay him alive."

One of the martial world experts, unable to contain his fury, spoke up at once and asked Li Musheng for permission to act against Zhao Kuang.

But Li Musheng only waved a hand and gave Zhao Kuang a brief, indifferent glance, then swept his gaze around the entire palace and asked, "Where is the Great Xuan emperor? I do not see him."

At those words, all the surrounding martial world experts went briefly blank. Zhao Muning beside him showed an even more unusual expression, staring at Li Musheng.

As a Great Xuan princess she naturally knew that the imperial palace was full of mechanisms and traps. After coming of age she had been granted her own residence by her father and had moved out of the palace years ago, so she was not actually familiar with this particular mechanism trap. But from what Zhao Kuang had said before, and from what she had just seen of the Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit and the others attempting to fight back, she understood clearly that this mechanism trap must be extraordinarily formidable, more than capable of holding martial world experts the caliber of the Crimson Cloud Evil Spirit with ease.

And yet despite all of this, she could not see a single ripple of emotion on Li Musheng's face. He appeared to have no regard whatsoever for the predicament before them.

At this point, Zhao Kuang, whose eyes had been fixed on Li Musheng from the moment the mechanism activated, suddenly narrowed them slightly and gave a clap of acknowledgment, "Your composure under pressure is truly admirable. I am genuinely impressed."

As he said this, Zhao Kuang raised a hand and gestured at the enormous palace that had now sunk deep underground, speaking slowly, "This mechanism is called the Earth Vault Mystery Hall. In the entire Great Xuan imperial palace, only my father and I know of it, along with a small handful of others."

"It was designed and constructed by the finest craftsmen of the Divine Works Hall. They say that even a Martial Saint who falls into it becomes like a turtle in a jar, to be held and killed at will."

At this, Zhao Kuang paused briefly. Seeing that Li Musheng was simply watching him without a word, apparently unconcerned by the situation, Zhao Kuang felt a sudden tightening in his chest and quickly continued, "The Earth Vault Mystery Hall does hold the palace's most dangerous mechanisms, but it is also one of the most secure hidden sanctuaries in the entire imperial palace."

"The reason I brought you here is that I believe my father may have chosen this place for his retreat."

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