I Can Deduce Arts by Slaying Demons

Chapter 534: Chapter 354: I Will Not Die! (Part 2)

"I must find out her true origins!"

The silk handkerchief fluttered down under the blazing sun, and the double lotus embroidery stitched at the corner was covered in ashes the moment it touched the ground.

Peng Lie’s pupils shrunk instantly.

"West City, Envy Immortal Tower."

Lu Xuan crushed the handkerchief with the toe of his shoe, leaving a pitch-black footprint on the white silk surface.

"Last night, this woman left this item behind, causing me to be infected by Yin Qi."

A terrifying surge of Gang Qi erupted around Peng Lie, cracking the bluestone slab beneath him with a web-like pattern: "Xuan, you mean..."

His voice trembled, his white beard fluttering without wind, "Aside from the Eastern Palace traitors, is someone else secretly harming you?"

The midday cicada chirping abruptly ceased.

The surrounding imperial guards collectively stepped back half a step, and the clashing of iron armor sounded eerily loud in the dead silence.

The commander of the guards had sweat beads seeping from his forehead, glinting with fragmented light under the scorching sun.

"Your Excellency, you..."

The commander braced himself to step forward, his trembling hand causing the sword at his waist to sway continuously.

He looked at the endless bone ashes on the ground, his Adam’s apple moving with difficulty, his voice filled with probing and fear.

"Your Excellency, His Majesty has already learned of the news, just in Weiji Hall..."

Before he could finish his words, an invisible pressure suddenly descended.

The commander’s knees weakened uncontrollably, almost causing him to fall to the ground.

Behind him, dozens of guards turned pale, their spears "clang" falling to the ground.

Lu Xuan stepped forward slowly, standing right in the commanding officer’s face, gazing down at him from above.

"Did I allow you to speak?"

Lu Xuan’s voice was soft, yet it plunged all the guards present into an icy abyss.

The commander’s Adam’s apple rolled up and down but he dared not utter another sound.

"Get out!"

Peng Lie stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes sweeping over the trembling guards, a hint of a cold smile on his lips.

If not for his concern over the identity of the martial Duke of Wu and royal father-in-law, these guards might have long deployed those forbidden weapons within the imperial city’s grand array.

Those seemingly casual three words caused the seven-foot robust commander to kneel down with a "thud."

"Go back and report to His Majesty."

Lu Xuan’s voice pounded like a death sentence on the soldiers’ hearts.

"Just tell him— it was the Crown Prince who invited his grandfather into the palace."

As soon as the words fell, the tightly-strung shoulders of the imperial guard commander collapsed instantly, cold sweat soaking through the chain armor on his back, cascading down the spine.

He knelt down heavily, the bronze knee protector clashing against the blazing bluestone slab with a muffled sound, his forehead bowing deeply to the ground, nearly forming a dent into the stone slab.

"Your humble servant obeys! Thanking the Crown Prince for your grace!"

The trembling voice of the commander held a surprising joy of surviving a catastrophe.

Silence fell over the square, only the sound of heavy breathing rising and falling.

The scene of Peng Lie breaking through the wards with force was still vivid before them.

As palace guards, letting Peng Lie in was a dereliction of duty.

Hence, the guard commander thought he would lose his head over this grievous violation.

Unexpectedly, he finally awaited the Crown Prince’s life-saving decree.

The Eastern Palace’s decree is the golden badge of immunity that can overturn the heavens and earth.

The Crown Prince’s regency system in the Wenjing Dynasty has been passed down for a hundred years, and the golden seal is never mere decoration.

In court, the imperial orders of the Eastern Palace’s Crown Prince can make a grade-three official lose office overnight.

Even the rise and fall, honor and disgrace of aristocratic families are determined merely between the Crown Prince’s brushstrokes, within his expressions.

The commander furtively raised his head, only to see under the blazing sun, Lu Xuan standing with a posture straight as a sword.

The golden lines stitching on his purple-gold dragon robe forming the five-clawed true dragon surged in the heatwave.

The dragon’s scales glistened with a cold light, as if ready to break through the fabric and soar into the sky the next moment.

"Crown Prince, your humble servant takes leave!"

Before the commander could finish, he scrambled to get up from the scorching bluestone.

Ignoring the need to straighten his tilted helmet, he hastily performed a curt salute to Lu Xuan, turning around with his sword nearly slipping from his waist, clinking crisply against his armor.

Behind him, the guards fled towards the palace gates like birds startled by a bowstring, shoving each other as they ran.

The metal knee guards screeched against the stone slabs, raising clouds of dust.

In an instant, the previously tense square returned to silence.

How had these palace guards ever been in such a sorry state?

Usually, they wielded ferrous spears, guarding the forbidden grounds of the imperial city with great pomp.

But today, facing Peng Lie’s fiery internal energy that surged around his body, creating a terrifying pressure that could scorch and distort the air, everyone was trembling with fear.

If it weren’t for waiting for Lu Xuan’s life-saving words, who would be willing to stay in such a perilous place?

They recalled the horrifying scene of Peng Lie melting through the rebel party’s silver armor with his bare hands.

Many Imperial Guards felt a chill down their spines—in front of this Grandmaster, their flesh and blood were no different from roast pigs waiting to be cooked.

Until they dashed out of the Eastern Palace gates, watching as the towering city walls gradually receded, their tense nerves dared to relax slightly.

Several new soldiers leaned against the wall, gasping for breath, beads of sweat the size of beans crashing to the ground, quickly evaporated by the scorching surface.

"Let’s go, Xuan!"

Peng Lie spoke again, his fiery Gang Qi bursting forth, causing the blue bricks beneath his feet to crack inch by inch.

The blazing sun tinged his silver hair with a bloody hue, and the fury swirling in his eyes was like a flood about to break free.

"This royal grandfather wants to see where the West City Envy Immortal Tower gets its courage from."

"Daring to plot against the Eastern Palace Crown Prince, the heir of our Wenjing Dynasty!"

"These traitors, I think they want to rebel!"

Peng Lie’s thunderous roar made the bronze bells on the eaves ring wildly, startling a flock of birds into flight.

In the distance, the guarding Imperial Guards felt an invisible pressure rushing toward them, their legs weakening, and barely able to hold their long spears.

Before long, eight snow-white Ferghana horses neighed, shattering the palace path as they pulled an exquisitely decorated gilt carriage, speeding out.

When the wheels rolled over the white marble steps, they sent up a trail of sparks.

.....

Inside the Yuji Hall.

The hall was filled with the fragrance of Dragon’s Saliva, but it couldn’t cover up the decaying aura.

The commander of the Imperial Guards, who had just been fleeing in panic in the Eastern Palace square, was now prostrated on the cold jade steps.

His forehead pressed against the ground engraved with cloud and dragon patterns, he didn’t dare to breathe loudly.

"You mean, my Crown Prince sent you back."

A hoarse, low voice drifted down from the steps of the ninth heaven, resembling a threadbare whisper of someone long ill.

The commander’s whole body trembled violently, his fingertips digging deeply into his palm: "Reply, reply to His Majesty, it was indeed the Crown Prince’s own words..."

"It was he who invited my royal father-in-law into the palace!"

This last sentence broke the stagnant air of the hall.

The commander of the Imperial Guards felt his throat tighten, as if invisible hands were gripping it.

"Hehehe... hehehehe..."

In the silence, the voice of an elderly laughter echoed endlessly in the hall.

As the laughter faded.

The gilt coiled dragon screen behind the throne slowly parted to both sides, revealing the hem of a bright yellow dragon robe.

A middle-aged emperor, around fifty, supported himself with a jade handrail as he rose, the dragon patterns on the bright yellow silk faintly visible.

As he stepped, the hem of the dragon robe swept over the jade steps, unable to conceal his hunched figure.

In his prime years, his pale face was shrouded in an inescapable darkness, like a withered tree stripped of its essence by time.

In the hollow eyes, the turning of the murky eyeballs produced a gritty sound.

That appearance was like a living dead crawling out of the yellow springs, leaving only the shell of an emperor.

"My Crown Prince..."

"Has learned to make decisions on my behalf..."

"Cough, cough..."

The emperor suddenly erupted in a violent cough, black-red blood froth leaking through his fingers.

He looked down at the foul blood in his palm and began to laugh softly.

"Get out!"

The commander of the Imperial Guards trembled like a sieve, his forehead thudding on the cold jade steps.

"Yes, yes, yes!"

"This humble servant gratefully acknowledges Your Majesty’s grace!"

He scrambled up, stumbling and tumbling out of the vermilion palace doors.

The hall returned to deathly silence, only the emperor’s heavy breathing echoing under the vast dome.

He slowly turned, his murky eyes fixed intently on the gilt throne inlaid with a nine-clawed golden dragon.

"I will not die!"

This hoarse whisper carried a mad obsession.

The supreme imperial power was a treasure he had spent twenty years painstakingly acquiring, how could he easily hand it over?

A struggling expression surged like a tide on the emperor’s face, finally transforming into a chilling sneer.

"I refuse to believe I can’t control that wretched thing!"

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