Longevity: Sweeping Across the World as an Eunuch

Chapter 39: Chapter 38: Undercurrent

The Little Emperor was furious.

The Imperial Guard searched for the assassin. The next day, the mutilated bodies of several Imperial Guards were found in a corner of the Imperial Palace. A Little Eunuch named Jiyun was also dead beside them.

They hadn’t even bothered to disguise the scene.

Such arrogance!

"Bastards!"

"They have no respect for me at all."

"Investigate!"

"You must find that assassin for me! This is my Imperial Palace, the Inner Palace, not some assassin’s den! Are you Hidden Guards, Imperial Guards, and Killing Martial Guards all useless idiots?"

The Little Emperor’s furious roars echoed throughout the Imperial Study.

That day, the Little Emperor entered a secret chamber beneath the Imperial Study.

Here, a mysterious man in a white robe was meditating on a White Jade Ice Bed.

"Master Chu!"

"Let’s begin the plan."

"I need experts! A massive number of experts! First-Grade Experts and Second-Grade Experts! Without a sufficiently powerful force loyal to me, this Imperial Palace—infiltrated by rebels and overrun with assassins—is not safe at all. If I don’t have strong enough subordinates, I’ll be killed by one of these assassins sooner or later."

"If I die prematurely, won’t all your schemes go down the drain, Master Chu?"

The young Emperor was full of ambition.

...

None of this had anything to do with Su Chen.

「In the pharmacy.」

Su Chen wiped the fresh blood from his hands. He was currently taking the pulse of a frail-looking woman. Although he was holding a wake, he wouldn’t turn away anyone who truly came seeking treatment.

The Imperial Palace lacked many things, but never a shortage of miserable souls. Saving even one was worthwhile.

"Brother Xu, are you hurt somewhere?"

Standing behind the frail, veiled woman was a seventeen-year-old Palace Maid. It was Linglong, whose figure was as exquisite as her name, and she spoke in a soft, worried tone, the concern in her eyes genuine.

"It’s nothing."

"Just slaughtered some pigs and dogs."

He took her pulse for a long time.

Su Chen looked deeply at the frail woman and fell silent.

"COUGH, COUGH..."

"Doctor Xu... what on earth is wrong with me... Please, don’t hold back..."

The frail woman’s violent coughing made her already weak face turn even paler, completely devoid of color.

She was not a Palace Maid, but a consort from the Cold Palace.

She was a consort of the Tianwu Emperor. In the twenty-third year of Tianwu, her entire paternal clan was executed for their involvement in the Eldest Prince’s assassination plot, and she was thrown into the Cold Palace.

It was now the tenth year of Jianwu.

It had been nearly twelve years.

"Brother Xu, what is wrong with Lady Consort Luo? Please say something! The suspense is killing me! Is it some incurable disease?"

Linglong was so anxious she was on the verge of tears.

"Doctor Xu, this is the Cold Palace. I cannot be out for too long. If you can’t diagnose it, why don’t you just grab some herbs for a common cold..."

"I heard some Imperial Guards stole your savings and that you need money to bury Elder Chen. This gold hairpin of mine should be worth three to five hundred taels of silver..."

As she spoke, Luo Yu took the gold hairpin from her head and offered it to Su Chen.

"Your Ladyship, you are... pregnant..."

Su Chen said after a long silence.

The next moment, the gold hairpin fell to the ground.

Luo Yu’s face flushed with rage. She pointed a finger at Su Chen’s face, about to curse him.

"I have lived a life of chastity! Xu Ge, how dare you insult me like this? After twelve years in the Cold Palace, you dare to slander me for taking a lover? You..."

"Linglong, we’re leaving!"

With that, she led the Palace Maid Linglong away, snatching up the gold hairpin and storming off with a flick of her sleeve.

At this, Su Chen’s silence deepened.

’Princess Consort Luo hadn’t taken a lover. Su Chen could see it clearly with his eyes. The light of the lifespan burning within the fetus in her womb, though faint, was identical in essence to that of Emperor Jianwu—that is, Grand Ancestor of Liang...’

’Such a demonic method. It seems that Emperor Jianwu, who failed his "succession" and was sealed in his coffin, has started looking for other ways.’

’I’m afraid the Little Emperor’s position is uncertain again...’

「Three days later.」

Su Chen finished the wake, nailed the coffin shut, and put on a prepared travel token to leave the palace and bury Elder Chen.

’Sending another friend to his grave...’

’Sigh...’

A quiet sigh escaped him.

Su Chen drove the horse-drawn cart carrying the coffin, passing through without obstruction. Soon, under the arrangements of the Funeral Hall, he personally witnessed Chen Ge’s coffin being lowered into the ground, the tomb sealed, and the headstone erected.

From then on, he was the only one left in the pharmacy.

「Late at night.」

Su Chen returned, preparing to sleep.

The door to the pharmacy was knocked upon in a panic. Linglong’s anxious, yet deliberately hushed voice, sounded from outside, as if she didn’t dare to be loud.

"Brother Xu, open up, quickly."

The door opened.

Linglong grabbed Su Chen and started running toward the Cold Palace.

’So soon?’

Su Chen had his suspicions.

Soon, he was brought into the Cold Palace. The Eunuch on duty there was pacing anxiously. His name was Gao Yao. He had once received a great favor from Princess Consort Luo’s paternal clan, and even after her family was annihilated and she lost all power, he remained loyal.

"Quick! Master Xu, take a look, quickly."

On the bed, Princess Consort Luo’s belly was swollen, and she was groaning in pain, not daring to cry out loud.

One could vaguely see the baby inside her belly was eager to get out.

The kind that would tear through her stomach!

’Her belly got this big in a single day? Truly the work of a Demon Fiend.’

"Pardon my intrusion."

Su Chen took out a dagger and began a C-section.

Of course, performing a C-section with no experience was tantamount to murder. Fortunately, he had his Longevity True Qi. Even if he stabbed the wrong place, he could heal it instantly...

Before long, Princess Consort Luo fainted from the pain.

A baby covered in blood was delivered and wrapped in swaddling clothes.

At this, the weakened Princess Consort Luo wore a look of utter disbelief.

In the Cold Palace, Gao Yao and Linglong looked at each other, at a loss for words.

She had actually given birth to a child.

"The world has Demon Fiends and Cultivation Techniques. A birth without a pregnancy shouldn’t be surprising."

"Perhaps."

"This might even be a child bestowed by an Immortal in a dream."

Su Chen left.

「Several more days passed.」

During this time, Su Chen carried on as usual in the pharmacy, treating Palace Maids and Eunuchs. When he had a free moment, he finally found a chance to examine the Demonic Technique Fragment of the Heaven-Devouring Demon Technique and the Life-taking Secret Technique he had obtained from Mum Xuan.

’The Heaven-Devouring Demon Technique. This is the Magic Technique Zhang Gui cultivated. In just three to five years, he went from a normal Third Grade to Second Grade, and then to a peak First Grade expert of his generation...’

’Burning one’s lifespan... it truly is a tyrannical method. No wonder even my Longevity True Qi couldn’t replenish the lifespan he lost...’

Su Chen put down the Demonic Technique Fragment and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Without a doubt, this, like the "Eighteen Golden Body Technique," was a Grandmaster Technique long lost to the world. Only such a technique could be so terrifying.

He had no idea what kind of opportunities Zhang Gui had encountered during the years he was missing, or where he had obtained this Heaven-Devouring Demon Technique.

’And this Life-taking Secret Technique... It seems to be cultivated in tandem with the Heaven-Devouring Demon Technique, borrowing others’ lifespans to aid one’s own cultivation. They complement each other. Where did this come from?’

Su Chen put away the fragmented technique and the Secret Skill.

He had a faint feeling that Mum Xuan’s possession of these two items was likely connected to the Little Emperor. After all, this teenage Emperor had successfully resisted the "succession" of a Grandmaster-level Great Demon Fiend.

He must have some unknown backing, or a powerful figure helping him.

In fact, Su Chen suspected that perhaps every Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace had a copy of this Demonic Technique Fragment and the Life-taking Secret Technique.

During this period, Su Chen made a point of listening for news in the pharmacy.

Sure enough, after the deaths of Li Xi and Mum Xuan, incidents of old Eunuchs dying of old age did not decrease. On the contrary, they increased exponentially. There were even several cases of young Eunuchs suddenly dying of old age.

The low-ranking Eunuchs and Palace Maids were all in a state of panic.

There were also rumors that a Demon Fiend that sucked people’s lifespans had secretly infiltrated the Imperial Palace, and that this Demon Fiend was responsible for everything.

In response to this, the upper echelons of the Inner Palace—be it the Chief Stewards, the Leader of the Three Guards, or the Little Emperor—all acted as if they were blind and deaf. They wouldn’t listen, look, or do anything about it.

「On the last day of the twelfth month of the tenth year of Jianwu.」

That night, it snowed again.

The next day, Su Chen opened the door to the pharmacy, preparing to sweep the snow from the entrance, when the corpse of a young Eunuch—with white hair and withered flesh—fell into the room.

He was dead!

Su Chen was quite familiar with him. It was Li.

He was only fifteen or sixteen, but had been sick often over the past three years. He still owed Su Chen over thirty taels for medicine.

Before he died, Li was frozen in the motion of knocking. A look of joy remained on his face, and one of his hands was tucked into his robes, where there was a heavy coin purse.

Su Chen glanced at it. It was just over thirty taels, the exact amount he was owed for the medicine.

Li had come to pay his debt.

Except, he was dead.

Su Chen stood there for a long time, silent for a long time. He watched as a squad of Imperial Guards, without a word, tossed Li’s body onto a cart like trash and hauled it away.

"Where are you taking the body?"

Su Chen asked.

"Where else? To the Chaotic Burial Mound, of course. Little Eunuch, I advise you not to wander around at night. Otherwise, you’ll end up like him—run into a Demon Fiend that hasn’t been caught yet, have your lifespan sucked dry, and turn into a withered corpse."

Watching as Li was taken away, the thirty-odd taels of silver also brazenly snatched by the Imperial Guard, Su Chen fell silent.

’Is it really a Demon Fiend?’

’Forget it.’

’There’s too much injustice in this world. If you just bear with it, it will pass.’

Su Chen tried to convince himself with these words as he silently tidied up the already-neat pharmacy.

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