Longevity: Sweeping Across the World as an Eunuch

Chapter 40: Chapter 39: The Snowstorm Has Come

The new year arrived.

But in this world, the Great Liang dynasty had no such thing as a "New Year" celebration.

And so,

Su Chen spent his fourteenth lonely New Year’s Eve in the pharmacy.

’The Old Emperor is gone, and the New Emperor has come. I wonder how long this Little Emperor of Great Liang will last.’

With time on his hands, Su Chen carved a few wooden tablets in the pharmacy. The first was for the Tianwu Emperor, who reigned for twenty-four years. Su Chen himself had arrived in this world in the seventh month of the Emperor’s twenty-third year on the throne.

The second tablet was for the Seventh Prince of the Abandoned Emperor, a Deposed Emperor who didn’t even have a reign title. He was on the throne for only a few short months before Great Liang was "set to rights" and returned to the "proper path."

The third tablet was for the one who did the "setting to rights"—Emperor Jianwu, who reigned for ten years.

In the pharmacy, Su Chen held a dagger and meticulously carved the third wooden tablet, this one for the new Jianwu Emperor, the boy emperor who had once again sent the throne of Great Liang off its tracks.

That was right.

This boy emperor had not taken a new reign title. He directly inherited the title of Emperor Jianwu, becoming the New Jianwu Emperor. This year was still the Eleventh Year of Jianwu.

’The Emperors of Great Liang are all short-lived. I wonder how long you’ll be able to last.’

’I hope you can bring about some change for the better.’

Su Chen placed the newly carved tablet for the New Jianwu Emperor on the wooden rack.

Afterward,

he opened the door to welcome the first day of the new year.

He swept the snow from his doorway.

But it was a pointless task. The blizzard this year showed no signs of stopping. In fact, it was growing more and more ferocious. A fierce wind carried the white snow, sweeping across the sky as if to swallow the Great Liang Imperial Capital, which had already weathered thirteen years of turmoil.

"Master Xu."

A Black-robed Eunuch passed by the pharmacy, his steps hurried. He greeted Su Chen with a forced smile before quickly disappearing from sight.

A day passed.

Su Chen spent the entire day in the pharmacy reading medical texts, but not a single customer came for a consultation.

This was not normal.

The new year had brought a blizzard the likes of which hadn’t been seen in a century. Normally, the colder the winter, the more low-level eunuchs and Palace Maids would fall ill, and the better his business would be.

But there were none.

’So, just how many people have to die before this winter finally ends?’

Su Chen couldn’t sleep all night. The words in his medical texts blurred before his eyes, unable to hold his focus.

In the pharmacy, he strained his ears, listening to the roaring blizzard. It was as if he could hear the countless souls of those who had died in the Imperial Palace, their grievances carried on the wind.

On the second day, Su Chen opened the pharmacy’s door early in the morning.

The Imperial Palace had grown even more desolate.

The snow within the palace grounds piled ever thicker, with no one to clear it. He wondered if the Little Black-robed Eunuchs, who were responsible for such menial tasks as snow removal, were already dead.

「At noon.」

At the castration room, cart after cart of bewildered young boys were brought in. Soon, a new batch of Little Black-robed Eunuchs was born.

Even the pharmacy was assigned one of the boys.

He had a rather delicate appearance. Biting his lip, he curled up in a corner of the pharmacy like a wounded animal. Even with medicine applied, the pain from a certain part of his body was impossible to hide.

And with it, the shame of having lost his dignity as a man.

"I don’t actually need an apprentice here,"

Su Chen said to the Blue Robe eunuch before him.

He didn’t recognize this Blue Robe.

He clearly wasn’t newly promoted, which meant he must be a subordinate of one of the other Red Robe Chief Stewards.

"This is His Majesty’s will."

"This year’s winter is too harsh. Many eunuch servants need to be replaced. This is only the beginning. Perhaps you, too, will quietly disappear in this winter. Who knows?"

The Blue Robe finished with a cold sneer, then turned and left.

For a moment,

only Su Chen and the little eunuch remained in the pharmacy.

The atmosphere was heavy with silence.

"My name is Xu Ge, of the pharmacy. I know some medicine. You can take some of the Blood Coagulation Powder from the cabinet. It will help your wound heal faster."

"Here in the pharmacy, you can learn some medical skills from me. In thirty years, when you can leave the palace and return home, you’ll have a trade to support yourself..."

"Of course, that’s if you can survive for the next thirty years..."

Su Chen was the first to break the silence.

The little eunuch was somewhat dazed and said nothing. Only after Su Chen walked away did he drag his aching lower body over to find some Blood Coagulation Powder and take it.

Over the next few days,

Su Chen and the little eunuch lived together. After the boy’s lower body gradually healed, he became diligent and quick-handed, taking on all the miscellaneous chores in the pharmacy.

Just like that,

seven days passed.

In those seven days, there wasn’t a single customer.

It was more than just contrary to common sense; it was unbelievable.

Eleventh Year of Jianwu.

The tenth day of the first month.

Wind and snow raged.

The new little eunuch shivered from the cold as he cleared snow at the pharmacy’s entrance. Su Chen, wrapped in a thick cotton coat, leaned against the doorway, staring blankly at the somber and deathly silent Imperial Palace.

Soon,

one by one, horse-drawn carts pulled loads of cold, desiccated corpses out of the Imperial Palace.

Dozens?

No, more than that.

There must have been hundreds by now.

It wasn’t just the low-level Little Eunuchs in their black robes. Even Palace Maids and some old eunuchs in green robes, who had cultivation, had become corpses.

Eight or nine out of ten of them were familiar faces Su Chen recognized.

’The world’s suffering always flows to those who can endure it, until those who endure can endure no more and become cold corpses...’

Su Chen’s silence deepened.

All those who came to the pharmacy for medicine and treatment, the ones Su Chen had come to know, were the suffering souls of the Imperial Palace.

Suffering souls.

Naturally, no one would care if they died.

’If someone were practicing a Demon Technique, these people would be the best fodder.’

"Brother Xu, a lot of people have died recently. Lady Consort Luo asked me to warn you. It’s best if you don’t go out. Perhaps these people didn’t die at the hands of Demon Fiends..."

Linglong came running over from the Cold Palace, panting as she spoke to Su Chen.

Lady Consort Luo practiced the Martial Dao. Although her cultivation wasn’t high—a mere Fourth Grade—her father’s clan had once guarded the Demon Monster Mountain Range on Great Liang’s northern border. They had extensive experience dealing with Demon Fiends, so she could naturally tell whether their life spans had been devoured by one.

’A Demonic Technique Fragment... a Life-taking Secret Technique...’

’Their appetites are growing.’

’At first, it was just old eunuchs in profound black robes, then young eunuchs. Now they’re not even sparing the green-robed ones with cultivation.’

Su Chen waited patiently.

Several more days passed.

Eleventh Year of Jianwu.

The end of the first month.

Su Chen had walked throughout the Imperial Palace, the Imperial City, and even beyond its walls. His eyes, which could see the Fire of Life Span, had scanned everything. He was now certain that the one person in the Imperial Palace he feared the most—the one who burned with a unique Longevity Fire—had vanished.

Not even a First-Grade Minor Grandmaster, or the Grand Ancestor of Liang who was a Grandmaster-level Demon Fiend, had a Longevity Fire as unique or as fearsome to Su Chen as that one.

’It’s time.’

’Tonight is the perfect opportunity.’

’I’ve been at Jade Marrow Third Grade long enough.’

’I will break through the threshold to the Second Grade!’

’Perhaps tonight, the Wind Snow Sword will see the light of day once more.’

Su Chen looked toward the distant Imperial Study, his expression unreadable.

He was preparing to break through.

From Jade Marrow Third Grade into the Second Grade Internal Organ Realm!

Just then,

the new little eunuch in the pharmacy came to Su Chen’s side. He opened his mouth, hesitated, but finally spoke.

"Master, you’re a good eunuch."

"I’ve heard that all the eunuchs in the palace are twisted, bad people. But you’re a good person. My name is Ye Xuan. I want to ask you to be my godfather, to care for you in your old age and see you off when you pass..."

Su Chen couldn’t help but laugh.

’Care for me in my old age? I’m afraid I’ll never live to see that day.’

"I’m only twenty this year, just six or seven years older than you. Kid, I don’t need you to care for me in my old age..."

Su Chen said with a chiding laugh, waving away the block-headed little eunuch.

Night gradually deepened.

Inside the pharmacy, Mist Star Grass was slowly burning.

Xuan, who had been keeping watch, felt his head sway before he fell into a deep sleep.

The door to the inner room opened.

Clad in a Black-robed Eunuch Robe, with hair as dark as ink and eyes like stars, a spine as straight as a sword, and an extraordinary aura that commanded respect—the most wanted rebel in all of Great Liang had appeared.

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