Chapter 4 Shangyi Bureau, Outer Office II

As Shinju's senses gradually returned, he found himself no longer in the same place, but had been moved by someone to a dark room where he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. A strange herbal smell filled the air, and upon closer sniffing, he discovered a faint smell of blood around him.

Beneath him lay a large, cold, hard object, with rough bindings on his hands, feet, and wrists. Shinju blinked in the darkness, already knowing where he was.

Today is the day the Grand Eunuch is coming to select people to enter the palace. It seems that someone doesn't want him to appear in front of the Grand Eunuch.

They even resorted to using sleeping pills, but if he hadn't coincidentally lost his senses, they would never have been able to get him here.

To be honest, his senses have been failing more and more frequently lately. This is because his True Immortal Body is like a large, intricate but broken machine; every time it operates, it consumes a great deal of his mental and physical energy, making him sluggish and his body heavy. Now that his limbs have returned to normal, the burden on his True Immortal Body has reached its maximum, making him even more prone to fatigue than when he first arrived with his limbs crippled.

Therefore, to conserve energy, he would enter a deep sleep whenever he had a spare moment. However, when he was out, he had to remain vigilant at all times, which meant he had to keep a sliver of hearing, listening to everything around him. As a result, after using all five senses for a long time, he would inevitably experience temporary malfunctions.

Even now, Shinjuku feels a bit overwhelmed. Without a short rest, it might not be easy for him to break through the gate.

But who told those people to drug him?

The sleeping potion contained datura, and might even have been mixed with aconite, making it quite toxic, though the amount inhaled through the mouth and nose was very limited. However, in just a few dozen breaths, Shinjuku amplified the toxins from the sleeping potion he had already inhaled within his body.

The next moment, his heart started racing, he felt nauseous, his body temperature soared, and even his limbs started to spasm.

After brewing for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Shinju finally managed to solidify the toxins in his body and block them in several acupoints on his left arm.

After successfully disabling his left hand, his breathing immediately became lighter, and his legs were filled with strength.

Just as Masaya was about to break free of the rope around his ankles, get out of bed, and kick the door open, the door to the torture chamber suddenly opened, someone walked in from outside, and then turned around and bolted the door shut.

The candles on the four walls were lit, gradually illuminating the gleaming shackles, wooden fetters, large iron cauldrons, finger clamps, iron brushes, large brambles, clubs, and other instruments of torture hanging on the walls. At the same time, the shadows of the instruments of torture swept across the walls one by one, with the light and shadow alternating, making the surroundings feel cold and eerie.

Mayuki could feel the gaze of the other person in the room. He pretended to be asleep, preparing to seize the opportunity.

After a while, the man muttered to himself, "Hey, this one they brought in is even prettier than that brothel phoenix! It's not easy, not easy at all. Finally, there's someone worthy of me, Old Lu Tie."

These words piqued the curiosity of Mayu, who was pretending to be asleep, so Mayu slowly lifted his eyelids and looked toward the source of the sound.

A burly man stood at the head of the bed, only slightly taller than the lying man, Shinjuku. He wore a short, ochre-red outfit, had a full beard, and the old scars crisscrossing his face looked like writhing dark worms in the flickering candlelight.

Shinjuku's bright, clear eyes widened instantly, "..."

When Tie Laolu saw that the boy was staring at him blankly after waking up, he was overjoyed and eagerly tried to kick off his shoes and climb into bed.

He got into bed, and Masakura rolled off the bed in one go.

Their positions were instantly reversed, and the two stared at each other for a while.

Tie Laolu was the first to attack, "Hey, why are you running away?" Surely you don't look down on him? That can't be! In the past, who hasn't been brought into the torture chamber crying and begging to be let do it?

Tie Laolu pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and then suddenly seemed to realize something, exclaiming with a look of sudden enlightenment, "Oh! You're afraid I'll look down on you for being a eunuch? They mentioned it to me a long time ago. But who am I? Even if being a eunuch is considered unlucky, I'm not afraid. See my clothes? They were made by the Imperial Household Department. This bright red color can ward off evil spirits!"

While speechless, Mayuki astutely grasped the blind spot in the other person's words and asked him, "Who are they?"

Tie Laolu was stunned. "You don't even know who you've offended? Tsk tsk, how pathetic. Don't be afraid, come with me, they won't dare do anything to you."

"Then what did they want you to do to me?" Seeing that he was unwilling to reveal the other party, Shinju asked again, going around in circles.

"I didn't intend to do anything, just let me give you a flogging, just to show it. Don't worry, once you're with me, I naturally won't touch any of the tools in this room." Tie Laolu glanced around at the various torture instruments on the four walls, then turned his gaze back to Zhen Su.

At this moment, Zhen Su slowly stood up, becoming a head taller than Tie Lao Lu who was standing on the stone bed. He looked down at Tie Lao Lu, squinted, and asked, "What did I do wrong?"

"You didn't show up in front of the Grand Master today, and you didn't participate in the selection. Giving you a flogging is too lenient."

"It's clearly you who have trapped me here, that's why I can't go..." Shinjuku said, then suddenly understood the intricacies of the situation. These people had bound him and locked him up in the torture chamber simply to create a fait accompli: that he had disobeyed the Grand Eunuch. Then, not only would his chance to enter the palace be gone, but even the fact that he had been subjected to this private torture before and after the fact would be questioned, and no one would dare to uphold justice. This was because no one could be certain whether the Grand Eunuch had authorized this.

What a clever reversal of cause and effect! In the cultivation world where the strong are respected, Zhen Su has always disdained to ponder such low-class and despicable methods, but he never expected that this time, he would be caught in this trap.

Tie Laolu was still trying to entice Zhen Su to do it with him, but seeing the unfriendly look in Zhen Su's eyes, he thought, since the soft approach won't work, I might as well use the hard one.

"You ignorant little brat, no, you little brat, you won't shed a tear until you see the coffin! I was just talking to you nicely, did you think I had a good temper? Let me tell you, there are countless eunuchs inside and outside the palace, high and low in rank, all of whom have been tortured by my hand!"

Tie Laolu took a section of rattan whip from the wall and brushed it with an iron brush until it was covered with dense bristles. Then, with a crisp "snap," he threw it to the ground, raising a cloud of fine dust.

Then he reached out and tried to tear off Majutsu's clothes, but Majutsu pulled hard and gripped his clothes tightly with his right hand, saying, "Don't pull my clothes off."

"Let go! Do you have a choice?!" Tie Laolu pulled with brute force, and in an instant, a large expanse of bare back, as white as milk, was exposed to his view.

Tie Laolu's hand holding the whip suddenly stopped. After regaining his breath, he lashed out at Zhen Su's back.

To everyone's surprise, when the whip struck, the boy's jade-like skin, which was thinly covered with bones, was left without a single scratch, remaining as white and pure as snow.

At first, Tie Laolu thought he was being gentle with her and subconsciously reduced his strength, but after a few more strokes, there was still no blood or bruise.

Tie Laolu sensed something was wrong and began to exert more and more force with each thrust, not holding back at all. He even clenched his jaw and pulled upwards with all his might. But even so, at most, he could only leave a faint pink mark on the snowy back, which would disappear in an instant. If he had blinked in the middle, he probably would have missed it.

Shinjuku was sweating profusely from the effort, and the slight itch on his back made him want to laugh, but he managed to hold it in.

Tie Laolu was so angry he could barely speak, "You, you... you didn't even get a scratch! This, this! I used all my strength, this shouldn't be happening! Could it be, you're some kind of monster?!"

After thinking for a moment, Shinjuku casually said, "I have thick skin and don't get many scars since I was a child."

Upon hearing this, Tie Lao Lu nearly jumped up in anger, wondering if this man even wanted to listen to what he was saying. He looked like a jade sculpture, how could he be described as 'rough' or 'thick'? Besides, if he were to leave a scar, it would have to be scabbed over first! This guy couldn't even make a single cut! If he were whipping someone else, he could have turned them into a pulp with that kind of force!

Before long, Tie Laolu finally got tired. He threw aside the vine whip that had never been stained with a drop of blood and slumped to the ground in a daze.

A moment later, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shinju get up and walk gracefully toward him. Only then did Tie Laolu come to his senses and hurriedly retreat to the corner of the wall. Shinju and his brother went over and patted his shoulder. It seemed like a light pat, but in fact, his palm held a tremendous force, almost causing Tie Laolu to sink into the ground.

Tie Laolu's face turned ashen, and he cried out, "Ghost! No, immortal, great immortal, please spare me! I beg you to spare me! I will tell you everything I know! I will never hide anything!"

Mayuki didn't mean to scare people like that, but he still managed to find out the identity of the person behind it all.

After receiving the answer, Shinju remained silent, which made Tie Laolu uneasy. He racked his brains trying to figure out what else this great Buddha wanted to hear.

After thinking it over and over, Tie Laolu seemed to have really thought of something, and hurriedly said, "Ah, right! I remembered something. They even gave me this thing, saying it was to add to the fun, but I, no, I'm useless at it!" Actually, he hadn't had a chance to use it, but of course he didn't dare to say it.

Tie Laolu rushed to the table, grabbed a white porcelain bottle, and then climbed back to present it to Zhen Su as if it were a treasure.

"What is this?" Shinju pulled out the stopper, didn't smell it, just looked at it, and found that it was filled with fine, multicolored powder.

"Great Immortal, this is Five-Stone Powder. Hiss—no." Tie Laolu suddenly snatched the bottle and sniffed it, his face immediately darkening. "It's really wrong. This is 'Secret Five-Stone Powder,' far more poisonous than ordinary Five-Stone Powder. You should have heard of it, right? After taking this, countless nobles and imperial relatives became paralyzed and died suddenly. As a result, along with ordinary Five-Stone Powder, it was banned by the court and explicitly prohibited from being consumed by all people in the capital."

This medicine can cause a person to feel hot all over, extremely excited, and have blood flowing through all seven orifices. Afterwards, they are very likely to become mentally impaired, end up partially paralyzed, or even "ascend to heaven".

Tie Laolu felt a chill run down his spine. He never expected that after so many years of cooperation, those people would now be planning to abandon him as well.

Tie Laolu inexplicably felt that he and Zhen Su were actually on the same side, and secretly thought that the other party must be feeling just as bad as he was, so he decided to comfort the beautiful woman. But to his surprise, Zhen Su put the porcelain bottle into her sleeve, her face showing no displeasure, but instead a smile as bright as spring sunshine, and said to him:

"Do me a favor."

A note from the author:

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