Chapter 70 Liquidation One

The Empress Dowager had never been treated like this before. Even after being helped out of Zhengren Hall by Granny Qin, she was still in a daze, clearly stunned by anger.

Consort Yan, completely oblivious to Prince Zhen's words, didn't even know who he was addressing until Tang Quan coldly ushered her out of Zhengren Hall. Only then did she realize the truth. Could it be that her actions on the frontier, which she had asked her brother to do, had been discovered? Was Prince Zhen actually supporting that vixen?!

Consort Yan was both shocked and frightened. Staggering, she pushed her maid and said, "Quickly return to the palace! We must send a message to my brother as soon as possible..."

Inside the side room, Zhen Su observed the commotion outside the hall with his divine sense. As soon as the crowd dispersed, he looked up and met the burning gaze of the Zhen King, who was sitting on the Luohan bed.

Although the King of Zhen did not speak, his eyes clearly conveyed the message "Come here."

There was only a narrow gap beside the King of Zhen. Zhen Su knelt on the edge of the bed, without moving the low table in the center of the Luohan bed, but squeezed sideways between the King of Zhen and the low table.

The King of Poison glanced at the obstructive low table, but instead of pushing it away, he tightened his arms and pulled the person in his arms even closer.

Since returning to the capital, Prince Zhen could clearly sense that Zhen Su had become much more clingy. He had originally planned to eliminate all current hidden dangers and wait until the dust settled on the disputes between the aristocratic families before taking further steps. However, even though his internal injuries had not fully healed and he was unable to do anything, he found himself acting like a fool simply because the other party was taking the initiative to get close to him. He had completely lost his patience and simply abandoned the safest approach, opting instead to cut the Gordian knot and put the reckoning on the agenda.

He couldn't wait any longer.

Meanwhile, Masakuni, who was standing next to the King of Zhen, was afraid of adding to the burden on the King's ailing body and affecting the recovery of his wounds. Therefore, he did not dare to press down on the other party. Unconsciously, his body slid down and finally curled up into a ball, resting his head on the King of Zhen's lap.

This lingering affection caused the King of Zhen's pupils to shrink, and he held his breath for a long while before slowly exhaling.

The warm, heavy touch on his leg was real and tangible. That section of snow-white, smooth nape was exposed before his eyes, its shimmering white light moving with each breath, making his heart flutter.

Shinjuku slightly moved his head and rubbed it against his leg. Every tiny movement seemed to be magnified, causing the man to tremble all over and feel a tingling sensation rushing to the top of his head.

The King of Poison used all his inner strength to suppress the reaction in a certain area, trying his best to stabilize the Purple Mansion and prevent it from collapsing in the great tremor.

After a long pause, the King of Zhen's temples were damp with sweat, as if he had just regained his senses. He composed himself and asked in a low voice, "How does it feel to be a new official?"

Now it was Maju's turn to catch his breath, and after a long while he stammered, "Not...not bad."

In reality, Masaya was not in a good mood when he returned from the horse farm. However, something happened that made him excited, so he didn't pay attention to the question from the King of the Sword and answered casually.

And that was the fact that his dantian had completely transformed into a poison pill at that moment!

Even with his head resting on the King of Poison's lap, Zhen Su continued his cultivation. While serving the King of Poison, he also focused intently on refining the poison in his secondary dantian, never ceasing the refining of the poison and the "casting" of the poison pill. Due to this frequent contact, Zhen Su quickly noticed that as long as he was near the King of Poison, the excruciating pain, burning sensation, and even hallucinations experienced during the poison refining process would not occur. Furthermore, if the poison took effect first and he then approached the King of Poison, those symptoms would also disappear. This indicated that the dragon energy emanating from the King of Poison did not need to be absorbed; simply being close to him was enough to nourish him.

So, by sticking things on and off all the time, Shinju's training progressed by leaps and bounds.

Having only been back in the capital for a short time, his dantian had already completed the transformation of the poison pill to a pure, incomparably black, round pill, radiating a flawless luster, perfectly natural, showing no trace of the thousands of holes and hundreds of thousands of repairs it had undergone.

Next, it will be time to nurture poison with poison. Using even larger quantities of poison, the poison pill will be repeatedly refined and tempered, much like forging a sword. Only through countless hammer blows can a true golden core be forged. At that time, he will advance to the late stage of the Poison Realm. Furthermore, having reforged his golden core, he will experience a leap forward in the traditional cultivation realms, skipping the Foundation Establishment Realm and directly breaking through to the Golden Core Realm from the most basic Qi Refining Realm.

The cultivation of using poison to nourish poison is not much different in difficulty from the various techniques mentioned earlier. The only tricky thing is that half of the poison stored in his body has been used up, and the remaining amount can only support him for about one-third of the poison cultivation.

Before he could even figure out where to get more poison, the King of Poison then pointed him to a shortcut.

.

Phoenix Pavilion.

"Another rest? What's there to rest about? How tiring can playing the flute be? I haven't even had to serve several people at the same time. We have important guests coming tonight, so be sweet-talking and don't offend anyone. If something goes wrong and everyone in the brothel is dragged down with you, what will happen to your brother in the palace... you know." The manager said harshly, then walked away without even looking at the person in front of him.

The actor who had come to ask for leave angrily picked at the wound on the corner of his mouth and turned to leave.

However, at this moment, the thugs around who were watching the show grinned maliciously.

"You have more than one mouth, stop dangling the price and just sell it already, then you won't only be able to entertain customers upstairs!"

"Hahaha, not everyone can sell at a good price. How about we brothers get a discount and pool our resources for you? Eight taels should be enough, right?"

The actor ignored him and left with a blank expression.

At 9 PM, the actor slowly entered the guest's room. His face, now freshly powdered, showed no trace of injury, but his empty eyes revealed a soul already scarred and broken.

Tonight's guests seem to really enjoy this kind of thing: someone who is powerless to resist, yet somehow finds the confidence and stubbornness to put up a futile resistance, only to have their shine and edges worn away time and time again, until they are completely shattered and become a doll that, no matter how you put it back together, is still empty inside.

Looking around, you'll see many experienced people like this in the Phoenix Pavilion.

But tonight seems different.

The roar of a spirited horse echoed from downstairs. Then, dozens of soldiers in light armor stormed into the Phoenix Pavilion. The doormen and thugs who tried to stop them, as well as the guards on each floor, were all captured in one fell swoop. The soldiers broke down doors and ransacked every room, regardless of what was happening inside. Everyone was dragged to the lobby on the first floor.

The actors and courtesans, dressed in thin, disheveled clothes, trembled as they glanced at the leader in the center of the hall, who was dressed in a red and black outfit. They then discovered that the leader was even more stunning than their top courtesan. Although he did not wear any makeup, his face was still as beautiful as the stars and the moon, and he was handsome and dashing.

"Lord Commander, everyone is here, but we haven't found the secret passage." The soldier who came to report was slightly disappointed.

Before the shopkeeper could even feel relieved, the handsome young man leaning against the counter said, "There's an opening in the floor under the grain sacks in the southeast corner of the kitchen. There are about ten guards down there. Throw smoke bombs first."

"Yes! This subordinate will go immediately!"

The shopkeeper was immediately dumbfounded, almost thinking that he had spoken his own thoughts aloud, otherwise how could this person know so clearly?

As Zhen Su was using his divine sense to "sweep" through the entire Phoenix Pavilion, he immediately recognized the treasury and ledgers embedded in the walls, as well as the "enhancing drugs" such as Five Stone Powder and Aphrodisiac Powder disguised as spices in the kitchen. They had nowhere to hide from him.

"Give them some warmer clothes." His divine sense could still perceive temperature and color. Although he couldn't directly determine the exact temperature, he could tell from the color of the actors and prostitutes' clothes that they were bluer than the rest of the group, which was enough to deduce that they were probably catching a cold.

Hearing Masaki's words, many of them were somewhat surprised. They weren't naive; after experiencing the Phoenix Pavilion once or twice, they knew how ugly the government officials were beneath their facades—people unworthy of being called human. This purge-like operation was merely a change of leadership; their situation wouldn't change much. However, they had never imagined that such high-ranking officials would care about their plight. Even if it was mostly feigned righteousness, they had to admit they were genuinely moved for a moment.

Shinjuku could sense the scrutinizing gazes of the entertainers and courtesans, and he was quite disheartened, though not malicious, except for one.

Shinjuku glanced to the side and saw a performer whose lip rouge had been smeared off and whose mouth was injured. The performer stared at him with intense hatred in her eyes.

He was familiar with that look; he had first encountered it on that demon.

At that time, the other party was not yet a demon, but his own grand-disciple.

At the time, he didn't understand the profound meaning in his grand-disciple's eyes, nor where the reason for it came from. Only after his own demise did he realize that it was the deepest hatred of someone who had experienced suffering for someone who had not, and even for the world itself. Even knowing that he had defied the laws of heaven and descended from Baiyujing to the cultivation world to save the other person and to keep his promise to his disciple.

His grand-disciple left him with the words, "I despise... your dignified and virtuous appearance, Grandmaster." After saying this, he turned against the thousand-year-old demon within his own body, becoming a completely demonic person, and knocked him down from the sky of the cultivation world when he was not paying attention.

Then he came here.

They might hate him, but wouldn't he? He had never forgotten the hatred in his heart either! Shinju felt a sudden, deep-seated, burning heat rise in his back, as if some irregular patterns on his back were radiating heat. He shifted his gaze from the entertainer, leaving behind a group of soldiers, and strode out of the Phoenix Pavilion. He mounted his Ferghana horse and led his troops to the next den of iniquity.

Shinjuku spent the entire night raiding the various dens of iniquity of the aristocratic families, seemingly unaware of fatigue. His soldiers came and went, but none could match Shinjuku's boundless energy.

Shinju was still thinking of continuing to confiscate property and seal off residences in the suburbs, but the generals urged him to return to the palace to rest, saying that His Majesty must be getting impatient. Just as Shinju hesitated, an ordinary-looking carriage slowly rolled closer. The curtains on the carriage were lifted, revealing a pair of dark eyes as black as lacquer, which showed a sternness rarely seen towards Shinju.

When Shinju met the gaze of the King of the Poisonous Beast, which seemed to be blaming him for not returning, his eyes dimmed slightly. The resentment that had been suppressed for a whole night suddenly erupted, and a deep sense of grievance welled up in his heart.

What did he do wrong...? Why is everyone blaming him?

However, after confirming that Shinju was safe and sound, King Zhen's gaze softened, and he smiled and said, "I am late. Let's go back."

Upon hearing this, Shinju's golden eyes widened slightly. After a moment of hesitation, he rushed towards the carriage where the King of Poison was and crashed into the King of Poison's arms.