The sun shone for a while in the afternoon, but now leaden clouds hang heavily over the palace, and not a ray of sunlight shines through.
The usual dazzling golden brilliance of the glazed tile roof has lost its vitality, leaving only a dull gray.
Outside the Imperial Study, people stood solemnly before the steps, the vermilion gate tightly closed, separating the inside from the outside.
Su Quan stood with his hands at his sides in the shadows of the corridor, his crimson robes appearing somewhat dimmed by the gloomy sky.
Having served as the emperor's chief eunuch for many years, he had long since developed an intuition even sharper than that of a raccoon dog.
In the past two days, Su Quan clearly felt that His Majesty's mood was as gloomy as the sunless dome.
He could tell that it was not the prelude to a thunderous rage, but rather a deeper, more viscous silence.
Like invisible ice, it quietly condensed in every inch of air in the Imperial Study, and even the corridor outside the hall was permeated with a bone-chilling cold.
This situation is extremely rare, having served him since he was a prince.
Su Quanyou recalled that when the late Emperor of the previous dynasty coughed up blood and fell into a coma in his later years, he also had this kind of heart-pounding feeling.
Recalling some unpleasant images, he couldn't help but shudder.
Just then, several intermittent hissing sounds came, which terrified him and made him turn pale.
That foolish cicada!
It sounds like it's at the foot of the palace wall in the distance, or on one of the few remaining old trees in the imperial garden.
It was cleaned up early in the morning, but I don't know where it came from again.
The sound was particularly abrupt and shrill in the deathly silent palace gardens.
One sound after another, out of tune, drilled into my ears, adding a touch of annoying desolation even more than the summer heat.
Su Quan frowned, and undisguised annoyance flashed in his eyes.
He strode over and approached the commander of the Azure Phoenix Guard who was protecting him on the outer perimeter, giving him a barely perceptible glance.
Without a word, two Qingluan Guards, dressed in emerald-green outfits and wearing goose-feather sabers at their waists, suddenly moved.
My footsteps tread lightly on the white marble steps, like a cat treading on snow, without making a sound.
Their eyes were as sharp as eagles, instantly locking onto the source of the sound.
That was a lone autumn cicada perched on the gnarled branches of an old locust tree, twenty paces outside the Imperial Study.
One of them suddenly leaped up, using the pillars for leverage, moving as lightly as a swallow.
In the blink of an eye, the guard's hand had precisely captured the tiny chirping insect like an iron clamp.
With a clasp of the palms and a sharp twist of the fingertips, the irritating hiss was instantly cut off.
The Azure Phoenix Guard landed gracefully, still silent, and quietly tucked the cicada's corpse into his sleeve with a plain brocade handkerchief.
Returning to its original position, it once again becomes a silent shadow.
The whole process was clean and efficient, with almost no sound of wind being stirred by the fabric of clothing.
Su Quan lowered his eyelids and glanced at the carvings on the tightly closed door of the Imperial Study.
He took two quick breaths and slowly walked back to stand in the shadows of the corridor.
In the Imperial Study, Empress Qin Minghuang was reviewing the reports from the Xuanji Guard.
More than twenty shops were shut down for various reasons, and about three hundred people were imprisoned. These were all shops controlled by the Xuanji Guard that had connections with aristocratic families.
Qin Minghuang instantly understood the reason for doing so and couldn't help but clench her fist.
Someone's intention to sabotage the imperial examination system should have been the top priority at that time.
If it weren't for Yin Zhe's sudden and drastic action, she wouldn't have even realized that she had revealed such a huge flaw.
call……
Slowly exhaling a breath of stale air, Qin Minghuang suppressed the agitation in her heart.
She knew that her heart was in turmoil.
But ever since that outrageous guess came to her, she has been unable to eat or sleep properly, feeling like she had a fishbone stuck in her throat.
My gaze unconsciously drifted toward the north window, and I don't know how many times I suppressed the urge to summon the bell.
call……
Wait a little longer, wait a little longer...
The underground prison, its thick stone walls permeated with the chill of years past.
Only a few eerie green mermaid lamps on the wall barely dispelled the thick darkness, casting swaying, ghostly glows.
This is the domain of Xuanji Guardian Qianhu Lingduo, a place specifically designed to unlock the deepest chains of memory.
In the center of the cell, Tongtian Ma Anche was tightly bound to a black iron torture chair covered with dark red rust.
The steel buckles were deeply embedded in his limbs and neck, leaving bluish-purple bruises.
He felt as if his bones had been removed, limp and paralyzed, his head tilting back weakly.
His eyes were wide open and empty, devoid of any spirit; only his eyeballs trembled slightly and uncontrollably.
His mouth was slightly open, and saliva mixed with blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth.
A guttural, hoarse sound emanated from deep within his throat, and his body trembled violently like a candle flickering in the wind.
A strange water curtain floated in mid-air in front of An Che.
It is as smooth as the finest glass mirror, with a faint blue luster at the edges.
Lingduo stood behind Anche, dressed in a tight-fitting outfit with narrow sleeves, almost blending into the dimness of the prison.
At this moment, his right hand was brought together into a sword-like shape, with a faint silver light gathering at the fingertip, which he placed on An Che's acupoint on the back of his head.
His eyes were closed, his brows were furrowed, and the veins on his forehead throbbed slightly, exuding an aura of obscurity and danger.
Since taking over Anche's case, Lingduo has used the most brutal punishments to quickly destroy his will to resist.
Using the Xuanji Guard's secret medicine, she locked up his life force, and then began the work she was best at.
What is being done now is to forcibly break through the barrier of An Che's memories.
To retrieve those deeply buried, forgotten fragments of memory from the chaotic sea of consciousness.
The smooth, mirror-like water curtain rippled continuously, like a deep pool into which pebbles had been thrown.
Blurred light and shadow, distorted colors, fragmented images...
Chaotic, appearing and disappearing in a flash, flowing and vanishing at a dizzying speed.
That was a vast torrent of memories that An Che had been forcibly triggered from the depths of his consciousness, which was being precisely captured and sorted out by Ling Duo.
But then, at the most crucial moment, suddenly!
The ripples in the water curtain suddenly stopped, and all the chaos vanished in an instant.
The image became exceptionally clear, frozen in a tranquil moment.
The full moon hung high in the sky, its cool moonlight silently pouring down, gilding the exquisite courtyard with silver frost.
A tall, slender man's back is clearly visible; he is facing away from the screen and appears to be looking up at the moon.
His posture was upright, and his clothes fluttered slightly in the night breeze, conveying an indescribable sense of aloofness and detachment.
Once the image stabilized sufficiently, it changed again.
A burly figure suddenly burst in, his face filled with shock and anger.
He roughly blocked his view with his hand and shouted that he was about to drive the person out immediately.
The scene shifts again, and An Che has already turned around, being pushed and staggering away...
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