C98

It was night. The moon was bright, the stars were dim, and everything was quiet. A black shadow suddenly flew out from Prince Yanbei's Mansion, and in the blink of an eye, disappeared into the darkness. His speed was so fast that only an afterimage remained.

During the entire process, the black shadow did not disturb anyone, nor did he make any sound. The black shadow shuttled between the various palace halls, agile as a cheetah, light as a swallow, elegant as a noble act, and came to the Emperor's inner court as if he was familiar with it.

The entire process was completed in one go without any signs of unfamiliarity. By the time the patrolling guards came over, the door was completely locked again and there were no signs of it ever being opened at all.

That's right, the person who barged into the palace at night was Xiao Jiu'an. As for his goal?

Naturally, it was the Fire Lingzhi.

He did not agree to Ji Yunkai's deal, but he did not refuse it either, right?

When he will give the Fire Lingzhi to Ji Yunkai, the deal would naturally be done.

It was clear that this was not Xiao Jiu'an's first time in the Imperial Treasury. He did not bother to flip through the boxes, but instead, walked straight to the innermost room, found a black wooden embroidered box, and opened it up to take out the white jade box inside.

White smoke lingered around the white jade box, and cold Qi continued to gush out, but Xiao Jiu'an did not care at all. He directly took it, opened it, and looked at the fiery-red Fire Lingzhi inside. He nodded in satisfaction.

Just like before, when the patrolling guards left, Xiao Jiu'an took off the piece of glass from the door, unlocked it and then everything was restored. When the guards walked over, everything returned to normal.

After successfully obtaining what he wanted, Xiao Jiu'an did not stay in the palace for very long. He took the Fire Lingzhi and left the palace, but...

Just as he walked out of the warehouse, he was startled by a gust of evil wind.

There was someone!

With a *whoosh*, Xiao Jiu'an instinctively dodged, missing the attack that was aimed at him.

"Good, good, good! As expected of someone who could barge into the palace without making a sound. He has some skills." The person shouted from the sky. His voice was old and sounded as though he was coming from all directions, surrounding Xiao Jiu'an's ears.

"Pretending to be ghosts." Xiao Jiu'an guessed that the opponent's strength was most likely above his.

"This Old Man has waited here for you for three months. During these three months, the Emperor's treasury has successively lost things. It's all your fault, right?" Xiao Jiu'an was still unable to determine in which direction the other party was hiding. By the time he was able to confirm his suspicions, the other party was already standing behind him.

Xiao Jiu'an turned around and saw that the other party was dressed like a martial artist. He could guess the identity of the man: "The number one expert of the Imperial Family, Li Yuan."

"You know me? It seems like you're some nobody." Xiao Jiu'an intentionally changed his voice, making it impossible for Li Yuan to determine who he was.

Xiao Jiu'an said, "Great Hero Li's reputation in the past was illustrious, so it is normal for me to know about you." Li Yuan, the number one expert in the Jianghu twenty years ago, took it upon himself to uphold justice and maintain order in the Jianghu.

Twenty years ago, he went missing, and it was unknown whether he was dead or alive. Soon after that, news spread out from the Jianghu that the Li family had obtained a mysterious treasure. The messenger had said that Li Yuan's martial arts skills were number one because of the mysterious treasure and that the Li family's rapid accumulation of wealth was also because of this mysterious treasure.

Most of the people in the Jianghu were poor, and they had received Li Yuan's kindness in the past. After this news was spread, they eventually became greedy. Even if they were grateful in the beginning when they heard about the treasure deposit, their gratitude turned into resentment. Resentment toward Li Yuan for not being willing to help, and if he had the mysterious treasure, he did not know to share it.

Even if he did not share the mysterious treasure with them, he could at least lend them some martial-arts secret manuals or make a copy for them, right?

But, no!

Li Yuan did not give them anything like that. Instead, he only offered them some silver to solve their immediate problem with the attitude of a benefactor.

No good deed goes unpunished. Those who had received kindness from Li Yuan in the past, under the instigation of others, were, not only ungrateful toward Li Yuan but also resentful toward him.

However, they were still a bit ashamed. They did not attack the Li Family, but when the Li Family received the Devil Sect's Seven Killing Order, they coldly watched as the Devil Sect slaughtered everyone in the Li Family.

Half a month later, Li Yuan returned. What welcomed him was more than a hundred grave mounds, where all his family members were buried.

Li Yuan went crazy!

He went after the Devil Sect like a madman and got revenge against those people who coldly watched as his family was slaughtered from the sidelines. He seemed to not know about exhaustion as he became a killing machine. He killed them one by one, and finally went against Devil Sect!

A person's power was always limited. Although Li Yuan had killed the Sect Leader of the Devil Sect, Li Yuan had been gravely injured, causing both of them to suffer.

Li Yuan had killed too many people. After escaping from the Devil Sect, he was chased down by the Righteous Path and the Devil Sect at the same time. Li Yuan was like a stray dog. The world was so big, yet he had no place in it.

It was then that the Late Emperor made his move!

The elite Death Warriors of the Late Emperor were sent to save him secretly and asked him if he was willing to serve the Imperial Family. If he was unwilling to serve the Imperial Family, the Late Emperor was willing to let him go. If he was willing to serve the Imperial Family, he could leave anytime he wanted in the future.

After Li Yuan evaluated the strength of his enemies, and he chose to stay and serve the Imperial Family, to cultivate experts for the Imperial Family, and to protect the Imperial Family. This guard had done so for the last twenty years!

Li Yuan was the Emperor's ultimate weapon and also the Emperor's trump card. Because there was Li Yuan, the Emperor was not afraid of Xiao Jiu'an, who had exemplary martial-arts skills; because there was Li Yuan, the Emperor was not afraid of any assassinations.

Xiao Jiu'an had heard of Li Yuan's name a long time ago, and he knew of Li Yuan's existence, but after entering the palace so many times, this was his first time encountering Li Yuan. He did not know if this was good or bad luck.

However, since he had met that year's number one expert, he naturally had to fight him.

Xiao Jiu'an took out the long flexible sword that was wrapped around his waist and imbued it with Qi. With a *swoosh* sound, the long flexible sword became a long and thin sharp sword.

"Great Hero Li, please!" Xiao Jiu'an knew that Li Yuan's strength could not be underestimated, so he did not lower his guard.

"How many years has it been? It's rare for someone to dare to fight This Old Man one on one. Boy, you have quite the guts." Li Yuan took a step forward, exposing his face to the moonlight.

The current him was no longer the Li Yuan, who showed off twenty years ago, but instead, he had a restrained aura and a gentle temperament, like a normal old man on the streets. It was impossible to tell that he was a grandmaster level expert, or even more so that he carried a deep grudge laced with a sea of blood.

However, this kind of person was the scariest!