The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 371 Understanding
In the Battle of the Imperial Mausoleum, Li Miao encountered three opponents who were truly on par with him, or even surpassed him, for the first time. And in that battle, Li Miao received far more "salary" than he had accumulated over the previous twenty years.

But because of this, he experienced for the first time the pain of "having money but not being able to spend it".

He had a salary, but no cultivation methods to practice. The two cultivation methods left by the emperor and the Jianwen Emperor were both heretical. Li Miao used his salary to deduce some methods and obtained a few seemingly plausible "Silent Illumination" cultivation methods.

But after only a few minor modifications, he realized that this was definitely not the right path. The person who handed over the cultivation method to Emperor Jianwen had, from the very beginning, cut off any possibility of deriving the correct method from it.

Practicing these techniques will only block your own path.

Therefore, Li Miao could only retain a portion of his salary for future research on sexual cultivation techniques, while using the rest to research methods of combat.

The emperor's trump card sword technique was one of them.

The fourteen meridians, extraordinary points, and undetermined points, along with the seven hundred and twenty acupoints throughout the body, unleash seven hundred and twenty incomparably sharp sword energies, which expand from the thickness of a little finger to the width of a palm in the instant they are released.

The cold light engulfed Li Miao and Zheng Anqi.

rustling rustling-

There was no grand display, no flying dust; a flash of cold light disappeared into everything around it.

"what--"

Li Miao opened his mouth, and hot blood vapor steamed from it, rising gently into the early winter air before slowly dissipating.

Yingzhou's martial arts tradition was indeed remarkable, arguably the most insidious martial art Li Miao had ever seen. While Li Miao appeared unharmed, he was actually experiencing excruciating pain in his head and numerous hidden injuries throughout his limbs.

Fortunately, the outcome is already decided.

The surrounding houses creaked and collapsed with a loud crash.

The dust swirled up in front of Li Miao, who used the inner energy he had recovered in that short time to dispel it and looked at Zheng Anqi in front of him.

Zheng Anqi's robes slowly peeled off, like paper scraps burned during ancestral worship, which were swept up by the wind and gradually shrank and disappeared in mid-air.

The arm blocking his way made a sticky sound, and the upper part of the forearm slowly slid along the broken surface before falling to the ground, revealing his lifeless eyes.

His mouth was slightly open, as if he wanted to let out a roar before he died, but half of his jaw and tongue fell off together. As if it were the opening signal, more and more flesh and blood that had been cut off by the sword energy fell off, and finally only a cavity with only the torso and head remained.

Li Miao reached out and grabbed his neck, carrying the gruesome corpse, and turned to walk towards the palace.

He couldn't spare them.

But for Li Miao, the dead sometimes have more to say than the living.

After walking for a while, he suddenly slapped his forehead.

"Oh yes."

He turned a corner, raised his palm and smashed down a pile of ruins, pulling out a blood gourd from it.

Zheng Qi.

"I can't leave any flaws in Xiaoyi's mindset. Before Hai'er and the others grow up, I still need her to keep things under control for me."

A stalk of grass in the left hand, a stalk of chrysanthemum in the right.

Behind them lay hundreds of feet of ruins, resembling those left by a hurricane, and countless pieces of gold, silver, and flesh embedded in the ground and walls.

Li Miao swayed and staggered towards the palace.

--------

"Commander Li, how is it?"

Cao Hanyan rubbed her hands together as she spoke.

Inside the secret chamber, Shouxia lay supine on the stone bed, a gash in his chest from which countless rustling, sticky, and cloying sounds emanated.

Xiao Si withdrew her small hand from inside, wiped the bloodstains from the hem of her clothes, shook her head and said.

"No."

"Brother Cao, are you sure that person didn't touch the eunuch?"

Cao Hanyan thought about it carefully again and nodded.

"determine."

Xiao Si sighed.

"So... it's a Gu technique."

"That person used Gu magic, the same kind of Gu magic that the royal family used to control and worship. After he got close to the eunuch, he crushed a pair of Gu worms, and the Gu worms in the eunuch's body reacted and took effect."

“If I were there, I should have been able to stop it, but it took too long to arrive, so there’s nothing I can do.” Cao Hanyan paused, but instead of showing frustration, she slowly frowned, pondered for a moment, and then said in a deep voice.

"It's alright. The matter in Nanjing has been resolved. Even if the four garrison eunuchs are dead, they still have countless subordinates who can surely investigate the matter thoroughly."

"Let's look at the present first."

Cao Hanyan paced back and forth in the secret room a few times, frowned as she looked at Shouxia's corpse, pondered for a moment, and then said in a deep voice.

"I am somewhat worried about the garrison commander right now."

Xiao Si looked at him strangely upon hearing this.

"Brother Cao... what's he worrying about?"

Cao Hanyan shook her head.

“Commander Li, you have been with the Garrison Commander for too long, and you may have gotten used to his upright and indomitable attitude, but in the end, those involved are often blinded by their own perspectives, while bystanders see things more clearly... The Garrison Commander is not a god.”

"He gets tired, he gets hurt, he feels pain."

Cao Hanyan pointed at Shouxia.

"The person who killed Shouxia was undoubtedly a master of the Celestial Realm. Moreover, he was most likely a eunuch master who escaped from the palace and knew the true level of the Zhenfu Envoy."

"As for Zheng Anqi, he is an opponent that even the Garrison Commander must go all out to defeat... Commander Li knows how brutal the battle between Heaven and Man is. The Garrison Commander may have won, but he must have suffered serious injuries."

"What if they launch an attack at this time?"

Cao Hanyan frowned and said.

“They know the level of the Garrison Commander, so if they were to make a move, they would be well prepared… at least in their view, they should have a certain degree of confidence.”

Xiao Si tilted his head when he heard this.

"So what does Brother Cao plan to do?"

Cao Hanyan pondered for a moment before speaking.

“We can’t get involved in the struggle between the garrison commanders, so we can’t get close… Senior Zheng can, and so can the military formation.”

"Commander Li will wait here. I'll go find Senior Zheng and ask her to return to reinforce the Garrison Commander. Then I'll use the Garrison Commander's token to mobilize troops to protect him!"

"That's it!"

After saying that, Cao Hanyan turned around and walked towards the door of the secret room.

He reached out and touched the stone door, about to push it open, but suddenly stopped, frozen in place, unable to move, with only his eyes darting around.

"Ai……"

A soft sigh came from behind.

"Brother Cao, you should stay here."

She walked around to Cao Hanyan's side, shook the Gu worm clinging to her fingertip, and smiled sweetly.

"I left a Gu worm when I treated your injuries, originally to stabilize your condition. Please don't blame me, Brother Cao."

Cao Hanyan looked at Xiao Si, and thinking about the Gu worms crawling around in her body, she felt a chill in her heart. However, she had no time to deal with it and just stood there, speaking urgently.

"I didn't quite understand what I said earlier, Commander Li, you—"

"No no no."

Xiao Si shook her delicate, fair fingers and said with a smile.

“I understand, that’s why I stopped you, so you wouldn’t get beaten by the garrison commander… The previous example was painful; it took Brother Hai a full half month to get out of bed. Brother Cao, don’t try it.”

Cao Hanyan was taken aback, unable to understand what Xiao Si was saying. She opened her mouth to continue persuading her, but Xiao Si manipulated the Gu worms and sealed her mouth shut as well.

“I know the garrison commander is not a god.”

Xiao Si tilted her head and smiled sweetly.

"But I know that the garrison commander will win."

"No matter who the opponent is."

"So, Brother Cao, you should just stay here with me!"

(End of this chapter)