The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 396 Loyalty
On the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the twenty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign, at dawn.

Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

The emperor sat cross-legged on the couch, his eyes closed, concentrating on his thoughts after his confrontation with Li Miao in the illusion of Jizhao during the day.

Before they began, the two men estimated that after half a month of fighting, the emperor's martial arts skills would recover to more than 80%. But after today's test, they were surprised to find that the progress might be much better than they had anticipated.

At the beginning of the battle with Li Miao, the Li Miao figures in the emperor's original illusion were superficial and like bubbles, perhaps even less useful than the skull in the emperor's original illusion during the battle of the imperial tomb.

But as the two fought in the illusion for longer and longer, the emperor found that Li Miao in his illusion seemed to be gradually becoming "real".

Initially, they would be directly shattered by Li Miao, but after a day of fighting, they have been able to slow down Li Miao's offensive somewhat.

If this trend continues, in half a month, perhaps the three Li Miaos in the emperor's illusion will all have some resemblance to Li Miao... and the emperor's martial arts skills may be restored to more than 90%.

So while Li Miao was away, the emperor was racing against time to mentally calculate and simulate Li Miao's moves and martial arts, in order to speed up the formation of the illusion of Li Miao.

Across from the emperor, Zhu Zai was sitting in a chair drinking tea, seemingly at ease, but the fingers constantly twirling his beard betrayed his inner turmoil.

There was silence in the hall.

Suddenly, footsteps came from outside.

The emperor suddenly opened his eyes, and in a flash, he was in the hall, blocking Zhu Zai behind him. Zhu Zai also clenched his fists, and the two of them stared intently at the outside of the hall.

The two were waiting for Li Miao.

But the footsteps of the person approaching were light and quick, definitely not Li Miao's.

Zhu Zai frowned, thinking to himself, "Could this really be a ploy to lure the tiger away from the mountain?"

A moment later, a thin figure stepped into the hall.

When they saw the person clearly, the emperor and Zhu Zai were both taken aback.

This person was actually a young eunuch. He was thin and hunched over, and his clothes were patched, clearly indicating that he did not hold a high position in the palace and was only responsible for tasks such as sweeping and cleaning.

Most importantly, this person does not know martial arts.

His muscles were relaxed, his steps were unsteady, and his breathing was rapid. His forehead was covered in a cold sweat, as if he had been running for a while and was still out of breath. The sweat condensed into fine salt crystals on his forehead when the wind blew it.

Zhu Zai thought he was too weak in martial arts and had misread the situation, so he looked at the emperor to confirm, but the emperor just nodded at him.

That's right, this person really doesn't know martial arts.

There's definitely something fishy about this person appearing here at this time. But all that effort, using Yan Song as bait to lure Li Miao away, just to bring over this lowly eunuch who can't even fight?
Something unusual must be going on. Zhu Zai and the emperor were both on high alert, waiting for the little eunuch to approach.

The young eunuch ran into the hall, his gaze sweeping over the two men before finally settling on the emperor.

Then, he suddenly knelt down on the ground.

"His Majesty."

The emperor was taken aback.

The voice was one he had never heard before. But the flat, emotionless tone stirred up a memory within him from his few remaining remnants.

"Liu Jin?"

he asked.

"His Majesty."

The young eunuch pressed his forehead to the ground and answered softly.

"Are you okay?"

The emperor hesitated before speaking.

"what you up to?"

"I just wanted to come and see you."

The emotionless, monotonous tone and the flat, straightforward narration make it hard to believe the speaker's sincerity.

Just as the emperor had told Li Miao during the day, in his remaining memories, Liu Jin was indeed extremely loyal to him. This was one of the few things he could confirm after being infected with the Gu worm. However, Liu Jin's loyalty was not to the current emperor.

The emperor felt a surge of murderous intent. After exchanging a glance with Zhu Zai, he raised his hand and lifted the eunuch up from a distance. His sharp inner energy pressed against the eunuch's heart meridian and flowed into his body. While examining him, the emperor held his life in his hands.

But upon this investigation, the emperor suddenly frowned.

"you……"

The young eunuch was suspended in mid-air, his limbs stretched taut by the internal energy, as if they would snap at any moment. Meanwhile, the internal energy within his body was relentlessly destroying his meridians.

Despite the excruciating pain, the young eunuch spoke expressionlessly.

"You have excellent insight."

"That's right, I'm already dead."

The emperor suddenly let go, and the little eunuch fell to the ground with a thud.

Zhu Zai, standing to the side, asked in confusion.

"Your Majesty, what do you mean?"

"Liu Jin is dead?"

The emperor remained silent and did not speak.

Just then, a loud bang suddenly came from outside the hall, as if something heavy had fallen, making the ground tremble. Immediately afterwards, Li Miao's voice came in.

"Commander, literally, means that Liu Jin no longer exists in this world."

The sound grew louder as it approached, and as the last note faded, Li Miao stepped into the hall.

His clothes were neat and undamaged, and there was no blood on them, as if he had just gone out for a stroll.

Upon hearing his voice, the little eunuch who had fallen to the ground turned his gaze to him and said in a cold voice.

"Li Miao".

"Dead men don't speak."

As Li Miao spoke, he suddenly raised his hand and threw a punch.

Without any struggle or process, the little eunuch instantly turned into a puddle of liquid spilled on the ground.

Zhu Zai frowned.

"Da Li, how could you just kill him like that... And what do you mean by saying he's dead?"

"How is Yan Song? Has something happened to him?"

Li Miao didn't care at all. He flicked the blood off his fist, walked to the table, sat down, took a sip of tea, and then spoke.

"With An Qisheng alive, Yan Song wasn't killed."

“An Qisheng is indeed much stronger than Zheng Anqi. If I don’t fight desperately, I can’t break through his protective aura. And he hasn’t even revealed his other tricks yet… He truly deserves to be called the Lord of Yingzhou. In a one-on-one fight, neither His Majesty nor I are his match.”

"But he didn't seem to be in good shape, and he didn't fight me. I was afraid they would take advantage of the situation here, so I came back."

"As for Liu Jin..."

Li Miao glanced at the pool of blurry blood in the hall.

"To put it simply, what you see now is just a body part that retains a trace of Liu Jin's consciousness."

Li Miao looked at the emperor.

"Your Majesty is right, he is indeed very loyal to you."

"He lacked the aptitude to cultivate the Xuanlan technique, and his martial arts skills were hardly of any use... So he took a different approach, having An Qisheng break up his 'nature' and randomly implant it into many people."

"As for him, he is probably already a mindless corpse."

(End of this chapter)