The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 426 Struggle of the Heart (Part 4)
The middle-aged Taoist priest said with a smile.

"What is there to prepare? Outsiders don't know, so why are you keeping us in suspense... Where in this world can anyone be called an 'immortal'?"

"Yingzhou, Fangzhang, and Penglai are nothing more than excuses used to trick the emperor into giving them ships and young boys and girls."

An Qisheng shook his head.

"Senior brother, you should still be careful."

The middle-aged Taoist priest smiled nonchalantly and rolled up his sleeves.

"What's there to be careful about? Going to sea is inherently fraught with danger, and you and I, as fellow disciples, might never see each other again. You're also the only one who can understand me... If I were to lie to you, what would be the point?"

An Qisheng remained silent.

After a while, he slowly spoke.

"Senior brother, are you sure you can find Master if you set sail east?"

"After mastering the Profound Insight technique, I increasingly felt that Master had deliberately erased our memories of him, leaving only a vague shadow... How were you so sure he went to sea?"

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged Taoist priest tapped his temple.

"Although we only have vague figures in our memories, we have one thing in common: in our memories, Master is always looking at the sea."

An Qisheng frowned.

"That's it?"

The middle-aged Taoist priest said with a smile.

"This is enough."

“We, the remnants of the six kingdoms, have long since lost our homes. But I am different from you; I have no desire for revenge. I only wish to settle my mind before I die—to meet my master one last time and say thank you.”

"Follow your thoughts, and if you die, so be it, haha."

The middle-aged Taoist priest laughed with a mix of nonchalance and helplessness. An Qisheng didn't know how to respond and could only remain silent. The two stood there for a while before the middle-aged Taoist priest spoke again.

"Junior brother, do you still intend to assassinate the emperor?"

"want."

An Qisheng spoke without the slightest hesitation.

"alright."

The middle-aged Taoist priest shrugged.

"However, junior brother might need to hurry... The emperor's health isn't good, he might not live to see you kill him."

An Qisheng remained silent.

"Never mind, let's go, junior brother."

The middle-aged Taoist priest turned around.

"Is there anything you want me to tell my master if I actually find him?"

An Qisheng thought for a moment and then said only one sentence.

"Thank you."

The middle-aged Taoist priest waved his hand and walked away.

An Qisheng turned his head and continued to look at Langya Terrace.

But then he heard a whooshing sound behind him, as if something extremely heavy had been thrown at him.

An Qisheng reached out and caught it. Looking at it, he saw it was a piece of dark metal, its material unknown. He ran his fingers over the back and felt as if he had touched some engraved characters.

He turned the metal over and saw five Qin seal characters on the back.

"The First Emperor will die this year."

Laughter came from behind him from the middle-aged Taoist priest.

"A meteorite from outer space, with a few words casually engraved on it."

"I'm just a charlatan with no special skills, so I'll give you this as a parting gift, junior brother. It might come in handy someday... Goodbye."

An Qisheng turned his head.

The middle-aged sorcerer has disappeared without a trace.

After a long pause, he finally managed to say something in a hoarse voice.

Goodbye... Senior Brother Xu.

The scene changes for the last time. An Qisheng is already very old and frail, his arms are as withered as tree branches, his skin is dry and wrinkled, he is leaning against the tree trunk and panting heavily, his chest heaving like a broken bellows.

His life is nearing its end.

But he was still a celestial being who had cultivated both body and mind, and logically speaking, he should not have shown such fatigue until the very last moment before his death.

Firstly, he had suffered too many injuries during his previous assassination attempts on the emperor, some of which were so severe that they were beyond repair using healing techniques.

Secondly, it's because of a certain smell.

A foul odor lingered around my nose.

That's the smell of abalone rotting under the scorching sun.

But An Qisheng could naturally distinguish that subtle, different odor from the abalone's stench.

The smell of rotting corpses.

Under the blazing sun, a convoy slowly moved forward in the distance. Armored warriors lined up on both sides, while several Celestials, no weaker than him, patrolled the area, ready to strike at any moment.

In the very center of the caravan was a horse-drawn carriage.

The stench was coming from there.

There lies the corpse of the enemy that An Qisheng had pursued his entire life.

An Qisheng suddenly laughed silently.

After dozens of failures and a lifetime of dedication, just before his closest chance at success came... his enemy died of old age.

How ridiculous.

He had long forgotten what his parents looked like. On his path of revenge, everyone who had accompanied him had died. He had nothing left... Revenge had gradually become his means of seeking death.

If the assassination succeeds, he will have died a worthy death.

He could accept it even if the assassination failed.

But even this stubborn belief has now become a joke.

He became an empty shell, unable to live or die.

An Qisheng slowly raised his hand, gathering true energy in his palm, and struck towards his face. He dispersed the protective true energy on his head; with this strike, he would be completely free.

But when the hand reached in front of him, it stopped.

An Qisheng thought of someone.

"Senior Brother Xu... have you found Master?"

he murmured.

With those words, he slowly lowered his hand.

"I haven't heard from Senior Brother Xu since. He may have died at sea... If he had found Master, he would have come looking for me."

"I should go find my master and die on the way."

An Qisheng slowly turned around and walked away from the convoy.

"Senior brother is heading east, I should head southeast."

"If my lifespan is nearing its end... the Xuanlan Technique left by my master has a way to transfer 'sex' into another body, but as time goes by, it will become less and less like myself... but that's alright."

"If we can't find a master, let's build a sect in the sea to the southeast... What was the name of the immortal island that Senior Brother Xu went to find? Yingzhou?"

The murmurs faded into the distance.

The convoy moved slowly forward, the stench mingling with the incense, and black abalone sliding on the golden coffin, making a sticky sound.

The last memory ends.

Li Miao punched An Qisheng in the chest. The moment his fist touched the protective aura, the skin suddenly cracked open with countless tiny gashes, revealing several tentacles with sharp teeth that were rapidly rolling beneath the skin. In just a moment, they scraped away a layer of the protective aura.

Li Miao's fist stopped an inch in front of An Qisheng's chest.

But in the next instant, his fist retreated a tiny distance—and then, as if by teleportation, it struck out again, creating a deafening sonic boom within a distance less than a finger's width!

boom!
An Qisheng was sent flying backward, blood gushing from his mouth.

His protective inner energy was completely shattered.

The "sex" he planted in Li Miao's body has been completely devoured, with less than 30% remaining.

In the next instant, Li Miao's hand gripped his neck.

(End of this chapter)