My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

(Cultivation is just a tool for getting by; it's not a genuine cultivation novel. If you're looking for a real cultivation story, you can stop here. Also, the early cultivation power is a censored version suppressed by low spiritual energy and the limitations of heaven and earth, which is just setting up for the later plot. The limitations of heaven and earth in the Tang Dynasty will only be lifted later in the story!!!)

In the sweltering heat of midsummer in Chang'an, the air was thick with a sticky, oppressive heat.

In the northwest corner of the palace, inside a side hall where even the plaque had faded, cicadas in the trees were chirping incessantly. Wild grass had already grown to knee-high in the cracks between the blue bricks before the steps.

Li Chen sat cross-legged on the hard wooden bed and suddenly opened his eyes.

He wasn't sweating. In this afternoon heat, even the wind carried a wave of heat, yet his skin was covered with a very faint layer of white mist, and his body temperature was several degrees lower than an ice cellar.

Deep within the dantian, the originally ethereal, cloud-like spiritual energy had now completely condensed into a pool of viscous liquid.

This liquid true essence flowed through his body along the eight extraordinary meridians with his breath, and wherever it passed, his internal organs seemed to be cleansed by the clear spring water.

"Finally... I've reached Foundation Establishment."

Li Chen lowered his head, his gaze falling on his long, slender, and well-proportioned hands.

He suddenly clenched his fists inward.

With a muffled "crack," the air in the palm of his hand was squeezed into a sonic boom.

Li Chen rolled out of bed and casually grabbed a blue stone slab used to prop open the door. This slab weighed at least forty or fifty pounds, and normally even palace maids and eunuchs had to use both hands to move it.

He held the stone slab by one corner with one hand, applying slight pressure with his thumb and forefinger.

rustling...

The hard bluestone, like a damp mung bean cake, turned into fine powder directly at his fingertips, which then drifted and fell onto the cloth shoes through his fingers.

He did not use any true energy, only pure physical strength.

"With the strength of a thousand pounds in one hand, ordinary swords and blades can't even scratch my skin now." Li Chen patted the stone dust off his hands, but his brows quickly furrowed.

He closed his eyes, and his consciousness instantly sank into the depths of his mind.

It was a hazy, gray space filled with chaotic mist. At the center of the space, a compass that resembled stone but was not quite stone floated.

On the surface of the compass, a drop of golden water is slowly seeping out and silently dripping into the void below.

Immediately afterwards, a yellowed bamboo scroll fell from mid-air and landed at Li Chen's feet.

He bent down, picked up the bamboo slips, and glanced at them.

Detailed Explanation of the Basics of the Water Gathering Technique

"It's that kind of junk again."

Li Chen casually tossed the bamboo slips into a pile of miscellaneous items in the corner of the space.

The place was already piled with all sorts of random things: a low-grade flying sword with a chipped edge, wild ginseng that was less than ten years old, a ruined Thunderfire Talisman, and several bottles of low-level Qi Gathering Pills that emitted a strange medicinal smell.

It's been three whole years.

More than 1,090 days.

Ever since he transmigrated into the body of the sixteenth prince of the Tang Dynasty, who suffered a difficult birth and remained invisible in the palace for fifteen years, this soul space has become his only hope.

Every day after midnight, a drop of "cultivation water" will automatically drip from the space, while randomly spitting out some low-level junk from the cultivation world.

Unable to cultivate actively, unable to meditate and absorb spiritual energy, they can only rely on this one drop of water each day to get through the ordeal.

"Three years, a full three years! Do you know how I spent those three years?"

Li Chen scratched his hair in frustration within his soul space.

With this meager daily allowance, he endured over a thousand days and nights before finally crossing the threshold of the Qi Refining stage today. He managed to compress the spiritual energy within his body into liquid true essence, becoming a novice in the early stages of Foundation Establishment.

At this rate, how long will it take to form a Golden Core?

Li Chen mentally calculated the enormous amount of true essence required, and his lips twitched involuntarily.

Ten years? Twenty years? Or even longer?

He exited the soul space, and his consciousness returned to reality.

Walking to the dry well in the side hall, Li Chen stretched out his right hand, palm facing up.

The liquid true essence in his body surged along his meridians to his palm, and a fist-sized crimson fireball suddenly leaped from his fingertips.

The surrounding air was instantly distorted by the high temperature, and the weeds around the dry well instantly turned yellow, curled up, and turned to ashes.

If this fireball were to hit the palace wall, it could blast a large hole in the rammed earth wall that is ten feet thick.

But Li Chen's expression didn't show much joy.

He stared intently at the fireball in his palm, feeling the liquid true essence in his dantian visibly decreasing.

"No, the battery life is terrible."

Li Chen clenched his fist tightly and extinguished the fireball.

"My true essence reserves are still too low. In a one-on-one fight, I could kill either Qin Qiong or Yuchi Gong with a single slap. But if I were facing the Xuanjia Army's formation..."

He mentally simulated the scene of being surrounded and killed by thousands of people. A barrage of heavy ballistae rained down, and countless spears and halberds advanced like a forest.

At most, he could hold out with his true essence shield for half an hour before his true essence was exhausted, and he would be chopped into mincemeat.

"I really don't want to eat beef..." Li Chen sighed, plopped down on the edge of the well, and rested his chin on his hands.

Without a devastating, large-scale mass killing spell, the flying sword would exhaust its true essence after flying continuously for half an hour, making it unsuitable for long-distance raids or for escaping to places hundreds of thousands of miles away.

In this Tang Dynasty, his current strength is only that of a high-end assassin, and he is no match for the continuous suppression by the state apparatus.

"I still have to play it safe." Li Chen patted his thigh, stood up, and prepared to go back inside to get something to eat.

Just then, the dilapidated wooden door of the side hall, which was on the verge of collapse, was pushed open with a "bang".

"Waaah... Sixteenth Brother..."

A tiny child, not even as tall as the wooden door threshold, stumbled over the threshold, wiping away tears as he ran towards Li Chen.

She was wearing a slightly oversized pink palace dress, with a few blades of grass still clinging to the hem. One of the two little buns in her hair had come undone from running so fast.

It was Princess Jinyang, Xiao Sizi.

Two months ago, this little girl got lost while chasing a butterfly and ended up in this deserted side hall, where she happened to see Li Chen performing a magic trick using water-gathering magic in the courtyard.

From then on, this side hall became Xiao Sizi's secret base. Li Chen used various low-level spells to tease her, keeping the little girl completely bewildered, and her laughter never stopped every day.

But today, the little girl's face was covered in tears.

I cried so much that snot bubbles came out of my nose.

Li Chen's heart tightened suddenly. He took two steps forward and picked up the little girl in one scoop.

"What's wrong? Who bullied our Sizi?" Li Chen reached out and used his sleeve to wipe away the tears and snot on her face.

Little Sizi clung tightly to Li Chen's clothes with her two chubby little hands, crying so hard she could barely breathe, her little shoulders trembling.

"Mother...Mother is ignoring Sizi..."

The little girl buried her face in Li Chen's shoulder, her voice choked with sobs.

"The Empress Dowager remained lying in bed... with her eyes closed... no matter how Si Zi called to her, she didn't respond..."

Li Chen's hand, which was patting her back, suddenly stopped in mid-air.

"The imperial physicians are all kowtowing... Father Emperor is so fierce, he smashed all the cups..." Little Sizi was still sobbing intermittently, "Sixteenth Brother, does Mother Empress not want Sizi anymore? Waaaaah..."

Li Chen's pupils contracted slightly.

Is Empress Zhangsun seriously ill?

His memories swirled rapidly.

It is now the tenth year of Zhenguan. The Great Heat has just passed, and the cicadas are chirping so loudly, which means it is currently late June or early July.

According to historical records from previous generations, Empress Zhangsun passed away in June of the tenth year of the Zhenguan era (July in the Gregorian calendar)!

Judging by the timeline, it should be within the next few days.

Li Chen couldn't help but tighten his grip on Xiao Sizi.

He looked down at the little girl in his arms, who was crying and hiccuping. For the past two months, Xiao Sizi had been calling him "Sixteenth Brother" repeatedly, and would secretly hide any delicious pastries in her sleeves and bring them to him like a little hamster.

If Empress Zhangsun dies this month, how pitiful will this little girl be in the future?

"Good girl, Sizi, your mother is just too tired and has fallen asleep." Li Chen gently patted her back, his voice very soft.

Little Sizi was exhausted from crying. She had always been frail and sickly, and running all the way from the Lizheng Hall had drained her strength. With Li Chen's comforting words, her crying gradually subsided, turning into occasional sobs.

Not long after, the little girl clung tightly to Li Chen's collar and fell asleep on his shoulder. Tears still clung to her long eyelashes, and her brows were still tightly furrowed in her sleep.

Li Chen sighed.

He carried the little girl into the inner room and gently placed her on his hard bed. To keep her from getting too hot, he made a hand seal, and a trace of extremely weak ice-type true energy overflowed from his fingertips, condensing into a small piece of ice in the basin of water by the bedside, and a cool breeze spread throughout the room.

Li Chen pulled a thin blanket over the little girl's stomach and stood by the bed, staring at her intently for a long while.

"I originally planned to quietly wait until I reached the Golden Core stage before going out and having fun."

Li Chen rubbed his temples.

He had read and analyzed Empress Zhangsun's illness in historical records.

Qi disease, also known as severe asthma and cardiopulmonary strain.

In addition, she had traveled around with Li Shimin in her early years and had so many children, so her vitality had long been depleted.

Not long after the death of Emperor Emeritus Li Yuan, the double blow of losing loved ones completely broke her body.

It's true that medicine can't save a mortal.

But he was no ordinary man.

Although he was only a half-baked cultivator in the early stages of Foundation Establishment, lacking the heaven-defying abilities to bring the dead back to life and heal the wounded, he could still forcibly extend his life by a few years.

The sky outside gradually darkened.

The cicadas finally stopped chirping, and a touch of nighttime coolness filled the sweltering air.

Deep within the palace, the faint sounds of the orderly footsteps of the night patrolling guards and the clanging of metal on armor could be heard. In the distance, towards the Hall of State Affairs, the lights were bright, and the sounds of chaotic voices and suppressed cries could be faintly heard.

Li Chen turned around and pulled a dusty wooden box out from under the bed.

Opening the box revealed a dusty, gray storage bag inside.

His divine sense probed into the storage bag, rummaging through a pile of messy junk.

He held a slightly rough yellow talisman paper, with twisted runes drawn in cinnabar, between his index and middle fingers.

Low grade hidden breath talisman.

It can completely conceal all one's aura and spiritual energy fluctuations, even locking body temperature and heartbeat within the body.

Immediately afterwards, he took out a slightly transparent talisman.

Invisibility charm.

Li Chen retied the storage bag and stuffed it into his pocket.

He walked to the window and pushed it open a crack. The night outside was as dark as ink.

He took a deep breath, and the liquid true essence in his body began to circulate in his meridians in an extremely slow and special way.

The Secret of Gathering Essence.

His body temperature plummeted instantly, almost merging with the surrounding night breeze. His breathing became barely audible, and his heartbeat dropped to a terrifyingly low frequency of only a dozen beats per minute.

Li Chen affixed the invisibility talisman to his chest.

A wisp of true energy was injected into the talisman paper.

The talisman instantly turned into starlight and dissipated, while Li Chen's body, along with his coarse cloth clothes, seemed to have been erased by an invisible eraser, completely disappearing into the air.

Moonlight streamed in through the cracks in the window, but the ground was empty, without a single shadow.

The window frame made a very slight creaking sound.