My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

The scent of grass and trees in early spring can no longer be smelled in the wind of Chang'an.

The wind blew for a whole month, but it still couldn't blow away the faint sour and rusty smell that lingered in the streets and alleys.

On the spacious execution ground at Caishikou, the original gray-white color of the bluestone slabs was long gone.

Layers of blackened, hardened blood mud were firmly embedded in the crevices. Even the fiercest stray dogs in the West Market would tuck their tails between their legs and sneak away along the wall when they passed through this area.

A massive crackdown that lasted thirty days thoroughly examined the Tang Dynasty from the inside out.

"Have you heard? Yesterday evening, the last three were dragged out of the Ministry of Justice prison."

At a noodle stall on the corner of West Market, an old soldier squatted on the ground, slurping noodles, pointing with his chopsticks in the direction of the city gate, and muttering indistinctly.

"It is said that during the interrogation, as soon as the short man stepped out of the cell, his left foot landed first. The head of the Ministry of Justice immediately threw down the interrogation warrant, saying that he harbored resentment and that his left foot had tripped up the fate of the Tang Dynasty. He was dragged out and beheaded on the spot."

"That's right," the stall owner next to him said, slinging a rag over his shoulder and adding a spoonful of noodle soup to the old soldier's bowl.

"The one who died the day before yesterday died even more unjustly. He was tied to a wooden stake and was so scared that he was breathing heavily. When the jailer heard this, he was displeased and said that he was too greedy in absorbing the spiritual energy of the Tang Dynasty and was clearly trying to exhaust the dragon vein. After dozens of lashes, he was whipped into a lump of mud."

The old soldier picked up the bowl and drank the noodle soup in one gulp. He wiped his mouth casually and sneered, "Serves them right! Those barbarian bastards, they ate our food and still dared to assassinate the Emperor. It's best to wipe them all out."

The chatter in the marketplace dissipated in the wind along with the steam from the noodle soup.

The people of the Tang Dynasty were unaware of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood recorded in the "History of Time"; they only knew that the emperor was frightened and unleashed a thunderous rage.

Thus, the Japanese people on the Guanzhong Plain were completely wiped out in just one month by all sorts of absurd and fabricated charges that no one dared to refute, like ants being crushed.

At this moment, in the Ganlu Hall of Taiji Palace.

Li Shimin did not wear his heavy dragon robe, but only a loose blue casual robe, and stood alone in front of the wooden frame with the map of the Tang Dynasty's maritime territory hanging on it.

He stared intently at the vast ocean east of Dengzhou on the map, his fingers unconsciously stroking the rough parchment, his eyes dark and terrifying.

Over the past month.

The sight of heads rolling to the ground in Chang'an slightly calmed the rage that was about to explode in his chest.

But as soon as he closed his eyes, the babies impaled on bayonets and the people stuffed into the gas-filled kilns in the Heavenly Book haunted him like a nightmare.

What's the big deal about killing a few envoys and students?

That's just a drop in the ocean of interest, not even enough to repay a single drop of blood for those 300,000 innocent souls!

"Wang De,"

Li Shimin suddenly spoke up, ripped the map of the coastal region from the wooden frame, rolled it up in his hand, and strode out of the hall.

"Prepare the horses, we're going to the Prince of Qin's residence."

Before the old eunuch Wang could even summon a squad of personal guards, Li Shimin had already stepped out of the palace gate.

After an incense stick has burned.

The gates of the Prince of Qin's mansion were not properly closed. Li Shimin casually tossed the horse reins to the stunned guards at the gate, strode across the front yard, and headed straight for the back yard.

He stepped over the high wooden threshold, his leather boots thumping on the bluestone slabs. He pushed open the half-closed moon door, and as soon as his gaze swept across the courtyard, he froze on the spot.

The yard was a complete mess.

The rocking chair that was usually covered with a white tiger skin was squeezed into a corner. The spacious bluestone open space now resembled a messy warehouse, with stacks of yellow paper covered with dark red scribbles.

A gentle breeze caused the edges of the pages to flutter slightly, and a chilling, oppressive heat seemed to emanate from the air.

On the open ground to the right, dozens of palm-sized discs were neatly stacked.

The disc was neither gold nor wood, but rather looked like it was made from some kind of bone. Its surface was covered with densely packed grooves and patterns, and it was emitting a faint, eerie blue light that stung the eyes if one looked at it for too long.

The stone table in the center of the courtyard was in complete disarray, with a pile of vibrant green jade pieces and several three-foot-long swords without hilts scattered around.

The air was filled with an extremely strong smell of cinnabar, mixed with an indescribable fragrance of herbs and trees, and the air currents in the entire courtyard seemed to be slowly swirling around those objects.

Qin Wan'er was wearing a tight-fitting outfit with narrow sleeves and a fitted waist. Her usually meticulously styled hair was now casually tied up with a wooden hairpin.

She was squatting on the ground, deftly sorting and packing the yellow papers covered with runes according to their patterns. Her forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, and there was a very obvious cinnabar mark on her cheek.

"Wan'er," Li Shimin called out, carefully avoiding the disc on the ground, and took two steps forward.

Hearing the noise, Qin Wan'er suddenly looked up and saw that it was Li Shimin. She quickly put down the yellow paper in her hand and wiped her hands, which were covered with cinnabar, on the hem of her clothes.

"Your Majesty, what brings you here?" Qin Wan'er stood up, slightly out of breath, and pointed to the tightly closed door of the main room.

"His Highness is meditating and regulating his breathing inside the room."

Li Shimin pointed to the mess in the courtyard, his brows furrowed, his face full of doubt: "What kind of evil illness has struck Chen'er? What are all these strange scribblings and bone plates for? Is the Qin Prince's mansion going to be converted into a Taoist temple?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Wan'er raised the back of her hand to wipe the fine sweat from her forehead. The red cinnabar smudged on her fair cheeks along with the sweat, looking somewhat comical.

"Your Majesty misunderstands; these are not tricks performed in a Taoist temple."

Qin Wan'er bent down, picked up a piece of yellow paper with a flame totem drawn on it, and shook it in her hand, her tone revealing a calm indifference that she was used to such things.

"His Highness said that these are magical artifacts and talismans used by cultivators, and he has been carving them in the room for three days and three nights straight."

Li Shimin was taken aback, and his doubts deepened.

He knew that his sixteenth son was a genuine living god, but he was usually incredibly lazy, preferring to lie down rather than sit. How did he suddenly change his nature and start tinkering with these deadly things day and night?

"Why is he gathering so many magical artifacts? Has some kind of evil spirit appeared within the Tang Dynasty?" Li Shimin asked.

Qin Wan'er neatly stacked the pile of yellow paper into a wooden box, dusted off her hands, looked up and stared directly at Li Shimin, calmly dropping a bombshell.

"His Highness didn't mention any demons, he just said that he wasn't satisfied with the killing in Chang'an, and that it was just a warm-up."

Qin Wan'er pointed to the sea to the east and, mimicking Li Chen's usual tone, relayed his words verbatim.

"His Highness intends to use these cultivators' magical artifacts for protection and plans to personally cross the sea in a few days to go to that island called Japan and slaughter them indiscriminately."

Gaga ran rampant.

Slaughter through Japan.

These two sentences were like two muffled thunderclaps striking the top of Li Shimin's head, hitting him hard in the ears.

The Tang emperor's breath caught in his throat for a moment, and his heart skipped a beat in his chest.

He originally thought that the one-sided massacre in Chang'an over the past month had reached the limit of venting his anger. After all, with the vast ocean in between, the Tang Dynasty's current fleet of warships was simply incapable of supporting a long-range expedition of national annihilation.

But he forgot that his son was no ordinary person; he was some kind of Golden Core stage immortal who could traverse the void!

An indescribable surge of ecstasy and trembling instantly rushed up Li Shimin's spine to his head.

He stared intently at the talismans and array plates filling the courtyard, the gloom, pain, and irritability that had been suppressed for a month finally ignited in his eyes.

The muscles on his face twitched slightly uncontrollably, his pupils dilated, and an eerie green light, like that of a hungry wolf eyeing raw, bloody flesh, involuntarily emanated from his eyes.

"Is this true?!" Li Shimin rushed to the stone table, his voice trembling with excitement, and grabbed the three-foot-long sword without a hilt.

The sword felt incredibly heavy in his hand, and a bone-chilling cold instantly seeped into his meridians through his palm, making him shiver involuntarily.

"Absolutely true."

Qin Wan'er pointed to the items on the stone table and introduced them one by one to the green-eyed emperor.

"This is called a wave-breaking array plate. It's installed at the bottom of the ship, so even if you encounter a hurricane or typhoon in the East China Sea, you can move as if on flat ground."

"This is called a Fiery Talisman. Throwing one out can burn down all the wooden houses within a half-mile radius to the ground."

Qin Wan'er picked up a jade slip and shook it: "This is an explosive jade slip. His Highness said that this thing is better than any cannon. If you bury it underground and it explodes, it can even blow up city walls."

Li Shimin listened to these words as if they were devastating weapons tailor-made for the slaughter of a nation, and the green light in his eyes was almost bursting out.

He gripped the Qingfeng sword, his palms sweating with excitement, his mind already filled with the bloody images of these deadly weapons exploding on that island.

"Squeak—"

Just then, the tightly closed wooden door of the main house was pulled open from the inside.

Li Chen was wearing a loose white undergarment, his hair casually draped over his shoulders, and his face was pale, showing signs of exhaustion.

He rubbed his aching neck, yawned, and stepped over the threshold.

As soon as Li Chen looked up, he met Li Shimin's eyes, which were glowing green and staring intently at him, which startled him so much that he took a half step back.

"Old Deng, what's wrong with you, coming to my yard so early in the morning? Are your eyes glowing green, or are you possessed by a weasel?" Li Chen scolded irritably.

Li Shimin completely ignored Li Chen's teasing. He casually threw the Qingfeng sword on the stone table, stepped over the talismans scattered on the ground, and grabbed Li Chen's arm tightly.

The force was so great that Li Chen's bones ached slightly.

Li Shimin stared intently at Li Chen, his heavy breathing hitting Li Chen's face. His majestic imperial face twisted into an extremely fanatical and unreasonable smile.

"Chen'er! If you're going to conquer a country, how can you not take your father, the Supreme General of Heavenly Strategy, with you! I'm a professional when it comes to fighting wars."