My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

"Sixteenth Brother!"

A clear, childlike voice rang out in the empty side hall, filled with pure, unadulterated doubt.

"Why have you turned into an old man?"

Li Chen's right foot, which was about to step out the door, was abruptly suspended in mid-air.

His body stiffened like a sheet of iron in that instant. Even the surging liquid true essence in his meridians paused for half a breath.

The air in the side hall seemed to have been sucked out instantly.

The expressions on Li Shimin and Empress Zhangsun's faces froze in the respect they had shown just a moment before when bidding farewell to the immortals. Crown Prince Li Chengqian's hand, holding a teacup, stopped in mid-air, the tea spilling out due to his trembling and dripping onto the back of his hand, but he was completely unaware.

"Sizi!"

Li Shimin was the first to react. The hairs on the back of his head stood on end. He rushed forward in two steps, grabbed Xiao Sizi's arm, and tried to pull him back.

That's a living god who can decide life and death with a snap of his fingers and flood the Yellow River with a wave of his hand!

The mortal imperial power is nothing but a fart in his eyes. Just now, Fang Xuanling was so angry by his words that he vomited blood and fainted. Now this little girl actually ran up and grabbed the clothes of the immortal, and even called him "Sixteenth Brother".

If this living ancestor is angered, the entire Taiji Palace will be reduced to ruins tonight!

"Don't be disrespectful to the immortal! Let go!" Li Shimin's voice was extremely low, revealing a panic that even he himself didn't realize.

Empress Zhangsun, disregarding her newly recovered health, stumbled over, her face deathly pale: "Immortal Master, please forgive me! Children speak without thinking, but Sizi is just recovering from a serious illness and is experiencing hysteria..."

Li Chen did not turn around.

He maintained his back to the crowd, coughed twice, and deliberately lowered his voice to make it sound hoarse and old.

"Little princess, you've mistaken me for someone else. I am just a recluse from the mountains, not your brother."

He gently shook his wide, gray-white sleeves, trying to pull the fabric out of the little girl's hands.

But the little ox held on tightly.

The little girl's eyes instantly reddened, and a layer of mist quickly gathered in her large, dark eyes.

"Wow--!"

Little Sizi didn't care about gods or immortals at all. She sat down on the blue brick ground, hugged Li Chen's legs tightly with both hands, and started wailing loudly.

"You're lying! You are Brother Sixteen!"

Tears mixed with snot, smearing themselves unreservedly onto Li Chen's grey-white robe, which he used to portray himself as a reclusive sage.

"Sixteenth Brother doesn't like Sizi anymore...Sixteenth Brother doesn't want Sizi anymore...Waaah..." The little girl cried so hard she could barely breathe, her little shoulders trembling, her face full of grievance.

Li Shimin was so anxious that the veins on his forehead throbbed, and he reached out to forcefully pry Xiao Sizi's hand off.

"Step back."

Li Chen sighed.

There was a hint of extremely subtle helplessness in the hoarse old man's voice.

Li Shimin's hand recoiled as if electrocuted, frozen in place, cold sweat streaming down his back.

Li Chen turned around and waved his wide sleeves. A gentle stream of true energy lifted Xiao Sizi from under her armpits, carrying her steadily in his arms.

"You little rascal."

Li Chen reached out his withered fingers and wiped away her tears. Although his face was full of wrinkles, his tone was surprisingly familiar with her.

"How can you be so sure that I'm your unpopular sixteenth brother?"

Little Sizi sniffled, her little hands clutching tightly at Li Chen's shirt, as if afraid he would run away.

"It's just a feeling... Si Zi feels like Sixteenth Brother in you."

As she spoke, she buried her face in Li Chen's collar and sniffed hard.

Suddenly, the little girl's chubby fingers reached inside Li Chen's wide collar.

"Whoosh."

She pulled half of an old sachet, about the size of a palm and sewn with extremely rough stitches, from a hidden pocket in her inner garment. The sachet was embroidered with a crooked osmanthus flower, and the edges were already frayed from being kept close to her body for so long.

"Sixteenth Brother carries the scent of the sachet that Si Zi personally gave him!"

Little Sizi raised her chin, tears still glistening in her large eyes, but her tone was incredibly resolute.

In the side hall, it was so quiet that the only sound could be the crackling of charcoal burning in the gilded incense burner.

Li Shimin's gaze was fixed on the rough sachet with a corner peeking out, as if drawn by a magnet.

Empress Zhangsun's breathing quickened instantly. She covered her mouth tightly with both hands, and her eyes instantly turned red.

That sachet.

Two months ago, Xiao Sizi was making sachets on the steps of the side hall, saying she wanted to give them to her sixteenth brother, who lived in the cold palace and played with her every day.

Empress Zhangsun was standing not far away watching; she would never admit to making a mistake with those clumsy stitches.

Li Shimin slowly raised his head.

As he looked at the old immortal with snow-white hair and extraordinary abilities before him, the face of the fifteen-year-old boy who had been invisible for three whole years in the northwest corner of the palace began to overlap with his own in an extremely absurd way.

"This..." Crown Prince Li Chengqian opened his mouth wide, his jaw as if it had dislocated, and he let out an extremely faint gasp.

Li Chen looked down at the sachet that had been pulled out.

The air fell into a deathly silence that lasted for ten breaths.

"Ugh."

Li Chen shook his head, a resigned smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"You're such a clever little girl."

His voice was no longer hoarse and weathered, but had shed all pretense and returned to the clear, slightly languid tone of a fifteen-year-old boy.

"That's good, now you've stripped Sixteenth Brother naked."

Upon hearing that familiar voice, Li Shimin's legs suddenly went weak, and he stumbled back half a step, his lower back slamming heavily against the armrest of the grand master's chair.

Empress Zhangsun collapsed into a chair, tears silently streaming down her face.

Li Chen put the little ox in his arms on the ground.

He raised his right hand and pinched the skin on the edge of his jaw with his fingers.

"Sizzle—"

A very faint peeling sound.

He casually tore off the thin, gossamer-like transformation mask and tossed it onto the small rosewood table beside him.

The mask has been removed from its suppressive function.

"Click-clack click-clack..."

A sickening, bone-tightening contraction sound came from inside Li Chen's body.

His once tall and upright body, over eight feet in height, shrank visibly like a bamboo stalk that had been drained of moisture. His wide, greyish-white Taoist robe collapsed instantly, hanging empty on his somewhat thin shoulders.

The radiant glow of age on the skin has faded, replaced by the firmness unique to young people.

Her head was covered in snow-white silver hair, which quickly climbed from the roots to the ends, forming an indistinguishable thick black.

In just three breaths.

The white-haired old man with an air of otherworldly wisdom disappeared.

Standing in the center of the hall was a fifteen-year-old boy with sword-like eyebrows, bright eyes, and a handsome face, wearing an ill-fitting, oversized robe.

Li Chen, the sixteenth prince of the Tang Dynasty.

That was the body he had taken over after transmigrating, the one that had endured over a thousand days and nights in the side hall.

Li Chen twisted his neck, and his joints made a cracking sound.

"Alright, stop staring at me like that. You've been pretending to be an old man for a month, and you're practically oozing soreness from your very bones."

He casually rolled up his overly long sleeves a few times, revealing his forearms, then plopped back down in the same armchair, picked up the now-cold Junshan Yinzhen tea, and took a swig.

"Sixteenth Brother!"

Little Sizi completely ignored the ghostly expressions of the adults around her and threw herself into Li Chen's arms, pinching his cheeks with both hands.

"Hehehe... Sixteenth Brother's face-changing is so funny! Sizi wants to learn too!"

Li Chen helplessly held down her mischievous little hand and flicked her nose: "You can't learn this. This trick requires talent."

"Why is Sixteenth Brother dressed like an old man?" Little Sizi tilted his head, his face full of curiosity.

"Because your dad has too many rules." Li Chen curled his lip, glancing at Li Shimin standing a few steps away out of the corner of his eye. "There are eyes everywhere in this palace. If I were to wander around with my real face, I'd be in a lot of trouble. With the old man's face, I don't have to worry about beating people up, and they have to listen obediently when I scold them."

This unfiltered rant echoed throughout the side hall.

Li Chengqian bit his tongue hard, the pain confirming that he was not dreaming.

That immortal who used green fire to refine medicine, used talismans to quell the Yellow River's floods, and infuriated Prime Minister Fang with a single sentence... was actually that invisible younger brother who could arbitrarily deduct food from even the palace maids and eunuchs?!

Li Shimin stood still.

His chest heaved violently. His breathing was heavy, like that of a wild beast dying of thirst.

His gaze swept back and forth across Li Chen's young face. In his eyes and brows, one could vaguely see the shadow of the palace maid who had died in childbirth years ago.

That's his bloodline.

That's a prince of the Tang Dynasty!

Li Shimin's hands began to tremble uncontrollably. It was a complex physiological reaction mixed with extreme absurdity, extreme ecstasy, and deep fear.

There were immortals in the Tang Dynasty! Immortals resided in the royal family!

"Chen... Chen'er..."

Li Shimin's Adam's apple bobbed, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible. He took a step forward, extending his calloused hands, which had been used to wielding a sword for years, to touch Li Chen's shoulder.

Li Chen sat in the chair, his eyelids slightly lifted.

He neither got up nor dodged. It was only at the moment that Li Shimin's fingers were about to touch the fabric of his shoulder.

"Buzz—"

An invisible, dark golden true essence emanated naturally from Li Chen's body.

It has no destructive power, only an absolute repulsion that prevents any mortal from getting close.

"Bang."

Li Shimin felt as if his palm had struck an invisible, indestructible wall of energy. The immense recoil surged back along his wrist, forcing the Tang emperor to stagger back three steps.

Li Shimin staggered, his right heel gripping the crack in the floor tiles tightly to barely steady himself.

The air inside the side hall instantly dropped to freezing point.

Princess Chang Le gasped and instinctively covered her mouth.

Li Chen put down his teacup, placed the little girl in his arms on the ground, and patted her little head.

"Good boy, go to your mother's side."

Although the little girl was young, she sensed that something was wrong. She nodded obediently and ran back to Empress Zhangsun's side with her short legs.

Li Chen slowly stood up.

The excessively large Taoist robe looked somewhat comical on his thin frame, but as he stood there, the light in the entire side hall seemed to dim by a third.

He looked at Li Shimin, his dark pupils devoid of any so-called father-son affection, only displaying the indifference of a cultivator.

"Don't call me that so affectionately."

Li Chen dusted off his sleeves, his voice soft, yet each word was as firm as iron.

"Before, when I couldn't even keep the charcoal burning properly in the side hall, you never complained. When I had a high fever and was enduring it with the help of well water, you never complained."

Li Shimin's face turned deathly pale instantly. His lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a single word. Intense guilt gnawed at his heart like a venomous snake.

"I... no, I... I'm not shedding this skin today to put on some touching royal father-son drama."

Li Chen put his hands behind his back and took a step forward.

With this seemingly casual step, the pressure of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator was released without reservation.

"Click."

The blue bricks beneath Li Shimin's feet cracked open. This decisive and ruthless emperor found his knees buckling uncontrollably.

"I'll set the rules."

Li Chen looked down at Li Shimin, his tone indifferent.

"First, to the outside world, I am still the transparent Sixteenth Prince. The old immortal has gone to travel the world and will never appear again. As for the Hundred Cavalry Commandery, you'll have to shut them up yourself."

"Secondly, don't bother me while I'm in my seclusion. My affairs are none of anyone's business."

Li Chen paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the pale-faced Crown Prince Li Chengqian.

"at last."

"You can pass the Tang Dynasty on to whomever you want, and kill whoever you want. Don't try to scheme against me with your pathetic power struggles."

Li Chen turned around and walked towards the door of the side hall.

"Who dares to test my limits...?"

His hand rested on the door.

A wisp of dark golden true essence flowed out from his palm.

"boom!"

The two heavy palace doors, covered with iron sheets, turned into dust that drifted into the courtyard.

The night wind blew into the side hall without any obstruction.

Li Chen didn't turn around; his wide robes billowed in the night as he stepped out the door.