My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

The night wind blew into the dilapidated windowpane.

Li Chen stepped onto the windowsill with one foot, his body floating silently out of the yard like a weightless, withered leaf.

The invisibility talisman was fully activated. At this moment, even if someone walked up to him with a lantern, they would only see a wisp of air.

He patted the storage bag at his waist.

A dark gray streak of light silently slid out and hovered at his feet with a "hum". It was a low-grade flying sword, with several fine cracks on its blade, and its workmanship was so rough that it looked like a defective product from a blacksmith's shop.

Li Chen stepped firmly onto the sword.

A wisp of liquid true essence separated from his dantian and flowed into the flying sword through the soles of his feet.

He didn't dare to speed up. He carefully controlled his true energy, creating an extremely thin, streamlined protective shield around his body and flying sword to cut through the night wind.

There was no sound of air being cut, and no surging air currents.

The flying sword slowly rose, stopping two or three zhang above the ground. This height was just right, placing it in the shadow of the palace roof ridge while avoiding the sight of the imperial guards on the ground.

He closed his eyes, and a slight throbbing appeared between his brows.

His divine sense was like an invisible ripple, spreading outwards in all directions from him as the center.

One mile... two miles... three miles.

A clear three-dimensional map instantly formed in my mind.

Three sentries were hidden under the palace wall at the left front corner, and the frequency of their yawns could be clearly heard.

On the right side of the moat, two patrols of Xuanjia soldiers were crossing paths. The heavy scraping sound of their armor plates, when detected by divine sense, was as jarring as gongs being struck in one's ear.

"The defenses are more than three times stronger," Li Chen thought to himself.

In the direction of the Lizheng Hall, sentry posts, both visible and hidden, were densely intertwined. On the rooftops, behind the artificial hills, and even among the thick beams, lay hidden masters of internal martial arts with their long, drawn-out breaths.

Li Chen propelled his flying sword, weaving and twisting through the shadows of the buildings. When he encountered a brightly lit plaza, he immediately lowered his altitude, slowly gliding forward along the piles of weeds at the base of the wall.

The flying sword consumed a great deal of true energy. After flying for less than half an incense stick's time, the liquid in his dantian had already decreased significantly.

Ahead is the east side hall of the Rijō-den.

Li Chen sheathed his flying sword and lightly tapped his toes on a glazed tile.

The "Wind Control Technique" was activated, and the force was completely dissipated, so the tiles underfoot didn't even shake.

He slid down the roof like a ghost.

Suddenly, Li Chen's movements froze in mid-air.

On the eaves of the main hall, three zhang away, a bodyguard dressed entirely in black suddenly turned his head.

The other person wore an iron mask, revealing only a pair of bloodshot eyes, which were fixed intently on Li Chen's direction. The guard's right hand was already on the crossbow at his waist, his thumb pressing down on the suspended blade.

Li Chen stopped breathing; even his heartbeat was suppressed to the limit by the "Gathering Yuan Technique".

You didn't see me. The invisibility talisman is optical.

But what did he realize?

Li Chen's gaze shifted downwards, landing at his feet. There was a loose tile there. Although he hadn't made a sound when he stepped on it, the slight airflow generated by the edge of his True Essence Shield as he slid down stirred up some accumulated dust from the gaps in the tile.

On this windless summer night, this sudden speck of dust alerted the top experts.

The guard slowly stood up, picked up his crossbow, and walked step by step toward Li Chen.

Ten steps. Eight steps.

Li Chen's fingertips had already gripped a wind blade talisman. If he were discovered, he would have no choice but to kill him to silence him. However, if he used an offensive spell, the fluctuations in spiritual energy would definitely attract the entire Imperial Guard of the palace.

Five steps.

The guards stopped, their brows furrowed, seemingly hesitant about whether to fire the signal arrow.

Li Chen's eyes sharpened, and his divine sense instantly condensed into a thin needle, piercing fiercely at a wild cat sleeping on a crossbeam three zhang away.

"Meow—!"

The wildcat seemed to have its backside burned, letting out a pitiful howl before leaping off the beam, its sharp claws scratching the tiles with a series of ear-piercing scraping sounds.

The guard's tense shoulders instantly relaxed. He cursed under his breath, put away his crossbow, and retreated back into the shadows of the eaves.

Li Chen pressed his face against the cold roof tile and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air from his lungs.

He slid down the eaves of the east side hall to the back window. The small ventilation window there was half-closed, emitting a strong, nauseating smell of bitter medicine.

I squeezed through the small window, turning sideways.

The light inside the hall was dim. A dozen or so thick butter candles burned in a corner, their flames flickering weakly.

Heavy curtains hung down in layers, completely obscuring the innermost canopy bed.

Eight palace maids stood in two rows, and four eunuchs knelt before the bed. Everyone had dark circles under their eyes and looked like they were about to collapse, but none of them dared to close their eyes.

Behind the curtain, intermittent hissing could be heard, like a bellows with a large hole, leaking air with every breath.

Li Chen leaned against the shadows in the corner of the wall, his brow furrowing again.

He forcibly dispersed the initial spiritual consciousness of the Foundation Establishment stage into more than a dozen extremely weak spiritual fluctuations, which silently swept over the back of the heads of the twelve palace servants.

Bewitching and mind-controlling techniques.

It's only effective against ordinary people. It has no lethality; it only amplifies the fatigue accumulated in their bodies.

The palace maid, who had been standing ramrod straight, suddenly swayed, her eyelids drooping as if weighed down by lead. She instinctively tried to pinch her thigh, but her hand froze halfway up, and she remained standing, emitting soft snores.

The eunuch kneeling in front kowtowed directly to the carpet, breathing evenly.

At most, it can only control half an incense stick's worth of time.

Li Chen immediately activated his lightness technique, floating to the bedside as if his feet didn't touch the ground.

He didn't reach out to lift the curtain. The physical body of a mortal is extremely fragile nowadays. Even if he left only a trace of the spiritual energy of a cultivator, it could cause the other party to be unable to absorb the nourishment and die on the spot.

He joined his index and middle fingers together and pointed at the curtain from a distance.

Within her dantian, a strand of extremely pure wood-elemental true essence shot out from her fingertips, transforming into a thin, invisible blue thread that pierced through the curtains and silk quilts, and entered the meridians of Empress Zhangsun's wrist.

Li Chen closed his eyes.

A horrific scene immediately flashed into his mind.

If we compare the meridians to river channels, then the river channels within Empress Zhangsun's body have completely dried up and cracked. Her internal organs are like withered, rotten wood, their surfaces covered with countless cracks.

The lungs are the most severely damaged, and the blood and qi are stagnant, forming a tangled mess.

Immediately afterwards, Li Chen sent out an extremely gentle wisp of his divine sense to probe into the other party's Niwan Palace.

Within the soul's space, all was shrouded in gray. Two deep, tearing marks stretched across the soul. These were the wounds of heartbreak left by the death of the retired emperor and the loss of his son in his early years.

Deep sorrow breaks the heart, and the source of life is exhausted.

Li Chen suddenly opened his eyes and severed the connection between his wood-elemental true essence and divine sense.

A fine layer of cold sweat had already seeped onto his forehead. Probing the soul was far too taxing for him at his current state.

"Decades of chronic illness, coupled with multiple pregnancies that depleted my resources, and finally, two major funerals that completely shattered my psychological defenses." Li Chen quickly reviewed the situation in his mind. "Exhausted and worn down. A double decay of body and soul."

Let alone the imperial physicians of the mortal realm, even if a cultivator at the Qi Refining stage came, they could only watch helplessly as she died.

He is currently in the early stage of Foundation Establishment, with his True Essence transformed into liquid. The only way to save him is to use Wood-type True Essence to forcibly cleanse his meridians and nourish the withered wood every day, combined with methods to calm his mind and stabilize his soul.

The problem is that this treatment only addresses the symptoms, not the root cause.

The only way to extend life is by three years. Moreover, continuous magical treatment must be performed for a full month beforehand, without interruption, otherwise all previous efforts will be wasted.

Li Chen glanced at his dantian, where nearly a quarter of his true essence had been consumed.

Sneaking into the heavily guarded palace every night to give the Empress a half-hour deep massage? And all while ensuring that she wouldn't be discovered by dozens of imperial physicians and thousands of imperial guards?

If one day the true energy supply fails, or if the patrolling experts slow down the progress...

With his current small frame, once his true energy is exhausted, hundreds of archers could easily riddle him with bullets.

"I can't do it."

Li Chen made a quick conclusion. He could come and check on the situation for Xiao Sizi's sake, but he couldn't risk getting himself involved.

He turned around, preparing to retreat the way he came.

Half an incense stick's time was almost up, and the eunuch's fingers on the ground had begun to twitch.

Li Chen had just walked into the shadows by the back window.

"Bang--!"

The heavy main gate of the Rijō-den was kicked open from the outside.

The wooden door slammed against the wall with a loud thud. A night breeze, carrying a few wisps of summer heat, rushed into the hall, causing the candles in the corner to flicker wildly.

The twelve palace maids, who had been under a spell, were instantly awakened. Upon seeing the newcomer, they were so frightened that their knees buckled and they all trembled and lay prostrate on the ground.

"His Majesty!"

Li Shimin strode across the threshold.

He wasn't wearing a dragon robe, but only a thin, casual garment with the collar wide open. His eyes were bloodshot and sunken, and his entire body exuded a violent aura as if he had just crawled out of a pile of corpses.

The chief physician of the Imperial Medical Academy, who was following behind him, was trembling with fear and scrambled to keep up.

Li Shimin didn't even glance at the kneeling palace servants, and walked straight towards the canopy bed.

His strides were extremely long and fast, creating a gust of wind.

Li Chen was pressed against a pillar less than five steps from the bed. Li Shimin strode past, their shoulders almost brushing against each other.

The movements of ordinary people could not harm Li Chen, who was in stealth mode, but the gust of wind brought by Li Shimin's passing caused the invisibility talisman on Li Chen's chest to curl up slightly at one corner.

A faint fluctuation of spiritual energy rippled through the air.

Li Chen held his breath, his back pressed tightly against the cold golden nanmu pillar.

Li Shimin walked to the bedside and reached out to lift the curtain.

His movements suddenly stopped.

The emperor, who had fought his way out of the Xuanwu Gate amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, twitched his nose twice.

Around the curtains, there was a faint, cool scent, distinct from the aroma of herbs. It was the lingering trace of spiritual energy left behind when Li Chen used his wood-elemental true essence.

Li Shimin's hand froze in mid-air, his brows furrowed tightly.

He turned his head and looked at the half-open back window.

"Who opened the window?" Li Shimin's voice was hoarse, yet carried an undeniable air of authority.

The palace maids and eunuchs kneeling on the ground trembled even more violently, kowtowing desperately: "Your Majesty, we didn't open the window..."

Li Shimin ignored them.

His gaze followed the window and slowly moved back.

Finally, their gaze was fixed on the open space next to the golden nanmu pillar.

There was nothing there. No shadows, no living creatures.

But Li Shimin's hand had already reached for the hilt of the sword at his waist. His body leaned slightly forward, like a tiger poised to pounce, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints in the flickering candlelight.

He pulled out half of the sword blade.

The cold, sharp light of the sword illuminated the air.

"Get out here." Li Shimin stared at the spot where Li Chen was standing, enunciating each word clearly.