My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

The scraping sound of a sword being drawn was unusually jarring in the deathly silent bedchamber.

Li Shimin maintained a slightly forward-leaning posture, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the open space beside the golden nanmu pillar. The half-drawn sword reflected the faint candlelight, illuminating the pale lines of his taut jaw.

Li Chen's back was pressed against the wooden pillar, and he remained motionless.

He wasn't breathing, and his heartbeat was extremely low. The liquid essence within his body had stopped flowing, like frozen river water.

He could see it clearly; Li Shimin's gaze was unfocused. The Tang emperor couldn't see him at all; he had only sensed that faint movement of air by relying on the instincts of a wild beast that had crawled through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

"Protect the Emperor—!"

The head of the Imperial Medical Academy, standing at the door, finally reacted and shouted in a high-pitched, broken voice.

The sound of boots thundered outside the hall. A dozen heavily armored guards instantly smashed through the window frames and wooden doors, drawing their swords and surrounding the canopy bed. Archers quickly took up high ground, their black-painted arrows aimed at every blind spot inside the hall.

Li Chen's gaze fell on the half-open window across the street.

We can't delay. If more and more people gather, once his true energy is exhausted and the invisibility talisman becomes ineffective, he'll have no choice but to wreak havoc here.

He silently made a hand seal by bending his index finger with his right hand hanging by his side.

A faint wisp of wind-elemental true energy slid down from his fingertip, skimming the ground, and swiftly slithered towards the antique display shelf on the other side of the hall like a thin snake.

"Click".

A celadon vase on the shelf was gently pushed by a breeze, making a very soft clinking sound.

In this extremely tense atmosphere, the crisp sound was like a thunderclap from a clear sky.

"Over there!"

One of the guards let out a low growl and pulled the trigger of his crossbow without hesitation. Three fine steel short arrows whistled through the air and shattered the celadon vase, causing half of the display shelf to collapse with a crash.

Li Shimin's attention was instantly drawn, and he turned to look to his left.

Right now.

Li Chen tapped his toes on the ground and activated the "Wind Control Technique" at full power.

His body, like a weightless ghost, floated out through the broken window amidst the chaos of the room.

The moment his feet touched the ground, a low-grade flying sword immediately appeared beneath his feet. True essence surged forth, and the flying sword transformed into a dim gray light, skimming the shadows of the palace wall as it sped towards the side hall in the northwest corner of the palace.

The night wind whistled in my ears.

Li Chen looked down at his dantian.

In just a short while, nearly a third of the originally abundant liquid true essence had been consumed. Especially since the flow of true essence had been forcibly stopped to suppress the aura, a faint, needle-like pain was coming from the meridians.

"Infiltrate stealthily and give half an hour of deep massage every day..."

Li Chen stood on the flying sword, a mocking sneer tugging at the corner of his mouth.

That simply won't work. Let alone a month, even three consecutive days would completely drain his initial Foundation Establishment stage true essence. Not only would he fail to save Empress Zhangsun, but he himself would also be doomed.

The sound of something cutting through the air gradually subsided.

Li Chen climbed over the rickety wooden door of the side hall and casually tore off the invisibility talisman from his chest. The talisman had already lost its luster and turned into a small clump of ashes that drifted to the ground.

He didn't light a lamp, but sat cross-legged on the hard wooden bed, closed his eyes, and began to circulate his internal energy to recover his depleted true energy.

The surroundings were so quiet that only the chirping of crickets in the corner could be heard.

As dawn broke, the palace was in complete chaos.

Although the side hall was located in a remote area, the few eunuchs who used to sweep the floor occasionally were all nowhere to be seen today. A suffocating sense of tension filled the air.

When the sun was high in the sky, the courtyard gate was kicked open.

Little Sizi practically fell in.

The little girl hadn't even combed her hair today, and half of the pearl hairpins in her hair had fallen off. Her pink skirt was covered in mud, and she had a large scrape on her knee, from which bright red blood was seeping out, but she didn't seem to feel any pain at all.

"Sixteenth Brother..."

Xiao Sizi's voice was completely hoarse, and the sound she made was like two rough pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.

Li Chen strode over and pulled her into his arms.

Her body was as cold as ice, and her eye sockets were swollen like two ripe peaches, filled with fine red blood vessels.

"The Imperial Physician was dragged out and beaten by Father... There's so much blood..." The little girl gripped Li Chen's sleeve tightly, her knuckles turning blue and white from the force. "Mother vomited a lot of blood... The Imperial Physician said... said Mother won't make it through the night..."

Tears welled up like a burst dam, instantly soaking the front of Li Chen's shirt.

The little girl buried her head in his arms, her body trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.

Li Chen's movements froze for a moment.

He looked down at the little girl in his arms, who was crying so hard she was almost breathless. The image of her secretly running over every time she came over these past two months, pulling out the crushed osmanthus cake from her sleeve like a precious treasure, flashed through his mind.

"Sixteenth Brother, this is sweet, you have it."

Li Chen took a deep breath and gently placed his palm on Xiao Sizi's back. An extremely gentle stream of wood-elemental true energy slowly flowed into her body, protecting her heart meridian, which was on the verge of collapse due to extreme grief.

"Don't be afraid," Li Chen's voice was surprisingly calm.

He carried the little girl to the bed, covered her with the blanket, and gently touched her forehead with his finger.

A weak calming spell took effect. The little girl's tense body slowly relaxed, her breathing gradually became steady, and she fell into a deep sleep.

Li Chen stood by the bed and quietly watched her for a while.

"I originally wanted to behave myself."

He shook his head, a somewhat helpless smile playing on his lips. He turned away, his thoughts instantly sinking into his spiritual space.

After rummaging through a pile of junk for a moment, he pulled out a palm-sized, thin, flesh-colored mask.

Transformation mask.

These are strange items without any ranking, possessing neither defensive nor offensive capabilities. Their sole purpose is to perfectly alter the wearer's bones, physique, and appearance. Even high-level cultivators in the cultivation world find them difficult to discern with the naked eye.

Li Chen took the mask and walked to the basin of water.

He applied the thin film to his face.

A chilling sensation instantly spread throughout my body. Immediately afterwards, a sickening grinding sound of bones grinding echoed from within.

"Click click click..."

His body, which was originally only fifteen years old and slightly thin, began to grow rapidly. His bones stretched and his muscles bulged slightly. His height, which was originally less than seven feet, was forcibly increased to more than eight feet (about 1.85 meters).

The collagen in the skin quickly fades, replaced by a layer of fine wrinkles that bear the marks of time, but it does not look old; instead, it has a jade-like luster.

Her once black hair faded rapidly from the roots, turning into a snow-white color in the blink of an eye, and was casually tied on top of her head with a wooden hairpin she had picked up at random.

Li Chen opened his eyes.

In the reflection of the basin, a white-haired old man with an air of otherworldly grace appeared. His eyes were as deep as an ancient well, and a wisp of long, flowing beard adorned his chin. Standing there, he seemed to be surrounded by a faint aura of otherworldly refinement.

He opened the tattered trunk beside him and pulled out a large, grayish-white coarse cloth robe, which he put on. The flowing sleeves perfectly concealed the movements of his hands and feet.

"Since we can't treat it secretly..."

Li Chen lowered his head and glanced at his hands. Although the liquid true essence in his dantian wasn't much, it was enough for overwhelming mortals with sheer force.

"Then walk in openly and honestly."

The afternoon sun beat down mercilessly on Chang'an City.

The atmosphere in the square outside the Rikjeongjeon Hall was extremely oppressive.

A dozen or so imperial physicians knelt on the scorching hot stone slabs, their foreheads pressed against the ground, their bodies soaked in sweat. Several guards with swords stood behind them, their hands on the hilts of their blades, ready to carry out Li Shimin's death order at any moment.

Inside the palace, the suppressed sobs of the palace maids could be heard intermittently.

Li Shimin stood with his back to the door in front of the canopy bed. His back was slightly hunched, like a volcano about to erupt, desperately suppressing the destructive rage within him.

"If you can't cure him, you will all be executed." His voice wasn't loud, but it made the imperial physicians outside the door tremble even more violently.

Just then, a sudden sound of footsteps broke the deathly silence of the square.

That was the sound of cloth shoes stepping on bluestone slabs. Unhurried and unhurried, each step was measured with precision, as if measured with a ruler.

The head of the Imperial Medical Academy, who was kneeling on the ground, subconsciously raised his head and looked in the direction of the voice.

At the entrance to the square, a strange old man with a gray-white robe and white hair and beard appeared out of nowhere.

The old man walked slowly with his hands behind his back, but with each step, his figure seemed to cover several meters. The sunlight shone on him, making even his shadow appear somewhat illusory.

"stop!"

The four armored guards standing at the bottom of the steps instantly drew their swords, the tips of which were pointed directly at the old man.

"The imperial palace is a forbidden area; trespassers will be executed!"

The old man didn't stop walking, nor did he even lift his eyelids.

"Get out of here."

The sound wasn't loud, but it seemed to explode directly in the depths of everyone's minds.

The four guards exchanged a glance, and without the slightest hesitation, they suddenly exerted force with their feet, pouncing forward like four cheetahs. Four hundred-refined steel blades blocked all of the old man's escape routes.

The old man still had his hands behind his back, but his wide gray-white sleeves fluttered slightly forward.

"Bang!"

It was as if an invisible giant wave suddenly exploded in the air.

There was no contact, no techniques.

Four top-tier bodyguards, each weighing over 200 pounds plus their heavy armor, were thrown head-on by a charging elephant, swords and all.

Blood gushed from their mouths, and the four figures flew backward seven or eight zhang (approximately 33-40 meters) before crashing heavily onto the white marble railing outside the hall. The sturdy stone railing instantly became covered in cracks.

The four of them slid to the ground, unconscious without even uttering a groan.

The entire square was deathly silent.

The imperial physicians kneeling on the ground gaped, forgetting even to breathe.

The hundreds of imperial guards standing at a distance gasped, raising their spears in unison, but none of them dared to take a step forward.

The old man walked up the steps, step by step, bathed in sunlight.

The palace gates were tightly closed.

The old man didn't reach out to push it open. He simply stopped in front of the door and gently placed his right foot on the bluestone steps.

"boom--!"

The two heavy mahogany doors, covered in copper, burst open as if struck by an invisible giant hammer.

Sawdust mixed with copper nails flew everywhere, and the curtains inside the palace were whipped high by the gale. Several palace maids carrying medicine bowls screamed and fell to the ground, spilling scalding hot medicine all over the floor.

Amidst the swirling dust and sawdust, the old man stepped over the threshold and entered the dark bedroom.

Li Shimin suddenly turned around.

The Emperor's Sword in his hand was already drawn, its sharp blade aimed directly at the old man's throat. His bloodshot eyes burned with a ferocious, predatory killing intent.

"An assassin?" Li Shimin's voice sounded like it was being squeezed out from between his teeth.

The old man stopped less than three inches from the tip of the sword.

He slightly raised his chin, his deep gaze passing over Li Shimin's trembling sword blade and landing on the lifeless canopy bed behind him.

"I've been entrusted to come and extend my life."

The old man withdrew his gaze, his eyes calmly landing on Li Shimin's face.

He ignored the blade pressed against his throat, and his withered fingers emerged from his wide sleeves, flicking them casually in mid-air.

"clang--!"

A crisp metallic crackling sound.

Li Shimin felt a jolt in his hand, and an overwhelming, terrifying force surged through the blade like a tidal wave. The Emperor's Sword, forged from fine steel, flew out of his grasp and embedded itself diagonally in the crossbeam of the palace roof, its hilt still humming.

Li Shimin was so shocked that he took three steps back, only managing to stop when his lower back hit the edge of the bed.

The old man dusted off non-existent dust from his sleeves.

"If you want treatment, then get out of here and shut up and watch."

The old man's eyelids drooped slightly, and his tone remained completely flat. "If it's incurable, I'll leave now."