My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

Inside the main hall, it was so quiet you could hear a leaf falling.

Li Shimin remained in the posture of being knocked back with his sword, his right arm hanging at his side, his large palm trembling uncontrollably.

The Emperor's Sword, forged from a hundred times refined steel, was still nailed to the two-zhang-high roof beam, its hilt humming and shaking off a few wisps of dust.

"His Majesty!"

Hearing the commotion, the Xuanjia soldiers outside made a move to charge in again. Countless densely packed black armored soldiers crowded into the broken gate, bringing with them a suffocating and murderous aura.

Li Shimin did not issue an order.

He stared intently at the white-haired old man before him, letting out a heavy breath. He could feel the weight of that casual flick; if it had struck his chest, he would be dead by now.

Ordinary martial arts are a joke in front of this old man.

"Get out, all of you."

Li Shimin stared intently at the old man, his voice hoarse.

The heavily armored imperial guards at the gate hesitated for a moment, but finally retreated back to the square like a tide amidst the clatter of armor.

"You just said..."

Li Shimin took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the surging blood in his chest, and strode to the bedside, using his broad body to shield his wife on the sickbed.

"May I ask who entrusted you with this task?"

Li Chen manipulated the aged body after its transformation, casually twitching the corners of his mouth and revealing a profound and unfathomable cold smile.

"Your Emperor of the Tang Dynasty is not worthy to know my name."

The old man put his hands behind his back and took a step forward.

With this step, Li Shimin felt an invisible pressure bearing down on him, forcing him to turn to the side.

Li Chen walked to the bedside and looked down at Empress Zhangsun.

At this moment, Empress Zhangsun's face had changed from the paleness of the previous night to an almost deathly ashen color. Her lips were cracked and covered with bloody lines, and her chest rose and fell only very weakly after a long time, each breath accompanied by a sticky phlegm sound.

This is truly a case of running out of fuel and the lamp burning out.

Li Chen didn't touch her wrist; he simply raised his right hand, palm down, through the half-foot-thick brocade quilt.

A wisp of pure wood-elemental true essence silently rippled out from his fingertips, transforming into a faint blue halo that enveloped Empress Zhangsun.

To onlookers, the old man simply closed his eyes and pressed a button in the air.

However, in Li Chen's spiritual vision, the mess inside Empress Zhangsun's body had been completely exposed.

His internal organs were so worn out that they resembled a piece of rotten wood that had been soaking in water for over a decade. His heart vessels were covered with black stasis, and his meridians had shrunk so much that they were twisted into pretzel shapes.

"Tsk."

The old man withdrew his hand and let out a sound of disdain that was neither too loud nor too soft.

"Immortal Master, how is it?"

Li Shimin's voice was already trembling. Although he was the emperor, the way he stared at the old man at this moment was no different from that of an ordinary farmer waiting for the doctor's judgment.

Even he himself didn't realize that he had already started using the honorific title of "Immortal Master".

"It's completely rotten."

The old man turned around and looked coldly at Li Shimin.

"I've had chronic breathing problems for decades, and my lungs have never been at peace. I suffered hidden injuries from running around with you in my early years, and then I was like an animal, having one baby after another. My vital energy has long been completely emptied out."

Li Shimin's face turned pale instantly, and his hands, hidden in his sleeves, clenched tightly, his nails digging deep into his flesh.

The imperial physicians had made countless diagnoses, but they all came up with the same old nonsense: "deficiency of both qi and blood" and "discomfort in the emperor's body." None of them dared to say something as outrageous as this old man, directly uttering the treasonous words "childbirth depletes one's constitution" in the emperor's face.

But Li Shimin knew that the old man's words were exactly correct.

"The worst part is, she's cried herself to death twice in the last six months, hasn't she?"

The old man glanced at Li Shimin, his tone as calm as if he were talking about an inanimate object.

"Her soul is filled with great sorrow. Not only is her physical body decaying, but even her soul in the Niwan Palace has been shattered into several pieces. Her vital energy is completely depleted, and taking ordinary medicine will only hasten her death, without any other benefit."

puff.

The head of the Imperial Medical Academy, who had been huddled in the corner, suddenly collapsed to the ground, his face as white as a corpse.

The Imperial Medical Academy had actually detected some of these symptoms, but no one dared to say anything, and no one could cure them.

"Since the immortal master can discern the cause of the illness, he must possess wondrous immortal techniques!"

Li Shimin took two steps forward, his eyes red, and made as if to bow down.

Li Chen slightly shifted his toes, his body moving three feet to the side like a ghost, avoiding the bow.

"I told you, it can't be cured."

The old man waved his wide sleeves.

"For a withered tree to bloom again, that's the work of a supreme immortal. I'm just a humble cultivator from the mountains; I can't do that. Defying fate will bring divine retribution, so why should I bear that burden for you?"

The temperature inside the hall seemed to drop to freezing point instantly.

Li Shimin's straight spine seemed to collapse in that instant, and he looked as if he had aged ten years.

"but……"

The old man changed the subject, twirling his beard with his withered fingers.

"Having accepted that person's request, it wouldn't be right to go back empty-handed. A complete cure is out of the question, but I used my true essence to forcibly cleanse her meridians, nourish her withered body, and then forcibly piece together her shattered soul..."

"How many years can it extend my life?" Li Shimin suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with the light of a hungry wolf.

Three years.

The old man held up three fingers.

"At most three years. Moreover, I must come to treat you once a day for the next month. If I stop halfway through, even a god cannot save you."

"Three years...that's enough! That's more than enough!"

Li Shimin nodded repeatedly, his voice filled with barely suppressed elation.

"What medicinal herbs does the immortal master require? Century-old ginseng? Thousand-year-old lingzhi? I will issue an edict immediately to mobilize the resources of the entire Tang Dynasty..."

"There's no need to bring out those junk items from the national treasury and embarrass ourselves."

The old man interrupted him, took out a written document from his pocket the night before, and casually tossed it onto the table.

"Prepare according to the quantities listed here. Red Ganoderma lucidum, earthworm gentian, and wild ginseng that is over thirty years old, the more the better. I need to use them to brew a simple blood-stasis-removing pill; I can't waste my vital energy in vain."

Li Shimin snatched the document, not even glancing at it, and roared towards the door, "Fu Ji! Fang Qiao! Get in here!"

However, before the important officials outside could respond...

Suddenly, a series of hurried and heavy footsteps came from the main gate. A middle-aged civil official, who was somewhat overweight, pushed aside the imperial guards guarding the gate and rushed in with a livid face.

It was none other than the Duke of Zhao, Changsun Wuji.

He had just arrived from the Hall of State Affairs when he saw the Xuanjia Guards lying unconscious on the ground. Seeing the mess inside the hall and an old man with white hair gesturing at the emperor, he was so angry that he trembled all over.

"His Majesty!"

Changsun Wuji strode forward and stood in front of Li Shimin, his sharp gaze fixed on the old man.

"Don't listen to the nonsense of this charlatan! How can Your Majesty, a woman of noble birth, be allowed to be manipulated by such a mysterious and treacherous person? What if he is an assassin, a remnant of the previous dynasty..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

The old man slowly turned his head, his deep, ancient eyes calmly meeting Changsun Wuji's gaze.

boom.

Changsun Wuji felt as if a thunderclap had suddenly exploded in his mind.

An indescribable, terrifying pressure crashed into his mind through his eyes like a tidal wave. The surrounding space seemed to be infinitely compressed in that instant, and the air became as heavy as cast iron.

Changsun Wuji's voice abruptly stopped.

His face turned ashen within half a breath, and cold sweat poured down his forehead like a waterfall.

My legs started shaking uncontrollably, and waves of unbearable soreness came from between my bones.

puff.

This powerful minister of the Tang Dynasty, the emperor's brother-in-law, didn't even touch a single finger of the other party, and just knelt straight on the wood-shaving ground.

He gripped the ground tightly with both hands, panting heavily, unable to utter a single word.

Li Chen sneered inwardly.

Although the range of divine sense in the early stage of Foundation Establishment is only three miles, if it is all concentrated and used to deal with a mortal with no cultivation, it is enough to cause the opponent to have a mental breakdown on the spot.

"Noisy."

The old man withdrew his gaze and brushed his sleeves with some disgust.

"Your Majesty, keep your dog in check. When I take action, I absolutely forbid bystanders from barking. If this happens again, I will rip out the dog's tongue and feed it to him."

Li Shimin stared intently at Changsun Wuji, who was kneeling on the ground and nearly exhausted, his eyes twitching slightly. He stepped forward, grabbed Changsun Wuji's shoulder, and spoke in a voice icy cold.

"Auxiliary Machine, shut up. Get out of here and stand guard at the door. Don't let a single fly in!"

Changsun Wuji opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but when he met the old man's indistinct gaze, he shuddered and scrambled out of the hall.

After clearing away all the irrelevant people, Li Chen didn't linger any longer.

He walked to the bedside, his right hand forming a sword finger, and a point of azure true essence, several times more concentrated than before, suddenly lit up at the fingertip.

"rise."

The old man gave a low shout.

That wisp of blue light instantly disappeared into Empress Zhangsun's brow.

The liquid true essence within Li Chen's body began to be consumed frantically, gushing out from his fingertips like a flood. His face beneath the mask began to turn slightly pale, but he firmly steadied his mind, manipulating his true essence to forcibly flush away the stagnant blood in Empress Zhangsun's heart and lungs.

Inside the main hall, only Empress Zhangsun's increasingly heavy breathing could be heard.

About fifteen minutes later.

"puff--!"

Empress Zhangsun, who was lying on the bed, suddenly shuddered, her upper body abruptly sprang up, and she spat out a mouthful of thick, dark red blood, staining the bright yellow bed curtains with mottled marks.

"Guanyinbi!" Li Shimin's eyes widened in fury as he took a step forward.

"Get out of my way!" the old man roared.

Li Shimin abruptly stopped in his tracks.

The next moment, after Empress Zhangsun spat out that mouthful of black blood, the bellows-like sound that had been stuck in her throat completely disappeared. She fell heavily back onto the pillow, and her originally ashen face even showed a faint blush.

Those eyes, which had been closed for several days, trembled violently a few times.

Then, it slowly opened its eyes a crack.

"Your Majesty...I...am so thirsty..."

The sound was as faint as a mosquito's buzz, yet it reached Li Shimin's ears clearly.

Li Shimin was struck dumb. He knelt down in front of the bed with a thud, trembling as he grasped Empress Zhangsun's hand, tears streaming down his face.

"She's awake...she's really awake..."

The imperial physician standing behind rubbed his eyes, so frightened that he kowtowed to the ground, his whole body trembling like a leaf.

Li Chen withdrew his right hand and tucked both hands into his wide sleeves.

Beneath the mask, he was gritting his teeth in pain. In just a short while, the true essence he had painstakingly accumulated over three years had shrunk by nearly a quarter.

The battery life is really terrible.

"Alright, first day is done."

The old man's hoarse voice rang out coldly, interrupting the emperor and empress from gazing at each other with hands clasped together.

"Prepare the medicinal herbs quickly. This great immortal will return tomorrow. Remember, this will continue for a month. If you miss even one day, you'd better prepare to collect the corpse."

Li Shimin suddenly turned his head.

His face was still streaked with tears as he stared intently at the old man, the fervor and searching in his eyes almost tangible.

"Immortal Master!"

Li Shimin's voice was trembling.

"I will never forget your life-saving grace. May I ask, Immortal Master... who is this person you speak of who was 'entrusted by someone'? And why did they descend to the mortal realm to save my Empress?"

In Li Shimin's view, the only thing that could summon such a living deity was either an ancestor of the Li imperial family manifesting his power, or an ancient immortal sect that had hidden itself from the world.

The old man looked at Li Shimin's face, which was full of thirst for knowledge, and was so angry that he almost injured himself trying to suppress his laughter.

Far away, yet right before my eyes. It's that transparent sixteenth prince of yours, whom you usually don't even glance at.

However, we still need to put on a good show.

The old man slowly turned around, his back to Li Shimin. His gray robe fluttered without wind, his sleeves billowing, maximizing his otherworldly aura.

"Heavenly secrets must not be revealed."

The old man spoke slowly and deliberately, with a detached indifference that suggested he had seen through the illusions of the world.

"It cannot be told, it cannot be told. In time... you will naturally find out."

The moment the words fell.

Li Chen silently crushed the last invisibility talisman of the night inside his sleeve with his right hand.

call.

A sudden gust of wind rose from the center of the main hall.

Li Shimin only felt a slight blur before his eyes.

Under the watchful eyes of the palace maids, imperial physicians, and even the emperor himself, the white-haired immortal with an air of otherworldly grace vanished from the spot without warning, like a wisp of smoke dispersed by the wind.

The ground was completely empty, without even a trace of a footprint.

"A deity... truly a deity descended to earth..."

Changsun Wuji, who was kneeling at the door, happened to see this scene. He collapsed to the ground, his eyes filled with unprecedented fear and awe.

A side hall in the northwest corner of the palace.

The air distorted, and Li Chen's figure suddenly appeared.

"Click click click..."

A series of cracking sounds came from the bones.

The 1.85-meter-tall white-haired immortal quickly shrank, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed back into the fifteen-year-old prince with a somewhat handsome face, dressed in coarse cloth.

Li Chen plopped down on the edge of the bed, ripped off his transformation mask, and gasped for breath.

His face was deathly pale.

"What a huge loss! I only have less than 20% of my true essence left. I might not even be able to fly on my sword tonight."

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and turned to look at Xiao Sizi lying on the other side of the bed. The little girl was still fast asleep, her little mouth slightly pouting, her sleeping face very peaceful.

Li Chen chuckled self-deprecatingly and reached out to help her pull the thin blanket back up after kicking it away.

"Fine, for the sake of this girl."

He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and prepared to use his mind to sink into his soul space to see if he could find some low-level pills to forcibly replenish his true essence.

However, his consciousness had just reached the storage pouch at his waist.

Om-!

The dusty storage bag hanging at his waist, which hadn't been touched for three years, suddenly began to tremble violently without warning.

Immediately afterwards, a faint but extremely pure golden light pierced through the coarse cloth of the storage bag and shone directly onto the cold blue brick floor of the side hall.

Hidden deep within the storage bag, the low-grade flying sword, originally covered in rust and cracks, suddenly emitted a clear and resounding sword cry without any true essence being activated.

The crisp sound of a sword echoed far and wide in the deathly silence of the night.