My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

Upon hearing his name, Li Chengqian's legs went weak, and he knelt on the ground with a thud.

He dared not look up at the white-haired old man, feeling as if a guillotine was hanging above his head, ready to strike at any moment.

Looking at this chaotic royal farce, Li Chen felt annoyed.

Is it true that Li Chengqian will rebel in the future? Will he have male lovers? Will he send assassins to kill his teachers?

Forget it, one of these old folks just woke up after coughing up blood, and the other is on the verge of going berserk. If they were to expose Li Chengqian's dirty secrets again, Li Shimin would definitely tear this Imperial Garden down today.

More importantly, he felt hungry.

Although cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage can abstain from grains for a few days, forcibly casting spells and deducing the Water Mirror still consumes a great deal of their mental energy.

"Cough cough... cough cough cough..."

The old man suddenly bent over and coughed violently. His once ruddy complexion visibly turned ashen.

He slowly stood up and brushed his sleeves.

"The secrets of heaven have backfired." The old man's hoarse voice carried an obvious sign of fatigue and impatience. "For every bit of information I reveal, a portion of my lifespan is lost. I have no interest in exposing the entire mess your Li family has made."

He strode out without even glancing at the princes kneeling on the ground.

"It's getting late, I must be leaving. Prepare tomorrow's medicinal herbs; if even a single one is missing, I won't come back."

Li Shimin's hand holding the horizontal sword stiffened. He wanted to speak to persuade him to stay, but he swallowed the words back.

Li Chen didn't give them a chance to talk nonsense.

He tapped his toes on the bluestone slab.

The "Wind Control Technique" was activated. His wide, gray-white robes suddenly billowed, and he seemed to transform into a gentle breeze, skimming the surface of Taiye Pond. With a few leaps, he disappeared behind the layers of artificial hills in the Imperial Garden.

All that remained was the bewildered royal family and the utter chaos on the ground.

……

Leaving the palace was simpler than Li Chen had imagined.

He didn't immediately revert to his fifteen-year-old prince appearance. The transformation mask, which didn't require continuous consumption of true energy, was too much for him to bother changing.

With that otherworldly appearance, he swaggered out of the side gate of Xuanwu Gate.

The imperial guards at the gate didn't even dare to question him. This was an old revered figure whom His Majesty had personally ordered to be worshipped; the commotion he'd caused in the Imperial Garden had spread throughout the entire palace's secret guards. Who dared to stop him?

After leaving the imperial city, Li Chen walked along Zhuque Avenue towards the West Market.

At the hour of Wei in Chang'an, the sun was still scorching, but the streets were still bustling with people. The sounds of vendors hawking their wares, the clatter of horses' hooves, and the broken Mandarin of foreign merchants, mixed with the aromas of various foods, all wafted into Li Chen's nostrils.

"This is a place fit for human beings."

Li Chen took a deep breath and felt his tense nerves relax a lot.

Walking to a flatbread stall in the West Market, he took out a piece of silver he had casually picked up in the side hall and threw it on the cutting board.

"Ten freshly baked mutton flatbreads. Sprinkle with plenty of sesame seeds."

I was just about to take a bite while it was still hot and bring a few back for Xiao Sizi.

"Get out of my way! You blind old fool!"

Suddenly, an extremely arrogant shout came from behind.

Accompanying the shouts and curses was a rapid and heavy thud of hooves. The sound of hooves on the bluestone slabs was both urgent and heavy, clearly indicating no intention of slowing down.

Li Chen frowned slightly.

He turned his head.

A luxurious carriage pulled by two large, chestnut-colored horses was recklessly rampaging through the crowded streets of the West Market. The horses were plump and strong, and the whips cracked sharply in the air.

The roadside vendors and pedestrians were so frightened that they scrambled to the sides. Several bamboo baskets full of fruit were crushed by the horse's hooves, and juice splashed everywhere.

A young man dressed in a purple silk round-necked robe stood on the carriage shaft.

The young man had a fair complexion, but his eyes were slanted upwards, revealing an air of arrogance that came from years of bossing people around. He held a cowhide whip in his hand, pointing it at Li Chen, who was standing in the middle of the road, wearing a gray and white coarse cloth robe.

"Are you deaf?! You rammed my carriage, can you afford to pay for crushing your old bones?!"

When the young man saw that the old man didn't dodge but instead turned to look at him, his anger flared up instantly.

"Ah Da! Ah Er! Go down and break this old bastard's legs! Drag him aside, don't get in my way!"

The carriage came to a sudden stop less than ten feet away from Li Chen.

The two horses neighed and raised their front hooves high.

Two burly servants dressed in short clothes jumped down from either side of the carriage. Each of them held a thick fire stick upside down, their faces full of menacing features. Without saying a word, they swung the sticks at Li Chen's knees, one on each side.

The wind howled through the air.

If this hit an ordinary old man, his kneecap would definitely shatter on the spot.

The stall owner covered his eyes in fright, and the surrounding crowd gasped in surprise.

Li Chen was still holding the mutton flatbread that had just been wrapped in lotus leaves. It was steaming hot and burning his palms.

He didn't even blink.

Just as the fire-and-water stick was about to touch his coarse cloth robe, he casually kicked forward half a step with his right leg.

No true energy was used.

Pure physical strength during the Foundation Establishment stage.

"Snap!" "Snap!"

Two teeth-grinding cracking sounds—not the sound of a stick breaking bones, but the sound of a water-fire stick as thick as an arm snapping in two the instant it touched Li Chen's knee, as if it had struck a solid anvil!

The enormous recoil force swept back along the broken wooden stick.

The two thugs' hands were instantly torn open, and blood spurted out. Before they could even scream, they felt as if a battering ram had grazed their chests, and their massive bodies were sent flying backward.

"Bang! Bang!"

The two men slammed heavily onto the carriage, creating two human-shaped dents in the hard rosewood. They then slid to the ground like mud, their fate unknown.

The air fell silent instantly.

The purple-robed youth on the carriage shaft froze in mid-air, his hand holding the riding whip. His mouth was slightly open, his eyes fixed on the broken half of the water-and-fire stick on the ground, his mind seemingly still reeling.

Li Chen slowly and methodically stuffed the lotus leaf-wrapped flatbread into his wide sleeve pocket.

He raised his head, his deep eyes beneath the aged mask calmly looking at the young man on the carriage shaft.

"Break my legs?"

Li Chen took a step forward.

He made no attempt to conceal his presence. The pressure of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, like tangible ice water, poured directly into the nostrils of the two chestnut horses.

"Neigh—!"

The two frightened warhorses were so terrified by the ferocious aura that their hooves buckled and they collapsed to their knees with a thud, foaming at the mouth.

The train carriage tilted violently forward.

The young man in purple robes let out a pig-like scream and tumbled off the carriage shaft, landing face down on the bluestone slab with a "thud." His nose instantly caved in, and blood smeared all over his face.

He hadn't even had a chance to get up yet.

A large foot wearing a cloth shoe had firmly stepped on his cheek.

Li Chen looked down at him.

The mud and grime from the soles of his shoes left unsightly marks on his fair face.

The young man's face contorted in pain, blood and foam gushing from his mouth as he screamed incoherently, "You...you dare step on me?! Do you know who I am?! I am Wang from Taiyuan..."

Li Chen bent down.

His right hand was like an iron clamp, precisely gripping the young man's neck.

Bring your fingers together.

The purple-robed youth's remaining words were abruptly choked in his throat. His feet were suddenly lifted off the ground, and Li Chen, with one hand around his neck, forcefully lifted him into the air.

A feeling of suffocation instantly surged into my brain.

The young man desperately tried to pry Li Chen's fingers apart with both hands, his legs kicked wildly in mid-air, his eyes bulged out, and the whites of his eyes were instantly covered with red blood vessels.

Li Chen looked at his face, which had turned a deep purplish-red, and a gentle smile appeared on his lips.

"Take a deep breath."

Li Chen's voice was soft, yet it clearly reached the young man's ears.

"It's normal to feel dizzy." Li Chen gradually increased the pressure on his fingers. "Wait a minute, the dizziness will subside."