ATPnovel #245 - Martial Arts Level Up
#245 - Martial Arts Level Up
The Imperial Palace.
The Spring Festival had already passed.
The festive atmosphere within the Imperial Palace had also ended.
The eunuchs took down all the lanterns and colored lights that had been hung up before and put them into the warehouse, waiting to be used again next year.
This allowed the palace to return to its usual solemnity and dignity, as well as its rigidity and ruthlessness.
The entire Imperial Palace was like a man-eating beast, the kind that eats people without spitting out bones.
And the festive decorations and celebrations only temporarily concealed its ferocity.
After the festival ended, this beast would return to its original ferocious appearance.
The weather in the capital was still cold.
Liang Jin was still on duty.
He was still on the night shift today.
However, he had just taken over the shift, and it was not yet dark.
The person beside him was still Xue Feng.
Even the large iron cage in the corner was still there.
Huaiyang King Zhao Yu was still imprisoned inside.
This pampered prince had also lost a lot of weight from his initial chubby appearance.
He was covered in dirt, reeking of stench, and had severe frostbite on his hands, feet, and ears. His hair and beard were so dirty that they were stuck together and hardened into clumps.
If an uninformed person were to see him, they would probably only think of him as a beggar.
But he had also heard some things.
The Emperor actually no longer lived in the Imperial Palace, but had moved out of the palace and lived in a new residence.
It was said that the Emperor's new residence outside the palace had many secret rooms, like a maze, and also had a drill ground and a Buddhist temple.
The Emperor even issued an edict to the Ministry of Rites, transferring documents to local prefectures and counties, selecting skilled musicians from various prefectures to enter the new residence to please the monarch.
As a result, local levels selected and sent various performers to the capital, numbering in the hundreds every day.
The new residence even raised tigers, elephants, leopards, pigeons, deer, eagles, and other birds and beasts for the Emperor to watch and play with.
From then on, the new residence was filled with beauties, music, acrobatics, and various performances.
Among them, there were also the Emperor's favorite beauties, monks, Taoists, close attendants, and followers accompanying him, indulging in debauchery day and night, forgetting all worries.
As for the major affairs of the court?
The Emperor entrusted them all to the Chief Eunuch.
This also led more people to call the Chief Eunuch "Nine Thousand Years Old", making him second only to the Emperor and above everyone else.
It seemed that the Emperor was really having too much fun and had forgotten about Zhao Yu's matter.
Liang Jin sighed secretly.
No wonder everyone wanted to be the Emperor, being the Emperor was really great.
At the same time, Liang Jin also knew that the matter of the Emperor's new residence could spread throughout the capital, even reaching the ears of a small soldier like himself.
And it was spread in great detail, even making people feel absurd.
Behind this, I am afraid that the ministers were unwilling to let the Chief Eunuch control the government, so they launched a public opinion offensive.
But this kind of thing was not yet Liang Jin's turn to worry about.
He only needed to stand guard properly.
These days, Liang Jin had been investing all the sign-in resources into the "Hidden Dragon in the Abyss" martial art.
And he had successfully raised "Hidden Dragon in the Abyss" from the third level to the current sixth level.
This led to the fact that the aura that Liang Jin was now revealing only remained at the sixth-rank realm.
There was no way around it.
Now that Liang Jin's true strength had entered the fourth-rank realm, he had to hide his cultivation well.
Especially after entering the fourth rank, Liang Jin's senses had improved greatly, and he could even detect that there were some powerful and terrifying auras hidden in many places in the Imperial Palace!
Liang Jin naturally didn't want to attract the attention of others.
If a small soldier had a fourth-rank realm, then it couldn't be glossed over with just a sentence of 'I am an orphan'.
"Cough cough!"
"Cough! Cough!"
Xue Feng on the side suddenly coughed a few times.
Liang Jin knew that this was Xue Feng's hint, indicating that he was about to start feeding Huaiyang King Zhao Yu.
These days, let alone the Emperor not caring about Zhao Yu, even the Shangshan Si (Imperial Food Bureau) hadn't had any eunuchs come to deliver pig food.
If it weren't for Xue Feng secretly bringing food every day, then Zhao Yu would probably have starved to death long ago.
If Xue Feng hadn't brought clothes and medicine, Zhao Yu would have frozen to death and died of illness long ago.
Liang Jin had also figured it out these days.
Especially when his clone on Hualong Island broke through to the fourth rank, and he could easily escape from a third-rank martial artist by relying on "Wind Chasing Shadow Step".
Liang Jin's mentality had changed.
He knew that he already had a trump card that could save his life.
With "Wind Chasing Shadow Step", it was not difficult for him to escape.
With the battle puppet Iron Kuangtu, he could also eliminate many obstacles on the escape route.
Although this Imperial Palace was dangerous everywhere, and there were many powerful and terrifying existences.
But Liang Jin was no longer the small character who could be manipulated and slaughtered by anyone.
He seemed insignificant.
But he had already grown strong in secret.
"Da, da, da!"
A series of footsteps came.
Liang Jin looked over.
He saw a white-faced, beardless little eunuch walking over.
It was Zhao Bao.
Immediately, Liang Jin moved away from Xue Feng and Huaiyang King, and greeted Zhao Bao.
"Zhao Bao, is it done?"
Liang Jin knew that things were probably done when he saw Zhao Bao's happy face.
Zhao Bao nodded, he whispered:
"Brother Jin, tomorrow is your day off, let's talk in detail at the old place."
Now Liang Jin's position is no longer suitable for discussing private matters because of Xue Feng and Huaiyang King.
And Liang Jin had already stood a round of guard duty, and it was time to take a break to prepare for the change of shift.
Liang Jin nodded.
He carefully looked at Zhao Bao and said in surprise:
"Zhao Bao, you actually broke through to the sixth-rank realm?"
The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ say ⊥ is ⊥ in ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥ book ⊥ bar ⊥ ⊥ first ⊥ post!
"So fast!"
At this time, Zhao Bao already had the aura of a sixth-rank martial artist.
He knew that Zhao Bao was a martial arts genius, and if he were in another place, he would probably be heavily cultivated by a big sect.
Gold will always shine.
But the premise is that the gold is surrounded by stones that do not shine.
But in this capital city, the Imperial Palace, the gold is surrounded by gold, a glittering piece, who would pay attention to an insignificant golden bead?
At this time, Zhao Bao suddenly bowed deeply to Liang Jin.
Liang Jin quickly helped Zhao Bao up:
"What are you doing?"
Zhao Bao solemnly replied:
"The reason why I was able to break through this time is because I was forced out of my potential at the critical moment of life and death."
"Otherwise, at my speed, I'm afraid it would take two more months to enter the sixth rank."
Indeed, Zhao Bao's cultivation speed was fast, but it was not so fast to this extent.
Liang Jin asked:
"Did you encounter danger?"
Zhao Bao nodded:
"I did encounter some enemies stronger than me."
"Fortunately, Brother Jin gave me weapons and secrets, which allowed me to finally turn danger into safety, and gain insights and thus break through."
"If it weren't for Brother Jin, I'm afraid I would have become a pile of bones in the tomb."
"Brother Jin's kindness to me, I can't repay it, I can only ask Brother Jin to accept my bow!"
Liang Jin gave Zhao Bao the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle, this kind of evil hidden weapon, plus a secret book of "Full Sky Flower Rain", just worried that Zhao Bao might encounter danger recently.
I didn't expect it to come in handy.
Immediately, Liang Jin smiled:
"We are brothers, no need to be so polite."
"If your troubles are difficult to solve, you can tell me."
Although Liang Jin was inconvenient to kill people.
But arranging for the battle puppet to commit the crime was simply a piece of cake.
Zhao Bao replied:
"Brother Jin, don't worry, I have already solved it, and I am fine now."
"Tomorrow, please be sure to come, Brother Jin, I am afraid I will have to go on a long trip."
"If Brother Jin sees Xiaolian these days, please tell her for me that when I come back, I will definitely bring her a lot of delicious and fun things!"
Liang Jin did not expect that Zhao Bao would leave Beijing.
It seems that Concubine Han Gui had some important tasks assigned to Zhao Bao to do.
So Liang Jin nodded:
"Okay, we'll talk tomorrow."
Zhao Bao bowed to Liang Jin again, and then turned and left.
At this time.
Xue Feng had also finished feeding Huaiyang King, and he also returned to his post.
So Liang Jin went back to continue guarding.
Night fell quickly.
As darkness enveloped the Imperial Palace, it became colder here.
Xue Feng took out the cotton clothes hidden in his breastplate again and stuffed them into Huaiyang King's cage.
Liang Jin was bored and looked through the information he had obtained today.
I saw that the information panel had already appeared with refreshed information.
[Today's completed sect tasks: 2]
[Number of available information: 2]
[Information 1: Kong Chang, the managing eunuch of the Jinmao Bureau in the Imperial Palace, has recently suffered many changes and has no spiritual sustenance. During a palace procurement, he accidentally came into contact with the Taiping Dao. After returning to the palace tonight, Kong Chang is uneasy and decided to completely convert to Huangtian in a quarter of an hour.]
[Information 2: Wang Yong, a member of the Black Tiger Gang in Beijing, does not want to take the blame for his elder brother. He plans to look for an opportunity to escape from Beijing and go into exile. If you can help him, he is willing to tell you an important handle of Zhu Xuan, an important leader of the Black Tiger Gang.]
These days, the number of tasks Liang Jin completed every day was 2.
Liang Jin could roughly guess the reason. In addition to the guard duty task, there was also the task of guarding Huaiyang King.
Because of this reason, Liang Jin had become more and more open to the matter of Huaiyang King these days.
He looked at the first piece of information and was surprised.
The Jinmao Bureau was the place in the palace responsible for making inner envoys' hats and boots, which was not considered an important department.
It's just that Liang Jin didn't expect that there would be eunuchs in the palace who began to believe in Taiping Dao?
The speed of development of this Taiping Dao is really amazing.
He believed that it would not be long before more people in the Imperial Palace would join the Taiping Dao and become Yellow Turban brothers.
As for the second piece of information, it was useless information, and Liang Jin naturally ignored it.
Liang Jin was ready to continue standing guard seriously.
But at this time, a line of information suddenly jumped out on the system panel.
Liang Jin took a closer look and couldn't help but feel a burst of ecstasy in his heart.
[Congratulations to the host for successfully using Fushui to treat and cure 100,000 patients, you can get a special reward: all martial arts proficiency is full!]