Please, Young Master, Slay the Demon!
Chapter 618 - 82: Stealing Chickens [Requesting Monthly Votes!]_1

Chapter 618: Chapter 82: Stealing Chickens [Requesting Monthly Votes!]_1

Boom——

In the Virtue Spring, Chu Liang once again submerged himself in the water without making so much as a splash, leaving only ripples on the surface.

The eight guards simultaneously took one step forward. Without gathering the Gold Net, they allowed their Divine Sense to enter the water, to track Chu Liang’s figure.

In actuality, Chu Liang hadn’t been injured by the Gold Net. After realizing he couldn’t break through with one strike, he voluntarily turned around and returned to the bottom of the water. He anticipated some protective measures around the location of the Golden Dragon Ball. For such a scenario, he already had a contingency plan.

Once in the water, he didn’t hesitate for an instant. The water of Virtue Spring led nowhere; he immediately cast the escape technique, darting away from a nearby embankment.

When the eight guards ashore caught up with their Divine Sense and noticed Chu Liang using the escape technique, they immediately retracted the Gold Net and each pulled out a Golden Pestle, flying backward together to land in a circle dozens of yards away.

Thump thump thump——

Eight Golden Pestles staked into the ground, locking down the earth. Chu Liang who was burying into the earth felt the surroundings become as solid as metal, unable to advance a single inch.

He didn’t resist stubbornly but swiftly changed direction. With a rush of energy, he cast Shrinkage.

Whoosh!

Several yards beneath the ground, Chu Liang initiated Shrinkage, instantly appearing above ground. The eight guards each shouted in unison, simultaneously hurling their Golden Pestles his way.

Chu Liang chose not to fight. Instead, he charged forward, resisting the attack from two Golden Pestles with his back.

Thump! Thump!

The two strikes caused him to stagger. Simultaneously, he made use of this force to surge forward more than ten yards to the edge of the Imperial Garden’s wall. Without the slightest hesitation, he used Shrinkage again to escape through the wall.

"Catch the thief!"

Watching Chu Liang flee, the eight guards screamed while vaulting over the wall.

In the blink of an eye, Chu Liang had disappeared from view.

The guards searched every corner, following the residual True Qi waves to chase after him. Despite the ingenious transformation of Chu Liang’s wind, some amount of True Qi waves should have remained. The eight Dragon-Feeding Supervisors chased after him, alerting the guards patrolling the Imperial City along the way to also remain vigilant.

They pursued him until they arrived outside a tranquil garden, where the guards abruptly halted.

Beyond an archway, they could see a small lake in the courtyard. A woman in palace attire was peacefully sitting by the lake, seemingly daydreaming.

The drizzle from earlier had stopped, and the lake water was drastically transparent, reflecting a face of overwhelming beauty.

"Lady Gong!" the guards saluted together.

"What happened?" Lady Gong looked up to ask.

An attendant replied, "A moment ago, a criminal tried to steal from the palace. We traced his Qi here..." He seemed puzzled, as the Qi abruptly and entirely ceased to exist at this spot.

Did the thief disappear into thin air?

After a moment of pause, the attendant continued, "For the safety of the Lady, we should still search this garden."

"I see." Lady Gong looked around, "Go ahead, but you must be careful not to damage anything in my dwelling, or I will report you to His Majesty."

"We wouldn’t dare." Several attendants replied as they scattered around to search through her chamber.

Yet, the True Qi had ceased at the archway without leaving any trace of where it went.

The lead guard, upon finding nothing after a detailed search, turned his gaze to the still water that Lady Gong was regarding and asked, "My Lady, was there any disturbance in the water just now?"

While the escape technique of the flying thief was cryptic, it wouldn’t allow them to completely vanish. If they were hiding underwater, it might be possible to obscure their aura. But if that was the case, there would be a commotion when they entered the water.

"I had my eye on the lake all along, I would know if there were any disturbances. Nothing happened just now," the imperial concubine wondered, "are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?"

"This..." The several guards looked at each other and ultimately could only apologize: "We have disturbed Your Grace."

It was fortunate that they worked under Yao Dengxian in the Dragon Feeding Supervisor position, as Yao’s high rank and influence gave them the confidence to act. If they were just ordinary guards, charging rashly into the favored concubine’s pavilion and conducting a thorough search with no result, they would undoubtedly face punishment.

Yet after they left, the palace woman by the lakeside whispered to the water as if muttering to herself, "Such a bold little fish."

...

The Imperial City was vast, and at the other end of the Imperial Garden, there was a Royal Beast Garden that accommodated many exotic beasts from the four seas and nine continents. The Dragon Feeding Supervisor was actually located at the edge of this beast garden.

To the east of the Dragon Feeding Supervisor, across several large gardens, lay the Qinghong Garden. The last group of the world’s most delicious Qinghong divine birds nested here.

Outside the time of the Immortal Sect Assembly, no one was allowed to disturb the Qinghongs’ breeding. They only hoped this species could reproduce more and expand the Qinghong population. Ordinarily, apart from the palace attendants in charge of this garden, nobody dared step foot here.

But today, two heads peeped out from behind a rockery in Qinghong Garden.

A charming middle-aged man dressed in opulent clothes stood with his hands behind his back on the left, shaking his head and sighing, "Such a sin..."

On the right, a tall and curvy woman in a red robe appeared. She was an unusually beautiful woman, and at this moment, her sparkling eyes resembled an old thief in a granary or a weasel in a chicken coop, looking rather sneaky.

In Qinghong Garden, colorful feathers fluttered and sharp chirps rang out constantly. From time to time, a large green bird would jump into the expansive garden, while the majority of Qinghongs lazily lounged amidst the woods.

The woman’s eyes darted back and forth, "That one’s fat, go for that one. No, no, that one’s fatter, but it’s a female... we need to leave it. Over there, there are eggs! Can we eat the eggs? No..."

"In the first half of my life, I was the Crown Prince and in the second half, I was the Ash Burn Daoist Master. Although my actions weren’t always upright, at the very least, they were honorable. Now it’s come to this, stealing chickens..." The man bemoaned at the side.

"Enough already, if you were a good person, would I even exist? You’ve got some nerve," the woman gave him a shove, "I’ve chosen that one."

She pointed, selecting the Qinghong with the most dazzling plumage.

These two were none other than Shu Mountain Peak Master, Empress Feng, and Royal Guardian Mingde.

Taking advantage of the opportunity presented by the Immortal Sect Assembly, Mingde had spent a few more days with his daughter than usual. He had intended to rekindle their father-daughter relationship, but Empress Feng was filled with terrifying ideas.

She’d constantly chatter to the point where her words didn’t even make sense, either talking about becoming an emperor, competing for the Dao, or wanting to have a hotpot... with Qinghong bird.

In other words, the things she wanted to do all warranted the death penalty.

Mingde was helpless, and ultimately decided to pick the lesser of two evils: he would catch a Qinghong bird for her. Having a good meal would, at the very least, appease his daughter.

Although he was a Royal Guardian, he couldn’t just openly flout the rules set by the ancestors, so he decided to stealthily catch a bird and inform the Emperor quietly afterwards.

After all, stealing chickens wasn’t a very glorious act and should not be widely announced.

But just as he was about to move and reach the dazzling Qinghong bird, he noticed a stagnant aura coming from behind a rock.

Mingde immediately sensed something was wrong. Using his divine sense, he discovered a dead body there!

A corpse of a woman in palace attire, her skin white as snow, lay there. It seemed like she had been there for a while, but her face was still lifelike.

Mingde recognized this face.

Even in the deep palace, where there were many beauties, very few were as beautiful as this.

Her name was Gong Yu’er.