Volume One, Chapter Seventeen: The Empress Faces Danger, Rivalry for Glory at Court
After hiding the body of the palace maid in brown within the room, Cao Mo pondered briefly before stepping out of the small courtyard and heading toward the Hall of Mental Cultivation.
With his current cultivation level, seeking revenge against the Empress Dowager seemed unrealistic.
Any palace maid sent casually would possess innate perfect cultivation, and there were undoubtedly many experts around the Empress Dowager.
But Cao Mo couldn’t just do nothing.
After all, if the Empress Dowager wanted him dead once and failed, there would certainly be a second attempt.
This time it was merely an assassin with innate perfect cultivation; next time, it might be a grandmaster or even a great grandmaster.
Cao Mo couldn’t guarantee that he could raise his cultivation enough to be invincible before the Empress Dowager’s next assassination attempt.
Therefore,
Cao Mo felt it necessary to inform the Empress about this matter, hoping to learn more about the Empress Dowager’s true strength from her.
Although doing so would expose his cultivation,
since the Empress Dowager was trying to kill him, he didn’t think he could contend with her on his own with his current strength.
Only by appropriately demonstrating his ‘talent’ could he gain more recognition from the Empress!
...
Soon,
Cao Mo arrived near the Hall of Mental Cultivation.
It was close to midnight; he hoped the Empress had not yet gone to rest.
Since the brown-clad palace maid’s assassination failed, the Empress Dowager would likely grow suspicious, perhaps even dispatching more experts tonight to investigate.
If worse came to worst, he could sleep rough at the Hall’s entrance and inform the Empress in the morning.
He certainly wasn’t going back to the small courtyard tonight!
With these thoughts, Cao Mo quickened his pace, but then he heard the sound of fierce fighting nearby.
“What the hell is going on?”
Cao Mo approached cautiously and saw a group of black-clad assassins surrounding the Hall of Mental Cultivation, locked in a fierce battle with silver-armored imperial guards.
At the entrance,
a white fox-faced woman held a pale blue long sword in her arms, watching silently without any intention to intervene.
Yet whenever a black-clothed assassin broke through the line of silver-armored guards and rushed toward the Hall,
there came a faint but piercing sword hum.
Then...
a head would fall.
“...”
Cao Mo swallowed hard, startled beyond measure.
This was outrageous!
Were assassins so brazen now?
They actually stormed the imperial palace and besieged the Emperor’s bedchamber!
Cao Mo thought he was in danger, but it seemed the Empress was in even greater peril.
Looks like tonight, no ground to sleep on.
---
“A little eunuch dares to join the fray?”
At that moment, a black-clad assassin on the fringes spotted Cao Mo approaching and immediately thrust his sword at him.
“Yoho—”
You dare look down on me?
Cao Mo merely extended two fingers, and with a sharp metallic sound, he firmly clamped the assassin’s sword between them.
“Huh?”
The assassin was shocked.
No matter how hard he tried, he could not pull the sword free from Cao Mo’s two fingers.
“Ahem, young eunuch, misunderstanding, misunderstanding...”
The assassin grinned awkwardly.
“Misunderstanding?”
Cao Mo smiled faintly, twisted his fingers lightly, and snapped the assassin’s sword in two.
“Be more careful next time!”
Then,
with a flick of his fingers, the broken blade suddenly pierced the assassin’s chest.
The opponent’s cultivation was weaker than the brown-clad palace maid’s just now; to Cao Mo, no martial skill was needed—it was like crushing an ant.
“You...”
The assassin’s heart meridians were severed; his body collapsed weakly to the ground.
His eyes wide with terror, he never understood how a seemingly no older than twenty-year-old eunuch could possess such overwhelming cultivation.
Could it be that the imperial palace truly concealed dragons and tigers, unfathomable depths...
“Bold!”
Nearby, seeing Cao Mo kill his companion, another black-clad assassin roared in fury and charged at him with raised blade.
“Another seeking death.”
Cao Mo snapped his fingers, releasing a sharp burst of true energy that pierced the attacker’s heart.
“Grandmaster...”
The assassin’s eyes widened in disbelief before dying.
True energy manifesting in form—a grandmaster technique!
A young eunuch had actually reached grandmaster level!?
With these two assassins slain by Cao Mo, other black-clad assassins took notice and exchanged glances before simultaneously closing in to surround him.
“More?”
Cao Mo raised an eyebrow, no longer holding back.
Picking up a fallen assassin’s long sword, he charged forward.
Blades and swords danced!
---
Within a few moves, these black-clad assassins all fell beneath Cao Mo’s blade.
Their strength was weak, only innate level, while Cao Mo now possessed the cultivation of an eighth-stage grandmaster.
He didn’t even need to use martial techniques; his profound true energy alone made his strikes insurmountable.
However, Cao Mo did not fully reveal his power.
He matched strength with strength but kept his display to about a second-stage grandmaster.
Hiding on the fringes, slaughtering assassins of merely innate level cultivation was more than sufficient.
Seeing such a fierce young eunuch suddenly appear,
the black-clad assassins were stunned!
There were indeed grandmasters among them,
but this young eunuch was already a grandmaster himself?
It was simply unbelievable!
As the black-clad assassins suffered heavy casualties under the silver-armored guards’ assault, even if they broke through the defenses, the white-clad woman would be there to cut them down before the Hall of Mental Cultivation.
The leader of the assassins shouted, “This mission is impossible; retreat!”
In an instant,
the black-clad assassins began to retreat!
Before leaving, the leader cast a deep glance at Nangong Li.
Their main task today was just to probe; honestly, he hadn’t expected to reach the Emperor’s bedchamber so easily.
He had hoped to kill the young Emperor at once,
but it seemed they still lacked the right opportunity!
The white-clad woman’s cultivation was very high; even the sect elders would likely not match her.
“Protect His Majesty! Slay the assassins!”
After cutting down over a dozen black-clad assassins, seeing them flee, Cao Mo shouted and hurried toward the Hall of Mental Cultivation.
If not now, when to show loyalty?
The deed was secondary; what mattered was that the leader saw it!
Just as Cao Mo rushed forward, a group of imperial guards arrived from the other side to reinforce the defense.
The leader, clad in golden armor, was none other than the captain of the imperial guard.
He arrived just in time, reaching the Hall’s entrance before Cao Mo.
At that moment,
the Empress, now dressed in male attire, stepped out.
The golden-armored guard immediately knelt halfway, shouting, “Minister Yang Yan apologizes for arriving late to save Your Majesty; please forgive me!”
Cao Mo: “...”