Checking In for Sixty Years, From Puppet Emperor to Heavenly Emperor – Chapter 5

Ch 5: Conspiracy

Soon, he felt the fragrance enter his nose, and the intense feeling of drowsiness disappeared, actually resolving the poison. He slowly opened his eyes, pretending to have just woken up, and looked at the Western Regions woman close in front of him, revealing a guarded expression.

“The Emperor, please forgive me. This servant only didn’t want our words to be heard by others, so I resorted to this tactic,” the woman said, kneeling down quickly, but there was no panic on her face at all.

“What do you want to say to me?” Zhou An secretly gathered his Internal Force, guarding against a sneak attack, but since she could give him the antidote, she probably wouldn’t harm him.

“This servant is Sai Nai Mu, the Holy Maiden of the Hundred Witchcrafts Sect of the Western Regions, and also a princess of the Hundred Witchcrafts Country. The Western Regions are vast, but there are many countries, more than three hundred in total, most of which are city-states governing themselves.”

“My Hundred Witchcrafts Country is one of the nine strongest countries in the Western Regions. Knowing that the Emperor has been held hostage by the Empress Dowager, I have come specifically to protect the Emperor and await the Emperor’s dispatch,” Sai Nai Mu said.

Zhou An was surprised and said with a smile, “Do you think I’ll believe that?”

“The Emperor has no choice, does he? Hasn’t the Emperor noticed that the Empress Dowager has sent so many beauties and collected various medicines? Even a Houtian Tenth Level expert would find it difficult to live long using these things day and night, let alone the Emperor, who has never cultivated Internal Force. How can he withstand the toxicity of these medicines?”

“Furthermore, the Emperor may not know that the Left Prime Minister’s faction has already united, preparing to assassinate the Emperor, break the Empress Dowager’s plan, and it is rumored that they have found the Sixth Imperial Prince, wanting to establish him as the Emperor.”

Sai Nai Mu handed a secret letter to Zhou An and continued, “This is a letter intercepted from the Left Prime Minister’s people. Although it doesn’t explicitly state it, it is certain that they will assassinate the Emperor. If the Emperor trusts us, we are willing to follow the Emperor to the death.”

“What if I don’t believe you?” Zhou An asked.

“Then this servant and others can only die. We deeply know the power of the Purple Guard, and none of my sisters have cultivated Martial Skill. It is impossible to leave.” Sai Nai Mu said this without the slightest hint of panic. Instead, her beautiful eyes looked at Zhou An, as if she wanted him to pick her.

“Since you don’t understand Martial Skill, how can you help me? And what benefits can you get? Pies don’t fall from the sky,” Zhou An said.

“Although the Hundred Witchcrafts Sect is not good at Martial Skill, our Witchcraft and use of poison are second to none in the Western Regions. Even those large Sects of the Qianyuan Empire are wary of our poison.”

“The Purple Guard has a great reputation, but they were powerless under my poison gas, which is enough to prove our ability.”

“If we can help the Emperor stabilize the throne, we ask that the Emperor help my Hundred Witchcrafts Country rule the various countries in the Western Regions in the future,” Sai Nai Mu said respectfully.

Zhou An thought that he really needed someone to help him. The person who poisoned him in secret must be found, and his current actions were being monitored, and he was not good at investigating, so it was good to let them help.

Regardless of whether what this so-called Holy Maiden said was true or false, at least she would help him in the short term. Only by finding out the person who poisoned him in secret could he feel at ease.

Moreover, his current situation was the worst. The more forces and the more complex the Imperial Palace was, the more beneficial it would be to him. If the Empress Dowager’s family was allowed to dominate, then his death would not be far away.

Besides, he was currently cut off from information. With these Western Regions women, he could still know some information, at least understand the Martial Skill system, and have a reference to know what level his sixty years of Internal Force was.

Thinking of this, he said, “Recently, someone has indeed been trying to poison me. As long as you help me find the person who poisoned me and prove your ability, I will agree to your request.”

“Okay, this Hundred Poisons Pearl is refined from a hundred kinds of poisonous creatures. As long as it is a poisonous substance, this pearl will change color according to the different toxicity, so as to prevent the Emperor from being secretly harmed by villains.”

Sai Nai Mu took out a bone-like pearl, milky white in color. If you looked closely, you could find many extremely tiny holes on it. If he hadn’t cultivated the Yin-Yang Method and strengthened his Essence, Qi, and Spirit, he really wouldn’t have been able to see these holes.

He looked at this thing and asked, “How do I use this?”

“In the future, the Emperor can soak anything that enters his mouth with this thing. If there is no change within one breath, it means it is non-toxic. If various colors appear, it means it is toxic. The darker the color, the stronger the toxicity.”

“If it is poisonous fog, the Hundred Poisons Pearl can dispel the poisonous gas, preventing it from getting within three feet of you,” Sai Nai Mu explained.

“Good thing, then I’ll accept it. You should have thought of a way to deal with the Purple Guard, right?” Zhou An hid this in a secret pocket on his belt, so that he could protect himself at any time.

“The Emperor, please rest assured. Our Hundred Witchcrafts Sect has a secret method that can use medicine and Witchcraft to make them temporarily forget what happened.” Sai Nai Mu waved her hand, and the fifteen women kneeling below began to act, actually taking out black, hair-like thin needles from their hair.

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, these people were all dealt with. Each of them was made to sit or stand in their original positions with thin needles.

Then, she opened a medicine bottle, emitting a burst of fragrance. The palace maids who had fainted woke up first and found that they had stopped playing. They hurriedly picked up their instruments, not understanding what had just happened. They had actually been in a daze at this time, which was simply courting death, and they were all frightened into a cold sweat.

In the Imperial Palace, they didn’t dare to say or look too much, otherwise they would be executed if they said the wrong thing.

After that, the three Purple Guard woke up and found that they were still standing in place. The Western Regions women were all surrounding the Emperor, serving him wine with laughter.

Sai Nai Mu was lying in Zhou An’s arms, laughing and joking. This kind of situation happened every day in Changle Palace.

They just felt strange and didn’t notice anything unusual. They didn’t say anything. After the people were brought in, the two Purple Guard turned and left.

He spent the day enjoying the songs and dances of the Western Regions women and having fun with Sai Nai Mu. When it was late at night, he returned to Qianyuan Palace under the escort of the palace maids and Purple Guard.

Having fun with Sai Nai Mu and others for a day, he discovered that cultivating the Yin-Yang Art with women who had cultivated actually allowed him to improve even more. In these two days, he had improved by almost 1 year of Internal Force.

This was already an astonishing rate of improvement, which made him secretly happy.

After entering the bedroom, all the palace maids would leave, and the Purple Guard would only guard outside the house.

He was still full of energy now, and he definitely couldn’t sleep. For him, daytime was rest.

Just as he was bored looking at the room in a daze, he suddenly discovered that the layout of the bedroom actually secretly matched The Mysterious Doors and Evasive Arts. After learning the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady Records, he had memorized The Mysterious Doors and Evasive Arts in his heart.

This glance revealed an abnormality. The hard decoration in the entire house often had the image of the Eight Gates, which were covered by other movable decorations, but he still discovered the abnormality.

After walking around the room, he stood next to a stone pillar and watched carefully. He tapped various positions on the stone pillar with his hand and soon made a discovery, revealing a curious expression. He groped on the lampstand on the stone pillar and found that it could indeed be rotated.

After trying to rotate it half a circle, the floor in the southwest corner of the room rotated, revealing a hole in the ground.

He immediately took a lamp and excitedly crawled down, also finding a mechanism on the stone wall inside, closing the ground stone slab.

At this time, the oil lamps on both sides of the passage automatically burned, revealing green fire.

If it were the old Zhou An, he would definitely be a little scared, but now that he understood the art of The Mysterious Doors and Evasive Arts, this kind of design was considered child’s play. What people fear most is the unknown, and they have little fear of familiar things.

Walking through the narrow underground passage and turning several corners, he felt that he had passed through the entire harem. At this time, when passing a turning point, he found that there were some problems with the stone wall structure here.

However, he didn’t go to see it immediately, but walked to the bottom, which was a dead end. There were several stone carvings on the wall, and he could see the gaps in the stone door.

He didn’t open it immediately, but observed it here, and then looked at the color of the stone crevices.

After touching it with his finger, he put it in front of his nose and smelled it, looked up at the eight lampstands around him, and retreated to the turning point where he had discovered the abnormality.

He directly pressed a wall brick with his hand, and a door appeared as the stone wall rotated. He smiled triumphantly and walked in.

The bottom of the passage was a life-threatening mechanism. No matter what method was used to open it, it would trigger three fatal traps at the same time.

The Dragon Blocking Stone, Poison Gas, and Fire Oil were a dead end. Unless one had the power to break through the Dragon Blocking Stone, they would definitely die.

This also showed that the person who designed this mechanism didn’t want outsiders to find this place at all.

This time the passage was not long, only more than two hundred meters, and a stone door appeared again. The mechanism setting was also relatively obvious, which was a stone beast next to it.

When the stone door opened, inside was a secret room used for cultivation. In the middle was a fur cattail hassock with a diameter of three meters, and next to it were some stone cabinets, storing various Elixir and books.

However, it was now a mess, with many traces left by sword blades.

Even some of the sword marks left on the stones were unbelievably smooth, with smooth cuts like mirrors, as if these bluestones were tofu.

On the stone platform in the middle, there was also a skeleton, wearing broken Dragon Robes, and his chest had been pierced by something, proving that he had died an unnatural death.

As he stepped into the secret room, he immediately received a system prompt: “Discovered the Imperial Palace Secret Room, do you want to Check-In?”

“Check-In.” Zhou An naturally did not hesitate to confirm the Check-In. A Cultivation Method secret book, Vast Universe Art, appeared in the system space.

The new book asks for recommendations, collections, and investments.

By the way.

Group number: 753770652