"Who dares to trespass inside the royal palace?"
Furious shouts could be heard from inside the Library Tower at that moment.
An old eunuch dressed in gold-embroidered purple robes emerged from inside the Library Tower.
There was just no way that others couldn't have discovered them, given the commotion that they had just caused.
Gosh, you're slow, Li Mu thought to himself as he retreated without making a sound.
The other man who was clad in black was dumbstruck. It was too late for him to make his escape.
The eunuch clad in purple targeted him immediately. "You have some nerve indeed."
"God d*mn you," the man clad in black scolded as he launched a palm attack at the old eunuch, before turning around and heading straight for the outside of the royal palace.
"You think you can run? Over my dead body!"
The old eunuch was anything but slow, and he gave chase right away.
"Stupid old eunuch, if it wasn't for my injuries, do you really think that you could catch me? You'd have ended up in h*ll already."
Boom~
The clash between the two of them sent tiles flying at a palace far away.
"Who goes there?"
"Intruder!"
...…
All the formidable ones lurking in all the palaces rushed at that man, one after another.
The patrolling guards quickly gathered around these two who were fighting at the moment.
Li Mu hid somewhere and watched for a while, before returning to Jingning Palace.
The Ninth Prince came to Jingning Palace in the morning.
"Did anything happen here last night?"
"Everything was fine here. What happened, son?"
"There was an intruder in the palace last night," the Ninth Prince said. Then he paused before continuing, "We're lucky that the intruder was caught. It was terrifying. He was actually Old Demon Han, who had disappeared for quite some time."
"Old Demon Han was caught? Isn't that the famous Han Paopao? Not only are his powers extremely formidable, his light feet are known by all, no? My, my, the warriors of the royal palace are really something."
The one who said all that was the old court lady.
"Indeed. However, I've heard that Old Demon Han suffered quite an injury from a single hit from a warrior, which was why he didn't manage to escape."
…...
Li Mu listened to this exchange with extreme interest.
Now, he'd finally learned the identity of the bold intruder who he'd run into last night.
Old Demon Han, who had been very famous for quite a long time...
No wonder he'd dared to trespass into the royal palace all alone.
But, he's now caught, right?
Will my cover be blown?
Li Mu perked up his ears to listen if anything was said that had to do with that.
...
"If the word of Old Demon Han getting caught gets out, I'm afraid the world would be very shocked."
Several eunuchs from the Imperial Horse Directorate were gathered around and chatting.
Eunuchs working at that place didn't compare with those from other places.
While the work was tiring, they also enjoyed a lot more freedom.
There weren't as many rules to follow, and they only needed to finish their jobs every day.
Furthermore, there were always nobles who came to ride the horses for fun.
The Imperial Horse Directorate was also a place where gossip swirled all the time.
"I heard from the eunuchs serving the emperor that Old Demon Han was beaten by a low-ranked eunuch."
"Definitely some grand ancestor who had regained his youth then."
"It is said that the emperor is looking for that eunuch as well."
"Has the emperor found him yet?"
"There were two imposters, but they were quickly executed."
...…
All the patrols throughout the palace complex became tighter than before.
Some formidable ones who were hardly seen before made impromptu appearances at night as well.
Li Mu had initially speculated that the ones out to cause trouble would make a move against the Jingning Palace after the empress passed away.
From the look of things, however, it seemed as if things would stay quiet for quite a while instead.
There was a problem with so many formidable ones appearing at night.
But even apart from that, the fact that Old Demon Han had been caught would cause the ones lurking in the dark to hesitate.
Li Mu's daily life remained that of a janitor.
However, he'd discovered something quite funny in the last couple of days.
Everyone started treating the gray-robed eunuchs rather courteously all of a sudden.
Another year passed without incident in the Jingning Palace.
However, the Ninth Prince seemed to have lost his backing after the empress passed away, which caused his visits to be increasingly seldom.
Li Mu had been checking in at many other places in the royal palace, enabling his powers to grow marginally.
He had already visited all the places that were available for check-ins in the royal palace.
Many of those places were limited to only checking in once.
The rewards he'd acquired during the past several months were of less and less use to him.
Source Gathering Pills, Marrow Cleansing Pills, and Minor Recovery Pills had all outlived their usefulness to him.
Source Gathering Pills were still somewhat useful at levels below Higher Heaven Realm.
Multiple use of Marrow Cleansing Pills would be a waste on someone with his physique.
Minor Recovery Pills were still useful at the Spirit Manipulation Realm.
Having hit this bottleneck, he became less diligent about his training than he had been before.
He actually started messing about and wasting time when he was bored.
...
Duang~ Duang~
Several rings of the bell from the clock tower in the palace could be heard on that day.
A group of eunuchs came to the Jingning Palace before long.
They left mourning attire for everyone before leaving.
"The emperor has passed away."
The entire palace was in mourning.
Sad people were everywhere.
With the old emperor dead, a new one was needed to ascend to the throne.
The old emperor had been stout and strong, and he had condemned Concubine Jing to the "cold" palace because of what had happened with the crown prince.
The crown prince's status was abolished, and a new crown prince had yet to emerge before the emperor died all of a sudden.
The remaining princes began to fight each other for the throne.
Two days later, the royal palace was seized by the Third Prince leading the imperial army, and that was when things in the kingdom quieted down.
The Third Prince ascended to the throne.
He then began to get rid of the other princes.
The Eldest Prince was sent to the border. Both the Second and the Fourth Princes were killed by the Third Prince.
The Fifth Prince managed to sneak outside of the capital, escorted by his personal guards under all the commotion. He then began to retaliate, backed by the forces of the extended families of many of the assassinated princes.
The noble clans that had backed the Second and the Fourth Princes were dissatisfied with the forces of the Third Prince, so the backed the Fifth Prince.
The Sixth Prince was confined to house arrest in the palace.
Chaos was everywhere, inside and outside the royal palace.
The Ninth Prince was spared for the time being due to his young age.
There were many princes and there were a lot of names to remember. Li Mu kept forgetting their names and the noble clans that backed them.
He didn't care for any of that at all.
There was no way he would have had trouble remembering their names if he bothered.
Chaos was everywhere, and the Ninth Prince took this chance to move into the "cold" palace.
While he was said to have moved in, it was actually more like being in hiding in the "cold" palace for the time being.
Him being outside the palace at this moment would guarantee his death after all.
All the other princes had clans behind them, who were all powerful to a certain extent.
The Ninth Prince only had his mother, Concubine Jing, and, worse still, she was someone who had been condemned to a "cold" palace for years.
The concubine had enough problems keeping herself alive, thus making guaranteeing the prince's safety out of the question.
With that said, there was no chance of him vying for the throne.
Time passed.
The Third Prince had his ways with things. The allied forces that backed the Fifth Prince were crushed, and the Fifth Prince himself was killed, bringing the political situation to a form of stability.
Several months passed.
The new emperor made an appearance in the "cold" palace.
The emperor then left after meeting with its occupants.
A sacred edict was soon announced.
The Jingning Palace was still to be a "cold" palace, yet now there was another prisoner being confined there: the Ninth Prince.
"So the Third Prince is indeed afraid of being called a kin slayer so he fixed on this method to choose to spare the life of the Ninth Prince."
Li Mu knew the Ninth Prince would be fine, as soon as the new emperor stepped foot into the Jingning Palace.
The Ninth Prince was very weak compared to his brothers.
He had no clans backing him, and he was too young.
Sparing the Ninth Prince's life would do the Third Prince more good than harm.
Li Mu's work would remain as it had always been, so long as the "cold" palace didn't get involved in any serious trouble.
He continued his janitorial work every day.
Two more court ladies were assigned to the "cold" palace to help take care of the Ninth Prince.
The Ninth Prince continued his unfinished studies under Concubine Jing as well.
The prince would look for Li Mu from time to time, chatting about stuff.
Li Mu would then tell the prince of something from his past life.
Time gradually passed, and ten years went by like this.
"Xiaolizi, why don't you seem to age?" A young man sitting at a chess table in the compound asked.
This young man had bright eyes and perfect teeth, and he was gazing at Li Mu curiously.
"I have had little to worry about, and there has been nothing troubling me. My days are just cycles of eating and sleeping. There are no wrinkles on my forehead, I do not feel any wrath or anxiety, and thus my hair remains jet-black."
Li Mu came up with an easy lie.
"Man, I envy you indeed. Life would be great if I was a eunuch too."
"My lord, best not let anyone outside hear you say something like that."
"Well, you addressed me as your lord. I'm about to go outside of the palace soon. My third brother has finished constructing the lord's residence and is only waiting for me to get caged. H*ll, I won't even be allowed to take you outside to look at things," the Ninth Prince grumbled.
"My lord, I'd advise you to not say such things often."