Chapter 297: Break Your Legs? I’ll Break Yours First

It was said that after a group of immortals arrived at the imperial palace and the emperor even appointed a female immortal named Xu Yu as the Imperial Preceptor, the debauched and extravagant lifestyle of the royal family was severely curtailed by this new preceptor. The Seventh Highness happened to be one of the princes who had fallen afoul of her.

At the time, the Seventh Prince had been strolling through the Imperial Garden when he saw a group of palace maids. Among them was one with an excellent appearance, figure, and temperament. Knowing he had no hope of inheriting the throne, he had adopted a reckless attitude. The moment he saw this palace maid, licentious thoughts arose in his heart.

The young eunuch beside the Seventh Prince saw the lustful glint in his master’s eyes. Well aware of his master’s temperament, he leaned in and whispered, “Your Highness, shall this slave make arrangements to have her sent to your bedchamber tonight?”

“No need,” the Seventh Prince said, shaking his head.

His personal eunuch was puzzled. ‘His master isn’t usually like this. Could it be that he’s been driven mad by that group of so-called immortals in the palace, who are actually just Daoists who refine fake pills and medicines?’

The Seventh Prince let out a lewd laugh and said, “It’s a rare day with such clear and refreshing weather, and the Imperial Garden is in full bloom. Why not take the sky as our canopy and the earth as our bed, and favor her right here?”

His personal eunuch said fawningly, “An excellent idea, Your Highness. Your refined and elegant taste is truly of the highest class.”

At once, the Seventh Prince, with his trusted eunuch in tow, intercepted the palace maid.

The Seventh Prince chuckled lightly, his eyes fixed on her, and thought with no small amount of resentment, ‘All the beautiful women have become concubines in my imperial father’s bedchamber, leaving only the dregs. But the heavens have eyes, to let me encounter such a beautiful palace maid. I must enjoy myself thoroughly. I definitely can’t let her go.’

He gave a look, and his personal eunuch, borrowing the fox’s might by association with the tiger, drove away the other palace maids. “His Highness wishes to admire the flowers with her. The rest of you, leave at once.”

How could the other palace maids dare to linger? They cast a sympathetic glance at the girl and quickly left.

After sending the others away, the Seventh Prince’s eyes glowed green, and he pounced like a hungry wolf.

Although the poor palace maid was unwilling, she didn’t dare to resist. The man before her was, after all, the emperor’s seventh son. If he wanted to favor her, what right did a lowly palace maid like her have to say no?

“Your Highness, Your Highness, I beg you to let me go, Your Highness…”

The palace maid’s face was pale, her tear-streaked face a picture of pitiful beauty, which only served to further ignite the Seventh Prince’s bestial nature. He began to tear at her clothes.

Just as the palace maid had fallen into despair, Xu Yu, who had recently been appointed as the Imperial Preceptor, happened to be passing by.

“Stop!” Xu Yu’s voice rang out, and at the same time, the palace maids and eunuchs beside her immediately rushed forward.

As the Imperial Preceptor, Xu Yu naturally had several personal attendants. When they saw the Seventh Prince committing the assault, Xu Yu’s attendants, who knew their mistress’s temper and remembered the emperor’s deference and respect for her, steeled themselves and rescued the palace maid from his grasp.

The rescued palace maid’s clothes were in disarray, her face was pale with fright, and her body was still trembling from the shock. She knelt on the ground, sobbing softly.

Xu Yu frowned slightly and looked at the unwilling Seventh Prince, saying coldly, “What are you doing?”

The Seventh Prince had not expected that his attempt to favor a palace maid would be thwarted by Xu Yu. He was furious but did not dare to show it.

‘In his eyes, wasn’t Xu Yu’s status as Imperial Preceptor just because she knew how to refine fake pills and coax his father, who longed for immortality? He even had the malicious thought that perhaps Xu Yu’s beauty had charmed his still-vigorous old father, which was how she had obtained the position.’

But no matter how she had gotten the title, it was not something an unfavored prince like him could question.

He understood that he couldn’t win against a stronger power. Xu Yu was currently in a position of strength, and if he were to cause a scene, he would be the only one to suffer.

He knew very well that the bonds of royal kinship were thin. His noble status as a prince could be stripped away at any time. His father was bewitched, having appointed a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl as the Imperial Preceptor, even giving her the power to review memorials, decide state affairs, and hold authority over life and death.

The Seventh Prince had no doubt that with a single order, Xu Yu could even summon the Imperial Guard to kill him, and his father would not stand up for an unfavored son like him.

Xu Yu looked at the Seventh Prince with disgust and warned him in an indifferent tone, “I like this palace maid very much. From now on, she will serve me. In the future, you are not to force others to do things against their will. If I discover you doing so again, I will certainly have your father punish you.”

The Seventh Prince snorted coldly, noncommittal, and turned to leave.

‘His father had practically handed over the entire ancestral land to Xu Yu. If she wanted a single palace maid, what right did he have to object?’

Ever since this incident, the Seventh Prince, who had never believed in gods or immortals to begin with, had developed an even deeper loathing for so-called immortals.

…

Eunuch Yu believed in immortals, and he believed that Huang Shanhai would not dare to lie to him—that the two youths before him were the legendary immortals. But though he believed, the Seventh Prince did not!

The Seventh Prince was just a prince whom the emperor disliked, but he was a lowly slave. So, the old eunuch, Yu Sihai, closed his mouth and didn’t dare to speak again.

“You,” the Seventh Prince pointed at Qin Haoxuan and said, “you say you are an immortal. It is said that immortals possess great supernatural powers and can fly through the heavens and burrow into the earth. To prove that you are truly an immortal, perform a magic trick for me to see.”

With that, a playful smile appeared in the Seventh Prince’s eyes. It was clear he was just toying with them.

Having been tempered in the mortal world for several months, experienced countless life-and-death struggles, and died hundreds of times in the Illusory Sea of Consciousness, Qin Haoxuan had long since grown accustomed to the distinction between immortal and mortal. In his eyes, mortals were ants. If an ant were to challenge him, would he really bother to step on it?

The world was full of ignorant mortals, as numerous as ants. To step on them one by one would be too much effort.

Qin Haoxuan had no interest in dealing with the Seventh Prince, and Xing had even less. In the eyes of a genius demon from the Netherworld, his royal status was just a slightly more glamorous coat. Never mind a prince, so what if he were the emperor? He was just a slightly larger ant.

Qin Haoxuan said to the kneeling Yu Sihai, “You may rise. Let’s go.”

Yu Sihai looked at the Seventh Prince, then at the two immortals. In the end, he gritted his teeth and decided to listen to the immortals. He kowtowed to the Seventh Prince, begged his pardon, and then briskly got to his feet, following beside Qin Haoxuan.

The Seventh Prince’s face darkened. It was one thing for Qin Haoxuan and Xing to ignore him, but for even a wretched old eunuch from the palace to dare to ignore him! Seeing his master’s expression change, the young eunuch personally attending to the Seventh Prince immediately raised his voice, stared at Qin Haoxuan and Xing, and said angrily, “You two insolent commoners, did you not hear what His Highness the Seventh Prince said? Let alone the fact that you’re not immortals, even if you were, to defy the will of the Seventh Highness is to defy the will of His Majesty the Emperor! The crime is equivalent to deceiving the monarch. Do you know the punishment for that? Execution of your entire clan for nine generations!”

Qin Haoxuan looked at the shouting young eunuch indifferently and said, unconcerned, “I am deceiving the monarch. What can you do to me?”

“You…” The young eunuch, at a loss for words, his face flushed red. It then twisted into a ferocious expression, and he said through gritted teeth, “I’ll break your legs!”

With that, he raised his horsetail whisk and made a move to strike Qin Haoxuan.

Forget a horsetail whisk, even if he were given a wolf-fang club, he couldn’t have harmed Qin Haoxuan. But why would Qin Haoxuan let a filthy, power-abusing eunuch touch him? He flipped his hand and casually performed a spiritual art that Xing had taught him, the Heaven-Settling Staff. Like the Taiyi Dao Fire, this art also had nine levels, but for now, Qin Haoxuan had only reached the first.

As Qin Haoxuan’s spiritual energy surged, it instantly transformed into a glittering golden staff, with streaks of golden light coiling around it, shining brilliantly.

He swung the golden staff, sweeping it across the young eunuch’s legs. Two sharp cracking sounds were heard, and both of the eunuch’s legs snapped. He screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground.

Qin Haoxuan’s tone was indifferent, as if he hadn’t just broken a man’s legs, but had merely crushed an ant’s. He said, “Since you like breaking people’s legs so much, I’ll break yours, so you know what it feels like.”

After breaking the young eunuch’s legs, Qin Haoxuan took the golden staff formed from his spiritual energy and, with a twist of his hands, the seemingly indestructible, glittering staff dissolved into countless motes of light and vanished.

Seeing Qin Haoxuan perform this immortal art, Yu Sihai’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. He was even more thankful that he hadn’t made things difficult for these two after learning their identity. Otherwise, who knows if it would be his arms or legs that were broken now.

‘An immortal’s technique, this is an immortal’s technique!’ Yu Sihai recalled the golden staff that had suddenly appeared in Qin Haoxuan’s hand, and how he had rubbed it between his hands to make it dissipate into starlight. He was convinced this was the work of an immortal. ‘How could a mortal possess such a technique? Not even an internal arts master could do that.’

As a prince, the Seventh Highness had seen countless internal arts masters. They could shatter iron weapons and break city walls, but they could not perform such a miraculous feat as conjuring a golden staff from thin air and dissolving it into starlight. At this moment, the Seventh Highness’s face was also stiff.

‘So immortals really do exist. So they really exist…’ The Seventh Prince’s heart trembled, and his eyes were filled with fear as he looked at Qin Haoxuan. ‘Since immortals exist, then what my imperial father told me before—that they can fly through the heavens, burrow into the earth, and with a single gesture, overturn rivers and seas, change the color of the sky and cause the earth to collapse—was it all true? Then since I’ve offended this immortal, will he kill me?’

Although he was a prince, he was, in the end, just a mortal.

Qin Haoxuan’s gaze fell faintly on the Seventh Prince, and he said softly, “Your Highness the Seventh Prince, was that one magic trick enough, or would you like me to perform another for you?”

At this moment, Qin Haoxuan’s soft, anger-free tone sounded to the Seventh Prince like the growl of a ferocious tiger. Now that he knew immortals truly existed and that their methods were so formidable, although he was furious, he did not dare to offend Qin Haoxuan.

Qin Haoxuan had no desire to bicker with a spoiled, bratty prince. He gave a look to Yu Sihai, who once again led the way, taking the two of them deeper into the palace.

(End of Chapter)