The imperial palace should be the most heavily guarded place in the entire world.
However, so-called tight security depended on the area.
Just like the lighthouse country in Gu Xinchao's past life, the gated communities of the wealthy were naturally heavily guarded, with police patrolling twenty-four hours a day, whereas places like slums were left to fend for themselves, with no guarantee that police would respond when called.
Within the imperial palace, the heavily guarded areas were the courtyards and palaces where the masters resided.
In places where low-ranking eunuchs lived, or foul places like Dingfu Village, although guards did patrol, the requirements were not strict.
They had fixed patrol routes and schedules.
Wei Xiaobao seemed to know this like the back of his hand. Moving along unhindered, he soon arrived at the backyard of Dingfu Village.
With the courtyard wall standing over ten feet high, a light touch of his feet on the ground and a gentle brush of his hand against the top of the wall to borrow a little leverage was all it took for him to vault right over.
Behind the courtyard wall lay the desolate crematorium.
Wei Xiaobao knew this environment inside and out, so there was no question of losing his way. Before long, retracing his steps, he returned to the spot he had reached earlier that evening. Passing through the courtyard piled high with logs and firewood, he came to that room.
The door was half open.
He pressed himself against the back of the door and listened quietly.
The Cold Palace.
Lengxiang Palace.
Gu Xinchao lay swaddled in infant wraps, beside Noble Consort Lan.
His eyes were closed, yet he was not asleep, but rather immersed in Wei Xiaobao's world.
Beside him, Noble Consort Lan had one arm wrapped around the swaddling clothes, breathing softly.
Xiaohong...
Ah, this was the name Gu Xinchao had given to the red-clothed female ghost. At this moment, she was sitting outside the door on the veranda, gazing up at the starlit sky.
Everything was so quiet and leisurely.
Dingfu Village at this moment, however, could hardly be called quiet.
Inside the room, Hai Guozhong grumbled softly as he busily hauled bricks over to the kiln opening.
Xiao Guizi, Wei Xiaobao, Wu Dafu, including his superiors and colleagues—he cursed them all from top to bottom.
The cremation procedure was as follows.
After placing the corpse into the kiln packed with firewood, the entrance had to be sealed with mud bricks. Just before it was completely closed off, a small hole was left, and burning logs were tossed inside. Because there was a fire-starting talisman inside and black oil near the entrance, the flames would flare up quickly.
Only then was that small hole also plugged up with bricks and mud.
By tomorrow morning, the fire would basically have gone out. Opening the kiln then, there would be nothing left of the corpse except some bone ash and residue.
The process was actually very simple.
Even a single person could handle it quite well.
Of course, building walls with bricks was a bit troublesome, and cleaning out the kiln afterwards by scraping away the grease with a shovel was also somewhat bothersome...
Hai Guozhong was a man who thoroughly detested trouble.
Inevitably, complaints poured from his lips.
Before long, the brick wall was more than half built, with only a small section at the top left unlaid, when Wei Xiaobao appeared soundlessly behind him.
Head bowed, Hai Guozhong held a brick in his left hand, a trowel in his right, and was stirring wet mortar when he suddenly noticed a shadow cast beside him.
He shuddered violently.
"Who's there?"
Just as the shout left his mouth, he started to turn around.
The wrong response.
A slick silk ribbon looped around his neck. Knees pressed hard against his back, a tremendous force struck him, making it difficult to turn. In an instant, the ribbon wrapped twice around his neck. Panicking, his hands instinctively flew up to grab at the ribbon.
Another wrong response.
Wei Xiaobao bent his left leg, pressing his knee tightly against Hai Guozhong's back, grabbed the ribbon with both hands, and channeled his inner strength.
"Crack!"
A soft snap.
Hai Guozhong's neck was snapped instantly, his windpipe crushed. His entire body shuddered, on the verge of losing control of his bowels.
Wei Xiaobao lifted him with a single hand.
The weight of over a hundred catties was as light as dry grass in his grip.
He tossed Hai Guozhong's corpse into the kiln, piling it right on top of the dead Xiao Guizi, surrounded by firewood and logs.
"If it weren't for you bastard, how would Eunuch Xi have found out about me?"
"I only wanted to remain unknown, yet you insisted on making me famous..."
"If you don't die?"
"Who dies?"
Wei Xiaobao's expression was dark and cold as he spoke.
He had always been unkempt, a bit slow-witted, keeping a low profile. Because he often helped Eunuch Wu with odd jobs, he dealt with Dingfu Village quite frequently—especially this Hai Guozhong, whom he saw two or three times a month.
At some point, he must have accidentally revealed his true face.
To curry favor with Eunuch Xi, Hai Guozhong had therefore...
"Damn your mother!"
Gazing at Hai Guozhong inside the kiln, Wei Xiaobao cursed.
Afterward, he lit a fire-starter from the ground and tossed it into the kiln. Seeing the flames rise up, he proceeded to seal the wall.
His brick-laying speed was much faster than Hai Guozhong's, and he quickly closed off the kiln opening.
Just before sealing it completely, he glanced one last time at Hai Guozhong amidst the flames and grinned. At that moment, his heart was filled with elation and a intense sense of satisfaction—an emotion naturally perceived by Gu Xinchao as well.
He loved killing!
He took pleasure in it!
What a psycho!
Inside the Cold Palace, Gu Xinchao furrowed his brow slightly.
Could it be that the Demon Seed only favored psychos?
In the future, was he destined to associate only with psychos and evil spirits?
After sealing the kiln opening, Wei Xiaobao carefully checked his surroundings. Finding no clues or traces left behind, he stepped out of the room.
Standing in the courtyard, he looked back.
Black smoke rose from the chimney, blending into the night.
The next moment, Wei Xiaobao soared up like a giant bird, clearing the courtyard wall and vanishing into the night as well.
...
A quarter of an hour later.
A small courtyard.
Under hazy moonlight, Wei Xiaobao's figure materialized.
Standing in the yard, he looked like a cat with its fur standing on end, his expression extremely vigilant. He slowly turned his neck, scanning his surroundings.
His heels ground slightly into the ground.
Ready to spring into action at any moment.
A wisp of breeze drifted in from the side.
Wei Xiaobao jerked his head around and whipped out a palm strike.
Amidst the rushing wind of the strike, a dark figure flashed past, dodging his palm, slipping behind him, and continuing its onslaught.
Without turning around, Wei Xiaobao took a forward hop.
Planting one foot, he snapped his other leg backward to kick at the dark figure's groin.
A tiger-tail kick.
Without dodging or evading, the dark figure pressed forward.
In the darkness, Wei Xiaobao's kick appeared to connect with his opponent, but in reality, his legs were clamped by the other person's thighs. With a slight twist of his opponent's body, Wei Xiaobao was yanked forward. After a rapid exchange of two moves, the other person's fingers brushed lightly across the back of his neck.
Gu Xinchao could also feel the chill radiating against his neck.
However, Wei Xiaobao's neck was not broken.
The dark figure had held back from dealing a fatal blow.
He retreated to one side.
Through Wei Xiaobao's perspective, Gu Xinchao clearly saw the man: an unranked elderly eunuch wearing plain cyan robes and a wingless gauze cap, his face the color of parchment, who was coughing softly as if severely stricken with illness.
"Using a tiger-tail kick on a gelded wretch?"
"Where is your brain?"
"Did you pretend to be a fool for so long that you actually became one?"
The old man stopped coughing and said softly.
"Master, it was my fault."
Wei Xiaobao lowered his head.
"You went killing again?"
Suddenly, the man asked.
"I smelled a very heavy aura of death..."
"Whom did you kill?"
Wei Xiaobao lowered his head and remained silent.
"How many times must I tell you? If you cannot control the killing intent in your heart, you will never be able to master the Seven Kill Monument..."
"Right now, you've only practiced up to the third tablet..."
"There are seven tablets in total, and each one gets harder than the last. If you suffer a deviation in your cultivation..."
"How will you ever take revenge?"
Lowering his voice, the man said with a hint of irritation.
With that, he covered his mouth and broke into an uncontrollable fit of coughing.