Chapter 185 – Secret
“Since Mister Qian has already saved me from that prison, the secret that has been hidden deep within my heart shall naturally come out. However, after I reveal this secret, I dare not stay in Xuanjing. Thus, I hope that Sir Immortal can also bring my family out of Xuanjing like Sir Immortal did for Censor Chen’s family. From there I will bring my family out of the country and never set foot within Xuanjing again.” Mister Sun respectfully spoke.
“Alright, as long as your secret is large enough, this requirement is not too harsh.” Liu Ming heard these words and nodded without saying anything else.
“Alright, with Mister Qian’s words, I don’t have anything to worry about. The secret of mine is that the current emperor is not the same one that entered the throne twenty years ago. He is instead a demon that transformed into the emperor.” Mister Sun’s heart relaxed as he finally said the secret that he had kept in heart for an unknown amount of time.
“What, the emperor today is a fake and instead transformed from a demon?” Although Liu Ming had begun guessing at the secret within Mister Sun’s heart, he was still stunned at those words.
“That’s right. Please don’t think that I am making this up. I knew of this secret about seven months ago. Sir should know that I am the general manager of the imperial family and take care of the emperor’s food along with keeping records on his body. This is to prevent the emperor from dying without leaving a will behind…”
“The records for the earlier years were alright since the emperor was in his prime and having no illnesses then was a natural thing. However, seven years ago, the emperor became bedridden for three days. And I received the record about ten plus days late. At the time, I didn’t think too much about it and thought that it was delayed because of the illness. However, when I flipped open the record that night, I found a secret page sent by Lady Li who was the most loved wife of the emperor.”
“In the page, this Lady Li said that the emperor was living in her room when he became sick. As a result she saw the emperor transform from a normal person to a half demon, half person being. She was scarred by that image that she actually fell unconscious. When she woke up, she was being watched by a group of guards and with great difficulty did she have one of the guards send out a page requesting help. Because the page wasn’t too large and the Lady Li wrote it quite quickly, there wasn’t much material on the page. However, she asked for me to give that page to the oldest Immortal Sirs within the Imperial Family and in case I didn’t believe her, she actually had the guard that she had convinced to send the page also bury a couple of scales that the monster dropped within a certain area in the imperial city. I was to get them when I went into the imperial city and give it to the Immortal Sirs to check if they were valid.” Mister Sun’s eyes started showing fear at this point in time.
Although Liu Ming’s face looked the same, he was extremely shocked within his heart.
“When I finished reading that page, I was naturally extremely shocked. However, I could not completely trust something like this. In the end, before I could find out a way to enter within the imperial city, news came that Lady Li had died of sickness. At that time, I realized that Lady Li’s message was likely true. After living in fear for the next couple of days, I finally found an excuse to enter the city and actually found two green scales at the spot where Lady Li talked about. Once I got the scales, I immediately hired a beggar that had no knowledge of the affair and had him deliver one of the scales and a mail that I used my left hand and a different tone to write, into one of the Imperial Family Immortals’ house. However, one day later, I heard that the house of this Immortal was massacred that night with no survivors. At the time, the entire government was in a huge uproar and immediately cleaned out all of the large factions within Xuanjing. In addition, countless officials had their heads cut off. Later, the government let out news that Guests of the government cleared out a couple of Demonic Cultivators from other lands and learned that they were behind the massacre. However, after then, I did not dare tell anyone else. The other scale was also hidden in a secret within my house and never shown to anyone else. Otherwise, if it weren’t for the fact that I was incarcerated this time and was afraid that a government Guest would use some hypnotic methods to find out this secret, I would have probably left it within my heart.” Mister Sun finally said everything in his mind in one go.
“If that’s the case, then you still have the demon scale within your house.” Liu Ming heard to this point and showed a pondering expression.
“That is true. Otherwise, there would be no proof of my words. I also didn’t dare make such a promise to mister while within the prison. How about this, I will bring Sir Immortal and we can get the scale and also bring my family out.” Mister Sun gave a slight thought before replying.
“Alright, then let’s do that. That’s right, since you say that the emperor is from a demon, then if you compared the emperor before you got the message and after, what differences can you see?” Liu Ming suddenly asked as if he had thought of something.
“This… I really haven’t seen anything strange. If there is something different then it’s that the emperor seems to have met with his advisors and officials less these couple of years. In addition, he has become more and more lax about controlling his sons and brothers that have stayed in Xuanjing. However, he has only slowly changed so if it wasn’t for the fact that I knew of this secret, I would not have noticed.” Mister Sun stayed silent before responding.
“Alright, I understand. Let us first return to Xuanjing and in order to not alarm anyone, both of our appearances should be changed.” Liu Ming gave a quick thought before nodding his head.
Immediately afterwards, he wiped his face and after a flash of white light, he turned from a twenty to thirty young scholar to an elegant middle aged man.
Then, Liu Ming took out one black and one yellow robe from his sleeve and he wore the black one on himself before he threw the other one at the Mister Sun.
Mister Sun immediately seemed to wake up and quickly changed his clothing.
At this time, Liu Ming took a white pill and rubbed it between his hands. With another movement, he patted the white powder onto Mister Sun’s face.
Immediately, Mister Sun’s white and smooth skin became much darker and rougher.
Liu Ming nodded and suddenly a green streak flashed in his hand.
Mister Sun felt a cold gust pass below his chin and his beard was soundlessly cut. This made him look younger by at least ten years.
“Alright, that’s enough.” Liu Ming showed an expression of content and began walking towards the carriage that was left at the bottom of the hill.
Mister Sun rubbed his chin which had become smooth and with a small smile, quickly followed Liu Ming.
…..
During the afternoon, Liu Ming who had transformed into a middle aged man and Mister Sun had shown themselves before a normal looking house within Xuanjing.
They had actually gotten here about two hours ago but the Mister Sun was something who was extremely cunning and patient, forcing himself to sit within a teahouse for two hours while checking if anything was amiss around his house. When he discovered, he finally brought Liu Ming to appear before his house.
After “peng, peng” sounds, the originally tightly close door opened up and showed a young servant that poked his head out.
“Who are you looking… Ah, it’s master!” The servant originally wanted to ask something but after taking a closer look at Mister Sun, he could not help but yell out in surprise.
“Be quiet, are my wives in the house?” Mister Sun stared at the young servant as he asked.
“Master, both ladies are within the house and were just talking about master’s situation.” The young servant quickly moved aside as he replied with respect.
“Alright, as long as they are here, it is good. Go and hire two carriages, I will need them later.” Mister Sun ordered without thinking.
“Yes, I’ll go do that now.” The young servant heard this and immediately hurried out of the door.
As for Mister Sun, he brought Liu Ming into the deeper parts of the house.
Moments later, the entire house was in an uproar.
Four hours later, three carriages left through the east gate of Xuanjing and sprinted along a government path.
Liu Ming who had recovered his appearance as a scholar was seated within the carriage at the front. In his hands was a small, thumb sized green scale while his face was extremely downcast.
Mister Sun was seated directly across from Liu Ming and had a face full of respect.
“When I send you guys to ten miles out of Xuanjing, you should be safe and I will be returning. After all, Gold Spirit Guests have an unwritten rule of not leaving Xuanjing beyond ten miles unless specially directed to.” Liu Ming’s finger moved and the green scale disappeared with a blur. At the same time, Liu Ming quickly explained to Mister Sun.
“I have also heard of such a rumor. Thank you sir for what you did. Otherwise, I don’t even know what kind of state my family would have fallen into.” Hearing this, Mister Sun immediately gave his thanks.
“That was nothing, I am simply making a transaction with you. However, if you really want to leave this place, there will be one more obstacle that you will need to clear.” Liu Ming sighed as he said.
“What do you mean by that?” Hearing this, Mister Sun was extremely stunned.
“There has been someone who has been following us in the air ever since we left Xuanjing. If I’m not guessing wrongly, it should be a truly strong person within the Gold Spirit Guests.” Liu Ming replied with a calm expression.
“What should we do?” Hearing this, Mister Sun’s face changed drastically.
“Relax, since I promised you that I would guard you until you left Xuanjing, I will not go back on my words. As long as I make that person leave, you will have no trouble.” Liu Ming replied ambivalently. With a movement, he actually lept out of the carriage window. Afterwards, black gas rose up from his feet and carried him into the sky.
Moments later, Liu Ming was floating hundreds of feet in the air as he coldly looked at a man with blue hair and a purple beard.
