Chapter 458: Chapter 460 The Boss is the Same Person [4th update, please subscribe]

In the woods, the rain had stopped.

The leader of the men in black looked fearfully at his brother’s body. It was charred beyond recognition, a sight so grotesque it made him nauseous. He had killed before and seen his share of bloodshed, but to witness a person burned alive like this was utterly shocking.

Wu Tian had slowly approached the assassin leader. Staring into the man’s terrified eyes, he asked, "Speak. Who hired you?"

The assassin leader trembled, unsure whether to speak. As an assassin, he had to uphold his professional ethics. Moreover, the employer had been masked. Even if he had deduced the employer’s identity, he couldn’t just reveal it. Besides, the shock had left his thoughts in a muddle.

A Qilin! Could a mythical creature like a Qilin really exist?

"Not talking?" Wu Tian’s eyes grew cold. He glanced at Little Kirin and ordered, "Medium rare."

Medium rare? Does he think this is a kitchen? The assassin leader, jolted by the chilling words and Wu Tian’s sheer presence, snapped out of it. "No, no, no! I’ll talk!" he stammered.

What a spineless creature. Wu Tian sneered inwardly.

Little Kirin also looked at the assassin leader with contempt. He called me a dog? He’s the one who’s more suited to be a dog!

"Here’s the situation," the assassin leader began hastily, afraid Wu Tian would strike. "The employer was masked, so we don’t know his identity! But I was able to make a few deductions. His choice to hire us, and not some other group, suggests he’s local. Secondly, he wore a mask, which means his identity is well-known around here. In this territory, the only people who would dare to make a move against the Eastern Taizhong Palace are members of the Palace itself."

Wu Tian nodded.

"Alright, I’ve told you everything. Can I go now?" the assassin leader asked. With that, he turned and scrambled to flee, abandoning the corpse of the man he once called a brother, with whom he’d sworn to share both fortune and hardship.

"Does someone like that deserve to live?" Wu Tian scoffed coldly. He’d never promised to let the man go just for talking. He looked at Little Kirin and said, "Medium-well."

"Yes!"

Little Kirin nodded and immediately spewed a torrent of fire.

"No!"

Amidst the roaring Wisdom King’s Flame, the assassin leader was burned to death. He said medium-well, and medium-well it was.

"Earth Spirit Root!"

Wu Tian made a tentative effort to use the power. Instantly, the ground roiled as if an Earth Dragon were turning over beneath it, and the earth rose up to bury the corpses one by one.

The Earth Spirit Root? It seems I still have a lot to learn about using it. Wu Tian was still unfamiliar with this power from the Cultivation system.

Now that the downpour had passed, the air was crisp and clean. Sunlight filtered through the forest canopy. Birdsong and the rustle of grass filled the air, and raindrops slid down the leaves. Wu Tian took a deep breath, feeling a sense of peace.

What a pity. The rain could wash the air clean, but it couldn’t replenish the Spiritual Energy. Earth produced Spiritual Energy, but the Earth of today could no longer do so. She was already on her last legs. In places with forests, the Spiritual Energy was a little denser. Even those who didn’t understand cultivation knew that forests were called the lungs of the Earth. Yet, according to a 1998 census, the planet lost an average of 9.95 million hectares of forest annually, an area equivalent to the size of Korea. Forests, which once covered a third of the world’s green spaces, now accounted for only a tenth.

This Earth is getting worse and worse. Wu Tian couldn’t help but sigh. After all, Earth was his home.

"Why are you here?" Qin Yuhan had found him. As soon as the rain had stopped, she’d gone to look for Wu Tian, but he wasn’t in the tree hollow, and she had grown worried again. Seeing him now, she threw herself into his arms, feeling secure only in his embrace. "In the future, can you please not make me worry so much?"

Unfortunately, the path I walk is one of thorns. Wu Tian smiled bitterly to himself, only able to say aloud, "You have to learn to trust me completely. Even if the sky falls, I am undying and indestructible. Nothing will happen to me."

Qin Yuhan hesitated, unsure how to respond.

The little girl who had been trailing them couldn’t take it anymore and cried out, "Hey, you two! Can you stop with the public displays of affection in front of me? Don’t you know that those who flaunt their love die quickly?"

Hearing her daughter’s words, Qin Yuhan blushed and stepped out of Wu Tian’s arms. She walked over to the little girl, then reached out and playfully pinched her cheeks. "Your dad and I can’t stop being affectionate with each other. You, however, can close your eyes and cover your ears."

"Hmph!" The little girl was completely frustrated. She felt that now that her mom and dad had stopped hiding their feelings for each other, her own status in the family was in jeopardy. But there was nothing she could do, so she could only sulk for the rest of the journey.

Soon, they finally arrived at the Eastern Taizhong Palace.

The architecture of the Eastern Taizhong Palace was modeled after the legendary Afang Palace. The real Afang Palace, hailed as "the finest palace under heaven," was the new imperial palace of the Qin Empire—the first unified, multi-ethnic, centralized state in the history of the Dragon Country. Along with the Great Wall, the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, and the Qin Direct Road, it is known as one of the "four great engineering projects of Qin Shi Huang." There was even an ode to the Afang Palace that said: "The six kings are finished, the four seas are one; Mount Shu is bare, Afang appears. Spreading over three hundred li, it blocks out the sky and sun."

But the Eastern Taizhong Palace before them lacked such grandeur. After all, it’s just a counterfeit, an inferior product. It was nothing more than a miniaturized version.

Just as Wu Tian had expected, people had come in droves for the Heavenly King’s millennial birthday. The street, stretching for hundreds of meters in front of the palace, was already crammed with all sorts of carriages. The carriages of the Underground World were much like those of the Surface World, except the animals pulling them weren’t horses but other, more ferocious beasts. The surrounding buildings reminded Qin Yuhan of the ancient city of Phoenix.

Behind Wu Tian’s group, another party was also arriving to celebrate the Heavenly King’s millennial birthday.

"Hurry up! I think our Boss, based on his schedule, should have arrived by now," Yin Fengxue urged his guards and his son, Lin Fa, to pick up the pace. The guards all quickened their steps.

"Son, in a moment, I’ll let you see what a true master, a man of miracles, a divine being is like! Your so-called Boss can’t even compare to my Boss! I’m telling you, there’s a world of difference!" Yin Fengxue couldn’t resist showing off in front of Lin Fa. He had been trying to get Lin Fa to call him ’Dad’ the entire trip, but Lin Fa refused. Now, Yin Fengxue was itching for a ’face-slapping’ moment to show his son that his father’s judgment was far beyond what a young brat like him could comprehend.

How could some young brat’s Boss possibly compare to the man I, Yin Fengxue, acknowledge?

"Look, the Boss is right ahead!" Yin Fengxue’s eyes lit up as he spotted a figure up front. "Quick, son! Dad will show you just what kind of great man my Boss is!"

Lin Fa also looked ahead and froze, completely stunned. "Boss... it’s you?"

"What?" Yin Fengxue was even more flabbergasted.