"Heh heh!"

Zhan Tian grinned, then sat down beside him, lowering his voice, "How is it? How much longer until you fully recover?"

"It’ll take a while!"

"Congratulations, you’ve finally broken through, now those at the peak of the eighth layer must seem like trash to you, right?"

Facing his old friend’s congratulations, Zhan Tian also burst into laughter.

"That’s right, but you’re not; you’re my old buddy!"

"We’ve been teaming up for years to deal with those three old guys."

"And now we can say the tough times are over! Hahaha..."

"You’ve got some thick skin!"

Liu Sheng cursed, but then he laughed as well.

To be honest, the two of them had been suppressed by the Three Dukes all these years, but as Zhan Tian said, even if they couldn’t do anything to the Three Dukes, at least they wouldn’t be kept down anymore.

When he fully recovers, if he can also break through... the situation might become even more delicate.

Of course, whether he can break through or not, he’s not sure.

The chasm between the peak of the eighth layer and the ninth is truly despairing.

Chen Xuan watched the two old men with a smile in his eyes.

This is pure friendship between men.

In this Martial Arts World, it’s too hard to find!

"By the way, how did Your Majesty reward you?"

"Hmph!"

At this, Zhan Tian’s face instantly fell, and he even rolled his eyes, "A verbal reward counts?"

"Verbal?!"

Liu Sheng frowned. Since when did Emperor Yu become so stingy?

"He said the Great Yu Kingdom’s treasury is tight right now, and the rest are common items—he’ll reward me first when something good comes up."

Zhan Tian was brooding.

When did Great Yu become so poor?

No good items? Do they take him for a fool?

In the Qin Emperor Sacred Land, who knows how many rare treasures are there, it’s not like they can’t take them out.

Hmph!

Seeing this, Liu Sheng also comforted him, "His Majesty is having a hard time too. Over the years, the Ten Great Dangerous Lands have emptied out Great Yu’s treasury."

"As for the things inside the Qin Emperor Sacred Land, you can forget about them, that’s the foundation of the Qin Family!"

"Alright, stop worrying about these things."

"Focus on healing!"

"I’m not someone who cares about these things anyway."

Indeed, he has managed the Three Judicial Departments for so many years, and the Great Yu Hundred Mansions are under his supervision. If he had any ambitions, becoming the wealthiest person in Great Yu wouldn’t be difficult.

It’s just that he’s someone who’s not interested in money!

But seeing Zhan Tian like this made Liu Sheng even more displeased; it seems unjust for Emperor Yu not to show any gesture after all the merits he has achieved.

"By the way, His Majesty didn’t kill Shi the Third or the person from the Tree-man Race, but instead, he locked both of them in the Celestial Prison."

"Not kill?"

Liu Sheng asked.

"He didn’t explicitly say, but from His Majesty’s tone, it seems he’s not planning to."

Zhan Tian’s words not only raised Liu Sheng’s eyebrows but even puzzled Chen Xuan on the side.

"Is His Majesty keeping them to study the two races?"

Chen Xuan tentatively asked.

Suddenly, Liu Sheng’s expression changed.

"What, did something occur to you?"

Seeing this, Zhan Tian immediately asked.

"I don’t know if I’m right, but the Ritual Department once got an ancient book passed down from ancient times, which said that the races in the Ten Great Dangerous Lands have intricate connections, but the specifics weren’t detailed."

"Could it be that His Majesty wants to find the weaknesses among the Ten Great Races?"

Upon hearing this, Zhan Tian also started to recall, "Now that you mention it, there seems to be some truth in it. The Three Judicial Departments once received news that occasionally, corpses of the Ten Great Races were transported to the Imperial Palace from the dangerous lands."

"And it’s the Shadow Guard carrying all this out!"

"When was this? How come you never mentioned it?"

Liu Sheng was somewhat dissatisfied; such a significant matter was never relayed to him.

"Only once, discovered by chance, many years ago! At the time, I didn’t pay it much mind."

"But from your speculation, perhaps His Majesty has been preparing for this for many years now."

Upon hearing the two men’s speculation, Chen Xuan immediately recalled, "The Tree-man Race fears thunder!"

"And their recovery ability seems to be ineffective against thunder!"

"What?"

The two old men looked at him simultaneously, "Really?!"

"Elder Zhan, have you forgotten? At that time, four bolts of thunder suddenly appeared in the sky—that was me activating the array to conjure them. Afterward, it was discovered that when thunder strikes the Tree-man Race, their wounds couldn’t heal."

"Finally, an elder from the Tree-man Race used some means to recover somewhat, but he couldn’t fully recover either!"

"Well!"

"I was wondering why four bolts of thunder appeared out of nowhere, turns out it was you, kid, striking me!"

Getting struck by lightning out of nowhere, he had found it strange at the time.

But never expected it to be Chen’s doing.

"Elder Zhan, shouldn’t you thank me? If it weren’t for my conjuring the thunder, you might not have been able to break through!"

"Hmm... now that you put it that way, it does seem right."

Zhan Tian thought for a moment, and it was indeed so, "Alright, then I won’t hassle you about it, getting struck happened, let it be."

He was just trying to scare Chen Xuan.

"Oh, so to break through you need to be struck by lightning!"

Liu Sheng suddenly showed a sly grin.

"Old thing, I feel like you’re insulting me!"

Zhan Tian stared at him.

"Take out the ’feel like’ part! Hahaha..."

"Cough cough cough..."

But laughing too much strained his internal injuries, causing him to start coughing.

"Alright, alright, look at your frail state!"

Zhan Tian patted him on the back with his big hand, "Already so frail, still in the mood for this, you’ve barely recovered, don’t cough yourself to worse."