"An empty fort strategy?"
He could enter, but breaking the restriction would definitely cause fluctuations in his aura.
Performing such a major action right under their noses would be bad if it alerted the enemy.
Chen Zhou didn't plan on forcing his way in for the time being.
Across the restriction, he activated the 【Law-Evaluating Eye】 and peered into the bedchamber from afar.
The palace was pitch black, with no palace lanterns lit, and was shrouded in a deathly silence.
It was very desolate.
All sorts of auras were very faint, and even death qi was scarce.
In a provincial capital palace where ghost qi was thick and the stench of corpses filled the air, the old emperor's bedchamber actually seemed somewhat clean.
Yin Wudao had said the old emperor was seriously ill and bedridden, but from this aura, forget being seriously ill—there wasn't even the scent of a living person.
There wasn't even the smell of a corpse.
It was like an empty tomb.
Seeing nothing special, Chen Zhou turned and left the bedchamber, continuing to roam the palace.
The night was still long, and since he was already here, he had to explore the entire map.
He visited almost every corner of the palace, even taking a turn through the harem.
The harem was even more miserable; there were no three thousand beauties, only countless malevolent ghosts.
Many concubines had died long ago, or had become some kind of earth-bound spirits attached to the buildings.
They combed their hair by dry wells and performed operas in the cold palaces.
Chen Zhou even saw a woman dressed in luxurious phoenix robes, using a needle and thread to sew her own fallen head back on in front of a shattered bronze mirror.
After wandering around for a long time, he calculated the time; dawn was approaching.
Chen Zhou returned to the side hall.
Throughout the night, Chen Zhou had seen many different kinds of ghosts and monsters, but he alone had not discovered the mysterious Offerings mentioned in the rumors.
'Are they not in the palace?'
Chen Zhou pondered, looking down at the ground beneath his feet.
'Could it be that they are all underground?'
Wu Gou had been down there for so long without any news, which indicated that the underground space was even larger than imagined.
The next day.
The sky brightened abruptly. Just like yesterday, the darkness was instantly stripped away, and a pale sunlight spilled down.
The red rain still had not stopped.
"Knock, knock, knock."
A series of knocks sounded at the door.
"Exalted one, this slave has come by the prince's order to deliver an apology gift."
The door opened, and a palace maid with eerie rouge applied to her cheeks stood at the entrance with her head lowered, holding a long brocade box in her hands.
"Yesterday, the people from the Ministry of Justice were blind and offended our distinguished guest. They have already been punished by His Highness."
"This is a small token from the Crown Prince. Please accept it, exalted one."
After speaking, she knelt on the floor, holding the brocade box high with both hands.
Little Pig woke up just then. Although it hadn't eaten its fill last night, it had slightly digested some of the malevolent ghosts' nightmares, so its spirit was quite good.
It jumped off the bed, grabbed the heavy wooden box with its mouth for Chen Zhou, and placed it on the table.
Chen Zhou opened it casually.
A thick scent of blood and baleful aura rushed at him.
Lying inside the brocade box was a miniature steel fork, which looked very familiar.
Wasn't this the standard weapon held by the enforcers he had seen yesterday?
Chen Zhou raised an eyebrow and picked up the steel fork.
It felt extremely heavy in his hand, ice-cold and bone-chilling.
A layer of black light so thick it wouldn't dissipate swirled on the tines of the fork; that was sinful karma.
It was terrifyingly dark and bright, as if just one glance would allow one to hear the wails of countless vengeful souls in their ears.
Chen Zhou understood; it only looked like those others—it wasn't the same weapon.
This fork was far more advanced than those held by the enforcers yesterday.
The palace maid bowed at this moment and added, "His Highness said, please keep this item safe, exalted one."
"With this object, you will receive the protection of the entire provincial capital's rules."
After the maid finished speaking, she performed a standard kneeling bow. Without waiting for Chen Zhou's reply, she drifted backward and disappeared into the rain.
Chen Zhou toyed with the steel fork in his hand, his brow furrowing slightly.
'Receive protection? By what? By sinful karma?'
Chen Zhou tried to mobilize the authority of the 【Yin-Yang Decree】 within his body. As the divine power was injected, the black light on the steel fork intensified.
Chen Zhou discovered that he could actually manipulate the sinful karma stored within the steel fork at will.
He could even extract this sinful karma and inject it into other living beings, forcibly imposing a crime upon them.
'It's actually ownerless sinful karma?'
Chen Zhou found it quite miraculous.
Logically, merit and demerit were personal karma. Although under the laws of heaven and earth, merit and demerit were almost useless items, they could cancel each other out but were very difficult to transfer.
Even with a divine authority like the 【Yin-Yang Decree】, he could currently only achieve judgment and the detonation of sinful karma; he absolutely could not pour sinful karma back and forth like water.
But Yin Wudao had achieved it.
He had previously seen Yin Wudao's eyeball absorbing merit and the enforcers harvesting sinful karma.
Chen Zhou thought it was merely absorption and harvesting—that once obtained, the causal link of the merit and demerit and its owner would not change. There was a fundamental difference.
Chen Zhou didn't know Yin Wudao's true intention in sending this fork.
Perhaps he wanted to use the sinful karma to invite calamity, testing whether Chen Zhou could withstand it.
Or perhaps he truly wanted to win him over. If sinful karma was truly useful in the provincial capital, sharing it with him was a display of sincerity.
Regardless of whether he had good intentions, he clearly didn't know that Chen Zhou possessed the 【Yin-Yang Decree】.
In Chen Zhou's hands, this fork was no ordinary gadget—it was a weapon of mass destruction.
'Since it's ownerless sinful karma, what if I just pin it on your head? Would you be afraid then?'
"Not bad. He handed me the gun and even provided the matching bullets. There's no reason not to take it."
Chen Zhou accepted the steel fork with a clear conscience; this was a good thing.
Several days passed in succession.
The provincial capital became increasingly lively.
All sorts of demons, ghosts, human lone cultivators, and even some old monsters who had lived in seclusion arrived at the imperial capital one after another.
Tragic cases occurred every day.
Either some demon king ate a cultivator, or some cultivator slew a malevolent ghost.
Yin Wudao hadn't shown his face these past few days, as if he had vanished.
However, he frequently sent palace maids to deliver gifts to Chen Zhou.
One day it was a plate of rare spirit fruits, the next day some natural treasures, and the day after that, several rare Daoist scriptures.
His intent to win him over couldn't be more obvious.
Clearly, he was waiting—waiting for a suitable opportunity, or waiting for everyone to arrive.
Wu Gou also hadn't returned.
Chen Zhou wasn't in a hurry and didn't worry; if there was real danger, he could slip away faster than anyone.
It wasn't until the night of the fifth day.
The originally noisy palace suddenly went quiet.
A sea breeze carrying a salty and fishy scent pierced through the relentless red rain and blew into the deep palace.
"He's here."
Chen Zhou stood by the window and looked toward the east.
In the dark night sky, countless eerie blue lanterns suddenly lit up.
A massive procession, riding upon a towering tidal wave, came rushing directly through the air.
The seawater formed a great road in the sky, leading straight to the main palace gate.
Leading the group was a young man dressed in a deep blue sea-silk robe, wearing a coral crown.
He had no legs, but rather a fish tail. Gills grew behind his ears, and fine blue scales spread from the corners of his eyes down the sides of his neck.
That was the royal family of the Eastern Region Sea Race, First Prince Cangming.
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