Chapter 441: Night Visit to the Imperial Palace

“Huh, isn’t that Qiao Tianhao? You’re not working at the restaurant—what are you doing here?”
Amid Ma Ye’s incessant chatter, Ling Chenyue’s shocked exclamation suddenly pierced through.
Qiao Tianhao had long noticed Ling Chenyue’s presence but chose to ignore him. Hearing this, he gave him a disdainful look. The master had been inside for so long, and he only recognized him now?
“Qiao Tianhao, I’m asking you a question! Do you think I won’t report you to the second boss?” Ling Chenyue said irritably.
“Go ahead! The master is no longer at Fenglin Restaurant,” Qiao Tianhao replied, glancing at him sideways. “Whatever you want to do.”
“No longer at Fenglin Restaurant?” Ling Chenyue was stunned, then gave Qiao Tianhao a thumbs up. “Smart decision. Just for that, today’s expenses at Wanxian Tower are on me—enjoy yourself.”
The words sounded strange, but no one present found it odd. It was well-known that Ling Chenyue, the eldest son of the Ling family, had had his wealth stolen and was deliberately spending money recklessly. Since Fenglin Restaurant couldn’t keep him, it indirectly helped him waste money, so it was only fitting to celebrate.
“Give me back my silver notes! All the expenses are on Young Master Ling,” Qiao Tianhao said, spreading his right hand as Lou Wanshan entered the room.
Lou Wanshan wanted to slap Qiao Tianhao’s hand away, but after thinking it over, he refrained from arguing with this pest. He took out a silver note from his sleeve, didn’t even check the amount, and tossed it into Qiao Tianhao’s palm.
Qiao Tianhao took the note and glanced at it. His left hand relaxed, and with a thud, Ma Ye fell to the ground.
After quickly folding the note and putting it in his storage ring, Qiao Tianhao’s face lit up with excitement. It was obvious the amount exceeded his expectations.
“Young master, and Zhang Kun—he’s colluding with those two,” Ma Ye said, getting up from the ground and stumbling over to Fu Zizhou. He cried, “He deliberately let himself get caught. Oh, and he also insulted the young master and the master—calling the young master an idiot for giving him so much money every month, and calling the master a lowly scum…”
Fu Zizhou remained silent. His face was already lost in shame. If he stopped Ma Ye now, it would mean admitting his own embarrassment. It was better to do nothing and act indifferent, staying calm like on the eve of a storm—this way, he could still intimidate the other young masters so they wouldn’t gossip when they left.
“Young Master Fu, if there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave,” Lin Dong said with a bow.

“Want to leave?” Ma Ye’s voice rose slightly. “Do you think Wanxian Tower is yours to come and go as you please?”
Lou Wanxian quietly left the private room. Upon learning that Qiao Tianhao had arrived, she had been worried that this troublemaker might cause chaos in this room as well. She wasn’t Ma Ye—after observing the situation between the two sides, she realized there would be no trouble at all. Staying here might even be problematic.
“Goodbye, Young Master Lin. I’ll head to Lin’s Inn shortly,” Qiao Tianhao replied with a bow.
“Enjoy your conversation!” Lin Dong bowed to everyone again before turning to leave the room.
Qiao Tianhao smacked his lips happily and followed, also turning to leave.
Having beaten someone and still earning fifty thousand taels of silver for free, the happiest person was undoubtedly him, Qiao Tianhao.
As for the most confused one, it was Ma Ye. Seeing the two of them leave so boldly, he grew anxious.
“Young master, we can’t let them just go like this. That man forced me to swallow poisons—many kinds… Also, they insulted you and the master. If we don’t keep them here today, your and the master’s reputations will be ruined…”
Fu Zizhou remained silent and sat back down. He was the one who had suffered the greatest shame today.
“Come on, have a drink. Let’s listen to Miss Zihan sing,” Ling Chenyue said. Though he really wanted to ask Zihan why she had suddenly acted rudely toward Lin Dong earlier, he stuck to his usual carefree manner, raising his cup while his greedy eyes kept wandering over Zihan’s exposed parts.
The young masters didn’t want Fu Zizhou to see their interest in the spectacle either. As soon as Ling Chenyue spoke, the atmosphere became lively again, as if nothing had happened just moments ago.
Ma Ye was completely stunned. He really couldn’t figure out what was going on. After calling out “young master” several times without any response, he glanced at Zhang Kun. Even after Zhang Kun called out a few times, nothing changed. Finally, he tried to curry favor with the young masters, but although no one paid him attention, the disdainful and mocking looks made him somewhat understand.
“Owner, why not bring in some girls? Someone here is willing to pay for today’s expenses.”
Downstairs, Qiao Tianhao looked at the group of beauties with different styles and felt somewhat dissatisfied. He couldn’t have them, but just watching them was nice. Holding two beauties by his side gave him an equally remarkable sense of achievement.
Lin Dong smiled but ignored him.
After returning to Lin’s Inn and giving instructions to Ma Chun, Lin Dong went back to his room to continue working on advancing to the sixth level of Chaoxin Niqi.

As evening approached, Fu Zizhou finally showed up. After a conversation filled with unspoken concerns, and after Lin Dong promised to return what was owed to him once the task was completed, Fu Zizhou immediately took Lin Dong to the inner city.

As night fell and the stars shone, it was not until early morning that Lin Dong met Fu Tongshan at the Grand Tutor’s residence. Compared to his biological brother Fu Chunjian, Fu Tongshan bore a striking resemblance—both had long beards and fair faces, exuding an air of refinement and dignity. The difference lay in Fu Tongshan’s aura of authority that made it hard to look directly at him, as well as his lack of the unconventional demeanor seen in Fu Chunjian.

Toward Lin Dong, who had orchestrated a plan to hold his only son at gunpoint, Fu Tongshan maintained a indifferent attitude. In his eyes, Lin Dong was merely a small stepping stone in his son’s path to growth; by stepping on this stone, Fu Zizhou’s character would be greatly strengthened, enabling him to navigate the court more effortlessly in the future. A little sacrifice was nothing to worry about, and Fu Tongshan had no intention of getting involved. He had absolute confidence in Fu Zizhou. If he couldn’t even handle a tavern owner, he wouldn’t let Fu Zizhou get drawn into the fierce struggle for the throne, where a single mistake could lead to the destruction of his entire family. After all, he had only one son.

Thus, when Lin Dong explained his purpose, Fu Tongshan didn’t suppress him. After agreeing to send a steward to inform the guild early the next day, he waved him off.

Lin Dong, too, held an indifferent attitude toward Fu Tongshan—coming and going without a word of courtesy. Of course, that was all there was to it. Just as Fu Tongshan ignored Lin Dong, Lin Dong also felt little for him. In Lin Dong’s eyes, someone like Fu Tongshan, who had risen to power by trampling on the common people, deserved to be killed even more than bandits. It was merely the power of the throne that prevented him from acting. If not for urgent needs forcing him to approach, it would have been good enough if he could even glance at Fu Tongshan.

After being escorted out of the inner city by the Fu family’s servants and crossing a street, Lin Dong called out to Ma Chun, who was driving outside, and silently slipped out through the carriage curtain and sped away.

The inner city walls, over ten meters high, meant nothing to Lin Dong. With a slight mental scan to assess the distribution of guards on the walls, he lightly stepped and effortlessly leaped over them.

He flew straight toward the center. Along the way, the number of patrols and sentries posed no challenge to him. Without needing to stop and avoid them, in just a few breaths, Lin Dong arrived at the most sacred place in the Great Han Nation—the imperial palace!

The palace walls, up to twenty meters high, resembled impenetrable barriers reaching into the clouds, separating the inside from the outside into two distinct worlds. The thick yellow stones still emitted a deep and noble glow in the darkness. With Lin Dong’s temperament, even as he stepped into the heart of power, his heart rate quickened slightly. On this vast continent, there was only one country, and within this enormous empire lived countless people. Inside those yellow walls lay the place where control over these people was exercised. The power and murderous aura accumulated over thousands of years filled every inch of this place with authority and bloodshed. His consciousness slowly spread beyond the palace walls, penetrating further inward. Ten meters, a hundred meters, a kilometer… Lin Dong kept his eyes closed for a long time before slowly opening them again. The short distance of a kilometer was filled with hidden spies, guards, and visible sentries, forming a dense network. In this network, every line and dot was closely interconnected. Judging from its density, Lin Dong realized that aside from those at the peak of strength, no one could be sure they could easily break through this defense. After carefully assessing the strength of these guards and observing for a while longer, Lin Dong finally took action. The moment a group of guards passed across the wall, he leaped forward, turning into a blur as he scaled over the wall. With a light touch on the inside of the wall, he used momentum to glide in a diagonal line above the guards’ heads and land on an open area twenty meters ahead. Silently, none of the guards noticed anything unusual above them. After lying low on the open ground for a while, as another group of guards passed by and a second group came within a few meters, Lin Dong soared up like a gust of wind, jumping over their heads and stopping about twenty to thirty meters away. This was a weak point he had identified after careful consideration—the most dangerous moment was actually the safest. Among the entire defense network, these guard teams were the weakest. Only when they were responsible for defending this area could Lin Dong ensure he wouldn’t be detected at all. Of course, although most of these guard teams consisted of those at the second or third level of the Mental State phase, there were also some at the fifth or sixth level. With guards at the fifth or sixth level around, Lin Dong was confident that some obstacles could help him remain unnoticed, but he was only about 70% sure he could fly over them without being seen. Therefore, he had to wait for guard teams made up entirely of those at the second or third level.

Stopping and moving forward like this, it took nearly an hour for Lin Dong to successfully break through this defense network that was over 3,000 meters long. Upon careful calculation, if the density was the same elsewhere, given the perimeter of the palace alone, there would be hundreds of thousands of martial artists at the Mental State stage just for this defense network. Including those on rotation, the number would be even more terrifying.