I have Taoism and can understand other worlds

Chapter 570 Entering the Imperial Palace

"The Four Absolute Formations are divided into four formations: God, Ghost, Demon, and Human. Each formation is presided over by two Dao Palace True Persons..."

Jiang Wen explained the location and structure of the Four Absolute Formations to Yu Shiqie, and asked Bai Jing to stay and assist her. The Four Absolute Formations were of paramount importance and extraordinary. He couldn't guarantee Yu Shiqie's complete confidence in breaking the formations; he could only increase the odds of victory.

Zhenyangzi resides within the Xuanzhen Ring. Although his physical body is gone, he is still a sage. If necessary, his abilities would likely rival those of a Dao Palace True Person. As for the five-colored feather, it was a pawn gift from Fengluan, the sect leader of the Wanshi Sect. Fengluan had said that if he offered the feather as a sacrifice, it would come to his aid.

In this way, there were three people who helped Yu Shiqie break the formation: Bai Jing, Zhen Yangzi, and Feng Luan.

If even with such a powerful combination of two saints and one palace, they cannot break through the Four Symbols Formation, then it can be considered that Jiang Wen has done his best.

After arranging everything, Jiang Wen used a communication talisman to summon Lü Shiming. He told him that he would be entering the imperial palace the next day to search for the Black Mountain.

Not long after, Lü Shiming arrived at his residence. He was dressed in ordinary casual clothes and had a solemn expression on his face.

"Could you bring me into the Imperial Palace tomorrow?" Jiang Wen asked.

The Imperial Palace is of paramount importance in the Great Qian Dynasty, suppressing the Black Mountain and White Water below. The Immortal Sects would naturally not stand idly by; there must be Sages within. Although Jiang Wen could force his way in, facing Sages would still be troublesome. He is currently invincible, but escaping would be difficult. Each Sage is extraordinary, far beyond the reach of Dao Palace True Persons.

Therefore, forcibly breaking into the imperial palace was not a good idea, so he decided to ask Lü Shiming for help.

Yu Shiqie said that Lü Shiming was the son of the Beiming King, one of the four kings of the Great Qian Dynasty, and could freely enter and leave the imperial palace. Even though the current emperor has explicitly forbidden outsiders from entering the imperial palace, the descendants of the Beiming King can still enter.

"The Abbot may not know that the Northern Ming King was originally from the Ming King Clan, a noble family of Nanqi. Legend has it that the Southern Qi throne inherited by the Li family was humbly offered by the Ming King Clan. Therefore, the ancestors of the Li family swore an oath to become sworn brothers with the patriarch of the Ming King Clan, vowing that the descendants of the Li family would share the world with the descendants of the Ming King Clan for generations. If they broke the oath, the Li family would be extinct forever. Later, when the Li family fought with the Jiang Clan of Taicang for the world, the Ming King Clan sided with the Li family."

"After the establishment of the Great Qian Dynasty, the Ming royal family was also enfeoffed as the Northern Ming Kings, and the throne was inherited by generations. So as long as the Northern Ming Kings did not rebel, the Great Qian Emperor could do nothing about them."

Yu Shiqie recounted the origins of the Lü Shiming family, and Jiang was astonished upon hearing it.

He never expected that Lü Shiming was a descendant of the Ming royal family; such a thing was too much of a coincidence.

At that time, he asked Yu Shiqie why the Ming royal family changed their surname to Lü instead of continuing to use the surname Ming.

Yu Shiqie shook her head; she knew nothing about the changes in the Ming royal family's surname. However, she had gleaned some clues from ancient imperial texts.

"The Ming royal family's change of surname may be related to a once-peerless genius of the Ming royal family. I only know the name of that genius, which seems to be Ming Ji. As for the other stories, I don't know much about them."

“…Ming Ji?” Jiang Wen was stunned for a moment when he heard the name, and it wasn’t until Bai Jing called him several times that he came to his senses.

He was very familiar with the name Ming Ji; she was the patriarch of the Ming royal family, a sword genius.

Unexpectedly, the Ming royal family's name change was related to Ming Ji. Jiang Wen was eager to know the development process of the Ming royal family and why they changed their surname to Lü.

Jiang Wen didn't ask Lü Shiming for the time being, as he didn't know if it would be considered offensive.

Lu Shiming arrived at the You residence, and just as he was about to knock, the door opened, revealing Jiang Wen's figure and the words he was about to utter.

"Brother Jiang, do you mean I should take you into the Imperial Palace?" Lü Shiming asked.

“Yes.” Jiang Wen nodded. “I don’t want to alert others for now. If I can quietly enter the Imperial Palace to search for Black Mountain, there’s no need to swagger in.”

Hearing this, Lü Shiming felt it made a lot of sense.

Finally, he readily agreed to Jiang Wen's request, allowing Jiang Wen to disguise himself as a servant of the Northern Ming Prince's family and accompany him into the imperial palace. With preparations complete, Jiang Wen set a meeting time: 3:45 PM the next afternoon outside the imperial palace.

Lu Shiming agreed and left the You residence after discussing it with Jiang Wen.

Jiang Wen, on the other hand, went to ask Zhen Yangzi to reveal the location of the twenty-four lost seals. Perhaps they could retrieve this supreme treasure of humanity when they went to Black Mountain.

Zhenyangzi, of course, did not hide anything and explained in detail where the treasure was lost.

After noting it down, Jiang Wen entered meditation early to prepare the magic weapon for the next day, and then quietly waited for dawn.

The next day at dusk, on a street outside the imperial palace.

Jiang Wen and Lü Shiming met at the top of a brothel. After exchanging a few words, Jiang Wen put on the clothes of a servant of the Ming Prince's family and followed Lü Shiming toward the imperial palace.

Upon arriving outside the imperial palace, the three-zhang-high gate was slowly pushed open.

The guards stopped Lü Shiming and demanded to see his identification. Lü Shiming handed over the dragon-patterned jade pendant, and only then did the guards allow the two to enter the palace.

Jiang Wen walked behind Lü Shiming, feeling awe at the sight of the enormous palace.

The palace gates had nine layers, and the black iron beast-head rings were stained with the frost of thousands of years. The threshold was knee-high, and the engraved dragon patterns were worn smooth and gleamed coldly.

As Jiang Wen lowered his head and stepped over the threshold, he caught a glimpse of the dragon's eyes—two pigeon-blood stones inlaid in the stone, their dark red glowing like congealed blood in the twilight.

Following Lü Shiming into a palace, Jiang Wen carefully examined the palace.

The seventy-two towering pillars supported the dome, their shafts wrapped in faded bright yellow crepe. The twelve symbols embroidered in gold thread had long been eroded by dust into grayish-brown veins.

The dragon-shaped caisson ceiling is adorned with thousands of bronze lamps, their candle wax forming stalactite-like pillars, the longest of which almost touch the imperial steps, resembling countless tears about to fall.

In the distance, the black jade pavement reflected human figures as if immersed in a cold pool, and the gilded lion-shaped incense burners placed every ten steps emitted green smoke, but could not suppress the smell of rust mixed with the decaying agarwood incense.

This is the outer palace. Lü Shiming said he used to come here often to play. But after the Crown Prince's incident, he came less often.

After passing through the outer palace, we entered another courtyard.

Jiang Wen then saw a line of palace maids carrying food walk past on the east side of the corridor. Their dark blue palace dresses were embroidered with ochre cloud and thunder patterns on the hem. Their embroidered shoes made no sound as they walked, and their hairpins did not tremble at all, as if they were a group of paper figures passing by.

He looked up at the layers upon layers of palaces in the imperial palace. The glazed tiles on the double-eaved hip roofs were a dark, almost black, blue. The eaves were adorned with rusty green copper chains, and the bird bells hanging from the chain ends had been silent for a century. It was clear that not many people had ever properly cleaned this place.

The strangest sight was the bronze cranes lining both sides of the imperial road. Instead of holding lingzhi mushrooms in their beaks, they carried skull-shaped lamps, and the phosphorescent light flickering in their eye sockets illuminated the white marble railings, revealing their eerie, skeletal forms. This made Jiang Wen feel that the imperial palace was not an imperial palace at all, but rather a ghost palace that harbored evil spirits.

After passing through the triple hanging flower gate, Jiang Wen saw two black-armored unicorns crouching in front of the main hall steps. Their scales were forged from black iron arrowheads, and the arrow feathers transformed into unicorn manes that rustled in the wind.

All thirty-six carved dragon doors in the hall were half-closed, and the sunlight that leaked out was shattered by the endless latticework of the windows, casting mottled shadows on the empty dragon throne, revealing five deep scratch marks, each an inch or more, on the armrests. And within those scratch marks, a thick layer of dust had already accumulated.

Clearly, the emperor has not sat in the palace to handle state affairs for a long time.

(End of this chapter)