Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms - Chapter 160

Chapter 160: Reverberation of the Bell

The maids and eunuchs of the imperial palace quickly stood by the side with lowered heads upon seeing Fang Chen. One of the maids suddenly thought of something and anxiously looked around with worried eyes.

The eunuch beside her immediately pinched her arm and harshly whispered, “What are you doing? Don’t offend Imperial Duke Fang and implicate the rest of us!”

The maid winced in pain.

Just then, a five-year-old boy ran over and charged into the eunuch. He angrily glared at the latter. “How dare you bully my Big Sister Xiang Zhen!”

“Aiyo!” The eunuch groaned in pain from being bumped into.

That drew Fang Chen and Li Daoye’s attention.

The five-year-old boy was dressed in silk, but his clothes were old and had stitchings on them. Other than that, there were also bruises and scabbing wounds on his face.

“You little bas…” The eunuch instinctively raised his hand to strike the five-year-old boy, only to belatedly remember something and turn over.

What he saw made him shudder in fear.

The maid named Xiang Zhen quickly pulled the boy down to kneel on the floor beside her. The eunuch also hurriedly groveled on the ground in fear.

“Paying respect to Imperial Duke Fang!” They greeted him with trembling voices.

Only the boy didn’t say a word and stared at Fang Chen with curious eyes.

“You are… the Seventeenth Prince?” Fang Chen asked after some thought.

He was deducing it based on the other party’s traits and age. He remembered that Xia Xuanji had yet another son shortly after he fell in defeat in the Three Realms Mountain. This child was born from a little palace maid, who died shortly after giving birth to him.

“You are Imperial Duke Fang?” Seventeenth Prince Xia Yuan asked.

“Seventeenth Prince, be respectful!” Xiang Zhen reminded him with worried eyes, fearing that he would anger Fang Chen with his impoliteness.

“Yes, Big Sister Xiang Zhen.” Xia Yuan nodded his little head before taking a more courteous tone. “May I know if you are Imperial Duke Fang?”

“Yes, I am.” Fang Chen nodded with a smile. “You may rise.”

“Great!” Xia Yuan immediately stood up.

In contrast, the eunuch’s legs were wobbly, and he lowered his head with a guilty conscience.

Eunuch You noticed the commotion and quickly rushed over. He nervously bowed and asked, “Imperial Duke Fang, did these servants offend you?”

He subtly eyed Xia Yuan in his peripheral vision as he raised that question.

“Why did I see one of your people attempting to strike a prince?” Fang Chen asked.

The eunuch’s heart lurched. Without any hesitation, he kneeled onto the floor with a trembling body and cried out loud, “I was wrong, I was wrong! Imperial Duke Fang, please spare me!”

Xia Yuan was perplexed. These eunuchs are usually so fierce. Why do they look even more timid than a mouse before Fang Chen? This reminded him of the rumors he had heard about Fang Chen in recent days, and it prompted him to assess the latter out of curiosity.

Eunuch You’s face stiffened up. He eyed Xia Yuan before nervously answering, “Imperial Duke Fang, to be honest with you… the Seventeenth Prince isn’t of legitimate birth. His mother used to be a little palace maid, and she died shortly after childbirth. So…”

“So he has no backing in the imperial palace. Some concubines chose to oppress him, and you servants became the weapons in their hands,” Fang Chen interjected.

“We wouldn’t dare!” Eunuch You hurriedly kneeled down as well. With a shaky voice, he quickly explained, “I would never dare to collude with them. Not only so, but I even did the Seventeenth Prince a favor not too long ago.”

“Yeaps, Eunuch You is a good person. He gave me a bun. Big Sister Xiang Zhen and I would have starved for that night otherwise,” Xia Yuan testified for Eunuch You with a nod.

Eunuch You looked at Xia Yuan with tears in his eyes. He wouldn’t hesitate to kowtow a hundred times to the Seventeenth Prince right now for speaking up for him before Fang Chen!

“You’re starved even though you’re a prince?” Li Daoye was startled.

Fang Chen chuckled. “I know someone who was like him. He often starved back when he was younger too. The imperial palace looks extravagant on the outside, but once you see through it, you’d realize that it’s incomparably dirty.”

Those words were almost treacherous.

Eunuch You and the others turned pale, but none of them let out a squeak. Of the entire Great Xia, only Fang Chen could get away with uttering such words in the imperial palace.

“Someone other than me and Big Sister Xiang Zhen starved in this imperial palace?” Xia Yuan was surprised.

“That’s right. Your Third Brother suffered the same fate,” Fang Chen said with a smile.

“Third Brother…” Xia Yuan looked confused.

“You have never met him. He was sent to Greenpine as a hostage the year you were born,” Fang Chen explained.

“Ah…” Xia Yuan nodded his little head.

“His mother was a palace maid too, and she died shortly after his birth,” Fang Chen added.

Xia Yuan’s expression subtly changed.

Xiang Zhen was flustered as she had no idea what Fang Chen’s intention was.

Eunuch You, on the other hand, was starting to fathom what Fang Chen was getting at, and his eyes widened in incredulity. The way he looked at Xia Yuan changed as well.

“It rained a while back, and many people saw interesting sights. Did you see them too? I don’t recall you participating in the spirit assessment.” Fang Chen smiled.

“Big Sister Xiang Zhen and I were locked up on the day of the spirit assessment!” Xia Yuan vehemently nodded. “That day, I saw an elephant with nine heads in the sky. It was very, very big!”

He tried to gesture with his hands, but there was so much he could do with his short arms.

“Those who saw the phenomenon more or less possess some cultivation talent,” Li Daoye reminded.

Fang Chen chuckled. With a gentle wave of his hand, a Spirit Gauging Bell flew out from his storage ring and swiftly expanded till it was over three meters tall.

The eunuchs and servants were stunned. This was the same feat performed by the immortals that visited them the other day!

“Imperial Duke Fang has a Spirit Gauging Bell too?!”

“They said that he has been accepted by a powerful sect.”

A few concubines had been secretly watching them. They gasped when they saw the Spirit Gauging Bell, and they were taken aback when they realized that Fang Chen wanted to test Xia Yuan’s cultivation talent. This prompted them to whisper among themselves.

“Come. Strike it,” Fang Chen told Xia Yuan.

Xiang Zhen was excited. She whispered to Xia Yuan, “Seventeenth Prince, Imperial Duke Fang is offering you a precious opportunity here. You should do as he says.”

Xia Yuan vaguely understood what was going on. Taking a deep breath, he hurled his fist forth.

Dong!

A crisp reverberation of a bell echoed. Li Guozhu and the others, who were discussing the matter of the next successor, were startled. They couldn’t be more familiar with this toll.

“Someone is undergoing a spirit assessment?!”

“Is a cultivator looking to accept a disciple?”

The officials were perplexed.

“The sound seems to be coming from within the imperial palace,” the Fifth King said. He stood up and made his way out of the Palace of Great Peace. “Let’s take a look.”

The officials of the imperial court followed him.