Chapter 956: What a Shame

Wu Yao drew a map of the imperial palace and carefully marked out the Eastern Palace’s location, which Chu Liuyue memorized by heart after looking at it for a while. Following this, she immediately planned out her route.

He had wanted to accompany her inside, but she objected to it and insisted that he should just stay outside the palace. She said that she was better off acting alone since their chances of getting discovered would be higher if they moved together. So despite his worries, he could only go along with her plan.

By the time they were done with their discussion, night had fallen.

Chu Liuyue looked at the sky outside, which had completely darkened.

After changing into a black robe and hiding their faces under a hood, the two headed straight for the Eastern Palace.

…

It was quiet in Lin Zhou City, with only soft rustling sounds in the background.

Chu Liuyue and Wu Yao moved stealthily and arrived outside the palace unhindered. Since they couldn’t walk in from the main gates, they decided that Chu Liuyue would enter by scaling the wall that was closest to the Eastern Palace.

“Stay here as backup,” Chu Liuyue whispered.

Wu Yao nodded his head seriously. “Be careful, Your Majesty!”

Chu Liuyue then turned around and looked up at the tall palace wall.

The Beiming Imperial Palace was massive, and its wall was incredibly long. A lot of manpower and resources would be needed if a soldier was sent to guard an area of the wall. Hence, the Beiming Dynasty didn’t do that—all they did was dispatch a few squads to do their rounds.

While it seemed like this would result in the security becoming lax, the truth was that they had their own reason for doing this—above the palace wall was a barrier layer powerful enough to block out most cultivators.

It should be known that the barrier was constructed from a ninth-grade Xuan formation. If the intruders were so powerful that even the barrier wasn’t enough to stop them, then all the less the guards on patrol duty were a match for them. Therefore, the Beiming Imperial Palace’s security was mostly dependent on this barrier.

Even though it seemed like there was nothing other than the palace wall, Chu Liuyue knew that the barrier was right in front of her. Breath abated, she slowly lifted a fair and slender finger, and a strand of force flew out from its tip.

The silver force quickly split into countless strands and intertwined with each other to form a strange palm-sized pattern.

Wu Yao looked closely at the pattern, finding it oddly familiar.

With a slight movement of Chu Liuyue’s finger, a second pattern appeared, which she then linked with the first one.

It was only at that moment that Wu Yao suddenly recalled where he had seen that pattern. Shock flashed crossed his eyes. I-isn’t this—

As if to confirm his guess, the void in front of them rippled slightly as a transparent barrier slowly appeared. It looked like a spider web with faint flickering silver light from afar, but one would realize that it was actually a complicated Xuan formation once they took a closer look at it.

The barrier rippled as silver lights continued to intertwine with each other.

Slowly, a circular Xuan formation was formed in front of Chu Liuyue.

Wu Yao could see that the Xuan formation was almost identical to the first pattern Chu Liuyue constructed moments ago. Although the one Chu Liuyue constructed was much smaller and weaker in comparison, the patterns matched the other perfectly.

Soon, a second Xuan formation appeared next to it and connected with the first one, which was exactly what Chu Liuyue had done earlier.

If it hadn’t been for the size difference, Wu Yao almost thought that it was just a reflection from a mirror that had been placed in the middle. His jaw slackened out of surprise. Wasn’t Her Majesty’s original body destroyed? Didn’t she begin her cultivation all over again? Isn’t she not as talented as before? Then, what’s going on now?! T-that’s a ninth-grade Xuan formation!

Wu Yao stiffly turned his head and looked at Chu Liuyue in confusion and disbelief. The latter appeared calm and indifferent as if what she was currently doing was just something trivial. It took Wu Yao a long time before he managed to bring himself to ask, “Y-Your Majesty… D-did you just… replicate… those two ninth-grade Xuan formations?”

“Yes, it’s a shame that only these two patterns are the same though. Thus, I can only work on this area.” Chu Liuyue nodded without looking at him. The barrier isn’t completely the same as the one at the border. It’s fortunate that the same ninth-grade Xuan masters were tasked to construct this barrier, which was why I managed to find two similar patterns. This makes things easier for me.

It’s a shame… that only these two patterns… are the same? What does that even mean?! The corners of Wu Yao’s lips twitched hard as he gulped. “Uh… Your Majesty, are you saying that you have more ninth-grade Xuan formations as backups?”

“No.”

Wu Yao exhaled in relief.

“I just memorized a couple of them when I was at the border, though I didn’t expect to use them right now. I guess I got lucky!” said Chu Liuyue indifferently as she gathered force in her palm and injected it into the Xuan formation once more.

A strong force suddenly shot out from the two palm-sized silver patterns and flew toward the barrier in front of it.

Bam!

A soft collision was heard, and a glowing bridge was formed between the two Xuan formations.

Under Wu Yao’s shocked and watchful gaze, Chu Liuyue calmly moved her hand.

The two palm-sized Xuan formations suddenly split right in the middle, and a crack arose from it and grew bigger at a rapid speed.

Crack!

Affected by this force, the two Xuan formations on the barrier split in the middle, forming a narrow but perfect entrance.

Chu Liuyue quickly checked the other areas of the barrier and only exhaled in relief when she noticed that the rest of the barrier wasn’t affected by this crack.

The barrier was made up of many ninth-grade Xuan formations, so the rest of them might be affected as well if one wasn’t careful enough. It was a good thing that Chu Liuyue had specifically picked these two links and carefully split them up. This was why the rest of the barrier remained unaffected and why she could hence go unnoticed.

Meanwhile, Wu Yao was completely dumbfounded, his mind blank. He knew that Chu Liuyue used to be extremely talented in the Xuan Master path, which was what allowed her to become an eighth-grade Xuan Master at a young age. Putting aside the fact that she had to restart her cultivation journey and hadn’t reached her former cultivation level, even if she still were an eighth-grade Xuan Master, it was incredible that she could open the barrier made up of ninth-grade Xuan formations.

Not wasting any time on this matter, Chu Liuyue quickly went through the barrier.