Chapter 282 The Empress’ Shock
How?
In a lonely courtyard in autumn, there is an old building on the second floor that has survived six hundred years of wind and rain.
Zhao Duan and Xu Zhenguan stood opposite each other, only one step away from each other.
A beam of sunlight from a break in the clouds hit exactly between the two of them.
Along the central axis of the arsenal, the open double wooden doors crossed the threshold and divided the stone tablet in the center into two parts.
"Your Majesty... calm down."
Zhao Duan felt the weight of the sword gently pressing on his shoulders, his eyes were sincere and serious, neither hiding nor avoiding, calm and selfless.
At this distance, with a twist of Xu Zhenguan's wrist, the sharp Tai'a sword could kill him.
Perhaps, when the head falls to the ground, there won't be a drop of blood on the sword.
but……
As an empress in the realm of "pseudo-celestial being", if she really wanted to take someone's head, why bother using a sword?
At this moment, the actor Zhao Duan was possessed.
First, he met the empress's gaze and said this sentence respectfully, and then he took his time and said out the draft:
"I used the sacred weapon without His Majesty's permission today... This is the first crime."
"As a member of the royal family, he broke into the arena privately, intending to imitate the late emperor's period, but ended up attracting the Heavenly Master... This is the second crime."
"I committed the evil act of deceiving the emperor, received a valuable imperial treasure, and failed to report it in time... This is the third crime."
Zhao Duan spoke clearly and took the initiative to memorize all his mistakes before the empress held him to account.
Then he slowly raised his hand, gently used two fingers to clamp the sword blade on his shoulder, but instead of pushing it away, he brought the sword closer to his neck and said bitterly:
“I know that I have made a big mistake, and no matter how Your Majesty handles it, I have no complaints.
This head, if not for His Majesty's love in the past, would have been lost long before Zhuang Xiaocheng escaped. My current glory and splendor are all due to His Majesty’s holy grace. Now that Your Majesty wants to take it away, I should offer it to you. "
As he said that, he closed his eyes and looked like he was about to die with his neck.
"..."
Xu Zhenguan's hand holding the sword did not move. There was a hint of helpless annoyance on his frost-like, pretending majestic face. How could he seriously cut it off?
After a moment of silence, Zhao Duan, who had closed his eyes to die, felt the pressure on his shoulders suddenly relax, followed by the empress' voice that sounded as if she was being laughed out of anger: "What a leader to die, could it be that in your eyes, I am Such a foolish king who kills heroes in vain?"
Phew...passed the first level...
Zhao Duan breathed out silently, praised his operation, and hurriedly opened his eyes.
He saw the empress standing sideways, facing the stacked arsenal buildings in the distance, leaving him with a cold and pure profile.
The immeasurable royal artifact pierced the ground half an inch diagonally like broken copper and iron so casually.
"My lord, I don't dare!"
Zhao Duan bowed deeply.
The image of officials in movies and TV dramas flashing across their heads, kneeling down and prostrate themselves on the ground, but there was no rule of kneeling in the Yu Dynasty, so they simply gave up.
"Don't you dare? I see you are quite 'dare'."
Xu Zhenguan's eyes were unkind, and there was a sneer on his lips:
"I asked you just now, but you dared not answer, and even threatened death. I am curious, who taught you? Could it be Sun Lianying? Or Yuan Li?"
The two people who were inexplicably scapegoated suddenly shuddered in an unknown corner...
Zhao Duan knelt down and said:
"I just answered your Majesty's question."
Xu Zhenguan was startled for a moment, frowned and said: "Where are you...you mean, deceiving the emperor? You won a huge treasure but didn't present it to you?"
Only then did she remember the third article of apology this hateful guy had just made.
"Your Majesty is wise." Zhao Duan responded: "Before today, I have never touched the Tai'a sword, let alone 'come when called'? I can do this only because of the same precious treasure."
Heavy treasure?
How come I don’t know what can be done... Xu Zhenguan was filled with doubts:
"What important treasure? Where is it?"
"It's in my body." Zhao Duan pointed to his lower abdomen with his hand.
"That's nonsense..."
Xu Zhenguan glanced at his waist, and a moment of embarrassment appeared on his plain white face. He soon realized that he had made a mistake, and said in confusion:
"You mean Dantian Qihai?"
"Exactly!" Zhao Duan didn't show off, and said: "I sincerely ask your majesty to take the lead in overhauling and put up an isolation barrier to prevent any movement here from prying eyes. I will present the important treasure to your majesty now. Your Majesty will understand everything when you see him."
"……allow."
Although Xu Zhenguan thought this sounded strange, he couldn't resist his curiosity.
With a wave of his hand, a small seal flew to the top of the building in an instant.
As it slowly rotated, it cast an invisible barrier, isolating the entire courtyard.
Make sure that no matter how loud the noise is here, it cannot be heard outside.
Seeing that the preparation was sufficient, Zhao Duan immediately slapped his Dantian with his hand and exhaled deeply!
boom!
At this moment, golden light suddenly appeared in his sea of qi, and in the "sea" where the liquid true qi condensed, the sleeping dragon soul woke up and spit it out from his mouth.
As soon as the half-foot-long "god" with an illusory dragon shape appeared, dark clouds gathered over the small courtyard, accompanied by lightning and thunder.
The illusory golden dragon let out a majestic roar, suddenly jumped up, and followed the pavilion, hovering in the air!
Suddenly, there was a strong wind, and the five stone walls in the entire pavilion, which had five floors above and below, glowed faintly with light, as if in response.
Xu Zhenguan's majestic and graceful face showed a look of shock and loss of composure for the first time!
She could no longer maintain her imperial dignity. She held her hands on the railing, raised her slender white neck, and stared at the illusory dragon-shaped aura hovering in the sky with her eyes wide open.
He lost his voice and said: "Dragon Soul?!"
According to legend, Emperor Taizu practiced cultivation all his life, and the dragon soul remained after his death!
It is also the dragon soul that every emperor in the Dayu royal family has been looking for!
She even turned the palace upside down, sensing the aura repeatedly, but still looking for the missing dragon soul!
There is no need to distinguish, with her cultivation level, she can guess the origin of this object with just one glance and relying on her subtle induction.
"This...is the treasure you are talking about?!"
Xu Zhenguan stood in the wind, suddenly turned his head and stared at Zhao Duan in disbelief.
Zhao looked innocent: "Your Majesty, I don't know what this thing is at first, but I think it can be regarded as a valuable treasure." Reluctantly? hehe!
Xu Zhenguan almost laughed out of anger at him. The dragon soul itself was not powerful, and it may not be very precious even to people outside the Xu Dynasty.
But for the royal family, how can it be described as a treasure?
In her opinion, this is a relic of Taizu that is much more important than Tai'a Sword.
At this moment, she was extremely lucky that a strong barrier had just been set up, otherwise the birth of the dragon soul would have attracted the attention of Zhang Yanyi and Abbot Xuan Yin.
But even so, she still urged:
"Put it away!"
Zhao Duan was stunned for a moment and said seriously:
"I don't dare. It should be returned to its original owner, and your Majesty should put it away."
Xu Zhenguan had a straight face and dangerous eyes:
"I asked you to put it away before you speak."
There seemed to be a villain roaring in the empress's heart.
Why didn't she try? But just now she secretly made several attempts, but she couldn't get Dragon Soul to look at her.
"oh oh……"
Zhao Duan nodded obediently, opened his mouth as if swallowing, and the flying dragon soul turned into golden light in an instant, penetrated into his mouth, and lay in the sea of air again.
At the same time, Zhao Duan's face turned pale.
Because of this appearance, the dragon soul swallowed up 90% of the energy restored in the dantian, and it reluctantly lay down again and fell into a deep sleep.
This is not a killing weapon that his little god can use casually.
Zhao Duan suspected that even if he was fully prepared and summoned this thing to help in the battle, it would not last ten seconds before he would be fucked.
This made him more and more determined to dedicate it to the empress.
——Not only because he had to give a reasonable explanation today, but also because after he was promoted to the Divine Chapter, he clearly felt that this thing was good, but the hidden dangers were not small.
It's not that the dragon soul is harmful to him, but it's just a "gold-swallowing beast" that he can't control at the moment.
On the contrary, it may cause trouble.
That day in Jizhao Temple, the snow-white Bodhisattva seemed to have seen some clues.
Therefore, after repeated weighing, he decided to sacrifice the dragon soul in exchange for greater trust from the empress.
And as the dragon soul fell into sleep, the dark clouds on the roof also dissipated.
Silence returned to the surroundings, as if everything just now was just an illusion, only the barrier remained.
"His Majesty?"
At this time, Zhao Duan noticed that the empress in front of him was staring straight at him, which was a bit scary.
He couldn't help but take a step back, feeling as if a good girl was being targeted by a dandy young master.
The fairy-like empress took a deep breath, as if to calm down her turbulent mood.
After a long time, Xu Zhenguan calmed down, stared deeply at the traitorous minister in front of him, and said:
"I need an explanation."
Zhao Duan immediately explained.
According to his statement, it was his practice of the Martial God Picture that gradually deepened, and the Emperor Taizu in the picture became more and more active.
Especially after the last night with the empress in the Yuanzu Temple in the palace, he noticed something different when he woke up.
But at that time, I thought it was a change in my cultivation progress, so I didn’t think much about it.
Until a few days ago, in retreat, in the "small town under the green mountains", Emperor Taizu talked to him, showed the dragon soul, and said that he would give him the Tai'a sword and teach him to "open the sky".
After waking up, I have stepped into the divine chapter realm, and at the same time, there is this thing in the air sea...
Well, this statement is half true and half false, hiding the secret passage under the Yuanzu Temple.
The main reason is that there is no way to talk about this matter. If he did, it would mean that Zhao Duan was hiding the dragon soul and would not be friends with him, which would really make him a deceitful person.
"So, what did Emperor Taizu say to you at the end of the Martial God Picture? Did he take out Tai'a?"
Xu Zhenguan listened quietly and asked expressionlessly.
"Yes," Zhao Duan nodded, and then hurriedly explained: "However, I sternly refused at the time. The Tai'a sword is a treasure of the royal family. How can I, an outsider, get involved?"
Xu Zhenguan stared at him and suddenly asked: "When you first practiced the Martial God Picture, how far were you from the top of the mountain? Hai Zongfeng said that you were not far from the foot of the mountain. Did you lie at that time? ”
Zhao Duan was under great pressure to stare at her, so he said bravely: "I... really concealed a lot from Eunuch Hai."
Well, he was talking about hiding it from the old eunuch, not from the empress.
Xu Zhenguan was not surprised and continued: "I knew that you must be extremely talented to have such a good fortune. So how far were you from the top of the mountain that day? Did you reach the mountainside?"
Entering the God of War map, the closer the initial point is to the top of the mountain, the higher the match with the "God of War" path.
When the empress appeared on the mountainside, she was already stunningly talented and beautiful.
Zhao Duan hesitated for a moment and said honestly: "Absolutely."
Xu Zhenguan said displeased: "How much is it approximately? I want to hear the truth!"
Zhao Duan looked embarrassed: "It's higher than halfway up the mountain."
Xu Zhenguan clenched her pink fists tightly in her sleeves, feeling unwilling to be overpowered. Fortunately, this guy was still in the same league as him:
"How much higher?"
"A little taller."
"How high is one section?"
"Probably... right on the top of the mountain."
"..."
"..."
far away.
In the courtyard of the arsenal gate, the old eunuch in python robe sat in a rocking chair, glanced into the depths, and felt the almost invisible barrier.
He muttered softly:
"Young man, why are you talking behind someone's back?"
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(End of this chapter)