The First Lackey Under The Empress

#107 - The road to becoming a martial god is lonely and difficult, boy, you must not fall behind

Mist and clouds swirled, filled with immortal energy.

Zhao Du'an "opened" his eyes and found himself separated from the palace, appearing in a desert.

Beside him was no longer the fairy-like Empress, but her ancestor—the Great Yu's founding Emperor Taizu, wrapped in a felt blanket, draped in a dirty white robe, sitting cross-legged on a sand dune.

His burly frame was topped with a weathered and rough face. At this moment, the morning light in the desert was faint, and the sky gradually brightened.

The Great Yu Taizu, dressed as a warrior, opened his eyes and glanced at him:

This book is first published on the entire network by 𝕥 𝕨 𝕜 𝕒 𝕟 . 𝕔 𝕠 𝕞

"Follow."

Zhao Du'an groaned, got up, and complained:

"Got it, let's go, all you ever do is walk. Who can outwalk you?"

From a beauty's empowerment to being dragged by a rough man for outdoor training, it only took a moment.

Still that same desert.

These days, the Great Yu Taizu would occasionally utter a few words, but communication was still impossible.

Zhao Du'an, on the other hand, often muttered and complained due to the boredom of the trek. Today was no exception:

"Hey, Old Xu, do you know what I was doing outside just now? You definitely wouldn't guess."

He winked and made faces:

"Your great-great-great... granddaughter personally empowered me.

Tsk tsk, it's strange. Your granddaughter is so beautiful, but you look just average. Could it be that in these six hundred years, the imperial family's genetic improvement has such a big effect?"

After probing for so long, coupled with Hai Gonggong's subtle hints, Zhao Du'an had confirmed that:

Different offerings, when visualizing Taizu, had no interaction with each other.

Therefore, he spoke much more freely.

"Old Xu" turned a deaf ear to his nagging, still walking forward with a determined face.

The desert morning was desolate and lonely.

The temperature would gradually rise from cold to scorching heat.

However, Zhao Du'an also discovered that after such a long trek, they were gradually leaving the desert.

For example, right now, the ground beneath his feet was gradually changing from a "sea of sand" filled with yellow sand to a Gobi desert, and sparse plants could be seen.

The wild camel he was leading would occasionally stretch its neck stubbornly.

To nibble on those tenacious, seemingly floating on the Gobi sandy ground, but whose roots were deeply embedded in the sandy soil, withered yellow grass.

Yes!

Zhao Du'an had found a wild camel!

It was probably attracted during one of the nighttime camps when he tried to ignite the picked-up dead branches.

With a camel, the two miserable warriors could occasionally follow the camel to find oases in the desert and take a break.

Zhao Du'an found that the desert in this world was different from his previous life, and some strange plants grew.

For example, a kind of "bamboo" that grows in the desert. After pulling off the thorns on the outside and cutting it down, it can be used as a bamboo tube to hold water.

The camel, which he named "Xiao Ye," had a string of bamboo tubes hanging on its back, in addition to the two people's saddlebags.

When the camel stepped, the string of bamboo tubes collided with each other, making a sound like music.

Zhao Du'an was thinking about the situation in the real world, where the Great Yu Empress was empowering him, and today's cultivation seemed absent-minded.

Unconsciously, night fell again in the desert.

Zhao Du'an skillfully began to set up camp.

From the backpack, he took out the cake that would reappear out of thin air next time after being eaten each time.

Make a fire to cook.

After dinner.

Overhead was again the brilliant Milky Way, spanning east and west.

However, this time, Emperor Taizu said:

"We are about to leave the desert."

Zhao Du'an and the camel named "Xiao Ye," who was lying on the ground, looked up at the same time, staring at him blankly.

Deeply shocked that he could say such a long sentence in one breath.

"Old Xu, what did you say?" Zhao Du'an was no longer sleepy.

The camel next to him snorted loudly.

Emperor Taizu sat cross-legged on the Gobi, looking up at the Milky Way in the sky, and said:

"What have you learned during this time?"

Zhao Du'an fell into deep thought:

"To be honest, I feel like I haven't learned anything except suffering."

Emperor Taizu ignored him and said:

"Very good, it seems you have good comprehension. Yes, your spirit has been tempered. The path of a warrior, the world often mistakenly believes that it lies in strength, physique, martial arts... but what they say is wrong."

Isn't it... Can you actually talk to me, or are you talking to yourself... Zhao Du'an couldn't figure this out.

Emperor Taizu said:

"The ultimate goal of a warrior is not in physique, but in a spirit. The so-called refining the body and then refining the spirit, Yi Jing washing the marrow, transforming the body, can make your physique perfect, but if you want to reach the peak of a warrior, the tempering of the spirit is the most important thing."

Zhao Du'an was stunned, not because of the other party's words about "spirit," but because...

During the day, he had just said that Xu Zhenguan had given him Yi Jing to wash his marrow.

As a result, at this time, Emperor Taizu mentioned this.

Is it a coincidence?

Or can the other party really understand what he is saying?

"So, Old Xu, you mean that dragging me through the desert during this time was to hone my spirit?"

Zhao Du'an said:

"You said we are about to leave the desert, does it mean that the honing of the spirit is complete? But I don't feel any change."

Emperor Taizu said: "Progressing a little each day, unaware of the advancement."

Zhao Du'an suddenly realized:

"Old Xu, you mean that I have made a little progress every day, but because it is small and gradual, I don't feel it strongly, but in fact, my spirit is much stronger than at the beginning?"

Emperor Taizu still ignored him, suddenly got up, and said:

"Watch carefully, I will only demonstrate once."

At this moment, Old Xu stood under the starry sky, his aura seemed to be one with the heaven and earth:

"This palm is called 'Inverted Milky Way'."

As soon as he finished speaking, Old Xu struck out a palm out of thin air.

In an instant, the stars in the sky trembled and turned into meteor showers, falling towards the earth.

The night also receded like a tide.

Zhao Du'an stared in astonishment, and the camel lying beside him also opened its mouth, revealing its big molars.

It was dawn.

On the Gobi beach, snowflakes suddenly fell sparsely.

Zhao Du'an looked into the distance and found a snowfield on the horizon where the earth and sky met at the end of the Gobi.

"Let's go," Old Xu carried his luggage, suddenly raised his hand, and slapped the camel's butt hard.

Xiao Ye neighed, turned its head reluctantly, and ran far away towards the desert behind them.

"It can't walk the road ahead."

Old Xu seemed to explain, and walked towards the snowfield:

"The road to becoming a Martial God is lonely and bumpy, boy, don't fall behind."

Zhao Du'an stared blankly at Xiao Ye heading west.

Turning his head, he looked at the Great Yu Taizu heading northeast.

His mind was full of that move "Inverted Milky Way."

With one palm strike, the night would retreat eighty thousand miles.

For some reason, he suddenly felt that it didn't matter whether the Great Yu Taizu had "intelligence" or not.

What mattered was that there was a master accompanying him on this long journey.

"Old Xu, wait for me!"

Zhao Du'an shouted and chased after him.

Suddenly, he felt that the front was first blurred, and then clear.

He opened his eyes and found himself back in "reality."

...

Zhao Du'an was still sitting in the Tangquan Palace, but the sky had already brightened at some point.

The entire pool was almost exhausted of its medicinal power, and the surface of the water was floating with dirty blood discharged from the pores.

He turned his head and found that Xu Zhenguan was no longer behind him.

Only his scattered clothes were still there.

He had been meditating for a whole night, and after completing the empowerment for him, the Empress had quietly left.

"A night has passed..."

Zhao Du'an was stunned and tried to stand up, only to feel that his muscles and bones were never so smooth.

The movement of Qi was several times smoother than before.

Although the realm had not improved, the real combat power had increased by a large margin.

He raised his hand to push away the dirt and saw himself, who had been reborn, in the clear spring water.

"The appearance has actually climbed to another level..."

Zhao Du'an's mind moved, and he suddenly opened his right hand five fingers and pressed forward.

"Woo woo—"

A wind suddenly rose in the garden, wrinkles were blown on the surface of the thirty-six spring pools, and the grass and trees rustled.

"Inverted Milky Way..."

Zhao Du'an murmured, realizing that he had mastered a new martial skill.

And it is a dual martial skill that strikes both the physical body and destroys the soul.

"That's right..."

Zhao Du'an suddenly remembered something, reached out and wiped his lower back, and pulled out a silver needle.

Suddenly, Xiao Zhao, who had been wilted all night, raised his head swiftly, even better than before.

"Hiss, the transformation is a bit powerful."

...

Soon, when Zhao Du'an put on his clothes and left the Tangquan Palace.

A group of palace people who had been waiting outside all night finally came in and began to clean the polluted hot spring.

A group of little palace maids whispered:

"Oh, the shore is full of splashes."

"Why is this pool so dirty? So much blood, so scary."

"It must have been a lot of tossing. Didn't you hear? Zhao Daren shouted for a long time last night..."

"Yes, after His Majesty left, he still shouted something Old Xu in his dream... What a strange title."

At the gate of the courtyard.

Mo Zhaorong, wearing a female official robe and a wingless black gauze hat, appeared at some point, her face was very unsightly, and she scolded:

"What are you muttering about? Why don't you quickly scrub the entire yard?"

The palace maids were silent and dared not speak.

Mo Chou left expressionlessly, frowning:

"Old Xu?"

She didn't understand.

...

When Zhao Du'an walked out of the palace, it was already dawn.

No one picked him up outside the palace, so he had to stride out and walk home.

He was not in a hurry to go to the yamen. He had not eaten a proper meal for two consecutive meals. At this moment, he was a little panicked from hunger. He just wanted to go home and have a full meal, and then have a good sleep—

Empowerment meditation cannot replace sleep, at least not in the mortal stage.

Along the familiar route, before long, Zhao Du'an arrived at a street lined with shops and stalls.

Then, he was hooked by the aroma of mutton soup cake floating in the air.

"I might as well eat outside."

Zhao Du'an strode into the soup cake shop and greeted:

"Bring a large bowl of mutton offal soup and five steamed cakes."

While speaking, he moved his butt and sat directly on the long bench under the shed of the shop.

Immediately, he suddenly noticed a strong sense of familiarity.

It seems... that one night a few days ago, he was also here...

Suddenly, a hearty old laugh came.

Zhao Du'an turned his head blankly and saw an old man with a tall figure, long beard, and long eyebrows sitting opposite him.

Zhang Yan looked at him with a smile.