Chapter 175: Hold On, Imperial Advisor! I, the Emperor, Have Recovered 12

Chapter 175: Wait, National Preceptor! I've Recovered 12

A cold glint flashed through the air as the assassin's long blade came slashing down at Lin Huaiqing on the dragon bed, as if he felt nothing at all, seeking only to end his life.

Just then, a beam of golden light shot out from the foot of the bed, hitting the assassin's blade dead center. The blade shattered into countless pieces, unable to take the force.

Qin Hanyue's magic made those fragments seem to come alive, turning around and flying straight at the assassin's vital spots.

The assassin was no slouch either—he flipped and twisted mid-air, dodging the barrage of tiny projectiles one by one.

The blade shards ended up embedding themselves deep in the jade screen behind him. The screen couldn't take the force and burst apart into pieces.

Seeing this, the assassin couldn't help but flinch. If those fragments had hit him, he'd have ended up way worse off than that screen.

"Talk! Who sent you to kill His Majesty?" Qin Hanyue stepped out casually from behind the gauze curtain at the foot of the bed.

To him, all that danger just now was nothing but a clumsy act by a lousy performer.

But even caught red-handed, the assassin wouldn't shut up.

"Qin Hanyue! You really are Emperor Qing's most loyal dog! Still guarding the kennel for that dog emperor this late? A dignified Hua Zhen Realm cultivator, and you're selling yourself out to a mortal! You're an embarrassment to the cultivation world!"

From what the assassin said, he was clearly a cultivator too. Lin Huaiqing had to admit the insults were cutting.

Even an ordinary person would've cracked under insults that vicious.

But Qin Hanyue, proud as he was, didn't show a trace of anger—there was even a hint of mockery.

"Oh? You know me. Looks like I definitely can't let you walk out of here alive!"

"You disgrace to the cultivation world! Still hanging around the bedchamber this late—don't tell me you're Emperor Qing's bed warmer too!"

Lin Huaiqing, listening nearby, turned bright red. How could he just say stuff like that out loud?

And since someone had already found out their little secret, this guy definitely couldn't be allowed to live.

"National Preceptor, don't leave any survivors."

"Don't worry, Your Majesty."

Just as Qin Hanyue was about to strike, the assassin suddenly whipped out a talisman from who-knows-where and lit it in a flash.

"Hahahahahahaha! Even if I can't beat you, you'll never catch me! Just wait until you're a laughingstock across the cultivation world!"

After his cold, maniacal laughter, the talisman burned out—but he stayed right where he was, not vanishing with the paper.

The assassin immediately panicked. "What the hell?!" Not believing it, he pulled out another talisman and burned it.

"Something's off! My teleportation talisman?!"

He burned three in a row. If not for the utter shock on his face, Lin Huaiqing might've thought the guy was burning paper offerings for himself, knowing he couldn't get out.

Lin Huaiqing: "Hey! You done burning those yet?"

"It's you! No... it's you!" The assassin pointed at Qin Hanyue in disbelief. "You messed with my teleportation talisman?!"

"Hmph! With your crappy talisman skills, I wouldn't even bother. This is His Majesty's Qianqing Palace—I set up an invisible barrier here a long time ago. Mortals can come and go freely, but for a brainless cultivator like you, once you step in, there's no way out."

So Qin Hanyue had messed with his territory too. Free to enter, but never to leave. Was this to protect him, or to use him as bait to trap others?

"You really are a lapdog! I'll take you down with me!"

The assassin fought desperately, but couldn't last three moves against Qin Hanyue, who sealed all his spiritual energy and left him sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, stripped of all dignity as a cultivator.

Just as Qin Hanyue was about to finish him off, Lin Huaiqing quickly called out:

"Qin Hanyue! Find out who's behind him before you kill him."

"Heh... die, you dog emperor!" The assassin, still not giving up, mustered the last bit of his strength and hurled a poisoned dart at Lin Huaiqing.

No one had expected the assassin to pull a stunt like that even at death's door. Lin Huaiqing's pupils shot wide, his blood seeming to freeze as he stood there paralyzed.

The next second, Qin Hanyue was in front of Lin Huaiqing, shielding him with his own body and taking the speeding poisoned dart.

It all happened too fast—Qin Hanyue had no time to shield himself with spiritual energy, and the dart buried itself bloody into his flesh.

Seeing his final strike miss, a flicker of disappointment flashed through the assassin's eyes.

The poison only worked on ordinary mortals. Someone like Qin Hanyue had long since left his mortal body behind—most poisons in the world couldn't touch him.

With one last trace of despair, the assassin took his final breath.

"Qin Hanyue?! Are you okay!" Lin Huaiqing rushed to his side, only to find the dart already removed, but the wound wouldn't stop bleeding.

The dart was insidious—removing it caused a second wound, and the bleeding wouldn't stop.

"I'm fine. Just a small wound." Qin Hanyue waved his hand, completely unconcerned.

"How can you say it's fine? You've lost so much blood! Let me call the imperial physician to check on you!"

"No need, Your Majesty! Really, there's no need. It's late, and there's a corpse here. If anyone finds out, it'll be a hassle for you."

Even now, Qin Hanyue was terrifyingly calm, still thinking about him.

If even this was part of Qin Hanyue's scheme, Lin Huaiqing was genuinely scared. If this man didn't genuinely care for him, then he was hiding his true nature too deep—even willing to go this far to save him.

Lin Huaiqing didn't dare make a fuss. He quickly rummaged through his bedchamber for bandages and hemostatic powder, tending to Qin Hanyue's wound.

The young emperor carefully cleaned his national preceptor's wound, as gentle as if he were handling something fragile.

Qin Hanyue lowered his gaze, taking in this moment of tenderness from Lin Huaiqing, his eyes growing misty.

Once the wound finally stopped bleeding, Lin Huaiqing cleaned up, paused to think, and then—his earlier warmth gone—spoke coldly:

"Don't go to such lengths next time."

"Your Majesty's dragon body must never suffer the slightest harm. Besides, whatever I do for you, I do it willingly."

The words were spoken with utmost gentleness, paired with that breathtakingly beautiful face—enough to make anyone in the world fall for him.

But Lin Huaiqing's eyes were cold.

He'd only realized halfway through his foolish worrying that someone as powerful as Qin Hanyue could've stopped his own bleeding in an instant...

And here he'd been, frantically trying to help. The man's real goal was just to make him worry and care, and thus fall in love with him, wasn't it?

This martyr act was really impossible to guard against!

And his own string of reactions just now had clearly played right into his hands.