Flipping over onto the roof, Ye Chu lifted a piece of the glazed tile, creating an opening large enough for a person to slip through. With a swift turn of his body, he dropped into the imperial study below.
The imperial study was one of the palace’s forbidden areas. Although guards stood watch outside, the room itself was completely empty! Ye Chu glanced around. There were quite a lot of books piled up in the study, showing that this king was indeed someone who enjoyed reading.
However, that only made Ye Chu’s search more difficult!
With time running short, Ye Chu rummaged through the rows of bookshelves. Sure enough, he found quite a few bedroom technique manuals and paintings of beautiful women. He casually grabbed a few and stuffed them into his robes without even checking whether they were the ones Pang Shao wanted!
There were plenty of such manuals and paintings, but Ye Chu set them aside and took no more. What he was really looking for among these rows of books was that one rare solitary copy of the Red Evil text!
Yet after searching every shelf thoroughly, he still could not find the solitary copy he wanted. Ye Chu could not help frowning. He wondered whether that little minx Su Rong had been lying to him after all.
Shifting his gaze away from the bookshelves, Ye Chu looked towards the desk in the imperial study. Official memorials were spread across it. Even the jade seal carved with golden dragons lay there, lifelike and extremely beautiful.
Ye Chu picked up the jade seal and bit it with his teeth. He discovered that the golden dragon really was made of solid gold.
He tapped it a few times and saw that the connection between the golden dragon and the jade was flawless. Only then did he abandon the idea of prying the gold off.
He pulled open the drawers and rummaged through them for a while. Although there were quite a few rare books inside, the one he wanted was still missing.
Ye Chu searched the entire imperial study but found nothing! Just as he began to suspect that Su Rong really had tricked him, his peripheral vision caught sight of a book wedged under the corner of the desk to level it.
Ye Chu reached out and pulled the book free. It was exactly the solitary copy of the Red Evil text he had been searching for!
“Bloody hell!” Ye Chu could not help cursing aloud. Something as precious as the Red Evil solitary copy, and they were actually using it to prop up a table leg. He even felt like slapping the King of Yao to death.
With the Red Evil solitary copy in hand, Ye Chu was just about to leap back up to the opening in the roof when a figure suddenly dropped down through the very same hole he had entered from. His heart jolted in alarm. Before he could dodge, the figure had already landed inside the imperial study, standing directly opposite him!
The shock in Ye Chu’s heart vanished the instant he saw the person in front of him. It was a woman, and an utterly breathtaking one at that!
Her beauty was peerless. Her eyes carried the same cool aloofness as Su Rong’s, but compared to Su Rong’s ethereal detachment, this woman exuded a mature allure. Long legs, a slender waist, a graceful and upright figure, plump red lips, a slightly raised chin, a long and fair neck, full and proud breasts, a slim yet elastic waist, and wide, sensual hips, every part of her radiated seduction!
For someone with a mature mind, a woman like this was undeniably captivating!
But that was not what surprised Ye Chu the most. What truly astonished him was not her sensual appeal, but the aura she carried. She simply stood there quietly, like an immortal fairy untouched by the dust of the mortal world, transcending the three realms entirely. There was a noble detachment about her, as though an innate majesty seeped from the depths of her soul, making anyone instinctively feel humbled and unworthy in her presence.
“What the hell!” Ye Chu had once met the retired emperor of the empire, yet even on him he had never felt this way. But on her, he did.
After entering the imperial study, the woman glanced at Ye Chu once before shifting her gaze across the room. Seeing the mess, she turned her eyes back to him, noticed the Red Evil solitary copy in his hand, and finally spoke. “Are you a thief?”
Her voice was charming and seductive, yet it carried an undeniable authority.
“Aren’t you one too?” Ye Chu smiled at the woman. Entering through the roof instead of the door, and being a woman at that, what else could she be but a thief? Though she was rather bold, not even bothering to cover her face.
“Coming to take something from Yao is giving face to Yao. Naturally, that does not make me a thief,” the woman said with a shake of her head.
Ye Chu, who had just taken a step to leave, nearly stumbled and fell flat on his face. To call stealing “giving face” to Yao, even his own thick skin could not manage that. Yet this woman said it so casually and lightly. Ye Chu could not help raising a thumb in admiration. “Impressive! I cannot compare to you!”
“Have you searched the entire imperial study? Do you know where the jade seal is?” the woman asked Ye Chu. Her voice was soft and enchanting, enough to steal one’s soul.
Ye Chu gave her a surprised glance, wondering what she wanted with that thing. The jade seal was useful in the king’s hands, but in anyone else’s it was worthless! No one would dare buy it even if she tried to sell it. Otherwise, Ye Chu would have taken it himself to make some silver!
Still, he did not ask. He simply pointed to the drawer in the desk.
“I just tossed it in there casually,” Ye Chu said.
The woman nodded. With a casual wave of her hand, the drawer slid open on its own, and the jade seal fell into her fair, delicate palm.
Having obtained what she wanted, the woman did not linger. Her figure flashed, and she leapt gracefully towards the opening in the roof, her movements elegant like a soaring fairy! The hole was not large, yet her long skirt caught on the tiles as she passed through. Several tiles came loose and fell.
“Crack…”
The sound was not loud, but in the quiet of the night it rang out clearly. That noise instantly alerted the guards outside the imperial study.
“There is a thief!”
As the guards outside the imperial study shouted, they caught sight of the woman dancing lightly onto the roof.
“Shoot!”
At the command, many guards drew their bows and loosed arrows fiercely towards the woman standing on the roof.
Inside the imperial study, Ye Chu heard the commotion outside and could not help cursing. “Damn it! This woman is going to get me killed!”
Seeing the door of the imperial study being kicked open, Ye Chu no longer hesitated. He stamped hard and leapt onto the roof, just in time to see the woman casually wave her hand and block a volley of arrows.
Her action seemed effortless, yet those dozen or so arrows flying towards her simply froze in mid-air before her. With a gentle push, all the arrows snapped in two.
“So strong!” Even Ye Chu could not help feeling shocked. To possess such skill, she had at least reached the Innate Realm.
“No wonder she dared come to steal the jade seal. She has actually reached that level!” Ye Chu muttered to himself, but he still could not resist reminding her, “There are Innate Realm experts in the palace. You had better leave quickly!”
The woman glanced at Ye Chu but ignored his words. Instead of dodging or fleeing, she walked straight towards the direction of the guards ahead.
With someone breaking into the palace, many people were alarmed. One after another, they arrived carrying lanterns, turning the pitch-black night into one bright with torchlight.
“Where did this thieving woman come from? Surrender at once!” the guard captain roared, ordering his men to loose arrows.
But just like before, with a casual wave of her hand, the woman shattered every arrow.
“Innate Realm!”
The crowd of guards surrounding her stared in horror and disbelief.
“Get out of the way!” the woman said calmly. Yet her words carried an immense authority that made the guards instinctively want to retreat.
“What thieving woman dares cause trouble in the palace! Grandmasters, take her down!”
As those words rang out, a man dressed in royal robes slowly walked forward from the distance. Flanking him were two of the palace’s Protector of the Nation Grandmasters.
Seeing these two appear, Ye Chu’s expression changed dramatically!