When the carriage returned to the Princess's Residence, daylight still lingered, and the sun had only just passed its zenith.
However impatient Empress Wei and Zong Chuke were to eliminate Lu Changfeng, the "gravely wounded" thorn in their side, they would never dare storm the Princess's Residence in broad daylight, before countless witnesses, and assassinate an imperial official.
Doing so would be no different from openly rebelling. Not only would the Golden Crow Guards and Golden Scale Guards have to mobilize to defend him, but public opinion at court and beyond would never favor them. It might even provoke interference and backlash from other powers.
Anyone with a functioning brain knew that the best time to strike would be deep in the night, when all was quiet.
So there was still time.
Lu Changfeng was conveyed "with the utmost care" into the residence's most secluded and secure cultivation chamber.
Li Lingyue dismissed everyone not essential. Even Jinghong and Fu Rong were only permitted to guard the chamber's outer perimeter, while she personally stood watch at its sole entrance. Security at the Princess's Residence appeared relaxed outside but was tight within. Beneath its apparent calm, its defenses were already being quietly adjusted, and the vast killing machine that was the Plum Blossom Guards began operating at full force!
Inside the chamber, all the clamor of the outside world was shut away.
Lu Changfeng sat cross-legged in the center of the quiet room, its floor laid with warm jade. Not a trace of his "grave injuries" remained on his face. His expression was calm, his gaze deep as an abyss.
He drew a deep breath and slowly took out the fragment of an ancient Primordial True Dragon's bone he had obtained from the dragon's lair beneath Kunming Pool.
The bone was barely