"Seven days from now, at a quarter to eight in the morning, await my decree at Taiyin Platform." Emperor Jingtai's voice broke the silence.
Qing Chen immediately rose and bowed. "Your subject obeys."
Emperor Jingtai did not look at them again. The gray-blue clouds around the imperial desk swirled, and he and the desk vanished from the Southern Study together.
Eastern Prince Ji Zhongguang was the second to rise.
The instant his moon-white robes passed through the doorway, he seemed to be gently erased from heaven and earth. Qing Chen swept his divine sense over the area but failed to catch even a trace of disturbance.
By the time he looked up again, Zhang Taiyue, Wu Zhanxian, the old Director of the Heaven-Observing Divine Directorate, and Xiao Canglan had also left, one after another.
A white-haired eunuch from the Directorate of Ceremonial entered just then and presented a cold jade medicine case and a set of palm-sized bronze formation plates to Qing Chen with both hands.
Sealed inside the medicine case was the Three Tribulations Soul-Cleansing Flower. As for the supreme-grade fourth-tier formation plate set, it was called the Nine Palaces Void-Locking Formation.
After checking that everything was in order, Qing Chen put the two treasures into his Storage Ring, a little excited.
He was just about to leave when Hu Yong, who had remained seated on the other side, suddenly spoke.
"Governor-General Qing, walk with this old man a while."
"It is my honor to receive your invitation, Senior Hu."
The two left the Southern Study one behind the other and walked slowly along the white jade corridor outside Taiwei Hall without speaking.
Only after they had crossed dozens of Cloud Bridges, with no other eunuchs or Divine Strategy Guards in sight, did Hu Yong stop.
"I already