Toji nodded slightly, his deep, abyss-like eyes showing no emotion, only an absolute, bone-chilling indifference.
"Anything else? Nothing else to say?"
Du Busi immediately looked at everyone and found that they were all speechless because of Toji Er's invisible aura.
They didn't dare to speak.
After a long pause, Toji nodded:
"Knew."
As soon as he finished speaking, his figure flickered and vanished silently from the spot, like ink merging into the air.
The entire camp was left in silence, along with a group of Titled Douluo who seemed to have just struggled back from the brink of suffocation, their hearts pounding with fear.
They looked at each other, seeing the same shock and bewilderment in each other's eyes.
He... just left like that?
To assassinate a king, inside his impenetrable palace, a palace he had cultivated for countless years and riddled with deadly Soul Tool...
Like going to visit your neighbor next door?
Heavenly Sun Douluo slowly withdrew his surging Soul Power, gazing in the direction Toji had disappeared. His aged hands trembled uncontrollably as he muttered to himself, his voice dry and hoarse, like sandpaper being rubbed together:
"Such an existence... no wonder, no wonder the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King Di Tian was defeated..."
The day he defeated Di Tian was so spectacular that it was impossible to miss.
When the group arrived at the place where Toji and Di Tian were fighting, they couldn't find anyone there. They could only analyze the remaining aura.
The final judgment was that the battle between Di Tian and Toji would determine the victor, and that battle was bound to be extremely fierce.
Judging from the traces, it was ultimately Toji who won.
Upon hearing this, an indescribable chill, accompanied by a faint, almost unthinkable glimmer of hope, quietly spread through the deathly silent camp.
Everyone's hearts were in their throats, and their gazes were all turned toward the distant Mingdu, which was regarded as an invincible fortress by the Sun Moon Empire.
Mingdu, the heart of the Sun Moon Empire, was shrouded in a deathly silence, as if a storm was brewing.
The shadow of war had not receded; on the contrary, it seemed even more oppressive due to the successive victories on the front lines. It was a brief silence from the victors before their final crushing of the last resisters.
The towering palace, like a lurking beast, was magnificent on the surface but filled with countless deadly soul-guided traps inside. Every brick and stone was imbued with Xu Tianran's extreme fear of that man.
Toji's figure once again easily pierced through this supposedly impenetrable defense.
The palace's soul-guided warning network was utterly useless in the face of his absolute emptiness devoid of Soul Power.
He moved as if he were walking in his own backyard, precisely avoiding the patrolling Soul Engineer teams, and stealthily made his way towards the Empress's palace with a clear objective.
This time, the atmosphere inside the palace was completely different.
It has lost the cold, luxurious sense of alienation and gained a touch of the soft breath of Life.
When Toji appeared in the corner of the palace as if blending into the shadows, his gaze froze instantly.
Under the warm yellow light of the Soul Guidance Lamp, Ju Zi was facing away from him, leaning slightly forward, gently coaxing a baby in swaddling clothes.
The child was about one or two years old, with delicate features, waving his little hands and babbling, his big, dark eyes curiously looking around.
Ju Zi's profile was soft, radiating a pure maternal glow Toji I had ever seen in her before.
A strange sensation, extremely faint yet incredibly clear, like the pluck of the finest string, instantly connected Toji with the infant.
That was a resonance originating from the deepest part of one's bloodline.
Toji his deep, cold eyes, as dark as a frozen pool, flickered with a rare tremor, a hint of utter surprise flashing across them.
He recognized him.
The seed he gave to the Ju Zi years ago, driven by some complex emotion he himself never truly understood... she actually used it.
And it took root and sprouted.
In the instant this subtle connection arose, the infant seemed to sense something, its large, dark, pure eyes abruptly shifting from its mother's face to precisely targeting the shadowy corner where Toji was hiding.
Her small mouth opened slightly, uttering a muffled syllable.
Toji paused for a moment.
He didn't make a sound.
This was the first time he was discovered while in stealth mode.
Even though he was just a child.
But this is enough to prove...
Ju Zi's body stiffened abruptly, and her actions of coaxing the child stopped.
She followed the child's gaze and abruptly turned her head.
When she saw the familiar yet unfamiliar figure standing like a sculpture in the shadows, Ju Zi's pupils suddenly contracted, her pretty face instantly lost its color, and then an uncontrollable flush of excitement surged up, making her breathing quicken.
"You... you're here?!" Her voice trembled slightly, and she instinctively hugged the child in her arms tighter, as if trying to shield herself from the invisible pressure from the source of her bloodline.
Toji's gaze lingered on the child for less than half a second before calmly meeting Ju Zi's gaze. That barely perceptible fluctuation had vanished without a trace, leaving only Ice Seal indifference.
"Yes, I'm here." His voice was low and deep, as if stating a given fact, without any pleasantries. "This time, I'm here to truly kill Xu Tianran. He's lost control."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over Ju Zi's tense face.
I hope you're ready.
Ju Zi took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her turbulent emotions and her maternal instincts to protect herself.
At this moment, she was no longer the mother immersed in the warmth of love, but the empress and pawn who had been lying in wait for many years and shouldered a heavy mission.
"Yes, I'm ready." Her voice regained its composure. "Everything is in place, Elder Kong... Kong Deming is on my side now. As for Xu Tianran..."
A cold smile curled at the corner of her lips.
"He's so afraid of you that he's gone mad. He's paranoid, prone to killing, and everyone in the court lives in fear."
"At this time, he must still be cowering on his throne, surrounded by countless Soul Tool and guards, like a frightened bird."
She paused, her tone turning grave. "You must be extremely careful. I've heard... no, I'm almost certain, that Xu Tianran has already laid deadly traps specifically designed for you within the palace, especially along the path leading to the throne room."
"He exhausted the empire's most advanced Soul Tool Technology reserves, and may even have used... forbidden power."
"Is that so?" Toji's lips twitched upwards for the first time in a rare occurrence, forming a cold, dangerous, and excited arc, like a beast smelling blood.
A trap?
"I couldn't ask for more."
His gaze swept over the child in Ju Zi's arms again, his expression complex and unreadable, carrying a hint of scrutiny, and a faint, almost imperceptible, unease that even he himself was unaware of, but which vanished in an instant.
He quickly looked away, as if it were just an insignificant interlude.
"Just wait and see what happens."
He left behind these simple yet deadly words, Toji figure vanished instantly, like smoke blown away by the wind.