Li Changzhou flicked his finger, and a black bird flew toward the window, turning into a wisp of black air as soon as it passed through the window lattices.
Inside the Forbidden City, the Heavenly Palace, Xianling Palace, and Lingji Palace were the only three Daoist Palaces where the Jiajing Emperor could barely use mana when the Emperor was not present. Once the black bird left the Daoist Palace, it was naturally suppressed by the Dragon Vein and vanished completely.
Li Changzhou did not mind, for it was only an attempt.
He had already made many types of attempts.
Too much loss of black birds could leave the caster missing limbs, but Li Changzhou had the "Divine Body - Low-level Power," which allowed him to recover extremely fast, so he did not need to worry about losses within two hundred birds.
"Do we go? To find this Black Widow and the Empress who's been dead for 500 years, leaving only bones behind?" Turquoise Pool put down her sleeve, her wrist wound also healed.
"Not in a rush," Li Changzhou picked up a Daoist book, "Shao Yuanjie can use the Dragon Vein, and we can try it too. First, we need to gain the Emperor's trust tomorrow to see if it works. Don't start any trouble before then."
Turquoise Pool pondered and nodded, then solemnly touched Li Changzhou's hand.
In his cold gaze, she smiled proudly, charming and enticing, then no longer paid him any attention and picked up the Daoist book Li Changzhou had been reading, her slender fingers pinching the edge of the page.
Li Changzhou closed his eyes, recalling the texts the black bird had seen in his mind.
While increasing his knowledge and thinking about how to deal with encountering this magic, he was also looking for spells suitable for himself, Yang Qinglan, and Li Qianxia.
The more he read, the more greedy he became.
If he could learn all these spells, except in scenarios where they were suppressed by the Dragon Vein or the opponent was too strong, he could handle almost any situation.
Some didn't even require deliberate learning; he had "Concentration," so he could improvise spells on the spot, though they were slightly less powerful and only suitable for bullying ordinary players.
This was only one of the three palaces, the Heavenly Palace, but if that were expanded to include the other two palaces, no, the Daoist books were not limited to these, and there were definitely unparalleled Daoist books within the Imperial Palace that even Shao Yuanjie could not access.
If the mission could be successful, that would be best. If it failed, at least he must gain the Emperor's trust and peruse these Daoist books to ensure not a total loss.
Li Changzhou could not even guarantee to remember all the Daoist books in the Heavenly Palace before the mission ended, even with the black bird spell.
How could he take all these Daoist books with him?
Last night, the Emperor slept very late, yet today he woke earlier than he usually did for court sessions, waiting in an auxiliary palace for Li Changzhou.
After the greeting, the Emperor said,
"You spoke of burning cities, slaughtering millions… I could be ruthless enough to do that, but scaling snowy mountains, traversing deserts, battling wild beasts and demonic bulls, calling thunder in the heavens, and suffering in hell… I am the ruler of a nation, I cannot take such risks. Do you have any method that could grant me immortality without taking risks?"
Li Changzhou remained silent.
Suddenly sighing, he said, "It's difficult, I am willing to find a solution for Your Majesty, to think of a way that benefits us both, but please allow me to browse the Daoist books of the world."
This time, the Emperor fell silent.
He saw no use in Daoist books, even though he had deeply pondered some unparalleled Daoist books in the palace, they were of no use to him.
But to these Dao Cultivators, any unparalleled Daoist book was a priceless treasure.
A Dao Cultivator who learned from these Daoist books could leave the capital and turn the world upside down, unless there were soldiers with a Holy Decree sent to capture them.
Li Changzhou gauged the Emperor's expression, speaking slowly:
"I also believe Your Majesty should not take risks, so I have been thinking of a solution. These past few days, browsing through the Daoist books of the Heavenly Palace, I have come up with some ideas."
He had to show some results even if it meant bluffing for funding.
"Oh?" The Emperor was not very excited.
Shao Yuanjie had already read the Daoist books of the Heavenly Palace, and even the Emperor himself had once read through them, even trying to practice some of the magic.
There was nothing there that could lead to his cultivation.
The Emperor would not be fooled by the promise of immortality; he desired it, wishi