Late at night, the rain grew heavier, thunder and lightning filled the sky.

A bolt of lightning split the night, illuminating the world in blinding white, and revealed a pale face!

Inside the room, Grace Brooks cleared his mind of all distractions, sitting cross-legged and steady on the couch, his body as still as dead wood, his heart as cold as ashes. His legs embraced yang with yin, his hands embraced yin with yang, forming the interlocking seals of the Ziwu Eight Trigrams. After circulating his energy several times, he felt his lower dantian, three inches below his navel, gradually become scorching hot, like boiling water!

True water rose from the palace of stored essence, steamed upward, and followed the Ren and Du meridians to gather in the palace of stored qi beneath his heart, transforming into his own vital energy! The vital energy accumulated more and more densely in the Crimson Palace and Golden Gate, eventually condensing into threads of golden light, which flowed into the ancestral orifice at the center of his brow! This process was extremely slow, but with each full circulation, a thread of golden light was stored. After half an hour, the ancestral orifice at his brow was shrouded in golden-white radiance! His whole being became vibrant with life, every inch of skin crystal clear, like a newborn infant!

Spring thunder opens the three palaces, concealing the orifice of the primordial ancestral qi!

This was the Huangji Dongxuan Technique!

……

Thunder rumbled, and through the curtain of rain, a black shadow could be vaguely seen, leaping over the courtyard wall, appearing outside Grace Brooks's room like a swimming fish. Then, silently, the window was opened, and the figure shot inside like an arrow, aiming straight at the meditating Grace Brooks, right hand formed into a blade, slashing toward his throat!

At the critical moment, Grace Brooks, who had seemed as still as a clay statue, suddenly opened his eyes! His gaze flashed with a divine light, piercing and soul-stirring! But in the next instant, the light withdrew, returning to normal, making the attacker feel as if it had been an illusion!

But the other was not affected in the slightest; the hand-blade was already at Grace Brooks's jaw! Without thinking, Grace Brooks raised his hand and swept it out, his soft sleeve moving faster than the attack, whipping the opponent's hand like a lash!

With a crisp 'pa', the attacker's right hand was knocked aside, but his follow-up moves came immediately—left fist, elbow, knee, right foot, all carrying fierce force, raining down on Grace Brooks like a storm!

Grace Brooks remained calm and unhurried, his hands moving swiftly, countering each move as it came! In the blink of an eye, the two had exchanged over a dozen blows, so fast their movements could barely be seen!

When the flurry of attacks failed, the opponent leapt back, landing firmly on both feet, making no further move. Another flash of lightning lit up the room, revealing the other's hunched back and the hideous scars crisscrossing his face.

Grace Brooks remained seated cross-legged, showing no intention of attacking.

Then, the other dropped to one knee, his voice hoarse as metal scraping: "Young master, your martial arts have improved again. Our hope for revenge has grown!"

Grace Brooks sighed softly: "Uncle Paul, how many times have I told you, don't kneel. I am no longer the prince, and you are no longer an imperial guard."

"Young master, please don't say that," Uncle Paul gave a sorrowful smile, his voice rasping: "If I forget you are the prince, I would also forget that I am Henry Clark's..."

He actually called himself Henry Clark! The dashing, handsome, double-bladed Henry Clark, admired by countless noble ladies in the capital!

"……" Grace Brooks looked at Uncle Paul's hideous face and gave up his insistence.

Uncle Paul was indeed Henry Clark. Years ago, when he arrived in Qiantang County and discovered the crown prince was still alive, protecting the prince became Henry Clark's top priority. To hide his identity, he destroyed his own face and voice, disguising himself as a hunchback named Paul Brooks, and under William Brooks's arrangement, became a servant in the Lu clan's southern estate.

After ten years, Uncle Paul had become the steward of the estate, appearing like this every so often to hone the young master's martial arts, and more importantly, to keep him ever vigilant.

Uncle Paul helped Grace Brooks tidy up the room, then knelt respectfully on a cushion beside the couch and reported: "Young master, Raymond Carter will arrive in Wu County in ten days."

Grace Brooks nodded and said softly, "My father said there was an official assignment; it must be to protect this imperial envoy."

Hearing Grace Brooks still privately refer to William Brooks as father, Uncle Paul's brow twitched, but the prince had his own principles, and he could do nothing about it. He could only pretend not to hear and continued, "Young master, our plan for revenge is finally about to take its first step!"

"Indeed," Grace Brooks looked at his slender hands and said coldly, "I've waited a long time for this day!"

……

Before the founding of the Great Xuan Dynasty, the land of China endured several centuries of chaos. Northern nomadic tribes rose one after another, driving the Han-ruled Great Qian regime to the south. For centuries, the nomads established regimes in the north, ravaging the Han people, while the southern Great Qian regime sought only self-preservation, content with its corner of peace.

Eventually, the Han people of the north gave up hope in the southern imperial army. Led by the eight great clans, they rose in rebellion, and after more than a decade of bloody struggle, finally drove the nomads back to the grasslands. The clans then jointly supported the Huanfu clan as leader, establishing the Great Xuan Dynasty!

After its founding, the first emperor led his armies south, destroyed the decaying Great Qian Dynasty, and reunified the land of China, which had been divided for centuries. This was just over twenty years ago.

But a mere twenty-some years is not enough to erase the deep rift formed by centuries of north-south division. The southern gentry and commoners, regarding themselves as the true heirs of China, looked down on the regime established by northerners. The northern court and noble clans, in turn, treated the rich south as a land to be plundered, seizing land and building estates, which only further intensified the conflict between north and south.