**Chapter 5: The Void Bunker and the Banquet of Hidden Blades**
To be a Void Refinement expert was to fundamentally misunderstand what it meant to be human.
Li Xuan sat cross-legged in the center of his dark, locked bedchamber. He was breathing very, very slowly.
For the past forty-eight hours since Mu Qingxue's terrifying, heaven-defying breakthrough to the Nascent Soul realm, Li Xuan had not slept. He had barely blinked. He was entirely focused on the agonizingly delicate task of locking away his own godhood.
When he was at the Soul Formation realm, he had felt like he was driving a nuclear-powered tank. Now, at the Peak of the Void Refinement realm, he felt as if his consciousness had been forcibly strapped to the steering wheel of the entire universe, and he was desperately trying not to touch the pedals.
Through the sheer, passive expansion of his Void senses, he could perceive the physical world not as solid matter, but as a loosely woven tapestry of spatial coordinates, spiritual energy, and karmic threads. He could see the microscopic dust mites floating in the air. He could feel the heartbeat of the Emperor sitting on his throne miles away. If he focused hard enough, he could hear the sound of a leaf falling from a tree in the Southern Barbarian territories.
"Too much," Li Xuan whispered, his voice trembling. "It's all too much. If I sneeze too hard, I might accidentally fold the Imperial Capital into a two-dimensional plane."
His paranoia, originally born from the fear of assassins, had evolved into a cosmic terror of his own sheer mass.
He needed to establish complete, absolute control. The Phantom Void Concealment art he had stolen from the Imperial Library was struggling to contain his aura. It was like trying to hide a blazing sun under a paper cup. He had to compress his power, fold it inward, and hide it within the very fabric of space.
*I need a better bunker,* Li Xuan decided.
The hidden compartment beneath his floorboards was a physical space. Physical spaces could be discovered, dug up, or destroyed by stray area-of-effect spells. A true Void Refinement expert didn't hide in the dirt; they hid in the cracks between reality.
Slowly, carefully, Li Xuan raised his right hand. He extended his index finger.
He tapped the empty air in front of his bed.
*Ripple.*
There was no sound, no flash of light, but the fundamental laws of physics locally wept. Li Xuan grabbed the invisible fabric of space and *pulled*.
It was like unzipping the universe. A microscopic tear, no larger than a grain of sand, opened in the air. Inside that tear was the Void—a realm of absolute nothingness, free from the heavenly laws, immune to divine sense, and utterly isolated from the physical plane.
Using a fraction of a percent of his boundless Qi, Li Xuan stabilized the tear. He then expanded the internal dimensions of that single grain of space, carving out a perfectly cubic room exactly twenty feet wide, twenty feet long, and ten feet high.
He furnished it mentally, manipulating the spatial energy to form a bed, a desk, a reading lamp, and a massive vault.
"The Absolute Safe Zone," Li Xuan murmured, his eyes gleaming with the manic satisfaction of a prepper who had just built the ultimate fallout shelter.
He anchored the microscopic entrance to the exact spatial coordinate of the brass button on his pajama shirt. If the planet blew up, if the capital was turned to ash, he could simply step into his button and exist outside of reality until the dust settled.
Only then, knowing he had an unbreachable escape hatch that defied the laws of physics, did Li Xuan allow his heart rate to return to normal.
*Knock. Knock. Knock.*
"Your Highness," Eunuch Gao's voice drifted through the thick oak door, laced with its usual barely-concealed disdain. "Are you cowering? The General summons you to the main hall. The Imperial Palace has sent a decree."
Li Xuan instantly slumped his shoulders, widened his eyes to maximize his 'frightened deer' look, and let his hands shake. He unlocked the nine deadbolts and cracked the door open.
"A-a decree? Did I do something wrong? Are they going to execute me?" Li Xuan stammered.
"Just go to the hall, Your Highness," Eunuch Gao sighed, rolling his eyes.
### The Rules of the Meat-Shield
When Li Xuan entered the main reception hall of the estate, he found Mu Qingxue standing by the window, her back straight, radiating the terrifying, boundless pressure of a brand-new Nascent Soul expert.
Her breakthrough had fundamentally changed her. The icy, aggressive aura of her Golden Core days had refined into something deeper, calmer, but infinitely more dangerous. She felt like a slumbering volcano.
Standing behind her were Vice-General Lin and several Vanguard officers. They looked at Li Xuan as if he were a particularly foul-smelling piece of mud they had tracked indoors.
"You summoned me, General?" Li Xuan asked, keeping his head bowed and his voice meek.
Mu Qingxue turned. Her dark eyes swept over his hunched form. There was no pity left in her gaze, only a cold, utilitarian calculation.
"The Emperor has decreed a Royal Banquet tonight to celebrate my advancement to the Nascent Soul realm and to officially announce our wedding, which will take place in three days," Mu Qingxue said, her voice echoing with spiritual resonance.
Li Xuan's stomach dropped. *A Royal Banquet? A gathering of the most powerful, treacherous, poison-wielding, backstabbing psychopaths in the entire dynasty? In one room?*
"Do I... do I have to go?" Li Xuan squeaked. "I have a stomach ache. I think I ate a bad cabbage."
"You are the Ninth Prince. You are my betrothed. Your absence would be a political insult to the Emperor," Mu Qingxue stated flatly. She walked toward him, her sheer presence forcing Li Xuan to take a step back (a carefully calculated step to maintain his cowardly persona).
"Listen to me carefully, Li Xuan," she commanded. "Tonight, the First Prince, the Second Prince, and the Emperor himself will test the waters. They will probe my strength. They will try to find my weaknesses. And you, unfortunately, are the most glaring weakness I possess."
Li Xuan nodded furiously. "Yes! I am a weakness! I am a liability! You should leave me here in a locked box!"
"I cannot," she replied coldly. "So we will follow these rules. Rule one: You will sit beside me and you will not speak unless the Emperor directly addresses you. Rule two: You will not eat or drink anything unless I have tested it first. Rule three: If a noble or a prince insults you, you will lower your head and take it. You will not attempt to preserve your dignity. I will handle the retaliation. Do you understand?"
Li Xuan's eyes lit up internally.
*She is offering to be my food taster, my spokesperson, and my designated retaliator? By the Heavens, this woman is the greatest meat-shield in the history of cultivation! I am going to live to be a million years old!*
"I understand completely, General! I will be a statue! A mute, deaf, blind statue!" Li Xuan vowed, clasping his hands together.
Mu Qingxue stared at him for a long moment, a flicker of genuine disgust crossing her perfect features. "Go put on your formal robes. We leave at sundown."
### The Armor Beneath the Silk
Returning to his Absolute Safe Zone, Li Xuan began his preparations for the banquet.
A Royal Banquet meant high-tier spiritual wines, exotic spirit-beast meats, and an atmosphere thick with invisible killing intent.
Li Xuan stripped down. First, he put on a set of inner garments woven from Tier-3 Ice-Silk. It was comfortable, but insufficient. He raised a finger and channeled a fraction of his Void Qi. He wove seven overlapping, microscopic spatial arrays directly into the threads of the silk. If anyone tried to stab him, the blade would hit the spatial fold and be teleported harmlessly three inches to the left of his body.
Next, he strapped on the absurdly bulky Tier-4 Black Tortoise Heavy Carapace. It weighed eight hundred pounds, but to his Void Refinement physical strength, it felt like wearing a t-shirt. He reinforced the carapace with a layer of condensed Soul Qi.
Finally, he donned the extravagant, multi-layered purple and gold formal robes of a royal prince. The robes hid the bulky armor, though it made him look a bit pudgy.
He slid his old, scuffed spatial-folding boots onto his feet, masking their aura with Phantom Void Concealment.
"Anti-piercing, anti-blunt force, anti-magic, and an instant teleportation exit," Li Xuan muttered, checking his reflection. "Now, for the chemical warfare."
He reached into his spatial ring (which he kept hidden inside his pocket dimension) and pulled out a variety of talismans. He attached a Tier-5 Poison-Nullification Talisman to the inside of his collar. He placed a Tier-6 Illusion-Breaking Jade pendant under his tongue. He slipped three different antidotes for the most common royal poisons into his sleeves.
"Acceptable," he nodded to his reflection. "I am now moderately prepared to eat dinner."
He practiced his terrified, overwhelmed expression in the mirror for ten minutes before stepping out of his courtyard.
### The Dragon's Den
The Supreme Harmony Banquet Hall was a masterclass in intimidating opulence. The ceiling was a vast mural of celestial dragons, animated by high-tier illusion formations so they appeared to be continuously circling the room. The tables were carved from thousand-year-old Spirit-Wood, and the air was thick with the scent of burning ambergris and roasting spiritual beasts.
When Li Xuan and Mu Qingxue arrived at the grand entrance, the eunuch announced their names.
"The Northern War God, General Mu Qingxue! And His Royal Highness, the Ninth Prince, Li Xuan!"
The heavy mahogany doors swung open.
Three hundred pairs of eyes instantly snapped toward them. The collective weight of the gazes from the empire's elite ministers, generals, and royalty felt like a physical wall.
Mu Qingxue stepped over the threshold without a single hesitation. She wore a stunning formal dress of deep crimson and silver, her Nascent Soul aura naturally pushing back the oppressive atmosphere of the hall. She was a queen of the battlefield, untouchable and supreme.
And then there was Li Xuan.
He trailed half a step behind her, hunching his shoulders. He was sweating profusely. He continuously darted his eyes around the room, clutching the fabric of his robes like a frightened child entering a haunted house. When the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Guard—a burly man with a fierce scar—happened to glance at him, Li Xuan let out a visible squeak and hid entirely behind Mu Qingxue's crimson cape.
A ripple of low, mocking laughter spread through the hall.
*Fools,* Li Xuan thought, using the cover of his wife's cape to secretly scan the room with his Void senses. *Laugh all you want. Your laughter masks my reconnaissance.*
In exactly two seconds, Li Xuan's omniscient senses mapped the entire hall.
*There are forty-two Golden Core cultivators here. Seven Nascent Soul experts, including the Emperor, the First Prince's Dao Protector, and the Head Eunuch. The wine in the Third Prince's cup is spiked with a mild truth serum. The minister of finance has a concealed dagger in his left sleeve. The Emperor's throne is built on top of a Tier-7 localized suppression array.*
He cataloged every threat, calculated the safest exit routes, and established three backup plans in case the building exploded.
Mu Qingxue led him to their assigned table, situated near the front of the hall, just below the Emperor's dais. As they sat down, Mu Qingxue leaned slightly toward him, her voice a sharp whisper.
"Stop shaking. You are embarrassing the North."
"I-I can't help it," Li Xuan whispered back, forcing his teeth to chatter. "Everyone is staring at us like we're dinner."
Before she could scold him further, the First Prince, Li Tianlong, stood up from his table across the aisle. Li Tianlong was a towering, handsome man with the aggressive aura of a Late-Stage Nascent Soul expert. He was the favored heir, ruthless and cunning.
He raised his jade wine cup, a charming but venomous smile on his face.
"A toast!" Li Tianlong's voice carried effortlessly across the hall. "To the Crimson General! Not only has she secured our northern borders, but she has achieved the Nascent Soul realm at the miraculous age of nineteen! Truly, the Heavens have blessed the Great Qian Dynasty with a peerless guardian!"
The hall echoed with agreements, though many ministers forced their smiles.
Li Tianlong stepped out from his table and walked toward Mu Qingxue, holding a golden carafe of wine. "And to celebrate this momentous occasion, I offer the General a cup of the Imperial Cellar's finest: the Thousand-Year Dragon-Blood Wine. It is a vintage meant only for those who carry the weight of the empire on their shoulders."
He poured the wine into a spare jade cup on Mu Qingxue's table. The liquid was a deep, mesmerizing ruby red, giving off a heady, intoxicating aroma of spiritual energy.
Mu Qingxue's eyes narrowed slightly. Accepting a poured drink from a political rival was dangerous, but refusing a toast from the Crown Prince in front of the Emperor was an insult that could lead to immediate censure.
She reached for the cup.
Li Xuan, sitting beside her, didn't move a muscle. He kept his head bowed, looking at his empty plate. But his Void senses were screaming.
*The wine is poisoned,* his analytical mind processed instantly. *It's not a lethal poison. The First Prince isn't stupid enough to assassinate her in public. It's 'Soul-Severing Orchid Venom'—a Tier-6 invisible toxin. It has no taste, no smell, and doesn't kill. But over the next three months, it slowly degrades the foundation of a newly formed Nascent Soul, causing their cultivation to drop back down to Golden Core.*
It was a brilliant, vicious political move. The First Prince wanted to cripple her before the wedding, ensuring she could never threaten his path to the throne.
*If she drinks that, her cultivation drops,* Li Xuan calculated rapidly. *If her cultivation drops, she loses her military authority. If she loses her authority, she becomes useless. If she becomes useless, my meat-shield disappears. I will be left exposed.*
*Unacceptable. The meat-shield must be preserved at all costs.*
But how to stop her? If he slapped the cup out of her hand, everyone would see. The First Prince would claim Li Xuan was a lunatic, the Emperor would be furious, and Mu Qingxue might actually strangle him.
He couldn't use his hands. He had to use the Void.
As Mu Qingxue's perfectly manicured fingers brushed the jade cup, Li Xuan acted.
He didn't use Qi. He didn't cast a spell. He simply imposed his will upon the fundamental structure of the space containing the wine.
*Spatial Transmutation: Molecular Reassignment.*
He took the complex, toxic Qi structure of the Soul-Severing Orchid Venom within the ruby liquid and violently folded it through the fourth dimension. He stripped away the venomous properties, rearranged the spiritual atoms, and substituted them with the ambient energy of the room.
In the span of a microsecond, the deadly Tier-6 poison was utterly erased from existence. However, to maintain the physical volume and color of the wine so the First Prince wouldn't notice, Li Xuan had to replace the venom with something else.
He quickly scanned his spatial ring for a harmless substitute. He found a low-grade, Tier-1 cleansing pill he used to cure his occasional stomach aches. He dissolved the pill's essence into the void and merged it with the wine.
The process was completely invisible. Not even the Nascent Soul Emperor sitting on the dais felt the microscopic ripple in reality.
Mu Qingxue raised the cup.
"I accept the Crown Prince's toast," she said coldly, her aura flaring slightly to prove she feared no man. She brought the cup to her lips and drank the wine in one smooth motion.
The First Prince smiled, a triumphant glint in his eyes. He bowed deeply. "May the General's cultivation be ever stable." He turned and walked back to his seat, satisfied that his greatest obstacle had just been neutralized.
Li Xuan sat quietly, his shoulders hunched, watching a bead of sweat roll down the side of a roasted duck on the table.
*Mission accomplished,* Li Xuan thought, exhaling softly. *The meat-shield is safe. Furthermore, her digestive tract is going to be incredibly clean for the next three days.*
Mu Qingxue set the cup down. She frowned slightly, touching her stomach.
"General?" Li Xuan whispered nervously. "Are you alright?"
"I am fine," she replied, though she looked slightly confused. "The Dragon-Blood wine usually runs hot in the meridians. This... this feels strangely soothing. Almost medicinal."
"M-maybe it's a special batch," Li Xuan offered helpfully.
At the Emperor's dais, Li Jianxing raised his hand, signaling the start of the feast. Dancers clothed in illusions of floating lotus petals entered the hall, and the tense atmosphere broke into a lively, albeit heavily monitored, celebration.
### The Third Prince's Terror
Across the hall, sitting at a table with his most trusted retainers, the Third Prince, Li Mingze, was not eating.
He was staring a hole through the side of Li Xuan's head.
Ever since his Peak Golden Core assassin, Ghost-Blade Ye, vanished into thin air at the Ninth Prince's estate, Li Mingze had been living in a state of hyper-paranoia. He was convinced, absolutely certain, that the Mu Family had smuggled a supreme Dao Protector into the capital to guard the couple.
Throughout the banquet, Li Mingze had been using his secret visual arts to scan the shadows around Mu Qingxue and Li Xuan, searching for any trace of the invisible expert. He found nothing, which only terrified him more.
*If I can't see him, it means his cultivation is vastly superior to mine,* Li Mingze deduced, drinking his wine with a shaking hand. *Perhaps he is a Void Refinement ancestor! Heavens, if the First Brother knew what he was truly dealing with, he wouldn't dare offer poisoned wine!*
Li Mingze had seen the First Prince's toast. He recognized the subtle scent of the Soul-Severing Orchid. He had waited with bated breath for the First Prince's head to suddenly explode, struck down by the invisible Dao Protector for daring to poison the War God.
But nothing happened. Mu Qingxue drank the wine, and the First Prince walked away unharmed.
*Why?* Li Mingze's mind raced, sweat pooling on his forehead. *Why didn't the Dao Protector intervene?*
He analyzed the situation from the perspective of a hyper-intelligent, deeply paranoid conspirator.
*The Dao Protector let her drink it... which means the poison wasn't a threat. But it was Tier-6 venom! How could it not be a threat? Unless...*
Li Mingze's eyes widened in profound horror as a terrifying theory formed in his mind. He looked at the cowardly, hunched figure of the Ninth Prince, who was currently struggling to pick up a slippery piece of tofu with his chopsticks.
*Unless the Dao Protector didn't intervene because the target wasn't in danger. But Mu Qingxue isn't immune to Tier-6 venom. Who is? Who is so pathetic, so seemingly harmless, that no one would ever suspect them of possessing supreme power?*
Li Mingze watched as Li Xuan accidentally dropped the tofu onto his lap, let out a pathetic squeak, and frantically began wiping his expensive robes with a napkin, looking like a complete buffoon.
Li Mingze's breath hitched.
*It's an act,* the Third Prince realized, his mind shattering under the weight of the revelation. *It's a flawless, sixteen-year-long act! The invisible Dao Protector didn't kill Ghost-Blade Ye... The Ninth Prince killed him! The Emperor didn't insult the Mu Family; he tied the War God to the most terrifying, deeply hidden monster in the royal bloodline!*
To Li Mingze's paranoid, conspiracy-addled brain, Li Xuan dropping the tofu wasn't clumsiness; it was a mockery. It was the supreme expert demonstrating how easily he could play the fool while holding the lives of everyone in the room in the palm of his hand.
Li Mingze abruptly stood up, his chair scraping loudly against the stone floor. Several ministers turned to look at him.
"Third Brother?" the First Prince called out, raising an eyebrow. "Is the wine not to your liking?"
Li Mingze ignored him. He stumbled out from behind his table, his face pale as a sheet. He walked directly toward Li Xuan's table.
Mu Qingxue's hand instantly went to the hilt of the ceremonial sword at her waist, her Nascent Soul aura flaring defensively. "Third Prince. Have you lost your manners?"
Li Mingze didn't even look at Mu Qingxue. He stopped three feet away from Li Xuan, who was currently holding a half-eaten steamed bun, looking up with wide, terrified eyes.
Li Xuan was genuinely confused. *What is he doing? Why is he looking at me like I'm a demon? Did I drop tofu on his shoes?*
Without a word, Li Mingze dropped to his knees. He kowtowed deeply, his forehead touching the cold floor.
"Ninth Brother," Li Mingze said, his voice trembling with profound respect and utter terror. "I was blind to the true heights of Mount Tai. From this day forward, the Third Palace acknowledges your supreme... *wisdom*. We shall never cross your path again."
The entire banquet hall fell dead silent. Even the celestial illusion dragons on the ceiling seemed to pause.
The First Prince dropped his cup. The Emperor leaned forward, his eyes narrowing to slits. Mu Qingxue stared at the kneeling Third Prince in absolute bewilderment.
Li Xuan, holding his steamed bun, froze completely. His Void Refinement brain calculated a billion permutations of this event in a microsecond, and every single one ended with his cowardly cover being blown.
*He knows!* Li Xuan panicked internally. *The idiot somehow put the pieces together! He thinks I am a hidden master! If he exposes me, the First Prince will attack me, the Emperor will draft me, and the Asura will execute me for lying to her!*
Li Xuan had to fix this. He had to restore his reputation as a worthless piece of trash instantly, or his peaceful life was over.
Li Xuan looked at the kneeling Third Prince. He looked at the silent, staring crowd. He looked at the steamed bun in his hand.
He threw the bun at Li Mingze's head.
It bounced harmlessly off the Third Prince's royal crown.
Then, Li Xuan burst into loud, hysterical tears.
"Waaaah!" Li Xuan wailed, throwing his arms over his head and curling into a ball on his chair. "He's cursing me! The Third Brother is cursing me! He's using dark magic! General Mu, save me! He wants to steal my soul!"
He flailed his legs, accidentally kicking the table and sending a plate of roasted duck crashing to the floor. He scrambled off his chair and hid entirely under the table, sobbing loudly. "Don't let him look at me! His eyes are evil!"
The profound silence in the hall shattered, replaced by an uproar of mocking laughter, bewildered gasps, and absolute disgust.
The First Prince burst into booming laughter, pointing at Li Mingze. "Third Brother, what game is this? Are you trying to scare the Trash Prince to death? Look at him! He's hiding under the table over a compliment!"
The Emperor rubbed his temples, a deep sigh escaping his lips. "Enough of this farce. Third Prince, return to your seat. You are embarrassing the royal dignity."
Li Mingze stood up slowly. He looked at the weeping, pathetic lump hiding under the table. The crowd saw a coward. But Li Mingze, fully bought into his own conspiracy, saw something else entirely.
*He threw a bun at me,* Li Mingze thought, cold sweat dripping down his back. *A bun. 'Bao' in the southern dialect sounds like 'Repay'. He is telling me that my debt for sending the assassin is repaid, but if I speak of this again, he will bury me.*
Li Mingze bowed deeply to the empty chair. "I thank the Ninth Brother for his mercy."
He turned and practically sprinted back to his table, refusing to make eye contact with anyone for the rest of the night.
Under the table, Li Xuan wiped away his fake tears and smiled perfectly.
*Crisis averted,* Li Xuan celebrated internally. *The Third Prince thinks he survived a deadly encounter, the First Prince thinks the Third Prince is an idiot, the Emperor thinks I am useless, and my meat-shield...*
Suddenly, the tablecloth lifted. Mu Qingxue's face appeared, looking down at him. Her expression was a mix of intense humiliation and boiling anger.
"Get up," she hissed, her voice vibrating with suppressed Nascent Soul Qi. "You are making a fool of us both. Get up right now, or I swear to the Heavens I will leave you under here forever."
Li Xuan scrambled out, dusting off his robes, keeping his head bowed in a posture of ultimate defeat. "I-I'm sorry. I just... I really don't like it when people kneel to me. It's bad luck."
Mu Qingxue didn't reply. She grabbed his wrist—her grip tight enough to bruise a normal mortal—and turned to the Emperor's dais.
"Your Majesty," Mu Qingxue announced, her voice cutting through the remaining laughter in the hall. "The Ninth Prince is unwell. We beg your leave to return to the estate."
Emperor Li Jianxing waved his hand dismissively. "Go. See that he rests. The wedding is in three days. We expect him to at least be able to stand upright at the altar."
As Mu Qingxue dragged Li Xuan out of the grand hall, the murmurs of the court resumed. They gossiped about the War God's tragic fate, chained to a boy who cried when spoken to. They plotted, they schemed, and they sharpened their knives in the dark.
Li Xuan let himself be dragged, his gait clumsy and uneven. He played the part of the humiliated coward flawlessly.
But as the heavy mahogany doors of the Supreme Harmony Hall closed behind them, Li Xuan's Void senses lingered in the room. He felt the First Prince smugly drinking his wine. He felt the Emperor tapping his finger on his throne. He felt the Third Prince shivering in his seat.
*Plot away, you fragile mortals,* Li Xuan thought, a terrifying, mechanical detachment settling over his soul. *Play your games of poison and daggers. I have secured the Asura. I have mastered the Void. And I am perfectly willing to spend the next thousand years pretending to be a pig just to watch you all die of old age.*
The cowardly prince smiled into the darkness. The banquet was a total success. He hadn't died, his meat-shield was safe, and he was one step closer to absolute, permanent, glorious obscurity.