Begonia Courtyard.
"Young Master, His Majesty acted with such lightning speed, giving Duke Chen no chance to defend himself before directly condemning him, ransacking his estate, and sentencing him to be beheaded," Uncle Li said. "He even forbade anyone from visiting the cells, but our people got there a step ahead."
Xie Jiuli raised her eyes.
Uncle Li continued, "The eldest legitimate son of the Chen family has a petal-shaped birthmark right over his heart. Furthermore, the Duke's wife, Xu Shi, visits her maiden home on the fifteenth of every month. Currently, both of them are in our hands."
"Follow the vine to find the melon; unearth the person pulling the strings behind the scenes."
"Rest assured, Young Master, I will personally keep a close eye on this matter."
Xie Jiuli nodded. "The people back in our hometown do not need to come to the Capital. Instead, thoroughly investigate Tianlong Temple in secret."
"This old servant obeys."
"Uncle Rong," Xie Jiuli called out softly.
"Eldest Miss," Uncle Rong answered, quickly stepping in from outside.
"Is there any news regarding that eunuch in the palace?"
Uncle Rong shook his head. "Not a trace has been found. However, word from the palace is that the Shadow Guards retrieved some letters and sachets from Chen Yufu, all of which bear petal imprints. Moreover, Chen Yufu would regularly wear the sachet and stroll through the Imperial Garden, yet the Shadow Guards found nothing unusual there."
Xie Jiuli fell into deep thought.
Her fingers tapped rhythmically against the tabletop.
Chen Yufu's actions clearly indicated that someone in the Imperial Garden needed to be contacted or was receiving messages.
"I will go there myself," Xie Jiuli said.
A short while later, she summoned Qiushan.
"Investigate in secret whether there was anything unusual about His Majesty being ambushed during the hunt some time ago." She suspected that the Emperor had staged the whole thing himself, or perhaps it was the work of the person behind the Chen family.
"This subordinate obeys!"
***
The Imperial Palace, Imperial Garden.
A shifty-eyed eunuch cast vigilant glances around before sticking a fake mole onto the corner of his mouth.
He then hurried away to the back of a secluded rockery.
Respectfully, he bowed toward the opening of a cave hidden behind the stones.
"Master, Second Princess has gone missing."
A gloomy voice, impossible to tell whether it belonged to a man or a woman, drifted out from the cave. "Did you not have anyone watching her?"
The eunuch's legs trembled. "This slave merely sent her secretly to the Imperial City Bureau, after which... *thud*..."
"Spare my life, Master... spare my life..."
Struck down by an invisible force, the eunuch collapsed to the ground, kowtowing repeatedly for mercy.
The voice from within sounded once more. "Before anyone notices, spread the word that the Second Princess eloped with a lover."
"This slave obeys."
"Get out!"
After the eunuch departed, a figure draped in a dark black cloak could be vaguely discerned within the pitch-black cave. The hood completely concealed the person's face, revealing only slender fingers turning a string of prayer beads.
A masked Secret Guard dressed in night-traveling clothes whispered from the side, "Should this subordinate go and investigate whether the one burned to death was Princess Anyang or the Second Princess?"
"There is no need. Whether it was her or not is of no consequence."
The cloaked figure slipped the prayer beads onto a wrist, a trace of chill creeping into their eyes. "This incident alone is enough to prove that even if the Feng family has fallen from grace, there is still someone backing them."
"Shall we continue the investigation?"
"Wait and watch the Feng family for now."
The cloaked figure paused for a moment. "Is there any news from Suzhou?"
The Secret Guard shook his head slightly. "His Majesty has always harbored suspicions against Prince Beichen. Consequently, when the Japanese pirates invaded Suzhou five years ago, reinforcements were not dispatched in time. After Suzhou successfully repelled the pirates and fended off a simultaneous pincer attack from Chen in the south, the entire region—down to its border towns—has been heavily fortified and strictly guarded. Suzhou today is no longer the Suzhou of five years ago.
Wave after wave of our men went there, only to leave their bones behind. Ultimately, we could only find a single breakthrough point through a pugilistic faction, and even then, we only learned that the exact location of Phoenix Valley is indeed in a place called Huaxi County in Suzhou.
However, after being wiped out by the invading pirates five years ago, not a single soul survived within the valley, and all news regarding Divine Doctor Xue came to an abrupt halt. But..."
"But what?"
"For the past two years, rumors have circulated in the martial arts world that Divine Doctor Xue has an outside-the-valley disciple connected to Prince Beichen's Estate in Suzhou. It is even rumored that the young prince of Prince Beichen's Estate is the favored companion of Lord Jiu, the leader of the Martial Arts Alliance, and that Prince Beichen intends to use Suzhou as the young prince's dowry."
A look of worry crept over the Secret Guard. "Lord Jiu belongs to the jianghu, and he is unfathomably mysterious. To this day, no one knows his origins; even his name is simply 'Lord Jiu the Slaughterer.'
He suddenly emerged in the jianghu five years ago, rising with the speed of lightning to become the new Martial Arts Alliance leader. Under his command are four female attendants, all possessing formidable martial arts, executing merciless bloodshed, and moving in deep mystery. No one knows their true identities either.
When the imperial court failed to offer a helping hand during the pirate invasion of Suzhou, Lord Jiu led jianghu folks alongside Prince Beichen's Estate to drive them back.
The common people revere and adore him, and his prestige in the Suzhou region is growing daily. If Suzhou ultimately falls into Lord Jiu's hands, coupled with his vast jianghu influence, might he become a threat to us in the future?"
"A dowry? Could that old codger Prince Beichen really be raising his only son as a daughter?"
"After all, the moment the young prince was born back then, the Emperor sent men to castrate him."
"Hmph!"
The cloaked figure let out a meaningful laugh. "Whether he was truly castrated and left without an heir, or if Prince Beichen swapped him with another child—who can say?"
A playful curve touched the corner of their mouth. "Keep having people investigate Suzhou. Even if it's a wall of bronze and a rampart of iron, pry open a gap—especially regarding that outside-the-valley disciple. We must find news of Divine Doctor Xue; she could not have simply perished under a pirate's blade.
As for the jianghu forces... wait and watch. Let them make a ruckus here in the Capital; the bigger the commotion, the better."
"This slave obeys."
***
The Imperial Palace, Council Hall.
"Who leaked the news?" The Emperor's face was unsightly, and the atmosphere inside the hall was oppressive to the extreme.
The Shadow Guard knelt on the floor. Ever since returning from outside the city that day, they had arranged for men to keep a close watch on Duke Chen's Estate, yet they had never expected the targets to slip right out from under their noses.
Xiao Qianyue reported, "When this minister led the Imperial City Bureau to the Duke's Estate, Xu Shi and Chen Sangtian were already nowhere to be found."
*Bang!*
The Emperor slammed his fist down upon the dragon throne, consumed by rage. "Search the grounds foot by foot until they are found! Execute them without pardon!"
"This minister obeys!"
A short while later.
Lin Hui, Commander of the Imperial Guard, hurried in with rapid strides. "Reporting to Your Majesty, regarding the petal imprints, Chen Guifei—that is, Chen Yufu—claimed only that the sachet is her protective talisman, which needs to be taken out to sunbathe in the Imperial Garden at regular intervals. As for anything else, she knows nothing at all."
The Emperor twirled the imperial green jade thumb ring on his hand, radiating a chilling aura from head to toe. Just as he was about to speak,
Grand Eunuch Xia stepped forward. "Your Majesty, the Empress requests an audience outside."
"Let her enter." The icy chill on the Emperor dissipated quite a bit. Ever since the Empress gave birth fifteen years ago, she had never once taken the initiative to come to the Council Hall.
At that moment,
he instinctively assumed that the false accusations of treason against Anyang had terrified the Empress deeply, and she had finally realized who in this palace was capable of protecting their mother and daughter.
"This concubine pays respects to Your Majesty."
"Rise quickly. Is there an urgent matter?" The Emperor had already stepped down from the dais.
"This concubine heard that Chen Yufu refuses to confess, and specifically came to implore Your Majesty's grace to let me go to the Cold Palace and see her."
Meeting the Empress's pair of pure and sincere phoenix eyes, the Emperor remained calm on the surface, but a flash of suspicion flickered through his heart.