Having been defeated by He Lingchuan in the Lotus Palace, Fan Sheng had felt deeply unsettled these past few days.

If he went to challenge He Lingchuan again under the excuse of turning the tables, that would be even more meaningless.

Besides, there was a ninety-percent chance Zhongsun Mou was already dead. At that point, Fan Sheng’s reasons for continuing to make trouble for He Lingchuan were no longer all that strong.

But Bai Ziqi’s words just now stirred a little flame in his chest once more.

“I only want to understand the situation, but you’ve mistaken the priority.” Bai Ziqi smiled at him and raised one finger. “First, what the gods care about is whether this case is truly connected to the elixir of youth. In other words, whether He Xiao and Crown Prince Fushan Yue are pursuing the correct direction, and whether Zhongsun Mou really did collude with Cen Boqing to deceive the Lord Emperor.”

“Yes!” Fan Sheng bowed his head again, feeling the pressure descend once more. “Before this, it was all this subordinate’s recklessness.”

If he had known earlier that what Zhongsun Mou was meddling with was this damned elixir of youth matter, he would never have gotten involved.

The elixir of youth was one of the gods’ reverse scales.

And now he, too, had been dragged into the mess.

Fortunately, the special envoy sent from above was Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai. As long as he cooperated properly, he might suffer a somewhat lighter punishment.

“Second, the reason I came to investigate at all is that the death of a touring commissioner alarmed the Lord Emperor. And Mai Xuewen is unquestionably the murderer. On that day beneath Chao Lake Tower, thousands of eyes saw it with their own eyes. His public act of violence was a direct provocation against Lingxu City.” Bai Ziqi set down his teacup. “Therefore, the other priority is capturing Mai Xuewen. As for Fushan Yue, his objective is the same as ours—these two points, and no more.”

Fan Sheng nodded once at each sentence. But in the end, he was the one who wound up stunned. After a few breaths of thought, he said, “So, we aren’t investigating them?”

“Investigating what?” Bai Ziqi shook his head. “Your suspicions and mine are only suspicions. They could deflect them with ease. If we can’t catch Mai Xuewen, then we don’t have a shred of evidence with which to accuse them.”

Fan Sheng had been in officialdom long enough that after turning it over a little, he understood. Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai intended, for now, to ignore these minor abnormalities on the Chiyan Crown Prince’s side and focus instead on the two major points.

Which meant that next, they would continue cooperating with Fushan Yue in investigating the case.

Seeing that Bai Ziqi’s brow was still tightly furrowed, Fan Sheng cupped his fists and said, “Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai, how may this subordinate be of service?”

“Cen Boqing is unlikely to recover from this. The next thing to investigate is whether the Minister of Finance was involved as well. Ah, I really did arrive at a wonderful time, all the difficult parts lie ahead.” Bai Ziqi fell into thought. “Actually, when I originally headed south, I had another important matter to handle. But now it seems this courier case I received afterward is actually the one that came first. The two occurred only a few days apart and are both within Chiyan territory. Could there be some connection?”

Fan Sheng listened in confusion. Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai had originally been meant to handle another case?

Bai Ziqi was just about to speak further when Fan Sheng’s personal guard ran in from outside to report, “The Crown Prince of Chiyan’s special envoy had successfully recaptured the fugitive and brought him back into the city in grand fashion!”

He caught him? Bai Ziqi rose to his feet at once. “Good. Deputy Commander Fan, come with me.” Then he instructed Fan Sheng, “If Cen Boqing is arrested, you must immediately seize Cheng Yu. This man is extremely important. He himself is a witness, and his curse arts are highly unusual. He can merge into the firmament. He may prove useful in other ways later.”

“Yes.”

* * *

Not long afterward, another piece of intelligence quietly entered the Cen Residence.

The Crown Prince had, in fact, brought back a mother and son pair from the north as well, both under heavy guard. The mother was only a little over twenty, and the child was just seven or eight years old.

At the time, Cen Boqing had been drinking tea. The moment he heard the report, the teacup crashed onto the table with a bang.

Fushan Yue actually found them?

Between his family and his master, how would Wu Kai choose?

No wonder Yang Song has been captured.

Cen Boqing paced the garden back and forth more than a dozen times before finally resolving to go see Cheng Yu.

Once a decision had been made, he had to move quickly.

Hesitation led only to defeat.

When he saw that Cheng Yu’s soul still slumbered inside the bottle, Cen Boqing was filled with fresh rage. If not for how unbelievably long this man could sleep, would matters ever have deteriorated to such a point?

He ordered a guard to pull the stopper at once.

The little lantern inside the transparent shell immediately went dark, and it seemed as though a thin wisp of smoke slipped out through the mouth.

Only a few breaths later, the curse master opened his eyes.

At first, upon waking, he still looked somewhat dazed. But the moment his gaze focused, he slapped the bed and sprang up, pointing furiously at Cen Boqing. “You pulled the stopper?”

He had not even finished speaking before the world spun around him, and he collapsed over the side of the bed, vomiting violently.

An injury to the soul was the hardest kind to heal. Even for someone like him, twenty or thirty days of quiet recuperation would not have been excessive. But how many days had it been this time?

Most importantly, the shell could only be used once.

He turned to look at the bottle and saw that fine cracks had silently spread all over its surface. It looked as though it would shatter at the slightest touch.

So it’s ruined after all.

“Surrounded by wolves on every side, I couldn’t wait any longer.” Cen Boqing had long wanted to pull the stopper, but Cheng Yu’s words before going into seclusion had been too alarming: if the stopper was pulled early, disaster would surely follow. Considering this man was a powerful curse master, Cen Boqing had endured it for several days, even letting the best opportunity pass him by.

Now that he looked, what consequences were there at all?

He had actually been fooled by this bastard!

A tight bitterness rose in Cen Boqing’s chest. “In the days you slept, the situation in Baishajue changed dramatically. The Crown Prince has already searched my residence.”

Back when Cheng Yu had initially separated his body and soul to rest in two separate places, he had slept seven or eight days before waking, and his complexion had looked much improved.

But now his face had nearly wrinkled into a bitter melon. “You’ve done me great harm! In the isolated dream land, I was in a dispersed-soul state. The moment you pulled the stopper, one of my yin souls slipped away. Who knows how long it will take to recover it?”

“What happens if you lose one yin soul?”

“You become slow-witted, sluggish in action, weak, and prone to illness,” Cheng Yu said irritably. “We curse masters are already physically frail to begin with. Because of this, I may well lose years off my life.”

There was always a price to be paid for spending one’s days in the company of yin and malign forces.

Cen Boqing said coldly, “If you don’t act now, then both you and I may be dead at any moment. What future will there be?”

Cheng Yu rolled his eyes. “And who do you want dealt with this time?”

Only now, looking closely at Lord Cen, did he notice the bloodshot eyes, the sunken eye sockets, the way the man had lost weight. Clearly, these past few days had ground him down terribly.

Cen Boqing hesitated for a moment before saying, “Wu Kai.”

“Wu...” Cheng Yu thought he had misheard. “Your old servant?”

“Yes.”

It looks like a lot really has happened while I was asleep. Cheng Yu coughed twice, his face pale. “Fine. I’ve never liked him much anyway. Where is he?”

“In the hands of Crown Prince Fushan Yue.”

Cheng Yu paused in surprise again. “He was taken?” He had already guessed that Cen Boqing wanted the man silenced. “How do you want him dead?”

“As long as his death has nothing to do with me.”

Cheng Yu thought for too long, and Cen Boqing frowned. “Weren’t you the one boasting that even a king could be cursed to death?”

Under the present circumstances, whatever respect Cen Boqing once had for him was already gone.

Especially since this man had failed to take down He Xiao and had instead suffered backlash. That had left Cen Boqing with serious doubts about his abilities.

“My injuries haven’t healed. My spells are not as sharp as before.” Cheng Yu was dizzy and muddled at the moment, but he still remembered the disastrous failed strike that night.

Even now, he still could not understand how the Hundred-Faced Nightmare could possibly have lost to a mere boy of sixteen or seventeen.

How could a giant whale choke to death on a single krill?

What’s going on with this He Xiao, really?

He said to Cen Boqing, “I need you to prepare a few things for me. Wu Kai’s Four Pillars of Destiny[1], personal belongings, hair or nail clippings, rootless water, cinnabar, a live quail...”

He named more than a dozen items in one breath, several of them quite bizarre.

At this point, Cen Boqing wanted only speed, so he immediately ordered people to fetch everything as specified.

Cheng Yu asked again, “When do we act?”

“The sooner the better, obviously.” Then Cen Boqing added, “But for safety’s sake, we need to make our move first.”

“Ah?” Cheng Yu did not understand.

“Do you remember how you were brought into the Cen Residence?” Cen Boqing said coldly. “Commander Lu already searched this residence once and failed to find you. Do you know why?”

* * *

“The intelligence was only just delivered into the Cen Residence?” He Lingchuan sounded dissatisfied. “Why was it so slow?”

Wu Kai was slippery, and the progress of the case had already fallen two days behind the original plan. That was bad. Delay invited new complications.

“Oh, come on, the other side also has to cooperate, doesn’t it?” Fushan Yue said helplessly. “Right now, Cen Boqing is desperately short of men. If I want to feed him information, I also have to make it look as though his own people found it out. You think that’s easy?”

“The Fan brothers haven’t made any moves these last few days?”

“Fan Sheng’s just been staying with that bear of his. He’s barely moved. Seems he’s behaving himself now.” Fushan Yue snorted. “The day I surrounded the Cen Residence, they didn’t step forward either. Probably lost their nerve.”

The Fan brothers owed their favor to the Zhongsun Family, not to the Cen Family. Even if Cen Boqing lost his head, they likely would not care.

At that, Fushan Yue clapped He Lingchuan on the shoulder. “Honestly, there’s no need for you to go back to Lingxu City at all. Stay in Chiyan. I’ll give you a high post.”

He Lingchuan had not yet had time to answer when a guard hurried in from outside to report to Fushan Yue, “There are visitors outside requesting an audience with Your Highness. One claims to be a cloud envoy, specially dispatched from Lingxu City, bearing the surname Bai. The other is Deputy Commander Fan.”

Fushan Yue started in surprise and exchanged a look with He Lingchuan. Both of them thought the same thing at once:

So they’ve arrived.

But how had they come so quickly?

According to Fushan Yue’s original estimate, the news of Zhongsun Mou’s death should have only just reached the imperial capital about now. Lingxu City should still have been in the middle of its usual quiet power struggle over who would be appointed special envoy. Only after that would the envoy set out, or be transferred in from elsewhere.

By those calculations, however one reckoned it, there should still have been more than twenty days left.

So how could he already be here?

And at precisely this moment, of all times.

When something abnormal happened, trouble always followed close behind.

Fushan Yue’s eyebrows knotted so tightly they nearly tied themselves together. “Why would it be a cloud envoy? That can’t be right.”

It was He Lingchuan’s first time hearing the title. “What exactly is a cloud envoy?”

“On Mount Xu, there is a Heavenly Palace, and inside that palace is Star-Plucking Tower, which exists solely to communicate with the gods. Nearly two thousand attendants serve within it. The person who oversees Star-Plucking Tower is called the Cloud Envoy, and there are principal and deputy positions, both with official rank. Since he’s surnamed Bai, then this must be Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai Ziqi.”

Seizing the moment, He Lingchuan asked the most crucial question of all: “Which faction does he belong to in Lingxu City?”

Every human being sorted themselves left, center, or right. Lingxu City must have weighed the matter carefully before dispatching this special envoy. Just by looking at the man’s background, status, and faction, He Lingchuan could more or less judge Lingxu City’s attitude toward this case.

Did they mean to investigate it to the bitter end, or simply to smooth the disturbance over quickly?

Did they intend to be impartial and iron-faced, or would they still have to account for the tangled relationships within the imperial capital?

1. Just a refresher that this is basically birth data, specifically the time and date of birth and the eight characters of a horoscope. ☜