Beneath the moonlit night, the wreckage of the carriage lay silent and still.
*Clack, clack, clack.*
Boots trod upon the lime road, clicks ringing out crisp and clear.
Holding the willow ghost blade radiating an aura of madness, Xu Yuan walked up to the wreckage of the carriage. After gazing at it for a few breaths, he sighed softly:
"Junqing, looks like our guest from across the sea is quite vigilant. Where is your Thousand-Li Dim-Soul Incense?"
Thousand-Li Dim-Soul Incense was a specialized spice. Used in conjunction with a specific secret technique, the user could see the faint traces it left lingering in the air once activated.
Li Junqing, dressed in sharp martial attire, came to a halt beside Xu Yuan. Staring at the already empty wreckage of the carriage, he said,
"On the bodies that just dissolved."
"On the bodies?"
Xu Yuan raised a brow, casting a sideways glance at Li Junqing with slight amusement. "You really are a genius. You drugged the decoys thinking they were the real people?"
Choked by the remark, Li Junqing rolled his eyes and retorted,
"Don't tell me you could tell those two were decoys before we struck?"
"No, I couldn't."
Xu Yuan answered crisply and honestly. "Before we attacked, they truly felt like real people to my perception."
"Then how do you have the nerve to mock me?" Li Junqing snapped back.
"No, that's precisely what's strange."
Golden light flickered within Xu Yuan's crimson pupils as he said somberly,
"My detection arts can see through ordinary Transcendent Realm experts, yet I couldn't distinguish that woman's decoy from her true body."
Hearing this, Li Junqing subconsciously glanced at Xu Yuan. Seeing those eyes gleaming with golden light, he understood and said,
"The Heaven-Deducing Art, huh... Then it seems these guests from across the sea practice cultivation methods that are anything but simple. To actually conceal the connection between decoy and true body..."
There were myriad cultivation arts, and the Great Yan Dynasty had once possessed similar decoy techniques, but such arts had always suffered from an insurmountable flaw.
No matter what means one used to craft a decoy, a bridge of Source Qi or intent-soul was needed to link and control it with the true body, making it easy for others to see through.
Running through the relevant lore in his mind, Li Junqing stepped forward, bent down, and crouched half-low before the carriage wreckage, murmuring thoughtfully,
"In other words, that woman might have attended with a decoy even the first time we met. Perhaps even when she entered the palace for an imperial audience, she—"
"Pfft."
Listening to Li Junqing's analysis, Xu Yuan couldn't help but chuckle. He stepped forward, patted Li Junqing on the shoulder, and said in a low voice,
"Just how little respect do you have for your father to think this Sien princess would dare play tricks right in front of him?"
Though he didn't know the principle behind this decoy art, if Xu Changge could see through it, the man in the palace couldn't possibly miss it.
Li Junqing froze for a second, then gave a soft chuckle and slowly rose to his feet.
"Fair point. I was exaggerating the art's capabilities. But right now, rather than delving into the principles of such a technique, we ought to be considering what the Sien princess's true body was up to while her decoy was meeting with me."
At these words, a thought flashed through Xu Yuan's mind, and his eyes narrowed instinctively.
This subtle shift in expression was instantly caught by Li Junqing, who asked softly,
"What did you think of?"
Xu Yuan sighed softly and uttered four words:
"The Court of State Ceremonial."
"..."
Li Junqing was taken aback, but immediately grasped the meaning behind Xu Yuan's words.
According to Great Yan law, not only was a detachment of the Imperial Guard permanently stationed in the Court of State Ceremonial, but powerful experts operated there year-round, keeping foreign envoys in Di'an City under surveillance under the guise of protection.
For Orenli, pulling off a cicada-shedding-its-skin trick inside the Court of State Ceremonial was practically impossible; she had to go outside to seek an opportunity. Yet whenever envoys went out, the Court would dispatch experts of varying cultivation realms to tail them depending on the situation.
If anything suspicious was discovered during that time, the Court would assign more manpower.
And therein lay the problem.
If an envoy's conduct raised no suspicion while going about, the Court of State Ceremonial would likewise scale back its surveillance.
After all, experts of higher cultivation enjoyed greater freedom; they wouldn't tail someone twenty-four hours a day without break over trivial matters.
And the matter of him, the Third Prince, meeting with the Sien envoys had caused quite a stir across Di'an City over the past half-month. Orenli had likely used this very distraction to make the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial lower his guard, executing a bait-and-switch to handle her own business.
After a few moments of silence, Li Junqing muttered,
"So in the end, we were used by that Sien princess?"
Xu Yuan chuckled.
"You could also say it's a win-win in a certain sense."
"Win-win? She wins against us twice?"
Li Junqing looked rather helpless, throwing up his hands. "She leveraged our scheme to accomplish whatever she wanted inside Di'an City, and now she used our invitation tonight to successfully slip out of Di'an City and flee."
At that, Li Junqing huffed softly.
"Hmph... That damn woman truly is something else, preparing so many contingencies without even knowing what intel we had. Had I known, we should've made our move right inside Di'an City."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan chuckled.
"There are too many eyes watching in Di'an City. While we could guarantee capturing her there, we would also have had to bear the consequences. Could you, the Third Prince, afford them?"
Inside Di'an City, he and Li Junqing held absolute advantages, but also faced heavy constraints.
Xu Yuan's faked death, Li Junqing's ties with the Prime Minister's Manor, and even the court's and Sect Alliance's reactions to the matter all prevented them from acting as they pleased. Consequently, despite their overwhelming advantage, they had left that woman room to maneuver.
Sighing inwardly, Xu Yuan continued in a low voice:
"Besides, there's one thing you overlooked, Junqing."
"What?" Li Junqing raised a brow.
Xu Yuan smiled faintly, lightly driving the willow ghost blade into the lime road beneath his feet.
"As long as she can't get away, then no matter how much she did, it ultimately becomes us winning twice."
Li Junqing's mouth twitched. He coughed softly and said,
"Cut the nonsense. You sensed those two fleeing; I'm guessing Xu Changge told you via voice transmission. Why not call him out so we can pursue together?"
"He won't come out."
Xu Yuan glanced around and shook his head slightly. "Unless my life is in danger, there's a high probability that fellow won't lift a finger tonight."
Li Junqing clicked his tongue at that. "Your big brother sure is finicky. Is he trying to make things harder for us on purpose?"
Xu Yuan shot him a look.
"Still better than your Crown Prince elder brother."
"..."
Meeting his eyes for a moment, Li Junqing sighed and shrugged.
"Fine, fine. I get it, your family is full of brotherly love. Since Xu Changge won't come out, what do we do now? Those two must have fled quite a distance by now. I can't sense their aura at all from here."
Xu Yuan smiled faintly, his fingertip tapping lightly against the hilt of the ghost blade planted in the ground, his gold-glinting crimson eyes fixed on the carriage wreckage before him.
"I've been searching ever since I cleaved this carriage. I'm ready now."
As he spoke, Xu Yuan dragged the willow ghost blade and walked slowly toward the carriage wreckage.
And with his movement, eerie brownish-red fungal carpets began to rustle and emerge from the ground, crawling over the entire carriage wreckage in practically the blink of an eye.
The woods beneath the winter moonlit night were quiet and serene. Watching the bizarre qi dynamics surging around him, Li Junqing's eyelids twitched involuntarily.
He thought of what had occurred in Huizhou County, and of the black curtain that had blotted out the entire firmament that day.
Amid his wandering thoughts, Xu Yuan had already stepped into the carriage wreckage and said in a low voice,
"Though this decoy art of hers is quite marvelous, when it dissipated, residual qi dynamics were inevitably left behind. And my art has already identified those qi dynamics..."
At this point, Xu Yuan's voice paused.
Li Junqing frowned slightly.
"What is it?"
Xu Yuan looked back, parting his lips in amused surprise.
"Whoa... Junqing, that woman left a gift for us here."
"..."
Hearing those words, Li Junqing realized in an instant what was about to happen. Without a second thought, he abandoned Xu Yuan, spun around, and sprinted away.
Fissures spiderwebbed across the hard lime road beneath his feet, and his figure vanished from where he stood.
Almost simultaneously,
An intricate formation pattern glowing with blue light materialized beneath the carriage out of thin air!
Seeing this magnificent formation pattern, the corners of Xu Yuan's lips curled into a smile.
And then—
*Boom!—*
Blue flames surged skyward, billowing into a massive mushroom cloud amidst the quiet mountain forest...
***
Working at sunrise and resting at sunset—such was the life of the vast majority of Great Yan's subjects.
Among the rolling hills and open fields, without the city's bustling lights, the rural folk had long gone to sleep. Here, there was only the quiet moonlight and ink-wash mountains and streams.
How long this silence lasted, none could tell, before an iron-tower-like figure suddenly flickered out of the mountain woods, speeding swiftly across the fields.
His frame was massive and heavy, yet each step he took across the flooded paddies didn't even kick up a splash of water, nor did it make the slightest sound.
His heavy, silver-white armor reflected the moonlight's pristine purity. In his arms, the blonde woman's intricate gothic-style gown accentuated her alluring, curvaceous figure, the crystal-encrusted hem fluttering in the wind as dazzlingly as the stars in the night sky.
The moonlight cast a silver veil over the blonde woman's peerlessly exquisite face, rendering her beauty almost blinding to behold.
Gazing at the landscape of this ancient empire, Orenli's flowing cerulean eyes curved into two crescents. A flash of snowy-white calf peeked beneath her hem, swaying like a sprite in the wind, and her voice held a trace of excitement:
"Sedis, it truly is beautiful here. Compared to the corrupted soil in our empire, this place is like paradise."
After an instant of silence, Huron's muffled voice sounded:
"Aside from that Third Prince and his companion, an exceedingly powerful individual arrived tonight as well, Your Highness."
Hearing this, the smile on Orenli's face instantly vanished.
"Tiresome as always."
As she spoke, the excited glimmer in her eyes faded into darkness. Gazing back toward the direction they had come, she asked:
"If there's someone else besides those two useless fools, why hasn't he acted?"
"I do not know, Your Highness," Huron replied.
Orenli raised a hand to tuck her straight, wind-blown golden hair behind her ear, a smile curling the corners of her lips.
"Could it be he knows he is no match for you?"
"No. That man is strong."
Huron's voice was flat yet solemn. "Even if I exerted all my strength, I fear I could only delay him for a brief moment, Your Highness."
"Oh?"
A flicker of perplexity crossed Orenli's eyes. "In that case, why hasn't he made a move?"
With that, she raised a slender, delicate finger and tapped her cheek lightly, muttering as if answering her own question:
"Then he must be that prince's guardian. Come to think of it, if the ruler of this ancient empire truly wanted our lives, we would have no chance of survival whatsoever."
At this point,
Orenli suddenly burst into a light giggle, her crimson lips looking exceptionally alluring in the night.
"Tee-hee... So wanting to kill us was entirely the decision of those two fools themselves. How laughable. Don't you think, Sedis?"
Carrying the woman bridal-style in both arms, Huron's voice rumbled from inside his armor:
"I implore you not to provoke him. Disperse that magic ring, Your Highness."
A hint of surprise showed in Orenli's beautiful eyes.
"You noticed?"
Huron said in a deep voice,
"When we left earlier, I felt some fluctuations from the magic ring."
"Is that so... It seems my mana circuits still have a few flaws."
Orenli murmured in a low voice, a look of distress on her face.
"I'm afraid I must decline your request, for they triggered the magic ring I laid twenty minutes ago.
"Rest assured, though, I exercised restraint. That prince's life won't be in danger; it will merely cause him some injuries. Consider those wounds a little lesson for this ancient empire's prince."
Saying this, she smiled brightly.
"After all, coveting a lady's body is hardly the conduct of a gentleman."
"..."
After a brief silence, Huron's frame tightened slightly.
"I will defend Your Highness's safety with my life."
Feeling the knight's tension, Orenli furrowed her dark brows.
"Are you truly that afraid of that man?"
Huron's voice remained calm.
"On the day I became your knight, I cast aside fear.
"Yet when that man locked his presence onto me, I nearly lost control and drew my sword."
Hearing this, Orenli looked up slightly toward the full moon hanging high in the sky, exhaling a soft wisp of white mist.
"Then it seems that man must be at least on the level of the Crown Prince... What should we do now, then?"
As she spoke,
Orenli's shimmering golden eyelashes trembled. She reached out a slender jade-like finger, hooking it under the iron-clad chin of her knight.
"Sedis, don't you think the two of us look just like a distressed princess and her knight in a stage play?
"Straying into a foreign realm, pursued by enemies, and then, while depending on each other for survival, touched by your integrity and loyalty, blossoming with mutual affection..."
Her beautiful eyes curved into two crescents:
"How about this? If you can escort me back safely, and win my heart, I shall name you my First Prince Consort..."
"I am your knight, Your Highness," Huron's voice was steady and calm.
Hearing his response, Orenli shook her head gently.
"It is merely a promise I offer you. Don't you find such a promise amusing?"
"Princess Orenli."
A calm, gentle voice descended from the sky, cutting off their conversation. Huron's rapid sprint hitched slightly. He looked toward the source of the voice, the gaze beneath his closed iron visor already filled with gravity.
High above, beneath the full moon, a man clad in luxurious brocade robes stood quietly suspended midair, having appeared without either of them realizing when.
Silhouetted against the moonlight, a pair of alluring crimson eyes glinting with golden light stared quietly down at them.
Gazing down at the two who had halted below, a smile touched the corners of his lips:
"If your knight is unwilling, how about handing that promise over to me for now?"
Chapter 487