"I've read through it. There's nothing special—only a handful of sentences with any value." Lingguang had been delighted upon getting the ancient text, but He Lingchuan was now somewhat disappointed. "Other than crafting the Heart Lamp, does the Bright Lantern Cup have any other use?"
"That, I wouldn't know."
Dong Rui looked at her, unable to hide his curiosity. "What slip-up did you make that tipped off the King of Bo?"
This woman had plotted for so long, and her plans seemed meticulous. How had the King of Bo suddenly discovered that she was the mastermind behind stealing the tribute and framing Bo Kingdom?
"The flaw was likely with Wang Chuanyi, the Assistant Director of the Imperial Medical Bureau," Consort Mei said languidly. "Imperial Physician Chen exposed that he was giving the Second Prince sedatives rather than improving his condition, which unseated Wang Chuanyi and allowed Chen to take his place. In hindsight, the King of Bo probably guessed that I used his hand to sever Wang Chuanyi's head."
"You had a grudge against Wang Chuanyi?"
"He was the one ordered to concoct the poisoned wine and force it down my father's throat." Consort Mei stated her truth. "Every single one of the King of Bo's claws and accomplices deserves to die! I won't spare a single one! But I was indeed too impatient back then; he should have been the last person I dealt with."
A single small mistake had exposed her.
"Of course, there is another possibility: you." She pointed at He Lingchuan.
He Lingchuan was surprised. "Me?"
"In Xun City, Nangong Yan wanted to make trouble for you, and I stopped him," Consort Mei said wistfully. "Nangong Yan was always suspicious of me; I shouldn't have meddled right under his nose."
Dong Rui asked her, "Why did you help us?"
"I thought you were merely innocent passersby," Consort Mei sighed. "Indiscriminate arrests and wrongful killings were second nature to the Feather Guards. If I could save one person, that was one person; if I could save a pair, that was a pair."
"How surprisingly kind of you."
"In truth, you didn't need my help at all, did you?" Consort Mei shifted her posture against the wall. "Nangong Yan was killed by you two later on, wasn't he?"
He Lingchuan kept quiet, but Dong Rui chimed in first: "He and his Gold Guards weren't easy to kill."
Consort Mei looked at Dong Rui, her lovely eyes fixed deeply on him. "At least half of the King of Bo's wicked deeds were carried out by Nangong Yan. That man committed monstrous crimes, yet no one in Bo Kingdom could rival him. In ridding the people of evil, you two accomplished a tremendous deed—the common folk are weeping tears of gratitude. Why bother being unsung heroes?"
Hearing such gentle, sweet praise from a beauty, Dong Rui's chest puffed out unconsciously.
He Lingchuan, however, remained unmoved. "The 'Elder Cao' who secretly traded the Bright Lantern Cup to Bo Kingdom—that was an impersonation by you, wasn't it?"
Elder Cao himself had vigorously denied it, supported by the testimony of numerous disciples of the Xiaoyao Sect, which meant the one who truly handed the Bright Lantern Cup to the King of Bo was an impostor.
The moment he brought the conversation back to business, Consort Mei pouted her lips and had to admit, "Mm, it was me."
"How did you do it?"
Consort Mei subconsciously bit her lip, retrieved an item, and reluctantly handed it over.
The object was rounded and blunt, slightly reddish in color, with what appeared to be a layer of short, fine velvet fuzz on its surface.
"Looks like deer antler velvet." Dong Rui leaned in to look. "What is this?"
"A mirage horn."
This answer was completely unexpected, and both men were surprised. "What?"
"It's a horn shed by a mirage demon long ago."
"Merely an illusion from a mirage demon—and you were confident you could fool the King of Bo's emissary and troops?"
Even though primordial power was faint in Bo Kingdom, seeing through a slight illusion might not require much primordial power, and the Bo emissary possessed some cultivation of his own. Most importantly, Consort Mei's scheme had to succeed with zero margin for failure; without absolute certainty, would she have dared to attempt it?
On Second Madame Zhu's Pansi Island, there was also a mirage demon whose appearance He Lingchuan did not know either.
However, that was because it never showed itself before He Lingchuan, and he did not care to force it.
According to Second Madame Zhu, mirage demons took diverse and non-uniform forms.
It was a peculiar and rare demonic species.
Having handed over the treasure that preserved her life, Consort Mei said dejectedly, "An ordinary illusion might not suffice, but this mirage demon was an ancient grand immortal!"
An ancient grand immortal? A strange thought struck He Lingchuan.
Could it be?
"Which one? Does he have a title?"
"His exalted title was 'Perfected Qianhuan.'"
He Lingchuan and Dong Rui exchanged glances, speechless for a long while.
Their Lingshan mission slated for more than a year from now—a lead for it was surfacing at this time and in this place?
"Such a rare treasure—how did you acquire it?"
"My father once stumbled upon an ancient immortal's cache, and the mirage horns were among the items," Consort Mei said indifferently. "These mirage horns originally came as a pair; I used the other on Baimao Mountain."
"The Bright Lantern Cup?" He Lingchuan understood now. "You never laid a hand on the Shadow Tooth Guard, did you?"
"No," Consort Mei nodded. "If I had skill like that, why would I have needed to borrow the power of Mou Kingdom for revenge?"
"Hold on." Dong Rui listened in bewilderment. "Then how was the Bright Lantern Cup in the Shadow Tooth Guard's possession stolen?"
He Lingchuan laid it bare in a single sentence: "The Shadow Tooth Guard never obtained the Bright Lantern Cup in the first place, so there was never any theft."
"When the Bright Lantern Cup matured, I climbed Baimao Mountain ahead of time, harvested it, and then used one mirage horn to transform into the likeness of the Bright Lantern Cup so the Shadow Tooth Guard would take it away." Consort Mei pointed at the mirage horn. "This fabrication could last three days, and even those with great supernatural powers might not see through it. But once the mirage horn materialized into a tangible object, once the three-day limit passed, it would vanish on its own."
"Three days," He Lingchuan realized. "Yet after the Shadow Tooth Guard took the fake Bright Lantern Cup, they moved too quickly, so you had driftwood clog Julu Port to delay them from boarding their ships."
"Heaven was on my side—at the time, there happened to be a fleet transporting timber."
When the Shadow Tooth Guard discovered the Bright Lantern Cup had vanished before boarding, they naturally wouldn't leave, and began hunting for the thief.
Consort Mei only had to guide them toward Bo Kingdom.
Dong Rui grunted thoughtfully. "Elder Wu of the Xiaoyao Sect—was he an accomplice of yours too?"
"Not at all. It was merely a fortuitous encounter; we met a few times."
She put special emphasis on the words "fortuitous encounter."
"The moment I laid eyes on that man, I knew he was a lecher. Yet he insisted on speaking to me with that sanctimonious demeanor." Consort Mei brushed a stray lock of hair at her temple and smiled faintly. "I have no shortage of ways to handle men like that. A few rounds of drinks with him, and he was baring his soul to me. A little medicine slipped into his drink, and he told me the passphrase for the Bright Lantern Cup."
"Afterward, I left. He never knew my real identity." Not until He Lingchuan showed Consort Mei's wanted poster to Elder Wu.
Hearing this, both He Lingchuan and Dong Rui felt a slight chill. Even if Elder Wu was lustful, to have climbed to the position of an elder in the Xiaoyao Sect and hold the passphrase for the Bright Lantern Cup meant he was genuinely capable.
Yet such a cultivator had surrendered unconditionally and suffered complete defeat before Consort Mei?
Ahem, indeed, lust was a bone-scraping steel knife.
"Where did the red cord on your wrist come from?"
"This?" Consort Mei raised her wrist, revealing the red cord. "It was also part of my father's collection."
Dong Rui couldn't help asking, "Who was your father?"
How could he collect so many wondrous curios?
"My father was Mai Liansheng." A trace of sorrow showed in Consort Mei's eyes. "He once assisted the former King of Bo in raising troops, only to be executed by him after the kingdom was founded!"
He Lingchuan realized: "So it was that Lord Mai."
When he first arrived in the capital of Bo Kingdom, he had encountered imperial guards hunting down "rebel remnants," which was also the charge pinned on Jin Bai and the Shadow Tooth Guard—the Mai faction.
He had even seen commoners secretly burning joss paper in the dark alleys of Bodu, worshipping a memorial tablet dedicated to Lord Mai.
Burning paper money for Mai Liansheng carried great risk, yet people still did it.
"My father governed benevolently and loved the people, winning their deep support, only to be suspected by the King of Bo and bestowed poisoned wine to die! I was nine years old that year and witnessed my family's ruin with my own eyes." Consort Mei said softly, "Over the years, people have repeatedly raised rebellions in my father's name, though none succeeded."
Mai Liansheng had such popular support in Bo Kingdom that rebels even fought under his banner.
He Lingchuan suddenly asked, "Was the Second Prince of Bo's madness also related to you?"
"In this world, good people don't live long, while scourges last a thousand years. If I hadn't made a move, how would he have gone mad out of nowhere?" Consort Mei said softly. "The Second Prince was no saint either—cruel, suspicious, very much in his father's image. Ha, the irony: before he lost his mind, even the old King of Bo was quite wary of him."
This woman could ruin whoever she pleased; Dong Rui felt more and more admiration for her. "How did you drive him mad? Poison?"
"The King of Bo and his son committed so many atrocities that they were extraordinarily cautious about what they ate and drank. I've been in the palace for over two years, yet the King of Bo never ate meals with me, never kept me for the night, and even when drinking wine, he drank from his own cup and I drank from mine. I couldn't drug them at all." Perhaps her legs had gone numb, for Consort Mei shifted her sitting posture. Under the sculpting candlelight, her slender figure inadvertently radiated a hint of bewitching allure.
Dong Rui was momentarily entranced. From any angle, this woman seemed completely flawless.
"However, what the Second Prince loved most was coveting his royal father's possessions—especially those he could never have. All I had to do was appear before him a few times and treat him with an icy cold shoulder, and he naturally became intrigued by me."
"The more interested he grew, the more I ignored him, even admonishing him to conduct himself with dignity. Finally, on one occasion, the Second Prince couldn't hold back anymore and tried to force himself on me, only to be caught red-handed by his father!" Consort Mei pouted, gazing down at her slender, translucent nails. "From then on, whenever the Second Prince saw me, a flame burned in his eyes."
The unreachable is always in turmoil.
"His character was wretched, but his talent for cultivation was exceptional. What he cultivated was an orthodox mental cultivation method that the King of Bo spent a fortune to obtain for him. That method produces rapid results and immense power; its only flaw is that it demands extreme focus from the practitioner. The slightest lapse, and..." Consort Mei shrugged. "So I arranged to go with the King of Bo to the hot springs at the traveling palace, indulging in every pleasure, and 'happened' to be caught in the act by him. Ha, he hid in the bushes peeping, thinking I was unaware! That very night, he suffered cultivation deviation."
Dong Rui gave her a thumbs-up. "Brilliant, truly brilliant!"
A glistening wet beauty, a voluptuous body, melodious soft moans, and all sorts of unspeakable acts with his own father. To say nothing of the Second Prince, who already harbored improper desires for her, any other man would have felt his passions inflamed, and during cultivation, his qi and blood would surely reverse course.
This she-demon didn't need a blade to kill.
"It's a pity I didn't get to see the King of Bo die with my own eyes." Consort Mei looked up and asked He Lingchuan, "Was it painful for him? Did he suffer?"
Chapter 1135