Chapter 63: Dragon Roar Sword
Liu Yiqing stood near Wenhua Hall, observing its heavy guard—a sentry every five steps, a patrol every three. The strange feeling in her heart grew stronger.
Years of investigative experience had given her an intuition: an over-the-top reaction was often meant to hide something.
Moreover, the recent reports she’d received only deepened her suspicions.
For instance, the elder Crown Prince often hid in his Practice Room, day and night, and he forbade anyone from entering Wenhua Hall. These actions seemed like a cover for something else.
"Go and check if the Eastern Palace has had any unusual expenditures recently, or any personnel changes."
Liu Yiqing dispatched the Female Constables again, but after a thorough investigation, they found nothing out of the ordinary.
"Ma’am, do you think you might be overthinking this?" the Female Constable beside her whispered. "The elder Crown Prince has been like this for a while—jumpy, erratic, and completely mad. He even ignores his own concubines. He’s become even more paranoid ever since Consort Chen taught him a lesson and nearly killed him. This kind of behavior is to be expected."
Liu Yiqing remained noncommittal. In her view, the more unbelievable it seemed to outsiders, the more likely he was the culprit.
It was precisely because no one would suspect him that the killer could act so brazenly.
She pulled out a stack of documents detailing the changes in the Eastern Palace over the years. Its fall from boundless favor to a place where carriages rarely passed was truly lamentable.
No matter how you looked at it, Xia Wuyang was just a decrepit, useless old man. Everyone was just waiting for the day he would die, and he had no experts by his side.
All the evidence indicated it was impossible for this old man to have committed the crime, yet her intuition kept pointing to this seemingly harmless elder.
Just as Liu Yiqing was lost in thought, Xia Wuyang, inside Wenhua Hall, was holding a Qiuci Dancer while his Mental Force Field probed several nearby cats.
"Meow, meow, the Third Prince’s Treasure Sword is so amazing! It actually cries out."
"That’s the Dragon Roar Sword, the Third Prince’s prized Treasure Sword. No outsiders know about it."
"It’s hidden in a secret compartment in his study. I saw it the other day."
"The Third Prince also has lots of Miracle Elixirs. They smell so, so good."
...
Xia Wuyang smiled. He’d been paying attention for days and had finally gleaned some useful information from these little creatures.
’I’ll have to find some time to pay the Third Prince a visit,’ he thought. ’But I’ve heard a First Grade Grandmaster might be guarding his palace, so I’ll need to plan this carefully.’
The smile hadn’t yet faded from his face when he heard the little cats had changed the subject.
"The elder Crown Prince only knows how to sleep with women. Besides sleeping with women, he can’t do anything else."
"Yeah, yeah, the elder Crown Prince is a loser. The loser is the elder Crown Prince."
"I’ve never seen such a useless Crown Prince. Never seen such a stupid Crown Prince."
"I wanna be the Crown Prince! I wanna sleep with she-cats every day!"
...
Xia Wuyang’s face darkened. ’Where did these stupid cats hear this stuff? Slandering me like this...’
Then again, it also proved his acting skills were superb. Even these dumb cats were fooled.
He couldn’t be bothered with them. Xia Wuyang once again transformed into a degenerate—no, he immersed himself in his performance, a woman on each arm, lost in soft, fragrant embraces, oblivious to the world.
The night air, cool as water, settled over the glazed tiles of Wenhua Hall.
Dressed in Night Clothes, Liu Yiqing silently infiltrated Wenhua Hall. The Arrays, mechanisms, and traps were nothing to her. She easily reached the vicinity of the main hall.
Thanks to her current status, she had easily obtained information on Wenhua Hall and was extremely familiar with the layout.
This was mainly because no one paid attention to the elder Crown Prince anymore. Obtaining his information wasn’t difficult, unlike with the Third Prince and Fifth Prince. Almost no one dared to casually pull their files, and it was extremely hard to get them even if they tried.
Combined with Liu Yiqing’s Cultivation as a Fourth Grade Martial Master and her expertise in the Concealment Dao, this task was not difficult for her.
Like a phantom cat, she silently hid among the branches of an ancient tree outside the hall, her figure perfectly concealed by the dense leaves.
But she was well within a hundred meters of Xia Wuyang, so naturally, she had long since been discovered by him, whose Mental Force Field was always active.
He had immediately returned to his Sleeping Palace. His clothes were disheveled, and he had a woman on each arm, surrounded by deeply sleeping Fox Girls, Palace Maids, and Qiuci Dancers. Everything appeared perfectly normal.
Liu Yiqing observed for a long time but found nothing out of the ordinary. She finally retreated quietly, completely unaware that her every move had been watched with perfect clarity by Xia Wuyang.
Xia Wuyang frowned slightly. He hadn’t expected Liu Yiqing to pick up on his subtle abnormalities from just a few clues.
While Liu Yiqing had been observing him, he had used his Soul Capturing Technique to peer into her surface thoughts, learning why she had targeted him.
After Liu Yiqing left, Xia Wuyang was about to return to the Practice Room when a thought struck him, and he didn’t move.
Sure enough, after the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Liu Yiqing returned and continued to watch him. ’This Divine Female Constable is quite vigilant,’ he thought.
But this time, Xia Wuyang didn’t remain sound asleep. Instead, he sat up abruptly, as if startled from a nightmare.
Then, trembling, pale-faced, and shivering all over, he walked toward the Practice Room and soon disappeared inside, not to be seen again.
Liu Yiqing watched secretly, trying to spot any abnormalities in Xia Wuyang.
But no matter how wide she opened her eyes, she couldn’t find anything unusual.
’It seems he doesn’t know I’m nearby. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have chosen this moment to enter the Practice Room. It wasn’t a Disguise.’
Liu Yiqing muttered to herself but didn’t give up. The next evening, she returned to the vicinity of Wenhua Hall.
But tonight, Xia Wuyang wasn’t resting; he was in the middle of revelry.
The Sleeping Palace was brightly lit with candles. Through the carved window lattice, Liu Yiqing could clearly see Xia Wuyang with a woman on each arm, joking with a group of Palace Maids. His full head of white hair was particularly jarring.
She frowned slightly but continued to watch patiently. As an experienced Divine Constable, she knew that the more ordinary things seemed on the surface, the more likely they were to hide untold secrets.
What she didn’t know was that the moment she arrived near Wenhua Hall, Xia Wuyang had already discovered her.
A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched the corners of his lips as his fingertips gently slid across the Fox Girl’s smooth, delicate neck.
"The moonlight is lovely tonight. Why don’t you beauties let Us see the new dance you’ve learned?"
The Fox Girl gave a foxy smile and led a group of her sisters to gather around Xia Wuyang. One by one, they loosened their robes and began to dance gracefully.
Amid the music of strings and bamboo, the Fox Girls were as delicate as flowers. Xia Wuyang feigned enthrallment, completely lost in the moment.
At some point, he had already pounced on the Fox Girls, pushing them to the floor...
Perched in the treetops, Liu Yiqing’s face flushed red, yet she continued to watch carefully, desperately trying to find any clue. But no matter how hard she focused, she found nothing.
Everything was as usual. Everything was normal. There seemed to be nothing strange about the elder Crown Prince.
’Could I really be overthinking this?’ she wondered. ’I’ll observe for a few more days. If I still find nothing, I’ll look for other suspicious leads.’