"Lord Ju, please take a look and see whether this matter needs to be reported," Ling Ge added.
Ju Nanyi hesitated only for a mont. Although he was not acquainted with Ling Ge, and their first collaboration was only at Siyan Lake, Ju could tell that Ling Ge was soone who could keep his composure. Therefore, he nodded and gestured for Commander-in-Chief Ling to lead the way.
Ling Ge, not daring to delay, imdiately went ahead. The night was like a curtain falling. Ling Ge hurried along, quickly leading Ju Nanyi through the darkness. After a quarter of an hour, they stopped in a secluded alley near the Eldest Princess Mansion.
"Our n were on patrol and encountered that... monster," Ling Ge didn’t know how else to describe it, and the first words that ca to mind were ’monster.’
The people in the alley who saw Ling Ge coming imdiately had two guards rushing over, their expressions a mix of bewildernt and indescribable unease.
Without saying much, Ling Ge followed the guards further inside. After walking another few dozen ters, he stopped.
"Lord Ju has arrived."
Ju Nanyi saw a body covered with a black cloth on the ground. A robust guard lifted the cloth, and in the darkness, Ju felt that what he saw was not a person, but a mummified corpse.
A corpse drained of all moisture, with skin clinging to bone, its open mouth terrifying and fierce, silently screaming. The clothes on the deceased hung loose, like a child wearing an adult’s attire, indicating that the guard’s stature must have been much larger in life.
Ju Nanyi crouched down and touched the mummy, its skin like withered tree bark.
Seeing this, Ling Ge gave Ju Nanyi even more respect. A civil official who could face such a horrifying corpse without changing expression, and even touch it by hand, was calr than so of his guards who were used to blood.
"Lord Ju, Brother Yu Ming was still alive, taller and stronger than —just half an hour ago," a guard couldn’t help but speak up.
Ju Nanyi withdrew his hand and stood up, glancing at the speaker and giving a slight nod.
"Lord Ling, may I have a word with you?" Ju Nanyi looked at Ling Ge, who instantly walked to a corner of the wall.
"What does Lord Ling think is behind this?" Ju Nanyi rembered that upon arriving, Ling Ge had said the murderer was not human. This term wasn’t used loosely but referred to a sort of inhuman monster, once a legend in Nanzheng State. These monsters were said to drain people’s essence and blood, turning them into mummified corpses.
And such creatures, as Qiandao Temple’s influence grew more extensive in Nanzheng State, had long since disappeared.
Ling Ge nodded upon hearing this.
"Although I’m not entirely certain, my n reported a strange wind. That monster seed like a huge bat, lifting my man into the air, and by the ti he was thrown back down, he had already beco this," Ling Ge said with an expression difficult to decipher as sadness, for the victim was one of his most dependable subordinates.
"Then, I would like to ask Lord Ling another question. What mission did your n have in this desolate place at midnight?" Ju Nanyi glanced at Ling Ge. "If it’s inconvenient for you to say..."
"There’s nothing inconvenient. We were following the Crown Prince’s orders to dispatch personnel to the Eldest Princess Mansion and the incident happened during the shift change."
Ling Ge suddenly paused, looking at Ju Nanyi but remaining silent. However, his thoughts involuntarily drifted to a person.
The Eldest Princess, a very strange person in the Eldest Princess Mansion, whose origins Ling Ge knew nothing of. However, Ling Ge was aware that this person was extrely peculiar and entirely different from their ordinary guards.
He had only seen this guard, who always followed the Eldest Princess, act once, and the techniques used were so bizarre they were beyond the reach of ordinary people.
"Has Lord Ling thought of sothing?"
Ling Ge shook his head with a bitter smile, indicating he hadn’t.
"In that case, Lord Ling, although I am but a subordinate, let us make a trip to the Crown Prince’s Mansion together. Since this matter involves the Eldest Princess Mansion, it is no ordinary affair."
Ling Ge quickly nodded, gave a few instructions to his n, and imdiately followed Ju Nanyi toward the Crown Prince’s Mansion.
...
Well into the night, the lights of the Jiumu Aristocratic Clan had not rested since they were lit. The physician summoned had never felt such imnse pressure, but after a hectic period of activity, fortunately, the soldier’s body was resilient. Despite several severe knife wounds, he still managed to wake up.
Upon awakening, he first displayed a terrified expression, flailing his arms about, almost tearing open his freshly bandaged wounds.
"Uncle Li, tell him quickly we are inside the Jiumu Mansion," Xia Zhiqian imdiately spoke up.
"Soldier, soldier, I am the steward of the Jiumu Mansion," Uncle Li hurriedly grabbed the man’s hand, not expecting the soldier to be so strong that he nearly threw Uncle Li out.
Hearing the words Jiumu, the soldier’s hands froze mid-air. He struggled to open his swollen eyes, which were re slits, straining to see everything before him.
"Soldier, are you under Ding General’s command? The one before you is Ding General’s mother, and also Ding General’s younger sister," Uncle Li said at once.
At those words, the soldier imdiately tried to struggle into a sitting position.
"Soldier, don’t move. If you can’t speak, then I will ask, and if it’s correct, nod your head; if not, shake your head, alright?"
The man lying on the lounge chair nodded slightly, the voice in his ear seemingly bestowing upon him Ding General’s calm and astuteness.
"My brother has run into trouble?" The man shook his head, and imdiately, everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief, while Madam Xia could not stop her tears from falling again.
"Then you have an important ssage to send back to Zheng Capital?" Xia Zhiqian imdiately asked again, not indulging herself in the previous joy for long.
The man quickly nodded eagerly, his hands starting to flail, but his arm moved uncontrollably, making it unclear what he was trying to point at.
"Are you saying that the item is on you?" Xia Zhiqian asked sharply, to which the man nodded imdiately, finding the general’s sister to be exceedingly smart.
Xia Zhiqian looked at Uncle Li, who then gingerly searched the man’s body, turning him over until finally, in a crevice, he found a bamboo tube the thickness of a finger wrapped in sheepskin with both ends sealed in wax— a common thod for securing an urgent secret ssage.
Uncle Li promptly handed the item to his young mistress’s hands. Xia Zhiqian was taken aback; although she had so ideas, she had never experienced these things and didn’t know what to do now.
"To whom should I deliver this letter to?"
The man opened his mouth to speak but found he couldn’t make a sound and only hoarsely uttered two words.
The Crown Prince? Xia Zhiqian furrowed her brows; she wasn’t certain she could et with the Crown Prince. But if Uncle Li were to go, he might not even be able to enter the doors.
"The Crown Prince?" Xia Zhiqian asked again for confirmation.
The man nodded imdiately.
"Miss," Uncle Li hesitated, feeling that even in urgent tis, they could only go to the Crown Prince’s Mansion co the dawn of the next day.
Xia Zhiqian bit her lip and glanced at the bamboo tube in her hand.
"Uncle Li, accompany on a trip," she said.
"Now, Zhiqian? How can you go as a lady? You mustn’t go," Madam Xia was the first to object.
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