Chapter 55: When in Doubt, Take the Silly Girl for a Walk

“His Highness has been gone for over four days. I wonder when he’ll return.”

At noon, Mendu sighed as he stood in the empty courtyard. 

Without His Highness, the King of Chu’s mansion felt a bit colder.

“Mendu, prepare some food. I’m hungry,” Shen Yian’s lazy voice suddenly came from the room as the door opened.

“Y-Your Highness?” Mendu turned his head mechanically.

“Your Highness! When did you—mmph!”

Before Mendu could raise his voice, Shen Yian sent a leaf flying through the air to cover Mendu’s mouth.

“Shh! When did I ever leave the mansion?”

“I’ve just been unwell these past few days and didn’t leave my room, that’s all.”

Mendu’s eyes widened as he nodded repeatedly like a pecking chick.

Shen Yian dissipated the force on the leaf, and Mendu finally managed to ask in a hushed voice: “Your Highness, when did you return? Why didn’t you notify this servant?”

“Late last night. I was tired when I got back, so I rested first.”

“Oh, I see. What would you like to eat, Your Highness? This servant will arrange it right away.”

Mendu responded with a beaming smile, naturally delighted that His Highness had returned safely.

“You decide. Oh, and Mendu, has anyone come looking for me these past few days?”

“Yes, Your Highness. The day before yesterday, Young Master Du from the Duke of Anguo’s mansion and a page from the academy came. Yesterday, His Highness the King of Song visited and brought you a set of golden tableware. This morning, Miss Jinxiu from the Duke of State’s mansion also came by.”

Shen Yian nodded, “Did they say what it was about?”

“Young Master Du came to invite Your Highness to a banquet. The page asked why Your Highness hasn’t been to the academy. His Highness the King of Song heard that Your Highness’s precious self was unwell and came specially to advise you to rest well. Miss Jinxiu left after hearing from the doorkeeper that the mansion wasn’t receiving guests,” Mendu replied truthfully, counting on his fingers.

Shen Yian nodded after a brief moment of contemplation.

Du Dunming and the page’s intentions were clear. Shen Jingyu’s visit was undoubtedly about the matters in Suzhou. As for Jinxiu, she was obviously checking on behalf of Liyan whether he had returned.

“Very well, I understand. Go arrange the meal now.”

“Yes, Your Highness. This servant will see to it right away!”

After finishing his meal, as noon approached, Shen Yian went to his study and summoned Yin Hai and Fu Sheng.

“Fu Sheng, have there been any unexpected visitors to the mansion these days?”

“Your Highness, the day before yesterday, someone dropped this into the mansion’s pond. It contained a sealed evil spirit.”

Fu Sheng presented a small blood-red jar with both hands. The mouth of the jar was wrapped with black rope, and the top was sealed with a blood talisman. Apart from looking eerie, it seemed no different from an ordinary jar.

“This is…” Shen Yian’s eyes flashed with killing intent.

Having roamed the martial arts world for so many years, his experience had reached a certain level. He immediately recognized this object as a “spirit-nurturing jar”, something often used by those witches from the ancient Yue region.

Shen Yian placed his hand on the jar, sensing a powerful evil spirit trapped inside, restrained by several blood talismans sealing the top.

“It really is a spirit-nurturing jar,” Shen Yian said, suppressing his anger to avoid crushing the jar.

This jar could only be opened by its master to release the evil spirit, or it would wait for an opportunity when the spirit inside grew strong enough to break the seal itself.

An opportunity… 

His wedding, perhaps?

Evil spirits embody the concept of ‘sha’ or negative energy. Even joyous energy, in their view, is just another form of ‘sha’ that can be assimilated – a ‘joy sha’!

The scale and grandeur of a prince’s wedding would be immense. If the overwhelming joyous energy were to be transformed into ‘joy sha’ and absorbed by the evil spirit in the jar, one can imagine how drastically its power would increase. This was clearly an attempt to massacre his entire King of Chu mansion!

It was likely a group operation. For them to dare such a move, they must have ways to conceal their actions from heaven’s eyes and have made thorough preparations. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even get past Lu Wenxuan’s defenses.

Shen Yian took a deep breath. Well, they had prepared quite a welcome gift for his return.

“Fu Sheng, what do you mean by ‘something’? Was it not a person?”

“Your Highness, after dropping the jar, they vanished,” Fu Sheng reported truthfully what he had witnessed.

Two nights ago, at midnight, he heard an unusual sound from the water and went to investigate. When he reached the back garden, the water’s surface was still rippling. A shadowy figure in mid-air flickered and disappeared. He dove into the pool and found this spirit-nurturing jar.

“Something you couldn’t detect… could it be another evil spirit?” Shen Yian frowned.

Those witches had mastered the art of nurturing evil spirits, creating special ones for different purposes.

“Your Highness, shall I dispose of this jar?” Fu Sheng volunteered.

“No, not yet. Keep it safe. Let’s not alert them for now. Wait for Ghost Face and the others to arrive!” Shen Yian said firmly.

Ghost Face was an expert in this field. Finding the jar’s owner through secret methods wouldn’t be difficult.

He had considered taking the jar to the Heavenly Gate Pavilion to find Lu Wenxuan. But on second thought, that would complicate matters. A simple, direct solution would be better.

Whether it was the witch who planted the spirit or the people behind them, he very much wanted to have a face-to-face chat with them.

It would be perfect to discuss with his old man about the wonders of the ancient Yue region after the wedding, when he had more time.

Anger aside, and putting aside his desire to cut someone down, there were still many matters to attend to.

After calming himself, Shen Yian instructed, “Yin Hai, notify the merchant guild to find skilled carpenters. Have them make 3,000 small peach wood swords, each one foot long, using the finest peach wood. The sooner, the better.”

Yin Hai immediately understood the purpose of these 3,000 peach wood swords and bowed, “Yes, Your Highness.”

Borrowing three thousand swords meant returning three thousand swords.

Just thinking about the workload was enough to give Shen Yian a headache.

Borrowing swords is fun, but returning them is exhausting.

Shen Yian’s fingers kept tapping on the desk. After pondering for half an incense stick’s time, he still couldn’t think of anyone who would harbor such deep hatred towards him.

Those few families wouldn’t be so foolish; this completely went against their interests. They wouldn’t dare gamble on whether the old man could investigate them or not. Today’s Emperor Wu was not the same as the Emperor Wu of yesterday.

First came the assassin’s harassment, and now this spirit-nurturing jar.

If the former was a test, the latter was clearly meant to eradicate him and the Ye family.

If everything unfolded as the opponent had planned, with the entire prince’s mansion slaughtered by evil spirits, the label of ‘bringer of calamity’ would be firmly placed on Ye Liyan’s head, and the Ye family would inevitably be implicated.

Even if they miraculously survived, the commotion caused by the evil spirits would be enough to set the whole city abuzz with rumors.

Attracting evil spirits on the wedding day.

Heh…

Shen Yian could already imagine how ugly people’s malice would be at that time.

“Yin Hai, please trouble yourself to contact Chou Niu. Help me organize the information on those families’ assets.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Walking out of the study, Shen Yian stood quietly in the sun for a while. Taking out all the local specialties, he called out, “Mendu!”

“Your Highness!” Mendu quickly ran over.

“Divide these local specialties into three portions. Prepare two carriages and bring one portion.”

“Your Highness, to the Duke of State’s mansion?”

“Mm!”

Not having seen her for many days, he missed her terribly.

(When in doubt, take the silly girl for a walk.)