"Once you've made up your mind, that's fine."

The young prince nodded and entered the courtyard.

When he entered the courtyard, he immediately saw Ye Liunian hanging lifelessly from the beam, and Ming Huan sitting behind her.

Ming Huan propped his head up with one hand, leisurely observing the two men in front of him who were on high alert.

The young prince quickly walked to the two of them, but before he could speak, he heard Ming Huan's voice.

"You're too late, she's already dead."

He joked, as if it were all just trivial matters over tea.

Why did you kill her?

"Do I need a reason to kill someone?" he asked casually, tapping his cheek with his finger.

“You are not Ming Huan.” Tang Nian held her sword and pointed it directly at Ming Huan, who was sitting on the high seat.

“No, I am.” Ming Huan denied without changing his expression. “I’m not one of those puppets. Don’t try to insult me ​​with those failed attempts.”

Tang Nianke would not be swayed by this.

As the Bifang, a symbol of auspicious beasts, how could Minghuan possibly do such a thing?

But she couldn't relax.

If the person in front of her dares to openly impersonate Ming Huan, and can even impersonate Ming Huan's aura, then was the person who was by her side before still Ming Huan? What happened to Ming Huan?

Just then, a voice suddenly came from behind.

"I didn't expect to find you here. I was just worried about not being able to find you."

Tang Nian turned her head and saw Ji Shuhe slowly walk in and stand beside her.

"You know him?" Tang Nian stared at Ji Shuhe with sharp eyes, not missing a single detail on his face.

"He is the troupe leader of Fuyao Opera House."

Ji Shuhe acted as if he were back home, looking relaxed, but Tang Nian noticed that Ji Shuhe's hands were clenched into fists behind his back.

"Your disguise skills are getting more and more exquisite. No wonder they didn't notice anything amiss."

The moment Ming Huan saw Ji Shuhe, his composed demeanor vanished instantly.

He sat up straight, but still glanced at Ji Shuhe with disdain: "Who do we have here? You bastard, you dare to ruin my plans?"

Tang Nian frowned: "Where is Ming Huan?"

"That little bird?" Ming Huan scoffed. "It's dead."

Tang Nian's hands were clenched into fists inside her sleeves, her nails digging into her flesh without any reaction.

She raised her sword and thrust it at Ming Huan, but the moment the tip of her sword touched him, he vanished.

"At Chenshi (7-9 AM) today, at the Fuyao Opera House, don't be late!"

Ming Huan's voice still echoed in the hall, but only four people and Ye Liunian's corpse remained in the room. Tang Nian threw out his longsword and put Ye Liunian down.

"Let's go back first."

Tang Nian found a place in the Ye residence and buried Ye Liunian there.

Back at the inn, Tang Nian sat on a stool with a serious expression and said, "Now you should tell me, Ji Shuhe, what's going on? Do you know him?"

"Yes, I know him."

This time, Ji Shuhe did not deny it.

Although he was still smiling, his white knuckles betrayed his thoughts.

"He and I are half-brothers, sharing the same father but different mothers. He is a pure demon, while I am a half-demon."

"His mother and father were betrothed by marriage within the clan. However, when his father came to the human world for trials, he met my mother in Jingning City, and they pledged their lives to each other, resulting in the birth of me."

"Later, my mother discovered the truth and threatened to kill herself to force my father to take me back to the clan."

"As a half-demon, I was naturally not regarded by my clan, so I left long ago."

"When I returned to Jingning City, my mother had already died. Not long after, he also came to Jingning City and founded the Fuyou Opera House."

Upon hearing this, the young prince couldn't help but interrupt, "Wait, isn't Wang Shu the troupe leader of Fuyao Opera House?"

"He doesn't know how to sing opera. He just found a famous opera singer in the capital and hired him to be the troupe leader of Fuyao Opera House. He was sent to find my mother and me."

"At that time, he thought that it was just killing a person and a half-demon, so why did he need to do it himself?"

Lou Mu asked, "Where are those threads? The ones on Ye Liunian shouldn't be his, right?"

Ji Shuhe nodded: "These threads are indeed mine. I used my threads to get there first. Otherwise, Ye Liunian would have become one of the puppets."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand, revealing a roll of transparent silk thread in his palm: "This is a magical artifact of the Crane Clan. Every adult Crane can choose a magical artifact in the clan's ancestral hall. No, it's the magical artifact that chooses its master."

"These threads are used to manipulate people?"

"How could that be?" Ji Shuhe sneered. "Just like your sword, only he forged it into such an evil object."

Lou Mu raised an eyebrow as he listened: "It seems that this time, you're not only doing this for yourself, but also for your people?"

Ji Shuhe was taken aback, then smiled and withdrew the silk thread: "Young Master Lou is indeed worthy of being a fox spirit, you even know this."

"He was a genius of the Crane Clan, the focus of everyone's attention. His mother was also the daughter of a highly respected elder in the clan, and the clan members all favored him. However, my father forcefully brought me back and voluntarily gave up the position of clan leader, causing him and his mother to lose face."

“My talent isn’t outstanding, but I’m lucky, and I always manage to escape danger. The year I left, the clan’s priest predicted that the clan would face a calamity, and I was the variable that would happen to me, so the clan wanted to bring me back.”

"But it was precisely because of this that he became increasingly dissatisfied with me. When he was undergoing his tribulation, he was possessed by inner demons, entered the demonic path, and fled the clan with the intention of destroying me."

"In the second year after the people of Jingning City were all under control, the chief of the Crane Clan came to me, wanting me to help them destroy him."

Tang Nian asked, puzzled, "Why didn't they make a move?"

Unlike Xiang Liu, the crane is not sealed in a secret realm and cannot enter the world.

"Actually, I don't know what he did. The younger generation in the clan has stagnated in cultivation, and the older generation has regressed. Only I was born into the mortal world early on and escaped this calamity. But my strength is still no match for his."

"What is his weakness?" Tang Nian asked.

“I really don’t know.” Ji Shuhe sighed. “When he first came, he could only control living people with silk threads. Over the years, when I escaped from Jingning City and came back, I discovered these human skin puppets. He even learned to disguise himself. If I hadn’t been so familiar with his aura, I would have been fooled by him too.”

The three exchanged a glance. Even the person who knew him best didn't know this, which was troublesome.

How many years have you been gone?

Ji Shuhe did the math, then said with some uncertainty, "About twenty years."

It's impossible for someone to have cultivated themselves to this level in twenty years without someone behind them.

Tang Nian suddenly remembered what they had previously thought was the mastermind behind the Fuyao Theater: "Do you know the Masked Man?"

"A masked man?" Ji Shuhe's eyes darted around, then he shook his head regretfully. "Never heard of him. He doesn't like wearing masks."

It seems that he wasn't the one who approached Ye's father and Song Shiyan to make a deal.

Given this, he must also be collaborating with other people.