Night Demon

A Qiu was half-believing and half-doubting, but she couldn't help but follow her instructions and walk to Shangguan Yuqi's side. She counted to the seventh blue brick with dragon patterns and tapped it lightly with her finger. Sure enough, she found that the wall was hollow inside, which was mysterious. Without further hesitation, she lifted the brick and took it down. Sure enough, she saw a small, smooth bronze mirror embedded in it, which was at the perfect angle to reflect the situation outside the forbidden room.

He could still hear Chu Yuanyi proudly saying, "This secret chamber was built more than thirty years ago when Empress Dezong listened to my advice, and I planned and built it all by myself. How about it, not bad, right?"

As A Qiu observed, he secretly admired the ingenuity of the mechanism. If an ordinary person were to spy nearby, even if they tried their best to conceal their gaze, they would inevitably be detected by a martial arts master. However, thanks to the triple refraction of this monitoring bronze mirror, the presence of a person would be almost imperceptible, truly a masterpiece of craftsmanship.

Hearing that this room was actually built at Chu Yuanyi's suggestion, she was somewhat surprised. She couldn't help but blurt out, "Auntie must have been highly trusted and relied upon by the Empress at that time." Of course, this was obvious. Empress Dezong was the mother of Sima Yan. If Chu Yuanyi hadn't been highly trusted and relied upon by her, Sima Yan wouldn't have grown up under Chu Yuanyi's care. Even after he ascended the throne, he still placed Chu Yuanyi by his Empress's side as the head aunt of the palace.

After hearing this, Chu Yuanyi remained silent for a long time before sighing, "When I built this secret chamber, I was protecting it for generations to come. Qiwu Palace has always been the residence of the Empress and the legitimate sons and daughters of the Empress. I thought that if there was war or any other disaster, the children would have a place to stay and could escape with their lives. Who knew that we would be tricked in the end? Alas!"

Despite hearing just a few simple words, A-Qiu couldn't help but feel moved.

Chu Yuanyi's proposal considered the future of every empress. The loyalty of the Four Stars of Tianji to the Sima family can be described as unwavering.

Shangguan Yuqi had been listening intently to the sounds outside. At this moment, she gestured for the two of them to be quiet, indicating that someone was coming.

Sure enough, just a wall away, A Qiu also heard the faint, ethereal sound of bells ringing out, one after another, aimlessly drifting, as if calling out to a soul.

The three people inside the secret room were all martial arts masters. They immediately reduced their breathing and heart rate to the lowest level, fearing that they would be discovered by the people outside.

"Ring..." A faint, lonely sound seemed to come from a vast, empty dream.

"Ring..." The sound grew closer and closer, heading precisely towards the forbidden room.

At the same time, there was the sound of a cane being tapped on the ground. "Tap, tap-tap."

The sound of the cane striking the ground created a strange harmony with the ethereal sound of the bell, a call and response, a light and heavy interplay. But to A Qiu, the rhythm was peculiar and strange, with an indescribable sense of oppression.

In addition, there was the sound of extremely heavy footsteps and panting, as if someone was dragging something. The panting sounded like the bellowing of a bull.

The man's footsteps and panting sounded extremely familiar to A Qiu, as if she had heard them somewhere before.

Although the noise made by this one person was quite loud, almost drowning out the sounds of bells and canes, Ah Qiu's hearing was so sharp that she clearly distinguished that there were not just one person, but four.

Besides the person dragging a heavy load with clumsy steps, there were two others who seemed to float along without touching the ground, one on the left and one on the right. Presumably, these were the person with the bell and the person with the cane.

Behind the three, there was another person following closely behind, whose footwork was light and agile, clearly demonstrating superior lightness skill.

Before she could ponder who the visitors were, the images of four people appeared in the bronze mirror.

The moment A-Qiu saw the person who had arrived, she immediately realized why the person's panting felt familiar.

The person walking with his head bowed, dragging a golden heavy sword backwards, and his hair disheveled, was none other than Emperor Xie Lang, who had been bedridden for a long time.

At this moment, his dark dragon robe was loose, and his long hair covered half of his face. His face was not visible in the shadows, but the shimmering dragon scale embroidery on the folds of his robe clearly identified him.

What he was dragging in his hand was the seven-foot-long imperial weapon, the "Ancestral Dragon" heavy sword, cast entirely in gold and adorned with brilliant patterns.

Ah Qiu had witnessed this scene before in the Jixian Palace late at night, and now, history was repeating itself so clearly before her eyes.

Xie Lang would stop after each step, panting heavily.

It was probably because he was seriously ill and lacked the strength to continue.

The person to his left was a woman with her hair braided into colorful braids, the ends of which dangled bells. Most striking was the bell-and-scepter she held, decorated with deer antler patterns. The ethereal, distant sound of the bells was produced by her shaking the bell-and-scepter.

The man to his right was a tall, dark-skinned man with long, slanted eyebrows that swept into his temples. The sound of the heavy staff hitting the ground was from him striking the ground with his bone staff.

These two people were Qi Luo and Qi Shang, whom both A Qiu and Shangguan Yuqi had met before.

The one who remained neither too close nor too distant, with his hands behind his back, was none other than Zhao Lingying, the "Master of Writing."

Upon seeing this strange scene, A Qiu immediately recalled what she had said to Zhao Lingying before they parted ways at Qiwu Palace: "I can't find any clues about this matter from the Great Shaman, so I can only rely on His Majesty."

Zhao Lingying brought the great sorceress from afar in order to find the orphan of Empress Shangguan from the end of the Huan Dynasty. Presumably, she used some means to make the great sorceress lead Xie Lang here, her purpose being to get the child's whereabouts from Xie Lang.

Zhao Lingying once explained to A Qiu that Xie Lang was the most favored imperial guard of the last emperor at the time, and if the emperor wanted to do something in private or get rid of someone, he would usually carry it out.

Many things shifted rapidly in A Qiu's mind, seemingly merging into a clear line, yet also becoming chaotic.

Xie Lang. Child.

Whether it's Zhao Lingying in reality, Xie Lang, Chu Yuanyi, or Su Jinlan in dreams, they all repeatedly mention "that child," the heir of the previous dynasty and the orphan of Empress Shangguan.

But according to what A-Qiu saw in her dream, she was alone in the secret room, and there were no children there.

An unbelievable thought came to her mind, a thought she had been trying to avoid and refusing to delve into all along.

"That child."

If this matter truly involves Xie Lang, she already roughly knows the final whereabouts of "that child".

In the Liyang Palace, at the end of that dream, Xie Lang approached her expressionlessly, looking down at her from above.

"You were never meant to be in this world, go into the belly of the snake."

Shangguan Yuqi noticed that A Qiu's expression was constantly changing, shifting between light and dark. Since she had known A Qiu, she had never seen her emotions fluctuate so clearly, and she immediately sensed that something was amiss outside.

She immediately patted A-Qiu's shoulder, signaling her to let her take a look.

This slap seemed to pull A-Qiu back from a nightmare to the real world. She smiled gratefully at Shangguan Yuqi and turned to let her see.

In truth, for an assassin to be so caught off guard and have someone pat him on the shoulder is almost impossible under normal circumstances. But almost instinctively, A Qiu had absolutely no defenses against Shangguan Yuqi.

Seeing Shangguan Yuqi looking at the situation outside the forbidden area, her brows furrowed.

Of these three, the two high priests and Zhao Lingying, Shangguan Yuqi and A Qiu had met together before, so they could guess what Zhao Lingying wanted to do.

However, if the monarch Xie Lang of Dayan is brought here by witchcraft, and something happens to him, the central government will be shaken. Gu Yi is not here, and at this time of internal and external troubles, it is not a good thing.

Suddenly, the outside world fell silent; the ringing of the bell and the sound of the bone cane striking the ground both stopped abruptly.

Suddenly, Shangguan Yuqi noticed that the witch Qi Luo glanced quickly toward the bronze mirror before looking away.

Shangguan Yuqi felt a chill run down her spine and dared not look any longer. She turned to A Qiu and whispered, "She has probably discovered us."

Chu Yuanyi grunted and said in disbelief, "This bronze mirror refracts three times. This mechanism was developed by my senior brother An. It is ingenious and minimizes the impact on human vision. I have personally tested it. Even if I am outside, I would not be able to detect that someone is spying on me if I did not know it beforehand."

A-Qiu knew that the Zhu You Sect possessed its own methods for surveying terrain and geography, as well as detecting the environment and the properties of objects. She suspected that Qi Luo would have noticed the unusual activity here long ago. As for the bronze mirror device, she must have had some suspicions to have discovered the anomaly.

All that could be heard was the extremely gentle voice of the Great Shaman Qi Shang: "Do not be afraid. Once you find the child, you will be free."

He coaxed patiently, lowering his voice further: "You've been dragging this sword all this way, you must be very tired, right? It's alright, we'll be done soon."

Xie Lang leaned on his sword, panting, but didn't answer at all.

After about half an incense stick's time, all that could be heard was Xie Lang's panting, but no further movement was heard.

Zhao Lingying broke the silence first, asking impatiently, "Have you managed to bring him back to the scene from back then?"

Qi Shang coldly replied, "The fact that he was willing to lead us this way is the best proof of that."

Zhao Lingying said dismissively, "As far as I know, His Majesty has often come here alone late at night in the past. Perhaps he is reminiscing about old friends. This doesn't prove anything."

Ah Qiu and Shangguan Yuqi then realized that after Xie Lang personally ordered the Qiwu Palace to be closed, he often came here late at night. No wonder he was able to catch Shangguan Yuqi trespassing here last time.

A Qiu could only secretly rejoice that she had never run into the emperor during her many nighttime incursions into Qiwu. Otherwise, if her suspicious origins were discovered, it would likely be more than just a matter of being sent to the inner palace.

Qi Luo's gentle voice rang out, "He would never have looked like this when he traveled alone at night before."

Shangguan Yuqi whispered in A Qiu's ear, "That's true. When I ran into Uncle Xie here last time, he was as lucid as ever. When he saw that I had disobeyed his order, he immediately flew into a rage and told me to get out of here. Although I have never seen him so angry since I was a child, I still know that he was mentally sound at the time. He just lost his temper because he never expected that my purpose in entering the palace was to investigate Qiwu Palace."

Zhao Lingying smiled slightly and said, "But what I want is not for him to be sleepwalking or having nightmares. What I want is for him to reveal the whereabouts of that child."

Qi Shang coldly said, "This matter is not as easy as Zhaorong thinks. His Majesty was able to rise from the most insignificant member of the Xie family to become the emperor today. His willpower is far beyond that of ordinary people. He will not be easily manipulated. The fact that we were able to successfully lure him from his palace to here is only because he already has a mental disorder."