Upon hearing this, the maids and guards around all lowered their heads.

Ji Fengyao: "..."

Princess Zhaoping, who had just come out of Dianxiang Pavilion, was suddenly struck by this scene and felt as if she had been hit with a thousand points of damage: They were so good to each other!

She and the bandit were both wives of the royal family, but her brother Xi Ye gave all his tenderness and love to the bandit, not even a little bit to her!

Princess Zhaoping's eyes reddened again.

She stood there, stunned, watching Shang Xiye carry Ji Fengyao past her without even glancing at her, as if she didn't exist.

After Shang Xiye had walked away, Princess Zhaoping turned back crying and questioned Granny Zheng: "Aren't you the palace's teaching nanny? Why didn't you say a word when that bandit was so rude?!"

Granny Zheng: "..."

He stared at Princess Zhaoping in silence, as if she were an idiot.

Princess Zhaoping did not wait for Zheng Mama's reply, because she was worried that the Ninth Prince would not wait for her.

When she chased after him crying out of the palace gates, Shang Xiye's carriage had already started moving.

Princess Zhaoping didn't even have time to feel aggrieved before she quickly climbed into her carriage and went to the palace crying all the way.

Simeng and Siyi had to fix Princess Zhaoping's makeup several times along the way, and they were extremely annoyed.

"I don't know what the Empress Dowager is thinking. If I had raised this thing, I would have slapped her to death. Even a dog would be better at vying for favor than her," Siyi whispered resentfully to Simeng.

Simeng nodded in deep agreement, whispering in agreement, "I think the Empress Dowager never expected her to be with the Ninth Prince; she just wanted to..."

"Ahem!"

Granny Zheng coughed lightly beside the two of them to remind them, and Simeng stopped talking abruptly.

Simeng and Siyi glanced at Granny Zheng in surprise:

This old fellow was more perceptive than the average person, and could even hear them whispering.

On the carriage in front.

Ji Fengyao also heard Simeng and Siyi's conversation. She nudged the prince who was engrossed in cuddling with her and said, "It's quite pitiful for Zhaoping to stay in the capital and be treated poorly by the Empress Dowager. The Sun family has done you a great favor, so we should think of a way to send her out of the capital as well."

"Then we need to find the person who is hiding by the Empress Dowager's side, the one who feeds the Blood Demon's Heart with young girls, and remove the Blood Cicada from Zhaoping's body before we can send her away." Shang Xiye kneaded the little bandit's chubby little hands as if holding a precious treasure, unwilling to let go for even a moment: "I've investigated, and the old woman who gave the Empress Dowager the Blood Cicada is already dead. I think she was murdered to silence her. I always feel that this matter is not so simple."

Ji Fengyao frowned slightly: "Does Your Highness suspect that, besides the blood cicada inside Zhaoping and the one we killed, other girls have been infected with blood cicadas?"

"You think it's impossible?" Shang Xiye asked doubtfully.

Ji Fengyao shook her head and said, "It's unlikely. You should know that Blood Demons only exist in the Blood Pool of the Demon Realm."

Without a cultivation level of at least Nascent Soul, venturing into the Demon Realm is tantamount to sending lambs to the slaughter, and Blood Demon Hearts less than a thousand years old have little effect on ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators.

If one possesses the cultivation of a Nascent Soul cultivator, exploring multiple secret realms and finding some rare and precious materials would be far more worthwhile than risking one's life to venture into the Demon Realm and hunt Blood Demons. Why engage in such a laborious, wicked, and morally reprehensible endeavor as planting Blood Cicadas with human lives, unless one is already...

At this point, Ji Fengyao mentioned the Gu family, and her delicate brows furrowed deeply again:

Could it be that, like when the Gu family branch chose to stay, there are still monsters in this world that haven't left?