Chapter 244 The Most Suspicious Person
"The fox fairy has such great powers, but can't find her daughter?" Xiao Yu asked.
"That's what's so strange," Hu Da'er said. "Whether the fox fairy used her spiritual power to investigate personally or asked the elders of the tribe to search, we couldn't find any clues. Later, we even kidnapped a few human fortune tellers and used their unique divination skills to search, but they couldn't find any clues. So we all thought the little princess was dead. From that time on, the fox fairy ordered me to guard the passage to the outside world and not allow any foxes that didn't meet the requirements to leave at will."
Xu Chuchu thought for a moment and said, "If they can't even see through the hexagram, it's possible that the other party has deliberately concealed it with a formation, not necessarily dead. If it's the Grand Master, he definitely has this ability."
"But that's where the problem lies," she analyzed. "If Hu Shanshan had been under the watchful eye of the Grand Master the entire time, and the Grand Master died, those formations should have been ineffective. With her level of cultivation, she should have had a chance to escape. There's still no movement now, so there are only two possibilities: either someone else is watching her, or the Grand Master is still alive."
"The Grand Master is indeed dead," Xiao Yu continued. "I saw his body with my own eyes. Fearing he might have some tricks up his sleeve, we burned it. It seems likely that the person who killed him is related to the one who imprisoned Princess Hu, or even the same person."
He thought for a moment and said, "He also stole the energy that the Grand Master had accumulated for so long."
"So, in addition to the Grand Master, there is also a very skilled physiognomist in the capital. Who could it be..." Xu Chuchu recalled.
Ever since she followed Xiao Yu to the capital, all the information she had come across was that the Grand Master had immense power and was all-powerful.
Under his influence, Buddhism flourished, and Taoism was driven out. Everyone in the Beijing physiognomist circle revered him as the top and most superior being.
If there was another fortune teller in the capital who could rival him, the situation would not be so one-sided.
Unless he hid it very deeply, so deeply that no one knew about it.
But this still doesn't make sense. Hu Shanshan was captured by the Grand Master and presented to the emperor. There is no reason why the Grand Master wouldn't know the person guarding her.
But judging from their dealings with the Grand Master during this period, he seemed to not think that there was any fortune teller in the capital who could rival him.
It’s numb and complicated.
"Let me tell you what I know," Xiao Yu volunteered. "I met Princess Hu once when I was seven or eight years old. It was at a banquet hosted by the emperor. When the food and wine arrived, she ate with her hands because she didn't know how to use chopsticks. Many people saw this and laughed inwardly. The emperor reprimanded her and kicked her out."
The reason why he remembered this incident for so long was that at that time, he and Hu Shanshan were both despised freaks, so he felt very sympathetic towards her.
"At the time, there were some rumors that she was a freak or a witch, but they soon died down. They all said that she was a woman from a barbaric place, so she couldn't use chopsticks," he added.
Hu Da'er was very disappointed after hearing this: "This is the princess' first time out of Fox Mountain, so of course she doesn't know anything, but her cultivation is not bad. Why doesn't she prove it to those people? She is more capable than many people."
"There must be some magical weapon restraining her." Xu Chuchu analyzed, and then said to Xiao Yu, "You and Shen Zhaozhi are about the same age. You met Hu Shanshan when you were seven or eight years old. Does this mean that she has been staying with the emperor as a concubine for the past seven or eight years?"
Xiao Yu nodded slowly: "That should be the case. I'm not sure when she was locked up afterwards. I haven't heard any news about her."
After all, no one cares about the life or death of a concubine who has fallen out of favor.
"Then we can be sure that the person who imprisoned her is someone who has been with the emperor for many years." Xu Chuchu analyzed, "You have been in the court for so long, don't you think there is anyone with cultivation?"
"The imperial court? Is this young man an official?" Hu Da'er suddenly asked, "I used to hear people in the village say that officials are bad people."
Xiao Yu: “…”
Xu Chuchu saw Xiao Yu's embarrassed expression and couldn't help laughing: "...His last name is Xiao, and he is a prince."
"The prince?!" Hu Da'er stood up excitedly, his head banging against the carriage roof. "The prince is just like our princess, a particularly noble human being! Should I bow?"
"...No need, I'm not the prince of your fox clan." Xiao Yu couldn't understand Hu Daer's train of thought, and cast a helpless and amused look at Xu Chuchu.
Xu Chuchu's relaxed heart suddenly skipped a beat, and she realized that without realizing it, they had returned to the time when they used to investigate cases together.
Although she encountered many dangers during that period and was given a headache by some cases, it was also the happiest and most relaxing time since she came to Xia Dynasty.
As they used to say, wandering around the world, doing justice and helping the weak.
…but she didn't want to go back now. This was the last time they would investigate a case together.
Seeing Xu Chuchu's expression suddenly change, Xiao Yu was so scared that he quickly reflected on everything he had just said. He didn't know which sentence offended her. He was confused and quickly brought the topic back to the right track.
"Speaking of suspicious individuals," he mused, "I suspect it's the prince."
"Why the Crown Prince?" Xu Chuchu calmed down naturally. "The Crown Prince isn't that old, is he? I remember you said he was ten years older than you. But when Hu Shanshan was imprisoned, he was only nine years old."
"Oh, I didn't explain it clearly." Xiao Yu said hurriedly, "It doesn't have to be the Crown Prince himself, it could be his staff or confidants. Since the Queen's death, the Second Prince has become decadent, followed by the fall of the Grand Master. Now the Crown Prince's influence is pervasive throughout the court. Based on the beneficiaries of these events, the Crown Prince is highly suspicious."
"It's possible." Xu Chuchu agreed.
She remembered that when the queen had an accident, they secretly went to examine the body at night and happened to meet the prince. At that time, the prince told them that the queen did not die from drowning, but had died a long time ago and was living in the palace as a zombie.
Looking back now, I feel that there are many doubts. If the prince had no knowledge of physiognomy, how could he have investigated it so clearly?
Was he really performing an autopsy as he claimed? Or was he…mutilating the body when they happened to catch him?
However, this is still speculation for now. Looking at the clues we have now, the most useful one was provided by Chen Zhaozhi.
He said that every time Hu Shanshan came to see him, there was water on her skirt and soles of her shoes, which meant that the place where she was imprisoned must be related to water.
Speaking of the most suspicious "water" in the palace, it is naturally the energy pool at the center of the palace's magic array. It is also the place where the queen "drown" and the place where Xu Chuchu's cultivation level reached the seventh level.
If you want to investigate, this is definitely where to start.
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