Chapter 582 The suspect is missing
The corridor was already dark and he could only see by moonlight. He had not noticed anything wrong before.
After the door shattered, Xiao Changheng discovered that the new door looked much more real than the original one, and immediately realized that what Yun Qingqing had just broken was a barrier.
At this time, the movement in the room became much more obvious, as if someone was struggling.
"Wait." Yun Qingqing threw down two words, kicked the door open and walked in.
As soon as the door opened, a cold breath hit me in the face.
Xiao Changheng's heart trembled, and he wanted to follow in, but when he heard Yun Qingqing's serious tone, he waited at the door and paid attention to the movements inside.
The room was filled with a ghostly atmosphere. Yan Ning was in the center of the room, being entangled by a strange black fog.
The black mist twisted into a long strand, like a black snake as thick as a wrist, tightly wrapped around Yan Ning.
Yan Ning was struggling hard, his face was pale, veins on his forehead were bulging, and beads of cold sweat the size of beans fell to the ground. He heard the sound and raised his head, his pupils shrinking slightly.
"Princess, be careful! Don't come over!" Yan Ning's voice was hoarse, and in desperation he burst out with a burst of strength, actually pushing away the black fog wrapped around his body a little, and tried hard to reach the Hanying sword at his waist.
However, the black fog seemed to sense the danger, and its yin energy suddenly surged. The snake-shaped fog spread upward along his body and tightly wrapped around his neck.
Yan Ning suddenly couldn't breathe and his face turned red and purple.
At this moment, a yellow talisman came straight towards them, penetrated the black fog without any hindrance and stuck to Yan Ning.
The talisman paper burst into a bright golden light. Yan Ning felt the cold black fog wrapped around his body stiffen for a moment, and then a shrill scream sounded in the air, almost bursting through his eardrums.
Yan Ning's eyes went dark, but he felt the restraints on his body loosen. He staggered and supported himself on one knee, gasping for breath.
The talisman on the chest was still emitting a gentle glow, dispelling the coldness brought by the black fog that penetrated deep into the bone marrow and even into the soul.
Yan Ning felt more at ease than ever before. Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, he saw that the black mist that was retreating from his body seemed to be stimulated. Its size increased by more than twice and it rushed straight towards Yun Qingqing!
"Be careful!" Yan Ning screamed and tried to get up, but he was too weak to do so.
The black fog was about to rush in front of Yun Qingqing.
Yun Qingqing narrowed his eyes, raised two fingers, and a talisman appeared out of thin air between his fingers. Just as he was about to raise his hand, suddenly a green light flashed from above, instantly expanding into a light net and rushing straight towards the black fog.
In the blink of an eye, the black mist was cut into countless pieces as if it were real, and disappeared without a trace in a moment.
Yun Qingqing paused holding the talisman, the corners of her mouth twitched slightly, and she looked speechlessly at the instigator of the light net - Dawn who suddenly flew out by herself.
That light net was simply an illusion caused by Dawn swinging his sword too quickly.
Dawn is Yun Qingqing's natal magic weapon, which is closely related to her cultivation and state. Recently, after she had another breakthrough, she could feel that the sword spirit's consciousness had become much more active, and there were signs of awakening.
At that moment just now, perhaps the evil aura of the black fog stimulated Dawn, causing the sword spirit's main consciousness to wake up early.
If it weren't for the current situation, awakening at dawn would naturally be worth celebrating.
The problem is that Yun Qingqing was planning to "capture" this evil aura alive so as to investigate its origin. But now, the magic sword strikes, as fast as lightning, and all the evil is killed.
There is no hair left.
"Dawn!" Yun Qingqing put away the talisman in her hand and gritted her teeth.
Poxiao, who was swinging his sword handsomely in the air, suddenly stopped. Then a green light flashed, and it changed back into the shape of a green jade hairpin. It floated in front of Yun Qingqing and fell down with a "click".
Yun Qingqing quickly caught the jade hairpin, only to see its light fade away and it lay motionless in her palm, as if it were no different from an ordinary piece of jewelry.
She tried to communicate with the sword spirit, but found that it looked like it had exerted too much strength and continued to sleep.
Yun Qingqing: “…”
Haha, it's obvious that he failed to look cool and realized that he got into trouble, so he started pretending to be dead.
Yun Qingqing rubbed her brows speechlessly, put the jade hairpin back into her hair, and looked at Yan Ning, who had just stood up and whose face was still a little pale. The marks on his neck had turned a little black, which was a sign that Yin Qi had invaded his body.
She immediately took out a talisman, rolled it into a small triangular piece of paper and handed it to Yan Ning, and also gave him a bottle of ointment:
"Keep this talisman close to your body. Apply the ointment once every morning and evening for three days and you'll be fine."
"Thank you, Princess." Yan Ning took the talisman and medicine and placed them in her arms. Seeing Xiao Changheng walk in from the door, she immediately bowed and saluted, "Greetings, His Royal Highness the Regent."
Xiao Changheng nodded slightly to excuse him from the formalities and walked to Yun Qingqing's side.
"How is it going?"
"Poxiao did it too cleanly, so he wasn't caught." Yun Qingqing spread her hands, but still couldn't help but complain about Poxiao.
She turned to Yan Ning and asked:
"Commander Yan, how did you get attacked? Can you tell me the details of what happened before the attack?"
Yan Ning lowered his eyes and nodded, frowning as he recalled:
"The Queen suddenly passed away half an hour ago. At the time, I was merely surprised and didn't think too much about it. However, while patrolling the Imperial City, I heard palace maids who had just returned from an outing discussing rumors outside the palace, exposing the Queen's various evil deeds... The problem is, many of these details are true."
"The princess instructed me to keep the attack a secret. I have issued a death order that the imperial guards present that day will not discuss this matter privately."
"I felt something was fishy, so I decided to secretly investigate within the palace to see if I could find the source of this information..."
Yan Ning paused here, his brows slightly furrowed, as if hesitant.
Yun Qingqing's heart moved, and she immediately asked:
"Did you find any clues?"
"I'm not sure if this counts as a clue..." Yan Ning said thoughtfully, "When the Queen was at Phoenix Terrace, there weren't many people present. Besides us and the Imperial Guards, there were only the Queen's maids."
"You mean, Lan Rui?" Yun Qingqing recalled what happened that day.
"That's right," Yan Ning nodded, his expression becoming serious. "After the Queen's deeds were exposed, everyone in her palace was detained. Because it was still the New Year, their fate was delayed until after the first lunar month. But when I went to the Ministry of Punishment to look for Lan Rui, I found that she had disappeared."
"Missing?" Xiao Changheng frowned. "When did it happen?"
"The jailer didn't notice it before. It wasn't until I went to pick her up that I discovered Lan Rui wasn't in the cell. There was just some hay piled under the quilt, which looked like someone had made it."
Yun Qingqing asked:
"Then when were you attacked?"
Yan Ning said in a deep voice:
"The prisoner was missing, and someone was spreading rumors. I was worried about His Majesty, so I immediately rushed to the Emperor's chambers. However, I felt a cold wind blowing halfway, and when I came to my senses, I was trapped here."
He thought for a moment and added:
"I clearly remember that we were attacked just as the Jingyang Bell was ringing..."
Before he finished speaking, Xiao Changheng's face changed.
"Royal brother!" he shouted urgently, turned around and rushed out.
Yan Ning followed closely behind, then stopped and looked at Yun Qingqing, who stood still and seemed lost in thought.
"……princess?"
Yun Qingqing pinched her fingers, frowned and said:
"Don't worry, the emperor is fine... As for Lan Rui's matter, let me tell you through a divination."
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