Poisonous Goddess: I'm just lazing around in the mortal realm.

Because of this incident, the Second Prince repeatedly tried to make things difficult for the Third Prince, but unfortunately, An Ruyi, who held great power, even transferred away all the palace servants who took care of him.

During the three years following Consort Shun's death, Duan Yumou could barely survive by selling items from his palace. The matter only temporarily ended when General Weiyuan took him to the border.

Haojing couldn't help but curl his lip.

"Could it be that the Second Prince already knew the Consort was pregnant? Did he deliberately choose this time to present a beauty? Why didn't he just pick any girl and send her over? Why did he specifically use our information to exchange for her?"

After all, since he came to Nanyang, he found that the girls there were all incredibly beautiful and charming, no less so than those in Cangling.

Xie Qiao explained

"It's because of Consort Ning, isn't it? The Emperor of Nanyang likes girls from the Western Regions."

He remembered that earlier, Shen Mu had sent him down to the mortal realm to learn about the situation in the palace. Although Consort Ning was a hostage sent after the defeat in the Western Regions, the Emperor of Nanyang favored her for three months straight upon their first meeting, which even made the most favored Consort An somewhat uneasy.

“I even remember that when Consort Ning entered the palace, she offended the late Empress for some reason. Although it was also her fault, the Emperor used this as an excuse to punish the late Empress.”

Xie Qiao composed himself; he didn't want to know too much about these secrets of the inner palace.

After all, he couldn't quite understand the tactics women used against each other.

Why did the emperor, one of the three thousand beauties in the imperial harem, only revolve around him?

"So the Second Prince sent a girl from the Western Regions just to remind Consort An of the time when Consort Ning entered the palace and competed for the Emperor's favor?" Hao Jing couldn't help but shake his head, sighing at the Second Prince's truly disgusting ways.

Shen Mu glanced at him and said coldly

"That's only half the story; that girl's identity is far from simple."

"Could we possibly poison that girl for the Emperor?" Hao Jing glanced at Xie Qiao out of the corner of his eye, only to see Xie Qiao's serious expression, and quickly straightened up.

Could it really be true?

Xie Qiao nodded upon hearing this.

“A few days ago, my lord sent me to the Western Regions border. I happened to run into the Second Prince’s men contacting Helian Nash. After some inquiries, I learned that the girl had been poisoned by a Western Regions Gu technique.”

"Gu magic?"

"This kind of Gu technique uses people as bait, injecting Gu worms into the body when the child is young. The Gu worms grow up with the host, and when the host becomes an adult, the Gu worms will turn into the host's flesh and blood. If the host's body cannot withstand the backlash, it will be devoured by the Gu worms. Only those who survive after completely absorbing the Gu worms are considered to have been successfully afflicted by Gu."

Xie Qiao's face turned pale as he spoke; even he had never seen such a treacherous Gu technique.

He had only ever heard of people raising Gu poison by feeding it with their own bodies, but he had never heard of using children to raise Gu poison.

Haojing swallowed hard, his expression turning serious.

"Then what's the use of cultivating this Gu?"

Xie Qiao shook her head.

"I don't know. But I reckon that if they manage to get it into the palace by any means necessary, it can't be anything good."

Their most pressing issue right now is still bringing out the Taoist priest Chongming, rather than getting involved in the power struggles within the mortal realm's royal families.

Shen Mu suddenly turned his head towards the shadows and said

"Aren't you coming out yet?"

Hao Jing and the other two then saw Thirteen emerge from the shadows. She smiled awkwardly, holding a pot of tea that had long since gone cold.

Without even thinking, I heard everything that was audible and everything that wasn't.

Remembering that the matter was not yet resolved, Shen Mu glanced at Hao Jing and said in a somewhat impolite tone.

"You guys go back first, I have something else to do."

"Yes."

Xie Qiao nodded to Shen Mu and was about to leave when he happened to see Hao Jing staring at Shen Mu and Thirteen with a gossipy look in his eyes. Knowing his master's temperament, he quickly stepped forward and dragged Hao Jing out of the courtyard before Shen Mu could get angry.

Thirteen lowered his head guiltily, stroking the kettle in his hand and whispering...

"Um, I just arrived and didn't hear what you were saying."

“I didn’t say that you heard it, sir.”

Shen Mu poured himself a cup of tea on the table. The tea, which had already cooled down, still had a slightly bitter taste.

"Then... Lord Shen, it's so late, aren't you going back to rest?"

She remembered how Shen Mu had attacked, and how she had no chance of winning. She had no choice but to obediently let Shen Mu leave first, and then think of a way to deal with the situation.

Upon hearing this, Shen Mu raised his head and glanced at Thirteen, as if their roles had been switched.

"I haven't finished asking you yet, so please come and sit down first."

Thirteen, carrying the water bottle, slowly moved to his side and sat down with a thud.

She wasn't sure if Shen Mu would attack her again, since the news she had just heard was mostly trivial matters of the mortal world and had nothing to do with the Demon Lord Chongming.

As if reading her mind, Shen Mu took the water bottle from her hand and placed it aside.

Are you wondering why I'm keeping an eye on the Emperor of Nanyang?

"I..." Thirteen frowned, seemingly wanting to say something but stopping himself.

"I don't know where you came from in the mortal realm, but there's something I think you don't know: the Demon Lord's forbidden arts are related to the life essence of mortals. Apart from using the Bright Moon Palace as an altar, the only other way to use them is to instigate wars in the mortal realm. Whenever a mortal dies, their remaining life essence will be absorbed by the Demon Lord. That's why I got involved with the Nanyang royal family."

Thirteen's breath hitched. Even though she had been in the mortal realm for so long, she had never realized there was this reason. She simply thought that killing the Demon Lord and destroying the Bright Moon Palace would complete her mission and allow her to return to Azure Sky Mountain.

She met Shen Mu's dark eyes, and the chill in them made her shiver. Feeling a little guilty, she subconsciously looked away.

"If you are from the Azure Feather Divine Realm, then what about Zhou Jinghuai? Is he also from Azure Feather?"

"He is the young general of Xichen." Shen Mu composed himself, seemingly concealing the ambiguous meaning in his eyes.

"So it was your people who burned down Mingyue Palace today."

Thirteen recalled that when she fought Zhou Jinghuai in the palace, the man who had attacked Mingyue Palace was the same person who had stood next to Haojing and answered Shen Mu's question.

Thinking of this, she was only thankful that Shen Mu hadn't gone there in person, otherwise she definitely wouldn't have been able to escape.

Shen Mu looked at Thirteen, taking in her reaction. He lowered his eyes, staring absently at the teacup in his hand. In truth, at this point, there was no need to expose some things.

After all, he had already gotten the answer he wanted.

The palace banquet ended, and night was deep.

There were hardly any people left on the palace road at this time, except for Prime Minister Pei and his family walking out.

Just now, Prime Minister Pei and the Emperor had been arguing incessantly. When the banquet ended, Duan Yuan specifically asked Prime Minister Pei to stay behind. Pei Suisui and her sister waited outside the palace until everyone had left long ago before their father finally emerged from the main hall, his face still bearing some anger. It seemed he had been arguing with the Emperor again.

Pei Suisui and Pei Nanyue followed behind their father, their heads drooping and looking somewhat sullen.

She stared blankly at the stone path beneath her feet, and felt a lingering fear as she recalled what had happened outside the main hall.

After all, she had seen it herself; the way the Emperor looked at her sister was exactly the same way he looked at Consort An. Even if she were slow to realize it, she could tell that the Emperor had taken an interest in her sister.