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

Time seems to fly by.

Although Shen Mu was punished by the emperor, he also caught the culprit who set fire to Mingyue Palace on the night of the emperor's birthday.

It turned out to be Xu Zhizhou, a former retainer of the Duke of Anguo and now the Vice Minister Xu.

The emperor was furious and had Xu Zhizhou imprisoned in the Jinyiwei prison for interrogation.

Thirteen stared down at the table, lost in thought as Zhou Jinghuai sent someone to bring her food. Five days had passed since she entered the Dali Temple dungeon.

Last time, Pei Nanyue hurriedly explained to her before leaving. Even Hao Jing ran extremely fast, as if afraid of being caught by her.

In fact, no one has come to interrogate him in these past five days. This seems to further confirm Pei Nanyue's words.

The emperor's actions were merely a scapegoat; arresting her was just a way to find someone to blame.

What else can be found out during the investigation?

It was nothing more than a confession obtained through torture.

Shen Mansion

Shen Mu stood in front of the desk, trying to appear calm. Beads of sweat rolled down his somewhat stern face and dripped onto the desk.

He would never have insisted on standing if he wasn't afraid of Zhou Jinghuai discovering that he was injured.

"You came to find me just to save Thirteen?"

Zhou Jinghuai nodded quickly and said, "That's right, you don't even care about them. I've been turned away so many times these past few days."

He originally thought it would be easy to see through the emperor's thoughts, and that he would only give the thirteenth prince a minor punishment as a warning.

After all, Thirteen had been away from the Third Prince's residence for over a month, so it was impossible for Thirteen to have harmed the Third Prince.

As a result, he visited several friends who worked at the Dali Temple in the past few days, but they all refused to see him. He even went to their residences but couldn't find them.

It's as if they had all planned it together.

"Who do you think they're avoiding you for?" Shen Mu's tone was somewhat mocking, as if Zhou Jinghuai didn't need to say anything more.

From his words, we already knew that he had nowhere to turn for help.

"Then what do you suggest we do? I haven't seen you attend the morning court these past few days. I thought you had gone on a long trip to do business for the emperor."

Zhou Jinghuai, of course, did not notice that Shen Mu's face was a little pale. Instead, he was so anxious that he paced around in Shen Mu's dark room.

This secret room has been in use ever since Shen Mu discovered that there were spies from the divine realm in the Shen residence.

The things said in the study can be relayed through informants, but not here.

"What business is it? I caught the murderer for the Emperor of Nanyang, and he didn't even thank me for it." Shen Mu raised an eyebrow slightly, gave Zhou Jinghuai a wink, and then said.

"Why don't I send you to the Emperor of Nanyang? After all, it was you who did it."

Zhou Jinghuai looked at Shen Mu, his eyes full of smiles, yet unfathomable. It was as if he were seriously discussing this matter.

"How can you be so ungrateful!" He angrily stepped forward and shouted at Shen Mu.

He was always given every opportunity to be ordered around, and since he wasn't his subordinate, he always obediently completed some tasks for Shen Mu.

"I didn't say that. I just said you might be better off thinking about it differently." Seeing that Zhou Jinghuai had already walked up to her, Shen Mu quickly took half a step back, afraid that the other party would notice something was wrong with her.

"What do you mean?" Zhou Jinghuai was indeed being led by the nose by Shen Mu. He turned his head to think about Shen Mu's words, somewhat puzzled.

"What I mean is, go find the Third Prince, take Haojing or your Qingfeng with you, and see if his poison can be cured."

"You mean if the Third Prince is cured of the poison, the Emperor of Nanyang will spare the Thirteenth Prince?"

Zhou Jinghuai's face lit up with joy. Ever since he discovered that Thirteen might be Shi Wanyan and that the Fourth Princess had captured him and broken his legs, he hadn't been able to calmly think things through.

"I am not the Emperor of Nanyang, but I think the reason for this is simply that the Third Prince was poisoned again, and the Thirteenth Prince was implicated and arrested."

Shen Mu nodded, his grip on the edge of the table tightened, veins bulging, and he felt like he was about to lose his balance.

"Hmm..." Zhou Jinghuai stroked his chin, pondering the reliability of Shen Mu's method. After all, he was often fooled by Shen Mu and had become somewhat numb to it.

But since it was Guan Shisan's job, he had no choice but to do it.

Seeing his troubled expression, Shen Mu slowly explained...

"I think you should take Qingfeng with you. Don't forget, the Embroidered Uniform Guard just arrested the Duke of Anguo's men."

"Minister Xu?" Zhou Jinghuai had obviously heard about this, and he quickly asked.

"You originally planned to pin this on the Southern Barbarians, so why did you suddenly change the subject and frame Xu Zhizhou?"

Shen Mu forced himself to lift his head, his deep eyes icy cold, and said in a serious tone.

"Do you know that Xu Zhizhou has gotten involved in the Jiangnan case?"

He only learned about this later through investigation, and then changed his mind at the last minute, leaving the prepared witnesses and evidence at Xu Zhizhou's house.

"The Jiangnan case?" Zhou Jinghuai frowned. He thought Shen Mu would only investigate matters related to the Demon Lord Chongming, and he did not expect that Shen Mu would also be interested in other matters in the mortal world.

"A few days ago, a prefect in Jiangnan was found to have embezzled 100,000 taels of silver intended for disaster relief."

"The floods that happened in Jiangnan a few days ago? Are you acting on behalf of Heaven?" Zhou Jinghuai raised an eyebrow slightly. When did Shen Mu have such thoughts, dealing with corrupt officials on behalf of the Emperor of Nanyang?

Upon hearing this, Shen Mu sneered, "If it were that simple, I wouldn't need to take action."

He lowered his eyes to look at the folded documents on the table, and then slowly said...

"The prefect has a daughter named Asang, who is said to have already entered the capital. She must have found an opportunity to meet Thirteen a few days ago."

Shen Mu's subordinates, not to mention the people of the Cangling Divine Realm, even the Jinyiwei in the mortal world, were all well-trained and became his spies in the mortal world.

"You've met Thirteen? A few days ago, besides Pei Suisui, it was me, wasn't it?" Zhou Jinghuai frowned, somewhat understanding Shen Mu's meaning.

"You mean Pei Suisui is the prefect's daughter?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Mu rolled her eyes at him and said, "Your brain is really something. No wonder you can only be a junior general in Xichen and can't become the marshal of Xichen."

He couldn't help but marvel at how novel Zhou Jinghuai's ideas were.

Pei Suisui had never left the capital since she was a child, so how could she have become the daughter of the prefect of Jiangnan?

"Then who exactly are you talking about? What could this possibly have to do with Thirteen?"

Zhou Jinghuai was a little anxious. All he wanted to do now was rescue Shisan and find out if she was Shi Wanyan!

Shen Mu looked at him, her tone softening slightly.

"Do you remember the courtesan we bought at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion that night?"

"Yi Sisi?" If it was something like that, Zhou Jinghuai remembered it very clearly.

"She was the daughter of the prefect of Jiangnan, and her name before entering Zuixianlou was Asang."

"Then why is she looking for Thirteen? Is she here to interrogate me?" Zhou Jinghuai frowned. He thought about how they had allowed Thirteen to enter the eighth floor of the Drunken Immortal Pavilion that night under the pretext of buying the courtesan.

“A few days before the Emperor’s birthday, she sought out Thirteen and asked for a dose of poison.”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Jinghuai's tone faltered, and his eyebrows twitched slightly. He asked, "What is she going to do? Kill someone?"

"Kill Vice Minister Xu Zhizhou!"