Chapter 236 - 234. Intruder I

Third-person POV

"Form an alliance? Why? What benefit we will gain by forming an alliance with a powerless prince?" Lu Ping said as his brows arched in amus.e.m.e.nt.

Weisheng also stared at Long Yang with probing eyes. Long Yang took a deep breath and his expression turned sterner.

"I will be your informant." Long Yang offered.

"Hoo~ But we already have plenty of that." Lu Ping turned down Long Yang's offer.

Long Yang whipped his head up to look at Lu Ping's devious eyes. Then he glanced at disinterested expression on Weisheng's face. He bit his lips and tried to think another option. His eyes lighted up when an idea came to his mind.

"Then…."

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"Deal." Both Lu Ping and Weisheng nodded their heads in agreement.

Long Yang was mentally tired from negotiating with the cunning Lu Ping. He took a big gulp of hot tea and furrowed his brows.

"Now, please explain what happened to Her Majesty Empress." Long Yang insisted.

Lu Ping tapped his chin with his fan and nonchalantly asked, "How much do you know about Murong Qing's plan?"

"She only said that she was going to kidnap Her Majesty Empress by infiltrating Da Qi's Royal Palace with Bei Zhou's help." Long Yang summarized Murong Qing's never-ending ramble.

Lu Ping glanced at Weisheng and mouthed, 'Don't lose control.'

Weisheng unnoticeably nodded his head and exhaled tiredly as it was extremely hard for him to listen to the pain that Hong er had to suffer in his place. On top of that, every sleepless night, he drank a ton of sleeping drugs so he could see Hong er in his dream.

In every dream, it would only be him calling out to Hong er who was immobilized by the chains that were binding her to a log of wood. There was no response from Hong er. Even after knowing that it is hopeless to get a response from Hong er, he didn't stop trying to wake her up with his voice.

However, since he was outside the Royal Palace which means the chances they would be invaded by unpredictable attacks increased, he was restricted from using any sleeping drug. Which leads him to have insomnia. Even though he closed his eyes and laid on a comfortable bed, he couldn't get to sleep.

The dark circles under his eyes became darker and he turned more temperamental than usual. Even the slightest thing such as hearing Murong Qing's name could irritate him.

"In conclusion, our Royal Palace was infiltrated by Bei Zhou and they got Her Majesty Empress. They used a teleportation magic to teleport to a secret bas.e.m.e.nt about a hundred km away from Royal Palace in a second.

With the help of a dark guild, they performed a forbidden ritual on Her Majesty Empress and caused Her Majesty Empress's golden eyes transplanted into Murong Qing's eye sockets without losing its color." Lu Ping explained with an unusually serious tone.

Long Yang abruptly rose from his seat with his eyes wide open. His heart ached like there were a thousand needles poking his heart. Even Ruru's (the maid) eyes were pooled with tears as Hong er is the person she looked up the most.

"H-how can she do that?" Long Yang muttered in disbelief.

Because of his sudden action, Qiyi summoned his sword and pointed it at Long Yang's neck.

"Please sit down, Your Highness Seventh Prince," Qiyi advised with a slightly commanding tone in his voice.

Long Yang glanced at Weisheng who had been silent during Lu Ping's explanation till now. Even a fool could see that Weisheng was in an extremely bad mood. The murderous aura that Weisheng unconsciously exuded even scared off the animals that hanging around the base camp. Long Yang swallowed his saliva as he averted his eyes away from Weisheng and compliantly sat back on his seat.

"May I continue?" Lu Ping questioned as they didn't have much time.

"Yes, please do continue." Long Yang replied.

"The eyes are connected to Her Majesty Empress's soul so if Her Majesty Empress is gone then the eye color will be gone too. And now we have detained Murong Qing and as long as the color of the eyes doesn't fade away, we can assure that Her Majesty Empress is alive." Lu Ping continued.

Long Yang knitted his brows and leaned his body forward, "So, what are you going to do?"

Lu Ping slowly stood up and lifted the exit curtain, "We suggest that Your Highness Seventh Prince quietly go back to Da Chu hence we can proceed with our inspection. We will definitely send you the news if we found something."

Without any complaint, Long Yang rose from his seat and walked out of the tent. He was aware that by staying at Weisheng's base camp would only stall the inspection. Every second could determine Hong er's life.

But before Lu Ping close the curtain, he tapped Long Yang's shoulder with his fan.

"Don't forget your job. And if you spill any words about our meeting today, watch out for your neck." Lu Ping bowed to Long Yang and grinned at him.

Long Yang's face paled and fastened his pace. Lu Ping sighed as he watched Long Yang rode off with his horse together with Ruru.

"Shall we go?" Lu Ping asked without looking his behind.

"En. 10 minutes," Weisheng said while walked pass by Lu Ping.

Lu Ping and Qiyi bowed their heads and replied, "Yes, Your Majesty Emperor."

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As Weisheng commanded, in 10 minutes, the troops disassembled the tents and erased any trace they left then they got into their position to depart. As a member of elite forces, they were trained to be fast, meticulous, and discipline therefore it wasn't weird or surprising that the way they do things is very nimble and efficient.

Without any delay, Weisheng galloped through the snowy forests and mountains to the Curse Land. Cursed Land was rumored to be haunted by vicious spirits and demons. The beasts that live in the Cursed Land are ferocious and bloodthirsty, they survived by absorbing the evil auras that were emitted by the demons.

But by consuming the demons' aura means they sold themselves to the demons. Therefore the demons could eat the beast without having to chase after it. This case leads the beasts to devour their own kind and turned them into a cannibal.

The evil miasma that surrounds the Cursed Land grew denser and denser over the years and started to affect the living beings that live near the Cursed Land. Although it is a regulation to prevent the evil miasma from expanding by chanting Holy Mantras around the Cursed Lang every 6 months.

And as someone who possessed a powerful dark magic, Weisheng had a hard time to control his power and it took a toll on his body and mind. But since having Hong er by his side, he found out that Hong er's light magic neutralized his dark power not just because he loves her.

The whispering and haunting nightmare that he always had before he married to Hong er immensely decreased and at some point, he didn't have any nightmare whenever he slept beside Hong er.

On some occasions, Weisheng witnessed whenever Hong er was on mission, the beast that was going to devour Hong er suddenly turned docile and quietly followed Hong er till the city gate.

Therefore, he concluded that every being that has dark power in them like Weisheng do likely would be fond of the healing aura that Hong er release and hopefully wouldn't kill her.

A few days later, Weisheng and his troops arrived at the entrance of the Cursed Land. The ones that had gone in once under Lu Ping's command couldn't help but shudder in fear as the image of them affected by the miasma popped up in their mind.

In a second, Weisheng's eyes changed and the dense miasma split into halves like it was creating a path into the forest.

"Go," Weisheng whispered to Xiao Hei.

They slowly and cautiously walked into the unfathomable land.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the dark forest, a young boy lifted up his head and smirked.

"Hoo~ There is an intruder~"