Perhaps it was Nan Shiying’s voice, too eerie, that sent an involuntary shiver down Wang Yuyi's spine.
“Could Your Highness elaborate further?” he asked, knitting his brows, unable to fathom any means by which someone could die within a dream.
Dying in a dream, not merely dying within one, held a qualitative difference.
“More detail?” Nan Shiying raised an eyebrow, continuing to play with the jade bracelet on her wrist. She asked with a smile, “What more do you wish to hear?”
“Everything!”
Wang Yuyi was desperate to know all there was to know about the peculiar individuals.
Nan Shiying picked up her teacup, blew away the tea leaves floating on the surface, and took a sip before slowly beginning, “Have you heard of the Ask Heaven Sword?”
Wang Yuyi nodded. “Of course!”
On the day of the annual Grand Ceremony, an unforeseen incident occurred: the dragon-carved stone monument left by the First Emperor cracked, and the Ask Heaven Sword reappeared. He regretted his low official rank, which prevented him from participating in the ceremony and missing this historic moment.
However, did the King not eventually seize this sword? Could the origin of the peculiar individuals be related to this sword?
“The Ask Heaven Sword?”
Hui’an displayed a hint of confusion at the opportune moment.
“The sword the First Emperor once wielded,” Nan Shiying explained briefly, her gaze returning to Wang Yuyi. “If Lord Wang is well-versed in ancient texts, you should know the origin of this sword.”
“As a subject of Lin Yuan, how could I not know the origin of the Ask Heaven Sword?”
Nan Shiying nodded. “Then you must know what this sword was forged from.”
“Stone from beyond the heavens.”
“More precisely, a meteorite.”
“The peculiar individuals appeared at that time.”
“Then it has been nearly two hundred years?” Wang Yuyi gasped. If the peculiar individuals had existed for so long, how come he, a constable of the Dali Temple, had never heard of them?
Nan Shiying hummed in agreement. “One could say that as long as Lin Yuan has existed, so have the peculiar individuals. Are you not puzzled? Puzzled as to why you’ve never heard of them if they’ve existed for so long?”
“Yes!”
Wang Yuyi nodded.
“Because the peculiar individuals practice martial arts.”
“Unless they unleash their hidden abilities, how can anyone distinguish them?”
“In the various sects of the martial world, how many peculiar individuals do you think are hidden?”
Nan Shiying maintained a faint smile as she spoke. Wang Yuyi cared little about the number of peculiar individuals in the world; he only cared whether their existence would affect social stability.
“Are they… very powerful?” Wang Yuyi asked with a somber expression.
Nan Shiying pointed to Hui’an’s neck and said to Wang Yuyi, “The abilities of peculiar individuals are varied and strange. Like the assassin from last night, if this Palace hadn’t dispatched guards to protect Hui’an, what you would see this morning would be Hui’an’s corpse.”
“Controlling fire, controlling water, manipulating objects – these abilities are commonplace among the peculiar individuals. But for ordinary people or martial artists, even masters with profound inner strength would find these abilities difficult to control. However, the peculiar individuals also have obvious weaknesses…” Wang Yuyi listened intently, but Nan Shiying paused, changing the subject and skipping over the content Wang Yuyi most wanted to hear. “I’ve digressed. But that is generally how it is.”
Wang Yuyi pondered for a moment and then asked again, “Does Your Highness know the identity of last night’s assassin, or rather, what organization do these peculiar individuals belong to?”
“I do not know.”
“But if you wish to investigate, you might look into Ten Thousand Cave Tower and Ghostly Fiend Gate.”
Because of Luan Wencheng, the name Ghostly Fiend Gate was highly sensitive to Wang Yuyi. Upon hearing Your Highness mention it, he couldn't help but want to ask for more details. However, before he could speak, Nan Shiying added, “However, regarding last night’s assassination, I doubt you will be able to find anything.”
The words “Ghostly Fiend Gate” turned in his mouth. Hearing Your Highness’s subsequent remark, his tongue stiffened, and the words that were about to be spoken turned into three syllables: “Why?”
“Because it is not necessarily someone from Lin Yuan who wished Hui’an dead. Da Li has also made moves.”
Wang Yuyi was slightly taken aback. Did Your Highness mean that the assassin was likely sent by Da Li? Wait, what did she mean by ‘Da Li has also made moves’? When did Da Li make moves? Could it be… He suddenly looked up, his face full of shock. “Does Your Highness mean that the assassination at the courier station was also carried out by people from Da Li?”
Nan Shiying gazed steadily at Wang Yuyi. “On that day, Yu Chengxuan was attacked, the courier station caught fire, and the surrounding civilian residences were engulfed in flames, causing heavy casualties to our Lin Yuan citizens. Do you think the Prince’s fury and his order for the Demon Hunter Army to slaughter Da Li’s border troops were due to misplaced anger?”
Her tone carried a hint of coldness, and her final words were tinged with mockery. Wang Yuyi, grasping the unspoken meaning behind her words, felt his mind buzz.
Was that assassination not the Emperor’s doing?
In that case, it was Da Li? Had Da Li’s struggle for the imperial throne reached such a point?
Wang Yuyi’s throat felt dry. He had never expected that his visit to the Prince’s mansion today would unearth the assassination case from the previous year.
Hearing about this matter suddenly, Wang Yuyi’s emotions were turbulent. So, he had been misjudging the Emperor all this time?
He wondered if Your Highness would regret telling him all this if she knew she had indirectly reshaped the Emperor’s image in his heart.
Seeing Wang Yuyi’s look of sudden realization and knowing implication, Nan Shiying couldn’t help but click her tongue inwardly.
Wang Yuyi suppressed his thoughts and continued to press. “So, Your Highness believes this assassination was also internal strife within Da Li?”
“What would Da Li gain?”
He had more to say, but Nan Shiying understood his unspoken meaning.
The Da Li court had only recently stabilized. To assassinate a princess who was a marriage alliance, risking angering Lin Yuan again – this transaction simply didn’t add up!
If all the people in Da Li were this foolish, then their nation’s demise would not be far off.
“Perhaps they were afraid.”
“Afraid she might make a comeback?”
“Of course, there’s another possibility. Perhaps someone did not want Nan Yujin to marry, did not want him to be dispatched to Yuyuan Commandery.”
Wang Yuyi didn’t quite understand Your Highness’s mention of fear and making a comeback, but he clearly understood the latter part. He hadn’t discounted that possibility, but if that were the case, wouldn’t Your Highness be the one in the capital who least wanted the Nan family to rise? He… he had indeed come with a hint of probing today, but having reached this point, Wang Yuyi’s suspicion of Nan Shiying had dropped to its lowest. However, there was one point he still needed to clarify: why had Your Highness sent guards to ‘protect’ this princess of Da Li?