"It's good you're not dead. Since you're not dead, answer a few questions for me first."
After a while, Chen An saw that Cheng Yichen seemed to be fine, and the surprise in his eyes slowly faded.
It was true that rumors said the Imperial Preceptor's mystical arts were unparalleled in the world, but no one had ever said his martial arts were particularly strong.
"I know what you want to ask," Cheng Yichen gazed at the sky, a bitter smile appearing on his young face.
"I knew this day would come."
"You know what I want to ask? Then tell me."
Rong Zhi also perked up her ears.
Cheng Yichen looked at Rong Zhi and suddenly shook his head.
"But now is not the time. I have something important to do."
"What is it?"
Cheng Yichen's gaze shifted to behind Rong Zhi, a sense of relief appearing in his eyes, like that of a dying person letting go of everything and calmly facing death.
Rong Zhi and Chen An couldn't help but glance in that direction, but they saw nothing.
"Damn it, we've been tricked!" Rong Zhi exclaimed in surprise.
She turned back and found that the person who had been lying on the ground was gone.
"He was faking it!" Chen An stomped his foot in anger.
"Why didn't you keep a better eye on him?"
"His movements were too fast, I wasn't prepared," Rong Zhi's expression was also a bit grim.
He had seemed so weak just now, with hardly any internal energy left. How could they have anticipated that he could disappear without a trace?
"Hurry and chase him! Once he gets back to Qianji Pavilion, we won't get a second chance," Chen An's tone was extremely harsh. Rong Zhi had never seen him so agitated since she'd known him.
With that, Chen An used his Qinggong and headed in the direction of Qianji Pavilion. Rong Zhi had no choice but to follow.
Rong Zhi wondered what it was Chen An wanted to ask so badly that he cared so much about it.
The two pursued them all the way but saw nothing. When they arrived near Qianji Pavilion, they found that the corpses outside had already been cleaned up, as if nothing had happened.
The area outside Qianji Pavilion had returned to its strict guard. It was impossible for the two of them to get in.
"It's all your fault! If you had watched him properly, would he have escaped? Now we can't even lure him out!"
Chen An raised his fist, his eyes turbulent, but after a moment, he finally lowered it.
"Can't we trigger another corpse tide?"
"Trigger what? The corpses in the capital have already been summoned by me. There are no more to be found."
Chen An looked utterly defeated, his head hanging low.
"What about corpses elsewhere?"
In such a vast place, it shouldn't be hard to find a mass grave.
"It's no use. Do you know why those corpses could cause such a commotion?"
Rong Zhi shook her head.
"Because the deaths of those corpses were all related to Qianji Pavilion."
"Why?" Rong Zhi stared intently at Chen An, her hand in her sleeve tightening.
Chen An sighed, his previous anger completely deflated.
"How should I know? I was about to find out, and then you let him escape."
"Is that entirely my fault? Shouldn't you have been watching... wait a moment." Rong Zhi suddenly perked up her ears and turned her head towards the direction of the Imperial City.
She seemed to faintly hear a commotion.
"Do you remember what he said he was going to do?"
Chen An recalled for a moment but didn't react. He followed Rong Zhi's gaze towards the Imperial City.
"Something's happened in the Imperial City," he realized, his eyes lighting up.
"Let's go!"
The two dared not delay and sped towards the Imperial City.
Outside a desolate vacant house near the South Gate of the Imperial City, the ground was littered with signs of struggle. Numerous citizens of the Imperial City lay on the ground, all with varying degrees of injuries.
A group of guards stood by, restraining Li Hao, who was covered in blood.
Cheng Yichen, who had seemed on the verge of death moments ago, was now examining everyone's wounds with a solemn expression.
"Seven Fiends Blood Array!" Chen An stared at Li Hao, uttering the words in disbelief.
"What is the Seven Fiends Blood Array?"
"It's an array that uses the fresh blood of living people as a sacrifice to control others. Those people on the ground are sacrifices for the array, and the one covered in blood is likely the caster."
Li Hao was the caster? Rong Zhi looked at his blood-soaked appearance, barely recognizable.
Recalling his abnormal behavior earlier, Rong Zhi connected the two events. Did he become like that before in preparation for this array?
"But something's not right..." Chen An scanned the area with his eyes as he approached, a look of confusion on his face.
"What's not right?"
"With such a grand setup, who is the trapped person?"
Logically, with such a huge commotion, the trapped person should not have escaped. Yet, the many people on the ground were clearly sacrifices.
Although Rong Zhi didn't fully understand the array, she could tell from his tone that this situation was very unusual.
After searching around, she didn't find the trapped person but recognized the group of guards.
Were those not the guards from the General's Mansion? Why were they here?
Could this matter be related to Xia Yunting?
Could the trapped person be Xia Yunting?
Given his strength, escaping from a powerful array would not be surprising.
What was his condition now? Was he still alive?
Rong Zhi's heart was pounding. At this moment, Cheng Yichen approached the group of guards and said something. The guards nodded and carried the injured into a nearby abandoned house. Some were left behind to clean up the scene, covering up the bloodstains and traces of the fight.
"Let's go and ask."
Seeing that Cheng Yichen would not be leaving for the time being, she no longer hid and walked out openly, approaching Cheng Yichen, who was talking to the guards.
"Imperial Preceptor, is this the important matter you spoke of?"
Cheng Yichen's back stiffened. He turned around, and a comforting smile appeared on his young face.
"Don't make a fuss. I will tell you what you want to know once I've resolved this."
Rong Zhi and Chen An exchanged glances and stepped aside, waiting patiently.
With so many injured, treatment should be the priority.
Cheng Yichen gestured and spoke to the leading guard, mentioning things like "southeast corner" and "northwest corner." Rong Zhi was completely confused.
She guessed that Cheng Yichen was probably talking about Feng Shui, asking the guard to place something near the General's Mansion.
The guard nodded and retreated, but a portion of them remained. Their attire was also familiar; they were people from the Prince Xiao's Mansion.
"What you have seen and heard tonight must not be spoken of outside, or it will bring about your doom."
Cheng Yichen's expression was very serious, and the guards quickly nodded in agreement.
After they all withdrew, Cheng Yichen turned to Rong Zhi. "Miss, you are a physician, aren't you? Please go inside and take care of the injured."
"Oh..." Rong Zhi naturally walked towards the room of the injured, but halfway there, she suddenly stopped, turned back in shock, her pupils trembling. "How did you know I was a physician?"
Had he seen through her?
Cheng Yichen said lightly, "You carry the scent of herbs."
"..." Was she overthinking things?
She entered the room and found it packed with five or six people. Almost no houses in this area were inhabited, and now they were all filled with the wounded.
Upon closer inspection, they all had wounds from sharp objects. Although the wounds were not deep, inexplicably, blood continued to flow as if it couldn't be stopped.
One of them was particularly strange. Despite only a finger-width cut on his wrist, which was essentially just a superficial scratch, blood was still gushing out.
Rong Zhi moved closer to each wound to examine it carefully and found a faint scent of accumulated snow mixed with rust.
It was "Duanchuan Lu" (Broken Intestine Dew).
Duanchuan Lu was a common potion in the martial world. If this potion was applied to a hidden weapon, it would cause the wound to bleed incessantly, and even the smallest injury could lead to death from excessive blood loss.
Chen An had mentioned earlier that Li Hao used the fresh blood of living people for the array, so it seemed he had used the blood of these people.
Besides this, the injured had no other obvious external or internal injuries.
Fortunately, it was just excessive bleeding. As long as the bleeding was stopped and bandaged, it would be fine.
Rong Zhi took out some hemostatic powder from her embrace, sprinkled it on everyone's wounds, and then tore off their clothes to make bandages, wrapping up the injuries.
However, the medicine she carried was limited, and she ran out after treating only a few people.
She called out to the outside, "Is there any hemostatic powder?"
The next moment, a cloth bag flew towards her and landed directly in front of her with a thud.
Rong Zhi opened it and saw a bag full of hemostatic powder.
This was too much!
She couldn't help but look at Cheng Yichen. He was quite well-prepared.
Rong Zhi quickly continued to treat the remaining injured. However, halfway through bandaging, she noticed the physiques of these people... were too robust.
Several consecutive people had strong muscles and sturdy builds. Were they also guards from some mansion?
If Li Hao wanted to find sacrifices, why didn't he find ordinary people, but instead chose these guards who looked difficult to provoke?
On second thought, perhaps Li Hao's madness had attracted the attention of the guards from both the General's Mansion and the Prince's Mansion. These guards came out to investigate, and he took them as sacrifices.
Later, Rong Zhi saw a few people with ordinary appearances, which finally quelled her suspicion.
The bandaging process went smoothly, and the voices from outside could be heard intermittently.
"Was the incident at the Yuan Nv Ku (Grudge Woman Cave) all true? Was the legend of resurrection true? Did my father really personally build the Yuan Nv Ku?"
Yuan Nv Ku?
Rong Zhi had never heard of it. She perked up her ears and only heard Cheng Yichen sigh, "Why are you so stubborn? If your father told you, then it must be true."
"Then... is resurrection also true?"
Chen An's tone was clearly agitated, and his voice even began to tremble.
"No."
Cheng Yichen's words were like a splash of cold water.
"If people in the world could be resurrected, and someone revived a former emperor, wouldn't the world be thrown into chaos?"
Chen An nodded thoughtfully.
Rong Zhi decided to go out. Since Cheng Yichen was in the mood to answer questions, she wanted to quickly ask about resurrection.
"Alright, if there's nothing else, hurry back."
Cheng Yichen began to wave them away. Although he was old enough to be a grandfather by age, his demeanor and actions were exactly like those of his youth, which, combined with his snow-white hair, looked particularly incongruous.
Chen An was reluctant to leave and pointed at Rong Zhi. "What about her? She's clearly alive, yet she carries such a strong aura of death."
Cheng Yichen smiled at Rong Zhi, a smile that was not quite a smile.
"If you were to go to a mass grave, you would also have the same aura as her."
This meant that Rong Zhi's condition had nothing to do with her personally, but was merely due to external influences.
Chen An clearly didn't believe him. "Don't lie to me."