Chapter 160

Chapter 160: Was It You?

After Yu Zhi Yi finished the Rebirth Mantra and sent those women on to reincarnation, she returned to the Chancellor’s Manor to do her morning prayers.

Before the night fully faded, she, for once, put on her official robes and entered the palace.

When she came out, dawn was already breaking. Yu Zhi Yi packed her things and got ready to leave the capital.

She still remembered how the emperor had been stopped outside the Golden Throne Hall, his face like he had seen a ghost, as if seeing her in the palace so early was a rare sight.

Fine, it was rare.

She did not care what the emperor thought and told him about Cao South Village.

The emperor listened, his face heavy yet still a bit doubtful, and asked: “Is it really that dangerous? Why have we heard nothing for thirty years about trouble in Cao South Village?”

Yu Zhi Yi said: “Back then, the fiend in Cao South Village quieted down only because someone sought help from a revered monk. But the monk could not destroy it. He could only seal it in the river at the village entrance and make it sleep.”

“Recently, the bloodline of people tied to the old case returned to Cao South Village. That bloodline woke the fiend. Also, the old seal has loosened.”

“Though the fiend slept for thirty years, its baleful aura did not fade. It grew stronger. It now has a hundred years of cultivation base.”

She sighed and said: “If we do not solve this soon, there may be heavy loss of life.”

Hearing this, the emperor asked no more. He gave her a token to leave the capital and let her out of the palace.

She should have waited for full daylight and breakfast, since the city gates opened then, but she could not wait.

She hurried for two reasons: the matter of Cao South Village could not wait, and she did not want to be pressed into service inside the palace.

From the demonic cultivator’s face she had already read what he had done to Consort Yu, but she did not plan to interfere. That was karma between Consort Yu and the demonic cultivator; she did not want to get involved. Besides, Consort Yu’s ending was of her own making. Since ancient times, who has bargained with a tiger and come out well?

Even if she were called into the palace, she could still say she could not cure it, but it would waste time and energy. [She had no patience to waste her precious time on strangers.]

However, while guarding against Consort Yu, she forgot there was another person in the capital lying in bed.

When a squad riding blood-sweating horses rushed up behind her to block the road, and the leader shouted that he carried an edict from the empress dowager, Yu Zhi Yi felt annoyed. [No wonder her divination before leaving warned of trouble today. She had thought it was trouble from Consort Yu’s side, so she rose early to slip away.]

She did not expect the real trouble to come from Prince Xiao Yao.

Before the eunuch unrolled the edict, Yu Zhi Yi tried to bargain and said: “Eunuch, I carry Your Majesty’s order to handle a case and cannot delay. Could you make an exception?”

The eunuch winced and said: “Official Yu, please don’t make it hard for me. I’m only a castrated servant. I don’t have that power. You should accept the edict.”

Yu Zhi Yi wanted to bring up the emperor, but the eunuch, seeing her hesitation, smiled and said: “This edict from the empress dowager was cleared openly before Your Majesty.”

[Got it. The emperor could not say no to his mother.]

By the time Yu Zhi Yi reached the palace, the sun was already high. She guessed that even if she left the capital today, it would not be early, and she could not help but find it funny.

For the first time, she truly felt what it meant to rise early again and still arrive late.

The empress dowager said: “Minister Yu, I called you here for my son again.”

Yu Zhi Yi lowered her gaze and sighed, then said: “Your Highness, I am not shirking. It is just that with Prince Xiao Yao’s condition now, I am not suitable to take over again.”

The empress dowager arched her brows and said: “Do you not want Prince Xiao Yao to get better? Or are you admitting you did what happened that day?”

Yu Zhi Yi lifted her eyes and said: “Your Highness, you have met the chief disciple from Dragon-Tiger Mountain who follows Miss You, haven’t you?”

Her tone was certain. The empress dowager fell silent. She had indeed met him.

After the prince’s accident that day, she sent people to check the sedan at once but found no problem. But no problem was the biggest problem, because even before ordering the check she knew that the very sedan had once been used to fetch Yu Zhi Yi.

She also knew the tricks Prince Xiao Yao had set. That day he not only sent assassins, he also tampered with the sedan so it would collapse in the most crowded place and make Yu Zhi Yi fall out. If unlucky, being wounded by broken wood would be normal.

Yet the one who should have been harmed, Yu Zhi Yi, was fine, while the later rider, Prince Xiao Yao, was not.

The palace attendants swore they had repaired the sedan after sending Yu Zhi Yi back and it should not fail again, but the problem still happened. It was hard not to think more of it.

People from the Inner Palace investigated as well. The sedan had broken for no clear reason, and the fracture marks looked natural, as if old wood had simply failed under an adult man’s weight. But that was impossible. Things in the palace were the best and were inspected often for the nobles’ safety. Not to mention age damage, even a small mark on the wood would be replaced at once to prevent accidents.

Since human means found nothing, they turned to the supernatural. It happened that You Bing Yue brought back the chief disciple of Dragon-Tiger Mountain, so the empress dowager invited Ou Yang Shuo to check whether there was any trace of a Mystic Sect hand on the sedan. Sadly, nothing came of it. Ou Yang Shuo said there was no spiritual energy trace on it.

No matter her doubts, the empress dowager had to label it an accident. But now, seeing Yu Zhi Yi dodge, her doubts rose again.

Yu Zhi Yi said: “If this really had to do with me, I would not be standing here today. I would be on my knees under guard, right?”

The empress dowager took a deep breath and forced down her anger, then said: “Fine, let’s say it was not you.”

Yu Zhi Yi did not correct her, because it was indeed her work. Only, she had not touched the sedan. She had touched a person.

She had cast a puppet curse on the strange eunuch who carried the order that day. Following her instructions, he reworked the sedan. He kept a glossy shell on the outside but replaced the frame inside with rotten wood. That rotten wood would break under a grown man like Prince Xiao Yao. That was normal.

The only thing that surprised Yu Zhi Yi was how badly he got hurt. At first she only expected him to lie in bed for years.

Coming back to herself, she heard the empress dowager ask: “Tell me this. Not long ago you cured my son. Why can you not do it now?”