When Meng Xiuchen ran to the entrance of the Meng residence, he happened to meet Meng Mingde returning.
Meng Mingde looked utterly defeated. That damned Censor Immortal Official had actually refused to let him through the gates.
Seeing no one behind Meng Xiuchen, his expression darkened further. "Where is Meng Anli?"
Meng Xiuchen said indignantly, "She's hiding in the dormitory and refuses to come out. The dormitory matron wouldn't let me in."
"Unfilial daughter!"
Meng Mingde was furious. He lifted his foot to enter the residence, then immediately backed out again and strode away with a gloomy expression.
"Fine, she wants to be a turtle hiding in its shell? If she skips school for a year and loses her inner core, will the academy still keep her?"
Meng Xiuchen chased after him. "Father, where are you going?"
"To find her supervising instructor. If Wanwan can't enter the academy, then she shouldn't think about staying there either."
When he arrived at the supervising instructor's residence, he was told that Lu Zhiyuan had invited the instructor out for drinks.
Meng Mingde cursed Lu Zhiyuan's ancestors for three hundred generations. He wanted to seek out the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince had gone out with his eldest son and had yet to return.
He spent the night in unease. At morning court the next day, every department reported, as usual, the matters that had occurred within its jurisdiction.
The Censor Immortal Official stepped forward. "Your Majesty, I impeach Meng Mingde, an official of the Directorate of Students, for coupling with a mortal in violation of heavenly law and for indulging a criminal in harming others."
"Oh?" The Heavenly Emperor's brows and eyes were hidden behind a curtain of beads, concealing his expression. "Meng Mingde, is this true?"
All the immortal officials watched Meng Mingde as though enjoying a grand spectacle.
Lu Zhiyuan secretly opened a Water Mirror for Lu Yao, allowing her and Meng Anli to watch.
Meng Mingde had clearly prepared an excuse. "In reply to Your Majesty, my coupling with a mortal occurred eighteen years ago, when I was still registered as a demon."
Lu Zhiyuan muttered a curse. "Damn it, he really knows how to quibble."
Lu Yao was cursing too.
Meng Anli remained quite calm. In her previous life, she had already experienced Meng Mingde's shamelessness and silver tongue from every angle.
Meng Mingde continued, "As for indulging a criminal in harming others, does the immortal official mean the matter of my digging out my youngest daughter's inner core? She was jealous and bullied her younger sister. She also captured eighty-one mortal women to refine pills. I only dug out her inner core to teach her a lesson."
The immortals erupted in an uproar. "What?"
"Capturing mortals to refine pills?"
Meng Anli smiled instead. She had not intended to reveal this matter, fearing that those women would be implicated. He had brought it up himself.
Lu Yao cursed, "He really can spin lies. Anli doesn't even know how to refine pills."
Lu Zhiyuan promptly called out, "As far as I know, Anli does not know how to refine pills."
Meng Mingde answered smoothly, "After capturing the mortals, she had her second brother refine the pills for her."
Meng Anli said, "I don't know how to refine pills at all. How would I know that mortals could be used to refine pills?"
Lu Zhiyuan repeated her words aloud.
Meng Mingde was rendered speechless.
Meng Anli curled her lips in a cold smile. "Could it be that I read Second Brother's pill-refining books?"
Lu Zhiyuan repeated that as well, adding, "She was either at the academy or at home. If she didn't read them at home, could she have read them at the academy?"
Everyone said that the Heavenly Emperor stood behind Xuantian Academy. No one dared claim that such wicked arts existed within the academy.
A faint sheen of sweat appeared on Meng Mingde's forehead.
Meng Anli pressed her advantage. "Uncle Lu, ask Celestial Master Zhang what kind of pill can be refined from eighty-one women."
Lu Zhiyuan immediately shouted, "I am very curious. I ask Celestial Master Zhang to clear up my confusion: what pill can be refined from eighty-one women?"
Celestial Master Zhang was suddenly called upon and hesitated slightly. "This..."
The Heavenly Emperor said blandly, "Hmm?"
Celestial Master Zhang bowed. "I have never seen such a pill-refining art, nor do I know."
"I recall," Lu Zhiyuan said, looking toward the seat at the Heavenly Emperor's lower left, "that Eastern Hua Emperor Lord can also refine pills and is exceptionally learned. Has Eastern Hua Emperor Lord ever heard of this?"
Eastern Hua Emperor Lord rubbed his fingers together slightly, opened the fan in his hand, and waved it with casual abandon.
"Using the heart's blood of eighty-one mortal women can refine an inner core, but that is all groundless nonsense, without any basis."
Now all the immortal officials understood.
Those women had been used to refine an inner core. Meng Anli already had an inner core, so why would she need to refine another?
Thud—
Meng Mingde dropped to his knees. "Your Majesty, perhaps my daughter believed the women could be used to refine some other pill, which was why she abducted so many of them. If a child is not taught, the fault lies with the father. I spoiled her so much before. If she had not committed such a grave error, how could I have ruthlessly dug out her inner core?"
Lu Yao spat, "Bah! Now that he has no argument left, he's resorting to shameless tricks."
The calm, cloudless look on Meng Anli's face faded. This was likely not mere shamelessness. The key lay in the words, "If a child is not taught, the fault lies with the father." He had cleverly turned the matter into a family affair.
This was a father's suppression of his child.
There was another way out: investigate those eighty-one women and find out who had abducted them. One investigation would reveal the truth. But the Heavenly Emperor had to give the order.
The Censor Immortal Official understood his meaning as well and attacked him from another angle.
"You said that you coupled with a mortal while you were registered as a demon. Then when you brought your mortal daughter to Heaven, were you registered as an immortal?"
Meng Mingde was once again left speechless. The look he gave the Censor Immortal Official was poisoned to the bone.
The Censor Immortal Official gave a disdainful snort, then turned and respectfully reported to the Heavenly Emperor, "Your Majesty, privately bringing a mortal to Heaven also violates heavenly law."
Meng Mingde had just been about to argue again.
The Heavenly Emperor spoke. "Enough. What Meng Mingde did was indeed improper. Give him twenty thunder whips and dock one year of salary."
Meng Anli was disappointed. His Majesty would not investigate the captured women and had let the matter pass so easily.
Why? Was the Directorate of Students too busy to do without Meng Mingde?
Meng Mingde was overjoyed and respectfully kowtowed. "This servant accepts the decree."
Lu Zhiyuan felt somewhat regretful, thinking the punishment far too light.
But the Heavenly Emperor immediately added, "Lu Zhiyuan, you will supervise the punishment."
Lu Zhiyuan brightened. "Yes."
He would definitely make the executioners strike hard!
Meng Mingde's mouth twitched, and his gaze turned vicious. He kowtowed to the Heavenly Emperor again.
"Your Majesty, my daughter Anli first committed wrongdoing, then caused a disturbance during the entrance examination. Her conduct is reckless, and her inner core has already been destroyed. She is unworthy of the Crown Prince."
Lu Zhiyuan hurriedly wanted to close the Water Mirror.
Anli deeply loved the Crown Prince and followed him around every day. Everyone in the Heavenly Court knew it.
Meng Anli said calmly, "Uncle Lu, I want to hear this."
The Heavenly Emperor tapped his fingers against his knee several times. "The Crown Prince is grown now. He can decide certain matters for himself."
Lu Yao and Lu Zhiyuan both breathed a sigh of relief.
Lu Yao still felt lingering fear. "That's good. Our Heavenly Emperor truly is wise and mighty."
Meng Anli played with her fingers, a faint scoff on her lips. What was good about that?
She wished the Heavenly Emperor would agree outright.
In her previous life, the Crown Prince had also been bewitched by Meng Shiwan. To make Meng Shiwan happy, he had often come to the dark chamber to torment her.
On the day he married Meng Shiwan, he had put her into the Treasure Bottle and melted her away.
He was the one who had directly killed her.
The murderous aura around her could no longer be concealed, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
The next moment, she fell into a warm embrace.
"Little Anli, it's all right. You've treated the Crown Prince so well all these years, and he only allowed you to get close to him. Doesn't that prove that he cares about you?"
Anli shook her head. What the Crown Prince had cursed her for most often in the dark chamber was—
That she was shameless, following behind him every day, impossible to shake off.
He had also said that she drove away the fairies who approached him, that she was jealous and vicious.
But those fairies had clearly withdrawn of their own accord after learning that they were betrothed.
Clearly, Meng Shiwan was the shameless one, seducing her own brother-in-law.
Before you continue