This trip had not only cost her Wei Yan's trust; more importantly, she had been thoroughly played.
That "intelligence" had been fake from beginning to end. The time, the place, the people—it had all been fabricated. With a lousy actor and a script riddled with holes, her opponent had led her around by the nose like a fool, despite her own belief that she was clever.
A chill rose from her spine and spread through her limbs in an instant.
Who?
Who could possibly have enough influence to toy with her and Wei Yan like this?
Meanwhile, one day earlier, at the other end of Falling Phoenix Slope.
First Prince Zhao Hong stood beneath a massive dead tree, excitedly digging at the earth around its roots with a spade. According to the map in the Ancient Tome, the node was right here.
Before long, his spade struck something hard.
A box!
Zhao Hong's heart pounded. He dropped the spade, dug away the dirt with his hands, and lifted out an antiquated black iron box. It had no lock, and he opened it at once.
There were no glittering secret treasures, no crystals radiating terrifying energy.
There was only a smooth bronze mirror inside.
Zhao Hong froze. He raised the mirror, and his own face stared back at him, twisted by excitement and greed.
On the back of the mirror, he found a line of tiny characters carved with a sharp implement.
"What you see is the only treasure you can obtain."
Boom!
It was as if a bolt of thunder had struck Zhao Hong's mind, leaving it utterly blank.
What did he see?
An ugly, foolish idiot, blinded by desire!
"Aaaaaah—!"
Humiliation, rage, and despair swallowed him whole. With a beastlike roar, he hurled the iron box and mirror