The Star Observer

Xiao Fan hurriedly cut off the young master before he could expose himself, catching up to grab Ji Xuanyuan and whispering, "Your Highness! Have you forgotten what we agreed on before?"

But Ji Xuanyuan looked utterly relaxed. He waved a hand. "No matter, no matter! He's one of us."

"Mingyuan, take another good look. Who am I?" Ji Xuanyuan tilted his head and pointed at himself.

Since things had come to this, Xiao Fan simply stopped pretending as well and took out the glowing jade pendant Ji Xuanyuan had given him from his robes.

Li Mingyuan accepted the jade pendant and inspected it closely. Then realization struck him like a bolt. He dropped to one knee. "So it is Your Highness the Fifth Prince! This humble one was blind just now and failed to recognize Your Highness. I beg Your Highness for forgiveness!"

The moment those words fell, the scene erupted in uproar...

"What did that sorcerer just call him? The Fifth Prince..."

[As I write this, I hope readers will remember our domain name, Taiwan Novels → ⓣⓦⓚⓐⓝ.ⓒⓞⓜ]

"Could that beggar... really be someone from the palace?! And even... even a prince?"

Several thuggish soldiers went blank with shock, their knees turning to jelly as they collapsed to the ground, looking as though all hope had left their lives.

"Ah, get up. What's the fuss between us? Forget all that tedious ceremony." As he spoke, Ji Xuanyuan helped Li Mingyuan to his feet.

Then, before everyone could recover from their shock, Ji Xuanyuan turned and slapped Xiao Fan on the shoulder, laughing heartily. "Right, let me introduce you. This is my brother, Young Master Xiao Fan!"

What? Your brother? No... Li Mingyuan was dumbfounded. He thought to himself that he knew all six imperial princes, as well as the princes and heirs apparent of the royal houses. He had never heard of anyone surnamed Xiao in the entire imperial family.

Li Mingyuan was in a difficult spot now. A prince's brother was generally to be addressed as "Your Highness," but he had no idea where this fellow had come from. If he addressed him incorrectly, that would be the crime of grave disrespect...

"Um..."

Xiao Fan saw Li Mingyuan's dilemma and clasped his fists with a smile. "His Highness is joking. I am Xiao Fan, a gray-clad agent of the Shadow Pivot Court. Greetings, Lord Li."

Only then did Li Mingyuan let out a breath of relief. So he was just some wild brother he had befriended outside the palace. Then it was fine.

"Li Mingyuan, star-observing master of the Bureau of Celestial Observation, greets Young Master Xiao." Li Mingyuan returned the salute with cupped fists.

A star-observing master... that was a high-ranking sorcerer of the Bureau of Celestial Observation! No wonder he was so good at showing off... Xiao Fan was impressed.

Looking at the refined young gentleman before him, whose bearing was anything but ordinary, Xiao Fan could not help asking curiously, "My lord, that Seven-Whatever Seal you used just now was simply unparalleled, cool as hell, utterly badass. May I ask what realm you are in?"

"Not at all, not at all. I am merely at the Spirit Platform Realm. Hardly worth mentioning." Li Mingyuan pressed down the corners of his mouth and lightly waved a hand.

Xiao Fan did not know much about the ranks of the sorcerous path, so he asked in confusion, "Spirit Platform Realm? What rank is that?"

Before Li Mingyuan could answer, Ji Xuanyuan cut in with a grin. "The Spirit Platform Realm is the fifth rank of the sorcerous path. Even across the Nine Provinces, it is quite rare!"

Well, damn. He got to show off again...!

Because of the existence of calamity poison, cultivating the supernatural paths in this world was extremely difficult. More often than not, one put in twice the effort for half the result. The higher one's realm, the deeper the calamity poison, and the slower one's cultivation progressed.

Anyone who could reach the fifth rank was already a genius.

"Awesome, awesome! Lord Li truly is a heaven-born prodigy." Xiao Fan immediately laid on the rainbow praise.

"What does 'awesome' mean?" Li Mingyuan asked in confusion.

Xiao Fan scratched the back of his head and smiled. "Ah... it means you're really impressive!"

"You flatter me, you flatter me!" Li Mingyuan spoke modestly, but the corners of his mouth were becoming increasingly difficult to suppress.

At that moment, Ji Xuanyuan suddenly remembered someone else. He looked around in all directions. "Eh? Old Xiao, where's Wang Mazi?"

At the mention of Wang Mazi, Xiao Fan realized that their three-man donkey-cart group still had one member missing.

Yet that person was nowhere to be seen... During the chaos just now, who knew where Wang Mazi had run off to.

"He couldn't have been eaten by that monster, could he?!" Ji Xuanyuan cried out.

Xiao Fan shook his head. "No. I kept my eyes on Zhang Bin the whole time."

"Maybe he slipped away in the confusion himself..." Xiao Fan sighed, thinking that this fatty was far too inconsiderate. If he wanted to leave, he could at least have said goodbye.

Inside the city gates, a round figure entered a deserted alley.

Wang Mazi looked left and right. Once he had confirmed there was no one nearby, he let out a breath and walked up to an utterly ordinary wooden door.

Knock, knock, knock.

He knocked three times. "Buying fish."

A woman's voice came from within. "We've closed up. Come back tomorrow."

"East Sea coral bream. I want it fresh. I'll pick it up tomorrow morning."

The voice inside noticeably paused. "No coral bream in stock. We've got fresh tiger-striped pomfret."

Wang Mazi nodded faintly. "How much for the tiger-striped pomfret?"

"Fifty coins per jin."

"I'm buying in bulk. Forty coins!"

"Deal!"

The moment the voice inside fell silent, the door immediately opened. A slender hand reached out, grabbed Wang Mazi, and yanked him inside.

Click!

The door closed again. A delicate-looking young woman stood there with her hands on her hips, worry written all over her face. "My..."

Before she could finish, Wang Mazi pressed an index finger to his lips and blinked at her.

The woman suddenly understood. "Young Master! Why did you only arrive now? You're a full two months late! Do you have any idea how worried we've all been?"

"Ahem... well, there were a few minor mishaps on the road. But I'm here now, aren't I?" Wang Mazi scratched the back of his head and laughed it off.

At that moment, a tall, elegant beautiful woman emerged from inside the room and looked Wang Mazi up and down. "You are the special envoy sent by Her Majesty the Queen?"

"That's right!"

Wang Mazi was a full three inches shorter than the beautiful woman, yet he held his chin high, as though he meant to overpower her in sheer presence.

He pulled a crystalline, translucent indigo pearl from his robes and waved it in his hand.

The beautiful woman recognized at once the peculiar spiritual aura contained within it. "It truly is the Queen-Blessed Dragon Pearl..."

As she spoke, she dropped to one knee. "Secret agent Ouyang Jing pays respects to Special Envoy."

The women behind her also knelt. "We pay respects to Special Envoy!"

Wang Mazi nodded in satisfaction. "Mm, rise."

"May I ask how the Special Envoy is addressed?" Ouyang Jing asked as she rose.

"Wang Mazi."

The entire room fell silent at those words...

Ouyang Jing's face darkened. This cheap-sounding thing is really the special envoy sent by the Queen? This is simply beyond words.

But he knew the contact password, and he held the Queen-Blessed Dragon Pearl in his hand. She had no reason to doubt him...

"Envoy Wang... a pleasure, a pleasure. May I ask what instructions Her Majesty the Queen has?"

Wang Mazi found a chair and sat down, pouring himself a cup of tea before drinking it. "I have come this time to assign you two important tasks."

"The first task is to stir up conflict between Great Liang and Eastern Yue."

Ouyang Jing nodded slightly, apparently unsurprised. "So it is as expected. Forgive this subordinate's presumption, but has the war in the Eastern Sea been going poorly?"

"Miss Ouyang is indeed clever. So long as we can successfully complete our mission, we will naturally be able to turn the tide of the Eastern Sea war." Wang Mazi answered with a solemn expression.

"This is using a tiger to devour a wolf. The Queen is mighty!" Ouyang Jing toyed with her sleek long hair, the corners of her lips lifting as she became all the more seductive and captivating.

At that moment, another woman asked, "And what is the second task?"

"There's no rush for that... For now, let's handle this first task properly." Wang Mazi rose to his feet, his expression turning stern. "For the Queen!"

The women in the room suddenly grew impassioned and cried out in unison once more, "For the Queen!"