A Senior?

Outside the gate, the old eunuch still stood below the steps with his hands hanging at his sides.

Yet everyone in the hall had already turned their gazes toward the figure slowly emerging from the corridor.

Lin Longyue sat upright in her chair, a hint of pleasant surprise on her face.

Chu Linzi's fingers, which had been playing with her short blade, paused; the Yunhe Commandery Princess set down the osmanthus cake in her hand, the languidness in her expression fading somewhat; Yang Zhuri slightly narrowed his peach-blossom eyes, his gaze roaming back and forth between Chen Lingxi and the vermilion gates.

Just as Total Perception had foretold, everything proceeded step by step.

"Where is Young Master Chi Hu?"

"Throw him in prison and interrogate him."

Chen Lingxi lowered his eyes. Between the index and middle fingers of his right hand, an exceedingly fine, faint thread of spiritual qi quietly bloomed.

"Wait."

"Let him enter the East Hall of my temporary palace."

Everything was nearly identical to what Total Perception had foretold.

Chen Lingxi stepped into the hall, but this time, there was another difference.

For when Chen Lingxi entered the East Hall this time, his back suddenly straightened, and he clasped his hands behind him!

The doors of the East Hall slowly closed behind him.

Smoke from dragon saliva incense flowed over the mutton-fat white jade tiles like a stream. A tiny blue flame in the bronze lamp cast everything in the hall into a hazy blur.

The Crown Prince stood with his hands behind his back before an enormous landscape painting, facing away from the door. His bright yellow brocade robe gleamed with a deep, somber luster in the candlelight.

And this time, Chen Lingxi did not wait for the Crown Prince to speak.

"From your spiritual qi, it is not difficult to see that you are a disciple of the Southern Heaven Domain."

His voice was not loud, but the instant the words "Southern Heaven Domain" fell, the Crown Prince's pupils abruptly contracted. He spun around and fixed his eyes on the "beast fighter" standing there with his hands behind his back!

"This man saw through my origins?"

From beginning to end, before this Chen Lingxi, he had never actively circulated his spiritual qi.

Not only that, he had concealed it using a qi-concealment method. Those in the same realm might be able to see that he possessed spiritual qi, but they would never be able to discern where that spiritual qi came from.

Yet this man had revealed his master's lineage in a single sentence.

"This man... just what is his background? What cultivation does he possess?"

At their very first exchange, the Crown Prince actually felt a faint sense of apprehension.

Yet his expression remained unchanged. He merely nodded slightly. "Fellow Daoist... what sharp eyes."

Seeing his reaction, the stone hanging in Chen Lingxi's heart lowered a little.

He said no more, merely clasping his hands behind his back as he slowly paced through the East Hall.

His steps were neither hurried nor slow, his bearing composed, as though he were strolling through his own study.

"Speaking of the Southern Heaven Domain," he said just as casually, "I have some connection with one of your elders."

His gaze swept over the landscape painting on the wall and settled amid the distant mountains and nearby waters, as though recalling something from a time unimaginably far away.

"I once debated with him. Before me, he displayed a technique of rebuke."

At this point, he suddenly covered his mouth with his right fist and coughed softly.

The cough was exceptionally light, but at the moment it faded, a thread-thin dragon's chant spilled from his throat, mingling with the tail end of the cough. It was faintly there, faintly absent, yet it entered the Crown Prince's ears with perfect clarity.

The Crown Prince's expression changed sharply.

Though that dragon's chant was thin and not particularly forceful, he knew it all too well!

He had cultivated the Dragon Roar Technique for many years; nothing could have been more familiar to him.

This was clearly the method of the Dragon Roar Technique!

"The Dragon Roar Technique?" the Crown Prince blurted out.

Chen Lingxi lowered the right fist covering his mouth and lightly shook his head.

The motion was exceedingly slow, carrying a trace of dissatisfaction.

"That was roughly how it was performed," he said evenly. "I only saw it once, so I do not know whether my deduction resembles it."

The Crown Prince drew a deep breath, and the usual calmness on his face finally shifted.

"He saw it only once, yet he could deduce something so similar?"

"Who exactly is this man?"

The Crown Prince watched Chen Lingxi stroll leisurely through the East Hall, and for a moment, he was genuinely astonished.

Several breaths passed before he solemnly bowed to Chen Lingxi, his tone taking on sincere respect. "A figure such as Senior has actually come here to seek truth."

Chen Lingxi took in every change in the Crown Prince's expression. His face revealed nothing, but inwardly, he quietly let out a breath of relief.

He put on a profound smile, the sound of it extremely soft.

"Seek truth?" He repeated those words, then said no more. He merely turned his gaze toward the landscape painting on the wall and stood with his hands behind his back.

The Crown Prince took another deep breath, his expression becoming ever more respectful.

This man could see at a glance that he came from the Southern Heaven Domain and could casually deduce the Dragon Roar Technique he had painstakingly cultivated for years. His cultivation was unfathomable!

Then his eyes brightened slightly.

"To encounter this mysterious figure may well be a stroke of fortune!"

"Now that I am here and my memories have yet to fully awaken, if I can ask this man to protect my path, I will have another layer of support and greater hope of seeking truth and reaching the Cauldron-Seizing Realm!"

Having made up his mind, he bowed to Chen Lingxi once more and said respectfully, "This junior is Ying Chi! I would not dare speculate on Senior's affairs, but I boldly ask that, if Senior is willing, you might as well visit the capital as a guest. This junior is willing to fulfill the duties of a host."

His words were exceedingly earnest, and the intent to recruit him in his tone was no longer concealed in the slightest.

Chen Lingxi's expression did not change.

Go to the Crown Prince's residence?

He had not forgotten that he was a fraud. If he truly stayed at the Crown Prince's residence day after day, there would be far too many flaws. His words and actions, the depth of his cultivation, the breadth of his knowledge—he could give himself away anywhere.

Once exposed, death would be certain.

He shook his head slightly, his tone still composed. "Wait a few more days. I may visit the capital for a look."

At this, a trace of disappointment passed through the Crown Prince's eyes, but he did not dare urge him further. Then his gaze shifted slightly, as though he wished to ask something.

Just then, Chen Lingxi suddenly began counting on his fingers, his thumb rapidly tapping the joints of his index and middle fingers as though calculating something.

His brows gradually furrowed, and a faintly discernible gravity flashed through his eyes.

Seeing him like this, the Crown Prince's heart involuntarily tightened, yet he did not dare make a sound to disturb him.

Several breaths later, Chen Lingxi lowered his hand and gently shook his head, as though withdrawing his mind from some profound calculation.

He turned to the Crown Prince and said flatly, "Since that is so, we shall meet again."

The Crown Prince hurriedly replied, "This junior will see Senior off."

Chen Lingxi shook his head. "Do as before, lest others find traces and clues."

The Crown Prince stopped, standing with his hands hanging at his sides before the landscape painting.

Chen Lingxi turned and walked toward the hall doors.

After taking two steps, he suddenly turned back. His gaze fell upon the Crown Prince; it was not sharp, yet it made the Crown Prince's heart shudder.

"The Lin Family's medicinal ingredient is of acceptable quality," Chen Lingxi said, as casually as though mentioning it in passing. "You may develop it further. I will not interfere."

He paused, and his gaze darkened slightly.

"However, I do not wish to be watched."

The Crown Prince's heart jolted. He lowered his head in acknowledgment, thinking, "It seems that none of my small schemes in Yuan River Prefecture escaped this senior's eyes, yet I did not even know this man existed."

He dared ask even fewer questions, merely lowering his head further. Only after he heard the hall doors open and close did he slowly straighten up.

The East Hall returned to silence.

Chen Lingxi left the East Hall and passed through the corridor.

The gazes of everyone in the main hall gathered on him again. Without looking aside, he walked straight to Lin Longyue's side and stood with his hands at his sides.

Lin Longyue glanced at him but did not ask anything.

The old eunuch emerged from beside the curtains, bowed slightly toward Lin Longyue, and spoke words largely identical to those foretold by Total Perception.

The carriage wound its way down the mountain road.

Inside the carriage, Lin Longyue sat opposite him with her eyes closed in rest, her breathing steady.

Chen Lingxi leaned against the carriage wall, lifted a corner of the curtain, and gazed at the mountain scenery outside as it gradually darkened.

His heart remained uneasy. He did not know whether he had managed to bluff the Crown Prince.

Those words and that manner had all been repeatedly pondered over in his mind.

He had studied the Dragon Roar Technique for only half an hour. He could barely produce a thread of dragon's chant that resembled it in form, but he could not be considered truly initiated.

He had also coaxed the name Southern Heaven Domain out of the Crown Prince himself.

As for counting on his fingers, and the "medicinal ingredient of the Lin Family," those had been spur-of-the-moment performances.

Every step had been taken on the blade's edge. The slightest misstep would mean eternal damnation.

The carriage passed through the checkpoint beneath Mangyang Mountain and entered the official road leading to Yuan River Prefecture.

Great stretches of farmland lay on either side of the road, their pitch-black outlines barely visible in the night.

In the distance, the lights of the city gradually lit up in the darkness, like a string of stars scattered upon the earth.

The carriage entered the city gate, passed through the long streets, and drove through the side gate into the West Courtyard of the Baosu Marquis Residence.

Lin Longyue opened her eyes and glanced at him. She said only, "Rest," then left with Liu Que toward the main courtyard.

In the shadows by the side gate, Chen Lingxi let out a long breath of stale air.

The night breeze blew from the garden, carrying the fading fragrance of gardenias, neither fully withered nor fully blooming.

He stood there for a while. Only when the rumble of the carriage wheels had completely vanished into the depths of the night did he turn and walk toward his own small courtyard.

In the end, he had escaped another calamity.

He pushed open the courtyard gate. Moonlight fell upon the old locust tree in the yard, its branches and leaves lush and dense, rustling in the night wind.

He walked beneath the locust tree, leaned against its trunk, and slowly sat down.

The thread of Azure Qi in his dantian circulated slowly, soothing his tightly wound mind bit by bit.

A sudden calamity had struck, but he had survived in the end.

"And I gained quite a lot!"

Chen Lingxi sank his consciousness into the Divine Chamber. A musk-deerskin pouch hung amid the dense fog within it.