Watching from the Shadows

Heaven Dou City, South Street.

An inconspicuous carriage was parked at the entrance of an alley.

The carriage curtain was lifted open a crack.

Su Chen leaned against the cushioned seat, peering through the gap at the street opposite.

Xue Qinghe sat across from him, his brows tightly furrowed and his jaw tense.

Across the street.

Royal Pharmacies.

A dense crowd had gathered outside its doors.

The long queue stretched all the way to the street corner.

Almost all of them were commoners and low-level soul masters.

Every face carried an unnatural fervor.

"Don't push! The pharmacy said there'll be plenty of Strengthening Pills today!"

"Give me ten bottles! This is miraculous medicine specially supplied by the royal family!"

"I've been stuck at level fifteen for five years. I took one last night and actually felt the threshold of a breakthrough! This medicine is practically a living Buddha descended to earth!"

Within the crowd, several unfamiliar burly men shouted at the top of their lungs.

As they shouted, they waved the white jade porcelain bottles in their hands.

The atmosphere was whipped into a frenzy.

More and more uninformed commoners waved gold coins and desperately shoved their way toward the pharmacy entrance.

Inside the carriage.

Xue Qinghe abruptly dropped the curtain.

"Those people buying medicine have dark circles around their eyes, and their auras are weak and unsteady."

"On the surface, their soul power has soared, but their meridians have already begun to wither."

"This isn't miraculous medicine at all. It's draining their potential, trading their lifespan for soul power!"

"One pill, and half their lives are gone."

"You noticed it?"

"There's a Blood Fiend Formation mark hidden within the pills."

"The people buying the medicine are nothing more than blood livestock being raised in captivity."

"Once the medicine takes effect, their essence blood will slowly be drained dry."

Xue Qinghe slammed his fist onto the table.

"Xue Xing has gone mad!"

"To deal with the Crown Prince's Residence, he's actually using the lives of the entire city as fodder!"

"Royal Pharmacies has always relied on the royal family's reputation, yet now it has become a slaughterhouse for evil soul masters to harvest essence blood!"

"If this is allowed to continue, Heaven Dou City will have thousands upon thousands of dried corpses within days!"

He suddenly stood up.

He prepared to push open the carriage door.

"Return to the residence! Gather the Imperial Knights Corps and seal this pharmacy!"

"Confiscate every Strengthening Pill that has been sold!"

A hand reached out.

It stopped Xue Qinghe.

"Sit down."

Xue Qinghe struggled fiercely.

Yet his wrist seemed locked in an iron clamp, utterly unable to move.

"Let go!"

"Lives are at stake! Those commoners outside are being kept completely in the dark!"

"As the crown prince of the Heaven Dou Empire, how can I watch my people die?"

Su Chen raised his head.

His gaze met those eyes burning with fury.

"As crown prince, you should use your brain."

"Lead troops to seal the place?"

"What will you use to shut it down? Your word alone?"

Xue Qinghe froze.

"Those people took the medicine and damaged their lifespans. That's irrefutable proof!"

"As long as we have a healing-type soul master examine them, the truth will come out!"

"They won't find anything."

Su Chen released his hand and pointed outside the window.

"The Blood Fiend Mark is a sinister method from the cultivation world. Ordinary healing-type soul masters won't understand formations at all."

"To ordinary people, taking this medicine makes them stronger, fills them with vigor, and lets them break through in soul power."

"Without corpses dropping dead before their eyes, who would believe the medicine is poisonous?"

Xue Qinghe gritted his teeth.

"Then arrest the shopkeeper and interrogate him! We can surely force out the mastermind!"

Su Chen gave a cold laugh.

"Incredibly foolish."

"Look at that sign."

"Royal Pharmacies."

"This is a royal-sanctioned blessing, carrying the royal family's name."

"Without any direct evidence."

"The crown prince leads soldiers to smash a royal shop in broad daylight."

"What does that mean?"

"Openly defying the royal family and showing contempt for imperial authority!"

"The Emperor is already wary of the Crown Prince's Residence's influence. If something like contempt for imperial authority happens, what will the Emperor think?"

Xue Qinghe's fury gradually cooled.

Remembering all the schemes at court, he finally understood the viciousness of this trap.

"Borrowing a knife to kill. It's been used brilliantly."

"It isn't merely the suppression of imperial authority."

"What's more terrifying is the human heart."

"Think about it."

"A useless person stuck at level ten for decades takes one pill and immediately breaks through their bottleneck."

"To that person, this medicine would be like a second parent, like boundless imperial grace."

"At that moment, the crown prince arrives with soldiers, says the medicine is poison, seals the shop, and forbids it from being sold."

"What would that useless person think?"

Xue Qinghe's face turned pale.

His lips trembled slightly.

"They would fight desperately."

"Cutting off someone's path to wealth is like murdering their parents. If you cut off those commoners' shortcut to raising their cultivation, they would protect the pharmacy even at the cost of their lives."

Su Chen nodded.

"Correct."

"Once greed is ignited, not even nine oxen can pull it back."

"Those commoners buying medicine would never be grateful for the crown prince's life-saving kindness."

"They would only think the Crown Prince's Residence was bullying others with its power, trying to monopolize miraculous medicine and cut off the commoners' path to becoming stronger."

"Stirring public outrage. Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it."

"When that time comes, the one condemned by all will not be Xue Xing, but the Crown Prince's Residence."

The carriage fell into dead silence.

"This isn't a scheme Xue Xing could have devised."

Xue Qinghe took a deep breath.

"Using Royal Pharmacies as a shield."

"Packaging poison as a blessing."

"This scheme takes into account both the royal family's prestige and the commoners' greed."

"An unsolvable open scheme."

Su Chen lifted a corner of the curtain.

His gaze swept over several concealed alleyways surrounding the pharmacy.

"Look carefully."

"The vendor selling candied hawthorns on the left, and the old man squatting by the wall on the right, smoking a pipe."

"Their auras are restrained and their steps steady. They're all skilled soldiers."

"Trusted men from the City Defense Army were stationed around here long ago."

"There are also more than a dozen plants in the crowd, stirring up trouble."

Xue Qinghe followed his gaze.

Sure enough, he spotted the clues.

Those people appeared to be doing business, but their eyes were fixed on both ends of the street.

Their hands rested on weapons concealed at their waists.

"The moment we step into that pharmacy."

Su Chen lowered the curtain.

"The City Defense Army hiding in the shadows will immediately jump out."

"The plants will shout through the crowd that the crown prince is murdering people."

"Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of red-eyed commoners will rush up to stop us."

"The moment we draw our swords."

"We'll immediately be branded rebels."

"Even if the Emperor wishes to protect you, he won't be able to save a crown prince who incited a riot and slaughtered his own people."

Xue Qinghe collapsed back onto the cushioned seat.

Both hands gripped his knees tightly.

His knuckles turned white from the force.

"What a ruthless trap."

"One step forward means defying the imperial decree, rebelling, and inciting public outrage."

"One step back means watching the commoners have their essence blood drained dry while Xue Xing reaps the rewards."

"How are we supposed to break this?"

"To break the trap, there's no need to clash head-on."

"Since they want to exploit public sentiment."

"Then let public sentiment turn against them."

"Plan first, then act."

"Don't let a few lives before your eyes disrupt your judgment."

"The path of cultivation concerns karma. These people are willing to trade their lives for cultivation. That is their own greed—what does it have to do with you?"

"Wait until those who took the medicine begin coughing blood and dying suddenly."

"Wait until the commoners see with their own eyes that those so-called breakthroughs are merely a final flash before death."

"The Crown Prince's Residence won't need to act."

"Those commoners who were deceived into ruin will smash Royal Pharmacies into rubble themselves."

Xue Qinghe's brows furrowed slightly.

"But many people will die that way."

"The foundations of the Heaven Dou Empire will be shaken."

Su Chen looked at Xue Qinghe, and a plan arose in his heart.