Heaven Dou City, the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace.
Qian Renxue sat behind her desk, a report from Spirit Hall's covert agents spread out before her.
Bright sunlight streamed through the window into the study, making the papers on her desk gleam.
Yet her expression was calm, with even a trace of an indefinable weariness.
A year had passed.
It had been a full year since she returned from the Service Kingdom.
Over that year, she had handled affairs of state, maintained her identity as Xue Qinghe, and dealt with Xue Ye's occasional solicitous inquiries. Everything continued as usual.
But every few days, she received a report from the covert agents in the Service Kingdom. The contents were always the same: no abnormalities at the ruined site, no energy fluctuations, no sign of anyone.
The boy named Yu Yun had never appeared again.
"Snake Lance, Pufferfish," she called.
The doors opened, and two figures appeared silently before her.
Snake Lance Douluo She Long stood straight as a spear, radiating a fierce, cutting presence.
Porcupinefish Douluo Ci Xue stood beside him, his face gaunt and his gaze cold, a faint haze of poisonous vapor lingering around him.
"How is the investigation going?" Qian Renxue asked.
She Long and Ci Xue exchanged a glance. Finally, Ci Xue spoke. "Young mistress, the two of us have taken turns keeping watch near the ruined site for the past year, and Spirit Hall's covert agents have never withdrawn. But we have found nothing. No energy fluctuations, no sign of anyone, no traces connected to Yu Yun. It is as though he vanished into thin air."
She Long added, "I even had people dig through the layer of rubble on the surface. Beneath it was nothing but solid rock and earth, without any remaining trace of the