Forbidden Grounds of the Imperial City

Before long, Chen Fan spotted a mission that piqued his interest: investigate the mysterious disappearance of the prince of West Ridge Royal City. West Ridge City was the largest mortal city in the entire West Ridge Mountains, also known as West Ridge Royal City. The lord of West Ridge City was the king of all mortal folk throughout the West Ridge Mountains, and his son was the prince of West Ridge City.

According to the brief mission description, the prince had vanished several months ago. The King of West Ridge had hastily dispatched numerous troops to search for him, but they found nothing. They had thought it would end like the child disappearance cases, but unexpectedly, the prince returned alone several days after vanishing. Strangely, the prince had no memory whatsoever of what had happened before. Moreover, over the past few months, he would often disappear in bizarre fashion, only to reappear later. Even under the King of West Ridge's heavily guarded watch, the prince could still vanish as if by magic.

When Chen Fan saw this mission, his first thought was that it had to be connected to the human traffickers from before, and that further developments had occurred on top of the original child abductions. Perhaps by investigating the West Ridge prince's case, he could follow the vine to find the melon and uncover some hidden secrets.

After giving it some thought, Chen Fan made his decision. He directly confirmed with the old man that he would accept the mission. The old man did not try much to dissuade him. Everyone had to bear responsibility for their own actions. Besides, failing the mission would not matter much; the sect had its own methods of verifying whether he had truly participated in it.

For missions like this, once accepted, the disciple would generally first go to the person who had posted it and communicate with them to obtain more specific information. Only then could the investigation proceed further. Thus, to determine whether the recipient had fulfilled their duty, the sect would confirm matters with the mission's issuer.

Chen Fan had no intention of muddling through and fishing in troubled waters. After accepting the mission, he made a few quick preparations and set off. Holding the map provided by the sect, he hurried onward. This map was far more complete than the one Murong Zhu had given him back then. Major cities, surrounding towns, forests, and rivers were all clearly marked upon it.

West Ridge City was not particularly far from Swordcry Mountain, roughly the same distance as Pingliang City had been, except that the two lay in different directions from Swordcry Mountain. Chen Fan encountered no trouble along the way, and after more than half a day, he arrived within West Ridge City.

Viewed from outside, the city was magnificent and imposing. Its walls, tiles, gates, and the royal palace visible in the distance could all be called the most luxurious in the mortal world. It truly deserved to be the supreme ruling center of the mortal realm in the West Ridge Mountains.

Chen Fan entered through the city gates. He was not wearing sect attire this time, but light clothing instead. In one hand, he held a particularly flashy-looking treasured sword, while a black staff was strapped to his back—yes, that was Little East. Little West, meanwhile, had transformed into a bracelet around his wrist. He had brought both snakes down the mountain with him this time. His cultivation had regressed and had yet to recover, while the two snakes' combat strength had improved. Since they could be carried around inconspicuously, there was naturally no harm in bringing them along.

The traffic through West Ridge City's gates was simply too heavy, so aside from soldiers stationed there to maintain order, there were no checkpoints conducting individual inspections. Chen Fan headed directly toward the royal palace. Along the way, the pedestrians gradually thinned out, while the guards grew increasingly strict.

When he reached the palace gates, several guards barred his way with their spears and shouted, "This is forbidden ground of the imperial city! Trespassers will be executed without mercy!"

Chen Fan paused and briefly examined the royal guards. To his surprise, there were faint fluctuations of Origin Qi within their bodies. Though they had not even reached the first level of Internal Qi, they were already considered experts in the mortal world. These were merely ordinary guards, yet the military strength amassed within the royal city was plain to see.

Chen Fan did not get angry. After all, they were merely carrying out their duties. He slowly spoke three words: "Swordcry Mountain." As he spoke, he took out his token. This token was far more advanced than his outer sect disciple token, carved with the unique insignia representing Swordcry Mountain. It had been temporarily issued to him for carrying out important missions.

The moment the guards saw the token, their faces changed drastically. They bowed repeatedly. "So you are an esteemed expert from Swordcry Mountain. We were disrespectful just now. Please do not take offense, sir."

Chen Fan waved a hand. "No matter. You should know why I have come. Could you inform Steward Chu on my behalf?" The Steward Chu he mentioned was the issuer of this mission and the person specifically responsible for investigating the prince's disappearance within the royal city. Moreover, he held great authority, serving as the chief steward of the inner palace.

"Understood, understood. Please wait a moment, Senior." One of the guards spoke, then immediately entered the palace.

Before long, a man dressed from head to toe in luxurious court robes came striding over. He walked as swiftly as though flying, while the guard who had gone to summon him could only trail far behind. This man's cultivation was clearly at a higher level, though Chen Fan could not judge exactly how strong he was. These people's cultivation levels were simply too low; to Chen Fan, there was not much difference between them.

"We did not know Senior was an esteemed expert from Swordcry Mountain. We failed to welcome you properly, and we hope—"

"Enough. Stop wasting words and get to the point." Before Steward Chu could finish, Chen Fan bluntly cut him off.

"Yes, yes. Then please come into the palace so we may speak." Steward Chu did not mind in the slightest. Before Chen Fan, he was humble to an extreme.

This man probably did not treat even the King of West Ridge this deferentially on ordinary days. Chen Fan could not help feeling a little puffed up. Still, that was only in the mortal world. In the cultivation world, he was still nothing at all.

An hour later, Chen Fan left a side hall somewhere within the royal palace and then headed straight out of the palace. He had obtained more detailed information from Steward Chu: the West Ridge prince was currently living in a residence outside the palace, surrounded by people keeping strict watch. Yet even under such circumstances, the prince would suddenly disappear in the middle of the night. By the time the guards reacted and searched everywhere, he would have vanished without a trace.

Yet every time the prince disappeared at midnight, he would return alone the following day. When asked where he had gone, he would only say that he remembered absolutely nothing.

Seeing that night had already fallen, Chen Fan decided to go straight to the prince's residence and wait by the tree stump for a rabbit. Perhaps he could discover something.

Following Steward Chu's directions, Chen Fan arrived outside the residence. He did not approach, merely watched quietly from a distance.

As night deepened, the guards around the residence all sharpened their focus. None appeared to have any intention of neglecting their duties. That was strange. According to Steward Chu, the West Ridge prince had achieved little in martial arts. Though the palace possessed many low-level cultivation manuals for him to practice, he was always aiming too high and could never settle down. At fifteen years old, he had not even reached the first realm.

These guards were clearly elite soldiers and formidable generals sent by the King of West Ridge to protect his son. Every one of them ought to have been stronger than the prince. If they faithfully guarded their posts, how could the prince possibly escape alone? And if someone had broken in and taken him away, then unless it had been an expert from the cultivation world, it could not have been done so silently. Surely someone would have noticed.

The more Chen Fan thought about it, the more curious he became. At this point, he was not afraid of some expert appearing. Based on the usual methods of these groups, the master hiding behind the scenes did not dare show himself easily. Even a minor leader like the black-clothed man in Blackrock City had been relatively uncommon. If he encountered a cultivator of that level again, Chen Fan might not be able to defeat them, but he was confident he could preserve his life and escape.

Just as he was considering this, he suddenly felt a faint breeze brush past him. Then, it seemed as though something had mixed into the air around him. He concentrated and sensed it—yes, using Internal Qi to probe. Though the air was colorless and odorless, that familiar sensation arose within him once more. So it was this again? Chen Fan watched as the guards, who had been standing there full of spirit only a moment ago, suddenly collapsed one after another in the next instant.

Chen Fan was about to step forward and investigate when he heard a creak. The gates of the residence opened, and a young man slowly walked out. The youth's expression was wooden. After emerging, he completely ignored the guards lying around him and walked step by step in one direction, like a living corpse.

Although Chen Fan had already formed some of his own judgments regarding the prince's disappearance, what unfolded before his eyes still shocked him immensely. This was far too bizarre. Possession by a ghost? Fortunately, Chen Fan was a cultivator of considerable strength, and his courage naturally far exceeded that of ordinary people.

The prince walked slowly, so Chen Fan was in no hurry to follow. He first went over to the guards and examined them one by one.

Just as expected! Chen Fan was now certain that these guards had been affected by a type of Spirit-Mystifying Incense. Though it was not Spirit-Drunken Incense, it was another method Chen Fan had encountered among the human traffickers before—Spirit-Mystifying Incense.

No wonder. With that, many mysteries could be explained. Chen Fan found that although the guards had been poisoned, the dosage was not great. They should recover on their own before long, and when they awoke, they would not remember ever fainting. Naturally, they would know even less about the prince's disappearance. Even if a few remembered having lost consciousness and awakened, they would think they had accidentally fallen asleep. Who would go around telling others that they had fallen asleep while standing guard over the prince? Were they tired of living?

With that thought, Chen Fan turned and pursued the prince. If he had not come here himself, the truth behind this strange affair would have been difficult to uncover for some time. Once the Spirit-Mystifying Incense was released, anyone nearby trying to observe in secret would suffer dizziness to varying degrees. Ordinary cultivators below the second or third realm likely could not remain completely unaffected.

Now all he had to do was follow. The strangeness of the matter surely lay with the prince.

From a short distance behind, Chen Fan followed as the prince wound through the city. The prince clearly had not noticed Chen Fan's presence, and his expression remained as dull and vacant as before.

At last, the prince stopped somewhere. Chen Fan focused his gaze and saw that they stood beneath a section of the royal palace wall. The place was extremely secluded, with no patrolling guards in sight.

It seemed this prince truly had something fishy going on. Along the way, Chen Fan had wondered whether he might simply be wandering about uncontrollably. Now it seemed he was not wandering at all—he had a destination, and he had even deliberately concealed his tracks to come here.

Before Chen Fan could think further, the prince leaped onto the palace wall and vanished over its crest in the next moment. What the hell! What was that? The wall was at least four or five times the height of an adult. Chen Fan did not believe this young prince's cultivation could grant him such lightness skill. With no time to hesitate, he ran to the wall, lightly tapped the ground with his toes, and effortlessly vaulted over. With Chen Fan's cultivation, this palace wall was practically nonexistent.

The moment he landed, Chen Fan found himself in a garden. Judging by its scale, it should have been an artificial scenic garden within the royal palace. Located in a remote corner of the palace, it was normally accessible only to palace nobles during the day, and in the dead of night, it was utterly deserted. Chen Fan sneered inwardly. Let's see where you think you're going. Then he followed the thin figure ahead.

The prince was evidently intimately familiar with the palace's terrain, routes, guard placements, and patrol patterns. He hid here, dodged there, and no longer walked like a wooden puppet. Instead, he broke into a run, and he was incredibly fast. Had Chen Fan not been a cultivator, he would truly have struggled to keep up.

Trailing him the entire way and avoiding every patrol, Chen Fan followed the prince to another enormous hall. He looked up and saw that the plaque was quite conspicuous beneath the moonlight: Treasure Pavilion. Was he here to steal something? This Treasure Pavilion was the most valuable place in the Xiling royal palace. It housed all manner of rare treasures from throughout the West Ridge Mountains region, though most were valuable only to ordinary mortals. Still, it was said that some unknown treasures lay within, things that held a certain allure even for cultivators and high-level cultivators.

Seeing the prince push open the doors and enter the Treasure Pavilion, Chen Fan did not rush in. He simply waited outside. The Treasure Pavilion was no small place; one could search for days and nights without turning it upside down. It seemed the prince was not here to steal for the first time. Chen Fan guessed he had come in search of treasure, so he would let him search. If he did not find what he wanted, how would Chen Fan know what he was after?