"Your Highness, there seemed to be something wrong with that messenger pigeon that just flew in."
Xie Tianxia immediately went to find the Heavenly Queen. "I think I caught Old Man Heavenly Bird's scent. Was that pigeon trained by him?"
The Heavenly Queen nodded. "It was indeed from that batch of awakened birds and beasts Heavenly Bird trained, with some of their intelligence enlightened. Although Heavenly Bird committed a grave crime, he has already atoned with his death. We shouldn't wipe out everything he left behind. That would be too wasteful."
"A wise choice. If anyone objects, Your Highness can say it was my idea. I'm not afraid of opposition anyway," Xie Tianxia said loyally.
The Heavenly Queen was somewhat touched. "Tianxia, there's no need for you to call me Your Highness. Just call me Yan Shuang."
Xie Tianxia gave her a strange look. "Why bring that up all of a sudden?"
"Nothing. I just suddenly felt that, after all these years as Heavenly Queen, I rather missed those days when we fought side by side," the Heavenly Queen said wistfully.
Xie Tianxia looked at her again.
Why was she suddenly reminiscing about her youth?
Usually, people only did that when they were getting on in years.
At the Heavenly Queen's age, she shouldn't count as old yet.
But since the Heavenly Queen had said so, Xie Tianxia did not refuse.
"Yan Shuang, there's something I wanted to discuss with you."
"Go ahead."
"Don't broaden the scope of Heavenly Bird's case. Heavenly Bird is dead. For Little Mo's sake, don't make things difficult for his faction or his wife.
"Continuing the investigation would harm the unity of our Nine Heavens."
This was no simple request.
Because Old Man Heavenly Bird had been implicated in treason.
Under the laws of Great