Just after midnight, a faint silver light suddenly appeared in Xue Emperor's Palm, a sign that the Spiritual Power tracking talisman had been triggered. She closed her eyes and focused her mind, sensing the directional information transmitted by the three tracking talismans, her expression gradually becoming solemn.
"The three of them separated." She opened her eyes, a hint of caution in them. "One headed towards the old residence in the Southern Frontier, one towards the Falling Rosy Clouds Mountain Range, and the third... headed towards the capital."
Yin Wujou Wujiu suddenly stood up. "The capital? Liu Yanzhao has left spies in the capital?"
"It's not just a hidden stakeout." Snow Empress carefully sensed the Spiritual Power fluctuations of the third tracking talisman. "The location of this talisman is constantly moving, at an extremely fast speed, and there is a dense interplay of Spiritual Power around it, like... the interior of a heavily guarded mansion."
She pondered for a moment, then suddenly looked up at Yin Wujou: " Liu Yanzhao has not shown his face for the past ten years, and everyone thought he was living in seclusion in the Southern Frontier in mourning. But this third tracking talisman indicates that he has a double in the capital, holding a very high position, able to enter and leave heavily guarded residences without being questioned. I suspect that he himself is not in the Southern Frontier at all; the old residence Southern Frontier is just a decoy, and the real Liu Yanzhao has been hiding in the capital, secretly controlling the entire scheme."
Yin Wujou gripped the dossier tightly. "Wouldn't that alert the enemy? Once the three spies return and discover the dossier has been taken, they'll definitely increase their vigilance."
"So we need to be quick." Snow Empress had already gotten up and was walking towards the door. "We'll set off tonight, before Liu Yanzhao fully tightens his Dark Network, and intercept his double. Since the double can enter and leave heavily guarded areas, he must possess crucial information. Prying the whereabouts of the real person out of him is far more efficient than tracking down three assassins."
Yin Wujou carefully wrapped the dossier and stuffed it into his robes before following her out of the stone house. The night wind howled, causing their robes to flutter. He didn't ask Snow Empress what methods she planned to use to pry open a substitute's mouth—last night, when she used soul-searching techniques against the spies, he had already seen through this woman's decisive, almost ruthless, style of doing things. It wasn't that she couldn't interrogate, but she was too lazy to waste time; once she identified a target, she would achieve her goal in the most direct way.
It was nearly midnight when the two entered the city. The curfew in the capital was strict, and there were patrolling spirit soldiers stationed on both sides of the city wall, whose spiritual senses could detect anything within a radius of three miles. Snow Empress led Yin Wujou around to the southeast corner of the city to the base of an old wall that had collapsed and been hastily repaired. She raised her hand and pressed on a dark pattern on the wall, and the bricks and stones silently slid open a narrow gap, just big enough for one person to squeeze through sideways.
"You even prepared a secret passage?" Yin Wujou lowered his voice.
"It was prepared ten years ago." Snow Empress stepped into the secret passage. "I've investigated too many hidden networks; I've left a way out for every single one."
The secret passage was pitch black, but both of them possessed profound Spiritual Power, granting them excellent night vision. Yin Wujou followed behind Snow Empress, noticing her extremely steady and swift pace, without the slightest hesitation or detour, clearly demonstrating her profound familiarity with the passage. He secretly pondered Snow Empress's true identity—a woman who could manage a secret passage day in and day out for ten years, be proficient in tracking and counter-tracking, and whose strength could overwhelm elite spies, could not possibly be as simple as a wandering cultivator. There must be a deeper background behind her, but she never brought it up, and Yin Wujou wisely refrained from asking.
Emerging from the secret passage, the two found themselves in the backyard of an abandoned ancestral hall in the east of the city. Snow Empress leaped onto the roof, surveying the city's outline. After a brief assessment, she pointed southeast. "The tracking talisman's fluctuations originated from that large mansion on the back street of the Ministry of Ministry of Rites. The plaque above the gate reads 'Meng Residence.' The Meng family is the residence of Meng Qi, the Ministry of Rites Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Ten years ago, Meng Qi was one of the officials in charge of drafting official documents during the Spirit Vein Bureau case. His name is among the eight people listed in the files."
Yin Wujou immediately pulled out the dossier to verify, and sure enough, he found the entry " Meng Qi, Ministry of Rites Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, in charge of document alteration" in the list of people involved. Yun Su's record and the location of the tracking talisman matched Perfect World.
"Is Meng Qi Liu Yanzhao's double in the capital?" Yin Wujou asked.
"It might not be the decoy himself, but there must be Liu Yanzhao's moles operating in that house." Snow Empress slid down from the roof, landing silently. "I'll go in and scout it out first. You wait here. If there's anything unusual, retreat towards West Street. There's a teahouse there that's open day and night; the owner is an old acquaintance and can cover for you."
Just as Yin Wujou was about to respond, his brow twitched as he sensed an extremely subtle fluctuation of Spiritual Power rapidly approaching from the direction of the Meng residence. He instinctively grabbed Snow Empress's sleeve. "Someone's coming. Their Spiritual Power is formidable; they're definitely not ordinary guards."
Snow Empress instantly concealed all her aura and pulled Yin Wujou into the shadows of the main hall of the ancestral temple. The two held their breath and looked out at the streets and alleys outside the courtyard through the cracks in the broken wooden window.
A figure slowly emerged from the night, tall and slender, dressed in a moon-white robe, with a jet-black scabbard hanging at his waist. His steps were unhurried, like a leisurely person taking a stroll alone in the dead of night. But when Snow Empress's gaze fell on the dark patterns on the scabbard at the man's waist, her pupils suddenly contracted.
That's the pattern on the standard sword of the chief instructor of the Imperial Guards.
The visitor arrived at the side gate of the Meng residence. The person inside seemed to have been waiting for a long time. The gate creaked open a crack, and the person slipped in. The gate then closed tightly. Snow Empress couldn't even see his face clearly, but she would never mistake the pattern on the black-sheathed longsword— Song Xuanwei, the chief instructor of the Imperial Guards, the most trusted commander of the emperor's personal guards, a first-rank military officer with unfathomable cultivation. He was the emperor's personal bodyguard and rarely left the palace.
" Song Xuanwei." The Snow Empress's voice was extremely low, yet it carried a chilling edge. "Ten years ago, when the Spirit Vein case occurred, he was in charge of leading the Imperial Guards to seal off the Spirit Vein Bureau and eliminate the 'external enemies.' Official records list him as a hero in suppressing the rebellion, but Yun Su's files never mention his name."
Yin Wujou searched through the main text of the dossier and the secret silk manuscript, but as expected, he could not find any record of Song Xuanwei. This person, who played a key role in the major case ten years ago, was completely hidden in Yun Su's private records, as if he had never existed.
"Either Yun Su deliberately concealed it from him, or..." Yin Wujou paused, " Yun Su herself didn't trace it back to him."
Snow Empress stared at the tightly closed gates of the Meng residence, a cold glint in her eyes. " Song Xuanwei's sneaking into the Meng residence late at night is no accidental reunion. Either the Meng residence is Liu Yanzhao's true core stronghold in the capital, and Song Xuanwei is an accomplice of equal or even higher rank to Liu Yanzhao; or... Song Xuanwei himself is Liu Yanzhao's double."
Yin Wujou's heart skipped a beat. If Song Xuanwei was indeed Liu Yanzhao, then the depth of his schemes and the breadth of his power as the emperor's bodyguard over the past ten years far exceeded the nine individuals recorded in Yun Su's files. If a first-rank military officer capable of personally protecting the emperor was truly the mastermind behind the Spirit Vein Case ten years ago, then the safety of the entire court would already be in his hands.