"We can't wait any longer." Snow Empress made a decisive decision. "Tonight we must break into the Meng residence, even if it means alerting them, to find out what Song Xuanwei did inside."
She told Yin Wujou to wait inside the ancestral hall, while she used the cover of night to move swiftly along the wall, scaling the high wall of the Meng residence in a few leaps. Yin Wujou waited quietly inside the hall, his palm clutching the dossier, his fingertips turning slightly white from the force.
About fifteen minutes later, a muffled explosion of Spiritual Power suddenly erupted from the inner courtyard of the Meng residence, followed by the dull thud of a heavy object hitting the ground and several urgent curses. Yin Wujou's heart tightened abruptly, and just as he was about to rush out regardless of the consequences, a white figure had already scaled the wall and landed in front of him.
The Snow Empress's expression remained unchanged, except that her robe was torn at the shoulder, revealing the tightly bound armor underneath. In her right hand, she held a palm-sized black iron token, with the words " Mysterious Abyss " engraved on the front and densely packed spiritual runes on the back.
" Meng Qi is not in the manor." She spoke quickly but clearly. "There is a secret room in the study of the inner courtyard. In the secret room, this token and a stack of secret letters from the Southern Frontier are kept. The token is a pass for the Xuan Abyss Workshop, and the secret letters mention 'an urgent summons from the capital, three days from now at midnight, top floor of the Thousand Flavors Pavilion' —which matches the contact information in the minds of those three spies."
Yin Wujou took the token and examined it closely. The spirit pattern code was complex and precise, a standard code used exclusively by the Spirit Vein Bureau. It corroborated the spirit vein offset data recorded in Yun Su's file, confirming that it was correct.
"Where is Song Xuanwei?" he asked.
"I went into the secret chamber, took another token, and left." Snow Empress frowned slightly. "He sensed my presence, but I retreated quickly; he may not have seen who I was. The Meng family will definitely increase their manpower tonight, but with the token and the secret letter, we have leverage for our subsequent actions."
The two did not linger and quickly left the old ancestral hall under the cover of night, passing through a secret passage back to outside the city. The darkness before dawn was the deepest. When the two stopped to rest at an abandoned temple outside the city, Snow Empress carefully opened and read the stack of secret letters from the Southern Frontier. The handwriting on the letters was uniform and the wording was concise, clearly written by the same advisor. The contents concerned the number of Puppet Armor recently refined by Xuan Abyss Workshop, the personnel transfers at the old residence in the Southern Frontier, and the key points of the coded handover between the Meng family in the capital and Thousand Flavors Pavilion.
One of the secret letters ended with. "His Majesty has arrived in the capital and is temporarily residing in the old residence in Chongwen Ward. Do not reveal this to outsiders. The Xuan Abyss Workshop has already produced one hundred Puppet Armor. Once the order to go to the capital is issued, they can be transported into the imperial city in batches."
" Liu Yanzhao himself has already entered the capital." The Snow Empress folded the secret letter and put it into his sleeve. "He has mobilized a hundred Puppet Armor into the imperial city, and his plot is obvious. If he succeeds, at best he will hold the emperor hostage and control the government, at worst he will overthrow the dynasty and massacre the court."
Yin Wujou took a deep breath. "We must find Liu Yanzhao's hiding place before the rendezvous at the Thousand Flavors Pavilion in three days. The Chongwen Ward old residence area is quite large, with at least seven or eight abandoned and vacant houses. There isn't enough time to check them all one by one."
The Snow Empress closed his eyes for a moment, then suddenly opened them. " Song Xuanwei is required to enter the palace for duty every three days. He just came from the Meng residence today, and he will definitely enter the palace tomorrow. If I can intercept him outside the palace and force him to reveal Liu Yanzhao's exact location, it will be more reliable than guessing which house in Chongwen Ward he lives in."
"Ambush the head instructor of the Imperial Guards?" Yin Wujou frowned. "That's too risky. His cultivation level is comparable to yours, and he's within the imperial city limits. The slightest disturbance will alert the Imperial Guards."
"It's not an ambush," Snow Empress corrected, "It's a questioning. I have my own ways of making him talk."
Looking into the unwavering, almost obsessive light in her eyes, Yin Wujou knew he couldn't persuade her. Once this woman made up her mind, nothing could pull her back. He had no choice but to settle for second best. "I'll go with you."
"Go and stake out the outskirts of Chongwen Ward." Snow Empress shook her head. "If I get the location from Song Xuanwei, I need someone to meet me in Chongwen Ward and scout the area beforehand. We'll split up and meet at the Bell and Drum Tower in the city before nightfall tomorrow."
Although Yin Wujou was uneasy, he had to admit that this division of labor was the most reasonable. His cultivation was far inferior to Snow Empress's, and if they really fought, he would not only be unable to help, but might even hold her back. However, his advantage lay in his keen senses, which allowed him to stake out Chongwen Ward and scout the terrain in advance.
The two rested in the abandoned temple for half a day, carefully organizing the files, secret letters, and tokens, and replenishing their Spiritual Power and physical strength. In the afternoon, the Snow Empress placed a communication talisman into Yin Wujou's palm. "If you encounter danger, crush it, and I will arrive as quickly as possible."
Yin Wujou carefully put away the talisman and watched as the Snow Empress turned and disappeared into the afternoon sunlight, her white robes flashing before her eyes. He took a deep breath, determined his direction, and hurried towards Chongwen Ward.
Chongwen Ward, located in the southeast of the capital, was a gathering place for high-ranking officials and nobles, with crisscrossing alleys and numerous residences. Yin Wujou spent the entire afternoon checking every abandoned and vacant old residence in Chongwen Ward. His spiritual sense was exceptionally sharp, and he could detect subtle traces of residual Spiritual Power. He quickly located an old house in the northeast corner of the ward—the gate was locked, and the courtyard walls were covered with withered vines. On the surface, it looked abandoned for many years, but after walking half a circle along the base of the wall, Yin Wujou sensed a very faint yet extremely pure Spiritual Power fluctuation within the wall, which was continuous and stable, like some kind of magical artifact or formation that had been operating for a long time.
He found a teahouse some distance away and sat down by the window, drinking tea while keeping an eye on the old house. As dusk fell and the lanterns were lit, no one entered or left the old house, but the Spiritual Power fluctuations continued unabated, Yin Wujou was almost certain that Liu Yanzhao was hiding there.
At the third quarter of the hour of Xu (7:45 PM), the distant sound of the bells from the Bell and Drum Tower echoed. Yin Wujou put down his tea money and hurried towards the Bell and Drum Tower. When he arrived, the Snow Empress was already waiting on the eaves of the tower. Her white robes fluttered slightly in the wind, and the tear on her shoulder that had been cut the night before had been hastily sewn up with needle and thread, the technique rough but sturdy.
"Where is Song Xuanwei?" Yin Wujou asked in a low voice.
"I've finished questioning him." The Snow Empress leaped down from the eaves and landed beside him. "He will have a full night of Spiritual Power depletion tonight and won't be able to go to the palace to perform his duties. I got the exact location from him—the old residence with the wooden plaque 'Zhou Residence' hanging in the northeast corner of Chongwen Ward. There's a renovated secret room under the cellar in the inner courtyard, and Liu Yanzhao is hiding there."
Yin Wujou felt a sense of relief; it perfectly matched the target he had been monitoring. "I've confirmed it. That house does indeed have continuous Spiritual Power fluctuations; it should be his hiding place. But... why did Song Xuanwei speak up? Given your personality, shouldn't you have directly interrogated him?"
Snow Empress paused for a moment, then turned her head to look at the distant, flickering lights of the capital city. Her voice was a few decibels lower than usual. "I've found his daughter's whereabouts."
Yin Wujou taken aback.
"Ten years ago, when the Spirit Vein case occurred, Song Xuanwei's daughter was only seven years old. She was held hostage by Liu Yanzhao and imprisoned in a secret dungeon in the Southern Frontier. For the past ten years, Song Xuanwei has been completely obedient to Liu Yanzhao and covered up his crimes, all because his daughter was in someone else's hands." Snow Empress spoke calmly, as if recounting something unrelated to herself. "I told him the location of the dungeon and its security, and then slipped a Formation-Breaking Talisman into his sleeve. He knelt down, kowtowed three times, and then told me everything he knew."