One of the men said, “We are followers of Princess Consort Hao!” After which, the entire group pushed their way through and exited the city, ignoring Yuchi Mo.
These are Princess Consort Hao’s men? Are they from the Western Region? That does seem to be the case, and Princess Consort Hao is not to be trifled with if she’s able to mand such a formidable force.
Yuchi Mo quickly instructed his men, “No one is to say anything about what happened tonight. You’ll be punished severely if I find out!”
All the men nodded and answered, “This subordinate obeys the order!”
After instructing the men to close the gates once more, Yuchi Mo led a group towards the pound Su Xi-er mentioned.
A few men dressed similarly to the group that had passed through the city gates earlier were leading a daozhang out when he arrived.
A few of them recognized Yuchi Mo and came forward before saying, “mander Yuchi, this is Daozhang Zixu. He was captured by the Third Imperial Prince and locked up here. Princess Consort Hao instructed us to save him.”
Yuchi Mo had heard of Daozhang Zixu since the latter had a great reputation in his field, but he could not understand why the Third Imperial Prince would want to capture the man. The Taoist temples did not usually get involved in court affairs.
Daozhang Zixu bowed towards Yuchi Mo. “The Third Imperial Prince wanted to get his fortune told, but became upset when the oute was rather bleak.” He calmly explained without revealing Su Xi-er’s secret.
It’s heaven’s will if a soul is able to stay in that body. I can’t reveal this.
There was no reason for Yuchi Mo to doubt what the daozhang just said. I can’t believe the Third Imperial Prince is so superstitious. Such an emperor isn’t fit to take the throne; what would Beimin bee?
“I shall not bother mander Yuchi any further. I have to return to the temple.” Daozhang Zixu said respectfully.
The men in coarse clothes nodded at this and sent the daozhang back to the temple in a horse carriage.
Within an hour of traveling north-east, Su Xi-er spotted several dead bodies strewn along the sides of the road. She could tell that these were Situ Li’s men by their outfits.
These were sishi who sacrificed themselves for their master, but Situ Li had never treated them like human beings.
Feng Changqing frowned at how silent everything was. Prince Hao should be around here somewhere. Where did everyone go?
Su Xi-er took a second glance at the bodies of the sishi, realizing that one of them had moved.
She got down from her horse and went over to that particular sishi. “Where did your master go?”
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