Chapter 174

“`

He had to prepare early.

Cheng Zhihai quickened his pace as he left.

Cheng Guang sat in the pavilion, slowly sipping his tea, observing the moonlight from inside the pavilion.

The cool moonlight scattered down from the vault of the sky.

With no clouds in the sky, the moonlight could fall directly, unobstructed, draping the earth in a layer of silvery white gauze.

“The issue of the Devil Clan’s smuggling has been resolved, which will definitely affect the plan regarding the crown prince to some extent. At the very least, there will be less chaos at the royal ceremony. However, to thoroughly root out the crown prince won’t be so easy.”

“If I were to directly visit the King of South Ming and seize him forcefully, it would be fine if I could prove he is the crown prince. But if he has some means to hide his identity, and in the end I can’t confirm his identity as the crown prince, I’m afraid it won’t be easy to settle the matter.”

“The court officials are already terrified of the Bureau of the Lamp. If the bureau extends its hand directly to the royalty now, it would certainly be pointed at by all the officials.”

Cheng Guang considered how he might find a better way to make contact with the King of South Ming first to see if there was any opportunity or evidence that could directly identify him as the crown prince.

If there was no way to do so, Cheng Guang guessed that he could only wait until the royal ceremony to see if the King of South Ming would reveal any flaws.

After pondering for a while in the pavilion, Cheng Guang rose and returned to Million Specie Garden, washed up simply, ate nothing, and prepared to sleep.

For the past few days, in his investigations into where in the canal basin the Devil Clan was smuggling, he hadn’t had a proper sleep.

Now that most of this matter had been resolved, the remaining tasks could be completely left to Cheng Zhihai to handle, and he didn’t need to do much more.

As Cheng Guang gradually drifted off to sleep.

Things at Cheng Zhihai’s were already not so peaceful.

When he knew that the canal might involve the participation of the Devil Emperor from the Devil Clan, he couldn’t sit still. If he were to rashly take Qian Siyuan and Li Zhengyang from the Bureau of the Lamp with him, he was afraid they might not be able to suppress the Devil Emperor.

He must ask a Sky-Man to make a move.

And in the Great Zhou, the only known Sky-Men were but two or three people.

The only Sky-Man in the Capital city was Emperor Zhou.

Even though Cheng Zhihai wasn’t keen on disturbing Emperor Zhou, the current situation no longer allowed him to make decisions on his own.

He had to ask Emperor Zhou to take action himself.

Cheng Zhihai went to the Imperial Palace through the night, requesting an audience with Emperor Zhou and roused him from his dragon bed.

Emperor Zhou, with his clothes in disarray and his face still bearing traces of red lipstick, looked utterly displeased, giving off an impression that his mood had been disturbed.

After tidying up his clothes somewhat, his expression turned grave as he looked at Cheng Zhihai who had pulled him from his dragon bed.

“Zhihai, on this late night, instead of staying home and accompanying Yuemei, you come to the Imperial Palace seeking me for what reason?”

Emperor Zhou was puzzled!

At this moment, he was even beginning to doubt whether Cheng Zhihai resented the fact that the Bureau of the Lamp was to be stripped from his control, and that’s why he came to disrupt his mood in the middle of the night.

However, the solemn expression on Cheng Zhihai’s face dispelled that thought, yet he could not imagine what else could make Cheng Zhihai disregard the etiquette between sovereign and subject, burst into the Imperial harem, and come directly to him.

Cheng Zhihai, not caring about Emperor Zhou’s expression, immediately saluted and said, “Your Majesty, the matter of the Devil Clan has been investigated!”

After finishing, Cheng Zhihai added another sentence, “Guanger investigated it!”

In speaking, he also wore a look of pride.

Emperor Zhou was speechless.

The Devil Clan matter has been investigated?

The recent smuggling by the Devil Clan?

To Emperor Zhou, resolving those Devil Clan members sooner or later didn’t make much difference; they were all small-fry. Seeing Cheng Zhihai’s solemn manner, he thought the crown prince had been found.

Emperor Zhou yawned, his interest waning, and was about to gesture for Cheng Zhihai to leave when.

He heard Cheng Zhihai continue, “Your Majesty, this smuggling by the Devil Clan is not so simple, the crown prince is involved, and behind the scenes of this smuggling, there might be the shadow of the Devil Emperor.”

At these words from Cheng Zhihai, Emperor Zhou’s face began to change.

The smuggling matter of the Devil Clan involved the crown prince??

The crown prince was colluding with the Devil Clan??

Emperor Zhou pondered, feeling that, although absurd, it wasn’t impossible.

The crown prince really could do anything.

However, what he hadn’t anticipated was that the Devil Emperor might be involved in this matter.

What is the Devil Emperor?

A powerful being among the Devil Clan, equivalent to the Sky-Men of the Heavenly Human Realm.

Typically, such high-level beings would not take action lightly.

“`

However, this time, there even seemed to be the shadow of the Devil Emperor involved.

No matter what the Devil Emperor was thinking, his presence within the borders of Great Zhou surely meant no good.

He must be dealt with!

Otherwise, who knew what hidden dangers would be planted.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Zhou had already lost much of his desire to return to bed and consort with his Noble Consorts. Instead, he had a solemn expression as he asked a question.

“Where?”

Cheng Zhihai pulled out a map, pointed to a location on it, and said, “Here.”

Emperor Zhou nodded slightly, without speaking further. He changed into a different set of clothes and immediately strode out.

“Let’s go and see.”

Cheng Zhihai followed closely behind.

At the same time, within the capital city, figures large and small soared into the sky, bearing heavy pressures, rushing toward the canal basin.

There was no longer any calm in the Bureau of the Lamp, as countless constables were urgently summoned, riding horses toward the canal basin.

In an instant, the situation changed dramatically.

Many elite families and high-ranking officials in the capital city were awakened by the commotion.

Dressed in haste, they ran out of their homes and looked up at the sky.

“What has happened?”

“It’s one thing for Bureau of the Lamp officials to be on the move, but the Emperor as well?”

“Which Duke has committed treason? No, that can’t be right. Even if a Duke had committed treason, it wouldn’t cause such a major commotion, and the Emperor wouldn’t need to take personal action…”

“Look! The direction of the Emperor and the Bureau of the Lamp’s departure seems to be the canal…”

“What are they doing at the canal???”

“I have no idea!”

Everyone was utterly confused at this moment.

Meanwhile, among the company of the Bureau of the Lamp.

Chen Qing and the other three were also following a group of constables from the Bureau of the Lamp to the canal basin. At this moment, they had no idea why, but they all felt that this sudden emergency call-up had a great deal to do with the Princely Heir.

It had only been a few days since the Princely Heir had started investigating the case, and now such a huge disturbance had arisen.

It was hard to say it had nothing to do with the Princely Heir.

By chance, Xu Hongfei was also nearby.

So they all cast their gazes towards Xu Hongfei.

“Xu Hongfei, what’s this emergency summons about? Does it have to do with the Princely Heir?”

Chen Qing asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.

Not only was Chen Qing aware that Xu Hongfei had been following the Princely Heir to investigate cases recently,

although they did not know what he was investigating, they all believed that Xu Hongfei had stumbled upon good fortune.

Being able to accompany the Princely Heir, even doing nothing, was a huge opportunity just by clinging to the Princely Heir’s coattails.

What they actually didn’t realize was that Chen Qing and the others initially had the same great opportunity but had personally let it slip away.

Every time they remembered this, Chen Qing and his companions nearly died of regret.

But there was no way back now.

They could only grit their teeth and swallow their pride.

Facing everyone’s curiosity, Xu Hongfei had a mysterious smile on his face, “Cannot say, cannot say.”

“You all underestimate the power of the Princely Heir.”

Having spent so much time with Cheng Guang, Xu Hongfei had also developed the potential to speak like the Mysterious Oracle.

The Bureau of the Lamp officials around Xu Hongfei, hearing him say this, were grinding their teeth, half-tempted to bite him to death.

But before they could say anything,

they had already left the capital city, and the voices of the senior silver-and-gold constables reprimanding them reached their ears.

“Silence!”

They shut their mouths and silently rushed toward the direction of the canal.