In the blink of an eye, a month passed. There were only five days left until the wedding between the Third Princess—Shangguan Wan—and Jiang Yucheng.

Logically speaking, everyone should be in a celebratory mood for such a happy event. However, the atmosphere in Xi Ling City was suppressed and dark for some reason. Even the usually noisy streets had become much quieter.

This was all because a series of strange events kept happening in Xi Ling City—many disciples suddenly disappeared for no reason.

The key point was that they were all cultivators with a Dijing Yuan meridian!

At the start, the Sky-Soaring Clan lost three such disciples. Even though the crowd was shocked, they just thought that the Sky-Soaring Clan had offended some people they shouldn’t have, so they caused so much trouble for themselves.

Additionally, such a thing no longer happened to the Sky-Soaring Clan after the Third Princess sent Black Guards to help them. Hence, everyone didn’t take this incident to heart.

However, such peaceful days didn’t last for long. This was because the same thing had started happening to the other clans!

And those in trouble were basically clans that were slightly better than average in Xi Ling City, clans that had few capable talents but weren’t considered as elites. Clans like Dragon Teeth Mountain had been safe all the while.

On the other hand, clans close to the Sky-Soaring Clan’s standard started to meet with all sorts of mishaps.

When more than five talents with a Dijing Yuan meridian went missing in Xi Ling City, the crowd finally realized that the situation was much worse than they had thought. The other party was clearly targeting such people!

Even if those clans had already strengthened their defenses and searched everywhere, it was to no avail. Besides, after having one or two people missing, the other party would target another clan. Their traces also couldn’t be followed.

How powerful must that person be to be able to do all of these things quietly? Just thinking of it sent chills down one’s spine!

In no time, everyone in Xi Ling City feared for their own safety. Nobody knew if they would end up being the next person!

The young cultivators with a Dijing Yuan meridian were usually uneasy. Even if their talents were outstanding, their capabilities were still limited now. If they hadn’t truly become strong warriors, how could they deal with all of these matters?

Even if the Third Princess had already sent Mu Qinghe and the rest to investigate this issue, they hadn’t found the culprit, and there seemed to be no progress.

Therefore, even if the wedding between Shangguan Wan and Jiang Yucheng was nearing, the skies in Xi Ling City seemed to be covered by a layer of dark shadows.



At the royal palace.

Jiang Yucheng walked all the way to Huayang Palace. He had no expression on his face, and his surrounding aura was sinisterly cold, causing many palace maids to fear in their hearts and hurriedly bow to him.

Jiang Yucheng didn’t care about them as he went straight to the main hall.

Chan Yi was standing at the door and bent her knees to bow when she saw Jiang Yucheng coming. “Greetings, Eldest Young Master.”

Jiang Yucheng asked coldly, “Where’s Her Highness now?”

Chan Yi said, “Her Highness came back to rest after her morning activities, and she’s resting now.”

Without saying anything else, Jiang Yucheng lifted his legs and was about to walk in.

Chan Yi immediately went forward and stopped him. Her tone was polite, but her gaze was determined. “Eldest Young Master, Her Highness has been busy with everything regarding the wedding and needs to handle all the matters in the imperial court, so she hasn’t been getting proper rest. Now that she has finally managed to fall asleep, can you let her rest? If there’s anything you want to tell her, is it okay if I tell her later instead?”

“Is she really that tired? Why don’t I know about it?” Jiang Yucheng sneered. Everything about the wedding was given to the Ceremonial Department, with Yuwen Wei leading them. She only has to say a few sentences at the most and give her own opinions. As for the many things in the imperial court… I’m dealing with most of them. Shangguan Wan seems to be busy, but she hasn’t really done anything in reality. Why would she be tired?

Hearing Jiang Yucheng’s bad tone, Chan Yi knitted her brows in her heart. There are only a few days left until the wedding. Why did Jiang Yucheng suddenly come to cause trouble for Her Highness now?

“Eldest Young Master, it’s really inconvenient for Her Highness to see you now. You should—”

“Outrageous!” hollered Jiang Yucheng angrily. “You’re just a slave, yet you dare to stop me repeatedly? Chan Yi, although you’ve been beside the Third Princess for a long time and she thinks very highly of you, do you really think that you’re also a master because of that?!”

Panic flashed across Chan Yi’s face as she immediately kneeled down. “I wouldn’t dare! I’m just helping Her Highness—”

“Chan Yi.” At this moment, Shangguan Wan’s voice came from the room. “Let Yucheng in.”

Chan Yi instantly heaved a sigh of relief in her heart and hurriedly said, “Yes!”

Then, she lowered her head. “I know I’m wrong, Eldest Young Master. Please—”

Jiang Yucheng squinted his eyes, walked past her, and pushed open the door to go in. “Chan Yi, go and receive your punishment.”

“Yes!” Chan Yi then stood up and carefully closed the door before kneeling again in the yard.

When the other palace maids saw this scene in Huayang Palace, they didn’t dare to go near her and partook in hushed discussions. “What’s with Eldest Young Master? Why is he so angry today?”

“Who knows… But it surely isn’t a small matter! When Eldest Young Master came in the past, since when was he ever so rude to Chan Yi? It looks like he’s punishing Chan Yi on the surface, but he’s actually slapping Her Highness’s face!”

“That’s right! Who doesn’t know that Chan Yi is Her Highness’s most trusted confidant… The wedding is approaching. Why did this suddenly happen?”

“Shh—stop talking! Be careful of getting into trouble because of your mouth! Let’s go! Disperse!”

Every person serving in Huayang Palace was a smart person, and they knew what they could say and could not.

Due to this, Jiang Yucheng didn’t care if his doings would be spread to outsiders.

Also, he already couldn’t hold it in now!

As he walked into the room, Shangguan Wan was sitting in front of the dressing table.

After she came back, she originally decided to take off her mask. However, she heard that Jiang Yucheng was here and could only paste half of her mask back on again.

When Jiang Yucheng came in, he coincidentally saw the half of her face with the frightening wound.

It has already been so long, but Shangguan Wan’s face didn’t get better. Some places will even rot from time to time, looking very contorted. Jiang Yucheng unwittingly knitted his brows.

The next moment, Shangguan Wan had already pasted on the mask properly and turned around. With this look, her face was as smooth as before and was no different.

However, Jiang Yucheng knew what her true face looked like beneath the mask, so she looked even more awkward.

But Shangguan Wan didn’t seem to detect it as she knitted her brows at the anger in Jiang Yucheng’s eyes that hadn’t dissipated. While doing this, she asked rather exhaustedly, “Why did you come so fiercely? Let me tell you first—I’m very tired now, and I don’t have much energy to deal with you. If it’s something unimportant, let’s talk about it another day.”

Jiang Yucheng sneered. “Don’t you clearly know why you’re tired?”

Shangguan Wan paused in her actions.

“I’ve already warned you once before—stop while you can! What are you doing now? Are you crazy?!”