No longer needing to rise early to go to Smoke Sea Tower, Feng Miaojun wanted to sleep in, but she still couldn’t wake up naturally because her maid came rushing in with news:
State Preceptor Mo had arrived!
Mo Tizhun’s face was as gloomy as last night’s sky, and Tie Xinning beside him also wore a serious expression. Neither had the patience to wait for her to finish washing up.
Mo Tizhun bluntly began: “Something has happened at Smoke Sea Tower.”
Feng Miaojun nearly jumped up: “What happened?”
“Just last night, the magical beast ‘Expansion’ was beaten to near death. I had Xinning go check.” He had to stay here to avoid falling into the enemy’s trap of luring the tiger away from the mountain.
Tie Xinning continued: “The magical beast has marks of divine fire burning all over its body, its skin continuously festering. Its right foreleg and left hind leg are broken, and there’s also a narrow gash on its skull—any deeper and its head would have been cut off.”
Feng Miaojun had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out in alarm: “It’s… still alive, right?” If the magical beast died, she would have to bid farewell to Smoke Sea Tower forever. Goodness, she still had several book lists that she hadn’t completed!
“It’s alive, but the situation isn’t optimistic,” Mo Tizhun’s face was as still as water. “It needs at least two or three years to recover, and during this time, Smoke Sea Tower cannot be reopened.”
Feng Miaojun couldn’t help but shudder.
Mo Tizhun knew she understood: “The magical beast’s skin is tough and resilient; ordinary methods cannot harm it, otherwise the Celestial Demons wouldn’t have deployed it on the battlefield.”
“Expansion” relied on the vast space in its belly to transport supplies on ancient battlefields, so it naturally had to have strong defensive power and endurance. Otherwise, it would be blown apart in minutes on the battlefield—how could it help its master deliver supplies?
This was also why Emperor Haoli felt confident letting it carry the entire Smoke Sea Tower.
But now, the magical beast had been severely injured.
“Indeed, there was wind, rain, and thunder last night, but the entire military camp stationed at the mountainside didn’t discover any intruders. Even Cao Dehuan, who lives in front of the cave, didn’t sense anything unusual until he entered the cave this morning and saw the magical beast’s serious injuries.” Mo Tizhun finally concluded: “It appears the attacker was not only ruthless but also swift. His battle with the magical beast didn’t last long.”
Tie Xinning added a supplement: “Due to its inherent characteristics, the ‘Expansion’ type of magical beast doesn’t have strong offensive power.” Its original duty was to transport supplies, so why would its creator endow it with powerful attacking abilities? “But its endurance and vitality are extremely tenacious. The person who struck—overwhelmingly powerful, at least… far above me.”
Feng Miaojun looked at him, then at Mo Tizhun: “Could State Preceptor accomplish injuring the magical beast like this?”
Mo Tizhun smiled bitterly: “I could, but as you know, it wasn’t me who did it.”
So the attacker’s level was probably comparable to Mo Tizhun’s? Feng Miaojun felt an icy chill crawl up her back: “It-it couldn’t be that Yun Xi came personally!”
“That’s almost certainly the case.” Mo Tizhun’s expression was somewhat peculiar. “The magical beast can still speak. It told Xinning that the intruder only interrogated it with one question.”
Feng Miaojun suddenly had an ominous premonition.
Mo Tizhun enunciated each word: “What did Feng Miaojun do in Smoke Sea Tower, and which books did she read?”
Feng Miaojun’s face was expressionless, slowly stepped back two paces, then suddenly turned and walked inside.
Tie Xinning flashed in front of her: “Where are you going, Junior Sister?”
“To pack my luggage,” she said without looking back. “I’m leaving Jin Capital!”
Mo Tizhun said disapprovingly: “Are you so convinced I can’t protect you?”
“A thief can be a thief for a thousand days, but no one can guard against thieves for a thousand days,” Feng Miaojun’s small face was so bitter it seemed water might drip from it. “Even a tiger has moments when it dozes off. I fear that the moment you take a nap, he’ll slip in and slaughter me.”
“Long ago I felt something strange—why are you so frightened of Yun Xi?” Mo Tizhun looked her up and down, his gaze seeming able to pierce her like a sieve. “So he cares about you to this extent.”
His eyes wrote the words “investigation”: “You were only eleven when you met me, how could you have any entanglement with Yun Xi? Except for… that past in Juping Township?” Without waiting for Feng Miaojun to speak, he continued, “Is it just because of your true identity?”
With Tie Xinning present, he didn’t speak explicitly.
Looking at his eyes, Feng Miaojun recalled the scene of her first meeting with Mo Tizhun over three years ago. His methods were as cruel as Yun Xi’s.
In just a few short months, the Great State Preceptor Mo’s temperament couldn’t have changed. She shouldn’t develop a sense of closeness or lower her guard just because they had grown closer.
Feng Miaojun suddenly realized that if she couldn’t get past Mo Tizhun now, she wouldn’t worry about Yun Xi’s arrival later.
“I left my parents’ side at nine; what relationship could I have with him? If not for my identity, what other reason could there be?” She raised her head to look directly at Mo Tizhun. “Has the Great State Preceptor forgotten? I confronted him in court at Zi County. He was cordial to me and didn’t trouble me afterward. This proves I have no entanglement with him. Didn’t you witness this yourself?”
Mo Tizhun’s gaze flickered.
Indeed, three years ago, he had mingled with the crowd and observed that litigation case. “Then why is he personally looking for you now?”
She said dissatisfied: “We don’t even know if that person is Yun Xi yet, do we?”
Mo Tizhun and Tie Xinning exchanged glances, both silent in contemplation. She was right—although both felt that the main culprit was likely Yun Xi, suspicion remained suspicion; without solid evidence, they couldn’t be certain.
Feng Miaojun continued: “Fine, let’s take a step back. Even if it is him, why didn’t he look for me in the past three years but suddenly appear now? Huh, isn’t it because the Xiongxiong beast’s death ruined his grand plan, so he wants to kill me to get even?”
This reasoning made sense too. But given Yun Xi’s status, would he sneak into Jin Kingdom’s core, Star-Gathering City, to commit murder just because one of his subordinate beasts was killed?
Why use a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken?
Feng Miaojun naturally thought of this point too and said helplessly: “What does Yun Xi intend? I’m not him; how would I know? Perhaps he has other schemes and is just using me as a cover. For instance, could his target be the King of Jin?”
Tie Xinning immediately said: “That’s not impossible.”
“He takes me for a mere decoration?” Mo Tizhun smiled coldly, waving his hand slightly: “Wei and Jin don’t even share a border; what would be his purpose?”
“How do they not share a border?” Feng Miaojun disagreed. “After the Wei Kingdom annexed Anxia, doesn’t its southeastern part now border Great Jin?”
Mo Tizhun glanced at her without speaking.
Though the Anxia region had been annexed by Wei Kingdom, it had not been submissive in recent years, with frequent uprisings. For Wei to invade Jin through Anxia would truly be a long and arduous task. But he couldn’t be bothered to analyze these current affairs for a young girl.
Feng Miaojun opened her palm, holding the Heart-Eating Ant nest, and then said to Mo Tizhun: “Three years ago, I swore an oath to it, promising that my answers contained not a single false word. Has the Great State Preceptor forgotten?”