Seeing this, Mu Yunjin used a bit of her inner force to push open Chu Qingyan’s door, slipped inside, and pressed herself against the wall by the door, listening to the movements outside.

Inside the room, Chu Qingyan, who had been dozing in a rocking chair, was about to scream when someone suddenly burst into her room, but then she saw it was Mu Yunjin.

“Shh.” Mu Yunjin gestured for her to be quiet.

Chu Qingyan quickly covered her mouth, afraid she might cry out reflexively, and then tiptoed toward Mu Yunjin, looking at her with surprise. “Sixth Sister-in-law, why are you here?”

“Don’t speak.” Mu Yunjin still urged Chu Qingyan to remain silent.

Only then did Chu Qingyan notice that Mu Yunjin was pressed against the door, seemingly listening to something outside, so she obediently kept quiet.

Through the crack in the door, Mu Yunjin saw Rong Min’s figure passing by outside.

After two months without seeing him, Rong Min had become skin and bones, wearing a hemp garment and walking hurriedly, with no trace of a prince’s dignity about him.

Rong Min entered the room next to Mu Yunjin’s.

Shortly after Rong Min entered that room, another man walked up the corridor and went into Rong Min’s room.

Mu Yunjin could no longer contain herself. She didn’t know where Chu Li had gone, but now that she had encountered Rong Min here, she couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

“Stay in the room, and don’t go out no matter what, understand?” Mu Yunjin instructed Chu Qingyan.

If Rong Min discovered Chu Qingyan was staying here, it could be dangerous for her.

After giving instructions to Chu Qingyan, Mu Yunjin went to the window, surveyed the area below, and seeing it was the inn’s backyard, she leaped out of the window and carefully landed on the roof of the next room.

After landing on the roof, Mu Yunjin bent down to listen to the conversation inside—

“Master Rong, my young master sent me to ask when you will take him to see Miss Xiao. He has already collected all the Heshan Lotus from North Ming Kingdom as you instructed,” said the man who had just entered the room.

Rong Min sat in a chair drinking tea, turning the teacup in his hand as he looked at the visitor and chuckled. “Please assure Commander Wei that in a few more days, once everything is under control, I will certainly take him to see Miss Xiao.”

“This…” The man was hesitant and frowned. “But when my master Commander Wei helped you, you promised to take him to see Miss Xiao as soon as all the Heshan Lotus was collected. Aren’t you going back on your word now?”

Hearing this, Rong Min’s lips curled into a smile, his eyes showing a hint of malice. “It’s just a delay of a few days. Can’t he even wait that long?”

“Master Rong, what kind of attitude is this? You…” The man hadn’t expected Rong Min to suddenly change his demeanor, and pointed at him with displeasure, his face showing anger.

Rong Min took a sip of tea, his face full of disdain. “There’s one thing you shouldn’t forget: your Commander Wei is now in the same boat as us. If people found out that Wei Ru, a dignified commander, wanted to rescue a female prisoner, what would others think of him?”

“You, you…” The man was instantly too angry to speak, never expecting that Rong Min would be such an ungrateful person.

“Go back to Wei Ru and tell him to be sensible, or none of us will have a good outcome!” Rong Min narrowed his eyes and looked up at the man. “Get out now!”

The man stumbled backward, suddenly feeling that his master had been deceived. If his master hadn’t been obsessed with this woman surnamed Xiao for so many years, how could they have been marked by this villain now?

At this point, he could only go back to report.

“Wait.” As the man reached the door, Rong Min suddenly called him back.

“Wei Ru went to the North Ming Palace today to get the Heshan Lotus, didn’t he?” Rong Min asked.

The man nodded.

“Good, take this.” Rong Min took out a white bottle from his sleeve and placed it on the table beside him.

“What is this?” the man asked in confusion.

Rong Min smiled. “Soul-devouring insects, also called plague insects. Tell Wei Ru to throw these insects into the neighboring Xuelan City.”

“What? Master Rong, this is…” The man was even more surprised now. Previously, when Rong Min had asked Wei Ru to help collect all the Heshan Lotus in the city, it wasn’t a big deal and could be justified.

But now he was asking Wei Ru to cause a plague…

“Do you know that in Lonely Mountain City in the Nanting Kingdom, a plague is currently breaking out? The culprit is these soul-devouring insects, and one of the antidotes for the plague is the Heshan Lotus.”

“Think about it—Wei Ru helped us collect so much Heshan Lotus, can he still be considered a loyal and benevolent person? No, not anymore. Wei Ru is now my dog! He has two paths before him.”

“One is to obediently follow my arrangements, and after the task is completed, I’ll let him see Xiao Yaxuan. The other is death.”

By now, the man was so shocked he could barely speak. He never imagined that his commander had unwittingly stepped into a massive conspiracy and been completely used.

Thinking of this, the man’s body trembled, and he hurriedly left.

On the rooftop, Mu Yunjin frowned as she listened to those words, silently thinking that Wei Ru had indeed acted rashly and been manipulated by Rong Min.

Just as she was about to come down from the roof, a gust of wind blew from the side. Mu Yunjin tried to shield herself, and in doing so, accidentally stepped on a tile, making a crisp sound.

“Who’s there!” Below, Rong Min slapped the table as he stood up and flew toward the window.

By the time he reached the rooftop, Mu Yunjin was nowhere to be seen.

Rong Min looked around and finally fixed his gaze on the slightly open window of the neighboring room.

Taking two steps forward, just as Rong Min was about to fly in through that window to investigate, a palm strike suddenly came from behind him, startling him into moving sideways.

Turning around, seeing who stood behind him, his eyes revealed shock and fear. He instinctively wanted to escape, but his body had already been immobilized, unable to move.

“Chu Li, it’s you!”

Mu Yunjin stood by the window, thinking that if Rong Min came in, she would deal with him on the spot. She never expected Chu Li to appear.

So it seemed that Chu Li had been hiding in the shadows all along?

Now that Chu Li was here, she didn’t need to worry about Rong Min anymore. She reached out to tightly close the window on her side and turned to look at the person in the room.

“Qingyan…”

Rong Min had been careless and was captured.

After capturing him, Chu Li simply used the Thousand Faces technique to disguise himself as Rong Min and stayed in that inn room, waiting for clues to be delivered right to his door.

Rong Min was temporarily imprisoned in the dungeon of the North Ming Palace, personally guarded by the Black Qilin and the Five-colored Divine Phoenix. No matter how great Rong Min’s abilities were, he couldn’t escape.

When Mu Yunjin went to the dungeon, Rong Min was sitting on the ground with a haggard expression.

Sometimes, Mu Yunjin admired Rong Min. Such a person, with neither talent nor brains, still dreamed day and night of becoming the ruler of the Canghua Continent.

And facing his current circumstances, he still didn’t choose to end his life.

How impressive!

“Rong Min.” Mu Yunjin stood outside the cell and called to the person inside.

When enemies meet, hatred burns red-hot.

As soon as Rong Min looked up and saw Mu Yunjin, he frantically rushed to the cell door, grabbed the bars, and glared at her with a ferocious expression.

“Mu Yunjin, it’s you again, it’s you again!”

He had barely escaped from the North Border Secret Prison, only to fall into their hands again.

These past two months, no one knew how much effort he and Chu Qing had expended to escape from the North Border Secret Prison.

During the day, they worked hard to gradually recover some of their lost inner force. At night, they served the female prisoners well, making them happy enough to help them escape from the secret prison.

And now, after just a few days…

The more Rong Min thought about it, the more distressed he became. The hands gripping the bars tightened, the veins on the backs of his hands bulging.

“Where is Chu Qing?” Mu Yunjin asked.

“Hmph, what makes you think this prince would tell you?” Rong Min sneered.

“Slap!”

Mu Yunjin swept her sleeve, sending a palm strike across Rong Min’s face. “At a time like this, you’re still putting on airs as a prince?”

“Where is Chu Qing?” Mu Yunjin asked again.

“Kill me or flay me as you wish.” Rong Min wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and glared darkly at Mu Yunjin.

Mu Yunjin crossed her arms, her lips curving into a smile. “Fine, that works too. But think about it—if I kill you, flay you, Chu Qing is still out there free! If your conspiracy succeeds, he’ll be the ruler of the Canghua Continent.”

“And you? Just a prisoner condemned to death…”

“Besides, you’re not related to him in any way. Why keep secrets from him? Do you expect him to come save you? Don’t be foolish. If he were imprisoned here today, you wouldn’t come back to save him either, would you?”

Each of Mu Yunjin’s sentences sounded casual, but they were like knives, sharply piercing into Rong Min’s heart.

Ultimately, he truly couldn’t accept it!

After everything he had experienced, he genuinely regretted it.

If he hadn’t harbored such wild ambitions, if he had just been content being the Prince of Han, he wouldn’t be in such a miserable situation today.

“If I tell you, will you spare me?” Rong Min looked up at Mu Yunjin with a bitter smile.

“Of course not, but I’ll let you die with some dignity.” Mu Yunjin raised the corner of her lips. She was not a kind and merciful person. After experiencing so much, how could she possibly spare Rong Min’s life?

Though his life couldn’t be spared, his intact corpse could be preserved.

Rong Min lowered his eyes, his hands falling limply from the bars. After a moment of silence, he murmured, “Let me make a deal with you, how about that?”

“Let’s hear it.” Mu Yunjin raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll give you Chu Qing, Xiao Yaxuan, and the antidote for the plague. In return, you find a way to persuade Rong Jiu to bury me in the East Lin Kingdom’s royal tomb after my death.”

This was Rong Min’s final wish.

He didn’t want to be a wandering soul. Since there was no hope for survival now, he might as well properly apologize to his ancestors after death.

Mu Yunjin remained silent. Although this condition didn’t seem very demanding, it involved Rong Jiu and matters of the East Lin Kingdom, which she couldn’t decide on her own.

Though if she asked, Rong Jiu might agree, she and Rong Jiu had already settled their accounts, and she didn’t want any further entanglements.

“I’ll give you an hour to think about it.” Rong Min walked back to lean against the wall and glanced at Mu Yunjin.

Mu Yunjin didn’t answer and turned to leave the dungeon.

After walking a few steps, she heard Rong Min say, “Mu Yunjin, don’t accept my condition if you can’t fulfill it. Otherwise, I will become a wandering ghost, haunting you and Chu Li night after night, giving you no peace.”

“Awooo…”

“Clang!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the Black Qilin and the Five-colored Divine Phoenix roared, followed by Rong Min’s screams of agony echoing throughout the dungeon…