When the Ninth Princess’s funeral proceedings were halfway through, Emperor Mingkang finally emerged from his closed-door cultivation. The first thing he did after coming out was to summon Wei Wuxie for questioning.

Facing Wei Wuxie’s familiar old face, Emperor Mingkang felt inexplicably nervous for the first time. He leaned back against the dragon throne, cleared his throat, and asked, “Wei Wuxie, during the time I was in seclusion, nothing particularly significant happened outside the palace, did it?”

“Nothing,” Wei Wuxie replied, already contemplating how to report the news of the Ninth Princess’s death to Emperor Mingkang.

“That’s good.” Emperor Mingkang visibly relaxed, fearing Wei Wuxie might notice, so he picked up his teacup and took a sip of the clear tea.

Wei Wuxie kept his head lowered, motionless.

Emperor Mingkang set down the tea cup, his long eyebrows furrowing. “Is there something else you need to say?”

Wei Wuxie lowered his head even further. “Your Majesty, while nothing particular happened outside the palace, inside the palace—”

Emperor Mingkang’s eye twitched. “Speak! What happened inside the palace?”

“The Ninth Princess has passed away.”

Emperor Mingkang showed no reaction for quite some time.

Wei Wuxie stood properly in place, saying nothing.

At a time like this, speaking up proactively would be seeking death—better to let His Majesty process this gradually.

After a long while, Emperor Mingkang asked, “The Ninth Princess was the one with the better appearance?”

This period of seclusion had yielded some progress, reaching the transcendent realm of unity between heaven and man, where many worldly matters became hazy in memory.

Wei Wuxie’s expression became somewhat complicated for an instant, though fortunately, his lowered head prevented anyone from seeing it. “Your Majesty is wise—the Ninth Princess was indeed devastatingly beautiful.”

“I remember now. Her mother was Consort Li.” Emperor Mingkang came to his senses, his brow furrowing deeper. “How did the Ninth Princess die? I remember her being quite lively and spirited.”

“This servant privately inquired with the imperial physicians. The Ninth Princess appears to have… died from poisoning…”

Emperor Mingkang’s eyes narrowed, and he quickly asked, “What about Marquis Guanjun’s fiancée?”

Wei Wuxie couldn’t help but admire their emperor, while he seemed to pay no attention to worldly affairs on the surface, his reactions were quite sharp when it came to crucial matters.

“Marquis Guanjun’s fiancée has fully recovered. Just yesterday, she even went out to a famous bookstore in the capital to buy books.”

Going to a famous bookstore to buy books meant that everyone in the capital now knew Marquis Guanjun’s fiancée had fully recovered, so His Majesty’s previous plans could only come to nothing.

Speaking of which, that Third Miss Li was indeed a clever person.

Emperor Mingkang rubbed his temples, clearly having thought of the same thing, and immediately felt frustrated.

“You just said the Ninth Princess died from poisoning—was she poisoned by someone else, or did she take poison to commit suicide?”

Wei Wuxie kept his head lowered. “The poison that affected the Ninth Princess was the same as the poison that Consort Li obtained.”

Emperor Mingkang understood Wei Wuxie’s meaning.

“Has she gone mad?”

Wei Wuxie kept his head down without responding.

The Ninth Princess hadn’t gone mad—rather, she was too bold, actually daring to fake her death to escape from the palace.

During those two days, he had secretly dispatched people to investigate, with the Li Residence as the primary target. After all, the Ninth Princess had originally gone to the Li Residence on a mission, so her return and subsequent poisoning to fake death were most likely related to Third Miss Li.

Unexpectedly, the area around the Li Residence was filled with Marquis Guanjun’s people. Since this was a private investigation, he couldn’t reveal his identity as head of the Eastern Depot and could only remain at an impasse with the opposition. Even now, there was still no trace of the Ninth Princess, making it even more difficult for him to report to the emperor.

His Majesty had long wanted to deal with Marquis Guanjun, but currently, Great Liang could not do without the marquis. No matter how dissatisfied His Majesty was, he needed to give himself a way out. If he reported this matter before catching the Ninth Princess, wouldn’t that just be adding to His Majesty’s frustration?

When His Majesty was unhappy, how could those who served him closely have good days?

Wei Wuxie had made up his mind: if he caught the Ninth Princess, he would bring her back and report to His Majesty, providing a charge for His Majesty to settle accounts with Marquis Guanjun in the future. If he couldn’t catch her, then this matter would have to be concluded with the Ninth Princess’s death as the final verdict. In any case, he couldn’t bring trouble upon himself.

“This infuriates me!” In front of his trusted head eunuch, Emperor Mingkang had nothing to hide. He grabbed his teacup and hurled it to the ground.

The teacup instantly shattered into pieces, startling the palace servants standing guard outside the door to quietly retreat further away.

“Wei Wuxie!”

“This servant is here.”

“Tell me, during the period I was in seclusion, wasn’t there a single good thing that happened in or outside the palace?”

Every time he went into seclusion, either someone close to him died, or the Tartars attacked right up to the capital’s outskirts. What was the meaning of this?

Could it be that they feared he would ascend to immortality and abandon Great Liang’s imperial foundation?

But he had never intended to enjoy solitary freedom after achieving immortality—rather, he planned to sit on the throne for a very, very long time. After all, this was passed down to him by his ancestors, and he could trust no one else with it as much as himself.

“There were good things, there were!” Seeing Emperor Mingkang about to explode, Wei Wuxie hastily consoled him.

Emperor Mingkang barely managed to calm down, glancing sideways at Wei Wuxie. “Then tell me, what good things happened?”

Wei Wuxie racked his brains, cold sweat nearly breaking out. Under Emperor Mingkang’s intense stare, inspiration struck: “One of Prince Rui’s concubines is with child.”

Upon hearing this, Emperor Mingkang’s expression relaxed. “Oh, so Prince Rui finally has an heir?”

He currently has two sons in total: Prince Rui and Prince Mu.

If his path to immortality proved unsuccessful, this position would eventually need to be passed to one of his sons. Since he had barely met either son anyway, Prince Rui, being the elder, naturally had precedence according to propriety.

However, Prince Rui’s continued lack of heirs had been truly worrying. The news that Prince Rui’s concubine was with child was indeed good.

“Wei Wuxie, go prepare a gift list to reward Prince Rui’s concubine.”

It was rare to have something happy happen—this certainly deserved recognition.

“Yes.” Wei Wuxie breathed a sigh of relief.

He had finally managed to smoothly report the matter of the Ninth Princess to His Majesty. Was it easy being this head eunuch?

“Go now. I want to be alone.”

He needed to carefully contemplate this matter of seclusion.

Prince Rui had been in quite good spirits lately. The reason was simple: after the one year mentioned by Physician Li had passed, he began working diligently at his cultivation, and surprisingly discovered he was much stronger than before—one could even say he was performing magnificently.

As a man, even if not for the sake of producing heirs, this alone was truly delightful.

Prince Rui thought that perhaps it wouldn’t be long before he heard good news from his other concubines as well.

“Your Highness, Eunuch Wei has arrived.”

Upon hearing that Wei Wuxie had come, Prince Rui was alarmed.

Wei Wuxie wasn’t just any ordinary head eunuch—he was also the director of the Eastern Depot. What was he doing at Prince Rui’s residence for no good reason?

He hadn’t done anything inappropriate recently.

“Your Highness, Eunuch Wei’s visit should be good news this time. This scholar noticed that the several young eunuchs he brought are all carrying brocade boxes.”

Only then did Prince Rui’s anxious heart settle, and he hurried out to receive him.

“Congratulations, Your Highness.” Wei Wuxie’s smile lines were more numerous than usual when facing Prince Rui. “His Majesty heard of Your Highness’s joyful news and specifically commanded this servant to come and offer congratulations.”

Father still remembers me!

Prince Rui was practically stunned by this joyful news, beaming as he said, “Congratulations to us both, congratulations to us both.”

Wei Wuxie thought: “…” This is going too far—isn’t this like stabbing a knife into the heart of a man without roots!