She tried extracting spiritual power and succeeded.

This proved that the fellow was at least still alive.

This gave her some measure of comfort.

The King’s army naturally included Crown Prince Xiao Jing’s informants, so the tragic news of the King of Wei’s death reached his hands in just four days.

Xiao Jing first felt as if struck by five thunderbolts, then became as anxious as an ant on a hot wok.

For him, this meant his second brother had gained a four-day head start. And don’t forget, that the Crown Prince was stationed in the Chiqian Forest in the southeast region of An Xia. Returning to the Wei capital from there would take at least half a month longer than Xiao Yan’s journey back.

That was assuming they marched at full speed.

In reality, the remnants of An Xia forces and the Jin army had recently been fighting like they were on stimulants, frantically attacking the Wei army lines. After news of the King of Wei’s death reached the Jin Kingdom, perhaps the Jin army would withdraw their troops advancing north to Chiqian Forest, but An Xia’s remnant forces were unprecedentedly active, frequently striking at the army led by the Crown Prince.

With their interference, it was almost impossible for the Crown Prince to quickly lead his troops back to the Wei capital.

What could be done?

Finally, a swan demon under the Crown Prince’s command transformed into its true form and carried him toward the Wei capital.

The creature’s speed, though not matching the divine bird Cailuan of Yao Kingdom, was still more than twice as fast as ordinary birds. However, the Wei Crown Prince had terrible luck this time. Just as the white swan took to the sky, before it could soar to the clouds, it was shot down by cultivators in the joint An Xia and Jin Kingdom army. Though its life was spared, one wing was broken, making it impossible to carry anyone skyward again in the short term.

Despite his anxiety, the Crown Prince had no choice but to honestly take the land route back. He also understood that he was being targeted. To safely exit the Chiqian Plain, he simultaneously dispatched more than ten small squads as smoke screens to cover his own light cavalry’s return to Wei.

At this moment, he wouldn’t realize that such a chance event would change the entire outcome of the throne struggle.

Throughout his journey back, he continuously received several pieces of bad news from his birth mother, Queen Dowager Zheng:

First, Xiao Yan had returned escorting the coffin, with the memorial hall set up in Yonghe Palace, one of the main halls in the inner court. According to ancestral custom, after the major funeral rites, the late King would lie in state there receiving sacrifices for twenty-one days.

By this calculation, the Crown Prince wouldn’t make it in time.

Of course, beyond grief, what angered him was that Xiao Yan had indeed rushed back to the Wei capital first. Although Third Prince Xiao Wu and Queen Dowager Zheng were there, Xiao Yan himself had been cultivating relationships for a long time, not to mention having the State Preceptor’s assistance.

Just thinking about Yun Ya made his eyelids twitch incessantly.

Sure enough, bad news followed immediately.

After returning to the capital, apart from attending the late King’s funeral, Xiao Yan urgently did several things. First, he published the correspondence between the murderer Xu An and the Crown Prince, creating an explosive effect. The royal court erupted in chaos, with neither Prince Xiao Yan nor Prince Xiao Wu able to suppress it.

Public sentiment was inflamed, with widespread condemnation.

In just seven or eight days, this matter had spread to the commoners, with even vegetable-selling women able to indignantly embellish the story.

When the Crown Prince received news of the King of Wei’s death, he simultaneously learned of Xu An’s regicide. At that moment, he nearly blacked out, knowing this would become a weapon to frame him.

Sure enough, Xiao Yan hadn’t missed this opportunity.

The Crown Prince was somewhat psychologically prepared, but the second matter mentioned by Queen Dowager Zheng in her letter made him full of suspicions:

On the second day after Xiao Yan returned to the capital, he forced his way into the King of Wei’s bedchamber.

Without a summons, even royal descendants couldn’t enter that place at will. However, with the capital now in a leaderless state, the Imperial Guards couldn’t stop Xiao Yan’s steps.

By the time Third Prince Xiao Wu heard the news and brought people to intercept, Xiao Yan had already walked out of the King of Wei’s bedchamber.

The two brothers exchanged verbal jabs, while Chief Eunuch Chen Xi took the opportunity to check the bedchamber, finding nothing missing. Although Xiao Wu wanted to search for his second brother’s person, Great State Preceptor Yun stood to the side with an ambiguous smile, watching him.

This man possessed unfathomable abilities, and Xiao Wu had been somewhat afraid of him since childhood. Despite the Imperial Guards’ numbers and secret techniques, he wasn’t confident in dealing with the State Preceptor and finally had to let Xiao Yan leave.

After reading the note, the Crown Prince couldn’t help pressing his chest, feeling he had suffered internal injuries from anger.

On one hand, he hated Xiao Yan’s cunning; on the other, he resented his father’s favoritism.

Although the King of Wei had established him as Crown Prince, he was much more intimate with Xiao Yan, even taking Xiao Yan at his side during this expedition against the Yao Kingdom while sending him, the Crown Prince, to Chiqian Forest. After the old man’s death, Xiao Yan forced his way into the bedchamber—was it because the King of Wei had secretly left an edict there, telling Xiao Yan to retrieve it?

After all, Xiao Yan was the son who accompanied him through his final journey, and no one except Xiao Yan knew what happened during that time.

What secret would the King of Wei leave behind?

Had he changed his mind and wanted to establish a different Crown Prince?

If so, Xiao Jing’s position as Crown Prince would be unstable.

The more he thought, the more terrified he became, wishing he could search every corner of Xiao Yan’s residence to eliminate that hidden danger. Unfortunately, he was in a distant location and could only lament his inability to reach.

At this point, he was also angry at his third brother for his uselessness. If Xiao Wu could have been more forceful and properly searched Xiao Yan, there would be no future troubles.

Every minute and second he spent outside, events were fermenting and developing in the Wei Kingdom capital. Sadly, he couldn’t reach them.

Although he sent back numerous reports, instructing Queen Dowager Zheng and his confidants to act according to plan, by not being in the Wei capital, he remained in a passive position.

Queen Dowager Zheng’s letter also casually mentioned that Xu An’s son had died after the first round of torture in the imperial prison.

The Wei Crown Prince understood his mother; one look and he knew she had done this. But now he hated Xu An to the bone and wished for anything related to this name to be destroyed, so he didn’t concern himself with it further.

Besides, he had indeed been quite close with Xu An in the past. This person was skilled at flattery and currying favor and had pledged loyalty to him from the start. Xu An’s son might also have possessed evidence of this, so his death was for the best. Queen Dowager Zheng was probably also concerned about this point, fearing it would add to the Crown Prince’s troubles, and thus quickly silenced him.

Recently, Xiao Yan had frequently visited venerable old ministers in the court. Each time he walked out after their conversations, both host and guest seemed delighted. The Crown Prince’s faction also went to probe indirectly, only receiving news of casual conversation, at most that Xiao Yan came to humbly seek advice.

The Wei Crown Prince naturally didn’t believe this. His second brother’s actions were blatantly courting court officials—his intentions were crystal clear.

The Wei Crown Prince had been traveling day and night these past few days, wishing he could cover a thousand li in a day, but when he was only eighty li from the capital, he received the final piece of news from Queen Dowager Zheng.

It was this news that made him stop in his tracks with great shock:

The assassin who killed Xu An had fled into the Eastern Palace!

When the Imperial Guards wanted to enter to arrest him, cultivators and palace people guarding the place blocked them, resulting in a conflict. The Crown Prince’s subordinates were no pushovers, but most of the elite forces had been taken by him to Chiqian Forest, while those assisting in the search included several powerful experts sent by the State Preceptor. Before Third Prince Xiao Wu could stop it, Court Judicial Officer Wu Chen had already led people to break into the Eastern Palace, searching everywhere.

Reading to this point, the Crown Prince nearly shattered his steel teeth in fury.