After the fall of the Haoli Empire, countless people came here looking for treasures, but treasure hunters typically found what they wanted and left. How many forces would persistently search Yingshui City again and again, undeterred by repeated failures? At least Feng Miaojun knew the King of Yan was one of them, and Zhao Yun certainly hadn’t spent so much time here just for amusement—he must have found something.

“That bastard,” she muttered.

The others didn’t understand, but Chen Dachang knew that when she spoke with such a teeth-grinding tone, the target of her curse was likely Yun Ya.

When Yun Ya killed Zhao Yun, he not only learned the King of Yan’s intentions from him but must have also discovered what Zhao Yun had found in Yingshui City. Infuriatingly, that man had kept her in the dark the entire time. They had traveled together for so long, yet he never mentioned a word about it.

Just then, a guard suddenly called out in a low voice, “There’s a gap!”

Everyone looked in the direction he pointed and indeed saw half a piece of cloth exposed at the lower edge of the stone platform.

The cloth was also grayish-white, covered in dust. With so much debris around, they hadn’t noticed it earlier. Chen Dachang crouched down and gently pulled, but it wouldn’t budge. “The lower half is caught inside the stone platform.”

Feng Miaojun and Yu Haizhen exchanged glances, both seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes—someone had already opened the stone platform and gone inside!

The group then gently knocked on the bloodstained areas, trying them one by one. Finally, though they weren’t sure which combination they had pressed correctly, a set of relief carvings separated with a dull sound, revealing a stone chamber inside.

No one advanced; instead, they all covered their noses and stepped back. The stench was overwhelming.

In the middle of the stone chamber, several corpses lay in disarray, not yet completely reduced to dry bones. The flesh had slowly decayed in the narrow, nearly sealed space, creating a horrifying sight and an unbearable odor.

Not only was the inside not empty, but it even contained dead bodies!

Even Feng Miaojun found this too intense.

They waited outside for quite some time until the corpse odor had somewhat dissipated before the guards went in to examine each body.

One could see the entire interior from outside the stone chamber. It was empty except for these corpses—not even an extra scrap of paper. Only the corner of a dead man’s garment caught outside the stone chamber door had revealed its secret.

Chen Dachang said softly, “Could it be that everything has already been taken?”

Since people had already entered the stone chamber earlier, whatever was originally inside must have been removed, right?

But Feng Miaojun stared fixedly at the wall, not blinking once.

For her, this place was not empty at all. On the innermost wall of the stone chamber was carved a circular pattern.

Those lines, that technique… Feng Miaojun suddenly closed her eyes, only then managing to slightly suppress her excitement.

Yu Haizhen also saw this pattern and exclaimed, “The Celestial Deity’s mark!”

Like Feng Miaojun, she had studied the Celestial Deity’s mark for many years. This was even a traditional study for generations of the Yang family. With just one glance, she could see its special features and similarities.

Although the arrangement of symbols and lines here was completely different from her bracelet, Yu Haizhen could still determine that both marks were drawn using the same method.

This was strange—how could the Celestial Deity’s mark appear in an empty stone chamber?

Chen Dachang, who had entered the stone chamber to examine the corpses, suddenly said, “These all seem to be people from Yan.” He raised his hand, holding three tokens. “These are identification tokens given by the Yan royal court to cultivators.”

Three cultivators from Yan had died here without a sound! In an age where cultivators were scarce, this would be a nation-shaking event. Yet Yan had never made any announcement about it.

Feng Miaojun also came to her senses. “Cause of death?”

“Two were wounded in the back of the heart and neck, likely ambushed from behind.” Chen Dachang examined each one. “These three died from broken necks, and two were stabbed to death with a sharp weapon.”

“Broken necks, huh?” Feng Miaojun mused. By coincidence, she knew someone with a particular preference for breaking others’ necks.

“Judging from the growth of nails and hair, these people died less than a year ago.” Among the dead was a bald man, or at least he had been bald originally. This helped Chen Dachang determine the time of death.

“People from Yan, dead for less than a year…” Feng Miaojun took a light breath. “They were Zhao Yun’s subordinates.”

Just from their configuration, this small team from Yan was quite powerful—not ordinary treasure hunters—and they had tokens from the royal court. Coincidentally, she knew that about half a year ago, Zhao Yun had been active here with his men.

She knew Zhao Yun’s fate—killed by Yun Ya. Therefore, one could deduce that these people were most likely also killed by Yun Ya. The killing methods also strongly supported this conjecture.

“So from what we can see now, at least Zhao Yun and Yun Ya have entered the secret chamber.”

Yu Haizhen murmured, “But what did they discover here?”

Feng Miaojun shook her head. “Zhao Yun discovered the secret chamber but didn’t find what he was looking for.”

Chen Dachang also gave her an attentive look.

“Otherwise, he wouldn’t have lingered here repeatedly. He wouldn’t have waited until Yun Ya came to kill him.” Feng Miaojun walked over and crouched down before the dead men. “Moreover, judging from the killing methods, if these were all done by Yun Ya alone, then his temper must have been quite fierce at the time.”

The clean and efficient killing method was indeed Yun Ya’s style. But she knew him too well and could sense a kind of brutality in it.

It seemed that when Yun Ya killed them, he was filled with rage.

With his self-control, what could Zhao Yun have done to provoke him so much that it brought about his demise?

Hmm, if she were Yun Ya, she should have kept Zhao Yun alive to use as a bargaining chip in the war between Wei and Yan. The King of Yan was quite fond of this Nineteenth Prince.

Yu Haizhen glanced at Feng Miaojun and smiled. “Why don’t you ask the State Preceptor of Wei?” The relationship between these two was truly interesting—clearly lovers in the heat of passion, yet they still had to doubt and speculate about each other in private.

When all was said and done, it was because of their identities and positions.

Feng Miaojun stared at the Celestial Deity’s mark and casually replied, “He won’t tell me.”

Why would Yun Ya, as State Preceptor, angrily kill Zhao Yun when he knew that Wei and Yan would eventually go to war? Besides framing her at the time, there might only be two possibilities:

Either Yun Ya knew that his conflict with the King of Yan was already irreconcilable—a fight to the death.

Or Zhao Yun had found a secret here that shouldn’t have been discovered. Since it was a secret, would that guy tell her?

“Let’s rest,” Feng Miaojun knew this matter couldn’t be rushed. “Early tomorrow morning, make a rubbing of the pattern on the wall. I want to take it back for research.”

Everyone agreed.

At midnight, Yu Haizhen finished her meditation and opened her eyes to find Feng Miaojun sitting formally, lost in thought as she faced the mark on the stone wall.

The Queen was truly fixated on this mark. Yu Haizhen walked over. “Why the rush?”

Feng Miaojun answered a different question. “I’m thinking that the method to open this stone platform was too easy.”