So the Ninth Prince’s absence from the Hall of Heavenly Secrets this past month had been because he had gone out in search of Blood Ganoderma.

Xue Gu looked at Feng Jiu’er, hesitating, unsure whether certain things ought to be said or not.

After a good while, she finally spoke: “On that night, Qiao Mu came to find me. She told me that she had informed the Ninth Prince that your Gu Poison had not yet been cured — and also…”

Though Feng Jiu’er appeared calm on the surface, she had been watching Xue Gu intently the entire time.

Xue Gu let out a soft sigh and said, “Qiao Mu had been drinking quite heavily. It was plain she was in very low spirits. She said that after telling the Ninth Prince, she had begged him not to come looking for you anymore — that if he did, it would cost you your life.”

Xue Gu had assumed that the Ninth Prince’s month-long absence meant he had truly taken Qiao Mu’s words to heart, and had finally been willing to let Jiu’er go.

But she had never imagined that the Ninth Prince — a man of such nobility that he had almost never endured grievance or slight his entire life — could be so stubbornly, unyieldingly set in his ways.

Feng Jiu’er had not witnessed Qiao Mu drinking with her own eyes, but she could picture it clearly enough.

Qiao Mu had always cared so deeply for the Ninth Imperial Uncle. To have been the one to personally speak those words to him — how much pain must that have cost her?

And she had not known, until now, that the Ninth Imperial Uncle had been carrying so many small secrets within himself. Not only had he refused to give up — he had given himself over to this so completely, so wholeheartedly.

Truly… he was a foolish, hopeless man.

“I must be that the Ninth Prince could not find a way to make it bloom. Jiu’er, you are far more widely learned than I am — aside from blood, is there another way to make it open sooner?”

Though Xue Gu often traveled beyond to seek out fine medicinal ingredients, when it came to true knowledge of medicine, she could not compare to Jiu’er.

Feng Jiu’er stared at the Blood Ganoderma on the table. Its bud was already plump and full, clearly on the verge of flowering — yet for some unknown reason, at some step along the way, something had gone awry, and it remained in that perpetual state of half-bloom.

“Perhaps it is still a matter of time.” Feng Jiu’er handed the Blood Ganoderma to Xue Gu. “Keep it with you for now. I go out often — I may not always have the time to tend to it.”

“Your place is different. Even when you are away, Yan can look after it for a while.”

“You simply don’t want to look at it, because the moment you do, you’ll think of the Ninth Prince — isn’t that right?” Xue Gu knew her thoughts too well.

After a moment’s thought, she nodded. “Perhaps that is best. The full moon night has only just passed, but there will be another one. If you look at the Blood Ganoderma and think of the Ninth Prince, you will only cause yourself pain.”

She hoped the flower would bloom before the next full moon night arrived. If it did, then Jiu’er and Tuoba Keyan might both be spared a little more suffering.

If this Blood Ganoderma could truly clear the Gu Poison from their bodies, then the Ninth Prince’s journey of a thousand li would not have been made in vain.

“But the Ice Blue Mountains are so far from the imperial city — more than just a hundred thousand li. After leaving the Ice Blue Mountains, what could the Ninth Prince have used to sustain the Blood Ganoderma along the way?”

This question from Xue Gu sent a sharp twinge through the tip of Feng Jiu’er’s heart.

All the way back, that fellow would have wanted to return as quickly as possible — he would certainly not have had the patience to stop and find animals to feed blood to the Blood Ganoderma.

Knowing his temperament, the most likely thing he would have done was exactly what she feared — raised a blade, and simply used his own blood to sustain it.

He… was such a fool! Could he not have come to discuss it with her before setting out?

Though, if he truly had come to discuss it, Feng Jiu’er would never have allowed him to go to the Ice Blue Mountains at all.

That place was not only filled with fierce and violent beasts — the mountain paths were thick with miasma, and not far from the base of the mountain lay the southern wildlands. To make it safely to the summit and find the exceedingly rare Blood Ganoderma was no easy feat by any measure.

He was a prince of an entire nation. Where would he find the time?

The longer she thought, the more the ache in her chest grew — she nearly wanted to clutch the pot of Blood Ganoderma to her heart, as though it were the Ninth Imperial Uncle himself in her arms.

But the moment her hands reached out, she pulled them back, hard.

“Xue Gu, take it away.” Her heart ached — truly, it ached so much. If it was not taken away soon, the ache would be the death of her!

After leaving the Hall of Heavenly Secrets, Zhan Qingcheng did not go far.

What angered him was not seeing that girl acting close and affectionate with another man — it was that she simply had no wish to see him.

He had come. She could not have failed to notice. So why was she unwilling to see him? Was she angry that he had not come to find her for a whole month?

“Your Highness.” Yu Jingfeng had been waiting here for some time.

“Hmph!” A certain prince let out a cold sound and shot him a look sharp enough to cut.

Yu Jingfeng had a stomach full of things to report, but the moment the prince gave that sound, not a single word could make its way out.

The prince had given him a sound of contempt? Heavens — what had he done wrong this time? Why the contempt?

He had been standing guard here all this while without one word of complaint. Why was he still being subjected to contempt?

The esteemed Yu Jingfeng expressed, from the depths of his heart, that he felt genuinely and deeply aggrieved.

“Your Highness…” He followed after him, keeping his footsteps light. “Your Highness, the one from the palace — they have already come out.”

Zhan Qingcheng’s steps paused. He glanced at the night sky ahead.

Already out. He simply had not expected that, after coming out, that person would come directly to find him.

Yu Jingfeng’s expression shifted. He rushed forward and sent a swift palm strike forward.

He had not thought these people would take the initiative to come to their door. Could it be that the surveillance of recent days had been noticed?

Though the prince had given word not long ago to cease investigating the affairs within the palace, the affairs outside the palace — the prince had never said to stop investigating those. So as long as those people left the imperial palace, his people would follow. But the lightness technique of those two palace maids was simply too exceptional — Yu Jingfeng’s people could not keep up with them at all.

With a resonant impact, Yu Jingfeng was forced back two steps, while Qing Zhi also retreated several steps before steadying herself.

Behind her, a palanquin descended from mid-air. Such a heavy palanquin, yet it was held aloft with one hand by a single woman — the level of lightness technique and inner power this woman possessed was beyond imagination.

It had not occurred to him that the one to engage him would be the one of lesser cultivation among the two. Yet looking at it now, the older woman holding the palanquin was clearly far more formidable than the one he had crossed palms with.

Yu Jingfeng stood before Zhan Qingcheng. He had been about to move again, but as the cold aura closed in from behind him, he drew in his breath and immediately stepped aside.

Even the prince had discerned it — his own cultivation was no match for the woman holding the palanquin.

The palanquin settled lightly to the ground. The curtain swayed in the evening breeze, and behind it, the silhouette of the woman seated within was slender, her face still veiled in gauze, her form shifting between shadow and light.

After Qing Ye set the palanquin down, she took her place to one side.

Qing Zhi, who had just finished trading blows with Yu Jingfeng, also fell back to the other side of the palanquin, her gaze fixed on Zhan Qingcheng not far away.

Before them stood the figure whose name had spread through every street and alleyway of the imperial city — the one remembered and pined for by nearly every young woman in the city, and indeed throughout all of Bei Mu — the War God, the Ninth Prince: Zhan Qingcheng.

Qing Zhi was, after all, only a young woman just past twenty. Under all of heaven, there was not a single young woman who could look upon the Ninth Prince and remain entirely unmoved.

Seeing the Ninth Prince’s true features for the first time, even Qing Zhi could not help but feel a warmth rise in her cheeks, her ears burning, her heart beginning to race.

This War God, the Ninth Prince — he was even more strikingly handsome than she had ever imagined. Beneath heaven and earth, the most exceptional beauty of all.

Even with the evident weariness of travel upon him at this moment, it did nothing to diminish his appearance in the slightest.

One glance at Qing Zhi, and her composure very nearly fell apart entirely.