Dao Companions Help Me Live Forever

Chapter 39: Who Supports, Who Opposes? (Part 1)

Facing Yu Xian's excessive demands, the princess was perplexed.

"Cultivators? What are cultivators?"

"Doesn't the princess know about cultivators?"

Yu Xian clearly didn't believe that the princess, who was the pillow person of the Prince, would be unaware of the existence of cultivators.

After pondering for a moment, the princess still shook her head.

"I don't know, and the prince doesn't tell me everything."

Seeing that the princess didn't even bat an eye, if this was all an act, then her acting skills were truly remarkable.

But he had plenty of time for what was to come, so there was no rush.

To be honest, the princess's inexplicable trust in him had saved him a lot of effort.

He didn't inquire further, but casually asked, "I heard from Li Gonggong that the princess agreed to the prince's funeral, but his body has not been found yet, indicating that the prince may still be alive. Why the rush?"

The princess smiled bitterly, "I do want to continue searching for the prince, but Cui Changshi and the others advised me to settle the matter as soon as possible. They said that the prince's disappearance has caused unrest among the people. The energy of the mansion should be focused on dealing with the threat of the rebel army. The prince disappeared together with the Grand Offering, so if he is still alive, with the protection of the Grand Offering, there shouldn't be any problems. But I always feel that they are too hasty."

"But as a woman of the household, I can't say much about such national affairs. I can only secretly order people to continue searching for the prince's whereabouts."

"The Grand Offering?"

Yu Xian had long heard of this Grand Offering, who was the chief of the mansion's offering institute and lived in Building No. 1. However, he had never seen him before. It was said that he always stayed by the side of the Prince day and night.

But from Chen Xiao's words, he learned that it was this Grand Offering who summoned a water wall to block his fatal blow and used a water arrow to injure him, but the power was disappointing, only a low-level Qi Refining cultivator.

This was also the reason why Yu Xian confirmed that the mansion had a cultivator lineage.

The princess nodded, "The Grand Offering is the person the prince trusts the most, with great strength, but he never reveals his true face. Even I have only encountered him a few times."

Yu Xian secretly pondered.

Was the Prince really informed of something and faked his death to escape, or did the Lin family cultivators' assassination methods prove too powerful, leaving no trace of the Prince's body? Both possibilities were possible.

Fortunately, regardless of which situation it was, the Lin family cultivators had already achieved their goal.

Now, the chaos in Changning County was visible to the naked eye.

Everyone was vying for the power vacuum left by the Prince's death, and even the princess felt threatened. She was so desperate that she entrusted her life and fortune to him.

In this situation, the Lin family cultivators would definitely not waste another mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator to keep an eye on the Prince's mansion.

"I understand, please rest assured, Your Majesty. With me here, the Wang Mansion will not fall into chaos."

Yu Xian smiled gently at Yu Lan.

"Yu Lan, you haven't seen Your Majesty for months, so please accompany her more."

Yu Xian took his leave.

In the instant he turned around, there was a hint of killing intent in his eyes.

He always followed his heart when he should, and was strong when he needed to be.

Originally, he had planned to take his time and seize power in the Wang Mansion. But now that the Queen Consort had handed him the knife, he didn't need to be polite anymore.

...

The coffin of the Duke of Fu was quickly buried in the royal tomb.

On the day of the burial, the whole city sent off the funeral procession, which stretched for dozens of miles. The air was filled with white paper money that lingered for a long time, like the first snow of the year.

This was not because the Duke of Fu was loved by the people.

It was because the government issued a notice that every household had to send someone to the funeral, and there were constables and inspectors supervising. So the whole city, in a grand manner, gave the Duke of Fu a glorious funeral.

In the blink of an eye, ten days had passed.

The front hall and courtyard of the Wang Mansion.

Yu Xian calmly sat on a grand chair, playing with a red wine gourd in his hand. Inside was a medicinal wine newly prepared by Huang Daifu for him, but its effect was not as good as before.

Now he had reached the eighth level of Qi Refining, nurtured day and night by abundant spiritual power, and his physical fitness was comparable to that of an innate martial artist.

Even without using spiritual power, his physical body alone could be considered invincible.

With such a body, dealing with Yu Lan alone was more than enough, and his cultivation had therefore become increasingly profound.

However, even if it was enough, it still needed to be replenished.

Yu Xian took a sip of the medicinal wine, and as the medicinal power spread in his stomach, a faint aftertaste emerged in his mouth.

In front of him stood the Wang Mansion's guard team, consisting of over a hundred people divided into three squads. They all had a strong temperament and were highly skilled in martial arts.

They were all dressed in light armor and equipped with standard military weapons. The squad leaders were peak postnatal martial artists, only one step away from being innate grandmasters.

Of course, many people could never take that step in their lifetime.

Each team here could hold off an ordinary martial arts master, and could be considered pseudo-innate.

If it weren't for Chen Xiao's ruthless poison technique, which happened to restrain their joint attack, coupled with a sudden ambush, even the main gate of the Wang Mansion would not be easy to breach.

In addition to that, there were many other attendants in the ancestral hall.

But at this moment, they were all standing while Yu Xian sat there calmly, as if he were the master of the house. This immediately caused some dissatisfaction among the attendants.

"Didn't the Queen Consort call us here? Why are you sitting up there, Yu Attendant?"

"Yu Gongfeng, do not forget your identity."

"Yu Gongfeng, please do not overstep."

Everyone here is a Gongfeng. Although I am one level lower, we do not have a superior-subordinate relationship. There is no hierarchy. However, Yu Xian's attitude makes them feel like servants.

Yu Xian smiled and said gently, "Let everyone know that I have been entrusted by the Madam and I am now in charge of the internal affairs of the Wang Mansion. This means that all the affairs of the Wang Mansion, including all of you, are under my jurisdiction."

"Today, I have invited you all here in the name of the Madam to ask for your help with something."

"I see. I wonder, Yu Gongfeng, or rather, Yu Supervisor, what do you want us to do?"

The speaker was a young gentleman with peach blossom eyes, very handsome. It was only halfway through spring, and he still had his cotton coat on while holding a folding fan.

His name was Xia Zhu, the young master of the wealthy Xia family in the city. He was accepted as a Gongfeng by the Wang Mansion because of his exceptional painting skills.

Although his family was wealthy, he became a Gongfeng in order to gain fame through the Wang Mansion.

Everyone knew that the Gongfeng Academy of the Wang Mansion only accepted those with top-notch skills, so he became a Gongfeng, equivalent to a golden signboard.

Now he was already famous throughout the entire Changning County, and he didn't care about having the identity of a Gongfeng anymore. He spoke without much restraint.

Yu Xian calmly said, "I believe you all know that the Lord was assassinated not long ago. I accidentally found out that the death of the Lord was related to a spy among us."

It was because of him leaking the Lord's whereabouts that the Lord encountered difficulties.

I would like to ask for everyone's help in identifying and capturing him."

When it came to the assassination of the Lord, everyone held their breath and dared not say much, afraid of being labeled as a spy.

"I wonder how Supervisor Yu plans to investigate?"

It was Xia Zhu who asked the question.

At his age, he cared most about his reputation. He had just answered a question earlier, and if he was too scared to speak now, he didn't know how others would laugh at him in the future.

Upon hearing this, Yu Xian shook his wine gourd in distress and said, "I haven't figured out how to investigate yet, that's why I asked everyone to wait."

"What?!"

The crowd immediately erupted in an uproar.

"Is Supervisor Yu making fun of us? You tell us there is a spy among us, but you don't know how to investigate?"

"Are you saying that if you can't come up with a plan in a day, we have to stand here and wait for you?"

A hot-tempered Gongfeng bid farewell with a cupped fist.

"Supervisor Yu, I have urgent matters at home, so I won't play along with your joke."

He was Yan Hongfei, the head of the Yan family's martial arts hall. He had reached the peak of martial arts and had many disciples and followers in Changning City. He had also worked as an instructor in the city's defense camp for a while.

He turned around and was about to leave.

"If you leave, I will assume that you are guilty."

Yu Xian knocked on the handle of the Grand Tutor's chair, his voice calm and unhurried, but it sent a chill down people's spines.

Yan Hongfei stopped in his tracks, turned to look at Yu Xian, and suppressed his anger as he said, "Supervisor Yu, what exactly do you want?"

Yu Xian sighed and said, "Why are you so impatient? Alright, alright, let's find a compromise."

He flicked his finger, and a small black pill shot through the air, stopping right in front of Yan Hongfei.

"This is the Seven-Day Death Pill. Once taken, if there is no antidote within seven days, the intestines will rot and the person will die."

"If it is determined that Minister Yan is innocent, naturally, I will give you the antidote."

There were not many poison recipes in the Poison Manual that could deal with cultivators, but there were plenty of methods to deal with ordinary martial artists.

Some of these poisons were said to be able to incapacitate even peak experts at the Great Perfection of the Innate Realm.

The reason they were said to be able to do so was that even the cultivator who wrote the Poison Manual had never seen a martial artist at the Great Perfection of the Innate Realm.

This Seven-Day Death Pill was originally called the Blood-Feeding Gu in the Poison Manual. It was an extremely small venomous insect known as the Blood-Feeding Worm, which fed on blood. After special refinement, it could become a gu worm that specifically devoured the flesh and blood of martial artists.

Yu Xian obtained it through Doctor Huang.

Although Doctor Huang appeared very obedient and fearful in front of Yu Xian, he had the title of a strange doctor outside the royal palace and loved to conduct medical experiments on some strange and rare patients.

Because his treatment plans always went against the norm, patients would say that they would die if he said they would die. Only those patients who had no other options would dare to take a chance with him.

Even so, he still managed to get into trouble.

After all, before a person died, their family would say, "Doctor, do whatever you want. If you can't cure them, I'll accept it." But once the person died, it would become, "You quack doctor, you owe me a life."

However, since Doctor Huang joined the royal palace, such troubles had been mostly eliminated.

Returning to the topic, because he had seen too many strange and rare illnesses, he had accumulated many strange and rare things.

This Blood-Feeding Worm was one of them.

Cultivators lacked spiritual awareness before it was formed, so they were not adept at dealing with gu worms hidden within their bodies. Even if an innate martial artist took the Blood-Feeding Gu, they would become weak day by day until their flesh and blood were completely consumed.

However, by taking a special medicine, the activity of the Blood-Feeding Gu could be suppressed.

Faced with the Seven-Day Death Pill, Yan Hongfei laughed.

"Supervisor Yu, I consider myself upright and righteous. Even until now, Chief Detective Zhou has not come to a conclusion regarding the death of the Prince. Yet, you are forcing me to take this ridiculous reason and consume a poisonous pill. You are being too overbearing!"

"I won't take the poison pill, but I will leave. If Supervisor Yu truly believes that I am a spy, then take my head and report to the Princess!"

Yan Hongfei turned and walked away.

But just as he took a few steps, he heard a sharp wind breaking sound behind his ears.

Before he could react, his feet suddenly felt a pain, and he fell forward, kneeling down. Due to the intense pain, large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, but he gritted his teeth and refused to make a sound.

With bloodshot eyes, he first looked at Yu Xian, who hadn't even lifted his butt, and then at the middle-aged swordsman who had attacked him, his eyes filled with disbelief.

(End of this chapter)