Mother and child together? It really was a mother-child relationship... Qi Mingyue raised his lips into a sneer. It was a good idea to use this method to save her life. It seemed that she was really frightened about the saying of the alien star. Perhaps, as early as that day, she had grown fearful of the word 'mother' and because of that fear, she did such a thing under the instigation of Han Ziqi.
"Even Ying Ran can't resolve this?" Qi Mingyue asked with a smile, appearing uncaring about the poison in his body.
After hesitating for a while, she replied, "There are a few kinds of mental methods in the world that can suppress the child gu. While you can temporarily break away from the control of the mother gu, it is not easy to completely remove it. The particular thing about Lianxin gu is that if the mother gu's host is injured, the child gu would be implicated. Once the mother gu dies, the child gu would also explode and the person hosting it would die from ulceration and internal bleeding."
her?"
Ying Ran nodded helplessly and delt anxious inside, "However, as far as I know, Heart gu is not easy to take, both the parties consume an ingredient that can guide gu. Only then would the gu work effectively." Qi Xutian recalled something and ordered Ying Ran to take the food box on the table.
Ying Ran opened it according to his order and saw a few delicious-looking pastries in it. She looked at His Majesty, puzzled, only hear him say, "Look if there is anything unusual in those pastries."
After understanding his meaning, Ying Ran carefully broke a piece off. Firstly, she took out a silver needle to test it. Then she took out a horizontal container from her robe and poured out a strange looking poisonous insect. It had black wings and slowly squirmed its segmented body. It had crimson eyes and looked hideous. It crawled over to the pastry and then came back around, its body had morphed to show several bright red stripes - the abrupt addition of such a colour made it appear a bit more bizarre and fascinating.
Ying Ran looked at its body and put it back in the bottle, then said with a sigh of relief, "Your Majesty, who used this pastry? Fortunately, it isn't poisonous, but there is an impetus drug in it."
"You mean that it can cause harm through poisoning?" Qi Mingyue's expression immediately turned grave. He stared at the small piece of cake in her hand and murderous intent flashed past his eyes.
Although she didn't know who dared to poison His Royal Highness with gu, what she did know was that even upon hearing that he had Heart gu, His Royal Highness didn't appear as angry as he did now. Ying Ran felt surprised but still respectfully replied, "It is indeed as Your Highness said, it is poisonous but only when it reacts with another component can it cause death. This component is also the same as what Lianxin gu needs."
Qi Xutian didn't expect An Ruolan to be so bold that she would want to murder him. She had a reason to punish the child, but there was no reason for her poison him. He did not expect two poisons to have to be mixed to cause harm and continued to ask: "Which component is it?"
"Luo Tong."
The words said by Ying Ran left both Qi Xutian and Qi Mingyue stunned. Thinking about the Luotong flower cakes made by An Ruolan a few days ago, they were shocked by the depth of her plan. Did she have this idea since back then? Did she have such a deep mind to make cakes first and then poison them?
Qi Xutian pondered for a while, glanced at Qi Mingyue, and found his eyes to be the same as his own - full of disbelief. Neither of them believed that An Ruolan would have such a deep and malicious scheme planned. She wasn't a weak woman, but if she really had the patience to implement such a plan, she wouldn't have lost her temper last night. To break the poison, she just had to wait for an appropriate opportunity to deliver the poisonous pastries and wait for Qi Xutian's death. Last night's move of stirring the grass and startling the snake[1] didn't make sense, let alone the move of leaving behind the cakes without any disguise. It was simply an act of digging her own grave.
[1] Chinese idiom which means premature actions which put the enemy on guard.
Qi Mingyue face was still cold but there was a hint of happiness in his eyes, "Fortunately, Father wasn't poisoned."
Ying Ran suddenly realized that His Royal Highness was worried about His Majesty, so she smiled gently, "You don't need to worry, Your Highness. I know that His Majesty and you have taken the bead. Ordinary poisons won't work. In case His Majesty really ate the cake, it wouldn't have worked at all." As she spoke, she frowned unexpectedly and bowed her head. "It's just that Ying Ran is useless. I can't get rid of Lianxin gu for Your Highness. But please rest assured, I will find a way! I only hope that Your Highness will take good care of your body. Don't be upset or irritable, it would provoke the poison in your body and you will suffer a lot."
Qi Mingyue smiled, "Ying Ran, don't worry. I will take good care of myself and rest well. I'm still waiting to find out the person behind the scenes. What's Father's plan?" He turned to look at Qi Xutian. At the same time, both of their eyes turned dark and filled with bloodlust, which provoked their anger at the same time. It really was not easy. It wasn't known whether the culprit was ready to bear their anger.
"We don't need to touch that man first, let him think that we assumed An Ruolan to be the culprit and wait to see what he would do next. The most important thing at present is the poison in your body, I am really worried." Currently, MingEr was restrained because of her, so he couldn't thoroughly investigate this matter. He didn't want to have an accident.
"Then let's go visit Consort Mother so you can ask her clearly. I wonder if she knows that she was used by others?" Qi Mingyue said and when he mentioned the words 'Consort Mother', his tone was full of mockery and killing intent.
Ying Ran listened to him and was surprised. She didn't expect that it was Consort An who poisoned His Highness. Was it because of the matter of abnormal star? Her face also became cold. Even if His Highness was really the abnormal star, he had never hurt her. This time, she was seeking her own death.
"Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Ying Ran begs to go with you." She wanted to see what kind of an outcome a woman who wanted to gain her life with such vicious methods would get.
Qi Xutian nodded lightly and caressed Qi Mingyue's body with concern, "Is MingEr okay? Don't get angry, just listen to me."
Qi Mingyue nodded and let Qi Xutian help dress him. Ying Ran waited for them, she had grown used to it a long time ago. When His Majesty was present, it was impossible for others to dress His Highness.
When he arrived at the underground palace, Qi Mingyue, with a tinge of curiosity, looked at the place where Tan Wu, the Grandmaster, was once imprisoned. However, what he saw was an unremarkable, flat building built in a remote place. He was disappointed.
Qi Xutian chuckled, "MingEr hasn't seen what it looks like inside. You will know when you go in."
As expected, when he entered the prison, he found that there were dank, dark cells everywhere. The guards were ignoring the prisoners. They only stared at the prisoners in the cell unblinkingly, that made it so that no one could relax their mind. It was even more impossible to plot an escape. Qi Xutian saw him looking at it and explained, "If someone breaks into the prison, the guards will immediately kill the prisoners with a sword. Even if they really want to rescue someone, they will only get the body."
According to this, it seemed that all the prisoners here were mortals.
Qi Mingyue glanced at Cheif Liu and Ying Ran standing behind Qi Xutian and saw that they looked the same as usual. They were already familiar with this place. He turned his head back around and continued to hold Qi Xutian's shoulder.
Qi Xutian refused to let him down, so he had to stay in his arms. He looked at the area under his feet, and unexpectedly, found that there were some rules hidden in it. As they went through the corridors, they suddenly reached a strange place.
He saw a thick wall in front of him, it appeared that they had reached the end. He didn't know where Qi Xutian fiddled with the wall, the entirety of it fell into the ground - it doesn't go backwards, didn't rotate, instead, sank into the ground to reveal a set of stairs.
Walking down the stairs, he saw that it was similar to the palace, just underground and its scale wasn't much smaller. Unlike the elegant and calm Xuantian Palace, it was especially silent and deep here and there seemed to be a bloody ambience floating in the air. This kind of atmosphere deterred people and even the courage to speak would be lost.
"It turns out this is where the real Underground Palace is." Qi Mingyue couldn't help but admire. Few people must know that the so-called Underground Palace was actually underneath and was so huge in size.
"Yes, there are not many people in the palace who know of this place, only my cronies and the shadow guards. An Ruolan will be guarded here and that way, she will be able to avoid getting hurt by others and implicating MingEr."
He naturally understood the meaning of Father Emperor's words. An Ruolan was used by others, her ultimate objective was to remove him, the eyesore prince. And at this time, she was in danger.
And she, at the moment, was mortal.
There were no ordinary guards in the Underground Palace, there were shadow guards everywhere. Here, however, they were no longer like shadows and actually showed their faces. Their behaviours were not as rigid as usual and they appeared to have a little more spirit. They seemed to be very used to the environment here. Qi Mingyue glanced around and realized that, most probably, this place was originally a training ground for shadow guards. They grew up here and they mostly stayed here when they had no tasks.
A black figure flickered and kneeled in front of Qi Xutian, it was Shadow Two that appeared that night. "Your Majesty, Shadow Five has returned but was injured. Before fainting, he said that the person who hurt him was dressed in white, had high skill and seemed to use poison."
"Ying Ran, go have a look and see if Shadow Five has been poisoned." Qi Xutian ordered Ying Ran to follow Shadow Two.
Although Cheif Liu was the leader of Light Blades, he seemed very familiar with this place. He exchanged a few words with a man in black, returned and said, "Your Majesty, Shadow One has placed Consort An in the Scarlet Courtyard. Is Your Majesty going to interrogate?"
Thinking that Ying Ran might not return for a while, Qi Mingyue replied, "Please show the way, Chief Liu. Mingyue is really eager to see his mother and wants to ask her something."
Liu Yi knew that he did not need to wait for His Majesty's answer and began leading the way. As long as His Highness spoke, it was basically equivalent to His Majesty's words.
Under the leadership of Chief Liu, they reached the Scarlet Courtyard. The so-called Scarlet Courtyard was no different from those small courtyards where some beauties lived in the Imperial Palace, the layout was also very clean. Although there were fewer rooms, it was enough for one person and was already a great courtesy for someone who committed the crime of attempted regicide.
Qi Xutian seemed displeased, "When did I say that I would be lenient with her? Who decided this?" It seemed that the Scarlet Courtyard was too comfortable for An Ruolan to stay in, which made him dissatisfied.
Liu Yi bowed his head and replied, "Replying to my Lord, Shadow One placed her in Ying Ran's house, where there was only a simple room. He was afraid that Consort An would be upset and hurt herself, and in turn, involve His Highness. So he decided to move her to Scarlet Courtyard without permission."
After hearing Liu Yi's words, Qi Xutian's expression eased slightly, "You thought well. If it wasn't because we can't do anything to her now, I really wanted her to try the Shadow Guards' means of interrogation."
Listening to his icy tone, the means of Shadow Guards must not be something to trifle with, their methods must make people feel that it was better to die. Qi Mingyue didn't feel sympathy. He only knew that those who seek death must bear the consequences.
With the guidance of Chief Liu as well as several shadow guards on the side as retinue, they finally stepped into Scarlet Courtyard and Qi Mingyue finally saw An Ruolan.
Indus: The western equivalent of the Underground Palace is the dungeons.
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