Chapter 158: Fleeing Swiftly

Li Daoye's face turned grave. "Are you suggesting... that the Grand Xia Emperor was the one who was in cahoots with the Spirit Blood Sect?"

"Xiao Shence was acting out a play until his death. Truly a foolishly loyal idiot," muttered Fang Che. He took a deep breath, faint anger surging in his eyes. "Now that I think about it, Xia Yu wasn’t qualified enough to make Xiao Shence completely loyal to him like that. He was the emperor's confidant, after all."

"What about the others?" Li Daoye was astonished. He hadn't expected that these ordinary mortals could be so scheming that they had so many tricks up their sleeves. They had even easily deceived him, a cultivator. He never one bit questioned Xiao Shence's actions, much less suspected him of anything.

"The others?” Fang Chen shook his head with a sneer. “They are no longer important, but I do suspect they had thought of themselves to be the crown prince's men," he said. "Xia Yu probably thought the same, believing that by winning over a group of confidants, he could use the Spirit Blood Sect to become the emperor when the time came, leading Grand Xia to its peak and becoming an emperor whose name and reputation resound for an eternity.

"But he never bothered to stop and consider if the Spirit Blood Sect was an existence he could make use of for his own gain, nor did he consider whether his father was aware of their existence or not.” Fang Chen's eyes were deep. “As for me, it was only after Tao Yu's reminder that I began to seriously think it over. When the Spirit Blood Sect came to Grand Xia, what reason did they have not to contact the Grand Xia Emperor first? Why would they choose to go to a prince who held little real power?

"My uncle’s plans run deep. He’s a ruthless man and a great emperor. He would do anything in his power to achieve his goals. When necessary, he wouldn't hesitate to use even his own flesh and blood as a shield, or throw them as he would a talisman for a chance at survival. He was well aware how big the move by the Spirit Blood Sect would be from the very beginning, and he needed an escape plan to lean on if things went haywire. That’s why, his escape plan was precisely how everything had played out. He never really got involved. He instead let Xia Yu lead the play while he watched from behind the scenes,” concluded Fang Chen. “How ironic. Even until his own death, Xia Yu probably never realized the truth."

Li Daoye couldn't hold it anymore and roared with rage, "Isn’t this guy too heartless? Grand Xia was his to begin with, yet he allied with the Spirit Blood Sect and let them use it as their pill furnace!”

Fang Chen didn’t say anything further and closed his eyes. His divine soul instantly arrived above the imperial palace.

In the past few days, the people in the imperial palace had their hands full due to the abdication of the Grand Xia Emperor.

The palace maids and eunuchs were busy, and the entire court, both civil and military, was constantly moving back and forth. The Imperial Guards were also more vigilant than usual.

Fang Chen chanced on Consort Hua, whose face was blank, and her eyes still dazed. He then saw a group of concubines excitedly discussing matters related to the heir in the rear garden. He also saw several of the princes, each receiving their own, different supporters. However, there was no trace of the Grand Xia Emperor, nor of his aunt!

"He’s not in the palace?" Fang Chen frowned. With a thought, his divine soul took to the skies and arrived in many other places one after the others. The emperor's residence outside the city, the hunting grounds, and many more. However, there was still no trace of the Grand Xia Emperor anywhere.

"He couldn't have escaped out of the blue. He didn’t have a reason to, at least yet. If he had sensed anything, it would have been when Tao Yu entered my residence.” Fang Chen's eyes were serious. “But that was just a while ago, he couldn’t have taken my aunt and left in such a short time."

For an entire hour, Fang Chen’s divine soul traversed the capital city and searched it inch by inch, but there was still no sign of the emperor and his aunt. They seemed to have vanished into thin air within the vast expanse of land!

Gradually, impatience welled up in Fang Chen's heart. He didn't care about the life or death of the Grand Xia Emperor, as that cheap uncle of his held little weight in his heart. However, Fang Cangyue was his aunt, his close relative!

Before Fang Cangyue had gone off to marry the emperor and live in the imperial palace, she had always doted on him! This bond had remained unchanged throughout his childhood and into his adulthood.

"If only I had seen through this earlier, my aunt wouldn't have been placed in danger.” Fang Chen’s eyes were bloodshot. He was filled with anger and self-blame. “Xia Xuanji, if you dare to harm a single hair on my aunt's head, I'll turn the world upside down and hunt you to the ends of the earth!"

Despite all his calculations, he had failed to include Xia Xuanji as a variable, as the latter's disguise over the years proved too clever.

His divine soul instantly flew out of the capital city, circling in a methodical pattern within a radius of several miles. When he finally felt fatigued, his divine soul returned to his physical body. Despite looking through a huge area, he still wasn’t able to find any traces of the two.

"To be able to escape the capital city in such a short time while bringing someone else along with him... Xia Xuanji must have already become a cultivator. Either that or his martial cultivation had reached a realm out of my expectations,” muttered Fang Chen.

Li Daoye couldn’t hear what Fang Chen had said under his breath, but he was able to pick up on the word “escape,” which left him surprised. "Who escaped?"

"The Grand Xia Emperor," answered Fang Chen with a cold snort. He got up and hurriedly left the room. Li Daoye quickly followed suit.

Before long, the Valiant Saber Guards within the capital were mobilized to conduct a thorough search of the city. Fang Chen wasn’t going to take any chances. Perhaps Xia Xuanji had employed some kind of illusion technique and was still hiding within the capital somewhere.

This search knew no limits; it started from barging into the residences of the officials, then to storming into the manors of the ministers. It didn’t matter how much the minister’s families scolded them, the Valiant Saber Guards carried Fang Chen’s orders unswayed. Many officials tried to bribe a few of the guards to tip them off about what was happening, but those attempts proved to be futile—as the guards themselves hadn’t had a clue of what they were searching for.

The news quickly reached the palace.

Coincidentally, all the ministers were present at the time, as was the fifth prince. When they caught wind of the news, shock crept up their faces.

His brow furrowed, Li Guozhu slowly looked over at Jiang Yushu and the fifth prince. "What do you think about this? His Majesty has just abdicated, yet Duke Fang jumped to take such a drastic action. Could it be an attempt to influence the heir’s selection?"

"Do not come to baseless conclusions." Jiang Yushu stroked his beard and smiled lightly. "There must be a reason behind Duke Fang's actions. It's possible that he might have discovered that there were still people of the Spirit Blood Sect hiding and wished to into the light."

The others collectively took a sharp breath, immediately falling silent. However, not long after, they heard someone calling out Fang Chen's name outside. Soon after, Fang Chen entered the hall with Li Daoye, and the officials quickly rose to greet them.

"Duke Fang, all the officials are here," said Eunuch You with a greasy smile.

"Hmm." Fang Chen nodded slightly, then shifted his gaze to Tao Mingsheng, Ye Dongming, Li Guozhu, and the others. His stare made everyone suddenly on edge.

The fifth prince was the first to open his mouth. "We’ve heard that you’ve sent the Valiant Saber Guards out on a search in the entire capital city. They are even searching the manors of the officials. Are you looking for any remaining cultivators from the Spirit Blood Sect?"

"It's nothing, just double-checking for extra peace of mind."

Peace of mind?

So that's it.

The others heaved a sigh of relief.

When Fang Chen saw that, he chuckled and changed the topic. "Have you all considered who should be the heir to the throne?"

Li Guozhu contemplated for a moment and said, "Normally speaking, since the crown prince has died, the second prince should be the one to take the throne; however, he is too young. The third prince would’ve taken his place if he were here; unfortunately, he died in the Qingsong Empire in an expected turn of events, and—"

Fang Chen interrupted Li Guozhu. “Did His Majesty specify which prince should succeed him?"

"Well..." Li Guozhu paused for a moment and then shook his head slightly. "His Majesty hasn’t summoned us in the past few days, but he mentioned before that we should decide amongst ourselves.”

"If that's the case, take your time and think it over. I'll go see His Majesty," said Fang Chen as he turned away from them and left with Li Daoye toward the residence of the Grand Xia Emperor.