Siheyuan: tomb robbing? I am serious about hunting.

Chapter 1003 I'm afraid

Shen Yanzhi pointed at the files at the center of the formation. "Look for yourself." He pulled out the most crucial pages—Li Song's false confession, the abortion prescription from the Imperial Hospital, the translation of the Beidi secret letter, and Liu Laoli's testimony. "These are all evidence proving your innocence. Prince Rui colluded with the Beidi to replace the royal bloodline with a fake crown prince. You simply discovered their plot." The Ghost King's spear suddenly trembled violently, and the evil spirits entangled in the spear shaft screamed. He slowly bent down, his black armor rubbing against each other with a harsh sound. His fingertips hovered above the files, but he hesitated to let go, as if afraid of disturbing something. When his fingertips touched the bloodstains on Li Song's confession, the entire county government office suddenly shook violently, and the cries of countless wronged souls rose from the black fog. "This is..." The Ghost King's voice trembled with disbelief. He seized the confession, his eyes from beneath his helmet fixed on a bloody fingerprint in the corner—a small fingerprint with a crescent-shaped notch at the knuckle, identical to the jade ring worn by Madam Qin Yue in the illustrations of "Records of the Netherworld." Suddenly, the black armor cracked, and a fissure appeared at the shoulder. Black energy gushed out, converging in mid-air into the shape of a woman. She wore a light blue kilt, a silver hairpin tucked into her bun. It was none other than Qin Yue's wife, Su. The shadowy figure held the confession in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. Her fingertips repeatedly stroked the bloody fingerprint, tears dripping onto the page, casting a faint golden glow. "This is my wife's bloody fingerprint!" The Ghost King's spear clanged to the ground. He reached out to touch Su's shadowy figure, but his fingertips pierced straight through her shoulder. The wailing in the black fog intensified. The controlled walking corpses suddenly fell to their knees and kowtowed toward the county government office, as if in worship. Shen Yanzhi observed this scene and suddenly understood. When Qin Yue was arrested, Su had secretly sneaked into the prison and stamped her confession with a blood seal, hoping to overturn the verdict later. However, Prince Rui discovered this and not only falsified the confession, but also secretly executed Su. This blood-stamped confession became the couple's only connection. "I have investigated your injustice." Shen Yanzhi threw the file into the air and lit a tinderbox. The flames licked the paper but did not burn it. Instead, the words on it emerged in the flames, turning into a flowing picture: Prince Rui met with the Beidi envoy in a secret room, the people from the Imperial Hospital brought the baby into the palace, and Li Song signed under coercion... "Prince Rui replaced the Queen's child with the baby of the Beidi royal family, and was afraid that you would discover the truth, so he set a trap for collaborating with the enemy." Shen Yanzhi pointed at the baby in the picture, "The lotus birthmark on the child's waist is the best proof." Qin Yue suddenly roared in the firelight, the cracks on his black armor grew bigger and bigger, and the long spear condensed from black air pointed straight to the sky: "I will kill them!" "But you have harmed so many innocent people now, how is you different from the people who harmed you back then?" Shen Yanzhi's voice echoed in the county government office. He pointed at the walking corpses kneeling on the ground and said, "We have to go to the capital immediately. The prince's illness is our chance." "It was already late at night when we arrived in the capital. Shen Yanzhi did not go to the inn, but went directly to the willow tree at the foot of the imperial city - this was the entrance to the secret passage that Liu Laoli mentioned, hidden in the tree hole of an old locust tree. There was a movable stone slab deep in the tree hole, which revealed steep stone steps when it was lifted up. There was a perpetual lamp embedded in the wall of the steps every few feet, and the cinnabar mixed in the lamp oil made the flame glow with a faint red light. "This was the secret line left by the Zhenbei Army in the capital back then." Qin Yue's shadow floated out of the jade pendant, looking at the military emblem engraved beside the stone steps, "I sent three hundred personal soldiers to garrison the capital back then, just in case someone in the court caused chaos." There was regret in his voice, "I didn't expect that in the end there would be only these secret passages left. "The end of the secret passage is connected to the woodshed of the East Palace. When Shen Yanzhi pushed open the secret door, he heard footsteps outside. He quickly hid behind the firewood pile and saw two young eunuchs carrying medicine jars walking by. One of them whispered, "The master said that the prince must finish drinking the medicine tonight, otherwise it will be too late." The other sighed, "How pitiful, he is only twenty years old..." After the footsteps faded away, Shen Yanzhi quietly walked out of the woodshed. There are many magnolia trees planted in the courtyard of the East Palace, but at this moment the petals are a strange blue-black color, as if they have been soaked in yin energy. The window paper of the main room was dimly lit, and vaguely visible figures swaying inside, mixed with intermittent coughs. "That is the prince's bedroom." Shen Yanzhi pointed to the main room and said to Qin Yue's shadow, "Stay in the jade pendant and don't come out. Wait for my signal. "He took out a set of eunuch's clothes from his arms - this was prepared in advance by Liu Laoli, with a small "medicine" embroidered on the cuffs, and it was only worn by the menial eunuchs of the Imperial Hospital. When he sneaked into the bedroom, the smell of medicine almost condensed into substance. The prince was lying on the bed covered with a bright yellow brocade quilt, his face as purple as an old jade, his lips cracked and chapped, and every time he coughed, his chest heaved violently, as if something was stirring inside. There were three black incense sticks in the incense burner in front of the bed, and the smoke swirled into the prince's nostrils, making his brows frown even tighter. A sorcerer in a Taoist robe stood by the bed, holding a peach wood sword and performing a ritual around the bed curtain. His Taoist robe was embroidered with the Big Dipper, but the sword tassel in his hand was black, completely different from the red sword tassels of ordinary Taoists. Shen Yanzhi noticed the jade pendant on his waist - it was a wolf tooth pendant from the Northern Di, with blood still stained on the tip of the tooth. "Not okay yet? "The sorcerer suddenly spoke, his voice was somewhat similar to that of the fortune teller he met at the post station, but even more gloomy. The imperial physician standing by hurriedly bowed: "Reporting to you, sir, the prince's pulse is getting weaker and weaker, I'm afraid..." The sorcerer snorted coldly: "Waste! If it weren't for the order from King Rui, you imperial physicians would have been buried with him." Shen Yanzhi quietly went behind the screen and observed the sorcerer's movements with the reflection of the bronze mirror. He found that every time the other party recited a spell, a small lump would bulge on the prince's lower back, as if there was a living thing swimming under the flesh. When the black incense in the incense burner burned, the smoke condensed into a vague black shadow above the prince's head. The outline of the black shadow was somewhat similar to Qin Yue's phantom. At this moment, the jade pendant in the brocade box suddenly vibrated violently. Shen Yanzhi knew that the time had come. He deliberately knocked over the medicine jar next to the screen, and the crisp "clang" sound was particularly harsh in the silent bedroom. "Who? The sorcerer spun around abruptly, his peachwood sword pointed toward the screen. Shen Yanzhi seized the opportunity to dash out, his peachwood sword piercing the sorcerer's wrist with a powerful gust of wind. The other reacted incredibly quickly, dodging sideways while simultaneously releasing a black talisman. Shen Yanzhi was prepared, slinging out sticky rice with his left hand. The rice instantly ignited with golden light upon hitting the black talisman, burning the talisman to ashes. "It's you!" The sorcerer saw Shen Yanzhi's face clearly and suddenly recognized him as the "scholar" he had met at the post station. Just as his attention was distracted, the jade pendant in the brocade box flew out, and a green light condensed into the shadow of Qin Yue in the air: "Liu Que! How dare you, traitor, show up!"