Having many children brings many blessings; the struggle for power begins with marriage.

After thinking for a moment, the Prince of Zhennan immediately said to the guard beside him, "Go and invite the young master here."

The guard turned and left, and soon Lu Chen arrived at the courtyard where they were. Seeing a Zhengui Guard lying on the ground, trembling, Lu Chen asked, puzzled, "Father, what's this?"

The Prince of Zhennan said, "We have found a lead in the case of the massacre of the village."

Lu Chen was taken aback at first, then immediately asked, "Have you found the murderer?"

The Prince of Zhennan said, "The murderer has not yet been found, but there are survivors." As he said this, his gaze fell on the Zhengui Guard kneeling on the ground.

At this moment, the Zhengui Guard still had a look of terror on his face. He seemed to be overwhelmed with grief and his whole body was exhausted. He lay helplessly on the ground.

Seeing that he was wearing the uniform of the Zhengui Guard, Lu Chen asked, "Is he a Zhengui Guard?"

The Prince of Zhennan said, "From the Secret Treasury Bureau."

The Prince of Zhennan then said to Li Xuan, who was kneeling on the ground, "Tell the Crown Prince in detail what you saw today."

Li Xuan tried to compose himself and then said, "A few days ago, there was an incident of evil spirits massacring the village near Li Family Village. I was worried that Li Family Village would also encounter such a thing, so I brought home a magic treasure that can hide one's aura from the Secret Treasury Department, thinking that if any evil spirits or strange things appear, my family can use the magic treasure to hide."

"But to my surprise, before I even got home, I discovered a monster over ten feet tall emerging from the village. Wherever the monster went, there were corpses everywhere. The monster was incredibly fast and extremely brutal. In no time at all, it slaughtered all the villagers who had escaped from the village."

"I was so frightened that I immediately used the magic item that concealed my aura and hid behind a rock. Only after the monster left did I return to the Bureau of Demon Suppression."

Lu Chen asked, "What does that monster look like?"

Li Xuan replied, "That monster was wearing a red robe, so you couldn't see its face clearly. You could only see many tentacles extending from under its red robe. Those tentacles could easily roll up a person and bring them to its face."

"He only needs to lift his claws slightly and grab forward, and the villagers' hearts will be in his hands."

The thought of the villagers being killed made Li Xuan's body tremble again.

Many of those villagers had watched him grow up; they were all people he knew well, and his family had also died at the hands of this monster.

The thought of the terrified expressions on the faces of his relatives and friends before they died made Li Xuan clench his fists involuntarily.

At this moment, Li Xuan suddenly remembered something and continued, "By the way, when that monster left, I saw that his red robe was embroidered with a pattern of spider lilies."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen was slightly taken aback: Embroidered with the pattern of the other shore flower? Doesn't that mean that this monster was released by the Yellow Springs Cult?

Lu Chen wondered if Pei Shuhua wanted to consume blood, so she released this monster to take the hearts of mortals and send them to the palace for her to devour? But then again, as the progenitor of the strange creatures, Pei Shuhua should have high requirements for blood.

Moreover, Pei Shuhua and Yun Yudie belong to the same faction, and their ideas should be the same, so they would not be interested in ordinary people.

Those ordinary mortals don't have much vitality. Killing them and absorbing their vitality won't help their cultivation much; it's just a waste of time.

Could it be that the massacre of the village was carried out by Pei Shuhua's strange subordinates on their own initiative, and had nothing to do with Pei Shuhua?

Seeing that Lu Chen did not speak, the Prince of Zhennan said, "We thought the Empress Dowager was just sending wolf demons to eliminate dissidents, but we did not expect her to do such a heinous thing."

"Since this monster is related to the Yellow Springs Cult, it must also be connected to the Empress Dowager. Chen'er, what do you think we should do next?"

The Prince of Zhennan wanted to see how Lu Chen would handle this matter.

After pondering for a moment, Lu Chen said, "We cannot yet determine whether the Yellow Springs Cult is related to the Empress Dowager. This monster may not necessarily be related to the Empress Dowager." They believed that the Yellow Springs Cult was related to the Empress Dowager because the people killed by the wolf demon were all related to the imperial party, which indirectly determined that the Yellow Springs Cult was a force of the Empress Dowager's faction.

However, all of this is just speculation; they have no conclusive evidence to prove that the Yellow Springs Cult is a force supported by the Empress Dowager's faction.

The reason Lu Chen now suspects that the Yellow Springs Cult is not a force cultivated by Pei Shuhua is mainly because the Yellow Springs Cult's massacre of mortals is not like the strange behavior of a woman like Pei Shuhua.

However, if the Yellow Springs Cult has nothing to do with Pei Shuhua, then who is the mastermind behind the Yellow Springs Cult?
Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, the Prince of Zhennan was somewhat puzzled.

It was Lu Chen who said that the Yellow Springs Cult might be related to the Empress Dowager. How come he seems to think that the Yellow Springs Cult might not be related to the Empress Dowager now?

It seems my son is somewhat biased towards the Empress Dowager.

The Prince of Zhennan asked, "Do you think this matter has nothing to do with the Empress Dowager?"

Lu Chen said, "I think the Empress Dowager's actions were a bit too obvious."

"Take the wolf demon killing people for example. The people it killed were all families related to the imperial party. Anyone with eyes can see that this was done by the Empress Dowager's faction. They used evil spirits to massacre the imperial party. Isn't the Empress Dowager afraid of arousing public anger and provoking a counterattack from the imperial party?"

"Even though the Pei family is powerful now, the Imperial Party is not something that the Empress Dowager's faction can easily manipulate."

The Empress Dowager was, after all, a woman. Even though she had many supporters, many of them were not necessarily on her side.

Most of the Empress Dowager's faction sided with her only because of the Pei family's power.

However, many of the Empress Dowager's supporters were actually loyal to the Emperor. If she were to carry out a massacre of the Emperor's supporters, it would inevitably provoke discontent among those who were secretly part of the Empress Dowager's faction.

In other words, the Empress Dowager's faction was not truly her faction; they were merely a faction that submitted to power.

Lu Chen then continued, "Father, what do you think the Empress Dowager wanted that monster to extract people's hearts for?"

After thinking for a moment, the Prince of Zhennan replied, "Perhaps it's for cultivating some kind of evil art."

Lu Chen said, "Father, think about it again. With the power of the Pei family, is it necessary for her to send monsters to slaughter people everywhere?"

Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, the Prince of Zhennan fell into deep thought.

Lu Chen was right. If the Empress Dowager really wanted to cultivate some kind of evil art by consuming heart blood, then there was indeed no need to make such a fuss.

With the Pei family's power, it wouldn't be a difficult task for them to secretly extract people's hearts.

The Great Zhou Dynasty has no shortage of refugees. Slaughtering villagers is a thankless and laborious task, and it will only attract the attention of the Town Deity.

No matter how well it's hidden, it will always be discovered eventually.

For example, this time, he was encountered by the Zhenguiwei of the Zhengui Division.

Thinking about it this way, it's quite possible that the Yellow Springs Cult really has nothing to do with the Empress Dowager.

After thinking for a moment, the Prince of Zhennan smiled and said to Lu Chen, "Even if it has nothing to do with us, it's fine, as long as someone thinks it's related to the Empress Dowager."

Lu Chen immediately understood the Prince of Zhennan's meaning. If they ever needed to, they could pin everything on the Empress Dowager, making outsiders believe that the Empress Dowager was the mastermind behind the Yellow Springs Cult. (End of Chapter)