The stolen magic is a bit magical

Upon entering the Prince's residence, the head guard greeted them, while outside the guest room on the other side, the deputy head guard led several people, their eyes filled with fear.

This man's name is Guo Da, and he has a heavy burden on his shoulders tonight.

He was responsible for guarding this guest room because the notorious criminal "Blood Dragon," who had been exchanged from the Heavenly Prison, was inside. This was irrefutable evidence of the Seventh Prince's crimes. As long as Song Lifu convicted him, he could break into the guest room, apprehend the criminal, and implicate the Seventh Prince.

But what's going on over there?

Song Lifu failed!
The Seventh Prince also returned with a beaming smile!

The Seventh Prince spoke up: "Li Gen!"

The head guard bowed and said, "Present!"

"A secret order has come from the Ministry of Justice: Guo Da and seventeen of his men are suspected of three major crimes. Lord Song has personally come to the Prince's residence to oversee this matter. The Prince's residence will not tolerate any wrongdoing, not even my personal attendants. We must fully cooperate in the arrest!"

The head of the guards' expression changed drastically; he could hardly believe his ears.

Guo Da, have you gotten into trouble?

"implement!"

"Yes!" The head guard waved his hand, and a group of men surrounded the guest room.

Guo Da's expression changed drastically: "Lord Li, what's going on...?"

The door opened, and the person inside, who resembled "Blood Dragon," removed his mask, revealing his true face. But where was the Blood Dragon? Every inch of him was Song Lifu's chief bodyguard. He stretched out his hand, revealing a bronze token in his grasp—a genuine arrest warrant from the Ministry of Justice!

"Guo Da, you've been caught!"

Guo Da's face was as pale as paper. His ominous premonition had come true. Tonight was a special operation launched by the Crown Prince against the Seventh Prince and Song Lifu. Everything was going according to the original plan, but in the end, it went astray.

It wasn't Song Lifu who was purged from the court, nor the Seventh Prince who was caught in the vortex, but rather Sun Chong who was directly beaten to death, and Guo Da, the Crown Prince's mole planted beside the Seventh Prince, along with the seventeen people under his control, were all eliminated.

An ordinary person might have cried out that they were wronged, but Guo Da did not.

He knew he had done something wrong, and that reasoning with him wouldn't work.

If the Ministry of Justice wants to prosecute you, it can naturally fabricate charges against you.

However, whether the Crown Prince agrees or not depends on whether he can truly win him over!

Therefore, he wasn't in a particular hurry.

Take it away quietly...

The wind blows, and the trees sway in the wind.

In the study, the two bigwigs sat facing each other.

No one served them, because they had business to discuss.

Song Lifu let out a soft breath: "Your Highness, today's events were extremely dangerous!"

"Indeed!" The Seventh Prince also let out a long sigh: "If it weren't for his reminder, the two of us might have really fallen into their trap!"

The matter of exchanging prisoners is no small thing.

Under normal circumstances, no one would choose to do something so dangerous.

But isn't there no other way?
Blood Dragon absolutely cannot die; this is the Seventh Prince's bottom line.

So no matter how difficult it is, he has to get it done!
He Yun from Xin Ge took the initiative to offer a plan and negotiated a deal with the Seventh Prince. In return, Xin Ge cooperated with the operation, and the Ministry of Justice released their three captured individuals.

The seventh prince believed him precisely because it was a transaction.

When it comes to prisoner exchanges, if other departments are involved, it's difficult to avoid the Ministry of Justice's review process. However, if the Minister of Justice personally handles the process, it can be done without any mistakes.

These were the thoughts in the Seventh Prince's mind as he stepped out of He Yun's pavilion.

However, Li Chengnian dealt him a heavy blow. As soon as Li Chengnian pointed out the absolutely secret plan of exchanging prisoners, he declared that the prisoner exchange was impossible.

But as soon as he turned around, Li Chengnian gave him an idea: a fake prisoner swap!
With just three words, the Seventh Prince and the Minister of Justice had to comply.

This strategy is both offensive and defensive, and has no negative consequences.

Sure enough, the fake prisoner swap happened...

Sun Chong immediately noticed that the atmosphere inside the Dingbei Prince's mansion, where His Majesty had come to the imperial prison overnight, was also strange.

Finally, the matter was settled. Sun Chong went offline, the traitor in the Prince of Dingbei's mansion was eliminated, and there were signs that no matter how the Ministry of Justice judged Guo Da and the other eighteen people, the Crown Prince would not dare to bail them out because he had made a mistake first and lacked confidence.

What was originally a losing proposition turned into a winning one for them, and they reaped substantial profits.

Therefore, the two bigwigs felt it necessary to review the situation and talk about the person who came up with the idea.

"Your Highness, why not actually get to know this person?" Song Lifu suggested.

The Seventh Prince brought the teacup to his lips, then stopped, his eyes flashing slightly: "What does Lord Song think this person's intentions are?"

"Aside from creating conditions for Your Highness's use, I see no other intention."

The Seventh Prince chuckled softly: "I am the prince in the worst position among all the princes, so why would he be willing to serve me?"

"It is precisely because Your Highness has no one else to rely on that we should not miss out on such a person!"

"Then shall I invite him to come and see me tomorrow?"

Song Lifu nodded slightly.

"Lord Song, you might as well be here as well, so that I may take a look with your discerning eye."

Song Lifu smiled: "His plan today not only resolved Your Highness's predicament, but also my own deadly situation. For both reason and duty, I must thank him in person."

"Then it's settled. Tomorrow... no, today at noon, at the Mandarin Duck Tower!" Inside the Heart Pavilion.

Next to Lin Xiaosu's attic.

He Yun had just woken up from his sleep when he heard Gray Curse's report...

The prisoner exchange took place last night.

The entire process unfolded exactly as the steward had arranged, but the outcome took a different turn. Song Lifu made a show of "changing prisoners," but didn't actually do it. The whole thing was a complete farce, with the Crown Prince personally making arrangements, the Prime Minister and the Left Grand Master making a big fuss, and His Majesty immediately summoning the prisoners to the Imperial Prison, only to have it all turn into a farce...

He Yun's expression suddenly changed: "What was the result?"

"As a result, Sun Chong was beaten to death on the spot, the eighteen people the Crown Prince had placed in the Seventh Prince's residence were eliminated, the Prime Minister was humiliated, and the Crown Prince was sweating profusely, fearing that His Majesty's wrath would fall on him."

He Yun's forehead was also covered in sweat: "Why...why is this happening?"

Gray Curse said, "There are indications that the Seventh Prince and Minister of Justice Song Lifu made thorough preparations, and even Blood Dragon made thorough preparations. Blood Dragon intentionally showed off his injuries in front of His Majesty, proclaiming his loyalty and filial piety, and satirizing His Majesty for being heartless and ruthless, which made His Majesty angry and furious."

He Yun slowly raised his hand.

The sound of the gray curse stopped abruptly.

He Yun gazed quietly out the window, his chest rising and falling gently, his eyes flickering uncertainly.

"Sir, do you still think there was no problem with the Seventh Prince being intercepted by Qingying that day?" Gray Curse added.

He Yun suddenly stood up, stepped out of his own pavilion, and then went to the outside of Lin Xiaosu's pavilion. Judging from his furious posture, he was about to kick down Lin Xiaosu's courtyard gate and ask her what she had said when she intercepted the Seventh Prince that day.

However, just as he raised his leg to kick, a sound entered his ears.

He Yun stopped!
The next moment, he left the attic area, entered a cave, and went downhill.

Inside the cave, a middle-aged man stood quietly where a sliver of sunlight streamed in. He was thin, with a short beard and a refined appearance. Even in the cave, he possessed the ease of a great scholar standing by a lake.

He is He Fanglue, the true leader of Xin Ge, also known as the legendary Dark Pavilion Master.

“Father!” He Yun bowed.

He Fanglue slowly turned around: "What do you want to do in Li Chengnian's pavilion?"

Although he did not leave the cave, he knew everything that happened inside as if it were the lines on the palm of his hand.

He Yun said bitterly, "I want to find out whether he leaked the plan to switch prisoners to the Seventh Prince."

How do you plan to ask him?

He Yun was speechless...

Yes, there's no way to ask about that.

It's all empty talk.

The suggestion to exchange prisoners was made by He Yun to the Seventh Prince; Li Chengnian was unaware of it.

If the prisoner exchange had gone smoothly, it would have been a great achievement in the Heart Pavilion, and it would have been worth mentioning and even asking the Crown Prince for credit. However, the plan failed!
For any failed endeavor, the planner becomes a stain on their record.

He Yun is the illegitimate son of the master of Xin Ge Pavilion, and also someone he has been cultivating with great effort.

He should be the one to receive the rewards for successful projects, but the stain of failed planning should not be pinned on him.

This is the key reason why this well-intentioned father quickly stopped He Yun when he was about to confront Li Chengnian: he didn't want the persona He Yun had painstakingly cultivated in Xin Pavilion to be ruined.

He Yun wasn't stupid. He had just lost his temper and acted rashly. After hearing his father's question, he calmed down and realized that his father's intervention was the right thing to do.

He took a deep breath: "Father, this matter must be related to him! He must have leaked the secret when he stopped the Seventh Prince that day."

He Fanglue said, "He himself was unaware of this plan, and I am also basically certain that no one in the upper echelons of the organization passed on this plan to him, so how could it have been leaked?"

Yes, the prerequisite for leaking information is that you must be an insider!
If you don't even know, how can you leak it?
He Yun frowned: "Father, do you mean that he accurately grasped the Seventh Prince's motives based solely on the clue of the Seventh Prince's visit, and even analyzed the idea I gave him, and then gave the Seventh Prince another, even more insidious idea?"

He Fanglue slowly raised his gaze: "Although Li Chengnian can be considered a wise man, his intelligence is not up to this level! The matter is indeed somewhat strange."

"What's the next step?" He Yun asked.

He Fanglue said, "To determine whether he has given advice to the Seventh Prince, we only need to focus on one key point: keep a close eye on him and see if His Highness the Seventh Prince will contact him again!"

He Yun's eyes lit up...

If, just if...

If Li Chengnian truly saw through the Seventh Prince's intentions in entering the Heart Pavilion, and saw through the idea he had given the Seventh Prince, and then casually devised such a vicious "counter-plan," how could the Seventh Prince possibly bear not to contact him?

It should be understood that the Seventh Prince in front of us has neither manpower nor power, and he will cling to any straw. He is unwilling to give up anyone who is in the Heart Pavilion and can be used by him.

He would definitely send someone to contact Li Chengnian.

He Yun nodded slowly: "Father is absolutely right! I will cooperate with Yan Shi. No matter how secretive the Seventh Prince's communications are, I will..."

Suddenly, He Fang raised his hand slightly.

He Yun's voice abruptly stopped.

"Li Gen has gone up the mountain!"

He Yun's heart skipped a beat.

Li Gen, the head of the guards of the Seventh Prince.

What brings you to Xin Pavilion?
Surely they wouldn't have directly invited Li Chengnian, would they?

He Fanglue used his primordial spirit as his eyes to observe from all angles... (End of Chapter)