Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

The man was wearing a large white hooded robe, his gender indistinguishable. The brim of the hood was pulled down very low, revealing only a small section of his chin. Behind him were four black-clad guards, their positions more relaxed than the previous two groups, as if they had enough confidence in their own martial prowess.

The white figure stood at the door for a moment, his gaze falling on the black-robed figure in the corner of the underground chamber. He did not enter, but merely tilted his head slightly from a distance of three or four steps away. His voice came from under the brim of his hat, soft and steady: "Grand Preceptor Fuyuan, how have you been?"

Xi Yueli maintained her previous posture. In Fu Yuan's memory, she was the most secret messenger by the Empress's side, carrying out clandestine missions and delivering secret messages for the Empress. She never left her name, only wearing a white hood.

"Are you here to ask questions, or to see people?" Xi Yueli asked, her tone cold and distant.

Bai Ying was momentarily speechless at the rhetorical question. He took a half-step forward, his boot tip barely touching the inside of the threshold of the underground chamber, without venturing any further. His gaze swept over Xi Yueli for a moment, finally settling on the hand hanging outside her black robe.

The hand was very thin, with slightly protruding knuckles. The back of the hand was turned over, so the old scars were not visible.

Fu Yuan did indeed have an old scar on the back of his hand, left three years ago when he blocked a cold arrow at the Northern Shuo Royal Court. Bai Ying remembered that scar; he had read all the dossiers in the Empress's hands, and he knew every detail and feature of Fu Yuan by heart.

Bai Ying's gaze lingered on the undetectable hand for a moment, then she turned her head and whispered something to a guard behind her. The guard nodded, turned around, and quickly left.

"Grand Preceptor," the white-clad figure's voice came again from under the brim of his hat, "I was only ordered to check on your safety. Now that you are well, I will not disturb you any further. Her Majesty the Empress said, 'Grand Preceptor Fuyuan is an honored guest and should not be neglected.'"

He took two steps back, the hem of his white hooded robe swirling up in the moonlight before settling back down. He turned around and, with his four black-clad guards, walked slowly along the stone corridor.

The entire Ci'en Temple was once again enveloped in silence, suppressed by the array.

Xi Yueli sat alone in the corner, her slender figure wrapped in a black robe, the crescent-shaped red mark on her forehead still pulsating slightly under the hood.

She mentally reviewed all the forks and exits under the Ci'en Temple from Fu Yuan's memory, and then slowly stood up, leaning against the wall.

She approached the iron gate, reached inside the door frame and felt around. Her fingertips touched a protrusion that was slightly warmer than the surrounding stone wall. When she pressed it down, she heard a very soft "click" from inside the door frame, like some mechanism loosening.

Fu Yuan's memories told her that the mechanism of the lock was hidden inside the door frame, not the lock cylinder. It was set up by the Empress's people to prevent her from breaking the lock from the inside. However, they did not know that Fu Yuan had already figured out how to trigger the lock on the first day she was imprisoned.

She pressed the corner of the second stone brick on the left, then the center of the third stone brick on the right. A series of fine gear turning sounds came from inside the iron gate. The latch came out of the door frame, and the door panel loosened a little.

Xi Yueli did not push the door open immediately. She pulled the door panel back into place and repositioned the latch into the door frame, leaving only a hair-thick gap in the door.

The walls on both sides of the outer stone corridor are inlaid with rune stones, one every three feet, which gleam with a very faint silver cold light.

From Fu Yuan's memories, she recognized it as a "forbidden zone." As long as a stranger stepped on a specific pattern on the floor tiles, the rune would immediately emit a shrill warning.

And Fu Yuan knew all this; it must have been she who directed Helian Jing to unlock the mechanism and escape.

Thinking of this, Xi Yueli sighed inexplicably, pushed open the door, and slipped out. Her toes landed precisely on the first sunstone tile, making no sound.

The second step was to step over the Wood Star and then the Fire Star. The third step was to leap over the Water Star and then the Gold Star. Her steps were quick and light, the hem of her black robe billowing at her ankles without touching the edge of any trigger brick.

At the end of the stone corridor, around the corner, there was a hidden door. The seam between the door panel and the wall was covered with a thin layer of ash, making it look like a complete stone wall. However, Fu Yuan knew that this door existed.

Xi Yueli reached out and touched the mark. Her fingertips touched a scratch as thin as a hair. She placed her palm on it and pushed it inward three inches along the scratch, then moved it two inches to the left.

A muffled thud came from inside the stone wall, and the hidden door retreated inward by a gap about a hand's width.

Behind the door was a narrow passage, just wide enough for one person to pass sideways. At the end of the passage was an iron fence, the latch of which was simpler than the mechanism of the iron gate.

When she pulled out the bolt, the fence made a brief scraping sound. She paused, pressed herself against the stone wall, held her breath, and counted to ten. When there was no movement outside, she pulled open the fence and squeezed through.

Outside the fence was a large stone chamber. In the center of the chamber was a stone table with several scrolls of documents spread out on it, and next to it was an oil lamp that was still lit. This was the place where the night watchman would rest temporarily.

The scrolls on the stone table were open, the ink still fresh. Xi Yueli walked over and glanced at them. The scrolls contained new blueprints for the reconstruction of the underground palace, marking the locations of the newly added mechanisms between the seven stone chambers.

Xi Yueli scanned the layout on the blueprint and memorized it. Then she put the blueprint back on the table and, following the wall, found the hidden door leading to the well in the backyard.

After Xi Yueli went out through the hidden door, she stood on the muddy ground at the bottom of the well and looked up. The well opening was about three zhang high, and there were several smooth iron nails embedded in the well wall, not too far apart.

As she reached up to grab the first nail and began to climb, a soft, suppressed sound came from above the well opening—

"The Imperial Preceptor Fu Yuan is no longer in the stone chamber."

Xi Yueli stopped moving. She was suspended on the well wall, which was two zhang high. The hood of her black robe hung down to cover her face. She remained in that position, listening to the sounds above the well.

The next sentence from the well came from the wellhead, a foot closer than before, as if someone had walked to the edge of the well and was looking down.

"The runestones weren't triggered, and there were no signs of the forbidden area being touched. But the person isn't in the stone chamber."

Xi Yueli smiled slightly in the shadows of the well wall.

"Search." The voice from the wellhead turned cold. "Send people down into the well as well as well. She's been poisoned and can't have gone far."

Using the moonlight, Xi Yueli identified the location of the iron nails on the well wall, pushed off with her feet, and climbed another ten feet upwards.

When she reached the third zhang (approximately 3.3 meters), her fingers gripped the edge of the well. Instead of immediately climbing up, she first glanced around the well opening through the gap between the well rim and the ground.

Three people, dressed in white robes and hooded, stood two zhang directly in front of the well, with a black-clad guard standing on each side behind them.

The man in the white hooded robe was relaxed yet resolute, as if certain that he was trapped in the abyss and could not escape. His gaze was fixed on the well opening, but he was looking at the weeds around the edge of the well to see if anyone had stepped on them; he was not looking into the well itself.

Xi Yueli took three deep breaths, then her fingers gripped the edge of the well tightly, and she flipped herself out of the well, the sound startling the three people.

Those deep, calm eyes gleamed briefly in the moonlight, and her voice carried the chilling quality characteristic of Fu Yuan: "White Envoy, you just said I wasn't in this underground palace, so where am I now?"