Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

"Did the maids bring these over after you bathed? You wore clothes that maids brought you before, didn't you?"

Kazekage asked Yongzhen, who nodded and frowned as she stared at the nightgown on the doll.

"I've been wearing clothes that the maids brought me for the past few days, and nothing has happened."

Chu Mingkong instructed Fengying to conceal Yongzhen's true form, then left the room and seized the maid who had recently been taking care of Yongzhen's daily life.

"Tell me, who prepared my nightgown today!"

The maid looked flustered and confused, so Chu Mingkong led her into the room to show her the state of the doll Yongzhen.

"Her Highness the Princess has been poisoned. The poison was hidden in her nightgown. Answer my question!"

A series of hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor—

Amidst this urgent news, came the news of the eldest prince's death!

Chu Mingkong was furious at the mouthful of blood that the doll Yongzhen had just spat out. He was also relieved that he had swapped the doll with Yongzhen's real body. Otherwise, it would have been Yongzhen himself who was poisoned, not the doll!

He took out the note, trying his best to remain calm, and sent a message to Yun Nongyu:

"Master Yun, could you send a few disciples to the Moon Wheel Palace? I'd like them to assist in searching for the remnants of the souls of a few dead people."

Chapter 222 The criticism is poisonous!

Originally, Chu Mingkong, as an outsider who had just entered the Moon Wheel Palace, was the most suspicious person. This was because the eldest princess had a powerful bodyguard who was feared even by the One-Eyed Sword Saint, which was a threat to the royal power. She possessed the weapon to seize power.

The prince's guards, who had come to demand an explanation, rushed over in a murderous aura, only to find that Princess Yongzhen had also encountered trouble, leaving the guards dumbfounded.

The wedding banquet was about to begin; it would start after tonight. But suddenly, something terrible happened: both of the main characters of the wedding banquet met with misfortune.

The eldest prince died suddenly, and the princess who came to marry him was also poisoned, her fate uncertain.

In the eldest prince's bedroom, all the luxurious decorations looked like offerings for the dead.

The priceless gold carpet was filled with people, who silently faced the death of the eldest prince.

Perhaps only Chu Mingkong was relatively relaxed. His puppet body had taken a fatal poisoning in place of Yongzhen, but someone had indeed attacked Yongzhen. This debt could not be let go.

Regardless of the situation, Chu Mingkong has to find out who did it!

"Your Excellency Cao, we cannot search the soul; the eldest prince's soul has already dissipated," a female Taoist disciple sent by Yun Nongyu told Chu Mingkong.

They're really cautious, knowing to guard against a soul-searching technique.

Shangguan Rong followed beside Chu Mingkong, her speech somewhat muffled, because Chu Mingkong had instructed her to put an antidote pill in her mouth beforehand. Without avoiding the guards, she analyzed:

"This matter may have been the work of two opposing forces."

The person who plotted to kill Princess Yongzhen may have wanted to sabotage the marriage alliance, incite Emperor Tianji to be hostile to the Yueqi royal family, and make Princess Yongzhen's relative, Mr. Cao, hate the Yueqi royal family.

Those who plotted to harm the Crown Prince might be unhappy with this marriage alliance, but both scenarios are inevitably related to the succession of the throne. Who else in the Moon Palace might benefit from this ordeal?

If it were simply a matter of disliking the marriage alliance, there would be no need to poison both sides. Poisoning one side would have been enough to disrupt the marriage alliance, stir up hatred, create chaos, and deceive others.

However, if both the bride and groom are murdered, the stakeholders of these two groups may unite, which would be detrimental to the perpetrators.

Therefore, the simultaneous incidents on both sides are more likely due to the actions of two different forces. Both sides wanted to kill one of them and leave the other to cause trouble and hatred. As a result, the two forces attacked together, leaving neither the bride nor the groom alive.

Otherwise, the eldest prince's confidants would definitely have attacked Chu Mingkong and then delivered their own heads.

Chu Mingkong looked at everyone in the room and asked in a deep voice:

"There may be members of the murderer's faction among you, but it doesn't matter. You won't be able to escape in the end, especially those who plotted against Princess Yongzhen. I would like to offer my friendly advice: keep a close eye on your mothers, wives, and daughters."

If any of the eldest prince's confidants know anything, tell me: who has shown any interest in vying for the throne?

The strategist with the goatee stared at the eldest prince's corpse, his face deathly pale, and said in a daze:

"No, the old king has always been a man of his word. When he was still of sound mind, he made the eldest prince his heir. Neither of the eldest prince's two younger brothers showed any intention of seizing power. The old king's brothers died or were missing during the struggle back then, leaving only the old king."

This involved the old king's careful judgment; he didn't simply choose the eldest prince as his successor because he was the eldest son. Although the eldest prince was of average appearance, he recognized his own shortcomings and knew he needed to listen to the ideas of others.

The other two princes were the type who, despite lacking ability, thought themselves to be exceptionally intelligent; they were simply unlucky and their true abilities were not recognized by the old king.

Regardless of whether they revealed any motives, both of them had to be present.

Chu Mingkong pressed on, "Where are the other two princes? Why haven't they shown themselves yet, given that their elder brother has encountered such a serious matter?"

The eldest prince's relative muttered to himself, "This relative of Princess Yongzhen is really domineering and forceful. She dares to question the royal family's movements so impolitely in the royal palace of a foreign land."

Even when the eldest prince was still alive, he wouldn't have treated his brother so aggressively! This guest is even more domineering than the host.

However, considering the unknown fate of Princess Tianji, no one dared to provoke him. Someone responded and said he would go find the two princes, and then left the room with a heavy atmosphere.

Chu Mingkong was seething with anger, but he couldn't find an outlet for it. He was just about to leave when someone else came up to him and even tried to kill Yongzhen.

Yongzhen's doll is currently in a near-death state. It has taken several antidotes that the Kazekage used, but they have only partially cured it.

Unfortunately, the lead to the nightgowns from the maid was lost. The maid was only responsible for delivering clean nightgowns, which were kept in a fixed place and retrieved there.

In other words, anyone could secretly place a poisoned nightgown there and wait for a maid to deliver it, and this maid would have no cultivation and no ability to hide poison in the nightgown.

Suddenly, a female Taoist disciple sent by Yun Nongyu softly called out, "Lord Cao."

"What's wrong? Have you found any clues?" Chu Mingkong asked only symbolically, not placing much hope in his heart.

The female disciple from the sect said slowly:

"It's not exactly a major discovery, but it's a clue. Prince Yueqi's death was illogical, with no signs of injury or poisoning, but I just discovered that his spiritual veins are unclean."

"What do you mean? Why isn't it clean?" Chu Mingkong didn't understand.

"This involves the rebellion that occurred in our sect a while ago. Some martial arts techniques were lost and leaked out during the rebellion. It's complicated to explain, but I can offer a guess: someone used sexual relations between men and women to leave him with a hidden danger that could lead to his death. There may be other methods to achieve the same effect, but this is the only one I know of at the moment."

"Who has the eldest prince had sexual relations with?"

Chu Mingkong secretly raised an eyebrow, cursing inwardly:

I said, "Poisoning cryptocurrency?!"

The goatee-bearded strategist said confidently:

"It's the eldest prince's favorite concubine, Rula, who is his childhood sweetheart! The eldest prince has a clean private life. Apart from his frivolous youth, he has never been involved with any other woman since the old king designated him as the heir!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Feng Ying, who had been hiding in the room, disappeared without a trace. Not long after, she reappeared in the room.

Some people, unaware of her existence, suddenly saw a strange woman appear and exclaimed, "There's an assassin!"

Feng Ying held a graceful woman crying in pain in her hand. The woman was dressed in gorgeous clothes and was of high status, but Feng Ying threw her directly to the ground. This scene was quite similar to when she brought Empress Pei to Chu Mingkong.

"Let me go! There are assassins! Protect the king!" Rula said angrily.

"Tell me the truth, did you harm the eldest prince?" the goatee-bearded strategist shouted, stamping his foot.

The one-eyed swordsman was even more decisive; with a flash of his sword, he instantly killed Rula. He then said to the female disciple of the Daoist sect:

"Search her soul immediately! Anyone else who touches her body will be executed as if they were trying to destroy her soul!"

Chapter 223 Customer Intelligence

The decisiveness of the one-eyed swordsman made Chu Mingkong glance at him sideways.

When they first met, the One-Eyed Sword Saint declared he would not be his enemy after just one exchange, and his current move shows that same decisiveness.

This ruthlessness displeased some of the eldest prince's confidants, leading to some protests, as some of them stood by the eldest prince's side because of this favored concubine.

The female Taoist disciple glanced at Chu Mingkong. Following Yun Nongyu's instructions, she was here to be at the beck and call of "Cao," not anyone else. After Chu Mingkong nodded in approval, she began the soul-searching process on the alluring yet withered corpse of her favored concubine.

The one-eyed swordsman acted with great restraint, and the concubine's soul was preserved relatively intact and "fresh and warm".

An invisible, ethereal soul was drawn out, and the female Taoist disciple affixed talismans to it to prevent anyone with malicious intent from taking the opportunity to shatter it.

"Was it you who attacked His Highness the Crown Prince?"

"I... I was forced... I had no choice but to do this..." The concubine's spirit stammered, but it was still coherent. Stuttering was unavoidable; after all, she did not die a natural death, so some damage to her soul was inevitable. It was fortunate that she could still provide any information.

"Who forced you to do this!" The man with the goatee stared at the spirit with eyes wide with rage, trying his best to remain calm.

Faced with the angry and resentful gazes of the crowd, the soul remained unmoved, its eyes lifeless, answering questions only with the instinctive consciousness left over from its previous life:

"It's His Highness the Crown Prince..."

"Nonsense! Your Highness the Crown Prince has such lofty ambitions, would you poison him during sex?!" the strategist roared, wanting to smash the cup in the face of this vile woman, but also afraid of shattering her remaining soul.

Chu Mingkong gestured to Rong'er to ask on his behalf, and Shangguan Rong nodded and asked:

"How did the eldest prince force you?"

“He’s a heartless man… He once promised me that I would be his queen… I gave him all my youth… In the end, he married a princess sent for a political marriage as his principal wife.” The remnant soul of the favored concubine spoke these words with a slightly harsh tone, a remnant of her emotions from her previous life.

This shows that she was really ruthless when she was alive, and she also felt justified in believing that the eldest prince had wronged her.

The crowd fell silent, but their anger continued to fester.

She murdered the eldest prince for such a reason? The chance to rebuild the glory of the Yueqi royal family was right before their eyes, and this woman harmed the eldest prince for such a reason? The grand plan of the Yueqi royal family was ruined for such a reason?

This was so absurd that the strategists found it hard to accept.

"The title of Empress will eventually belong to you, you wretch! Once Princess Yongzhen is gone, what won't be yours? The Crown Prince has even restrained himself all these years and hasn't touched another woman, just in case you feel insecure. And you're trying to harm him for such a reason!"

"When His Highness ascends the throne and becomes emperor, won't your status be high enough and noble?"

Giving the position of principal wife to Yongzhen was a last resort; we couldn't very well let the princess from the Tianji Empire, who came to marry her, become a concubine.

This woman wants to ascend to the throne herself, yet she's unwilling to make any sacrifices even for a short time, and she's done something like this!

Shangguan Rong also found it absurd, but the matter was far more complex than that. She calmly pressed on with her questions:

"Who gave you this evil technique to harm the eldest prince?"

"The priest of the Moon Worship Cult... the eldest prince has brought outsiders, defiling the purity of the Moonlit Royal Family. He is disqualified... and deserves to die!"

The prince's confidants were still immersed in their grief when they suddenly heard this news, and they were all shocked and in uproar.

The female Taoist disciple explained, "The remnant soul's answers to questions are incomplete and fragmented; sometimes, repeated guidance is needed to elicit the full information."

Shangguan Rong hadn't gotten the information she wanted yet, and this childlike questioning was making her impatient.

"What effect does the Moon Worship Cult want to achieve, and what is your relationship with the Moon Worship Cult?"