Chapter 160: Confrontation

King Yong did not dare to dwell on it any longer, feeling more and more restless as he sat.

Eventually, he simply walked to the entrance to check if Xiange Yue had returned. If he had returned, everything would still be manageable. But if he failed to capture the target, matters would become tremendously difficult.

Chen Liu advised, "Your Highness, since Lord Yue has given his word, it means he is confident. No matter how much you worry, it will not help. It is better to sit down and wait quietly."

King Yong put his hands behind his back, looking up at the sky one moment and down at the ground the next, pacing outside and then returning inside.

Hearing Chen Liu’s words, his footsteps paused slightly. "Master Examiner, it is not that I lack composure. It is simply that... the stakes are far too high."

Chen Liu said, "The greater and more urgent the matter, the more Your Highness must remain calm and handle it slowly. Only then can we avoid making mistakes in a flurry."

Su He also advised, "Master Chen's words are wise. Matters have reached this point, and all we can do is choose to trust Lord Yue."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a streak of flowing light suddenly shot into the room, moving so fast that King Yong almost failed to dodge it.

A moment later, the brilliance dissipated, revealing none other than Xiange Yue and Wangyou.

Xiange Yue was not one to cherish jade or pity fragrant blossoms, so he simply dragged the person back and tossed her directly onto the floor.

The moment Wangyou saw that Su He was also seated there unexpectedly, she immediately rose weakly from the floor.

She slightly averted her gaze to the side, as if too ashamed to face him, and said in a low voice, "Why is Young Master here as well?"

Inwardly, however, her thoughts were racing: *Oh no, I have fallen into a trap.* Recalling the cup she had given Su He earlier, she steadied her mind and told herself to remain calm.

Maintaining her composure, she secretly began to chant a profound curse.

However, Su He merely kept his head lowered, sipping his tea, and acted as though he had heard nothing of her words. As for the expression of agony she hoped to see, there was not a trace of it.

A sudden sense of terror gripped her heart. Could her scheme have been seen through? On second thought, she felt that could not be right. She had watched with her own eyes as Su He drank that cup of water.

Now that she was activating the secret curse, why was there no reaction whatsoever?

Suddenly, Chen Liu pulled a white porcelain bottle from his sleeve and placed it lightly on the tea table. "Is the esteemed lady looking for this item?"

In an instant, the entire room fell into a terrifying silence.

Xiange Yue looked at King Yong and said, "I have brought the person back. Handle the disposal however you see fit."

With that, without even giving King Yong a chance to speak, he turned and vanished.

The atmosphere instantly became a tad awkward.

King Yong paced back to his seat, slapped his palm heavily against his knee, and suddenly cast a sharp gaze toward Wangyou. "Speak, is the item in the bottle yours? And the lives taken in Lesser Zhou Village—were those orchestrated by your subordinates?"

Although Wangyou's hands were bound and her appearance was disheveled, her posture was enchanting to the extreme. Even though she kept her head lowered so her face could not be clearly seen, there was no denying that she was a beauty.

Unfortunately, King Yong was not buying it. He had always believed that female beauty was a sharp blade hanging over one's head, the very graveyard of men.

Since seduction failed, Wangyou had no choice but to place her hopes on Su He. "What is Your Excellency talking about? This humble woman does not understand."

As her words trailed off, she cast a covert glance toward Su He. That single look was enough to melt steel into soft clay.

Yet Su He merely raised his eyes and said, "This-in-lower remembers that Milady had returned to the Nine Luminaries Tower. How is it that you have fallen into the hands of the Fourth Highness?"

Wangyou was choked with anger. *Damn you, Baili Su He! It turns out all your previous behavior was just an act.*

She had prided herself on her appearance, believing it possessed absolute lethality over Baili Su He. She never expected that at the critical moment, it would prove completely useless.

The question—*Should you not be unconscious in the Nine Luminaries Tower?*—almost slipped from her lips.

Fortunately, she managed to check herself in time, and with a look of indignation mixed with a trace of arrogance, she said, "That is of no importance. Which courtesan in the tower does not receive external guests? The Young Master may be weary, but Wangyou still has to make a living, does she not?"

With that, her gaze swept across the white porcelain bottle on the table, and her eyes shimmered as she said, "A mere porcelain bottle—what can that possibly prove?"

King Yong laughed in extreme anger, slapping his knee. "Very well! Then Wang Quan and Guo Lin—you surely recognize them?"

In an instant, Wangyou's smile froze at the corners of her mouth. Then, with a smile that was not quite a smile, she said, "What? Must the First Highness report to me every guest that this humble woman entertains? Even the Highness who governs the heavens and the earth cannot interfere in matters of mutual consent, can he?"

"Such a sharp tongue! Today, no matter how eloquently you argue, I will strip that layer of skin right off you." With that, he shouted in a ringing voice, "Zhou Yi, bring Wang Quan and the others in."

Immediately, Zhou Yi's voice came from outside, "This subordinate obeys."

When Wangyou heard that Wang Quan and the others had been arrested, the first thought in her mind was that she must not get dragged down into this quagmire.

Therefore, when Wang Quan and the others were brought up, she consciously shifted a bit to the side.

The moment Wang Quan saw that Wangyou was also bound, assuming the matter had been exposed, he collapsed to his knees on the spot, crawled to her feet, and kowtowed repeatedly. "Mistress, save us! Save us..."

Wangyou kicked him away and scolded angrily, "Impudent! For no reason at all, why are you randomly biting people and shifting blame? Speak, did someone subject you to torture to extract a confession and deliberately force you into this?"

Wang Quan stumbled and dazedly stood back up. Hearing Wangyou's words, he felt as though his entire body had plunged into an ice cellar. "Mis... Mistress..."

"Shut your mouth! Though you were once a guest of Wangyou, this is not the Nine Luminaries Tower. I will not allow you to use your glib tongue to defame an innocent person's purity."

Hearing this, Wang Quan looked as though he had lost his mind. He sat dazedly on the floor and laughed foolishly, "Ha... hahaha..."

He was not stupid; of course he could hear that Wangyou was casting them aside. In truth, this body of his was no longer worth keeping. Death might not necessarily be a bad thing for them.

However, human beings always possessed a reluctance to die.

Even if one were merely a living corpse walking the earth, as long as one could eat meat and drink wine to their heart's content, and freely dally with the women they desired...

He was willing to "live" on ignobly...

King Yong said, "Wang Quan, and you others as well—you have all seen it for yourselves. This is the mistress you have been serving. At the crucial moment, she pushes you out to take the blame for her. With a person like this, are you certain you still wish to risk your lives for her?"

Wang Quan continued to laugh incessantly, but the young man kneeling behind him spoke up, "I know, and I am willing to talk."

With that, he pointed at Wangyou. "This woman practices sorcery. Any man she sleeps with becomes her puppet. As for us, we had no choice in the matter."

The moment he thought of how he had traded away his entire life simply due to a momentary surge of lust and a fondness for beauty, a deep wave of sorrow washed over the young man.

Su He had long anticipated that the waters surrounding Wangyou ran deep, but he was still shocked by the young man's words. According to his account, what was Wangyou's objective in doing this?

Step by step, ring within ring—it did not look like an uncalculated action. From their initial encounter to the subsequent slaughter of Lesser Zhou Village, all of this seemed far too coincidental, as if meticulously arranged by someone with a deliberate purpose.

He did not believe there could be such coincidences in this world. The exact same appearance, the exact same preferences, uttering the identical words.

If one were to call it a coincidence, it was far too coincidental.

Suddenly, he recalled his earlier speculation: could the soul of Xiyan have occupied this body? If so, he realized this seemed to be a trap deliberately laid out to target him.

Yet, who on earth was the mastermind behind this setup?

Could it be... Xiyan herself?

Suddenly, King Yong's angry roar cut through his thoughts: "Vile woman, what else do you have to say for yourself? You refuse to acknowledge the porcelain bottle, and you refuse to acknowledge them as well?"

Wangyou tremblingly stood up and laughed with an air of nonchalance. "If you all say it is me, then it is me. But where is the evidence? As for matters lacking evidence, I could equally claim that they are thieves who embezzled things themselves, practiced dark sorcery, and stubbornly tried to frame an innocent and weak woman like me."

Finally, casting a look at Wang Quan and the others as if they were pitiful insects, she said, "A bunch of useless trash! To save your own lives, you are capable of any despicable act. Ask your own consciences: do you feel no shame?"

Her words instantly infuriated the young man. "Shut up! It was you who ruined us! It was also you who ordered us to carry out a midnight raid and slaughter Lesser Zhou Village. You said we only needed to execute the orders, and someone else would take responsibility for the aftermath. Now, to save your own skin, you're dumping all the filth onto our heads. I'm telling you, I won't let you succeed, even if it kills me! Don't think we don't know that Guo Lin actually did it for you... ugh..."

The young man suddenly seized his own throat with both hands, exerting so much force that his neck snapped with an audible crack.

This sudden turn of events startled both King Yong and Su He to their feet.

King Yong urged anxiously, "Chen Liu, go quickly and examine him."

Chen Liu nodded, walked over to the young man's side, and began checking him point by point. He raised a hand, channeling his primordial energy into the youth's spiritual platform, and only withdrew it after a moment.

"How is it?" King Yong glared fiercely at Wangyou. To dare commit murder right in front of him—this was sheer rebellion!

The Master Examiner wore a troubled expression. He stepped close to King Yong and whispered in his ear.

Instantly, King Yong's expression shifted drastically. "What?"

"That is indeed how it happened." Although he was unwilling to admit it, the young man had truly strangled himself, and the lingering consciousness within his sea of awareness showed it had been entirely voluntary.

Anyone with eyes could see something was amiss, yet upon inspection, it turned out to be a voluntary act. It was truly ghostly.

King Yong stared fixedly at Wangyou, wishing he could pierce two holes right through her body.

Wangyou lifted her eyelids with an alluring flair and said, "Why are you staring at me? Do not forget, I am bound by the Primordial Spirit Locks."

Just as the two sides fell into a deadlock, Su He suddenly spoke up, "There are a few more restless figures outside the Spirit-Soothing Pavilion. Does the First Highness wish to have people bring them in as well?"

"Capture them!" Without a second thought, King Yong commanded Zhou Yi, "Hurry up and gather a team, and bring all of them back here for me!"

Zhou Yi cupped his fists in salute and retreated. "Understood."

"What? You have already interrogated people to their deaths, and now you want to drag a few more in for a coordinated, coerced confession?" Wangyou shifted her gaze toward Su He. "During the day, when the Young Master was being intimate with Wangyou, you were not nearly this heartless. Although the Young Master and I have only crossed paths a few times, I believed I treated the Young Master with utter sincerity. Today, I am suffering innocently, mocked and humiliated to this extent—does the Young Master truly intend to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear?"

Her words were delivered with such sorrow that she seemed on the verge of tears, her delicate, pear-blossom-like fragility appearing ready to slip from the branch.

Upon hearing this, Su He did not show the slightest sign of anger. He merely cupped his hands in a formal salute and said, "What is Milady saying? If I intended to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, would I be sitting here patiently waiting for the truth to come to light? It is precisely because I believe that the innocent will clear themselves that I wait. If Milady truly has done no wrong, then a bit of verbal pressure is merely embroidery adding to the splendor of Milady's good name. In days to come, the world will surely grant Milady justice, and recognize how resilient Milady is, unflinching in the face of wind and frost."

With that, he quietly observed the changes in Wangyou's expression. It was not that he was overly suspicious, but the more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. If this was born of a blood feud, then everything could be explained.

Wangyou dearly wished to slap Su He across the face. *To hell with 'the innocent will clear themselves', and damn your 'unflinching in the face of wind and frost'!*

Yet angry and annoyed as she was, she could not show even a fraction of it on her face, because she could not afford to fall out with Su He just yet. She needed to endure, and endure further—all until the day she could take his life.

Her eyes, brimming with grievance, seemed ready to overflow with water. Those dewdrops of crystal light were enough to tug at anyone's heartstrings.

Giving Su He a reproachful glare, she turned her gaze toward a corner of the room to digest her inner fury. Though she had no idea what was going on in his mind, she could be certain of one thing: since this man clearly regarded her as the true Xiyan, it meant her disguise had not failed.

Yet, looking at the current deadlock and listening to his words, she could not help but begin to doubt herself. Was it that she simply did not understand men?

Or... was this man simply hiding far too deep?