Song of Silent Promise

15. Conspiracies

The room was crowded, soft zither and flute wafted from all corners but no one could see the artists. The ambience was as though it was a popular luxurious entertainment house. Min Yunfan was there as the host of the gathering, but there were also a few other personages. The Second Prince Min Qiheng sat by his older brother's side, slowly sipping on tea. But the slack gaze in his eyes and the slight furrow of his brows indicated his mind was somewhere else.

Qin Zhe and Qin Qiu were also there, sitting behind their father, Duke Qin. There were also a few of their cousins born from the Left Prime Minister and the Royal Princess. Their expressions were taut, if not anxious.

Despite the dainty maidservants serving everyone with a polite smile, the atmosphere was as tense as could be.

Xu Yejing immediately noticed the scholarly Saint sitting down, at a distance neither too close or too far from Min Yunfan. The First Prince glanced briefly at Xu Yejing, Fu Yan, and Fu Chun, then immediately averted his gaze towards the Saint.

"Esteemed Sect Leader Huo, what should be done now?"

The Saint's lips quirked a tiny bit, his fingers holding the cup of tea pausing in mid-air. With a flick of his other sleeves, the background music immediately ceased.

Xu Yejing truly did not know how he was able to do such thing, unless if the invisible music players were also the Sect's disciples.

Noticing her confusion, Fu Chun whispered by her ears, "The music were from spirits."

Xu Yejing blinked. Fu Yan smiled at her bewilderment, "The fox spirits are always gifted in music. As part of the earth-kind, they are all under Master's rule. Ah, but then again, you probably don't know what I'm talking about. When we have the chance, I'll introduce you to a few spirits I know."

Earth-kind, wind-kind, water-kind, and fire-kind. If it was merely a day ago, Xu Yejing would not know what Fu Yan had just said. Although she had also witnessed the existence of some spirits in her dream, she had only seen the wind-kind and the fire-kind.

From what Fu Yan implied, the Saint with surname Huo was an earth-kind himself.

The Saint spoke, "The Sect extends our support to the both of you Royal Princes, only to entice the ants out of their nests. Now the ants are trying to escape to another place and our work in this Taishan dynasty is almost done, so the Sect will relocate... ."

Min Qiheng, "Sect Leader, myself and my elder brother have hidden ourselves solely for this day. The Empress Dowager never trusts anyone but Imperial Father trusts her and the people behind her. If not for Imperial Empress Mother who has been feeding us information, we wouldn't even know how we died."

The conversation went on, between Qin Zhe, the two Royal Princes, and a few of the Flaming Cauldron Sect's people. From the looks of it, although some of the Sect's people looked older than the Saint themselves, their cultivation must be quite prominent and their position in the Sect was not low either.

There were a lot of things happening in the mere span of a night Xu Yejing was inside the vault. As soon as Fu Yan and Fu Chun were back and heard from Pan Lang and He Zhanyi, they contacted the Sect's higher-ups immediately. In less than an hour, the Flaming Cauldron Sect's Vice Leader, the person who Fu Yan and Fu Chun always referred to as 'Master Uncle' stormed the Imperial Palace. However, the Imperial Palace seemed to have hidden some experts too.

From what Fu Chun was telling her, this Master Uncle waltzed into the heavily guarded Imperial Palace for the sole purpose of retrieving Xu Yejing back. Xu Yejing did not quite believe Fu Chun, but she kept her thought to herself.