"I heard something happened at the palace next door. Seems like a court lady went missing or something. Best not run around too late, Xiaolizi."
"Yes, my lady."
"I heard that Ruirui was ill?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Stop answering 'yes, my lady' already. Take something with you tomorrow and go check on Ruirui."
"Yes, my lady."
Li Mu's mind was occupied with sorting out all the information he'd gotten out of Xiaotao at the moment.
Xiaotao didn't know much.
However, he was still able to find some leads.
He'd extended his senses to cover the entire royal palace.
In the middle of the night...
He sat on top of the Xiuren Palace.
Concubine Wan's bedchamber was right beneath him.
There was a red-robed eunuch outside her bedchamber at that moment.
That red-robed eunuch was actually at the late stages of the Spirit Manipulation Realm.
Shouldn't a eunuch with that level of power be dressed in purple robes instead?
He sure knows how to hide his powers.
"How have all the arrangements been going?"
Concubine Wan looked alluring as she lay on her bed.
"My lady, Concubine Zhang had a miscarriage. The poison worked at Noble Lady Zhen's place, but not too well. The patient seems to be fine after the imperial physicians got to work on her."
"Those physicians really know how to meddle in other people's affairs. What about her then? How is she doing?"
"My lady, she went missing."
"What? Missing? She couldn't go missing. Alive or dead, she needs to be found. No one else can know about this."
Concubine Wan was stunned and rose from her bed right away, looking very anxious.
Li Mu shifted about on the roof as well.
Man, Concubine Wan sure is bold, all right.
Doesn't she know that there are many formidable warriors lurking about in the royal palace?
If any one of those warriors were to be snooping on her and heard this, I'm pretty much sure she'd be done for the rest of her life.
However, Li Mu thought about it a little more.
The two at the peak of the Spirit Manipulation Realm in the royal palace had no time to eavesdrop on her.
Anyone else would have definitely been discovered by that red-robed eunuch.
Despite all the infighting in Xia's royal palace, there had never been Saint-level warriors interfering in anything.
Furthermore, Concubine Wan was a favorite of the emperor, and no one would dare to do anything against her without solid proof.
The red-robed eunuch left moments later.
Li Mu followed right behind him secretly.
That old eunuch is not sleeping despite the hour. This is interesting.
He followed the old eunuch and saw that he was meeting up with quite a lot of people.
He'd never expected that the force of darkness in the royal palace would be so massive before running into that eunuch.
Worse still, these were still just Concubine Wan's underlings.
There were actually people from the Ceremony Directorate within the ranks of this force of darkness.
The emperor's Ceremony Directorate was as useful as a bucket with holes in it.
Li Mu remembered the faces of every single person that the old eunuch met.
The old eunuch was finally done with his tasks and was heading back home very late at night.
In one of the alleys of the royal palace...
The eunuch walked alone in the dark.
To those at the late stages of the Spirit Manipulation Realm, day and night hardly made any difference in terms of visibility.
Even if there were patrols around, he would have been able to evade them all the same.
He'd served Concubine Wan for many years.
He had never exposed himself.
"If only the lady could get pregnant one more time."
She had been the emperor's favorite for years.
Yet, she'd only gotten pregnant once.
And then, unfortunately, she'd had a miscarriage.
There were then rumors that started circulating in the royal palace, saying that she was ill.
Hee, hee, hee.
Ill health, my foot!
She had been crying for several days and nights once she knew that her child was lost.
She'd vowed revenge.
She was out to punish all children who were loved by the emperor in the royal palace.
The eunuch agreed that that should be the way they got their revenge.
He resented the royal palace.
He had also been a member of a noble clan with superb talents.
He had been set up by someone from the main family of the clan and had been forced to work in the palace.
He hated the infighting.
He hated all of their guts.
If it hadn't been for all this stupid infighting, he might have even had grandchildren at the moment.
He should have been enjoying his days with his family.
His powers should have gotten to the peak of the Spirit Manipulation Realm and he should have become a god-like protector being of his clan.
Those d*mned women!
They all deserved to die!
More so, those of the royal family.
Shameless wh*res, all of them.
Tap, tap~
Only his lonely footsteps could be heard in that empty alley.
A shadowy figure appeared before him all of a sudden.
What?
Am I seeing things?
He focused and saw that there was actually an emerald-robed eunuch before him.
That emerald-robed eunuch looked to be in his early 30s and was watching him with a beaming grin on his face.
"Which palace are you from, and what are you doing here?" The red-robed eunuch glowered at the one in the emerald robes.
Someone who didn't sleep and showed up right in front of him had given him quite a fright.
"You don't need to know which palace I am from. The reason I'm here is naturally to catch you."
"You emerald-ro…"
The red-robed eunuch's pupils contracted as he recalled something, attacking right away.
And the very next second...
A blurry figure zipped past.
And the red-robed eunuch was lying on the floor.
Li Mu hoisted the incapacitated eunuch up and disappeared.
Back in the Shouning Palace...
Li Mu shoved the eunuch into a room.
He then sat with his legs crossed, waiting for first light.
The red-robed eunuch actually woke up before dawn.
He looked around the room, noting that he wasn't in a dungeon.
He then took to throwing his weight around.
"You good-for-nothing emerald-robed thing actually dares to lock me up? What makes you think you can do such a thing?" he lashed out.
Yet, he regretted it soon enough.
Whack~
Li Mu slapped him unconscious right away.
Before he passed out, he'd actually thought of something.
What is the level of that emerald-robed eunuch by the way?
How come someone so formidable is wearing emerald robes?
Who is he actually?
Why is he catching me?
On whose orders?
Li Mu remained unfazed the whole time.
Ruirui was safe.
His wrath had been quelled considerably at the moment.
"Better let the emperor deal with this. It's his family matter after all."
The morning meeting was over before long.
Li Mu took the red-robed eunuch with him and headed to the Imperial Study Room.
No one would be more suitable than the emperor himself to sort out an internal mess like this.
The emperor was just sitting down in the study room, sorting through all the matters that had been discussed in the morning meeting.
Thump~
A red figure appeared before him, seemingly thrown.
A thump was heard on the floor.
The emperor stood up right away and walked over.
He stared at the red thing on the floor and frowned.
"Who goes there?"
A purple figure appeared in the room at that moment.
That was none other than that eunuch who was supposed to have been guarding the emperor all the time.
"How did he manage to appear in my study room?"
The emperor took a good look and found the red thing to be a eunuch.
"Let me have a look."
The purple-robed eunuch shot out of the door and searched around outside.
"No need to look any further. This guy is an underling of Concubine Wan. It was he who planned Concubine Zhang's miscarriage and Ruirui's poisoning."
Li Mu's voice could be heard.
He then elaborated about everything to the emperor in great detail.
The emperor was at first elated to hear Li Mu's voice again.
The appearance of his protector god-like entity meant that his reign would be secured.
Yet, the look in his eyes became cold before long.
He was shaking all over.
He never doubted the words of this man. There was simply no need for someone as formidable as this man to lie to him, and more so with mundane, seemingly unimportant matters like this.
So, that's why none of the princes had managed to survive for long then.
Death by illness or falling off horses...
More were actually lost from miscarriages.
Many of the newly admitted consorts never managed to get pregnant.
So, that was all the work of the infighting then.
The emperor tried his best to suppress the anger in him and it took him quite a while to turn to the purple-robed eunuch, saying, "Take him out and interrogate him personally."
The emperor acted as if nothing had happened afterward and went back to reading the memorials.
When Li Mu returned to Shouning Palace, there were cakes that Concubine Jing had made in the hall.
"Xiaolizi, take these to Ruirui later. She loves my mung bean cakes the most."
"Yes, my lady."
He took the basket with the cakes in it.
"Xiaolizi, tell Yu to stop sending me food. If he wants to send me anything else, just tell him to send me some mung bean powder," Concubine Jing ordered.
"Yes, my lady," Li Mu stretched for a bit as he answered.
Seems like I need to head out and steal some money to buy mung bean powder one of these nights then.
He left Shouning Palace with the basket in his hand, thinking of which brothel he would be stealing from that night.
He came to Noble Lady Zhen's compound before long.
"I'm sorry, Eunuch Li, our lady doesn't want to see you, and you don't need to come here from now on."
Li Mu was stopped before he got inside.
"Could you please inform her that I'm here then?"
"I think that you know what I'm getting at, Eunuch Li. I assume that I won't need to say more?"