In mid-April, the First Prince, Li Yuan, brought nearly a hundred men to Daqingshan to mourn his teacher, Lu Weizhong.
It was said that this usually unsmiling, cold-faced prince cried uncontrollably before his teacher's grave.
While everyone was accompanying the First Prince in his grief, someone suddenly stepped forward holding a blood-written letter to lodge a complaint, claiming there was a hidden truth behind Lu Weizhong's death.
No one knew what this other "hidden truth" was, only that the First Prince's expression changed drastically after reading the blood letter.
He immediately concluded the mourning rites in a hurry and led his personal guards straight to Qingcheng County in Yu Province.
Afterward, the First Prince stayed in Qingcheng County for only half a day. Leaving behind a small number of guards, he rushed straight to the Myriad Pagoda.
The procession was massive, carrying an aura of killing intent. As soon as they reached their destination, they surrounded the entirety of the Myriad Pagoda from the outside.
Following that, the First Prince sat in his not-particularly-luxurious carriage, waiting for Fang Chengming to come out and welcome him personally.
Wan Chengming, who had long heard the arrival of the First Prince's carriages and horses, made the other party wait for the time it took an incense stick to burn before finally arriving late with a group of subordinates.
The atmosphere was grim and murderous. It didn't look like they were welcoming a guest, but rather facing an enemy.
First Prince Li Yuan's already unsightly complexion turned even colder.
Vice-Tower Master Gao Jingyan came out behind Wan Chengming, his expression equally poor.
Before the First Prince arrived, he had sought out Wan Chengming, wanting to line up outside in advance to welcome the royal procession.
Who would have thought Wan Chengming would dawdle left and right, refusing to take a single step.
When he felt time was running out and wanted to go out and welcome them himself, he was held back by Wan Chengming.
They dragged their feet until he almost couldn't hold back from tearing up all pretense of cordiality with Fang Chengming, and only then did the two of them finally come out.
But once they came out, he discovered that Wan Chengming had actually dispatched all of his own subordinates, while the personnel belonging to the vice-tower master's faction were nowhere to be seen.
Gao Jingyan looked at the few remaining familiar faces.
These people all wore anxious expressions, seeming to want to say something to Gao Jingyan, but they were pushed out by the crowd and had already begun to fall into formation.
Only then did Gao Jingyan realize that Wan Chengming's delay in coming out to welcome the First Prince wasn't just to put on airs—he had also used the opportunity to detain Gao's men.
He desperately wanted to lose his temper, but since the First Prince's group had not yet entered, Gao Jingyan could only swallow his anger for now and follow Wan Chengming outside.
Seeing the First Prince's face the moment he stepped out, Gao Jingyan knew things were bad.
Having been left hanging for so long, the momentum of this punitive expedition was already more than half gone.
The tower master of the Myriad Pagoda, Wan Chengming, had a face full of whiskers and a tall, burly build. Seeing the First Prince, he merely gave a slight cupped-fist salute.
"Greetings, Prince Li. I wonder what Your Highness intends with such a grand display?"
These words were spoken quite impolitely.
And being impolite was normal.
Who could be polite when opening their doors to see soldiers and horses besieging them?
Furthermore, the Myriad Pagoda wasn't an ordinary martial world faction. Others might fear Prince Li Yuan, but Wan Chengming had the confidence to confront him.
Li Yuan stared at Wan Chengming for a few moments before a slight smile slowly rippled across his cold face.
"Tower Master Wan truly puts on great airs, making this prince wait so long."
Wan Chengming said nonchalantly, "Your Highness arrived suddenly, and this Wan only just found out. I put down the important matters at hand and rushed over. Driving away unrelated personnel was also to better welcome Your Highness and protect your personal safety. Please do not mind it, Your Highness."
Li Yuan accused him of neglecting a guest, so he retorted that Li Yuan came uninvited, and he had only taken the time to prepare properly to welcome him for the sake of the guest's safety.
He threw the accusation right back.
Royal relatives and nobles were always considered half a tier higher in identity than others of the same realm, not to mention that Wan Chengming was only at the 6th Tier.
Yet due to the special nature of the Myriad Pagoda, Wan Chengming showed absolutely no fear when facing Li Yuan.
Li Yuan knew that if he wanted to take down the Myriad Pagoda, a battle of words alone wouldn't be enough.
Besides relying on his identity and troops to pressure them, he also needed a justified cause.
Fortunately, after years of planning, he was well prepared.
He would let Wan Chengming act arrogant for a little longer.
Soon, he wouldn't be able to smile at all.
Li Yuan simply stopped arguing about the matter. "Although I came uninvited, this prince is already here. Does Tower Master Wan plan to keep me talking outside the doors forever?"
A barely enthusiastic smile finally appeared on Wan Chengming's face. He stepped sideways to open up the entrance and swept one hand inward.
"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare. I am offering you a grand welcome. Please, enter the private room to rest, Your Highness."
The vermilion main doors opened wide. With a dark face, Li Yuan waved his hand, and the carriages and horses moved forward.
Although his carriage drove directly into the Myriad Pagoda, the hundreds of personal guards he had brought couldn't all go in.
Otherwise, it really would become an armed assault on their doorstep.
Aside from the ten servants and close guards who attended him personally, the other infantry armed with swords and spears waited outside.
However, these personal guards weren't idle; they directly formed a perimeter around the outside of the Myriad Pagoda. This made the guards on the pagoda's periphery tremble with fear, feeling the coming of a storm that left them breathless.
Wan Chengming wanted to lead Li Yuan to the guest hall, but Li Yuan completely ignored his arrangements. With his hands clasped behind his back, he walked straight into the main hall of the primary pagoda.
Wan Chengming followed behind. Watching Li Yuan enter the main pagoda on his own accord, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
Meanwhile, Gao Jingyan, whose face had been ugly just moments ago, now wore a smile again. He raised a hand from behind Wan Chengming.
"Tower Master, after you. Let's not keep His Highness waiting any longer."
Wan Chengming shot Gao Jingyan a cold glare, then turned and gave a look to the people beside him before flicking his sleeves and hurrying after Li Yuan.
"Why has Your Highness come to this foul place?" With his long legs, he caught up from behind in just two steps and walked on Li Yuan's left side.
He even pushed aside the few maidservants originally following behind Li Yuan.
The first to fourth floors of the Myriad Pagoda indeed couldn't be considered clean.
Whether it was corpses fished out of the River of Forgetfulness or the bodies of Spirit Practitioners sent from the Death Prison and other places, they would all eventually be gathered here for processing.
Although there were various methods to prevent decay and remove odors, with the constant coming and going of corpses, it was inevitable that some flesh and bone fragments would be left behind.
Over time, even the corridors had been stained with a layer of blood, and a faint, inescapable stench lingered in the air.
Normally, the Myriad Pagoda received guests either in the front courtyard or the guest hall.
Ordinary people couldn't even enter the main hall without doing some mental preparation first.
Li Yuan had led troops before and was used to the sight of blood, but he was just not quite accustomed to the stench of corpses here.
Fortunately, it was only for a day; he felt he wouldn't have to endure it for long.
The group ascended to the sixth floor, which was where the vice-tower master lived.
The environment here was much better, without the slightest bit of filth, but one could still smell a tiny trace of the stench wafting up from downstairs.
This was also one of the reasons why Vice-Tower Master Gao often lived outside.
At the same time, this floor also housed a study and a conference hall for receiving important guests.
However, Li Yuan continued to ignore Wan Chengming's invitations and kept going up.
He was heading for the seventh floor.
Jiang Yue and several pagoda members guarding the staircase to the seventh floor immediately grew tense.
They stood in a row, showing no intention of making way for the First Prince.
Wan Chengming took a step forward and blocked the striding Li Yuan at the staircase.
"Your Highness, above is the core area of the Myriad Pagoda. Outsiders are not allowed to enter without permission," he said bluntly.
Li Yuan glared at him coldly.
At this moment, Vice-Tower Master Gao Jingyan immediately stepped forward.
"Ah, Tower Master, is His Highness an outsider? In the entire Myriad Pagoda, only your private chambers are qualified to host the prince."
"Oh?" Wan Chengming raised his thick black eyebrows. "When did the Myriad Pagoda fall under the Imperial Court's jurisdiction? Why didn't I know about this?"
This was in response to Gao Jingyan saying he was "not an outsider."
"And what if I insist on going up today?" Li Yuan spoke in a cold voice.
Wan Chengming simply wouldn't step aside, offering a perfunctory cupped-fist salute. "Then I will have no choice but to forcefully stop you. If I accidentally bump into Your Highness or hurt you in the process, Your Highness can report it to the Wizard Lord afterward and file a complaint against me."
When Wan Chengming uttered the words "Wizard Lord," the surroundings fell utterly silent.
Whether it was the men Li Yuan had brought or the members of the Myriad Pagoda, a trace of fear appeared on their faces.
Even Prince Li Yuan's expression clearly changed upon hearing "Wizard Lord."
After a moment, Li Yuan continued speaking.
"My first mentor, Headmaster Lu, was assassinated a few days ago. Someone submitted a report written in blood, claiming this matter is related to you. I have come today precisely to investigate this truth and console my teacher's spirit in heaven."
Li Yuan no longer tried to force his way in, but he also showed no intention of retreating to another room.
The group thus ended up in a standoff in the sixth-floor corridor of the Myriad Pagoda.
Hearing Li Yuan's reason, Wan Chengming only found it absurd.
He crossed his arms. "Does the person making the accusation have concrete evidence? If Your Highness believes a blood-written letter just like that, and comes straight to me to demand answers, aren't you a bit too easily used by those with ulterior motives?"
"This prince doesn't necessarily suspect Tower Master Wan. I merely want to put people's minds at ease, and I wouldn't want the tower master's good name to be tarnished. Am I not here to help you prove your innocence?"
Wan Chengming almost couldn't stop himself from laughing.
These princes and princesses really were better than the last at finding high-sounding excuses.
"Thank you for your good intentions, Your Highness, but this Wan does not believe a little slander is enough to ruin my reputation."
With Wan Chengming's parrying and counterattacking, he had almost completely depleted the momentum the First Prince brought with him.
Li Yuan knew that his original plan of demanding answers from a position of authority could no longer proceed.
He simply changed his approach.
"Oh? Someone used Marionette Puppets to assassinate Teacher Lu—this happened in plain sight. And who doesn't know that Vice-Tower Master Lin, under your command, excels in this exact art? Even if Tower Master Wan doesn't care about his own reputation, please have some consideration for my grief as a student. Have Vice-Tower Master Lin come out and explain a thing or two."
"Is Your Highness speaking of the former Vice-Tower Master Lin Han?" Wan Chengming scoffed disdainfully. "If Your Highness hadn't brought him up, I would have almost forgotten such a person existed."
"Let it be known to Your Highness that Lin Han was stripped of his status as vice-tower master two years ago and sent to the Death Prison to await his death."
At this moment, a gray-robed man who had been standing behind Li Yuan stepped forward, stroking his small goatee.
"And let it be known to the tower master, it is public knowledge that the warden of the Yu Province Death Prison, Du An, was a trusted confidant single-handedly promoted by you. If a man locked in the Death Prison were to secretly do something, probably only Du An and Tower Master Wan would know, right?"
These words were incredibly malicious.
Wan Chengming cast a sidelong glance at the goatee-sporting man who stepped out. "Who are you? Didn't you see I was speaking with His Highness?"
Being stared down by Wan Chengming, the man with the goatee wasn't the least bit afraid. His face even bore a smiling expression.
"The tower master is a man of true temperament, why be bogged down by rigid formalities? I am Bai Yuechan, a strategist under His Highness's command."
"So you are Bai Yuechan." Wan Chengming narrowed his eyes, sweeping his gaze over Bai Yuechan's body before his eyes landed on a palm-sized White Jade Ocarina hanging from the man's waist. "I've long heard your name."
"The tower master praises me too highly." Bai Yuechan cupped his hands. Though his mouth spoke of overpraise, there wasn't a hint of modesty on his face.
Bai Yuechan had Li Yuan right in front of him, and three men following him closely from behind.
They were clearly his close-protection detail—he had more bodyguards hovering around him than Li Yuan did.
"What Mister Bai said is exactly what this prince wanted to say."
Li Yuan raised a hand, gesturing for Bai Yuechan to step back.
"The Marionette Puppets might not necessarily have come from Lin Han, but I would like to see him and check on his condition. Since Tower Master Wan believes neither Du An nor Lin Han has issues, why not invite both of them here to verify things? If this truly isn't the case, it will allow me to switch my investigation to other clues."
Having said that, Li Yuan took two steps to the window and gazed into the distance, adopting a posture of "I'm staying right here to wait."
"Lin Han went mad a long time ago. But if Your Highness wishes to see him and Du An, this Wan naturally will not stop you."
Wan Chengming lifted his head, looking past Li Yuan's group to Wang Lin in the back.
"Wang Lin, go to the Death Prison and invite Du An over. Tell him to bring the prisoner Lin Han for His Highness to question."
Wang Lin bowed with cupped hands and replied respectfully, "Understood."
After giving instructions to his subordinate, Wan Chengming looked at Li Yuan, who had his back turned to him. "Your Highness, how about waiting in the tearoom?"
"To the Myriad Pagoda?" Standing behind Du An and hearing Tree-man Ding's relayed message, Li Ban felt the blood in his entire body begin to pump faster.
This day had finally come.
He felt as if he had returned to the day he stepped into the college entrance examination hall.
In his youth, with few real worries, an exam could be seen as a matter of life and death.
Only later did he realize that other than life and death, nothing else was a major event.
Du An stood up. Although he wore the same expressionless face as always, Li Ban could still sense his solemnity.
Years of planning all rested on today.
"Go fetch Zhou Gu," Du An turned and ordered Li Ban.
"Understood." Though somewhat surprised, Li Ban immediately headed to the third level of the Death Prison to find Zhou Gu.
He thought that for this defensive counterattack, Du An would bring his direct confidant Zhang Baishan, but he instead chose Zhou Gu, who could no longer continue fusing elements.
Thinking of the sudden burst of vitality Zhou Gu had displayed earlier, Li Ban felt a faint sense of unease in his heart.
This unease wasn't for himself, but for Zhou Gu.
It was like seeing a dying acquaintance's final flash of lucidity.
"He wants me to go to the Myriad Pagoda?" Zhou Gu stood up, his expression equally heavy.
He was wrapping strips of white cloth around his hands loop by loop, his movements alternating between fast and slow.
"Alright." Zhou Gu touched his chest and nodded fiercely. "Let's go!"
Li Ban, of course, had already prepared himself well in advance.
When the two arrived outside the main gates together, they found that Du An had already come out.
Behind the carriage of the Death Prison, there was a prison cart pulled by an old horse.
Inside the prison cart was a scrawny man in gray prison clothes.
His hair was unkempt and his face filthy.
But one could still recognize him as Lin Han.
The once-arrogant man was currently clutching his head with both hands, cowering in the center of the cage, terrified of the bars on all sides.
As if a pair of hands might suddenly reach through the gaps in the bars and snatch him away.
Li Ban only took one look before averting his gaze.
He hadn't interacted with Lin Han for long, but he couldn't spot a single flaw.
He could only say that Zhai Liu's skill at playing a madman was top-notch.
Or perhaps, that was his actual experience.
Huo Jiang stood in front of the prison cart with his head bowed, looking like an honest man unaccustomed to grand scenes.
It was indeed a grand scene.
Li Ban's gaze shifted past Du An.
The person who came to invite Du An this time was the Myriad Pagoda's Wang Lin, the 3rd Tier corpse refiner general that Li Ban recognized.
He wore a smile on his face, but it was exceedingly stiff.
Because behind him were a dozen mounted soldiers. Each of these soldiers wore armor and rode tall warhorses, emitting a terrifying, murderous aura.
It was as though they hadn't come to request Du An to escort a prisoner, but to directly exterminate their sect and confiscate their property.
"Is everyone here?" A cavalry officer rode forward, stopping side by side with the corpse refiner general, Wang Lin.
"If you're all here, let's hurry up and leave. Don't keep His Highness waiting."
The warhorse beneath the cavalryman paced back and forth, as if it could already sense its master's impatience.
Hearing this, Li Ban and Zhou Gu quickened their pace and arrived in front of Du An.
"Sir."
Du An methodically made arrangements. "Li Ban, you drive the carriage. Zhou Gu, you escort the prisoner Lin Han's cart. Tell Huo Jiang to head back."
"Sir? Me—" Huo Jiang was quite surprised; he had assumed he would be going as well today.
"What's the use of so many people going? The Death Prison still has major felons. You and Zhang Baishan stay and guard the prison."
Huo Jiang resisted the urge to look at the man in the prison cart. Revealing a look of disappointment, he clenched his fists and could only lower his head in compliance.
The cavalry officer glanced at Huo Jiang and sneered coldly, thinking to himself, 'Every sort of nobody wants an audience with the prince. What an arrogant fool who doesn't know his place.'
In truth, his identity tier was identical to Huo Jiang's.
But because the royal family's identity was implicitly half a tier higher than others, he felt that he himself was half a tier higher than everyone else.
Even facing a 4th Tier prison warden, he only felt himself to be half a tier lower.
If the other party was a bit more respectful, he'd be on equal footing with them.
Huo Jiang reluctantly stayed behind at the Death Prison. Throughout this whole exchange, the prisoner "Lin Han" made no reaction whatsoever.
Li Ban sat in the driver's seat and urged the carriage forward.
Only, as their carriage started moving, a few of the First Prince's personal guards stayed behind to watch outside the Death Prison, as if they intended to keep the remaining people in the prison under surveillance as well.
Li Ban could sense these people's impure motives, but since Du An didn't say anything, it wasn't his place to speak up.
The convoy set off.
Li Ban had driven the carriage to the Myriad Pagoda many times, so he was naturally familiar with the route.
But this time, a dozen cavalrymen rode closely behind them.
Li Ban could feel many pairs of eyes boring into his back, as if they were afraid he would flee halfway.
Only the Myriad Pagoda's Wang Lin rode his horse alongside him, occasionally looking back to check if the prison cart was keeping up.
Spurred on by the subtle urging of the cavalry behind them, they reached the Myriad Pagoda in less time than usual.
Upon arriving at the Myriad Pagoda and seeing the multitudes of cavalry surrounding the outside, Li Ban couldn't help but sigh in his heart, 'The pressure on us is actually quite small by comparison.'
The soldiers blockading the main doors opened up a small path, though the carriage and prison cart couldn't go inside.
Du An stepped down from the carriage. Because he was meeting the First Prince, he had even donned his full set of official robes.
Behind him, Lin Han was escorted down by Zhou Gu, wearing a full set of Obscuring Sun Locks.
Zhou Gu gripped the iron chains on Lin Han's back, his complexion even worse than the madman in front of him.
They entered the Myriad Pagoda one by one, watched the entire way.
It felt as if not only Lin Han was a prisoner, but the other three from the Death Prison were also major, high-priority felons.