Chapter 54: Princess Ling’s Mysterious Disappearance

“I waited on the official road for a long time, and the more I thought about it, the more something felt off. I was planning to disregard Her Highness’s orders and personally go to search, but just then, the Ling Wei who were responsible for protecting the princess returned in a hurry, bringing back the bad news that she was missing.”

“That’s… basically the situation.”

“Um…”

Seeing Miss Vilyric in deep thought, Ling Feng, Bai’er, and Murong Yun, who were also listening intently, exchanged glances, seemingly at a loss for words.

But soon, the Priestess took the initiative to break the silence.

“So, you don’t know the specific circumstances of the disappearance of the West Yuan Princess, do you? When exactly did the hunting group encounter the attack? Be a bit more specific with the timing.”

Ji Xun answered without hesitation.

“It was at the Chen hour today. After the violent dragon earthquake that occurred in Yangyuan County yesterday at noon, the princess was worried about the citizens and repeatedly asked me about the time and how far it was to Yangyuan City, so I can be certain about this.”

“The Chen hour… that’s early this morning.”

Miss Vilyric was mentally mapping out the timeline of events.

Their party had entered the Tidal Valley yesterday morning; at noon, the evil seal’s collapse in Seven Stars Town caused the ground to shake, leading to disasters in Yangyuan County, and a significant number of criminals escaped from the city due to the damage to the Spirit Prison.

About half a day later, this morning, the carriage carrying the princess was attacked.

At that time, they had not yet left the Tidal Valley and learned about the series of events happening outside. In other words, the attackers seemed to have purposely acted before Miss Vilyric and her group of Ling Wei could respond.

As for where those daring devils, who dared to brazenly attack the princess’s carriage, came from…

The answer was already apparent.

It was highly likely that they were the criminals who had escaped from the Spirit Prison due to the earthquake.

These individuals were already serious offenders, deeply at odds with the state, and with a complete disregard for law. If some malicious actors just organized and guided them a bit, they would naturally form a considerable force that couldn’t be overlooked.

Just as she and Ling Feng initially anticipated… this entire series of actions had been pre-planned, a link in a chain, with the ultimate goal being to kidnap this especially important princess.

Moreover, it was likely that there were enemies within the ranks of either the Ling Wei or the hunting group, otherwise, the attackers wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint the princess’s real-time location so accurately.

All of this wasn’t difficult to deduce.

However, Miss Vilyric still felt that things weren’t that simple.

Apart from these conspiracies, which seemed to be instigated by the Seven-Day Demon Lord, that mysterious lady named Hen, whose identity was confirmed by Miss Vilyric yet remained unclear, also had movements that seemed illogical and gave a strong sense of dissonance.

It all began when she possessed some special intelligence, forcibly ordered the governor of Yangyuan City, Wen Fu, to announce the appearance of the Qilin, and widely recruit talented individuals to form a search party.

To be honest, with her current understanding of the situation, Miss Vilyric felt that this was almost like inviting trouble into the house. Such a recruitment method could in no way prevent ill-intentioned individuals from mingling in and would only complicate the situation further.

Since she dispatched the Ling Wei, she could have simply sent this more trained group into the Tidal Valley to explore. Although the fluctuating tide posed a bit of trouble, a slight delay wouldn’t make much difference.

But the princess chose to amplify the topic and influence instead.

After all, if there were any purpose or effect to her actions, the only thing Miss Vilyric could come up with was to ensure that the news spread widely enough.

It was precisely for this reason that Miss Vilyric learned about the Qilin’s appearance and ultimately got involved.

If this was the goal of the other party, how did they know that a certain priestess was nearby and use that to evoke Miss Vilyric’s curiosity?

If the West Yuan Princess was indeed the Hen that Miss Vilyric recognized, she could do that. However, combining the various intelligence available to the priestess, it didn’t seem possible for her to be Hen, who was a transmigrator and player.

These two lines of logic were in direct conflict, leaving Miss Vilyric puzzled till this day.

As the events unfolded, things became even more bizarre.

To be honest, even with elite reinforcements dispatched to support the Tidal Valley and stabilize the situation, the military force remaining near the princess, excluding the officials and attendants of the hunting group, was still over a thousand strong. It’s important to note that this was no ordinary army, but the Ling Wei.

A group of bandits just escaped from the Spirit Prison lacked any formal training and coordination. While they had some power, unless aided by that so-called poisonous mist, charging toward the princess’s carriage would be practically suicidal.

According to General Ji Xun, they did indeed manage to quickly crush and drive back the enemy after reorganizing their forces.

So what was the meaning behind the West Yuan Princess’s alleged action to draw the enemy away?

Because of the poison mist?

What a joke! This was the Ancient Spirit Realm; with a few patches of poison mist, there were too many methods to deal with them.

Ling Feng had also said that the Yin-Yang Division always had experts accompanying to protect the princess. In a world where such practitioners existed, even blowing the poison mist back would seem completely reasonable to Miss Vilyric.

The actions of the other party seemed reasonable at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they were riddled with holes.

This attack seemed more like a pretext for that princess to separate from the main force, and in fact, that was how it turned out; she quickly disappeared from view after leaving.

Why did she deliberately separate from the hunting group?

There were many possibilities, but Miss Vilyric couldn’t draw any conclusions right now.

“Let’s go check out where the princess truly went missing.”

…

This area was heavily secured by the Ling Wei. While they had temporarily sealed the official road to cover up the princess’s disappearance, news that would have had a significant impact on the state, they claimed they were searching for fugitives. In truth, the core area for their real search was within the mountains and forests.

Under the leadership of General Ji Xun, Miss Vilyric, Ling Feng, Bai’er, and the meddling Murong Yun quickly arrived at a special area guarded by elite Ling Wei.

From a distance, the “whoosh” of water could be heard ahead.

It was a river not too broad but with a very swift current, connected by a stone bridge, although now the bridge had broken almost in half, splitting the two banks apart by several dozen meters.

It was evident that this bridge hadn’t broken naturally.

At that moment, the Ling Wei had built a makeshift wooden bridge near the broken bridge, large enough for people to cross. Ji Xun led everyone across the bridge and soon arrived in the woods on the other side.

Finally, on a narrow path beneath the tree canopy, they saw a carriage that had also toppled to the ground but was very luxuriously decorated and exquisitely designed, and naturally, it was completely empty inside.

“This is indeed the princess’s exclusive carriage.”

Before the general could speak, Ling Feng, who was walking beside her, had already given a particularly firm judgment.

Though ordinary people wouldn’t know such details, Ji Xun had already confirmed her identity as well as Bai’er’s high-ranking status in the Yin-Yang Division through a token, so he wouldn’t raise any suspicions; he merely nodded.

“When we arrived, the carriage was in this state. According to the Ling Wei who were protecting Her Highness, the carriage had just crossed the stone bridge when, for some unknown reason, it suddenly exploded violently, causing it to be split in half, leaving them unable to follow. They could only watch helplessly as the carriage was dragged into the dense forest by frightened horses.”

“Although the Ling Wei are brave, they ultimately can’t fly, and the strong ones from the Yin-Yang Division were left here with me to deal with the enemy, so at that time, only two maidservants, a coachman, and a few Ling Wei remained by the princess’s side.”

“When the main force drove back the enemies who were pursuing them, they built the wooden bridge to re-cross the river and find this place, but they only discovered the corpses of the Ling Wei and the coachman, with the horses having ran off without a trace, while the princess had already… vanished without a trace.”

   

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