Chapter 290 - 181: The Warring Tribe

Chapter 290: Chapter 181: The Warring Tribe

Regardless, this made things convenient for Lu Changyuan.

Lu Changyuan added, "In that case, could you please tell me, Princess, does your Eldest Princess have... any unusual behaviors in the Imperial Palace? And where does she normally reside?"

The Little Princess blinked and glanced around. "Every day, the Eldest Princess goes alone to a side palace she had built. She stays there burning incense for over an hour and forbids anyone from following her."

"A side palace?" Lu Changyuan’s eyes narrowed. "Where is it?"

The Little Princess eyed Lu Changyuan skeptically. "I could tell you... but..."

"But what?"

The Little Princess broke into a grin, her voice cheerful as if she’d just stumbled upon something fun. "How are you going to repay me?"

Lu Changyuan chuckled. ’This Little Princess is surprisingly interesting.’

’She certainly has guts, making a deal with an intruder. And this kind of deal, at that.’

He could, of course, use the Dream Demon’s magic to knock the Little Princess unconscious and extract the information he wanted directly. But seeing as she was so amusing to talk to, he couldn’t be bothered with such methods.

Lu Changyuan shrugged. "I’m just an intruder. How could I possibly repay a princess?"

The Little Princess handed her Palace Lantern to Lu Changyuan. "Tell you what. I’ve heard there’s a snack in the Mortal World called ’donkey rolls,’ and I’ve never tried it. You seem pretty capable. If you promise to find some for me to eat in the future, I’ll tell you where the side palace the Eldest Princess built is. It’s late... you can borrow this Palace Lantern to light your way."

’She’s surprisingly nice.’

When Lu Changyuan didn’t respond, the Little Princess said, "Hey, mister intruder, why won’t you even agree to that?"

Lu Changyuan finally replied with a resigned sigh, "I accept. I was just thinking about something. Donkey rolls are indeed delicious."

"You’ve had them before?"

"Of course."

"I’ve never even had them," the Little Princess said, a hint of disappointment in her eyes.

She pointed into the distance. "Go that way, all the way to the end. The first building you see after passing through a rockery—that’s the side palace the Eldest Princess likes to frequent."

Lu Changyuan nodded and turned to leave.

"Are you going to hide inside the palace, wait for the Eldest Princess to arrive, and then assassinate her?" the Little Princess asked.

"No."

"That’s a shame. Can’t you figure out a way to kill this Eldest Princess who doesn’t give a damn about her people?"

"Why are you so bloodthirsty at such a young age?"

"I’m not young! I’ll let you in on a secret—I’m actually several hundred years old. I’m an Old Monster."

’This Little Princess’s resentment for the Eldest Princess must run deep for her to spout such nonsense about being hundreds of years old.’

’An Old Monster who’s several hundred years old asking him for donkey rolls.’

’It seems she really was just hungry and looking for something to eat.’

Lu Changyuan waved a hand. "Yeah, right. You should hurry back before someone finds you."

The Little Princess smiled and gave Lu Changyuan a little wave in return.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Following the Little Princess’s directions, Lu Changyuan quickly found the side palace.

The side palace was certainly remote, tucked away in the farthest corner of the Imperial Palace. Lu Changyuan couldn’t imagine why the Eldest Princess had chosen such a place.

It was now the dead of night. The area around the side palace was utterly silent, save for the intermittent chirping of cicadas seeping from the shadows of distant old trees, which only made the place feel more eerie.

The nights in the Imperial Palace all seemed to be like this. It was as if all the splendor and majesty of the day were siphoned off come nightfall, leaving behind only a massive, hollow shell, devoid of any trace of life.

’I should have Qiu Yuehan come see this place,’ Lu Changyuan thought.

Cultivators of the Red Dust spent their entire lives trying to embrace their humanity, but the people in the Imperial Palace spent their lives becoming unfeeling animals, devoid of it.

If the Black Skirt Fairy were to stay in this Imperial Palace for a few months, she would probably have quite a few revelations.

Inside the hall, agarwood was burning.

It was top-grade agarwood, still not extinguished despite the late hour. Thin wisps of smoke accumulated in the air like threads, shrouding the hall in a swirling mist that blurred one’s vision.

Lu Changyuan was naturally unaffected, and his gaze quickly fell upon the painting in the far depths of the hall.

The painting depicted a monster with the face of a cat and the body of a snake. Besides this creature, the pristine white paper was completely bare.

No signature, no seal.

Lu Changyuan studied the painting for a long moment before suddenly chuckling.

A strange thought struck him without any warning.

He turned and left the side palace, his figure disappearing into the darkness of the covered walkway. He returned a moment later, a roll of blank white paper now in his hand. Standing before the original painting, he sized it up, then raised Broken Thought. The edge of the blade quickly began to gleam with the color of ink.

The sword’s edge didn’t strike anything physical, but instead made a light slash through the Void, causing the ink to seep naturally from the blade.

Lu Changyuan used his sword as a brush, cutting the paper in midair. The scroll silently separated, matching the dimensions of the original painting.

In Lu Changyuan’s hands, Broken Thought became like a massive calligraphy brush, flicking and dabbing through the air.

Ink followed the sword’s path, blooming across the paper’s surface.

Before long, a cat-faced, snake-bodied monster, indistinguishable from the one on the wall, appeared vividly upon the blank scroll.

’The Painting Demon’s magic really is quite useful.’

"It’s better if you tell me what you’re up to yourself."

Lu Changyuan rolled up the original painting, then hung his own in its place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You ran out in the middle of the night just to bring back a strange painting like this?"

Lu Changyuan returned to the inn near dawn. Su Youwan and Qiu Yuehan were still awake; before he came back, the two of them seemed to be discussing matters concerning the Red Dust.

Lu Changyuan replied with a weary sigh, "I told you I had real business to attend to. At least now I know who’s causing trouble behind the scenes in the Great Xia."

The Black Skirt Fairy said, "Since you know now, you should rest. Catching the demon is a task for tomorrow."

’Sometimes,’ Lu Changyuan thought, ’I really have to wonder if these Fairies, having rediscovered the habit of sleep, have now fallen in love with the feeling of lazing in bed.’

’They used to just treat sleep as a means of relaxation.’

Lu Changyuan unrolled the painting. The monster on the scroll was startlingly lifelike, as if it could leap out and devour someone at any moment.

"It’s a Xiao. And this particular Xiao is at least at the Sixth Realm."

Su Youwan said softly, "But didn’t Young Master Lu already exterminate the Owl Race?"

"Perhaps it’s one that got away."

In truth, Lu Changyuan wasn’t sure. He felt he had been thorough in his extermination, but it had been so long ago that he was no longer certain if he’d truly finished the job.

He had killed too many people and Foreign Races to remember the specific details of any one time.

"Once we capture it, we can ask it and find out."

The member of the Owl Race within the painting was alive, it just hadn’t awakened yet. Lu Changyuan was still unsure what method it had used to hide inside the painting.

But since this Xiao had arranged for a painting to be here, it would certainly use the painting to manifest itself.

When it manifests, we’ll just have to catch it, and then we can ask it anything we want to know.

Su Youwan took out a Silver Needle. "Young Master Lu, you want to capture it? I can help with that. When it comes to the Dao of arrays, I have some experience."

’There wasn’t much of a difference between creating an embroidery painting and an Embroidery Array, after all.’

’In fact, one could say that Embroidery Arrays were the true specialty of those in the Cultivation Realm who followed the Dao of embroidery and needles.’

’Embroidering destiny was still too ethereal a concept.’

The Silver-haired Maiden’s slender fingers twirled the needle, weaving it back and forth at a speed the eye couldn’t follow. In no time, an Array had taken shape around the painting.

"I am only at the Fifth Realm. This Trapping Array can, at most, hold a Fifth Realm Cultivator."

After all, Su Youwan was not a Cultivator who specialized in the Dao of arrays.

"That’s enough." The Black Skirt Fairy raised a hand, and several streams of Nether Qi fell into the Array. "We just need to prevent it from escaping back into the painting for a few moments. That will be sufficient."

The Silver-haired Maiden nodded.

In truth, she wasn’t particularly concerned about the so-called Owl Race. In the eyes of the Compassionate Palace’s Little Ancestor, since Lu Changyuan had arrived, whatever demon or monster was behind this was already as good as dead.

So, the Silver-haired Maiden’s gaze fell instead upon the Palace Lantern Lu Changyuan had set on the table.

"And where did you get this Palace Lantern, Young Master Lu?"

Lu Changyuan looked at the Palace Lantern. "A kind person saw it was getting dark and gave it to me."

"A woman gave it to you?"

’Why does the Little Ancestor of the Compassionate Palace have to have such sharp intuition?’

"I met a very interesting young lady. It was a gift from her."