Chapter 119: A Late Night Meeting at the Crown Prince's Residence

Yun Yang was somewhat taken aback by the outcome - just what were these fellows up to?

There were another four places that Yun Yang committed to memory - the Residence of Grand Tutor, the Residence of Northern Trouncing King, the Residence of Grand Commandant, and the Residence of Prince of Concord.

The intended location to execute the method had to be one of these eleven places.

The more he thought about it, the angrier Yun Yang grew.

The eleven suspects that he had confirmed were all influential and powerful people. They were either royalty, nobles or imperial officials that held great authority!

As he continued to ponder, Yun Yang began to despair.

All of you are of high status, wearing luxurious clothes and having extravagant food; your demands are always indulged. Don't you know that the wealth, position, comfort and the indulgences you revel in now comes hand-in-hand with the lives of the fighting warriors?

Yet when all of you are enjoying these, some of you have become the Four Seasons Tower's accomplice and harmed the meritorious officials. This is an absolute loss of conscience; heartless and without consideration!

Sometimes, even Yun Yang could not understand why such behavior could exist or why such incidents could happen.

Are you not men of Yutang?

Are you even still human?

How could a human being be so shameless?!

"Break through to the fifth peak tonight!" Yun Yang gritted his teeth with resentment. "Charge to the fifth stage of the Fog of Cloud Conjuration and the fourth stage of the Mystique Wind Conjuration!"

"I must find out who the culprit is by tomorrow!"

"If it is indeed one of the nine, I shall destroy him, no matter the cost."

Yun Yang had never suspected His Majesty the emperor, not even in the slightest.

Among all these people, His Majesty the emperor had the least reason to do so.

His sons, however, were a different matter altogether.

Spiritual Qi flowed from all directions.

Yun Yang did not achieve any breakthrough for three continuous days.

Emmie controlled the delivery of the air of vitality with precision, allowing Yun Yang to remain at the border of breakthrough, always with the slightest distance but never really going past it.

Yun Yang turned into the wind as well, working his mystical Qi to its limit every day and only coming back when he had expended his mystical Qi completely. That meant that he was usually exhausted when he returned, to the point of not being able to even stand properly.

However, each recovery after such an extreme depletion and exhaustion had Yun Yang feeling significant improvements. Arduous training under continuous strain and roaming the border of breakthrough, Yun Yang's cultivation foundation managed to turn even more solid.

Yun Yang did not want to drag it on any longer though and wished to forcefully break through.

In this, Emmie was helpless.

According to Emmie, Yun Yang needed at least a day to sustain such extreme depletion and border roaming. It was better to at least make sure that the number of recoveries went up by five to six times.

However, since its owner had made his demand, Emmie could only follow his order.

Mystical Qi gushed from the sky while ferocious refined spiritual Qi arose from Emmie's tendrils...

Yun Yang could feel the already unstable barrier of fifth peak crumbling.

Countless golden stars spun before his eyes as if a universe had exploded in the recesses of his mind. Although his eyes were tightly shut, he could still feel the collapse of heaven and earth before the radiance of a riot of colors shone brightly...

Yun Yang suddenly felt as if his vision became more open, as if he had never noticed and never seen some things that had always been right before his eyes.

It was only after this breakthrough that he realized he had missed out on so much.

It was an inexplicably wonderful atmosphere.

This made Yun Yang think of the words from Supreme Earth who had the highest cultivation base among the brothers - "Only when you've advanced to the fifth peak and see the fifth heaven that you'll feel that you're actually just a frog in the well."

"Before the breakthrough of fifth heaven, you won't even have the self-knowledge of being a frog in the well yourself!"

When Yun Yang had heard of this then, he had only smiled, feeling his eldest had exaggerated.

It was only now that he had the internal realization.

The words rang true, even if they did not completely capture the entire situation.

"Fifth peak..."

Yun Yang took less than a quarter hour to experience such a foreign feeling before he went right into cultivation again, cultivating the Fog of Cloud Conjuration, Mystique Wind Conjuration, Fiery Charm.

Finally, the cultivation had begun!

Yun Yang was in a race against time now. He had to upgrade his cultivation base, ability, and mystique skills in the shortest time possible!

He had to charge forth without a care.

Not only was cultivation his avenue of self-protection, Yun Yang felt that he could be nearer to his brothers whenever he spoke of his feelings regarding the dependence towards each other when they were still together.

The breakthrough of Fog of Cloud Conjuration was an anticipation within his grasp; so was Mystique Wind Conjuration. When his cultivation base reached the required level as did his level, a breakthrough was something expected.

However, the Fiery Charm's cultivation development was a different story altogether.

Even if his cultivation base sufficed, it still needed much effort to break through its initial stage.

The Fiery Charm had not gotten through to the fourth stage even when dawn arrived but Yun Yang was immensely satisfied with his current progress.

His cultivation base had reached the fifth peak. In every sense of the word, he could already be considered an expert.

When compared to the others, he knew this to be true.

His mystical Qi was in the fifth peak and the beginner of fifth heaven while his Fog of Cloud Conjuration was already in the fifth stage; his Mystique Wind Conjuration had also reached the same level Supreme Wind was once in.

Such developments were already enough, sufficiently adequate to handle the current situation.

Yun Yang, whose cultivation base and ability had improved a thousand-fold, went out happily.

...

At the Residence of Crown Prince, the crown prince was still fuming over the disappearance of Shui Yuehan.

After the man had gone missing, the Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter Family kept coming over to provoke him. Furthermore, his mood was already bad after being grounded.

In the midst of being lambasted by the noble families but having to reply with courtesy, the crown prince grew even moodier, frustrated to death.

"Shui Yuehan. I really don't understand him. He is normally rather intelligent, how could he do something so foolish?"

As His Highness thought of it, his anger began to simmer once again.

"He would have been fine once dawn came around, but he escaped before the sunrise! Does threat short amount of time matter that much?" Anger and confusion were written all over His Highness the crown prince's face. "Is he not finding fault with no basis to do so?"

"Your Highness." A kind and gentle elder with silver hair and beard beside the crown prince suddenly looked up and said softly, "This old and useless one has a different opinion regarding this matter."

"I beg your pardon?"

"It as been some time since this has happened." The elder said slowly, "If Shui Yuehan is not dead, he would have contacted us. However, he did not."

"We would never have betrayed him or given him up without cause. Shui Yuehan has been loyal to the residence for years and he is an intelligent man. There's absolutely no reason for him to do such a thing."

The silver-bearded elder said softly, "Therefore, this old and useless one thinks that Shui Yuehan is most probably already dead. Furthermore, I believe that he's already dead before the prison break took place."

"There is someone else who has created the illusion of a prison break!"

"Fu Guansan as well... he should have been dead already!"

"Someone has set up all these!"

The white-bearded elder said in grief, "Otherwise, all that has happened has no explanation."

"Besides, if Shui Yuehan really did escape from jail, he had no need to ambush the popinjays. That is a clear example of finding fault where there was none to be found. If he wanted to flee and live in the corners of the world, why offend Spring, Summer, and Winter Family first? He should know that attacking those three at this point in time meant making a lifelong grudge with the families! There would be no other way out. The so-called merits of having mercy and not killing them was only a means of camouflage. It was easy to get once you thought about it. It was simply a tactic to deepen the resentment between Shui Yuehan and the popinjays, making them irreconcilable!"

His Highness was growing increasingly pale. "Dead? Is there no other possibility?"

The white-bearded elder said with conviction, "It's most probably so. Shui Yuenhan and Han Wufei are sworn, brothers. They are so close that it's not an exaggeration to say they share life and death. Both of them have roamed the martial arts world for years before coming to serve in this residence. If Shui Yuehan isn't dead, even if he was wary about telling us, he would definitely tell Han Wufei."

Standing beside them, handsome Han Wufei was wearing a sad expression. "Brother Shui must have been harmed! Your Highness, you must stand up for Brother Shui. You can't let him die wronged and bear such a wrongful crime. Prison break is a heinous crime!"

The crown prince sat down slowly and said, "If Shui Yuehan was really killed in the Board of Death, who could have done the deed?"

The silver-bearded man sat down in silence, his eyes drifting towards the other aides. The others did not speak but stared right back at him, as if imploring him to proceed.

"This old and useless one shall start at the beginning, the others will fill up the blanks later." The elder smiled rather helplessly and said, "This old and useless one thinks that there are only a handful of targets in the open for the person who killed both Shui Yuehan and Fu Guansan."

That certainly caught everyone's attention.

"The third prince is the most suspicious of the lot. Shui Yuehan is someone important in our residence. His death would undoubtedly cause considerable damage to the residence's abilities. With the onset of this incident, the crown prince would be going against Board of Justice as well as forging grudge with Spring, Autumn, and Winter Family - making a number of formidable enemies without much reason. The third prince, however, has nothing to do with it and would be perfectly unaffected, so there are only pros without cons."

"Of course, using the same intention, the fourth prince, fifth prince, and sixth prince are possible candidates too."

"The reason the third prince is the most suspicious is that he is the most favored royal currently. Once Your Highness loses your power and influence, he shall have the most gain."

"Other than the princes, the people from the four noble families are suspicious too. Even the two old marshals from the military are to be suspected."

"Perhaps I should put it this way - any person or influential figure that stands to gain from this incident shares a certain amount of suspicion. The only difference is the level of suspicion and how much gain they would get."

"As for Board of Justice that was in the center of this whirlpool and received the first wave of impact in a terrible manner, well, they were the one with the least suspicion."

The elder looked wise and confident in his knowledge as if everything was within his grasp.