After it left the mansion, the coach took a few turns in Inner District Two of Ji City, traveled through a few main streets and alleys, then went past the city gate and came to Inner District Three, where it again took another few turns. And finally, it went straight to Inner District One from a city gate located on the East.
Along the way, Wu Qi had changed into a few different set of clothes. While following closely behind the coach, he couldn't help but shake his head. Compared to Taba Ao, it seemed Princess Ying Chuan was rather inexperienced. In order to shake off any possible trailing spies, she purposely took many detours in the city, and tried her best in taking those remote streets and alleys which were rarely traveled by anybody. However, when a shabby coach like hers was seen traveling alone aimlessly within the inner city, it actually attracted more attention than it should.
As the coach was traveling aimlessly within the inner city, there was nothing unusual that was worth Wu Qi's suspicions. However, Wu Qi was shocked when he saw Princess Ying Chuan's coach going straight into Inner District One, the city area adjoining the Imperial City. After all, the residents in Inner District One were the core members of Imperial Clan of Great Yan Dynasty, such as the Eight Princes, or those members of Imperial Clan who were more senior than them. By coming straight into Inner District One, could Princess Ying Chuan have some kind of a secret relationship with core members of Imperial Clan?
The coach went westward and pressed on the journey along the Green Swallow Street in Inner District One for a few miles. Then, it turned in an alleyway on the side of the main street - the Green Cloud Alleyway, where it finally halted.
It was an incredibly difficult task to tail after Princess Ying Chuan in Inner District One. Not only was the street filled with patrolling city guards, but there were also more than a couple of Sky Patrolling Eagle Guards wheeling overhead, casting a watchful eye on the ground at all times. In addition to that, numerous private guards of Imperial Clans were coming in and out from different mansions. Whenever there was a stranger found on the street, he would immediately be questioned by these private guards. In the end, left with no other choice, Wu Qi was forced to use the escape art of Earth element, hiding underground while continuing following behind Princess Ying Chuan's coach.
He noticed there was a small token of a shield on the coach of Princess Ying Chuan. All the city guards along the way had also seen it, and that was why they didn't bar the coach from traveling further. If not because of that token, how could she come into Inner District One with a shabby coach like this?
The coach halted before the side door of a great mansion. The distance between this side door and the main entrance was almost one and a half miles. The mansion covered an enormous piece of land, much larger than the mansion of Yu Xuan. While remaining hidden underground, Wu Qi sent out his divine sense and surveyed the plaque hung on top of the side door. It was a small plaque of nearly one foot in length, with three calligraphies engraved on it: 'Mansion of Prince Ren'. (仁王府)
The Prince of Ren, Yan Xianchen, one of the Eight Princes of Great Yan Dynasty. Like Yan Heluo, he was also one of the lineage great-grandsons of Yan Dan. However, Yan Xianchen was much older than Yan Heluo, and among all Eight Princes of Great Yan Dynasty, he was the one with the most senior record of service, as he had been holding the position of Prince of Ren for five hundred years. He had also attained the cultivation of Gold Core realm. He was the Prince who had the highest prestige among all Eight Princes.
Among all the men who held the true power in Great Yan Dynasty, although in terms of seniority Yu Xuan was in the rank of the grandson of Yan Dan, when it came to their age, this Prince of Ren, Yan Xianchen, was the oldest among all of them. He had been building up his career in Great Yan Dynasty for over few hundred years. Except for the Crown Prince Yan Qijun, and the Emperor Yan Dan, who could suppress his power, he was the most powerful man in the Imperial Court. All the other Princes who governed the affairs of the state had to work hand in hand only to stand equal to Yan Xianchen.
Evidently, among all Three Prime Counselors and Nine Ministers of Great Yan Dynasty, except the Central-Prime-Counselors, Gao Jianli, who had been following Yan Dan since the establishment of the dynasty, the other two Left and Right Prime Counselor, together with Minister of Criminal and Justice, Minister of War, and a few other important ministers, were all students of Yan Xianchen. Throughout the history of a few hundred years their interests had been tangled into a messy state. Thus, the power that Prince of Ren held currently was beyond the imagination of any ordinary person; it was simply enormous.
In a trance, Wu Qi had his divine sense scanning over and over on the three golden calligraphies engraved on the plaque. He did not read it wrong, this place was the indeed mansion of Prince of Ren. Could Princess Ying Chuan really have a relationship with Yan Xianchen? Or perhaps, she was just having a contact with someone else residing in the mansion? Wu Qi had no idea what Qin Qingshui told Princess Ying Chuan, but he knew Qin Qingshui was asking her to go look for Yu Xuan the Duke of Yanxing. But surprisingly, she actually came straight to Yan Xianchen, the Prince of Ren. This had given Wu Qi quite a fright.
Since she was looking for Yan Xianchen, then why was she taking such a detour just now? Was she trying to play trick with somebody?
The curtain on the door stirred, as Princess Ying Chuan came through the door and out from the coach. She held her head high up, and with both arms carried by two serving ladies, she walked straight towards the side door of Prince Ren's Mansion. In front of the door stood an Imperial Eunuch, clad in a bright red robe, waiting for her arrival together with a few little eunuchs who looked younger than ten years old. When the Imperial Eunuch, who appeared to hold an important position in Prince Ren's Mansion, saw the arrival of Princess Ying Chuan, a bright smile immediately bloomed on his face as he hastily bowed and bid his greeting to the guest.
"Were there any activities just now?" asked Princess Ying Chuan with an indifferent voice, as she had her head still held high up.
"We did find a few fools who tried to follow Princess, but they have been thrown into the city moat by now." said the Imperial Eunuch hurriedly. "Five of them were secret agents of Xian Kingdom, and seven were from Scouting Office. Nevertheless, all of them are now lying with their mouth shut in the depth of the river, and will never cause any trouble to you. Rest assured, my Princess, except for those who were supposed to know of your arrival, no one will never know that you've come here."
Princess Ying Chuan nodded her head. Then, she stretched her finger out and gently scratched on the eunuch's chin while giggling, before going past the side door.
Wu Qi was about to follow Princess Ying Chuan and enter Prince Ren's Mansion. But to his surprise, he saw that Imperial Eunuch, who was supposed to have his little brother castrated and not have any feelings towards woman, was gulping down a lump in his throat and casting a lustful look over at Princess Ying Chuan's twisting and swaying butt while wearing a strange smile on his face and following behind. What kind of eunuch was this? Obviously, he was a burly man beaming with lustful desire!
"Weird, this is really weird!" Wu Qi muttered to himself, then hastily entered Prince Ren's Mansion from underground.
Yan Xianchen, the Prince of Ren, had proven himself to be the most senior Prince who governed the state affairs of Great Yan Dynasty. His mansion was heavily guarded from inside out. From the ground up to the air were all protected with layers upon layers of defensive arrays. While Wu Qi was traveling underground at a distance nearly one hundred feet below the mansion, he discovered that the entire mansion was tightly protected with three layers of Arrays of Nine Halls, even under the ground. Furthermore, it was obvious that there were Masters of Arrays controlling these arrays, as waves of powerful energy kept circulating and flowing underground, watching for any possible activities at all times.
But for Wu Qi, a defensive mechanism consisting of three-layered Arrays of Nine Halls was too simple and crude. Although the Master of Array who constructed this defensive array was someone with the cultivation of peak Gold Core realm, the Master of Array who was stationed here merely had the cultivation base of beginner Gold Core realm. As a result, the arrays could only unleash thirty percent of its supposed strength, as there were many leaks of energy during its circulation. By extracting a great deal of Earth element energies from his surrounding and shrouding himself in them, Wu Qi was able to penetrate these three layers of defensive arrays with ease.
He even had the leisure to send his divine sense through the formation, peeping at the Master of Array who was controlling this formation.
The Master of Array was a Human Immortal of Gold Core realm, and was stationed in a tall pagoda located at the heart of the mansion. It was a pagoda with nine floors, which was used to communicate with a total of nine defensive formations scattered above and under the entire Prince Ren's Mansion, the core to the defensive mechanism of the mansion. The Human Immortal with a dark complexion was now sitting on the ground floor of the pagoda, wearing a serious expression as he formed a finger gesture to control the functioning of all nine formations. Due to the limitation of his cultivation and the knowledge in controlling the formation, he didn't detect that Wu Qi had entered the mansion.
Wu Qi sneered, then continued following closely behind Princess Ying Chuan and came to the backyard of Prince Ren's Mansion.
The size of this backyard was at least three times larger than Lu Chengfeng's backyard. It was filled with lush growth of trees and grass. Finely built abodes were seen scattered and hiding here and there under the trees and behind the grass. It was a secluded and quiet place. Princess Ying Chuan was now walking along a little passage paved with golden shells, and it seemed she was very familiar with this place. At last, she came to an abode surrounded by a small steam. It was entirely built using some strange rocks, half-transparent and aking a pink hue, giving it an air of magnificence and luxury, yet mixed with a tiny bit feeling of lust.
Carefully, Wu Qi wormed his way through underground and came into the abode, then came back up to the surface inside of a strange shaped artificial hill, riddled with big and small holes. It happened that there was a tiny space within this artificial hill that could fit Wu Qi perfectly, and through the countless fist-sized holes on it, Wu Qi could have a clear glimpse at the surroundings.
Wu Qi peered out though one of the holes, and what he saw made him draw in a sharp cold breath.
At the forefront of this abode was a courtyard paved with palm-sized red jade stones. A masculine man, who stood over eight feet tall, his skin as fair as the purest snow and his face was handsome but giving off an air of evil, was seen standing naked. A large wheel, with the diameter of three feet, and made of pure gold, was slipped over his little brother, and with his nose in the air, he was turning the wheel at a great speed with both hands.
Without even asking, the wheel made entirely from pure gold was extremely heavy. Yet, the little brother of the man was still erecting straight up. Acting like the axle, his little brother was inserted at the center of the wheel, while the wheel was spinning fast and making whistling noises. A large amount of fire sparks kept flying off from the spot where his little brother was rubbing against the wheel. However not only did it not hurt at all, but it was also the pure gold wheel that was being scratched by him.
A group of beautiful girls, whose every movement carried a strong air of enchantment, had surrounded the courtyard. They were fixing their gaze straight at the erect little brother of the man while applauding and cheering at the same time. "Our Hierarch is such an amazing man! Our Hierarch is getting stronger and manlier!"
Wu Qi had his teeth shivering upon looking at the man. Unconsciously he touched his little brother, then he kept shaking his head while twitching his lips. Having his little brother slipped into a wheel made entirely from pure gold, and having it spun at such a high speed? How could that be described as 'manly'? It was simply an extraordinary innate talent, a psycho among all the psychos!
Suddenly, the historical record related to someone that was stored in Le Xiaobai's memory was pouring into Wu Qi's mind.
'Although Qin Shi Huang [1] was growing older, the promiscuous life of Queen Dowager did not seem to stop. Lu Buwei [2] feared that the incident would fall through and stand exposed, which would lead him to great calamity. So, he secretly found a man with an extra large d*ck - Lao Ai [3], and made him his hanger-on. Frequently, Lu Buwei would arrange shows of dance and music, and order Lao Ai to have his d*ck wear a large wooden wheel and make it spun. Then, Lu Buwei would find ways to let Queen Dowager hear about this performance, hoping she would be attracted by Lao Ai. When Queen Dowager eventually got to know about this man, as expected, she did want to own this man secretly. Therefore, Lu Buwei gave Lao Ai to her, but pretended he had committed a crime that should be punished with castration.' [4]
'To have his d*ck wear a large wooden wheel and make it spin', in the history, except for the infamous fake eunuch - Lao Ai, who else could have accomplished such an incredible deed?
Lao Ai, this man must be him. When he was still a mortal, he was able to spin a wooden wheel like a toy with his d*ck. As of now, he should be possessing a cultivation similar to Yan Dan and Jing Ke, thus, making his innate ability even more incredible. The wheel made from wood was not heavy enough. So, using a wheel made entirely from pure gold to show off his ability was the right way for him.
Wu Qi narrowed his eyes, then he carefully surveyed this Lao Ai from the corner of his eyes. For some unknown reasons, when Wu Qi saw this guy, it felt like as if he was looking at a cobra who was spitting venoms ou from its mouth. Instinctively, he felt threatened by this man.
At this moment, Princess Ying Chuan came into the courtyard, bent her knees and knelt down on the ground. Then, she kowtowed smilingly towards Lao Ai and bid her greeting.
"Your humble servant, Ying Chuan, offers greeting to the mighty Immortal, the Hierarch of Great Sun, my lord Lao Ai!"
The voice of Princess Ying Chuan was delicate and indolent, and carried an enchanting air that could penetrate right into one's marrow.
[1] Qin Shi Huang - The founder of the Qin Dynasty and was first emperor of a unified China. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang)
[2] Lu Buwei - A politician of the Qin State in the Warring States period of ancient China. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lü_Buwei)
[3] Lao Ai - An imposter eunuch and official of the State of Qin during the late Warring States period. He was the lover of Queen Dowager Zhao, the mother of Qin Shi Huang. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_Ai)
[4] This was an excerpt from the 'Records of the Grand Historian’, or usually known as the 'Historic Records' (史记) (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Records_of_the_Grand_Historian)
TL thought: I hope you can read the source of the above characters, as it helps you understand the relationship of the characters in the story.