Zhan Qi was stunned at the moment, but soon he crouched down to gently tear that piece of skin off with his hand.

Those two people behind him saw that and questioned, "Guard Zhan, this is..."

Before they finished, Zhan Qi interrupted them, hinting that they should keep quiet.

Right at this time, Zhan Qi had already torn the whole piece of skin off. As expected, the face under the skin looked different.

Then, Zhan Qi tore off the skin on the other dead body.

His two fellows couldn't help but frown and look at each other with doubt. Why did these dead bodies look different after the skin was torn off?

Zhan Qi stood up and snorted when staring at the skin in his hand.

One of his fellows first looked at the skin and then turned to the two corpses lying in the pit. He asked, "Guard Zhan, what's going on? How..."

"It’s the face disguise technique." Zhan Qi explained when looking at the skin in his hand.

The other two people frowned at his words and asked together, "The face disguise technique?"

"Yes. I indeed had heard about Dongling people's face disguise technique. But I didn't expect that the human-skin mask could look so real that even I was almost tricked." Zhan Qi continued with his eyebrows knitted.

One of his fellows asked, "What should we do next?"

"Search the surrounding area," ordered Zhan Qi who closed his eyes for a while and then opened them.

Soon, they spread out to search around.

As Zhan Qi expected, they found a broken carriage in the nearby furrow.

Gifts prepared for the Empress Dowager of Dongling were scattered everywhere.

Seeing that, Zhan Qi couldn't help but frown. Infanta Qingcheng seemed to have found out their plan of killing her a long time ago. Unexpectedly, she should have prepared for this in advance.

Again, Zhan Qi frowned at this thought. But it didn't make sense, for the emperor didn't order to kill her until the banquet. Could Infanta Qingcheng foretell things?

But everything showed that she had made preparations for this by hiding two disguised people in her carriage. So they didn't notice anything wrong.

If so, Infanta Qingcheng must have come up with this escape plan a long time ago. The only purpose was to stay in Beiling.

Thinking of that, Zhan Qi realized something went wrong. If his guess was right, Infanta Qingcheng and her fellows must have come back to Jing City. Immediately, he put the two pieces of skin into his breast pocket and turned around to order, "Go. Let's go back to report to His Majesty."

Zhan Qi mounted the horse while speaking and set off to Jing City first.

In the meantime, Yan Ji was waiting in the palace. But after a long time, Zhan Qi still didn't come back. Thus, he got a bad feeling.

People who followed Zhan Qi to carry out the mission already came back this morning.

He had asked them about how everything was going. They reported that Infanta Qingcheng had been killed, but Zhan Qi returned to that town just when they arrived at the gate.

This made Yan Ji rather worried because it meant there must be something wrong. Or, Zhan Qi would not get back.

With that thought in his mind, Yan Ji started to move around in his room.

Right at this time, Zhan Qi walked in and knelt to Yan Ji to greet him, "Your Majesty."

"Just get up. Tell me, how's everything going?" Yan Ji quickly walked to Zhan Qi and asked when seeing him.

Zhan Qi stood up and reported with his hands cupped, "Your Majesty, I doubt that Infanta Qingcheng had long prepared for the assassination."

"Had long prepared? What do you mean? But your men who came back earlier told me that you killed her." Yan Ji frowned and asked with doubt.

Zhan Qi then took out the skin he put into his pocket before and unfolded it before Yan Ji. "Your Majesty, please have a look."

"What's this?" said Yan Ji who put some wrinkles in his eyebrows after taking a look.

Zhan Qi explained, "These are two pieces of human skin. The woman we killed is an impostor wearing the human-skin mask, so the real infanta has escaped."

"The face disguise technique?" Yan Ji was shocked by his words. He had heard about this trick, but he didn't know Infanta Qingcheng could play it.

Thinking of that, Yan Ji quickly asked, "Where is she? Where does she head to?"

"On my way back, I realized that it was too easy for us to kill her. So I got back to that town. As expected, I detected something wrong. So, I followed the trace and found the dead body of a woman who was disguised as Infanta Qingcheng. Also, I found the carriage they left nearby." Zhan Qi reported to Yan Ji.

Yan Ji squinted after hearing that.

Seeing that, Zhan Qi continued, "Your Majesty, I doubt that Infanta Qingcheng had long prepared for this. I'm afraid that she still has other purposes..."

"No need to be afraid. Isn't she poisoned? That kind of poison shows no sign at the beginning, but it will gradually erode her organs. When she finds out that she's poisoned, it will be too late then." Yan Ji interrupted before Zhan Qi finished his words.

He had asked people to sprinkle the poisonous powder, namely Daytime Powder, on the gifts for her before sending them to her.

As long as people breathed the powder in, it would get into their bodies without being detected. But when it was detected, the poisoned people were already doomed to die.

Hearing that, Zhan Qi cupped his hands and apologized, "Sorry, Your Majesty. I shouldn't worry too much. I didn't finish my task perfectly this time. I'll take any punishment!"

"Such being the case, I won't blame you for this. I assume that there are some other reasons why she used this trick, in addition to avoiding being killed. I suspect that she's still in Beiling now. Send more people to search every house and find out why she stays here," ordered Yan Ji who turned around and looked at Zhan Qi.

Right when Yan Ji finished, Zhan Qi quickly cupped his hands and responded, "Yes, Your Majesty. I will do it right now!"

While speaking, he was about to walk out of the room.

"Wait." Yan Ji stopped him.

So he stopped and turned around to ask, "Your Majesty, what else can I do for you?"

"Close the gate and lock the whole city. People are only allowed to get out. Don't let anyone get in!" Yan Ji ordered again.

"Yes." Zhan Qi answered and then walked out.

When he left, Yan Ji closed his eyes and recalled the dream he had that night.

No matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't figure out why Infanta Qingcheng stayed in Beiling.

He would ask her when finding her.

At the same time, Yang Zijin and her fellows already stopped at the place Liu Ling mentioned.

"Madam, are you sure this is the place that we look for?" Jiang Wei looked around and asked with doubt, after finding this place was close to a bustling street.

Yang Zijin nodded and answered, "Yes, it is. We followed the direction Liu Ling told us to track down this place. And he also mentioned the two rocks before the door."

"If so, please allow me to have a check first." Jiang Wei looked at Yang Zijin and suggested.

Yang Zijin nodded.

So Jiang Wei walked to gently knock at the door, but no one answered.

Jiang Wei knocked again.

Then, an old man in his late years opened the door and asked when seeing Jiang Wei, "Miss, what can I do for you?"

Seeing that, Jiang Wei looked back at Yang Zijin with her eyebrows slightly knitted.

Yang Zijin started to throw doubt on her assumption, too. Was this really the destination they looked for? She walked forward and looked at the old man. "Sir, do you..."

"Your Highness, why are you here? Come in, please." The old man interrupted before Yang Zijin posed her question. Then he dragged her into the house.

The old man looked at Yang Zijin and said, "Your Highness, their people are everywhere now. Why did you come here without telling us? Besides, why haven't I met those people outside?"

While speaking, he glanced at Jiang Wei and other people.

Yang Zijin was confused. The old man might have mistaken her for someone else, and she was about to explain.

However, she heard a voice coming from behind, "Infanta Qingcheng, you're finally here. I've been waiting for you all the time."

Looking back, Yang Zijin saw Liu Ling.

Hearing Liu Ling called Yang Zijin "Infanta Qingcheng", that old man became surprised and asked, "You are not Infanta Wanchu?"

"Uncle Lyu, this is Infanta Qingcheng. But she indeed looks very like Wanchu. You may not be able to tell the difference if not having a close look, just like what I did when I first met her." Liu Ling explained with a smile.

Hearing that, Uncle Lyu was a bit embarrassed. Then he looked at Yang Zijin and apologized, "Sorry, Your Highness."

"That's fine." Yang Zijin smilingly shook her head. Liu Ling's explanation really made her want to meet Wanchu to see whether they two looked alike.

Runyu who stood before the door heard their conversation and was in a trance.

He wouldn't care much if the two of them just looked alike. But he heard Uncle Lyu mentioned Infanta Wanchu.

Runyu was thrilled at his words. Maybe, Infanta Wanchu was right his girl, the one who he was looking for.

Looking at the outside, Liu Ling said, "Everyone, please come in."

Pei Moning walked to Runyu and patted him with his hand. He said, "Let's get in first."

Hearing Uncle Lyu mentioned Wanchu, Pei Moning was also shocked, and soon he turned to Runyu. Runyu had looked for Wanchu for years. Now he finally got a piece of information about her whereabouts. So he would inevitably get excited.

Runyu nodded and followed to walk into the courtyard.

When all walked in, Liu Ling then led them to the room.

There wasn't much furniture in the room. Noticing that, Yang Zijin frowned and questioned, "This is..."

"Of course not. This is merely our liaison office where we can stay if we have to perform any task in town." Liu Ling answered before Yang Zijin finished.

Yang Zijin nodded and asked again, "Where are my aunt and other people?"

"They're out of town. I was going to inform Your Highness that I would meet you there. But I didn't get a chance to do so these days, so I can only wait for you here." Liu Ling explained.

Then Yang Zijin posed another question, "How's everything going?"

"Your Highness, don't worry. Everything's ready. Her Highness will set off to the Arctic Mountain once you've arrived." Liu Ling continued.

Yang Zijin nodded.

Right at this time, they heard some noise coming from the town center.

Liu Ling slightly frowned and said to Uncle Lyu near the door, "Uncle Lyu, can you go outside to check what happened?"

"No problem. I'll go right now." Uncle Lyu answered and then went out.

After a short while, he went back.