At the cold night, imperial doctors kept coming in and out of the side hall.

The empress fell from the three-meter-high golden estrade and got her head injured. After rigorous diagnosis and a series of treatments such as acupuncture, although she was still alive, she was unconscious and could not turn sober.

Just now, she vomited two more mouthfuls of blood.

Sulian and two maids stood in front of the bed, crying silently.

Huanan Jiyan, the Fourth Princess, knelt and sat on her feet. Her makeup was messed up by tears.

She clasped Empress Qian’s hand tightly, crying and begging with sorrow.

"Mother, mother, please open your eyes to look at me... I will no longer make you angry. I will no longer speak loudly to you. I will study royal etiquette seriously... Mother, please wake up..."

Smelling the scent of sweetgum mixed with sandalwood, Huanan Jiyan suddenly turned her head and saw Emperor Jingxiao who was surrounded by the crowd.

The girl's eyes were full of tears. She desperately grasped the man's robe with both hands and cried so sorrowfully like a poor little beast.

"Father... Father... When will mother wake up... I'm so worried about her..."

Emperor Jingxiao approached the bed step by step, seeing the woman on the bed with closed eyes. Some white hair could be seen at her messy temples.

He suddenly had a bad headache, as if there were countless steel needles piercing through his skull and constantly stirring his brain.

Huanan Jiyan paid all her attention to her mother.

In the past, she always disliked her mother's nagging, and she never listened to her mother.

But at this moment, her mother was lying on the bed with closed eyes silently. She felt the panic and helplessness she had never had before.

Suddenly, Huanan Jiyan did not dare to imagine what life would be like without her mother.

"Father, it was Wan Yuyao. It was Wan Yuyao who hurt my mother..."

The girl's head drooped. She stared fiercely at a certain point, and her sleeves were gripped by her fingers with hideous dents.

"Wan Yuyao hurt my mother..." She said.

"The b**ch Wan Yuyao coveted the position of Empress a long time ago. It must be her family... They killed Concubine Xu, and they also tried to harm Concubine Yu and my seventh brother!"

With his body shaking violently, the Emperor covered his head with his hands.

"Your Majesty!"

Everyone noticed that something was wrong and rushed forward.

Emperor Jingxiao was sweating profusely, and he murmured.

"That map... It's really weird!"

Yu Xuanji stepped forward to help him. The outer corners of his eyes were slightly raised, as if he had been smiling lightly.

"Your Majesty, you should take a Jindan Pill now."

The Emperor looked somewhat relieved. He instantly thought of the only thing that could save his life.

"Right, right, I still have the Jindan Pill. I will be okay! High Priest, go to Sixiang Hut with me soon. After I recover, I will try the case of Wan personally!"

Leng Qingtang and several important officials stood outside the hall and waited. Seeing Yu Xuanji supported the emperor out, he exchanged a look with him, and then he knew that the thing was almost done.

The honor guards seemed to be heading towards the Elixir Chamber, so then, the pills secretly refined by Yu Xuanji would come to use.

Only the Eastern Depot and Yu Xuanji knew that the Kunhuang Island map presented by Wan Li was indeed the real one. It was the Eastern Depot that take actions secretly. On the one hand, they made the emperor lose faith in the Wan clan. On the other hand, they made those who coveted the Kunhuang Island map focus on the real fake map.

Leng Qingtang planned this a few months ago. At that time, Lei Huan and Wu Yong burned the Dao temple and hid from Peng County all the way to Nanyuan in order to avoid the Eastern Depot’s arrest. While it had been reported to Leng Qingtang already by the secret guards of the Eastern Depot.

Leng Qingtang adopted a long-term plan to secure the big fruit deliberately, and finally he confirmed that the real Kunhuang Island map was held by Wan Li. The following night, he arranged for the seventh captain to lead people to sneak into the Shenle Marquis' Mansion in Nanyuan to scatter a kind of Gu Poison called "Wangyou" on the real map.

It was named "Wangyou" because Gu Worms loved to eat the fruit of "Wangyou", namely poppy, so much. In the pills that Yu Xuanji had refined for the emperor over the years, a certain amount of poppy had been added in them.

Poppy, also known as afyuni, was the red flower with a peculiar scent that Gu Yunxi saw in the Pengxian Temple back then.

In the days to come, Gu Worms would be at work in the emperor's body. He had to take a large amount of Jindan Pills to feed the Gu Worms, and his body would naturally not last many days.

The emperor went to sit in meditation and take pills, and the officials didn't need to wait here anymore, so they dispersed.

Leng Qingtang turned around and saw Ai Qing walking to him quickly with a solemn expression on his face. Then he realized something and frowned.

"What's wrong? Isn’t Yunxi with you?"

Ai Qing's face turned pale, and he whispered in the ear of the Master.

After hearing this, Leng Qingtang was shocked and scolded.

"Go to look for her quickly!"

Ai Qing lowered his head, "I have already sent two teams of guards..."

Leng Qingtang's face changed, and he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

"With Yunxi's current kungfu, she shouldn't be caught easily..."

Suddenly he figured it out. His handsome face turned gloomy and cold with anger and a bit of distress on it.

Giving a flick of his sleeves, Leng Qingtang said while he was walking, with his hands crossed behind.

"Ridiculous! I'll find her back by myself!"

...

The sky turned white slowly, and the red sun was about to break through the darkness at dawn.

In the Western Depot.

The dark cell was not very big and the dirty walls were hung with various torture instruments. The winding iron chains were rusty, and the air was full of fishy smell.

Ming Lan covered his mouth and nose with the handkerchief, and sat leisurely on the rose chair, staring at the half-man-high large porcelain jar five meters away.

There was a person in the jar, who was brutally chopped off her limbs by the guards of the Western Depot a few hours ago and sunk into the porcelain jar.

At this moment, she was still unconscious. Her cold head drooped at the mouth of the jar, and her long and filthy hair was wrapped in coagulated blood, hanging messily on the ground.

In order to prevent her from biting her tongue and committing suicide after waking up, Ming Lan ordered someone to place an iron support in her mouth so that she could not open and close her mouth at will all day long.

Hearing the movements at the mouth of the jar, Ming Lan showed an evil smile and dropped the handkerchief, playing with his nails casually.

"You wake up?" He asked playfully.

The girl's eyes that had lost their brilliance opened weakly, and they were full of panic. She kept making resentful and dismal groans. Due to the severe pain, her body was trembling violently.

Ming Lan chuckled, got up slowly and walked up to her, watching her fright and pain with cold eyes.

"Tu Muxue, listen carefully to me. You are blind now. After arriving at the Western Depot, I ordered someone to chop off your arms and legs. From now on, this jar will be your home."

"There are healing and antiseptic agents in the jar, and I will serve you three meals every day. There will be someone pouring the soup and minced meat into your mouth. So it is not a problem to make you last to the day to exchange your face with Yunxi."

Probably recognizing Ming Lan's location through his voice, Tu Muxue immediately targeted at him with a sullen expression, as if she was extremely angry. She made angry groans in her throat more and more quickly.

If she could still speak freely, she would definitely hurl all kinds of abuse at Ming Lan and all his family.

Ming Lan walked back and forth around the jar twice, stopped in front of the girl, and snorted coldly.

"I know what you want to say. You must be scolding me for being stupid. She hates me so much, but I still help her. You don't understand. I just love her..."

Putting his index finger on his chest, he continued.

"I feel so happy to be able to do something for her!"

He remembered the past in an instant.

He remembered the day when he first saw her. Her eyes were so brilliant like stars. She looked at him blankly and shyly when he was holding her hand, not knowing what to do...

His eyes gradually became deep, filled with traces of sadness.

Ming Lan turned around with self-mockery and then sighed.

A little eunuch ran in panic.

"Master, something serious happened in the Palace. The Shenle Marquis was taken into the central prison of Court of Judicial Review, and the army of the capital has surrounded Lord Shen's Mansion and the Marquis's Mansion of Nanyuan."

Ming Lan was not in panic at all when he heard the news. Instead, he smiled with a relieved expression.

"You'll get what you deserve one day ... "

Behind him, Tu Muxue burst out weird and gloomy voices again and again, like a reckless mockery.

Ming Lan raised his hand, straightened the top hat on his head, and instructed the little eunuch.

"Arrange someone to take care of her. Remember to change the decoction in the jar every two days. Go to prepare a carriage for me. I'll go to the Palace."

The little eunuch was shocked and said in a trembling voice.

"Master, you can't go to the Palace now!"

Ming Lan smiled in a poised manner.

"I can't avoid what will come certainly. I don't plan to come back this time. Go to prepare."

The little eunuch pressed his lips tightly, and even his nose turned red. Looking at the Master, he ran out quickly.

With the carriage ready, Ming Lan wore a cloak to lead people out of the gate of the Western Depot.

Suddenly one person stopped Ming Lan in front of him, who was in an official white suit of guards with a haggard face.

Ming Lan was shocked, grabbed his upper garment, and asked angrily.

"An, didn't I let you leave far away? Why you come back?"

An Hong smiled lightly. His smiling face was reflected in the sunshine of early morning, and his brows and eyes looked particularly handsome.

"Master, I can't leave you. You always worry about Miss Yun, and I always worry about you, so I come back to accompany you."

Seeing his wet eyes, Ming Lan turned dumb for a while, and his eyes turned hot.

He hurriedly turned away, blinked vigorously, and then patted An Hong's thin shoulder with a slightly bitter smile on his face.

"Good boy, I finally didn't treat you well in vain. Let's get in the carriage!"