Ji Youzhi, unaware of the inner thoughts of the National Master and the Emperor, immediately moved to kneel and pay his respects.
The young Emperor hastily waved him off. "No need, no need. We’re brothers, after all. There’s no need for such formality. Tell me, how’s the case coming along?"
Ji Youzhi blinked, then asked the question that had been nagging at him.
"Your Majesty, my eight-hundred-li express dispatch only departed yesterday. How did you arrive today?"
The young Emperor was momentarily speechless.
Damn it! They truly were brothers, asking the exact same question!
"If I told you that I left the Palace to travel south on a secret tour the moment you departed, and just happened to end up here, would you believe me?"
Ji Youzhi was silent. He didn’t believe a word of it!
There wasn’t a single emperor in the world who wasn’t cunning.
Though he didn’t believe it in his heart, he said with a straight face, "What a coincidence."
"Yes! It truly is a coincidence," the young Emperor emphasized.
"Why did only you come?
Where are your elder brothers?
Why didn’t they come?
And your sixth brother, is he at home?"
HEH HEH. Indeed, one doesn’t visit a temple without a cause. It seemed he was after my sixth brother’s skills!
"Unfortunately, my sixth brother did not return home," Ji Youzhi said without hesitation.
"He didn’t come back?" The young Emperor’s voice suddenly rose. "Didn’t you say your mother sent a letter calling all you brothers home?"
He’d overheard Ji Youzhi let it slip back then, which was why he had followed him south. He had come specifically to find this elusive Sixth Brother Ji!
"Your Majesty! Have you been spying on me?"
"I... I didn’t! You told me yourself when you came to the Palace to bid farewell. Don’t you remember?"
HEH HEH. Ji Youzhi, still claiming I wasn’t surveilling him—hadn’t he just given himself away?
"Enough of that. I ask you, in your memorial, you mentioned these missing children might be part of Nanjiang’s schemes. Is that true? Should I issue an edict for Grand General Xu to dispatch troops?"
Ji Youzhi’s mouth twitched upon hearing the Emperor’s words.
"By the time your edict arrives, it’ll be too late. The day after tomorrow is Nanjiang’s Great Sacrificial Ceremony, the time for reversing national fortunes. If we ask Grand General Xu now, when would the army even arrive?"
"What did you say?
What sacrifice?
What reversal?"
The young Emperor grew inexplicably anxious. The amount of information Ji Youzhi had unloaded in just a few sentences was overwhelming, and he needed a moment to process it.
"Your Majesty, please calm down. I believe Lord God Hunter might still have some things he hasn’t clarified!"
The National Master, outwardly calm and unhurried, gave Ji Youzhi a cool glance. On the surface, he was perfectly composed, but inside, he was panicking intensely.
Damn it! He was the National Master of Great Han Country! And now Ji Youzhi was telling him that the Dragon Vein was about to be stolen and the nation’s destiny overturned. His position as National Master felt utterly useless.
"Did I not make myself clear?" Ji Youzhi scratched his head, thought for a moment, and decided to explain from the beginning.
"It’s like this: I was ordered by Your Majesty to investigate the case of the missing children in the capital. I originally planned to make a trip home and then immediately return to the capital to work on the case. Unexpectedly, as soon as I arrived here, I discovered that children were missing here too—and quite a few of them. So, I investigated further and found they were being held at Xu Dashan’s Mansion in Nanyang Town. Furthermore, the Great Wizard of Nanjiang is about to come to Great Han. They have set up an Altar in Linghe Valley, at the border between Nanjiang and Great Han. They plan to sacrifice forty-nine children."
"Is what you’re saying true? What exactly is Nanjiang planning?" The young Emperor could no longer sit still and roared in anger.
The National Master’s expression also changed drastically upon hearing this.
"The Great Wizard of Nanjiang is coming? Is your information reliable?"