While Bai Rouyun ran away, the experts who were with the Crown Prince and Princess Xing waited at their place for a full hour before they started frowning.
Could it really take that long to relieve herself? They felt that something was wrong, and even the Crown Prince was getting impatient.
"Go out and search for my royal little sister!" he ordered his men, and they instantly set out to search for her.
It did not take them long to locate her. It was just that when they found her, her body had already been partially eaten by wild beasts.
The guy who found her was full of fear at that moment. He could already imagine the horror and hatred he would invite by informing the Crown Prince of this, but even so, he leaned down and grasped the bleeding corpse in his arms, and placed the head on top of the body, before starting to move back towards the place where the Crown Prince was waiting.
When the young man arrived, he slowly placed the body of Princess Xing on the ground, and made sure that the head did not fall off, before he straightened his back, and cleared his throat.
"Your Royal Highness, Princess Xing, has been killed. Her throat was slit in one move, clearly by an expert cultivator. When I found her, a beast was... nibbling of her flesh, hence the many wounds on her body."
The Crown Prince's face turned grave. He knew that Princess Xing was his father's favorite, and he was aware that she could not encounter an accident when being out with him, but this was precisely what had happened.
Her head was now no longer attached to the rest of her body, and the body itself was in horrible shape after being partially eaten by the wild beast.
"Were there any traces of the murderer?" The Crown Prince asked with a low voice, but the expert felt horrible as he shook his head.
"You are to take Princess Xing's corpse out of this forest," The Crown Prince finally said. "When the others come back, we will split up into two groups. One will stay here with me, and the other will follow you and deliver Princess Xing's body and head to my Imperial Father."
The expert felt as if his head was exploding. If he was to deliver the corpse back, would he even be able to survive?
The Crown Prince was not eager to be the one to go back with the corpse. He knew that if he did, all the blame would end up on him, and then he would maybe even lose his position as the Crown Prince.
It was his job to protect Princess Xing, but she had died. It was clear that he was not going to have an easy time.
He wanted to push the blame onto Li Moyun somehow, but he was not sure how to do so.
Li Moyun was at the frontline and could not have caused her death, but could he somehow blame Bai Rouyun?
He did not actually doubt her, but she was his enemy, so pushing the blame onto her would be ideal.
He just needed to think about how to do it. Everyone knew that she was a piece of trash for so long, so she had no combat skills or abilities that should allow her to kill Princess Xing.
Bai Rouyun was unaware that the Crown Prince wanted to put the blame for killing Princess Xing on her. The truth was that she had killed her, but she would never admit to it, and there were no witnesses, so it would be hard for them to blame her.
Also, what the Crown Prince was unaware of was that the Emperor was quite worried about the power that Li Moyun commanded. He had to be careful about him; he dared not pushing him too far and condemning his wife was definitely unacceptable.
The last talk between the Emperor and Li Moyun had made the Emperor realize that Li Moyun was much stronger than he expected, and that he had reached the limits of how far he could be pressed.
Everyone had their own thoughts, but while the Crown Prince and the Emperor were both full of worry and hesitation, Bai Rouyun was calm and collected. She did not believe she could be blamed for the death of Princess Xing.
The next many days were calm and relaxed for Bai Rouyun. She avoided the humans and fought many beasts. Sometimes she would challenge the third-ranked beasts, but most of the time, she just quickly and effortlessly slaughtered second-ranked beasts.
She killed every beast she encountered, and she could not help but feel that there were not enough beasts for her to deal with.
She was starting to doubt if she would be able to get the first prize since there were only so many beasts.
While Bai Rouyun was busy hunting beasts, all the while being in a good mood, the atmosphere outside the forest was somber.
Princess Xing's corpse had been delivered, and the expert was standing next to it, shaking.
The expression of the Emperor was ugly, and no one dared to say a word, all of them were horrified. This was just a typical Royal Hunting Feast; how did Princess Xing end up dead?
"What happened?" The Emperor finally asked, the pain in his eyes evident as he closed them, not even willing to continue looking at the corpse.
"We... We do not know." The expert in charge of bringing the corpse back was scared. "She left to relieve herself, and this is what we saw when we later found her."