Yun Ruoyan followed Li Sheng into the hidden entrance in his room. It led down a flight of stairs, inlaid on either side by some illuminating moonstones. The tunnel echoed with the sound of Li Sheng’s footfalls, and Yun Ruoyan crept silently behind, counting each step that she took. Upon reaching the 116th step, Li Sheng’s footfalls became muted, and its echoing quality vanished.

She anticipated that Li Sheng had entered his secret archives—indeed, after turning the next bend, she could clearly see a stronger source of illumination. Yun Ruoyan stopped by the edge of the stairs and hid behind a stone wall as she observed her surroundings.

What lay in front of her was a particularly large space, segmented into many small chambers in the same manner as the vault in the southern tower of Kongming Academy, as if someone had meticulously copied its design and implemented a similar space here.

After some time, Yun Ruoyan stepped out from behind the wall. By then, Li Sheng had already vanished within one of the chambers. She strode down the central corridor, glancing at the chambers on either side as she walked forward. Unlike the southern tower’s vault, each of the chambers here was labelled.

Some were labelled with ‘gold, gems, and jewelry’, others with ‘strategy and tactics’, and yet others with ‘spiritual herbs and pills’, ‘spiritual weapons and techniques’, and all sorts of other precious treasures.

When she passed by the fifth chamber, her eyes lit up: it was labelled with ‘secret archives’.

Yun Ruoyan’s heart began to thump: behind this chamber were the secret archives that Wei Hai had mentioned! Her own identity and the secret behind the mysterious Master Long, so intimately connected to her, all lay behind this door.

And the moment she pushed it open, she would be able to unravel the tangled threads of her own history, to grasp at the truth that had long been out of reach.

Yun Ruoyan placed her hand on the door and tried to push it open, but it was locked very tightly. The keyhole appeared to be in the shape of a very deep ‘十’, of a type that she had never seen before.

“Qiuqiu,” Yun Ruoyan asked mentally. “Are you familiar with this type of lock?”

Qiuqiu was woken up from its cultivation by Yun Ruoyan’s summons. “Mistress, that’s a very difficult lock to open unless you can somehow obtain the key from Li Sheng. Otherwise, your only realistic choice is to smash the door down.”

Smashing the door down was all but an impossibility: the door was built from a highly durable black material, one that her spiritsteel dagger couldn’t even leave a scratch on.

“Alright, in that case, I’ll go find Li Sheng and snatch the key from him.” Yun Ruoyan stepped back into the corridor and continued walking forward. As she did so, she infused spiritual energy into her ears and listened carefully for any motion near her surroundings.

Suddenly, a sinister male chuckle rang out from her front, and Yun Ruoyan immediately stepped closer to the source of the noise. The chuckles were intermittent, but got clearer and clearer as she strode closer.

Suddenly, Yun Ruoyan stopped. The chuckles that she was hearing were coming directly from her left—from a chamber marked ‘prison’. 

Yun Ruoyan walked up to the chamber to find that the door was slightly ajar, with a little slit between it and the doorframe. The chuckles were emerging from this slit.

“Haha, Your Highness, do you want a bite? This tastes great!” Yun Ruoyan heard a particularly demonic laugh as she plastered her ear against the door.

This voice was both familiar and strange to Yun Ruoyan: it clearly sounded like Li Sheng’s voice, but there was somehow a feminine quality to it that sent shivers down her spine.

“Demon, I curse you!” The other speaker’s tone was one of grief and indignity, and it caused Yun Ruoyan to frown. This voice also sounded like Li Sheng’s—what was going on? Was there one or two people in this chamber?

“You curse me? Haha, hahaha.” The demonic voice chortled incessantly, as if he had just heard a wonderful joke. “You’re my prisoner, you know? I can end your life with a twitch of my fingers. Brother, I truly admire your guts.”

“Pah! Who’s your brother, you demon?!” The man seemed to react particularly strongly to the word. “I only regret that I kept you in my manor all those years ago! Kill me and let me atone for my sins!”

“Kill you? Oh, I wouldn’t be able to bear it,” the demonic voice continued. “Once I’ve consumed eighty-one maidens’ hearts and obtain the body of a maiden for myself, I’ll bring you to my cave dwelling and copulate with you—you as the head of the household, and I as your wife. Wouldn’t that be nice? After all, I couldn’t bear to leave you so pained in this cramped chamber. As long as you submit to me—”

“Pah! You ugly demon, dream on! Kill me!”

The demonic voice sighed. “You’re not feeling great today, are you? I’ll come talk to you again tomorrow.”

Yun Ruoyan could hear footsteps approaching the door. Just as the person behind was about to step out, Yun Ruoyan kicked the door open and jumped in, locking the door once more behind her.

“It’s you!” that demonic voice exclaimed, in shock.

“Long time no see, Your Highness.” Yun Ruoyan looked Li Sheng up and down, noting his official’s robe and golden crown. 

“He’s not the Farsighted King, I am!” the man in the cell called out. His voice was also that of the Farsighted King’s, but his appearance far less sightly: his clothes were ragged and shabby, his hair limp and loose over his shoulders.

“If you’re the Farsighted King, then who is he?” Yun Ruoyan pointed at the elaborately dressed man in front of her.

“He’s a demon! He trapped me here, then took on my appearance to commit evil deeds!” 

“Audacious wretch!” The well-dressed Farsighted King’s voice had returned to normal. He turned to Yun Ruoyan. “This is a demon I caught quite some time ago, and he’s going somewhat crazy from captivity. Miss Yun, don’t take his words seriously.”

“I’m not a demon, he is!” The captive flung his hair behind his shoulders, revealing a face the exact copy of the Farsighted King’s.

“How could there be two of you?” Yun Ruoyan pretended to be shocked.

“I’m the real one,” the well-dressed man shouted.

“No, I’m the real one. He’s fake!”

“No, he’s fake. I’m the real one!”

The two Farsighted Kings began to squabble with each other.

“Stop, stop! I have a method to resolve this problem.”

Both men immediately asked, “What method?” However, Yun Ruoyan could tell that the well-dressed Farsighted King looked a little anxious, whereas the captive’s eyes gleamed with hope.

“My master’s right about to get here,” Yun Ruoyan said, then turned to the well dressed Li Sheng in front of her. “Once he’s here, I’m sure he’ll be able to identify which of you is genuine!”

The well dressed Li Sheng’s face turned pale. He suddenly waved a hand at Yun Ruoyan, causing a jade-green snake to fly at her.

However, Yun Ruoyan was already an eighth-rank blademaster, and her spiritual attacks had greatly increased in potency. She extended her hand, causing a white beam of spiritual energy to shoot out of her fingertips and strike the snake’s body.

“Demon, you’ll meet your downfall today!” Yun Ruoyan called out.

“Don’t be a busybody!” The demon repeatedly waved a hand at Yun Ruoyan, summoning countless small snakes, spiders, and other poisonous creatures in her direction.

Yun Ruoyan protected herself with a spiritual barrier, one which none of the poisonous creatures could penetrate. The moment they touched the barrier, they were flung away by the spiritual energy shielding her.

“It looks like I’ll have to make you give up!” Yun Ruoyan flung out some intoxicating fog at the false Li Sheng, courtesy of Qiuqiu. Curiously, however, it didn’t seem to have any effect.

“Qiuqiu, what’s going on?”

“Mistress, there’s only one reason the intoxicating fog will fail,” Qiuqiu chirped, frowning. “If your opponent’s cultivation is more advanced than your own…”

“That’s impossible! He didn’t look like he had any sort of cultivation at all. Except for being able to summon poisonous creatures at will, he didn’t use any other sort of attack either…” Yun Ruoyan shook her head. “At any rate, the most important thing right now is to knock him out!”

Yun Ruoyan dashed toward the false Li Mo, who couldn’t dodge in time. Yun Ruoyan chopped at the back of his neck with a palm, knocking him unconscious and causing him to slump to the floor.

“Yun Ruoyan greets the Farsighted King.” She walked up to the front of the haggard man and bowed respectfully.

“Rise, rise. My deepest gratitude for your timely assistance, Miss Yun.”

Somehow, Yun Ruoyan had bumbled her way into releasing the true Farsighted King from captivity. She had been a little worried about being unable to retrieve the key to his secret archives, but it didn’t seem as though that would be a problem any longer. It wouldn’t even be an issue for her to bring Physician Ceng away for a few days, either!