Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 42 - 40 The Substitute

Chapter 42: Chapter 40 The Substitute

The beauty seemed unable to bear the scorching gaze of the young man in splendid clothing, merely nodding and lowering her eyes without a word.

Yet even this demure gesture was enough to make Prince Zhou Jingyao lose his soul and self-control.

He had tasted his fair share of stunning women in Luoyang City but never had he encountered such a flawless beauty whose every frown and smile aligned so perfectly with his desires.

It was as if she were tailor-made for him, fitting him perfectly in every way.

Continuing earnestly, he said,

"Lady Yan Fei, please, the hydrangeas are in full bloom ahead, shall we enjoy some tea there?"

"As Your Highness wishes."

This was the strategy Wang Yuan and the Female Sorcerer had agreed upon.

Wang Yuan, Lady Peach Fairy, and "Strategist Bei" Lang Qi, the masterminds behind the abduction plan, carefully selected from among the three sons and two daughters of the Yi King.

Taking into account status, reputation, temperament, hobbies... they chose this third son born of a concubine.

And so,

A few days earlier, Lady Peach Fairy had snuck into Luoyang City in advance and found an opportunity to bewitch Zhou Jingyao’s personal servant with Magic, convincing him to encourage his master to leave Luoyang City for an excursion.

In the current Great Yan Dynasty, clan descendants were almost raised like pigs, forbidden from participating in politics or leading troops, naturally resulting in their ignorance.

Waking up every day, the only thing they could think of was how to indulge in sumptuous food and pleasurable pastimes.

Prince Zhou Jingyao, the third son of the current Luoyang King, was also among the cream of the crop for such behavior, and heading out to find pleasure was nothing out of the ordinary or noticeable.

As expected, they encountered a band of robbers on their journey, brazenly robbing them of wealth and women under broad daylight.

Zhou Jingyao wasn’t very interested in getting involved. As the robbers and mountain bandits near Luoyang City were mostly intricately linked with the Prince Mansion, and even he couldn’t recognize all of them,

Recklessly joining in their loot would, regardless of the size of the steal, potentially tarnish the reputation of his family and relations.

Sitting at home, he would still receive his own share eventually.

However, the reason why the beauty trap is such an infallibly used device isn’t because the tactic is cliché, but because the woman... is irresistibly tempting.

When Zhou Jingyao caught an unintentional glimpse of Lady Peach Fairy, alias Gu Yanfei, his attitude changed abruptly.

The robbers must die!

Taking the lead, he charged forward.

However, perhaps by coincidence,

After a heroic rescue, the young prince did save the beauty, but not only were the robbers killed, all of the beauty’s servants were slain as well.

This "hospitable" Prince took the opportunity to invite Ms. Gu Yanfei, who had come to Luoyang to seek relations and was now left without any support, to rest in his Peony Garden.

The group entered a pavilion surrounded by clusters of hydrangeas in full bloom.

As soon as they were seated, Zhou Jingyao, preoccupied with staring at the beauty, accidentally dropped a teacup from the Xiangyin Wulong Kiln offered by a maid.

Crash!

The maid’s face turned pale, and she knelt on the ground with a thud, repeatedly kowtowing and begging for mercy, quickly bruising her fair forehead:

"Your Highness, please spare my life, Your Highness, please!"

The third son of the Luoyang King, with a handsome face yet bearing that shade of sinister common to most descendants of the Yi King lineage, frowned at the sight.

Glancing at the beauty across from him who looked ready to intercede, he lowered his head and spoke softly to the maid:

"It doesn’t matter, it’s just a teacup from the Wulong Kiln worth a mere ten silver pieces.

In the next life, be more careful."

As soon as he finished speaking, a household guard stepped forward and, in front of everyone, snapped the maid’s neck with a crack.

Many of the guards and house servants in the Prince Mansion periodically posed as mountain bandits, having killed and seen blood, they were naturally cruel and ruthless.

Then two stoic, burly slaves stepped forward, wrapped the maid’s body in a sack, hoisted it up, and left.

Burial Mound on Beimang Mountain was her ultimate resting place.

More chilling than the indiscriminate killing were the impassive faces and the efficient movements of these men.

"I am by nature compassionate, but family rules are unforgiving," he said.

Following the death of the maid, Prince Zhou Jingyao appeared excited, his cheeks flushed as if intoxicated by the act.

The noble born of high regard turned into a heartless madman in the blink of an eye.

"You... you are a prince, how can you so heedlessly take a life?!"

The beauty, who was also in the pavilion, stood up like a startled little deer, covering her mouth with her hand and preparing to flee after the initial shock.

But perhaps because she had witnessed too many cruel deaths that day and was excessively shaken, she collapsed to the ground as soon as she stood.

In the corner of her eye, however, she caught a glimpse of the Guard Commander Zheng Yong standing behind Zhou Jingyao.

The armor barely concealed his sinewy muscles, glowing with an iron hue, and his expression was as immovable as ancient rocks, exuding an ironclad presence, like a statue of steel.

This man was none other than a Daoist Soldier, a Mystic Armor Guard from the Thirty-Six Barracks, assigned to the third prince.

The Luoyang Royal Mansion was allocated only thirty-six Daoist Soldiers, which might seem like a significant number, but with many masters in the mansion, it was generous to assign one to this lesser favored son of a concubine.

With this Daoist Soldier and the prestige of the Prince Mansion behind him, Zhou Jingyao was emboldened to decide life and death without any inhibitions.

Much more convenient than killing with evil spirits!

The other maids, disregarding their own fear, hurried to help her, while others prepared to call for a doctor.

"No need to look for a doctor anymore.

After playing the gentleman for most of the day, I’ve grown tired of it anyway. This young lady fainting by herself saves me the trouble of using force; take her to my room immediately."

Zhou Jingyao licked his lips, his gaze like a clingy, cold venomous snake, feeling that the beauty before him, now motionless, was even more enticing.

The descendants of the Yili King, much like their ancestors, were almost all bad seeds with sores on their heads and pus on their feet.

Some were greedy for money, some were fond of killing, some were overbearing, and this third son was both despicably lustful and murderously inclined.

Of course, his favorite was to combine the two hobbies...

...

The moon climbed over the tips of the willow branches.

Disguised as "Thief Cat", Wang Yuan infiltrated the Peony Garden like an invisible man, using Shadow Following techniques to tread on the shadows of the guards in the other courtyard.

"According to Lady Peach Fairy, the power of this ’Dragon Qi Prohibition’ is closely tied to the population, an embodiment of human willpower.

The larger the population in a city, the stronger the prohibition’s power.

The Peony Garden is already within the boundaries of Mang Mountain, sparsely populated, but the construction of the Prince Mansion is extraordinary."

Even a plundered other courtyard, refurbished later, has not missed out on any of the six suppressing items of a yang residence: Shi Gandang, front door mirror, One Good Deed Card, Mountain and Sea Town, Fish-Dragon Shadow Wall.

These Suppressing Items could not only deter wandering ghosts but also significantly suppress the power of magicians.

Lady Peach Fairy alone was somewhat insufficient.

She still needed Wang Yuan’s assistance and protection.

However, according to Strategist Bei’s ’Three Lives Bird Calculation Book’, the person they needed to guard against was only the ’Mystic Armor Guard’, and the danger was controllable.

"Although the physique of a Daoist Soldier had reached ’Non-Human’ status, with vigorous spirit and formidable strength, they are not monsters who never need rest.

Especially when their master is occupied with pleasurable activities, how could they pay attention to the corner of the wall?

It is precisely for this reason that we did not choose to kidnap the second prince who enjoys ’sharing’."

Unnoticed by gods and ghosts alike, Wang Yuan bypassed all the guards and entered the Eastern Chamber’s Erqiao Courtyard.

Just as he landed, the door quietly opened a crack, and a delicate white hand reached out to beckon him with a slight wave.

Wang Yuan stepped through the door and saw the disheveled Zhou Jingyao lying on the ground motionless, and Lady Peach Fairy covering his face with a transparent peach garment.

He recognized it, the peach cloth from the human-faced peach, the raw material for the ’Human Face Painting Skill’, capable of stealing a person’s facial appearance.

Immediately afterward.

His body ’crackle and pop’ sounded erratically, and Wang Yuan’s physique had become almost indistinguishable from Zhou Jingyao, even the facial features were about seventy to eighty percent similar.

"Brother Cui’s imitative transformation skill has nearly reached the level of a spell," praised Lady Peach Fairy in her heart as she peeled off the peach garment from the true third prince’s face, and incidentally his facial skin, and placed it onto Wang Yuan’s face.

Squashing the last tiny discrepancy in the face and breath.

In an instant, Wang Yuan had become another Zhou Jingyao.

No, the only Zhou Jingyao.

Because the real prince on the ground, after losing his own facial skin, was now unrecognizable to anyone.

Meanwhile, Wang Yuan became a triple-layered nesting doll; Zhou Jingyao’s face covering "Thief Cat" Cui Tong, and Cui Tong’s face covering the real Wang Yuan.

He really did find a scapegoat for himself.

Wang Yuan switched clothes with the other and also placed him inside a sack like the one the maid wore previously.

Lady Peach Fairy kicked off her shoes and outerwear, leapt onto the bed, pulled down the curtain, and prepared to continue pretending to faint.

With everything ready, "Zhou Jingyao" and "Gu Yanfei" exchanged glances.

Following that.

Clap! Clap!

"Zhou Jingyao" clapped his hands, and two stony-faced robust servants immediately came at the sound.

They bowed deeply to their "master", not daring to look more, and as they had done countless times before, silently picked up the "corpse" from the ground and walked out.

The third prince had killed too many people; all the servants were used to it and dared not even ask a question.

Inside the sack could well be a companion responsible for attending to the master’s nightly needs in the antechamber.

Wang Yuan and the others were exploiting this fact.

Without the need for Daoist Skill, or the use of additional manpower, they quietly had the other courtyard’s servants "kidnap" their master.

Once they disposed of the body in the outside Burial Mound, there were people arranged in advance by Lady Peach Fairy ready to respond.

The entire operation only involved Wang Yuan, Lady Peach Fairy, Lang Qi, with the addition of Wang Yunhu, and nobody else would know who was inside the sack.

Thus, making it possible to prevent leakage of information and future problems to the greatest extent.

Wang Yuan blew out the candles and sat directly in a chair as usual to practice "Tiger Roar" for strengthening bone marrow and qi-blood, seizing the time to break through the last barrier.

Kidnapping the third prince was just the beginning; to truly shift the attention of the Prince Mansion, they needed to stage another act tomorrow, to reasonably make "Zhou Jingyao" disappear.

Just then.

From behind the curtain, unspeakable noises began to emerge, as if the murderous pleasure-loving little prince had finally started the real business.

Wang Yuan:... This demoness.

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