446 Surveillance (2/2)

Gu Shenwei could not help wondering whether the crown prince would be a rival to this woman in the future. On second thought, he realized that this fragmentation of the royal family was not necessarily a bad thing for him. He could still make the crown prince the next king, but he did not have to help him in eliminating all his enemies.

The little prince changed completely. He was hiding behind his mother throughout the conversation.

This was the normal reaction of a child under the age of ten in the face of the Dragon King.

”Is there any hidden passage or secret chamber inside the ancestral shrine?” asked Gu Shenwei.

The queen was surprised to hear that the Dragon King was interested in the ancestral shrine. ”No, I've never heard His Majesty mention such a thing, but if you're looking for a secret chamber, I can let you use the secret chambers inside the royal palace. In fact, they can't be counted as secret chambers. They're just secluded rooms known by a few people. As to hidden passages, there's no such a thing in this city. This isn't the first time that the capital has been besieged. No one is said to have sneaked out of the city through a hidden passage before,” replied the queen.

”Have you ever heard of Chipo?” asked Gu Shenwei.

The queen shook her head. Chipo was famous among the bandits in the Western Region, but the royal families had never heard of this name.

”Did some strangers enter the city during the siege? I need you to think carefully before answering me.”

The queen thought long and hard about the matter and then she lifted up her head while asking, ”Is this thing very important to you?”

Upon hearing that, Gu Shenwei thought to himself, ”It seems that the queen has not yet admitted defeat. She still wants to squeeze every possible benefit out of the negotiation for herself and her son by providing me with the information that I'm interested in. She probably even thinks that she can turn the tables on me by doing this.”

”Yes, it's very important.” Gu Shenwei deliberately gave her some hope and tempted her to tell him the truth.

”You probably have already known this, Dragon King. The Hui Kingdom was not the only one who secretly offered support to the Golden Roc Fort during the war. Many countries were two timing you before the end of the war.”

”Well, that's why I didn't kill you. You're just a little bit more hasty than the others. Anyhow, do yourself a favor and don't trust the Supreme King. He's not used to sharing his power with anyone else and will feel uncomfortable when you make a vital contribution to his cause. At that time, he'll kill you.”

The queen looked at the Dragon King in surprise. She had never expected him to give her such a piece of advice. ”Thank you, Dragon King. I'm just a woman and don't know much about such things. Don't laugh at me.”

After a moment of silence, she added, ”One day during the siege, about 10 people suddenly came here to find Shangguan Jianyi. He received them personally and talked with them in private at night. The next day, he left the Hui Kingdom together with them. He said... I mean, Shangguan Jianyi said that they were going to persuade the soldiers from the five countries around the Xiaoyao Lake to betray you.” Gu Shenwei was surprised that she told him this thing without asking for anything in return.

”Shangguan Jianyi and about 10 bandits? They can't stir up much trouble for me. Chipo's Kung Fu is good, but not superb. When it comes to assassination skills, he can hardly compete with an ordinary Golden Roc Fort killer.

”The queen seems to be honest with me now. She even appears to be very willing to cosy up to me. Nevertheless, I still can't overcome my distrust of her. She seems to have told me lots of important information, but none of these things are convincing enough.

”Maybe I can torture the little prince again to make her tell me the truth. That child is her weakness.

”However, at this moment, I can't raise any specific question or prove that she has been lying to me all this while. Even if I use the little prince to threaten her, she will possibly lie again,” thought Gu Shenwei.

He carefully observed the queen while gripping the hilt of his saber. He was certain that the queen still had a secret and this secret had nothing to do with Chu Nanping or the other questions he had asked her before. She learned quickly and got increasing better at hiding her true feelings. However, she was still a beginner and would accidentally reveal her true feelings from time to time.

After talking with the queen, he left the palace and returned to his camp. He planned to wait another day before sending his troops to occupy the ancestral shrine.

It was not a good idea, especially when he intended to permanently station his troops in the Xiaoyao Lake region and motivate the locals to join his cause against the Golden Roc Fort. He needed the Hui nation's support.

The Hui people had not been hard on him when he had thrown their queen and ministers into prison, since those people had deliberately concealed the death of their previous king and planned to make the little prince the next king. However, if he occupied a country's ancestral shrine without giving its people any reasonable explanation, the people would take this as a public humiliation and be filled with righteous indignation.

Given this, he sincerely hoped that he could solve the problem tonight.

The only clue he had now was Han Fen, a smiley and crazy girl. She had Maid Lotus' broken sword in hand and was performing a ridiculous task in the capital of the Hui Kingdom. Gu Shenwei could not deny that she did look like a disciple of the New Moon Hall but he could not completely trust her, since he remembered clearly that there were some disciples of the New Moon Hall considered Maid Lotus as their enemy. They were determined to kill her and would do anything to achieve that goal.

Considering that his encampment might be spied upon, Gu Shenwei made some arrangement before his departure. He asked a soldier to pretend to be him and discuss military affairs with Long Fanyun and Wu Zongheng in his tent.

Upon hearing the Dragon King's very risky plan, both of the two military officials were strongly against his decision. However, they were not Zhong Heng and Fang Wenshi and unable to dissuade him from doing that.

In fact, Gu Shenwei had not told them his entire plan. He never intended to take any risk. Instead, he only planned to create an excuse for the Dragon army to openly search and occupy the ancestral shrine tomorrow.

He spotted Han Fen at about 9 pm. She probably slept during the day and kept watch on the shrine at night, so she looked very energetic at this moment. She crouched on a roof near the shrine and every now and again, she would move to another place to get a better view of the shrine.

Gu Shenwei discovered her when she was moving to a new place but he did not follow her. One hour later, he saw her come back to her original position, not alone but being followed by three people.

Han Fen had stopped the Dragon King from tracking the young killer down last night, and thus had alerted the enemies.

Gu Shenwei looked coldly at them from afar, not planning to help Han Fen out.