Adrian Eastlyn (Prince Rowan) is the Empress's son, and Jason Dongling now has the backing of Chu City. Their political capital is evenly matched; if it comes down to a real contest, it's impossible to predict who will win.
This time, Jason Dongling returned from Liancastle with military achievements, and his prestige in the armed forces will surely overshadow Adrian Eastlyn (Prince Rowan).
Adrian Eastlyn (Prince Rowan) doesn't want to be outdone by Jason Dongling. If he wants to build his own authority in the military, he can't afford to miss this chance. If he lets it slip by, it will be much harder for him to earn military merit in the future.
The competition between Adrian Eastlyn (Prince Rowan) and Jason Dongling is exactly what the emperor wants to see—and what Ninth Royal Uncle desires, too. If the gap in strength between Jason and Adrian becomes too wide, one of them will inevitably give up.
Ninth Royal Uncle doesn’t want a peaceful Eastlyn. Only with factional strife can there be profit, and only then will the emperor see his power as overwhelming—allowing him to balance the various interests in court.
Once Adrian Eastlyn (Prince Rowan) returns victorious, Ninth Royal Uncle will have the Crown Prince submit a petition to voluntarily relinquish his title, tossing the crown prince’s seat out for Adrian and Jason to fight over.
The fiercer the factional struggle, the busier the emperor becomes.
"And you? Are you leaving the city just to search for Zed?" Serena guessed that Ninth Royal Uncle’s real target was Terrence.
Sure enough, Ninth Royal Uncle said, "The miasma forest is no ordinary place. I’m worried that, if Terrence is backed into a corner, he’ll run deeper into the poison fog. I intend to go personally, and if necessary, I’ll kill him myself."
This time, Ninth Royal Uncle is determined to take Terrence’s life—and he doesn’t trust Adrian Eastlyn (Prince Rowan) to do it.
"It's too dangerous." Serena shook her head in disapproval.
"Don't worry. I once entered the miasma forest alone. If anyone claims to know it better than me, they're lying. My immunity to poisons and martial talent are the result of harsh training, not natural gifts."
No one's success comes without sacrifice, and he's no exception.
"You've been to the miasma forest? When was that? How come I've never heard you mention it?"
"It was more than ten years ago. Not many people know about it." Nolan's gaze darkened, and he didn't intend to elaborate.
Those memories aren't good ones—he doesn't want to think about them.
Serena stared at Nolan with her mouth agape, a flash of pain in her eyes.
She knew what kind of place the miasma forest was. Making it out alive was no easy feat. More than ten years ago, Nolan was just a teenager, even younger than she is now.
Nolan couldn't lie to Serena and say nothing happened in the miasma forest. He could only comfort her: "I'm fine now. Every experience is a valuable treasure. I learned a lot in the miasma forest."
That's enough—as long as he's alive, that's all that matters.
"Mm. From now on, wherever you go, I'll go with you. I want to enter the miasma forest too, and I want to kill Terrence with my own hands." Serena gripped Nolan's hand, her gaze resolute.
Nolan looked at Serena for a long moment before slowly nodding.
No matter how dangerous it is, they'll be together. Even if they die, they won't be alone.
Nolan and Serena agreed to leave the city in three days under the pretext of searching for Zed. As for their exact route, Nolan saw no need to inform the emperor—after all, no one knows where Zed is.
At first, the emperor refused to approve, but the day after Nolan submitted his petition, a gruesome murder occurred in a private residence outside the city.
The victims were seven men in their thirties. Their bodies were horribly mangled—multiple broken bones, hundreds of wounds, faces twisted with agony. They were clearly tortured to death, and all their blood was drained.
Besides the dead men, the authorities found more than twenty children—the youngest still in swaddling clothes, the oldest only seven or eight.
These children were well-dressed and handsome, clearly from good families. After questioning, it was found that most were sons of wealthy households, and several were sons of officials.
Obviously, these children had been kidnapped and trafficked.
The children had been locked in a basement, many covered in scars. Some were so starved they were barely recognizable as human. When rescued, they were dazed, timid, and couldn't even speak—proof of the abuse they'd suffered.
Only after their families arrived and comforted them for a long time did the children finally break down and cry. Once they cried, they dared to speak.
The authorities questioned several of the older children. From their answers, it was clear that the person who killed the seven traffickers was a child—one who had also been kidnapped by them.
When Serena heard about the case, she immediately thought of Zed. The wounds were like works of art—each cut deliberate, causing pain but not death. Looking at the victims' expressions, some had literally died from the agony.
Serena had always disliked Zed's methods of killing by torture, but seeing the traffickers' fate, she felt no sympathy and even silently applauded Zed.
Serena wasn't the type to tolerate evil, nor a black-and-white crusader for justice, but she utterly despised child traffickers. These people never treated the children well.
In modern times, traffickers often crippled children or forced them into inhuman training, then used them for begging or performing for profit.
Serena had treated a group of trafficked children in the modern world. Eight out of ten were disabled, their bodies covered in burns and knife wounds—none of them unscathed.
Two of the children had both legs amputated after trying to escape. Their captors threw them onto train tracks, and then burned the wounds to stop the bleeding. The fact that those two survived was a miracle.
Here, after kidnapping the children, the traffickers immediately sold them to depraved places, raising them as catamites for others' pleasure.
The people who trafficked children were utterly inhuman—beasts who deserved to die a thousand deaths. Zed did an excellent job this time!
Serena could already guess who did it—and so could the emperor. He'd thought Nolan's search for Zed was just a pretext, but now it seemed genuine.
Two days later, another similar case occurred in a neighboring county. More traffickers were killed, and the authorities rescued several more children.
If the first case was a coincidence, the subsequent events were anything but. The emperor didn't want to risk a conflict with the Demon Sect over Zed's disappearance, so he approved Nolan's request to leave.
With the emperor's permission, Nolan and Serena prepared to leave the city. Before, they had no clues about Zed's whereabouts, but now they finally had a trail to follow.
There's no denying it—Zed's methods are truly impressive. Serena believed that with Zed's intelligence and skill, unless he wanted to be caught, those traffickers would never have managed to abduct him.
Zed deliberately went with the traffickers, using their underground routes to leave the city. That way, there would be no official record of his movements. Finding him would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but...