CHAPTER 2433  YAO CHANGYING'S GRAND MACHINATIONS

Lin Mu now had several reasons to make more wine, the biggest of being the Saintess liking it. Though he also didn't mind making more money on the side, after all, a little more couldn't hurt.

'I do have a lot of Immortal Apples stockpiled now.' Lin Mu had gathered several of them in the time he had been in the Sleepscape. He had noticed that the production of the Immortal Apples was faster than usual which was strange for him. He didn't understand it back then, but now that he knew what the Saintess had done, he figured it was due to the rich 'blood' he had been immersed in.

He thought about it for a bit as everyone enjoyed the wine. But soon after, the atmosphere turned somber, as it was now time for them to catch up about all that had happened.

"So what have I missed in these twenty five years?" Lin Mu finally questioned. "And what's this Black Ying Empire?" "A lot…" Crown Prince Feng Shun said with a sigh. "We should start from the day we escaped the Bridge Plane," Daoist Chu suggested.

"Yes, that'll be the best." Crown Princess Shang agreed.

"As you might have guessed, we were rescued by the Honored Celestial almost immediately after leaving the plane." Crown Prince Feng Shun began. "We briefed her about your condition and to help you we decided to head to the Capital. I sent several messages in order to prepare them about our arrival, but the information I got back from them was a lot more than just that." He said, his voice turning heavy.

"Remember the war in the Eight Kingdom Alliance?" Crown Princess Shang chimed in at this time.

"Yeah, it happened when we were about to enter it." Lin Mu hadn't forgotten about that.

"That was the work of none other than Yao Changying." Crown Princess Shang revealed, hatred glowing in her eyes.

"She really did all that?" Lin Mu hadn't expected her to have managed something this vast.

"That's merely the surface of it." Crown Prince Feng Shun said before explaining everything in detail.

It turned out that Yao Changying had managed to escape the Dao Wind Continent shortly after escaping from the Tournament. She had a Teleportation talisman that managed to get her to an isolated island outside the influence of the Dao Wind Empire.

This combined with her methods to hide her presence from not just the normal tracking arrays, but even the divination allowed her to move without a trace.

They had still not managed to fully understand how Yao Changying had even managed to do that, but her capabilities in the Bridge Plane didn't make it as surprising to them now. "Yao Changying was also behind the actions of Feng Baxing." Emperor Feng said this time.

"What?!" Lin Mu hadn't expected that at all. "But wouldn't her involvement be detected? Plus I doubt the Third Prince would have fallen to her tricks." He was doubtful.

"Her skills are certainly far reaching and so is her influence. It took us special diviners from the Temple of the Four Guardian beasts to finally confirm her involvement. She managed to use a borrowed knife to cause all this, avoiding her involvement." Emperor Feng explained.

He told Lin Mu about how traces of Wrath Leaf Toxin were found and it was found to have been delivered by one of the people secretly working with Yao Changying. "No wonder he lost his temper." Lin Mu muttered.

"Baxing might have been overbearing, but even he was not so reckless as to break the rules of the temple." Emperor Feng had felt relieved when he found this out, as it meant that his Third son hadn't been that bad. "He was merely a pawn for Yao Changying." This discovery had helped the Emperor as the Temple of the Four Guardian beasts had cleared all charges and had even returned the compensation that the Empire had to give them. "But why would she attempt something like this in the middle of such a high profile event like the Tournament of the Four Guardian beasts?" Lin Mu questioned. "Even if she wanted the rewards, I doubt she had to go that far." Having seen her capabilities, Lin Mu didn't think she lacked resources.

"Our current analysis considers it to have been an attempt had causing political and regional conflict." Crown Prince Feng Shun answered. "She merely wanted to cause conflict between the different powers so that she'll be able to fish in muddied waters and grow her own power unnoticed. is the owner.

This is also what she did in the Eight Kingdom Alliance. She controlled the people there and ignited the sparks of war." He revealed.

"How's she managed to do this? It can't just be money, is it?" Lin Mu wondered, as it seemed quite difficult to do it on a large scale.

Not to mention, Yao Changying was not even a native of the Rust Sky World, so even if she was the niece of the Holy Topaz Emperor, her influence should have been limited.

"We are not totally sure about it." Crown Prince Feng Shun replied. "But from the people we've captured, it seems to be a complex form of curse that seems to turn people obedient to her." He added.

"The curse has been a great pain for us. Since it goes undetectable through normal means and the people inflicted by those can easily spread." Emperor Feng spoke. "There have even been people like those appearing in the Capital City." "Even here?" Lin Mu couldn't help but think back to the brainwashing that he had seen Gu Yao use back in the Xiao Fan world. He wondered if there were any similarities in them.

"Yes, it has lead to us having to enforce a curfew." Crown Prince Feng Shun nodded. "The only ways we can discover who's inflicted by the curse is if we see them openly use the power granted by the curse, or if Little Shrubby senses them." He added.