38: Chapter 38 Capturing the Demoness

Those two lines of clear tears were like the burning of the final string.

Princess Li Ronger could no longer control herself. Covering her face, suppressed sobs spilled out from between her fingers, and her shoulders shook violently.

All the grievances, humiliation, and despair accumulated over these past few days completely collapsed at this moment because of a simple "I believe you."

Chen Fan stood where he was, neither stepping forward nor retreating.

He watched this woman, who had been stubborn and unyielding before her husband and had struggled bitterly in desperate straits, now crying like a helpless child.

The experience of someone who had been there made him silently cry out that this was bad.

This was dangerous!

A woman, especially one in desperate straits, when she begins to let down all her defenses toward a man and reveal her most vulnerable side, is often the beginning of danger.

Her feeling when looking at him had changed.

It was no longer looking at a servant, a tool. Within it, there was a hint of reliance, a hint of tenderness that even she herself had not yet realized.

Something was going to happen.

Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat.

He did not want to get dragged into the muddy waters of the Xiushan Princes Mansion's backyard. Getting involved with a fallen Princess, what kind of trouble was that?

He cleared his throat, breaking the oppressive atmosphere in the room.

"Princess, if there is nothing else, this subordinate will take his leave."

His tone returned to its previous flatness and detachment, as if deliberately trying to distance himself.

Princess Li Ronger's sobbing paused.

She slowly lowered her hands, looking at him with a pair of red, tear-filled eyes that held a hint of confusion and panic.

"You... what is your name?"

"Lin Shou." Chen Fan answered with a bow, his posture impeccably respectful.

"Lin Shou..." Princess Li Ronger chewed on the name, and then she said with some hesitation:

"You, in the future, can you..."

"Princess." Chen Fan directly interrupted her, "Your meal has been delivered. It is my duty to stand guard outside, so I dare not stay long."

Having said this, he did not give Princess Li Ronger any chance to speak further, bowed once more, and then turned and quickly exited the room.

The door was gently closed, cutting off the Princess's line of sight.

Chen Fan leaned against the pillar outside the door and let out a long sigh.

What a mess.

An inadvertent action, a heartfelt truth, had actually brought about such a huge problem.

In the future, he must be careful about his contact with this Princess.

...

Returning to his simple living quarters, Chen Fan lay on the hard wooden bed and sighed.

From the bandit leader Black Wind Demon to the Xiushan Princes Mansion guard Lin Shou, the change in identity had not brought any fewer troubles.

He only wanted to be a small guard peacefully now; as for the next target for Substitution Rebirth?

He hadn't thought about it for the time being. Substitution Rebirth had a price; the pain of death could not be blocked out. It was a pain that touched the Soul, extremely unbearable.

Unless he was forced to, he would not voluntarily go to his death.

Getting entangled with the Princess would bring a hundred harms and not a single benefit.

In the end, he feared it would satisfy himself but harm both of them.

It didn't matter if he died, but the Princess would truly die.

In the following days, Chen Fan indeed found an excuse to let Zhang Cheng deliver the meals for him, while he himself stayed far away from that pavilion.

Life seemed to have returned to calm.

But beneath this calm, the entire Xiushan Princes Mansion was rife with undercurrents.

The rage of the Prince of Xiushan, Zheng Xian, had not subsided; instead, it grew more intense.

Finally, on the seventh day after the Black Wind Mountain incident, the investigation by the Xiushan Princes Mansion had a shocking Breakthrough.

Through the interrogation under torture of the captured White Lotus Sect members, and the intelligence sent back by the Mansion's secret agents, all clues pointed to one person.

Su Xin!

That former personal maid of the Princess, now a traitorous demon of the White Lotus Sect!

It was she who orchestrated the kidnapping of the Princess, framing Black Wind Mountain, with the goal of creating chaos to take the opportunity to sneak into the Xiushan Princes Mansion and steal that royal secret manual!

"taizus record of ascension"!

When the news came out, the Xiushan Princes Mansion was shaken.

Zheng Xian smashed his most beloved antique inkstone in the study and immediately ordered the matter to be reported to the imperial court.

At the same time, he personally selected a team of elites from the Mansion's guards, led by Captain Li Zhong, with the absolute necessity of capturing the demoness Su Xin and the stolen secret manual before the imperial court's people arrived!

Recovering the secret manual was true, and saving face was also true.

A single order set the entire Xiushan Princes Mansion into high-speed motion.

Chen Fan was also transferred from the idle duty of guarding the backyard. When he saw that he had been assigned under Captain Li Zhong, the annoyance in his heart caused by the Princess immediately vanished.

There was work to do.

The Mansion's secret agents quickly found Su Xin's tracks; she seemed not to have fled far and was still lurking within the borders of Xiushan Prefecture.

The specific location was Qinghe County.

Upon receiving the news, Captain Li Zhong did not delay at all and immediately assembled his men.

Thirty elite guards of the Xiushan Princes Mansion, with two horses each, armored and armed, under the cover of night, like an arrow released from a bow, silently rode out of the Xiushan Princes Mansion.

The sound of horse hooves was rapid and muffled, and the torches trailed long flames in the night wind.

Chen Fan rode on his horse, feeling the cold wind hitting his face, his focus unprecedentedly sharp.

He looked at the figure in front, clad in heavy armor with a long sword hanging at the waist.

Seventh-rank Martial Artist, Captain Li Zhong.

Truly majestic...

At least in a backwater place like Xiushan Prefecture, a Seventh-rank Martial Artist was truly majestic.

The team galloped all the way, and by dawn, the low city walls of Qinghe County had already appeared on the horizon.

Captain Li Zhong did not lead the team into the city but stopped in a dense forest outside the city to rest, while simultaneously sending men to contact the local county government.

Not long after, a middle-aged man wearing official robes with a slightly plump figure, surrounded by a squad of County Soldiers, ran out of the city, sweating profusely.

It was the Magistrate of Qinghe County, Magistrate Zhao De.

He trotted all the way to Captain Li Zhong, bowing from a distance, his face filled with a fawning smile.

"Your humble official, Magistrate Zhao De of Qinghe County, did not know of your arrival, Captain. I have failed to welcome you from afar. Please forgive me, please forgive me!"

Captain Li Zhong sat on his horse, looking down at him, only emitting a single sound from his nose.

"Hmm."

Chen Fan stood not far behind Captain Li Zhong, expressionlessly watching the fawning Magistrate.

Magistrate Zhao De.

Truly, life is full of unexpected encounters.

In the past, he was Zhao Long, and Magistrate Zhao De was his father.

Later, when he was the Black Wind Demon, the County Soldiers under this guy's command had been killed by him until they threw away their armor and fled.

Now, with a sudden change, he had become the lackey of the Xiushan Princes Mansion, while he remained that local magistrate who bowed and scraped before the powerful.

Magistrate Zhao De seemed to sense the gaze from this side and subconsciously raised his head, sweeping a glance at the guard team behind Captain Li Zhong.

When his gaze met Chen Fan's, he only glanced briefly before immediately and humbly lowering his head, failing to recognize this plain, unremarkable face at all.

That was right; a small magistrate, where would he have the qualifications to remember the appearance of a guard from the Xiushan Princes Mansion?

"Where is she?" Captain Li Zhong asked coldly.

Magistrate Zhao De hurriedly stepped forward, lowering his voice, his face carrying a hint of excitement as if seeking credit.

"Reporting to you, Captain! That demoness is in the city!"