Chapter 2341

"Insect?" Nie Xiaolou raised an eyebrow, looking at Mei Wuniang, "You wouldn't say this was also given to you by the Heavenly Palace, would you?"

Mei Wuniang stubbornly kept her mouth shut: "Completing the tasks assigned by the Heavenly Palace also requires tools and magical artifacts."

Nie Xiaolou picked up the bead and placed it on the fire to roast.

Soon, the insect woke from its dormancy and twisted vigorously on the tweezers.

When it unfurled its body, Nie Xiaolou understood: "Heart-confusing insect? Hmm, seems to be a variant of the heart-confusing insect. What information have you probed with it, and is the outside still the Heavenly Palace?"

Mei Wuniang remained silent.

"If I hand it over to the Heavenly Palace, what will happen to you?" Nie Xiaolou chuckled lightly, "You're not the one who likes to kill with a borrowed knife, are you? This time, will you still hoist yourself with your own petard?"

"Falling into your hands, it's already hard to escape death. How could you hand me back to the Heavenly Palace?" Mei Wuniang closed her eyes, appearing utterly despairing, but her mind raced.

As the master of the Qinggong, Nie Xiaolou largely represents the Demon Emperor.

In just a few hours, she had encountered three factions: Mou State, Heavenly Palace, and Nie Xiaolou.

Mei Wuniang had been in the Heavenly Palace for seven years, longer than most, and knew clearly that the relationship between the Wang Ting and the Heavenly Palace, the Demon Emperor and the Heavenly Gods, could be described as "appearing united but divided in heart"—fundamentally not as harmonious as it seemed on the surface.

Today, the Mou people and the Heavenly Palace are fighting—is Nie Xiaolou here to help?

No.

Nie Xiaolou then pointed to the sealed letter on the table and said to Mei Wuniang: "The blackbird that delivered your letter has already told me the receiving address. At most two hours later, I will know which faction's stronghold that is. Actually, I don't even need to investigate—I know you were sent by Cangyan, and that stronghold is also Cangyan's."

He smiled: "This is actually easy to deduce. In this world, only two great powers—Mou State and Cangyan—have the courage and means to plant spies in the Heavenly Palace and beside the Lord of Duoyun."

This young lady is clearly not from Mou State, so there is only one possibility.

Mei Wuniang curled the corner of her mouth: "Who said only two? How could you overlook Begga?"

This remark was tantamount to a provocation; the State Preceptor of the Qinggong knew best that she could not possibly be from Begga.

Moreover, Mei Wuniang's meaning was clear to her: she knew that Lingxu City and the Heavenly Palace were also superficially united but divided in heart, mutually spying.

She further said: "When Lord Lu held his inauguration ceremony, that very day a guard was dragged out from the secret room, his eyes secretly harboring eye mites! Hah, I see that must be Lingxu City's method—covert and effective, though it still didn't escape the Heavenly Gods' eyes, only missing success by a hair's breadth."

Lingxu City and the Demon Emperor also want to probe Heavenly Palace's many secrets.

"Provoking me like this does you no good." Nie Xiaolou's smile remained unchanged, "Now come clean—I might spare your life; otherwise, it's their turn."

He then pointed to several men: "In their hands, there's no mouth that can't be pried open. You're such a lovely lady—I wouldn't want the final scene to be too ugly, so you'd better think hard: what value is there in dying here? If the letter isn't sent out, your superior won't get the information. You're just dying pointlessly."

Mei Wuniang remained silent.

If she doesn't speak, she will most likely die here. The information from the Hidden God Lord won't reach He Lingchuan.

This information is too important to be buried with her. Nie Xiaolou at least got one thing right: if this information isn't sent out, what meaning is there in her years of sleeping on firewood and tasting gall?

But if she speaks, will Nie Xiaolou and the Demon Emperor report it to the Heavenly Palace?

Even if they don't, once they grasp this information, won't they be able to set a new trap for Cangyan to fall into?

Among a hundred people, there are a thousand thoughts.

Once this secret leaks out, the consequences are unimaginable.

In the game of great powers, a single step's difference might result in a chasm as vast as heaven and abyss.

She wrote her hesitation all over her face, and Nie Xiaolou wasn't in a hurry, for this showed she had already wavered.

He waited a few breaths, then patiently said: "You insisted on seeing me—surely you must have a reason?"

This maid suffered greatly but refused to confess, unless he appeared in person.

Now he has appeared.

In the guest room, it was very quiet, only the blood drops from Mei Fei's hand falling to the ground.

Drip.

This tiny sound seemed to pull her back to reality; she lowered her head to look at her bloody, mangled hands and said to Nie Xiaolou:

"The secret the old lord entrusted to Lu Yongyan before his death, I can tell you, on the condition that you exchange it for my life and let me go."

"He who knows the times is a true hero. Miss Tong, hold on—time is limited." Nie Xiaolou replied cheerfully, "Speak, I will judge for myself."

To force someone to speak the truth, he has many divine arts and spells at his disposal, but they all take more time. If he could ask directly, that would be best.

"Good." Mei Wuniang exhaled lightly, also knowing that without revealing a few key pieces of information, she couldn't pass this test, regardless of whether she had any backing: "On the night the old Lord of Duoyun died, Aunt Zeng indeed brought only two maidservants into the secret room, not me. Otherwise, I would have shared their fate. After the funeral bell rang, since I was Aunt Zeng's personal maid, the palace arranged for me to enter the secret room to attend to her aftermath. It is customary in the palace for elders' deaths to be handled by those close to them."

This is no different from what she previously said.

"But this heart-confusing insect—" she lifted the small worm on the table with her fingertip, "can let me obtain the final fragment of memory from the newly deceased's mind, of course only a fragment from the moment of death, disconnected and incomplete."

"Oh?" Nie Xiaolou had also speculated somewhat, "This is indeed a remarkable secret art, able to pry open the dead's mouth! How should this heart-confusing insect be used?"

Mei Wuniang shook her head: "You can't use it—it has already recognized me as master. Once the binding is undone, it will die. You also needn't try other methods; this is the proud work of Dong Yan, master of Cangyan State, who guaranteed it has no solution."

"Dong Rui?"

"Yes." Mei Wuniang said solemnly, "I have learned that before his death, the old Lord of Duoyun indeed conveyed several secrets to Lu Yongyan, including the three major demon puppet secret experimental fields established overseas by the Heavenly Palace, located respectively in the Demon Nest Swamp, the Nine Abyss Source Ravine, and the Tapor Archipelago. The focus of experimentation differs at each of these three major secret experimental fields."

Upon hearing this, Nie Xiaolou was also secretly shocked. Amidst the probing and surveillance of all factions, even including Begga, and despite the determined suppression and destruction by Ling Mountain, Mou State, and Cangyan, the Heavenly Palace still retained so many large-scale demon puppet experimental fields.

The secrecy work was also done extremely well.

Nie Xiaolou continued to ask: "Is there no experimental field in Fu State?"

"This question was also asked by Lu Yongyan. The old lord said, when the two Heavenly Gods descended in full form, shaking the world, the experimental field on Fu State's Puchu Island would certainly not remain hidden."