Chapter 1858: Little Tail

The banquet ended before 9:00 PM. As the owner of the castle, the Little Duke took the Daikou King, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, and Amu to visit his father's collection.

In the castle's study, Su Xiao and the Minister of Finance, Walkley, sat together. On the wooden table between them were black tea, snacks, etc.

Walkley held a pipe between his fingertips. The cigarettes in this world were not filled with tobacco, but with the tender leaves of the Four Seasons Tree.

"Duke Kukulyn, you didn't come this time for the military funds, did you?"

Walkley tapped the pipe in his hand, and white smoke lingered in the room.

"Of course, I came this time..."

Su Xiao stopped here, his gaze looking at the wooden table beside him. On the side of this wooden table was a small piece of transparent armor plate, about the size of a fingernail.

"I came this time mainly to investigate the theft of the crown."

"Theft of the crown?"

Walkley clearly hadn't heard of the crown being stolen. In fact, this was an excuse Su Xiao had made up.

"Do you want to know?"

"Not interested. I'm old, and I'm becoming more indifferent to power. If you savor it carefully, it's actually just like that. The more you have, the more you have to pay. Before I was 30, money was everything in my eyes. Before 50, power was life. But after 70, I found that power couldn't solve the problem of me having to get up three times every night; it only made me get up more often."

Walkley shook his head and smiled, as if savoring something, and also as if regretting something.

"This thing is ironclad proof that the thief has been to the Duke's Manor."

Su Xiao picked off the transparent armor plate from the side of the wooden table. Since entering the Duke's Manor, he hadn't seen this thing once or twice, but at least a dozen times.

If Su Xiao wasn't mistaken, this was left behind by the rule-breaker. There was no spiritual imprint on it, and it was more likely a side effect produced after using some kind of ability.

"This is..."

Walkley looked at the transparent armor plate on the table, feeling quite surprised for a moment.

"Isn't this the fruit shell of the Wood Thorn?"

"Wood Thorn?"

"The Duke hasn't heard of this summer fruit?"

Walkley was even more puzzled, but he soon discovered that after completely losing its support, the fruit shell of the Wood Thorn began to evaporate rapidly. This was a very abnormal situation.

"Lena loved the Wood Thorn very much, but she suddenly fell ill yesterday afternoon and has already..."

Walkley didn't continue. The Lena he spoke of was a distant relative of his, mainly responsible for the daily procurement of items for the Duke's Manor, and she died suddenly in her bedroom yesterday.

For acute diseases, the Empire had almost zero tolerance. Once discovered, the body had to be burned immediately.

"In other words, she died yesterday afternoon?"

"That's right. It happened very suddenly. Lena was a good girl. It's really regrettable."

Walkley sighed. He naturally sensed that this matter was not simple, so he immediately distanced himself. The Little Duke had already withdrawn from the struggle for royal power, so Walkley didn't want to get involved in such troublesome matters.

"Yesterday afternoon..."

Su Xiao naturally wouldn't fully believe Walkley's words, but one point was very important: he was ambushed last night and encountered the tricky enemy, Flesh Hall Baha.

Su Xiao decided to get rid of Bloom at noon yesterday, planned for about an afternoon, acted at night, and the assassination went very smoothly, but he was ambushed on the way back.

And Lena of the Duke's Manor died suddenly yesterday afternoon. Assuming she had been replaced by a rule-breaker, then her sudden death yesterday afternoon was likely because the rule-breaker had changed the replacement target.

From the moment Su Xiao participated in the struggle for royal power, he was exposed to the rule-breaker's sight. This was a certain thing.

Lena died of illness yesterday afternoon, and Su Xiao was ambushed at night, and the ambushers accurately grasped the route he took back.

When he was attacked last night, Su Xiao suspected there was a mole in the Right Imperial Manor. Now it seems that the rule-breaker was likely replacing someone in the Right Imperial Manor.

The only point that didn't make sense was that if the rule-breaker was in the Right Imperial Manor, the pursuit function should have been activated, but Su Xiao didn't receive any prompts.

Assuming the rule-breaker's ability was very special, capable of replacing the other party without devouring the consciousness of the indigenous residents, then it became one body with two consciousnesses.

In normal times, the replaced indigenous resident was the original consciousness, which would be judged as an external consciousness energy invasion, rather than being judged as a rule-breaker.

But when action was needed, the rule-breaker would replace the other party's consciousness and act using the other party's identity and memory. In this way, it basically wouldn't show any flaws, and it maximized the possibility of avoiding the pursuit function.

Because from beginning to end, the rule-breaker's main body was not in the Right Imperial Manor. It was more likely a replacement or manipulation of consciousness, rather than completely replacing an indigenous resident.

Complete replacement was actually easier to deal with, but if it was just consciousness storage, stripping the consciousness would lead to the death of the indigenous resident, which would be very difficult to handle.

With a general idea in mind, Su Xiao no longer asked the Minister of Finance about the rule-breaker. The Minister of Finance was happy to do so, and the two began to chat idly.

At 10:00 PM that night, the Minister of Finance and the Little Duke sent Su Xiao and others to the manor gate.

"Duke Kukulyn, you must come to visit me when you have time."

Judging from the Minister of Finance's expression, he had a very pleasant chat with Su Xiao, and there was even a feeling of meeting late.

"Of course."

Su Xiao also smiled, but the moment the two turned their backs, the smiles on their faces disappeared at the same time.

"This old guy has problems."

Su Xiao could be sure of one thing: the Minister of Finance was by no means as simple as he appeared, but one point was that the other party should have nothing to do with the rule-breaker.

It was even possible that the rule-breaker was driven out of the Duke's Manor by this old guy.

"Xiang Bubu, what did you find in the manor?"

"Woof."

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang threw a wooden box to Su Xiao. The wooden box was almost filled with the fruit shells of the Wood Thorn. These fruit shells didn't know what was special about them; they wouldn't dissipate immediately when exposed to the air, but after losing the support of things, they would dissipate at a very fast speed, or rather, this was related to the rule-breaker's ability. The other party's ability also needed some kind of support, and once the support was lost, it would dissipate rapidly.

"What did you discover?"

The Daikou King spoke. She spent most of the night searching on the third floor of the castle and gained a lot, finding many traces left by the rule-breaker.

"Nothing."

Su Xiao wouldn't tell the other party that the rule-breaker might be in the Right Imperial Manor for the time being. The fewer people who knew about this, the better. Once the rule-breaker was alerted, the other party might run away somewhere else again.

Moreover, the Daikou King was not a professional in this area. She entered this world mainly to prevent Su Xiao from conflicting with other Some Qiyuezhe. From this point of view, she did very well. Let alone conflicting, Su Xiao hadn't even seen the faces of other Some Qiyuezhe. The Holy City was only so big, this couldn't be a coincidence.

Right now, the fish was beside the hook, just waiting for a bite.

Su Xiao glanced at the World Core on his wrist. He had to prevent the fish from biting off the fishing line and swallowing the bait directly, which would be a huge loss.

That night, Su Xiao returned to the Right Imperial Manor as usual, as if he had really just visited the Minister of Finance.

At 12:00 AM, Su Xiao gave an order to Wu Fu, asking the other party to find something.

Right now, Su Xiao had considerable power in the Empire. It was a waste to use this power only for seizing power, so he ordered Wu Fu to look for records about sword techniques, etc. Of course, some alchemy materials could not be less. Su Xiao wanted to take time to improve the Plant Harmonization Chapter and sword techniques. ===== CHAPTER 1859 =====