Chapter 169: Acting, The Masked Prince

Shen Qianmo spoke in an extremely soft and unhurried tone, a faint smile always lingering on her lips. Yet every single word falling from her mouth was like a sharp blade, viciously piercing Wanyan Lü's heart and instantly driving him into a towering rage.

"Audacious wretch! Who do you think you are calling a good-for-nothing!" Wanyan Lü had always been narrow-minded with an excessively strong sense of pride, and had never been humiliated like this before. The words "good-for-nothing" set his fury ablaze. His sinister, phoenix-like eyes glared fiercely at Shen Qianmo with a terror-inducing, distorted expression. Blinded by rage, he abruptly stood up and lunged at Shen Qianmo.

Before he could even strike, however, a fierce gale of palm wind struck him diagonally.

"Bang!"

With a resounding crash, Wanyan Lü's entire body was heavily hurled into a nearby chair. Before he could recover his wits, a cold and murderous voice echoed from the doorway.

"Wanyan Lü, this Prince thinks you don't just want to be a good-for-nothing, you also want to be a corpse!"

Standing with his hands clasped behind his back outside the door was a man draped in a deep purple brocade robe edged with cloud patterns. A full head of silver hair was casually gathered and draped over his shoulders. Tall, slender, and upright, he effortlessly exuded an overpowering majesty and dominance that rose above all living beings. It was none other than Meng Yuanheng, who had just returned from patrolling Yunzhou.

Blown away by the sudden, violent strike, Wanyan Lü crashed into the opposite chair and coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood on the spot.

Meng Yuanheng strode into the hall in a few swift steps, his handsome, lean face filled with murderous intent. The gaze he fixed on Wanyan Lü was as chilling and hard as the ice atop a snowy peak, making anyone who saw it tremble inwardly.

Seeing their master injured, the two accompanying Northern Di guards rushed into the reception hall, shielding Wanyan Lü—who had fresh blood streaming from the corners of his mouth—behind them.

Immediately afterward, Ye Qinglan also swept into the hall in a flash, followed by Baili Xiao and several of the Prince's estate secret guards, tightly surrounding and protecting Shen Qianmo.

In an instant, the two factions locked into a tense standoff, and the atmosphere in the hall abruptly became taut, perilous, and exceptionally heavy.

Seeing this, Shen Qianmo furrowed her brows slightly. Although she could tell that Meng Yuanheng had definitely held back with that palm strike—otherwise, given his formidable cultivation, if he had used his full strength, Wanyan Lü would have lost half his life even if he survived—she did not want to completely provoke Wanyan Lü right now. Just in case he threw caution to the winds, flew into a rage, and destroyed the Fiery Lotus in a fit of anger, things would become difficult to handle.

Meng Yuanheng paid no attention to the others in the hall, simply taking a seat beside Shen Qianmo. Seeing her furrowed brows and thoughtful expression, he understood what she was worried about. He raised a hand to gently caress her fair, flawless cheek, his thumb rubbing against her slightly knitted eyebrows as he said softly, "Mo'er, do not worry."

Knowing he did not want her to worry, Shen Qianmo looked up at him, smiled faintly, and nodded. Seeing that he was covered in dust from a long journey, his chin covered in dark stubble, and his face etched with utter exhaustion, she figured this fellow must have received the secret guards' message while on his way back from Yunzhou and rushed back without resting or sleeping.

Wanyan Lü struggled to sit up from the chair. With a wet cough, he lowered his head and spat out another mouthful of blood in utter humiliation. Realizing he had been so easily injured by a single palm strike from Meng Yuanheng, his heart was filled with bitter resentment, which inevitably evoked the humiliating memory of his crushing defeat at Meng Yuanheng's hands a decade ago.

Ten years ago, Wanyan Lü was twenty-two years old. That year, on the first day of spring, he had been officially invested as the Crown Prince of Northern Di. High-spirited and ambitious, he had personally requested to lead troops to attack the Great Sheng Empire, plotting to seize Chengning City, which lay beyond the Pingyang Pass in northern Great Sheng.

He had wholeheartedly hoped to use this victory of capturing a city to establish his prestige as the newly appointed Crown Prince. Yet, to his utter dismay, not only did this battle fail to win him any face, but it also made him the object of covert and overt ridicule by his royal brothers for a long time to come.

In March of that year, he personally led an army of one hundred thousand, marching imposingly right outside the Pingyang Pass. That very night, they pitched camp and made thorough deployments, waiting only for dawn to break to launch a full-scale assault and capture Chengning City in one fell swoop.

However, on that very night, a young general clad in white robes seemed to descend from the heavens. With a single man, a single horse, and a single sword, accompanied by merely a few hundred cavalrymen, he broke into Wanyan Lü's military camp with lightning speed. He burned their provisions, destroyed their battle flags, slew their leading generals, and ultimately penetrated straight to the commander-in-chief's tent, resting the bone-chilling edge of his precious sword right against Wanyan Lü's neck.

It was only then that he learned this white-robed young general was none other than Meng Yuanheng, the young Prince of the Xuan Prince's Estate.

Hatefully, despite commanding an army of one hundred thousand, he had been utterly caught off guard. Under the sudden, fierce assault unleashed by Meng Yuanheng and the hundreds of elite cavalry under his command, his forces were scattered in all directions, completely incapable of putting up any defense.

What made him lose even more face was that, in that year, Meng Yuanheng, the young Prince of the Xuan Prince's Estate, was merely fourteen years old.

His lifelong reputation had thus been ruined at the hands of a fourteen-year-old Meng Yuanheng. Ever since that battle, he rarely led troops into battle again; even when he did take the field, he tried his utmost to avoid facing Meng Yuanheng in direct combat.

Yet no matter what, his life had been stained with a glaring blot by Meng Yuanheng on that very night. No matter how he tried to evade or ignore it, that stain stubbornly remained etched in his mind, refusing to fade away.

Viciously glaring at the warm, harmonious, and deeply affectionate scene between the married couple before him, Wanyan Lü's rage flared even higher. He sneered coldly, "Meng Yuanheng, this Crown Prince thinks it would be better for your woman to worry a little. Without the Fiery Lotus, you don't have many years left to live anyway. By then, leaving behind a widow and an orphan, their fate will be utterly tragic..."

Meng Yuanheng's handsome face sank, clearly provoked into genuine anger. Seeing his right palm twitch as if he were about to strike again, Shen Qianmo thought to herself that this was bad. Meng Yuanheng definitely would not hold back this time. Just as she was about to stop him, a hurried cry rang out from outside the door.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, your younger brother has specially come to escort you back!"

Before the words fully faded, the Sixth Prince of Northern Di, Wanyan Ping, had already strode into the reception hall accompanied by He Liancheng, cupping his fists in a salute to Meng Yuanheng and Shen Qianmo. "Greetings, Prince Xuan, Princess Xuan."

He Liancheng merely nodded with a blank expression, showing little reaction. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Wanyan Lü hastily putting his veiled hat back on, causing He Liancheng's handsome brows to knit together imperceptibly.

Wanyan Lü was wearing his veiled hat. Although Wanyan Ping was well aware of those petty tricks he had been playing, he did not expose him on the spot, simply asking with concern, "Has Your Highness the Crown Prince's injury already been treated?"

Wanyan Ping asked the question with utmost naturalness, yet everyone present wore vastly different expressions. The corners of Shen Qianmo's lips twitched slightly; she thought to herself that this Wanyan Ping truly was a clever man.

Wanyan Lü fell silent for a long moment before finally letting out a muffled "Mn" in a deep voice, signifying tacit agreement.

"That is wonderful indeed." Wanyan Ping smoothly followed the cue, a hint of joy naturally appearing on his face as he turned to Shen Qianmo and bowed deeply. "This junior wishes to thank Princess Xuan for taking the trouble to treat the Crown Prince's injuries."

Shen Qianmo smiled faintly. "The Sixth Prince need not be so courteous. His Highness the Crown Prince has already agreed to use the Fiery Lotus as a token of gratitude for this Princess curing his insect venom. Come to think of it, I am the one who profited from this."

"Princess Xuan speaks incorrectly. The Crown Prince's injury is on his face; if not for Princess Xuan's timely treatment, his face might have festered and scarred, rendering him unpresentable—the consequences would have been unimaginable! How could a mere little Fiery Lotus ever compare to the Crown Prince's health and life?" Wanyan Ping adopted a grave yet utterly natural tone to pick up Shen Qianmo's thread, then turned to Wanyan Lü and asked, "What does Your Highness the Crown Prince think?"

Wanyan Lü felt a surge of hot blood and rising anger, and a sweet, fishy taste rose to his throat once more. Yet under these circumstances, if he wished to keep his lies going, he had no choice but to swallow his broken teeth along with the blood. No matter how hard this bitter pill was to swallow, swallow it he must.

"Sixth Brother makes sense." After struggling for a long moment, Wanyan Lü finally uttered those words in a deep voice, though everyone who heard them could sense a bone-grinding, blood-dripping resentment hidden within.

Watching this smokeless struggle between the two Northern Di princes, those who knew the inner story felt the corners of their mouths twitching slightly, thinking to themselves that this Wanyan Ping was truly a smiling tiger with a dagger hidden in his smile. Even Shen Qianmo could not help but want to applaud Wanyan Ping's exquisite and natural acting skills. Such an obvious display of false affection was executed so naturally by Wanyan Ping; if placed in the modern world, this Sixth Prince of Northern Di would definitely be of Best Actor caliber.

Baili Xiao had been holding back his laughter ever since Wanyan Ping appeared, several times coming close to bursting out laughing, but forced it down under Ye Qinglan's threatening glare. His handsome, delicate face had long since turned the color of a pig's liver.

"Since that is the case, this junior will act as a witness here. Once Your Highness the Crown Prince returns to Northern Di, he will surely send someone to deliver that Fiery Lotus to Mochen City and present it with both hands." Wanyan Ping made a solemn promise to Meng Yuanheng and Shen Qianmo.

"Sorry to trouble the Sixth Prince." Shen Qianmo smiled faintly and nodded. Meng Yuanheng, with an unfriendly expression, let out a cold huff. Under Shen Qianmo's subtle soothing, he finally temporarily dropped the matter of holding Wanyan Lü accountable for his unruliness and his attempt to harm Shen Qianmo just moments before.