The Empress's No.1 Lackey
Chapter 690 - 459. Curse Killing Zhao Douan (5k)

Chapter 690: 459. Curse Killing Zhao Douan (5k)

Duan Shuiliu? Is it that guy? Zhao Douan was momentarily stunned, but surprisingly felt no emotion of surprise.

In his view, with the Empress’s seal ceremony approaching, Prince Jing, being the most troublesome among the "Eight Princes," would surely make a move.

He would try various methods to obstruct the seal ceremony. Against this backdrop, inviting "Duan Shuiliu," who had obviously aligned with Prince Jing Mansion at Hu Ting, seemed logical.

"But what about those magicians... where did they come from? Could it be... the Magic God Sect?" Zhao Douan’s heart stirred.

He clearly remembered, when in the Capital, during the time he eliminated the Zhang family brothers, he had captured a magician who was a "Secret Spy of Prince Jing Mansion."

Their background was that of a defector from the Heavenly Master Mansion, suspected to have joined the martial world organization "Magic God Sect," a priest.

Later, on his way back to the Capital after dealing with a case in Taicang Prefecture, he had also been ambushed by the Magic God Sect.

"What is Prince Jing planning? Could he really believe that with this small force, he can disrupt the seal ceremony? Wishful thinking."

Zhao Douan pondered in his heart but did not dare to be careless, nodded seriously towards the Bodhi Bodhisattva: "I understand."

The Bodhisattva, who was coveting him, couldn’t help but remind: "The more critical the moment, the more you need to be cautious. If you push the Shen family too hard, who knows what they might do."

Zhao Douan unexpectedly glanced at her, confidently smiled, and said: "Don’t worry, I have it in mind. In the current situation, unless they can assassinate me, but I’m just hiding in the Governor’s Office, with you all in the Worldly Realm protecting me, who can kill me?"

After speaking, he turned and left, leaving Bodhi Bodhisattva to gently sigh and no longer look at the "Capital Spectacle" formed by human heads in the courtyard.

...

That day.

A fine rain drizzled for most of the day, only stopping by the time it was nearly evening.

During this, Zhao Douan routinely dealt with official business, discussed the next plan with Governor Ning, and supervised the preparations for the seal ceremony—even though the court and the Shen family were in conflict like this, the preparation of the seal ceremony was not affected.

No surprise. Neither the Shen family nor Prince Jing Mansion wanted to provide an excuse for the impending Empress to punish them due to this.

Until nightfall, Zhao Douan had no appetite during dinner, only feeling physically tired and mentally exhausted.

"Lord, you must have been overworking and exhausting your mind these days, go and rest early, I will watch over the remaining affairs." Governor Ning saw him yawning repeatedly and couldn’t help but advise.

Zhao Douan thought for a moment, didn’t insist, got up, returned to his bedroom, and feeling overwhelmed by drowsiness, fell asleep without even undressing.

In his dreams, Zhao Douan only felt extremely cold, unconsciously pulling the quilt to cover himself, yet still felt cold.

His skin turned red, burning hot, and then the color gradually faded, his complexion visibly deteriorating.

...

...

Prince Jing Mansion.

Xu Jinglong, holding a lampstand in both hands, accompanied his father, Xu Wen, stepping on wooden stairs, illuminated by dim candle light, ascended a loft under the cover of night.

Pushing the door open, this rarely visited empty loft was tightly shut, dark, with only a central warm light dispelling a small patch of darkness.

Princely Heir Xu Jinglong curiously saw an elder in a gray robe sitting cross-legged in the loft.

The elder’s body was frail, beard white, extremely thin, making the robe seem huge, and on the ground behind him lay a mourning stick, with a delicately carved wooden coffin hanging from his waist.

On the floor beside him, a strange array drawn with the blood of some unknown exotic beast could be seen.

At each corner of the array, there was a bowl, with blood-red candles quietly burning inside.

Before this elderly magician, besides the three bowls of blood, there stood a pure white "straw man" fixed on the ground.

The straw man’s chest and back were pasted with talismans green at the base, with golden lines drawn.

At this moment, the elder was piercing a silver needle into the pure white straw man’s head, which was entwined with a lock of black hair.

Upon seeing Prince Jing and his son arrive, the elder did not rise but cupped his hands and smiled, saying: "Greetings, Prince, Princely Heir."

Prince Jing asked, "How is it?"

The old magician smiled:

"The spell is complete, with this hair as a medium, the distance is right, and with the heart blood of a hundred men granted by the Prince, I have invoked the ’Sorrow God’ and cast the curse.

Tonight, that Zhao Douan’s ’Sangmen Star’ will appear above him!

Heh, if he had entered the Worldly Realm, it might be troublesome. But since he is still in the Divine Chapter Realm and also a martial artist, there is no possibility of failure."

Hearing this, Prince Jing was pleased: "My efforts were not in vain, it took months for our secret spies to accumulate the materials needed for the curse."

People in this era, although cherishing "body and hair from one’s parents," did get haircuts, hence Zhao Douan’s hair was not difficult to obtain.

The real challenge was finding the other conditions sufficient to curse kill someone in the top-grade Divine Chapter.

Xu Jinglong was greatly surprised: "Sorrow God... Could it be, this elder is a magician of the White Clothes Sect?"

In the martial world, the largest organization that venerates the "Sorrow God" is the "White Clothes Sect," closely related to the Netherworld Sect that venerates the "Death God."

The spells governed by the "Sorrow God" often relate to curses and can intervene in a person’s fortune.

Xu Jinglong was somewhat puzzled, hadn’t they recently been secretly summoning magicians from the Magic God Sect? Where did this White Clothes Sect fellow come from?

Prince Jing glanced at the Princely Heir and calmly explained to him: "This was borrowed from Mu Prince Manor."

From Mu Prince Manor? Indeed, the White Clothes Sect’s Sangmen Stars are quite active in Yunfu Road... Xu Jinglong thought of many things in an instant, his eyes lit up, and he said: "Father Prince had a plan long ago? Knowing that Zhao Douan’s side has many experts, making it hard to kill him outright, so you prepared a curse to kill him?"