Chapter 293: Infiltration
Han Li was quite familiar with the obsessed expression the young woman revealed as she departed.
The very first time he saw Li Huayuan control that huge flood dragon, he also had this envious gaze.
With this thought, Han Li felt that this beautiful young woman was truly interesting.
After he slightly smiled, he silently disappeared from the tree. He reappeared within the tall walls of the prince’s mansion.
At this moment, not only did Han Li use the “Invisibility Technique” that would hide him from mortals, but he also used the “Qi Restraining Technique”, a Qi concealment technique that cultivators could use only after achieving Foundation Establishment.
He quickly flashed by the scurrying maids and servants within the prince’s residence without anyone noticing anything out of the ordinary.
After a moment, Han Li infiltrated into the back residence of the prince’s mansion. He secretly hid behind a pillar at some desolate corridor and watched everything nearby with a cold gaze.
Not long after, a somewhat pretty maid walked nearby. Han Li suddenly shot out a ball of yellow light the size of a fist from his finger, striking the maid’s head. The maid suddenly staggered as if she were about fall onto the floor.
Without waiting for her to fall, Han Li had already leaped out to grab her and flew back to hide behind the pillar.
With great skill, Han Li straightened the young maid’s weak body and arranged it so that she faced him. He then opened his mouth and spouted out azure Spiritual Qi, which entered her tightly closed eyes.
At this moment, the young maid’s eyelids started to move, and she slowly opened her eyes.
Just as the young maid was waking up, she saw a pair of gold yellow eyes staring at her coldly.
Just as she thought about yelling loudly and putting up a struggle, strange yellow streaks of light suddenly shot out from those eyes directly into her own.
The young maid immediately felt the world spin as her vision was filled with a golden yellow color. Then, with a tilted head, she lost consciousness.
Han Li took another look at the young maid who fainted and lightly sighed before lightly wiping away the sweat on her face.
Although he could only use the “Soul Controlling Technique” for a short among of time, it truly consumed far too much of his attention and felt quite strenuous. It was no wonder that this magic technique was classified as a worthless Foundation Establishment technique.
Although this magic technique would make the target obediently follow the caster as a slave for a short amount of time, it had great limitations. As such, the cultivators who practiced this magic technique were truly few in number!
First of all, this magic technique could only be used on mortals. It didn’t have the slightest effect on cultivators. Even if there was a great disparity in cultivation, so long as there was spiritual power coursing through their heads, other cultivators could easily counteract the technique’s bewitchment effect.
Next, not only must whoever wished to practice this technique be at Foundation Establishment, their spiritual sense must be far stronger than average. Thus. the overwhelming majority of Foundation Establishment cultivators weren’t able to practice this technique.
With these two restrictions, cultivators with interest in practicing this magic technique were pitifully few.
However, this was no problem for Han Li.
Han Li had originally been anxious that he would only be able to grasp a limited set of Foundation Establishment magic techniques. The last time he was in the Heaven’s Knowledge Pavilion, he had read the incantation of this magic technique and memorized it out of curiosity. Once he returned to his cave to cultivate it, he wasn’t met with the slightest resistance and was able to smoothly succeed. This greatly surprised Han Li.
He now attempted to use the magic technique on this girl, and as expected, he succeeded.
After taking a cautious glance in every direction, he softly extended his finger, and a small ball of milky white light emerged on his finger tip. Pressed against the maid’s head, the ball of light soon entered her forehead and disappeared.
The young maid woke up and immediately stood. She blankly looked at Han Li without speaking.
“What is the background of your chief steward? When did he enter the Prince’s residence? Where does he often like to go? Who does he often meet with outside the Prince’s residence?” Han Li looked at the young maid and rapidly shot out a series of questions.
He started off with this maid, the one dispatched by Prince Xin to find the young prince at the start of the banquet. It seemed the status of this servant wasn’t low. If he used her, Han Li might actually obtain a bit of reliable information.
“Which chief steward is Master asking about?” The young maid asked with an expressionless face.
“The Prince’s residence has more than one chief steward?” Puzzled, Han Li asked with slight surprise.
“The residence has many chief stewards in charge of taking care of the Prince’s affairs. For example, there is Chief Steward Li, who is in charge of making purchases, and Chief Steward Di, who is in charge of supervising the residence.” The young maid continued with blank eyes.
“Which chief steward was greeting guests at the residence’s gate?” Han Li softly asked after wrinkling his brow.
“That is Chief Steward Wang; he has the greatest authority.”
“He is the one I am referring to!” Han Li added with a bit of anxiety.
He didn’t know how long he could use this magic technique to control her mind. Naturally, he had to hurry and ask about the important matters first. Otherwise, he would have to waste more effort after the young maid awakened.
“According to the seniors in the residence, Chief Steward Wang grew up together with the Prince and accompanied him during his education. He eventually followed the prince for fifty to sixty years. Apart from a routine monthly trip in which he follows the Prince into the forbidden city, he normally doesn’t leave the Prince’s residence and won’t contact anybody outside. If he did meet anyone, it would be among the Prince’s good friends.”
“As for his relationship with the young prince, it’s a bit strange! I’ve heard from the young prince’s previous wet nurse that ten years ago, the young prince used to have a very violent temperament, and his relationship with Chief Steward Wang was anything but good. He even slapped Chief Steward Wang in public before. But throughout the past ten years, the young prince’s entire attitude changed dramatically. Not only did he become polite and refined, but he also became extremely respectful towards Chief Steward Wang, even holding a ceremony to become his Junior. Prince Xin was greatly pleased by this, claiming that they had the gods’ blessings all along,” the young girl flatly said.
When Han Li heard this, his expression didn’t change. He coldly smiled in his heart.
Although it sounded like this Chief Steward Wang didn’t seem suspicious in the least, the exceptional change in the young prince’s character was enough for Han Li to be certain there was some sort of hidden relationship between the two.
In addition, for these two to cause a Foundation Establishment cultivator to feel danger, they certainly weren’t common mortals.
As for the steward’s mysterious background, Han LI didn’t feel like investigating it too deeply.
He only wanted to make sure the chief steward wasn’t from the Devil Dao. He didn’t care whether the other party was righteous or evil or whatever secrets he held.
If he could do less, Han Li naturally wouldn’t go asking for trouble.
After this interrogation, Han Li figured it was most likely that the young prince and the chief steward had no relationship with the Devil Dao.
After all, the young prince had been exceptional from the beginning; there hadn’t been a sudden change in ability. If the Devil Dao truly started setting this up over ten years ago, Han Li could only remain speechless.
With this thought, Han Li sighed and commanded, “Where does Immortal Master Wu live? Lead me there.”
“As you wish, Master!”
The young maid obediently stood and walked. Han Li secretly followed her while continuing to conceal himself.
With the young girl’s guidance, Han Li passed through seven to eight large courtyards and arrived at a peaceful terrace. At that moment, the young girl then stopped.
Pa! Pa!
Suddenly, Han Li lightly patted the maid’s back two times using a palm filled with white light. Afterwards, his figure flashed and shot behind a large tree.
“Yi! Isn’t this the venerable Immortal Master’s residence? What am I doing here?”
The young maid then blinked two times with all her strength and suddenly yelped. The blankness in her eyes could no longer be seen.
“Who is causing a commotion outside? Didn’t this humble Daoist instruct not to let people come here and disturb his cultivation?!”
The old Daoist Priest’s annoyed voice came from a room in the courtyard.
When the young maid heard this, her face immediately turned white from fear. Without thinking about why she appeared at this location, she ran away, flustered.
Creak. The door opened.
With the appearance of stereotypical Daoist Immortal, the old white-haired Daoist walked out.
But after he saw there was nobody in the courtyard, his face revealed a sense of confusion.
“What’s going on! I clearly heard someone talking. I thought the prince had come to find me! Where did the unpleasant person who interrupted my cultivation run off to?”
The old man stood in the courtyard and looked in every direction before furiously returning to his room.
After he shut his door and faced the room, however, he was completely dumbfounded!
He only saw Han Li sitting at the table, silently looking at the old Daoist with a beaming smile. He appeared to hold great interest in him.
“Who are you?” The old Daoist quickly asked as his expression dramatically changed.
He then reflexively raised his hand and summoned a fireball.
“What I want is you. Don’t worry, I won’t act against you so casually.” Han Li smiled speaking as if hadn’t seen the old Daoist’s fireball. His words didn’t hold the slightest bit of hostility.
