Shi Sheng didn’t announce her presence when she entered, merely remaining quietly in a corner with Xi Yin. Because the latter blocked most of her body off from view, no one discovered that she looked exactly like Ling Xiang, who was currently in the spotlight.
Xi Yin found Shi Sheng’s suddenly subdued manner to be quite odd. This wasn’t like her at all.
Xi Yin subtly tightened his grasp on Shi Sheng’s hand.
The entire great hall appeared to be filled with the thick scent of roses.
Shi Sheng’s gaze landed on the long, rectangular table at the side of the great hall. Many beautiful glass cups filled with a bright red liquid were laid out on it.It appeared to be the source of the thick rose fragrance in the room.
Xi Yin seemed to have noticed where her attention was directed, for he pulled her into his arms and explained in a low voice, “That’s Jinluo juice. It can sate your hunger, but it’s easy to get addicted to.”
“The one you gave me?”
“En. I’m sorry.” Xi Yin didn’t try to hide it. ‘Fortunately, I only gave her one glass.’
Shi Sheng didn’t react. She turned away after a brief glance.
The vampires and vampire hunters were clearly divided into two camps that each took up one side of the room. Of course, there’d be some interaction between the two groups, but it was mostly limited to greetings.
Shi Sheng saw Du Jue in the crowd of vampire hunters. His expression appeared rather unsightly as he spoke to the person beside him. The latter appeared to be disagreeing with him on something.The more Du Jue spoke, the more agitated he got. Suddenly, he smashed the glass of red wine he was holding onto the ground. The sound of glass shattering caused the great hall to fall silent as all eyes turned to him.
“If you won’t say it, then I will! This matter doesn’t just concern us humans, but the vampires too!” Du Jue spoke forcefully, his voice echoing in the grand hall.
“Du Jue!” The elder who had been speaking to Du Jue snapped.
“What does Mr Du wish to say?” Ke Er walked over from the vampire’s side and stood in the middle between the two camps, his expression filled with scrutiny.
“Du Jue, hold your tongue!” The elder wished to hold Du Jue back, but the latter merely brushed the former aside.
He pushed up his glasses and advanced a few steps to stand before Ke Er. “Mr Ke Er, are you aware that your goddaughter has broken the agreement by killing humans?”
Ke Er’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Ling Xiang, who was nearby. She appeared shocked by this revelation; her expression was dumbstruck.
Those around her turned their gazes to Ling Xiang. “Breaking the first rule of the agreement is punishable by death...why would Lady Mi Nai kill humans?”
“How could Lady Mi Nai break the agreement? Perhaps they’re just deliberately finding fault!”
“I think so too! Vampire hunters are our natural enemies; this has to be a set-up!”
Ke Er ignored the discussions going on as he calmly asked, “Do you have any proof, Mr Du?”
Du Jue took out his phone and showed Ke Er two videos.
The first displayed Mi Nai’s very recognisable profile. There was no way of mistaking her identity, even if one could only see her silhouette. And the person in the video was in the process of sucking out someone’s blood.
The second video was the one where “Mi Nai” was surrounded and attacked at the academy.
The person who took the video hadn’t recorded the part where Shi Sheng and Ling Xiang both appeared, only the part where Ling Xiang sucked the blood out of the girl and then revealed her features.
“This is the proof!” Du Jue raised his voice, a keen light flashing through the eyes beneath the glasses. “How will you explain this, Prince Ke Er?”
Rui Yi stood behind Ke Er, his expression rapidly changing such that it was unpredictable.
‘My lil princess wouldn’t eat in such an uncouth manner—it has to be that impostor! But right now everyone thinks the impostor is her... If this matter isn’t handed properly, the one that people will denounce is lil princess...’
“Ke Er, get your girl to come forward and explain.” Another Prince spoke, giving the vampire hunters an unkind look.
Although they fought amongst themselves, they naturally stood on the side of their own kind when faced with outsiders.
Ke Er looked at Ling Xiang. She picked up her dress and headed over to Ke Er’s side, casting a glance at Du Jue. His fierce gaze caused her to retreat in fear and quietly explain, “Godfather, I didn’t. They’re slandering me.”
“Mi Nai, girl, you have to give some evidence.” A rather ugly man stood out from amongst the Princes. Well, he wasn’t ugly per se, but he had a scar on his face that marred his looks.
His sharp gaze was fixed to Ling Xiang as he put pressure on her.
“Fei Qi!” Ke Er rebuked in a low tone.
The man called Fei Qi scoffed coldly. “Ke Er, what are you being so loud for? Could it be that you have a guilty conscience? If your goddaughter is innocent, of course we will not allow her to be slandered! But if she broke the agreement, we cannot protect her either—else, what use is the agreement that was signed a century ago?”
Ke Er’s gaze as he looked at Fei Qi immediately turned shrewd. The other Princes remained silent and held their opinions to themselves.
“If Lady Mi Nai can produce evidence to prove her innocence, then we will admit our mistakes and apologise to Lady Mi Nai.” Seeing as things had already progressed to this point, the elder could only step forward and speak.
“I really didn’t!” Ling Xiang defended herself, anxiety on her face. “Godfather, you must believe me!”
“Mi Nai, girl, you can’t just say empty words. You have to have evidence.” With Fei Qi’s relentless attitude, pretty much everyone ought to have understood what was going on.
He was using the vampire hunters to cause Ke Er trouble.
Of all the Princes, Fei Qi and Ke Er were the strongest and had exchanged many blows in secret for many years. Naturally, Fei Qi wouldn’t give up such a good opportunity to take Ke Er down a peg.
“Fei Qi, do you know what you’re doing?” Ke Er’s expression was now completely as cold as ice.
‘He’s actually helping outsiders...’
“I’m doing this for the safety of all vampires! After all, no one wants someone who mars our peace by breaking the agreement, right?”
Fei Qi then continued, “We are Princes! We cannot possibly protect criminals just because they are family, can we?”
Fei Qi was forcing Ke Er to make a choice. If he acted selfishly in front of the vampire hunters, it would surely cause them dissatisfaction.
“Godfather, I really never did it!” Ling Xiang merely insisted on her innocence, but didn’t give any evidence.
After watching for a moment, a sudden smile broke out on Shi Sheng’s face and she concluded, “She’s instigating a war.”
‘As for the purpose behind doing so... I heard Ke Er say she was looking for something but couldn’t find it. She’s probably planning on taking advantage of the chaos to search the territories.’
Shi Sheng propped up her chin as she watched the dispute beginning to escalate into name-calling. Some people were already planning on attacking out of anger.
Meanwhile, this whole time, Ling Xiang insisted she hadn’t done it—but didn’t produce a shred of evidence to prove herself innocent, nor had she questioned the contents of the video.
This caused the people with overactive imaginations to fill in the gaps on their own.
Fei Qi was subtly trying to enrage Ke Er, appearing as if he wouldn’t rest till he pulled Ke Er off his horse with the help of the vampire hunters.
Despite causing such a large scene, the impostor’s Master was nowhere to be seen.
‘Really put a lot of effort into this, huh?’ Shi Sheng’s lips tugged upwards into a cold smile, her sword having appeared in her hand at some point. ‘Seeing as they’ve been acting for so long, I reckon it’s time for me to go show off and let them begin anew.’
