The weak princess is super fierce

Chapter 917 is a bit late.

Actually, she wasn't that sure.

Faced with the worried looks on her two older cousins' faces, she could only remain so certain.

Zeng Chongjin and Zeng Chongrong did not stay at Taichen Courtyard for lunch. They left the Meng residence at noon and went home.

Huang Jing and the water snake hadn't returned from the vast wilderness yet, but Ma Ji and Lan Zhijin had returned to the Meng residence first.

It was lunchtime.

Following Meng Shisan's orders, Steward Chu arranged for them to have lunch in the front courtyard before entering Taichen Courtyard.

Butler Chu was quite familiar with Ma Ji and Lan Zhijin, and had even been ordered by the Shang family to investigate their behavior and reputation outside.

Regarding Ma Ji, he visited the neighbors around Mo Cheng Hutong; regarding Lan Zhijin, he asked the innkeeper and waiter of the small inn.

In short, he's a good person.

The Shang family was relieved; he no longer needed to be on guard against them at all times.

However, a servant was still arranged to wait outside the gate of Taichen Courtyard. After Meng Shisan finished speaking with them, the servant would lead the two directly to the second gate and then out of the mansion.

The Shang family was satisfied with this arrangement, and Meng Shisan had no objections.

As a young lady confined to her chambers, she can never be as free and unrestrained as she was when she entered the world alone. She has to abide by some of the rules of ordinary people.

As per usual custom, Meng Shisan, Ma Ji, and Lan Zhijin had something to say to each other, so all the servants retreated to the outer courtyard to wait.

Inside Mingxiao Hall, Meng Shisan stared at the two demons that Ma Ji and Lan Zhijin had brought back to her in large sacks, and remained silent for a long while: "...Dead?"

Ma Ji: "Hmm."

Blue Ashes: "They're all dead."

Meng Shisan slowly sat back in her chair, no longer looking at the original corpses of the butterfly demon and the wolf demon. She frowned slightly and asked, "How did they die?"

When she asked this question, she subconsciously looked at Lan Zhijin. She knew Ma Ji; Ma Ji was not an impulsive person. Earlier, she had told Ma Ji to keep him alive so that they could find out who was behind it all.

It's not so certain about Lan Zhijin. She doesn't know him very well. Her deepest understanding of Lan Zhijin is that he listens to Huang Jing's advice very much.

Given that Lan Zhijin was a demon hunter, her first instinct upon seeing the two demon corpses was that Lan Zhijin was responsible for their ruthlessness.

Lan Zhijin, being looked at by Meng Shisan, instantly understood what Meng Shisan meant. He frowned and said, "I didn't kill him."

He wanted to kill every evil demon in the world, but before he could even make a move, two demons died on their own.

"Neither Lan the Mage nor I had a chance to make a move." Seeing that Lan Zhijin was being misunderstood by Meng Shisan, Ma Ji explained, "Today, we went to the outskirts of the city where we had previously discovered their tracks, and found new traces. Following the clues, we found them in a cave. The cave should be their dwelling place..."

After that, he and Blue Ashes joined forces to fight the two demons.

"...Their cultivation is shallow, less than two hundred years old, and because they have been kept and controlled for a long time, they have lost all their wildness. Their actual demonic power is like that of a newly transformed demon," Ma Ji said. "Their only advantage is their ability to run fast."

Meng Shisan said, "No wonder at the beginning, whether it was you or A Jing, they only cared about running and leading you in circles, without fighting you."

Knowing they were no match for Ma Ji and Huang Jing, they chose to run away.

She asked, "So when they saw you in the cave, they couldn't escape?" Blue Ash replied, "They tried to run at first, but when they realized they couldn't, they gave up. In order to find the person in charge, we originally wanted to surround them and capture them alive. But just as Old Ma and I were gradually surrounding them and tightening the encirclement, they suddenly spontaneously combusted."

“It’s the Bloodfire Technique,” ​​Ma Ji continued. “It burns from the inside out, using blood as fuel, burning the last drop of blood in the body until it turns to ashes. I know how to use this technique and how to counter it, but it happened so suddenly and burned so fast that by the time I used my magic to counter it, it was already too late.”

They barely managed to preserve the original forms of the two demons.

Meng Shisan looked at the open sack and glanced at the two charred corpses inside: "You want to save them? In their last breaths, did they point to anything?"

"They couldn't speak, but the butterfly demon left a single word." Ma Ji immediately asked them who the mastermind was who had used them and then tried to kill them remotely.

"Which word?" Meng Shisan asked.

Ma Ji said, "Time."

“Shi?” Meng Shisan’s first thought was Consort Shi in the palace. “According to what I learned from His Highness, the Second Prince once asked Consort Shi for help, and she did not refuse him completely. She helped the Second Prince a few times.”

Lan Zhijin said, "You think the mastermind behind everything is Consort De?"

Meng Shisan said, "You still need to investigate and get the final, definitive result."

“Okay,” Ma Ji replied.

Lan Zhijin didn't respond, but Meng Shisan knew he wouldn't stand idly by. He would work silently with Ma Ji, just like this morning, to catch the butterfly demon and the wolf demon.

Although no one was left alive, very important information was obtained.

That's enough.

"I suppose the mastermind behind this didn't expect that Ma Ji would also know this Bloodfire Technique, and not only know it, but also know how to counter it. So they also didn't expect that the Butterfly Demon would leave us with the crucial clue about Old Madam Meng at the end." Meng Shisan was in a good mood, and the corners of his mouth turned up more and more as he spoke. "When we infiltrated the palace to investigate, although we had a general direction, we still had to be extremely cautious and not be careless, lest we suffer a setback. Anyone in the palace who can raise small demons and monsters is no ordinary person."

The horse nodded quickly.

"How did the mastermind behind this know that we had surrounded the two demons?" Lan Zhijin asked in confusion.

Ma Ji said, "They must have cast some kind of spell on them."

"What kind of magic?" Lan Zhijin asked, "The ability to see through things?"

Ma Ji did not answer, but looked at Meng Shisan.

Blue Ash couldn't help but turn his gaze to the head seat as well.

Meng Shisan said, "If it really is the ability to see through things, then the information that the butterfly demon revealed before she died has already been known by the mastermind behind it all."

Then, when Ma Ji and Lan Zhijin went to the palace to investigate, they faced many dangers.

Lan Zhijin thought it would be useless for Ma Ji to look at Meng Shisan, since Meng Shisan was neither a demon nor a cultivator and would not know what the Eye-Seeing Technique was. Unexpectedly, Meng Shisan knew.

He couldn't help but wonder if, during the time Huang Jing stayed at the Meng family's Bangchen Courtyard, Qingmei had taught Meng Shisan a lot about cultivation.
"It's just a guess." Ma Ji thought it was also possible that the mastermind wasn't using clairvoyance.

Meng Shisan said, "It's a pity you saved them a little too late. Otherwise, you could have searched them to see if they had any eye-seeing talismans. If they did, it means they used eye-seeing techniques. If they didn't, it means we guessed wrong."

Ma Ji recalled that both demons were completely engulfed in flames, and even the yellow talismans that granted them the ability to see through things were burned away.