The weak princess is super fierce

Chapter 999 Immortal Cave

Ma Ji was politely invited by Steward Chu into the Qingming Hall for tea.

After waiting for a while, Butler Chu personally led him to the backyard and into Taichen Courtyard.

Inside Mingxiao Hall sat Meng Shisan and Huang Jing.

The rest of the maids, such as Baozhu, stayed outside the hall. While appreciating the spring, they placed the winter plum blossoms in vases inside the hall and then went about their own business.

Steward Chu led Ma Ji into Mingxiao Hall without lingering, and instead left Taichen Courtyard to report back to Madam Shang.

As soon as Ma Jigang sat down in the hall, Huang Jing remarked with feeling, "I think you're being watched more and more closely. By next spring, when you've truly become the future Crown Princess, Old Master Ma won't even be able to enter this courtyard."

"Is His Highness the Crown Prince truly certain of his mind?" Ma Ji had heard before that Li Shou wanted to marry Meng Shisan, but he hadn't paid much attention to it at first and hadn't inquired about it in detail.

However, times have changed. Now, Miss Meng's relationship with his master is becoming more and more complicated, and the two will only have more and more contact in the future. If the Crown Prince is truly wary of his association with Miss Meng, it will be very detrimental to the truth that the two want to investigate.

This requires us to get to the bottom of it.

Meng Shisan frowned: "I will not enter the Eastern Palace."

"This is your idea." Huang Jing was not surprised by Meng Shisan's insistence on his own ideas, and then turned to answer Ma Ji's question, "As for His Highness the Crown Prince, he has already chosen you."

Having received an affirmative answer, Ma Ji then raised a practical question: "Isn't it said that Miss Meng is frail, and His Majesty most likely won't agree?"

Huang Jing had also thought about this question: "Yes, that's why His Highness the Crown Prince always sends Physician Yu to the Meng residence to do his best to treat Yao Yao's health. As long as Yao Yao's body can give birth to the Crown Prince's grandson, then His Highness the Crown Prince will have enough reason to persist to the end and finally persuade His Majesty to nod his head and marry Yao Yao as the Crown Princess in a grand ceremony."

Ma Ji glanced at Meng Shisan, whose brows were furrowing deeper and deeper, and looked back at Huang Jing, agreeing, "Miss Huang truly lives up to her title of Celestial Master; her insight is remarkably clear."

Meng Shisan herself had also considered Huang Jing's words, and she had to admit that what Huang Jing said was most likely what Li Shou was thinking.

It was precisely for this reason that she realized that if Li Shouzhen insisted on marrying her and managed to persuade the Emperor to agree, then as a daughter of the Meng family, she would really have no choice but to agree.

Getting back to the main point, she asked Ma Ji, "Did you come today with any progress?"

Ma Ji said, “The two old men I found at first didn’t trust me. I asked them in many ways, but they didn’t tell me the whole truth. After spending some time with them, they gradually started to trust me a little, and then they told me the truth. They said that there was a cave in the mountains where they lived, and a deity was enshrined in the cave. But later the deity disappeared, and the enshrinement gradually stopped. Now no one knows about that cave anymore. Only some elderly local villagers know a little about it. After hearing so much from me, and hearing all the unusual things I asked, they felt that the cave where the deity was once enshrined might be related to what I said, so they mentioned it to me.”

It's worth mentioning that although the two old men were quite old, they knew very little. They pointed out the location of the cave several times and then changed their minds before finally pointing out a direction.

“I explored that direction first and there really was a cave, which matched what they said. However, when I entered the cave, I only saw an altar, without even an offering opening, let alone a statue of an immortal.” He recalled, “According to the two old men, there should have been a statue of that immortal.”

"Did you find the wrong one?" Meng Shisan asked. If it roughly matched, then that was the only reason.

“Yes, yes, yes, could we have gone to the wrong place?” Huang Jing also felt that this was the only reason. Ma Ji shook his head: “Then I went to find two old men and carefully described the altar in the cave to them. They nodded repeatedly and said that it was the cave. As for why the immortal statue was missing, they did not know the reason either.”

"Do you think that immortal is unusual?" Meng Shisan asked again, "Do you have any proof?"

“No evidence or proof.” Ma Ji replied, “It’s been so long that it’s very difficult to investigate. There’s practically no proof. But based on the clues given by the young lady and Shang Chun’s memories, we’ve expanded our search outwards from the location where Shang Chun’s family had the accident. That’s all we’ve found in the surrounding area. We can continue our investigation there. We haven’t even seen a trace of proof for the rest.”

At least the Immortal's Cave has an altar.

According to the two elders, some unusual things did happen during the years the immortals were there.

“The only unusual thing is that…” it is indeed difficult to investigate. Meng Shisan pondered for a moment, “So what do you mean?”

He must have something to ask her when he comes.

Ma arrived quickly, carrying a matter: "I can't see anything special about the altar in the cave. I was thinking that if Miss has time to come with me, we might be able to find something useful."

Before Meng Shisan could answer, Huang Jing had already raised his hand: "I'll go too!"

Meng Shisan looked at her.

She emphasized, "Immortals are still human, just with abilities that ordinary people don't have. In fact, they might be on the same path as our demon-slaying clan's celestial masters. I'll go and take a look; I'm sure I can be of help!"

With the help of several people, including highly skilled demon-slaying masters, Meng Shisan naturally knew that this would be of great help in resolving old grievances.

However, the two incidents from back then—one concerning Zeng's unusual behavior and the other concerning the mysterious deaths of Shangchun's family members—were both inextricably linked to the supernatural. With Huang Jing getting involved, she feared that as things progressed further, some things would become impossible to conceal.

She had thought of things that Ma Ji also had concerns about.

After Huang Jing recommended herself, she noticed that Meng Shisan and Ma Ji remained silent, so she knew that neither of them really agreed with her going to investigate: "What's wrong? Don't you trust me?"

When the issue of trust came up, Meng Shisan had to explain: "It's not that I don't trust you. It's just that you said yourself that if you don't go back for the New Year, Master Lan won't go back either. In fact, your father and the elders will come to the capital before the New Year to celebrate with you. Ma Ji and I have been investigating these two matters for a long time, and we're afraid we won't be able to find out the truth in a short time. We don't know when we'll be able to find out the truth after the New Year..."

Before she could finish speaking, Huang Jing understood: "You're afraid I'll get involved in the two things you mentioned. Given Lan Zhijin's attention to me, and my father and the elders' trip to the capital, they'll inevitably get involved too. You're afraid then..."

Meng Shisan continued, "Some situations may get out of control."

This was also what Ma Ji was worried about: "Both of these are old matters. The young lady asked me to investigate them, but it was all done secretly and privately."

With so many people involved, how can it be concealed?
If it cannot be concealed, it would violate the original intention of the young lady who entrusted him with the task of investigating secretly.