I'm not a fortune teller.

Chapter 25 is What Would You Do?
"Lord Zhang, what you mean is that there are such things infiltrated among the Beihai soldiers?" Yuchi Hong frowned.

The Yuchi family is a duke's family, and Beihai City is an important town of the Northern Army. The garrison allowed is over 50,000. Although the epidemic has caused heavy losses to the Northern Navy, there are still more than 10,000 people. If the evil spirit mentioned by the other party is hidden among the 10,000 people, trying to screen it out is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The key point is that the Third Prince Li Yu cannot be fooled for too long, and they don’t have much time left.

"They are not Beihai soldiers." Zhang Rui shook his head: "What I meant just now was this Yuchi Mansion!"

When these words came out, everyone was stunned. Master Luo frowned immediately: "What do you mean, sir, is there a spy inside the Yuchi Mansion?"

"Impossible!" Yuchi Hong waved his hand directly: "The people in my Yuchi Mansion have clean backgrounds, unless these people in the Prince's Mansion are not clean."

"General, please be careful with your words!" Upon hearing this, the staff of the Prince's Mansion turned pale. Their honor and disgrace depended on the Prince. How could they possibly do anything that would be detrimental to the Prince? If it came to investment, what could be more worthy of investment than the Prince with a stable position?
Mr. Luo Sanye also frowned. There was nothing wrong with the motives of the people in the Prince's Mansion. The prince's position was extremely stable. These aides in the Prince's Mansion had been loyal ministers since the prince ascended the throne. They were the old team and would be reused. Anyone else who came would not be able to bring greater benefits.

"Master Zhang," Mr. Luo San looked at him seriously, "How did you determine that the evil spirit was in Yuchi Mansion?"

"I have determined this based on the current situation." Zhang Rui said in a low voice, "I don't mean to arouse suspicion. I have no idea who the spy is for now. I just heard from what you said that most of the children of the Yuchi family are skilled in martial arts, and even General Yuchi Peng is a top-notch expert. If even he has been tricked, then the evil spirit must be in this Yuchi Mansion."

"Why?" Third Master Luo frowned. "This disease is so contagious and difficult to prevent. It doesn't have to be in Yuchi Mansion in person to be infected, right?"

"Yes," Zhang Rui nodded. "This disease is not contagious. It has a clear relationship with the strength of the person. Have you noticed that the stronger the person, the later they are infected?"

As soon as these words came out, Yuchi Hong and Mr. Luo San looked at each other, immediately recalled the order in which the people in the mansion were infected with the disease, and their eyes suddenly lit up!
The infection in Yuchi Mansion started a month ago, and they didn't find any pattern in the beginning, whether it was age, travel routes and so on. Now that the other party said it, they immediately reacted and realized that the order of infection was indeed from weak to strong, at least that was the case in Yuchi Mansion. The head of the Yuchi family was personally guarding the prince, and he was obviously closest to the patient, but he was the last one in the Yuchi family to show symptoms.

"Master Zhang, what you mean is that the stronger the human body is, the less likely it is to be infected by the disease?"

"Yes," Zhang Rui nodded. "This disease can be understood as some kind of evil power. Power has strengths and weaknesses. If this thing can really infect people indefinitely, unless this thing has never appeared before, the human race would have died long ago, right?"

Then he looked at Chen Xiao and said, "Mr. Chen, you are carrying the disease. I was infected the first time I saw your smile, but why was I the only one infected? My niece, the Third Prince, and that Eunuch Qin have all seen your smiles, so why aren't they infected? There is only one reason, and that is that the power of the disease in you is not strong. The source is not in you, but somewhere else. So you can only infect relatively weaker subordinates, and cannot threaten stronger people."

So that’s it?
Chen Xiao and the others suddenly understood the reasons for some of the things that seemed strange when they were investigating the epidemic before, including the fact that this time, Lord Zhang obviously smiled, but the little girl did not. They previously thought that the little girl had special means of defense, but it turned out that she was just powerful?
Upon hearing this, Mr. Luo San nodded and thought to himself: This makes sense.

He had never heard of such a strange and terrifying epidemic before, especially after hearing how the epidemic spread. If it spreads through a smile and cannot be avoided with just one look, is there anything in the world that can stop it?
If the person who designed the prince could even control this thing, would he need to set up this trap deliberately?
This can only mean that either the people who set up the trap did not expect the power of this thing, or that this thing is not as unsolvable as imagined.

"If you want to infect a strong man, that thing must be nearby, and it must be able to see the strong man often, constantly giving the strong man hints, that is, that smile." Zhang Rui analyzed in a low voice: "General Yuchi Peng is very powerful. If you want to infect him, two points must be met. First, it must be able to see General Yuchi repeatedly for a large number of times, and it must allow him to be repeatedly infected without any defense. The second point is that General Yuchi has no guard against him and will not avoid him because of that weird and creepy smile. Only when these two points are met will there be a chance for General Yuchi to be infected!"

When everyone heard this, excitement showed on their faces. In the past month, they were tortured by this damn epidemic and almost collapsed. They tried every possible way but could not find the slightest clue. The feeling of powerlessness continued until the death of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. One can imagine how despair they felt.

Now someone finally finds the direction!

"Have the recorder conduct an investigation immediately!" Yuchi Hong said hurriedly, "Who did you see the most before Father's attack? Quick!"

Previously, Mr. Luo Sanye had set up a recorder system in order to record the whereabouts of everyone in order to determine the pattern of the epidemic. However, there was no intelligence about the epidemic before, resulting in a pile of records without any way to analyze them. Now that he finally has a direction, he sees a glimmer of hope!
"Mr. Chen, it is really fortunate for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to find you, Lord Zhang!" Mr. Luo bowed solemnly to Zhang Rui.

"You are too polite, old man," Zhang Rui said in return, "I just got some information by chance, and I can't help you much."

"You are too polite, sir." Third Master Luo said respectfully, "If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can survive this disaster, the Yuchi family will repay you with gratitude!"

"You're too kind, too kind," Zhang Rui quickly returned the greeting, but he didn't agree in his heart. He just wanted these lunatics to not cause trouble for him in the future. He didn't want to have too much dealings with them in the future.

"Third Master." Chen Xiao suddenly remembered something and asked hurriedly, "His Royal Highness the Third Prince..."

"That guy who came to stir up trouble." Master Luo San stroked his beard and smiled, "Although he is eager to take advantage of others' misfortunes, he will not put himself in danger. The same goes for the governor who came into the city. He didn't even dare to come to see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in person, for fear of being infected. It shouldn't be a problem to fool around for a few days."

"I'm afraid it won't be that simple." Chen Xiao sighed.

Mr. Luo frowned, and before he could reply, a very subtle voice came to his ear.
"Third Master, please explain in detail."

Chen Xiao lowered his voice very low and used a special method of transmitting sound, so that only Mr. Luo Sanye could hear it.

Seeing that Chen Xiao was intentionally avoiding the people from the Prince's Mansion, Mr. Luo San was slightly stunned, but he could understand that the old people in the Prince's Mansion were not very fond of Chen Xiao, a newcomer from a martial arts sect. Now that he had a clue, he probably didn't want to share the credit with his colleagues.

So he followed the other party out of the house. After half a quarter of an hour of narration, both Mr. Luo San and Yuchi Hong were shocked by the information.

"The owner of the painting market?" Yuchi Hong took a breath and said, "Are you saying that among the princes, there are some who have been replaced by painting spirits?"

"This is Chen's bold analysis," Chen Xiao smiled bitterly. "Because it is too bold, I dare not let my colleagues hear it, otherwise they will be accused of disrespect, and Chen will not be able to refute it."

"Your guess is really disrespectful!" Yuchi Hong frowned.

Mr. Luo Sanye said, "Although it is bold enough, the possibility is not low."

"Third Master, do you think this guess is reasonable?" Yuchi Hong frowned even deeper when he heard this.

"I have been wondering who has such great power and is determined to kill the crown prince and the Yuchi family. The crown prince's position is extremely stable, and our emperor is a shrewd man. Supporting a prince under his nose is courting death. I have been thinking for a long time and I can't think of which family would dare to be so bold. Even the Qin family, the mother family of the third prince Li Yu, doesn't have the courage to do so."

"Mr. Chen's guess is extremely bold, but if you think about it carefully, it is the most reasonable. An art market that has accumulated for thousands of years is indeed qualified to set up such a big plan, and it also has sufficient motivation."

"Who could it be?" Yuchi Hong took a breath and felt a chill all over his body!
There is unexpectedly a Painted Skin Ghost among the princes. If he succeeds, the Painted Skin Ghost will become the emperor, and countless painted spirits will secretly interfere in the court. All the people in the world will be controlled by this evil spirit. His scalp goes numb when he thinks of this scene!
"In order to consolidate his position as the crown prince, our majesty married women from decent families with modest backgrounds, except for the girl from the Qin family who provided a lot of wealth to help him win the battle in the north. With the ability of the painting market, if it is planned in advance, it could be any one of them. The drawbacks of the painting market that Taizu used back then finally came to light."

"What should we do now?" Yuchi Hong swallowed and said.

"Let's get through this crisis first." Third Master Luo said dimly, "If the Crown Prince is gone, the Yuchi family won't have the chance to worry about what will happen to the court. If Your Highness can get through this crisis, then it won't be too late to find the evildoer later."

"I'm afraid that the ghost in the dark won't let us get away with it this time." Chen Xiao smiled bitterly: "They spent so much energy just to create an opportunity to compete for the throne. Now that the Crown Prince is halfway to the gate of hell, they will never give us a chance to delay time easily."

"Humph!" Yuchi Hong sneered: "It's better if they don't jump out now. If they jump out, they may not be able to retreat!!"

"What would you do if it were you?" Mr. Luo looked at Chen Xiao and asked.

"I will cooperate with His Royal Highness the Third Prince!"

(End of this chapter)