Outside the palace gate, Jun Mohan and Leng Ruoli spent a day in the Longevity Palace before leaving. The two were preparing to get on their carriage to return to the royal residence.
A person dressed in eunuch attire walked from not far from them towards the palace gate, head bowed with peculiar behavior, immediately drawing the attention of both.
"Jun Mohan, that person looks like Black Robe," Leng Ruoli said in a low voice.
"It's him!" Jun Mohan replied with certainty.
"How did you recognize him?" Leng Ruoli asked curiously.
"Black Robe has a unique stench about him, I smelled his scent," Jun Mohan said, raising a hand to touch his nose.
"Damn! Jun Mohan, we are at least fifty meters away from him, and you can smell his stench? Even a dog's nose isn't as keen as yours," Leng Ruoli exclaimed in shock.
Upon hearing this, Jun Mohan's face instantly darkened. This woman was becoming increasingly vulgar.
"How dare you speak like that?" Jun Mohan said, suppressing his urge to lash out.
Leng Ruoli glanced at Jun Mohan's dark expression and quickly amended her statement.
"What I said just now was actually to praise how keen your nose is. I didn't mean anything else. Hehe..."
"That's more like it. If you dare to scold me, I'll definitely teach you a lesson when we get back," Jun Mohan threatened.
As he spoke, Leng Ruoli lowered her head, pouted, and rolled her eyes at Jun Mohan.
Hmph!
Who's afraid of whom!
Jun Mohan, you can't even tease me a little, you deserve to be single.
Leng Ruoli's past life was as a special agent. Her senses were extremely sharp due to her training, yet even she couldn't smell someone from such a distance. But Jun Mohan's nose could. If his nose wasn't a dog's nose, then what was it?
"Stop overthinking. My nose isn't a dog's nose. It's just that ever since I was poisoned by wolf venom, my sense of smell has become extremely sensitive," Jun Mohan suddenly explained.
"Oh, so it's related to you being poisoned by wolf venom!" Leng Ruoli exclaimed.
It seemed that being poisoned by wolf venom wasn't entirely without its benefits!
"Let's go. Black Robe has already gone in, let's follow quickly to see," Jun Mohan said, his eyes fixed on the palace gate.
Leng Ruoli nodded slightly.
She tugged at her long, sweeping palace gown and ran ahead of Jun Mohan to the palace gate.
The Imperial Guards guarding the palace gate were slightly taken aback to see Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan returning.
"Your subordinate pays respects to Prince Leng and Princess Leng!" The Imperial Guards bowed to the two.
"Rise. I ask you, which palace did that person who just went in belong to?" Leng Ruoli asked urgently.
"Reporting to the Princess, that eunuch was carrying a waist token from the Empress's palace to handle matters," the Imperial Guard replied truthfully.
"Which direction did he go?" Leng Ruoli asked again.
"Reporting to the Princess, that eunuch seemed to have gone to the right," the Imperial Guard said, scratching his helmet as he recalled.
"Alright, thank you!" Leng Ruoli said with a smile.
Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan quickly pursued. Not long after, they saw the figure with its head bowed.
"Halt!" Leng Ruoli shouted at the person.
The eunuch immediately stopped in his tracks.
Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan reached the eunuch and frowned after a glance.
"This person is not Black Robe," Jun Mohan said calmly, though this person carried Black Robe's aura.
Upon clearly seeing Jun Mohan and Leng Ruoli, the eunuch immediately knelt down to pay his respects, trembling as he cried out, "Mi-mister greets Prince Leng and Princess Leng!"
"This Prince asks you, did another eunuch pass this way just now?" Jun Mohan asked coldly.
The eunuch trembled even more.
"Rep-reporting to Your Highness, just now... just now a eunuch asked me to switch clothes with him. I... I didn't want to, so he put a dagger to my neck. Later, to save my life, I switched with him. After switching, he told me to walk slowly down this road, and then he quickly left." The eunuch stammered out his story.
"Ah, Jun Mohan, we were a step too late," Leng Ruoli said, slapping her forehead.
"It's alright. We've already confirmed Black Robe's connection with the Empress. Finding him will be easier," Jun Mohan said calmly.
Then, he glanced at the eunuch kneeling on the ground and said lightly, "You may go now."
"Yes, this subordinate takes his leave!" The eunuch stood up, wiped away beads of cold sweat, and left immediately.
After the eunuch departed, Leng Ruoli slowly said, "Jun Mohan, although we know Black Robe is colluding with the Empress, we have no evidence. We can't just barge into the Empress's Fengqi Palace and force her to hand him over! But the imperial palace is so vast, it might be difficult for us to track him down slowly."
"You can rely on me for this. I am very familiar with Black Robe's aura." Jun Mohan touched his nose.
"Pfft hahaha..." Leng Ruoli looked at him and couldn't help but laugh. She couldn't believe he still denied his nose was a dog's nose.
Jun Mohan looked at her exaggerated laughter, and his handsome face was once again filled with dark lines.
"Stop laughing and hurry up and come with me." Jun Mohan couldn't be bothered to deal with Leng Ruoli.
"Wait, my clothes are too long, they're cumbersome to wear. Let's find a place to change first," Leng Ruoli said, looking at her skirt hem.
"Alright, follow me!" Jun Mohan said.
A moment later, the two arrived at a place with a plaque that read Ziyun Palace. Leng Ruoli took out a set of black, belted martial attire from her system space and put it on. She also removed all her hair ornaments and casually tied her hair into a ponytail. Jun Mohan, however, did not change his clothes, as his system space did not have any spare outfits for him.
"Jun Mohan, this used to be where your mother resided, wasn't it?" Leng Ruoli suddenly asked.
"Yes!" Jun Mohan replied curtly. The dark night hid the expression on his face, making it impossible for Leng Ruoli to discern his joy or sorrow.
"Let's go! We need to go out and find Black Robe." Fearing that Jun Mohan might be overcome by sentiment, Leng Ruoli quickly pulled him out of Ziyun Palace.
This Black Robe had to be dealt with before they went to Flame Mountain to find the Fire Lingzhi. The main reason was to prevent him from causing trouble again after Jun Mohan and Leng Ruoli left.
The two relied on Jun Mohan's "dog nose" to search for people in the imperial palace. As they searched, they arrived at the Cold Palace.
"Jun Mohan, could this Black Robe be hiding in the dungeon where Lin Feng imprisoned me before?" Leng Ruoli suddenly said.
Jun Mohan pondered for a few seconds and said, "It's possible. Basically, no one enters the Cold Palace, and no one lives here. Even if someone hid here for half a year, no one would notice. Let's go in together and take a look."
Leng Ruoli nodded, and the two quickly walked into the Cold Palace.