Murim's Weakest Princess

Chapter 302: Huge Stuffed Toy Yihao

The first thing Anji did upon returning to her room was to collapse in bed. She was exhausted.Hearing his sister return, Yihao ran from his room with a huge grin. Noble Consort Liu greeted him briefly and summarised the situation before placing the delicate celadon vase on the night table.

"Guard this with your life," she told him. "It is Anji’s only lead. I have to return to my duties for night watch even if I don’t think assassins will visit tonight."

Uneasily, Yihao watched the green vase and nodded stiffly. Ever since he was banished to the room, he had been trying to get accustomed to his new cultivation level to no avail. The three broken tea cups were proof of his tangible struggle, and Liu Guiya had the right idea not to trust him with more porcelain.

After the Noble Consort left, Yihao checked on his sister. With Mingshen gone, he had nobody to talk to. His mission to cause trouble but not break anything was on hiatus because he was breaking everything by accident. This was not part of the plan, and honestly, part of him was happy his older brother was not around. If Mingshen were here, he would chew Yihao’s ears out for two hours for being such a brute.

"What happened?" Yihao popped by Anji’s room and sat on her bed. "You seem exhausted. Was the palace really that huge to tour? I could have sworn it was smaller than our Celestial Dragon Sect."

...

"It is smaller than the Celestial Dragon Sect," Anji confirmed. "They had prettier lakes but not vast mountains without proper roads."

Nodding in agreement, Yihao stared at the vase.

"So they decided to give you an ugly vase because...?"

Shifting ever so slightly to look at the celadon vase, the Empress’s words came to mind again.

"You really think it’s ugly?" Anji asked.

Yihao stared at it and made a face.

"It looks like someone already dropped it a few times before. Those cracks make it look like it was a reject. Why on earth would you like it?"

Chuckling, Anji studied the porcelain masterpiece. If the Empress heard her third brother’s comment, they might have become best friends on the spot. While Anji was not an art expert, she knew the cracks he spoke about were a highly delicate piece of work. Yet to the more pragmatic people like Yihao and the Empress, it might be seen as a defect instead.

"You know it costs at least a few thousand gold pieces, right?" Anji airily commented. "If the Empress did not gift this to me, I would have sold it for a lot of money. We could eat meat at every meal for the rest of our lives."

Eyes bulging from the revelation, Yihao stared at the green vase again.

"I was wrong," he corrected himself quickly. "That vase is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. There is no better craftsmanship than this thing, and we should tell Father to make it a family heirloom."

Bursting into laughter, Anji felt her soul heal a little in the presence of her third brother. In her life, only her brothers would cheer her up like this whenever she felt gloomy. They would seek her out for new experiences or talk nonsense and plot mischief. Oftentimes, they would get caught and end up in a lot of trouble, but it was always worth it. Those were precious memories Anji did not want to lose. Nothing in the world could replace their brotherly love. Not even this celadon vase that was worth thousands of gold.

"I’m just joking," Anji sat up with a small smile. "It’s a temporary container for the strange energy in the Emperor. I have a lot of work to do, but first, I need to send a few urgent letters. Do you know where they put the writing supplies?"

Eager to be of whatever little help he could, Yihao pointed at the study and asked if there was anything he could do to help without the risk of breaking anything.

Anji thought for a bit and nodded. The Extreme Yang Energy her third brother had seemed very effective in taming the mysterious negative energy. Thankfully, she had a better container solely for Yang Energy.

"Here," she passed him the ruby pendant she was working on for detecting brainwashing hairpin spells. "Noble Consort Liu gave this back, and I’m reworking it to be a protective talisman for investigating the ancestral hall where the Emperor was poisoned with this negative energy. I need you to charge it with Yang Energy. The spells would accumulate Yang Energy over time from the environment, but it would be quicker if you charged it for me."

Finally! Something Yihao was confident in.

Grinning, he took the ruby pendant and promised not to ruin it. Anji gave her third brother a brief hug to recharge. Although Yihao had grown bigger, he still felt like a huge stuffed toy that brought her comfort whenever she hugged him.

Honestly, Anji was not looking forward to reporting the situation they discovered here. Her letters would go through Hong Nian Niang and Mingshen’s hands if she wanted them delivered to her shifu and father quickly. They would come to know about her risky operation ideas and likely be the first to dissuade her. However, given the margin for error and Song Min’s rapid progression, Anji had to proceed with the investigation before receiving consent.

It was the only way they could stay ahead of the ghost general’s ploy.

While Yihao charged the ruby in the bedroom where Anji left him, she crept to the study and started grinding the ink. There were many things to report, but the most crucial was to ask her shifu for help in identifying the strange negative energy that had the properties of miasma without the usual effects.

Without knowing what she was dealing with, Anji could not devise an effective countermeasure. Compared to her crash-course knowledge, Yan Ping would have accumulated much more experience.