Emperor Xia had just set foot into Noble Princess Consort Luo's chambers, and immediately after, Empress Liu was informed.

The current Empress was no longer the same as before; the majority of Noble Princess Consort Luo's henchmen in the palace had already been eradicated by her, replaced with her own people.

"Did Luo Wan tell the Emperor about her miscarriage?" Empress Liu was somewhat surprised upon hearing this news.

Under normal circumstances, Noble Princess Consort Luo would have kept silent about her miscarriage, begrudgingly swallowing the loss.

Yet, she suddenly informed Emperor Xia a few days later, which certainly meant there was something unusual afoot.

"It's unclear what Noble Princess Consort Luo and the Emperor discussed, but right now the Emperor and Chou Alchemist have already headed to Princess Consort Yao's chambers; it is said that they will perform divination overnight."

This was reported by someone beside Empress Liu.

"Inform Princess Ye of this at once," demanded Empress Liu as her brows knitted together, a wave of inexplicable panic rising in her heart.

Inside Princess Consort Yao's sleeping quarters.

"Your Majesty, I have already performed divination for you. This year, you were supposed to be graced by the fortune of double happiness, expecting two more Little Princes. Unfortunately, an evil star has appeared, bringing with it the calamity of bloodshed. It's tragic that the two noble and virtuous Little Princes, who would have shielded you from the blood disaster, perished before they were even born," said Princess Consort Yao after her charlatan performance, rambling as if possessed.

Emperor Xia, upon hearing this, was still half-convinced.

"Your Majesty, when you woke up this morning, did you feel chest tightness, shortness of breath, and some dizziness? All these are also due to the evil star. As long as she is alive, she will thwart Your Majesty's fate and Daxia's national fortune," Princess Consort Yao said, attempting to scare Emperor Xia as she saw he was still skeptical.

Princess Consort Yao had attended to Emperor Xia for a while and knew that he was a cowardly man who feared death; the older he got, the more he avoided such matters.

"How could this be? Such a demon that endangers the state must be eradicated at all costs. State Preceptor, hasten and bring out the Star Shining Sky Plate to help me find that demon star," said Emperor Xia, his complexion pale with fright.

Chou Alchemist and Princess Consort Yao secretly delighted upon seeing Emperor Xia fall for their trick.

"Your Majesty, this demon is highly adept at hiding. I need to borrow the Power of Starry Sky and use the Heavenly Mechanism Plate to locate her," said Princess Consort Yao, wishing to make Emperor Xia believe it to be true, she immediately set up the star observatory and the altar, and started to chant incantations into the night.

"Crown Prince, Noble Princess Consort, Princess Consort Yao has already started the divination as planned."

"That wench Ye Lingyue, this time, let's see how she dies," Noble Princess Consort Luo, who was greatly weakened after the miscarriage, caressed her flat belly and said with a sinister smile.

"Mother, rest well in the palace. The Grand Protector has arranged everything. After tomorrow, everyone in Xia Capital will know Ye Lingyue is a demon, and the Lan Residence will surely be implicated. Your son will take his leave first." Crown Prince Hong had already grown tired of Noble Princess Consort Luo, even though she was the woman who gave birth to and raised him.

Women are all about overt and covert struggles; that's why he despised women the most.

When Crown Prince Hong's carriage was leaving Xia Palace, it abruptly came to a halt at the palace gates.

Crown Prince Hong, unprepared, nearly fell out of the carriage.

"Who dares to collide with the Crown Prince's carriage," blustered the Crown Prince Mansion's coachman.

Crown Prince Hong pulled aside the carriage curtain to look and saw a child lying in front of the carriage.

The coachman stepped forward, intending to kick the child away.

"Hold on!" Crown Prince Hong's eyelid twitched as he fixed his gaze on the child lying on the ground.

The child looked to be about seven or eight years old, exquisitely cute, especially his face.

With his round little face, eyelashes longer than those of a girl's, and his rosy lips.

A certain corner of his mind was suddenly stirred.

"Fourth brother, why don't the other Princes and Princesses like me?"

The six-year-old Xiahou Qi asked Crown Prince Hong in a childishly bright voice.

"They don't like you, but Brother Hong likes you."

Crown Prince Hong still remembered, when he touched the soft skin of little Xiahou Qi, the heart-stirring sensation that crossed his mind—a feeling he had never experienced with any woman.

That year, Xiahou Qi was only eight or nine. It was then that he realized he had fallen for his half-brother Xiahou Qi.

Yet at the same time, he loathed Xiahou Qi the most, for his birth mother had always told him that it was because of Xiahou Qi that the Emperor didn't like him, nor did the Empress Dowager; the ones they favored most were the offspring of Empress Liu, including Xiahou Qi.

So in the end, following the training of his mother, he pretended to be close to Xiahou Qi, gave him a book on cultivating spiritual power, watched as he gradually became crazed, and eventually deviated into madness, to be labeled a madman and locked away in a side hall of Chaohua Palace for many years.

Crown Prince Hong did indeed become the Crown Prince, but ever since Xiahou Qi went mad, Crown Prince Hong found himself attracted to beautiful young boys, and his interest in women waned.

This, only he and a very few others knew, among them his close friend Hong Yulang.

After Sixth Prince Xiahou Qi suddenly regained his sanity, Crown Prince Hong, shocked yet somewhat delighted, realized another problem.

Now his heart had taken a fancy to Ye Lingyue, the little wretch.

Women... what's so good about women after all!

All women are greedy and stingy, willing to exploit even their nearest and dearest for power and their own desires.

"Your Highness, what's wrong with you?" Lost in his memories, Crown Prince Hong's face showed a fierce expression, startling the coachman.

Glancing at the child who lay unconscious on the ground with a head injury, there was a wild desire clamoring in Crown Prince Hong's heart.

He bent down to pick up the child, got on the carriage, with a strange smile playing on his lips.

"Go to the other residence."

The coachman shuddered at the order, glanced sympathetically at the unconscious child, and without daring to say more, drove the carriage towards the Crown Prince's other residence.

Not long after the carriage departed, Sixth Prince Xiahou Qi and Yan Che came out together.

"Who would have thought Crown Prince Hong had actually..."

The changes in Crown Prince Hong's expressions were all witnessed by Xiahou Qi.

He vividly remembered how, when he was a child, Crown Prince Hong had looked at him with a similar gaze—that gaze, now recalling it, was so perverse.

"Sixth Prince, we must follow quickly, or else, the child will be in danger."

Yan Che's face showed his concern.

Ever since learning about Crown Prince Hong's unspeakable predilections, Ye Lingyue and Yan Che had been working hard to find evidence to expose Crown Prince Hong's malevolence.

The child was naturally the one Ye Lingyue had previously saved.

Who knows what the Sect Leader had told the child, but a kid who used to be very scared of Crown Prince Hong suddenly changed his stance and agreed to help Ye Lingyue, willing to reveal Crown Prince Hong's other residence, and to rescue other trapped children.

The boy bore an uncanny resemblance to Sixth Prince Xiahou Qi.

The Sect Leader even obtained a childhood portrait of the Sixth Prince from him, and after a makeover, the boy now looked so much like the young prince that they could have been twins, no wonder the lustful Crown Prince Hong was deceived.

"We cannot delay, let's follow immediately and not ruin Ling Yue's plan." The Sixth Prince nodded and disappeared into the dark night with Yan Che.

~ The torment of the scum is about to begin. More chapters will be added when the votes reach 60 and 80. Let the votes be more intense~