73 Days Before The Imperial Banquet - 24.5
Aside from the calmness the Blooming Phoenix Courtyard exudes, this particular courtyard was undoubtedly the most protected an dwell-guarded one as well. Not because it was the courtyard of the only Young Miss of the family but also because the Old Patriarch ha decided to move into one of the guest bedroom here temporarily therefore making it the courtyard with the most significant importance.
Inside, Fan Song Xue was in a tranquil state wherein his whole consciousness was sunk into deep meditation with his body's recovery the main focus.
He continously circulated his qi in his body, refining the remaining traces of medicinal power from all the pills he'd ingested during his treatment before it goes to waste.
He knew that time was of the essence, not only with his recovery but with everything that has happened with their family as of late.
It also doesn't help that his newly-found granddaughter has pushed herself too much to the point that in order for Fan Song Xue to recover and fully maintain his consciousness, resulted in Fan Zhu Xia falling into an unconscious and almost comatose-like state.
This filled practically all of the members of the family especially Fan Song Xue with a lot of guilt and worry.
This is why Fan Song Xue had immersed himself into a closed-door cultivation just so that he can enhance his consciousness and help his granddaughter wake up since he was informed that her condition was a result of her losing much of her consciousness power or much commonly known as divine sense because of using it and pushing it past her current limits in the last leg of his treatment.
From what was told by Ru Wen Cheng who had checked Fan Zhu Xia's status and diagnosed the root of the problem, aside from letting her ingest the pill he'd concocted which is call the Holy Divining Pill which can boost a person's consciousness power three-fold, thus strengthening one's strength and control of their divine sense; Fan Zhu Xia also needed a strong source of consciousness power to jumpstart the process.
She already ingested the pill and now all that she's missing is that single push for her body to naturally start refining the pill on it's own.
Of course news of this was only known by a small handful, meaning aside from Ru Wen Cheng who made the diagnosis, only the Old Patriarch, Fan Song Xue and his two sons; Fan Hui Zhong and Fan Hui Liang knew of the matter.
This wasn't because they didn't trust the rest of their family but because of how delicate and sensitive the situation was and telling the others wouldn't rrally be og any help since the younger generation of their family had no way of remedying the situation they chose not to tell them.
Furthermore, the more people know, the higher the risk. After all, Fan Zhu Xia was in an extremely vulnerable state right now and the Old Patriarch wasn't far behind her since he still wasn't fully recovered.
The good thing was that despite her precarious state, Fan Zhu Xia was still stable.
Still they couldn't relax their guard, hence the big moves made by Fan Hui Zhong. It was all done purely to deter anyone's wayward thoughts of causing trouble with them.
All of them knew that their actions would draw attention to them as a whole but this was something that must be done. They could only be thankful that it was a blessing that the relationship between the Fan Family and Lei Palace is incomparably strong due to the close relationship of the two current masters who were such close brothers.
Thus they have no worries of internal strife on their camp, which can't be said with the other powers here at the capital.
Knowing that they were under close scrutiny, nothing could be done except for tightening the security and being strict with keeping any news underwraps which were all handled splendidly with everyone's cooperation.
In spite of their efforts however, just because everything was being closely monitored with an iron fist doesn't mean that water still couldn't trickle out. Only difference is that no one can verify if the news is reliable or where it came from.
Of course there are a few exceptions to that rule.
In a different location, inside a private, luxurious residence, a young man opened a scroll and quickly read it's contents before a frown subtly contorted his handsome features before he crumpled the paper in his hand and let it combust into flames before closing his fist to extinguish it with a flourish.
Seeing his actions, his subordinates only watched silently and made no comment.
No one knew what this young man was thinking and they have been with their young master long enough to be familiar with his moods and witnessing how reacted, each one of them knew that now isn't a time to take things lightly, else they incur their young master's ire.
"Is this news accurate?" the young man asked coldly as his piercing stare landed on the body of the person who delivered the news.
Despite the apparent discontent in their young master's voice, the man showed no fear and just nodded and said, "It's definitely accurate, Young Master... We have kept tabs on them since they left the Thousand Treasures Pavillion several days ago so we were able to gather this information before their overall security tightened."
"Hmm... Is that so? Fine then, all of you leave."
Hearing their young master's dismissal, everyone departed with a respectful bow except for one. The very same man who brought the news still stood there with a solemn expression on his face.
"What is it?" the young man asked as he flicked a gaze towards the other before turning his back on him.
"Young Master, may this lowly one know what you are planning?"
"Is it of any concern of yours?" the young man asked as he laughed derisively. His anger still clearly present underneath his icy expression.
"It is not but this lowly one is just worried..."
"Don't be! Even though this Young Master is beyond furious right now, this Young Master still knows that now isn't the time to do something out in the open. After all, if we act now, our actions may be noticed by those scum."
Upon hearing his reply, his subordinate fell silent with a slightly troubled look on his face and after a second or so, he opened his mouth and spoke, "Then please instruct this one on what to do."
"Hmm... For now, just keep observing. Keep your ears and eyes open for any hint of news. If there are rumours floating about, look into it! After all there is no smoke where there is no fire! Make sure to keep me posted should there be any changes. This is a priority and I don't want to see any unforeseen circumstances popping up, am I clear?"
"Crystal."
While an obvious turmoil was brewing in the imperial capital, Fan Zhu Xia remained oblivious to all the new changes that were happening ever since she lost consciousness.
She was unaware of the state of things within the Fan family and the Lei Palace and what that her falling into a comatose state ignited the fury of not only her father; Fan Hui Zhong but also the rest of her new family which prompted them to take such a hard stance.
It was a good thing that the emperor showed favor towards her father lest his high-handed action of killing and decapitating the traitors as well sending their severed heads back might bring him a lot of censure and trouble.
Although she was unconscious and unaware of the outside world, her mind has been drifting along. Her consciousness submerged in a constant replay of scenes she had long since tried to repress and while her physical body showed no signs of pain, her mind and soul was on the verge of breaking due to the constant onslaught of trauma and attacks from her inner demons.
Despite her physical condition being stable, nobody knew how grave her situation truly was.
Inside the recesses of her consciousness, she was constantly reliving through her worst fears as her inner demons tortured her.
The inner demons that stemmed from all the hatred and fear she felt when she thought of what happened to her Cong family almost drove her insane.
The haunting words of that vile man; Dong En Lai who taunted her and told her that he was the man who commited genocide on her family and how he made them beg for their lives.
Fan Zhu Xia felt fury and rage boiling over as well as overwhelming grief and guilt of how she wasn't able to do anything to prevent Dong En Lai's atrocious acts yet not a hint of all these turbulent emotions showed on her face. Instead, only a calm and serene expression could be seen reflected on her sleeping countenance.
Throughout the day, everything passed by in a relatively uneventive manner albeit a bit hectic before things settled down somewhat when the night fell.
