The chessboard is set

"You're finally awake. It's best you leave this place now unless someone discovers that you spent the entire night here, Seventh Queen."

"Kicking me out as soon as I woke up? I never expected Young Hero to be so cruel."

Despite saying so with a cute pout on her face, Wuying was the only anxious one among the two due to which she very hastily began putting on her clothes which were littered across the floor.

The ornaments though were something she stored inside her spatial ring since it would take a lot of time to put them on, and by then the sun would completely rise.

"What you are suffering from isn't an illness, but rather a simple side effect from consuming a Yin type Spirit Herb. The side effects will disappear by themselves in some time, but if you want to get rid of them sooner you can consume Yang rich Spirit Herbs."

"Ah!"

Remembering that unique herb she consumed a few months back upon hearing Yang Shen's words, Wuying realized that the sensation of ice needles pricking her body did indeed start not too long after she consumed that.

At the same time, she turned and looked towards Yang Shen with a weird look in her eyes. Since he was capable of discovering what her problem was and at the same prescribing a way to cure it, did this mean that he did everything he did truly to find out what her illness was?

These thoughts however didn't stay inside Wuying's head for too long.

After all, the one who spent the entire night mercilessly pounding her right now had the same professional doctor like appearance he did last night letting her know that all of that was just an act.

Rolling her eyes after she finished putting on her robes, Wuying walked towards Yang Shen who was sitting on a chair and said, "You can stop with the act now, Young Hero."

Naturally sitting on Yang Shen's lap as if it was something she did countless times, Wuying wrapped her arms around his neck.

Gazing straight into Yang Shen's black eyes which no longer looked warm and caring but rather simply emotionless, Wuying said, "Regardless of which faction you choose to support Young Hero, my doors will always remain open for you."

Saying so, she pressed her lips against Yang Shen's lips and began greedily sucking hard as if she wanted to use this experience to keep her satisfied for the long time she won't be able to do the same thing again.

Finally breaking the kiss after a long time, Wuying stood up and left the courtyard as quickly as possible unless someone found out that she spent the night with another man while her husband was on his deathbed.

…

Even if Wuying didn't consume the Yang rich herbs like Yang Shen prescribed her to do so, due to how much of his Yang Qi rich semen he deposited inside her, the side effects torturing the Seventh Queen were going to disappear much sooner than they were originally meant to if not treated in any way.

But since she wanted to be back at her peak state as soon as possible due to how the situation was turning tenser by the day, Wuying purchased almost every Yang type herb available inside the Capital City.

Luckily, even though she bought more herbs than she needed, she didn't consume all of them recklessly since she was scared that she would just escape from a tiger's den and fall prey to a hungry lion.

That is, since a single Yin type herb made her suffer so much, Wuying consumed the Yang type herbs in moderation so that she won't suffer from her body feeling like it was burning during the mornings due to her carelessness.

Like this, it didn't take long for the Seventh Queen to finally be able to start sleeping properly during the night. However, even though the side effect of the herb disappeared, Wuying soon began struggling with a new problem.

Since her sleeping libido was woken up after the night of hot sex she had with Yang Shen. Wuying was no longer able to sleep unless she used her hands to masturbate for at least a few hours and completely tired herself both physically and mentally due to which she both hated and loved Yang Shen at the same time,

…

Following the first banquet, there was no shortage in the number of banquets that were thrown every day by the various princes.

Unfortunately, not everyone who was going to play a part in the fight for the throne showed up at every one of the banquets.

Instead, since everyone was deciding whom they were going to support in the upcoming struggle for the throne, the participants of a banquet purely consisted of one's supporters or those that were interested in supporting the specific prince.

Therefore, it could be said that Tan Xue was the luckiest one due to how she obtained the most connections by throwing the banquet on the very night that the disciples from the last two Great Sects had arrived.

Well, lucky might not be the correct word though.

After all, if something happened once it could be considered as luck, twice and it could be a coincidence, but now…. Hehehehehehe.

All Yang Shen was waiting for now was to obtain Lunyi's report on Tan Xue so that he could turn his suspicions into facts.

Until then though, Yang Shen didn't plan on doing anything else due to which he never once left his courtyard and didn't attend any of the other banquets as well.

And since all of the others disciples from the Mystic Pill Sect had come to a silent consensus that they were going to follow Yang Shen's lead, not a single one of them showed up at any of the other banquets either causing all the princes to turn anxious and start investigating if any of their brother or sister managed to rope them in.

"Young Hero! It's here!"

Screaming loudly even before she entered the room, Lunyi didn't even bother knocking on the door as she rushed inside it with countless rolled-up scrolls in her arms.

"I've found everything about Tan Xue! And she really isn't who everyone thinks she is!"

Alternating his gaze between Lunyi and the wall on which there were countless pieces of papers stuck to it with the names of everyone who even had the remote possibility of being involved in the fight for the throne, Yang Shen silently muttered under his breath, "All the pieces are in place now."

Though he'd have preferred to have pictures, Yang Shen knew that he'd have to make do with just the names for now.

Regardless of whether it was just names or pictures though, the chessboard was set. And once the King died, it would be the perfect time to make the first move and not be discovered by anyone at the same time.