Shun Long, Liu Mei, Jiang Chen, and Bai Longtian, all stared at Xie Xingyi who had the same beautiful smile on her face with their eyes wide open.
With the sheer number of the more than 3.000 Nascent Soul stage guards around the palace gates, as well as the number of guards stationed inside the palace itself, everyone understood that infiltrating the palace like this was a nearly impossible endeavor.
As for the crown prince's chambers that would most likely be guarded tightly, it would be even harder to get there.
This was why Shun Long had only asked Xingyi to simply sneak past the palace walls and take a look inside instead of entering the depths of the palace itself. The difficulty of doing the latter was enormous, even for someone like Xingyi who had a physique like the Vanishing Shadows unique physique.
From the droplets of sweat dripping from her stunningly beautiful face, Shun Long understood that this wasn't easy for Xie Xingyi either, and she had most likely pushed herself way past her limits.
''Xingyi you are amazing!''
''Junior sister Xie's unique physique is truly extraordinary.''
Liu Mei and Bai Longtian praised her without holding back their praise, while Jiang Chen nodded his head in agreement. However, it was natural that all of them were surprised by this, since the degree of danger for this mission was already off the charts!
After staying silent for a moment, Shun Long looked at Xie Xingyi's enchanting green eyes that were fervently staring back at him, before he nodded his head and said with a smile on his face
''Xingyi, good job. No one else could do this but you.''
It was only a single sentence, and yet it still made a dazzling smile form itself on the stunning blond-haired young woman's lips, while her face turned slightly red in response.
For a girl who had no prior experience of love in her life, being praised by the person whom she felt affection for made a sweet feeling appear in Xie Xingyi's heart.
After taking a look at his surroundings and seeing that night had already fallen, Shun Long then said a moment later
''Let's find an inn to spend the night.''
Jiang Chen and the rest all nodded their heads, as they continued to walk around the busy streets of Tang city.
Although night had already fallen, Tang city didn't seem to be any less bustling, as the streets were still full of light and most of the shops remained open.
Half an hour later, Shun Long and the others had arrived at the entrance of a large inn, a couple of miles away from the royal palace of the Tang dynasty.
''Hello, how may I help you?''
The middle-aged innkeeper approached their group the moment they entered the inn and asked them with a gentle smile on her face.
After Shun Long asked her for a courtyard with at least 4 rooms and paid her 100 middle-grade spirit stones for the night, the innkeeper led them deeper inside the inn, stopping in front of a large, spacious courtyard, less than a minute later.
With just a glance, Shun Long realized that the courtyard had plenty of protective formations that could block even an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator from forcefully barging in.
After thanking the innkeeper, the 5 of them all entered the courtyard, before Shun Long turned around and looked at Xie Xingyi and said
''Xingyi, you can go rest for a bit, at least until you replenish your qi.''
Xie Xingyi didn't decline as she was clearly at her limits already, and after saying goodbye she walked towards one of the 4 rooms. Her qi had been almost completely depleted in the 5 hours that she had spent inside the royal palace of the Tang family, and Shun Long had already guessed that she had already consumed at least a couple of 'Qi replenishing pills' or her qi would have depleted long ago.
''Hehe, master, that little girl is really interested in you. She has really helped master this time.''
Hearing Little Black's voice in his mind, Shun Long calmly nodded his head with a smile on his face, as he watched Xingyi's figure that entered inside one of the 4 rooms to cultivate and fully refill her nearly empty dantian with qi.
Indeed, Shun Long hadn't expected that Xingyi would manage to find the crown prince's chambers this time.
He knew that this was almost impossible, so he had already told Little Black about his first plan that was for Xingyi to infiltrate the royal palace of the Tang dynasty and take a look inside to get a general idea of the palace's interior before she relays it to Shun Long.
Shun Long would then open a space tear leading directly inside the palace bringing Liu Mei, Jiang Chen, and Bai Longtian all inside the palace.
Liu Mei would then summon her skeletons and have them go wild in the palace, instantly attracting everyone's attention.
With more than 1000 skeletons at the peak of rank 4 in the Nascent Soul going wild, even the 3000 Nascent Soul stage guards would find it hard to stop them. After all, most of the guards were at the early stages of the Nascent Soul to begin with.
Although there were some guards at the late stages of the Nascent Soul as well, it was simply impossible for all of them to enter the royal palace and deal with Liu Mei's skeletons while leaving the gates of the palace completely unprotected.
Thus, Shun Long believed that as long as Liu Mei's skeletons started to go wild, even the Dao Kings inside the royal palace would be alerted, forcing them to go towards Shun Long's direction and find the source of the problem.
With everyone's attention on Liu Mei's undead army, Xingyi would then be able to roam around the palace almost freely looking for the crown prince's chambers.
However, with Xingyi locating the crown prince's chambers so quickly, things entirely changed!
Entering the biggest one of the 4 rooms, Shun Long, Liu Mei, Jiang Chen, and Bai Longtian, all sat down on the meditative cushions on the floor, before Bai Longtian looked at Shun Long and asked
''Brother Shun, what are we going to do?''