The Empress's No.1 Lackey

Chapter 1056 - 585: The Second Prince Returns to the Mortal World

"Could it be related to time?" Zhao Douan pondered for a moment, staring at the cold iron lock in front of him, offering a guess.

Xu Zhenguan thought for a bit, not very sure: "I don’t know."

In the past, every time she visited the Taiqing Palace, she would usually arrive after entering the painting, but this time she first went to see Zhao Douan, and the two talked for quite a while, so at this time, the temple priest might have closed the door and gone to sleep.

"Then let’s try." Zhao Douan rolled up his sleeves and vigorously knocked on the door.

The door of the temple echoed with his knocking, along with calls of "Is anyone there?" but there was no movement inside.

This result made both of their hearts sink. Zhao Douan simply stepped back a few paces, sprinted forward, and climbed over the wall, physically entering the temple.

The Empress wanted to imitate but, considering her status as a woman, chose to wait in place. After a while, Zhao Douan came back over the temple wall and shook his head under her gaze, saying in a deep voice, "There’s no one."

That wasn’t an unexpected result.

Zhao Douan clapped his hands, glancing at the iron lock hanging outside the door, with a wry smile said, "Actually, the lock being fastened on the outside is enough to explain the problem. It must have been done by the temple priest before she left."

Xu Zhenguan furrowed her brow.

According to usual experience, the female temple priest sleeps in the temple at night. Why would she lock the door and leave?

Feeling somewhat unconvinced, she stepped toward a nearby convenience store that was still open, asking the shopkeeper if they had seen the female temple priest.

The clerk looked puzzled: "What female temple priest? Taiqing Palace has been closed for the past few days, it’s not been open, and there’s no female temple priest, uh, are you talking about staff?"

Zhao Douan and Xu Zhenguan exchanged a glance, seeing each other’s astonishment.

Taiqing Palace has been closed for the past few days? Not open?

Then how did the female temple priest come?

In the nighttime, as they walked out of the convenience store, both felt a chill down their spines, somewhat eerie.

"It seems our meeting triggered all the changes," Zhao Douan rubbed his face, calmly analyzing: "Thinking on the bright side, this indicates the clues in the painting are finally surfacing. Perhaps Your Majesty hadn’t encountered the ’guide’ within the painting before, and that female temple priest was indeed the guide within the painting."

Xu Zhenguan agreed with this assessment, saying: "But if the female temple priest is a key figure left by the Grand Ancestor Emperor, and now she’s hiding, I’m afraid it’ll be difficult to find her again."

Zhao Douan analyzed: "Three possibilities, one is that her mission was to help Your Majesty understand this world before we met. Now that her mission is over, she naturally no longer exists. Second, we haven’t met certain conditions, so the clues hidden in the painting of the Mortal World don’t want us to find them..."

Xu Zhenguan was listening intently, nodding and asking: "What’s the third possibility?"

Zhao Douan sighed, looked up at the night sky, paused for a moment, and then turned back to Xu Zhenguan: "Or perhaps, the clues aren’t on the female temple priest but elsewhere."

The Empress was stunned for a moment: "Are you suspecting..."

Zhao Douan asked: "Does Your Majesty know your own identity in this world? Perhaps that’s an angle we can start with."

The Empress shook her head, explaining how each time she entered, she would automatically "appear" on a park bench.

"I see..." Zhao Douan also felt a bit troubled. Surely they couldn’t look for the police and try to search the police information database, could they?

Not to mention, the Empress, as a pure outsider, is technically unregistered, not existing within any information system.

Even if she did exist, the limited time they could spend in this world each time wouldn’t allow enough time for results.

"Oh, there’s something." The Empress suddenly remembered something, reaching into her pocket and taking out a phone: "I have this, but I can’t unlock it."

Zhao Douan’s eyes lit up, thinking this could be the biggest clue?

This unregistered Xu Zhenguan wasn’t supposed to have a phone, so if Xu left any clues, the likelihood of them being in this phone is extremely high.

However, very quickly, Zhao Douan was metaphorically doused with a bucket of cold water because the Empress’s iPhone had a password.

And the facial recognition unlock feature didn’t work on the Empress! Nor did it work for him!

Both of them, unaware of the password, couldn’t unlock the phone.

"This Magic Artifact seems to have restrictions," the Empress hesitantly remarked, with an expectant look in her eyes: "Can you unlock it?"

Zhao Douan briefly explained the password mechanism, then thought for a moment and said, "Let me give it a try."

He first converted the Empress’s birth date into numbers, but it showed unlock failed, then he entered his own birthday... yet both the Zhang Hui, and Zhao Douan’s birthdays failed.

"Your Majesty, may I ask what year, month, day, and time was the Grand Ancestor Emperor born?" Zhao Douan inquired.

The Empress gave him a date, then curiously asked: "Could the birth date be the password?"

"I don’t know, but it’s possible," Zhao Douan said solemnly but didn’t continue typing because several consecutive errors meant the next unlock attempt would have to wait five minutes.

At that moment, the Empress first sensed a spatial disturbance. She looked up, furrowing her brows: "We need to get out."

This time her visualization duration had reached its limit.

Although Zhao Douan could still hold on, he still handed back the phone encouragingly: "At least we’ve found a clue, yes, we just need a bit more time, there’s no rush to try again next time."

Yes, since every time they enter, it refreshes, so he’s not afraid of reaching the unlock limit and being permanently locked out.

As for using technical means to break in, it just seemed quite challenging...

"Moreover, who knows, next time the female temple priest might refresh again." Zhao Douan had a sudden inspiration.