Chapter 14 Oil Lamp

The dim yellow light of the oil lamp bathed the room, making it look like a faded old photograph, blurry and indistinct.

After eating and injecting a tube of diluted Life Source Liquid, Zhang Yuanqing recovered some strength. Although he was still weak and listless, the coughing had finally stopped.

He lay on the dilapidated bed with its yellowed mosquito net, watching the Queen drag out a dusty clothes chest. After cleaning off the dust, she laid the two quilts given by "Auntie" on top of the chest, turning it into a makeshift bed.

"I want to sleep with Yuanshi Tianzun." Jiang Jingwei sat on the edge of the bed, kicked off her embroidered shoes, took off her fatuous ruler's uniform, and rolled over Zhang Yuanqing, shrinking to the inside of the bed.

"Jingwei, you're sleeping with me tonight." The Queen disagreed, saying, "You're a girl, how can you sleep with Yuanshi Tianzun?"

"Sleeping on the bed is comfortable, I want to sleep on the bed. What's wrong with sleeping with Yuanshi Tianzun! When I was tired from fighting at home, I often slept on my brother's bed." Jiang Jingwei retorted with full vigor.

Zhang Yuanqing waved his hand weakly, "Just let her sleep. She's still a child. Queen, give her the quilt."

The distinction between male and female is a concept for adults. Jiang Jingwei hadn't yet grasped this aspect and her thoughts were as clear as a child's. She probably regarded him as a brother-like figure.

"Then I want to sleep together too," the Queen said with a smile.

"No way," Zhang Yuanqing refused immediately. "Your breasts are too big. If you sleep on the bed, my thoughts won't be pure."

The Queen then tossed over a thin quilt made of coarse cloth.

Zhang Yuanqing tossed it to Jingwei, who wrapped herself in the quilt and muttered, "It smells musty."

She raised her head, glanced at Yuanshi Tianzun, and then at the Queen, and asked, "What's our next move?"

She still has some brains, knowing that we're in a bad situation! Zhang Yuanqing sighed and said,

"We have to come out to win over the people sooner or later, so let's just do it in advance. It's a pity that Wanfei sacrificed herself, losing a level six helper."

Jiang Jingwei exclaimed "Ah!" and said, "The big guy died? Then we have to avenge her."

The Queen, sitting on the wooden chest, said unhappily,

"She's just an NPC, what revenge do you need to take!

"She'll just respawn after we leave the instance."

That Wan Meiren wasn't a special boss in the instance, nor did she possess a "unique attribute." This kind of character would be endlessly refreshed. When the next fatuous ruler entered, she would "reborn" with him.

"The next Wanfei has nothing to do with us, but I have to avenge this Wanfei." Zhang Yuanqing leaned against the head of the bed, his voice a little weak.

"Our next actions are to treat the illness, grind reputation, and find helpers."

Jiang Jingwei thought for a moment and said, "Treating the illness is easy. Go to that immortal medicine shop. The immortal medicine shop can cure your illness."

The Queen shook her head. "No, the ordinary doctors in the immortal medicine shop can't cure Yuanshi's illness. If the national preceptor or the national preceptor's disciples take action, they will definitely see the cause of his illness. Once we are targeted by the experts from the immortal medicine shop, we will be walking right into a trap."

"Then what do we do!" Jiang Jingwei asked with the Fire Master's catchphrase.

"Let's ignore the illness for now. Anyway, I won't die. At most, the supernatural fatuous ruler will become a useless fatuous ruler." Zhang Yuanqing never panicked when facing big events. "What we need to do now is grind reputation and help me do side quests, and then find helpers."

"I think the helpers you're talking about aren't our teammates, are they?" The Queen keenly heard his meaning.

Zhang Yuanqing smiled and said, "Although I am a fatuous ruler, I am still the dignified Son of Heaven. Even if the Zheng family can cover the sky with one hand, there are still political enemies in the court. Zheng Wenhan was able to rebel tonight because Zhao Shun trusted the Zheng family too much and handed the Imperial City Division over to them."

The Imperial City Division was the Emperor's security team, responsible for the safety of the imperial palace and the Emperor. It was precisely because he controlled the Imperial City Division that Zheng Wenhan was able to be so unscrupulous.

Of course, when Zheng Wenhan rebelled, he sealed off the palace gates under the pretext of capturing assassins. On the one hand, it was to prevent him from escaping, and on the other hand, it showed that not all of the Imperial City Division were Zheng family members.

After all, the Imperial City Division had thousands of elites. It was impossible for them all to be Zheng family members.

"But in the court, first of all, the royal family must be loyal to the Emperor. Secondly, the Zheng family's political enemies are our allies. Finally, some treacherous officials must still be on my side." Zhang Yuanqing said, "And the Zheng family's biggest enemy is another consort clan."

Jingwei was a little dazed.

The Queen's eyes lit up. "The Yang family!"

She immediately frowned:

"Zheng Wenhan can also think of this. He will definitely arrange manpower on all the ways and channels we can contact the Yang family. We will die the moment we show up.

"Besides, an Emperor who leaves the palace is like a phoenix in distress, not even as good as a chicken. The Zheng family can completely announce that you died at the hands of an assassin, that you died in the palace, in order to hold a state funeral and put a coffin on your death. Then, with the support of the national preceptor, they can ascend the throne and become Emperor."

Being in the imperial palace was already passive enough. Leaving the imperial palace meant losing all initiative.

Although he had successfully escaped the Zheng family's rebellion and assassination, the instance mission had now entered hell mode.

It was precisely because of this that even the dull Jiang Jingwei asked the question, "What should we do next?"

Zhang Yuanqing curled his lips. "Don't worry, the Zheng family won't ascend the throne. At most, they'll support a puppet, disguise him as me, and then issue a gag order to the imperial guards who participated in tonight's operation, pretending that nothing happened."

Jiang Jingwei and the Queen asked at the same time, "Why?"

Imperial palace.

In the already extinguished palace, more than a dozen armor-clad imperial guards were searching through the scorched earth ruins, which were emitting green smoke.

Zheng Wenhan stood in front of the palace, a long sword at his waist, his face as gloomy as water, and remained silent.

After a quarter of an hour, the armored soldiers stopped, exchanged glances with each other, and shook their heads slightly.

A head, steeling himself, stepped out of the charred threshold and came to Zheng Wenhan, whispering:

"Prime Minister Zheng, we still haven't found the Imperial Jade Seal."

Zheng Wenhan's mouth twitched, and he took a deep breath to calm his emotions, and asked in a deep voice, "What about the Twin Dragon Jade Pendant!"

The imperial guard head shook his head.

Zheng Wenhan was furious, kicked the imperial guard head over, and said sternly: "Search, dig three feet into the ground and find it for this Prime Minister."

The imperial guard head hurriedly got up and shouted to his subordinates: "Keep searching! If you can't find the Imperial Jade Seal and the Twin Dragon Jade Pendant, I'll chop off your heads."

The imperial guards lowered their heads one after another and quickly searched, even though they had already been sifting through the ashes for an hour.

A whistling sound came from the high altitude, and the middle-aged swordsman whose skin was still a little wrinkled landed on his sword, bowing and clasping his fists: "Prime Minister Zheng, this humble servant has already discerned every inch of the inner palace, and has not found the fatuous ruler. He has run away."

Zheng Wenhan's chest heaved violently: "What is the feedback from the palace gate?"

The middle-aged swordsman shook his head slightly: "The imperial guards on duty at the palace gate replied that no one broke through. Imperial guards are on duty a hundred zhang (丈, ancient unit of length) in front of the palace gate and a hundred zhang behind it. With the fatuous ruler's cultivation, he can at most be invisible for two hundred zhang. If he wants to climb over the five zhang high palace wall, then there are only one hundred and fifty zhang left."

So it was impossible to escape from the palace without alarming the imperial guards.

Zheng Wenhan asked: "What about the others?"

"Apart from the woman who was burned to ashes on the spot, of the other six, one flew away, and the arrows could not catch up; one had a unique body technique, walked on walls, and escaped from the imperial palace. One fled into the inner palace and disappeared strangely. One forcibly broke out of the imperial palace, and the imperial guards seemed to be confused. Two fled halfway, returned to the summer palace, and sneaked into the lake, disappearing." The middle-aged swordsman responded one by one.

Zheng Wenhan immediately looked at the artificial lake, "The fatuous ruler also escaped from the lake. You arrange for a few good swimmers to search along the route he escaped."

The middle-aged general nodded in acceptance, then looked at the backs of the armored soldiers searching: "The jade seal hasn't been found yet?"

Zheng Wenhan's face was gloomy:

"That little brat Zhao Shun not only took away the Imperial Jade Seal, but didn't even leave a single Treasure Seal behind. Outrageous! You continue to stare in the palace, I'm going to the Tianji Tower."

The Tianji Tower was where the national preceptor lived.

"Yes!" the middle-aged general said.

In the dim yellow room, Zhang Yuanqing opened his inventory and took out a bright yellow and translucent square jade, holding it heavily in his palm, and showed it to Jiang Jingwei and the Queen.

"This is..." The Queen was stunned at first, and then pleasantly surprised: "The Emperor's jade seal?"

Zhang Yuanqing said with a smile, "More than that."

Then, he took out a total of six Treasure Seals from the inventory, some of jade, some of gold, and some of iron.

Zhang Yuanqing explained to his two teammates:

"These are all the Emperor's Treasure Seals, and they have different uses. Some are dedicated to issuing edicts, some are dedicated to conferring ministers, and some are dedicated to sending secret letters, but none of them are important. I stole them out to delay time, so that the Zheng family can't mess around with my Treasure Seals.

"The most important are these two items."

Zhang Yuanqing then took out a bright yellow Twin Dragon Jade Pendant and placed it with the square jade, introducing it:

"This jade seal is the jade seal of the third Emperor of the Southern Dynasty. It was carved from a flawless jade presented by the subsidiary country 'Kingdom of Colored Clouds' and is unparalleled in the world.

"Treasure Seals can be carved at will, but there is no second Imperial Jade Seal, because of its unique attributes, it is regarded as a symbol of identity and legitimacy by the successive Emperors of the Southern Dynasty. If Zheng Wenhan wants to ascend the throne and usurp power, he must obtain the Imperial Jade Seal, otherwise the entire court will not recognize him."

Even if Zheng Wenhan doesn't ascend the throne, if he wants to support a puppet Emperor, he still needs the Imperial Jade Seal.

In fact, Zhao Shun was the most perfect puppet Emperor, but Zhao Shun favored the Queen, and the Queen was the direct daughter of the Yang family. The Yang family, which was already a powerful clan, became even more powerful, and this became the Zheng family's number one enemy.

In Zhang Yuanqing's few memories, the Yang family woman was chosen for him by Empress Dowager Zheng. Now that he thought about it, Empress Dowager Zheng probably wanted to use the Yang family to restrain the Zheng family.

He picked up the bright yellow Twin Dragon Jade, and said: "This jade is made from the scraps of flawless jade, and has been hung on the waist by successive Emperors. It is also a symbol of identity. These two things can prove my identity."

The instance prompted him that he could not give up the identity of the Emperor, but he had to leave the imperial palace. After thinking about it, Zhang Yuanqing put these two things, as well as the Treasure Seals, into the inventory.

"The leader is still steady..." The Queen was pleasantly surprised and speechless.

Jiang Jingwei also breathed a sigh of relief, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

Zhang Yuanqing pulled the corner of the quilt for Jingwei, looked at the Queen a few meters away, and said:

"Before Wanfei died, she told me that Zheng Wenhan killed the Shenrui Army. We can investigate this lead when we have time."

The Queen immediately looked at Jingwei: "This should be Jingwei's side quest."

"Her quest is our quest. It's better to expect the Fire Master to grow a brain than to expect her to complete it independently." Zhang Yuanqing said, "It's not early, let's rest first. We'll think about things tomorrow."

The east gradually revealed a fish-belly white, and Fu Qingyang stood on the city wall, his armor stained with blood, and his handsome face covered with blood and dust.

He looked at the extinguished flames in the distance, his eyes calm and deep. The sound of metal horses a few hours ago still echoed in his ears.

After nightfall, the Southern Dynasty defenders launched a night attack. First, Zhao Chenghuang manipulated spirit servants to kill the Northern Dynasty soldiers scattered outside the city, and then the Demon Eye led 5,000 soldiers to attack, pretending to be 30,000 troops to bypass the enemy from the rear.

The Northern Dynasty lookout soldiers saw the torches burning brightly, and they were indeed fooled. At night, the assembled troops were limited, and in a hurry, Tuoba Rentu gathered 2,000 cavalry out of the camp.

Then, Fu Qingyang led the Southern Dynasty defenders to attack, rushing into the Northern Dynasty camp and slaughtering them, setting fire to burn food and siege equipment, giving the Northern Dynasty army a fire attack on the camp.

After beheading tens of thousands of enemies, Fu Qingyang did not covet his achievements and decisively withdrew his troops.

Tuoba Rentu rushed back to rescue, but caught nothing, and angrily attacked the city alone. He fought a great battle with the three Lords of Fu Qingyang, the Demon Eye Heavenly King, and Xiahou Aotian, but did not gain any advantage.

The combination of the Demon Eye's bewitching eye and Fu Qingyang's newly comprehended sword intent made this level nine ancient war god feel threatened.

After angrily killing more than a thousand defenders and destroying the city wall, he left in anger.

In this night attack, the Southern Dynasty lost nearly 6,000 soldiers, and the Northern Dynasty lost about 30,000, a great victory.

After this battle, Fu Qingyang's prestige in the hearts of the Southern Dynasty defenders greatly increased. The soldiers and generals who were dissatisfied before now wanted to be his licking dogs, regarding him as a hero.

But Fu Qingyang had no joy at all. This battle ignited the anger of the Northern Dynasty. The next few days would definitely be extremely tragic siege battles.

At that time, even the corvée laborers in the army would have to go to the battlefield, and the people in the city would have to serve as corvée laborers.

Fu Qingyang's idea was to exhaust the Northern Dynasty's 400,000 troops to 200,000, and then retreat to the capital. After inquiring during the day, he had a preliminary understanding of the situation in the capital.

The Southern Dynasty political parties were divided into two factions, one was the Zheng family, and the other was the Yang family.

The two major consort clans controlled the government. Among them, the Zheng family was an old-fashioned consort clan, which had been operating in the court for decades and had a huge strength. Although the Yang family was a newly promoted consort clan, it was itself a powerful clan with many branches and leaves, barely able to compete with the Zheng family faction.

The Yang family was at a disadvantage, so they paid great attention to reputation, and their reputation among the people and in the court was better than that of the Zheng family.

Fu Qingyang also found out that Yang Ce was able to take command this time entirely because of the pillow talk of his world-dominating sister in the harem. The Zheng family was extremely sensitive to this, fearing that Yang Ce would make great achievements on the front line.

If the instance was divided into two maps, it would be the capital and the battlefield. The capital was handled by Yuanshi, but before Yuanshi completely controlled the court, the capital was probably a dragon's pool and a tiger's den for the front-line defenders.

Retreating to the capital was a sure death.

That's why Fu Qingyang didn't dare to retreat to the capital.

Linxia City could be defended for at most half a month, or at least seven days. He hoped that Yuanshi could control the situation in the capital, otherwise the situation would be dangerous. In the cold night wind, Fu Qingyang exhaled lightly.

Suddenly, he heard the buzzing sound of flapping wings.

Following the sound, he saw a blurred black shadow speeding through the dark night sky, the sound of flapping thin wings like the noise of a helicopter propeller.

Fu Qingyang's pupils lit up with white light, and he fixed his eyes to see, and his eyebrows raised.

Xiao Yuan?

(End of this chapter)