Chapter 1102: Chapter 1096: Time Reversal
Sal Khan picked up the carbon tongs wrapped in copper and poked the fire basin: "As long as we can capture Li Zhijie, we can trace and find Li Tianjiao and Yun Poxing... and that Huoyun Army."
"Rest assured, Your Majesty, the soldiers have already been sent out to find him. As long as Li Zhijie isn’t hidden away by Zhou and Yan’s people, we will definitely be able to find him!" said the disciple of the Great Shaman.
What the disciple of the Great Shaman least wanted to see was Li Zhijie being hidden away by Zhou and Yan’s people because... Li Zhijie and Li Tianjiao already knew the legend of Tianfeng Kingdom’s jade cicada. If they were to tell the Emperor of Zhou, and the Emperor of Zhou began searching for the jade cicada too, it would be extremely unfavorable for Tianfeng Kingdom.
Tianfeng Kingdom searching for a jade cicada in Zhou is certainly not as convenient as the Emperor of Zhou.
Moreover, if that jade cicada were in the Emperor of Zhou’s tomb, the Emperor of Zhou would easily obtain it.
The disciple of the Great Shaman only hoped that those sent to Zhou to explore the Emperor of Zhou’s tomb would quickly determine whether the jade cicada was inside. If not, they could also quickly find the missing jade cicada.
The most dreaded situation for Sal Khan, the Monarch of Tianfeng Kingdom, and the disciple of the Great Shaman had already occurred. At this moment... in Pingyang City, Li Zhijie, who managed to save a leg after being crushed by a giant elephant, was ready to tell Bai Qingyan the story of the jade cicada, under Bai Qingyan’s questioning.
Bai Qingyan was sitting on a soft couch by the window, with a glass lamp on the black lacquered small table, illuminating half of Bai Qingyan’s indifferent face. She lowered her eyes, using a sweet porcelain lid with plum patterns to gently play with the floating tea leaves in the clear tea soup.
During the battle yesterday, Bai Qingyan wondered... It’s just Li Zhijie!
If Li Tianfu made such a big commotion to demand someone, it was intentionally done to provoke a war between Zhou and Tianfeng Kingdom, using Tianfeng Kingdom’s hand to avenge Lu Tianzhuo.
What about Tianfeng Kingdom’s intentions?
The original intention of the Tianfeng Kingdom was to first occupy territory and then gradually encroach, and they should maintain good relations with Zhou and Yan while displaying Tianfeng Kingdom’s strength. But... it certainly was not about trying to maintain good relations while sending troops to attack Zhou’s cities.
Furthermore, Bai Qingyan could not believe that during the Four-Nation Alliance, the Monarch of Tianfeng Kingdom, Sal Khan, was too foolish to see that Li Tianfu was trying to provoke a fight between Tianfeng Kingdom and Zhou to exact revenge for herself.
In this situation, Sal Khan still allowed the Elephant Army to accompany Li Tianfu to demand people, which means... Tianfeng Kingdom also did not want Li Zhijie to stay in Zhou for any reason and had to help Li Tianfu retrieve Li Zhijie.
The envoy sent by Tianfeng Kingdom to apologize was waiting outside the courtyard at this moment. Li Zhijie raised his eyes and could vaguely see the envoy waiting quietly in the yard, dressed in Tianfeng Kingdom attire.
Li Zhijie looked back at Bai Qingyan...
"King Yan brought this disaster to my Zhou, and my Zhou soldiers didn’t leave King Yan to perish in the snow; they’ve been lenient! If King Yan doesn’t know what’s good for him and doesn’t clarify... I can only hand you over to the envoy of Tianfeng Kingdom!" Bai Qingyan still did not look up at Li Zhijie, slowly sipped her tea, "This unwarranted disaster was brought by King Yan, and the gates of Pingyang City were broken by a giant elephant. If more elephants come, Zhou won’t be able to withstand it!"
"Is Your Majesty yielding to Tianfeng Kingdom now?" Li Zhijie asked, unwilling, pretending to be sarcastic.
Li Zhijie, his face devoid of color, leaned against the simple soft bed in the wing room, his forehead and back covered in sweat, his face bruised and injured, a wound on his neck wrapped in fine cotton cloth, and his right leg was gone. The pain was unbearable.
"King Yan’s provocation and taunting skills are really no match for Li Tianfu! Zhou has never been afraid of fighting with other countries but feels..." She placed the teacup on the small black table, looked at Li Zhijie with indifferent eyes, "It’s not worth it for an enemy monarch!"
Li Zhijie’s hand clenched tightly under the quilt, Bai Qingyan’s words were correct...
After he woke up, he heard that the reason Zhou had fallen into conflict with Tianfeng Kingdom was because Li Tianfu tried to kill their Bai family guards, and Bai Qingyan took action.
The Bai family always protected their own but wouldn’t protect an enemy monarch like him.
"If the foreign minister speaks of something beneficial to Your Majesty, Your Majesty... willing to withstand the pressure from Tianfeng Kingdom and protect the foreign minister?" Li Zhijie asked.
"It depends on what you say and whether it’s honest." Bai Qingyan turned back to glance out the window, "The envoy of Tianfeng Kingdom is still glaring, King Yan should make a decision quickly, don’t negotiate with me here."
Li Zhijie followed Bai Qingyan’s gaze outside and closed his eyes, finally slowly recounting the rumors of the jade cicada to Bai Qingyan.
Bai Qingyan’s half-lowered eyes subtly glanced at the sachet containing the jade cicada hanging on her waist.
Time travel...
Her heart skipped a beat.
In her past life, A Yan gave her the Jade Pendant symbolizing the identity of Yan’s Regent Prince, telling her to escape, but she was caught by King Liang on the way to find Xiao Qi. King Liang threatened her using Xiao Qi’s life, leaving her no choice but to surrender.
When she died, the jade cicada was still on her...
Then, she was reborn and returned to the day before her marriage to Jinxiu.
She lazily straightened her sleeves, rested her elbow on the black lacquer table, and turned to look steadily at Li Zhijie: "Where did you hear these legends?"
"Does Your Majesty think that Tianfeng Kingdom took such a huge risk to replace our Empress of Xiliang, putting a madman obsessed with avenging a dead eunuch in power, all because our Empress of Xiliang was hard to control?" Li Zhijie said, gritting his teeth, "It’s because our Empress knew this secret, and the Monarch of Tianfeng Kingdom feared our Empress wanted the jade cicada, so they wanted to kill her off completely."
Li Zhijie saw Bai Qingyan show little expression and continued: "It seems Your Majesty doesn’t believe in the legend of the jade cicada."
"That myth is full of holes. If the jade cicada truly had the ability to rewind time in those days, and Tianfeng Kingdom experienced all seasons as summer due to it, then... rewinding time four times a year, how could the people of Tianfeng Kingdom have thrived to this day? The people of Tianfeng Kingdom should have been living repeatedly in a state of oblivion for hundreds, if not thousands of years..."
Bai Qingyan tapped her fingers on the little black table and laughed: "And the Queen of Tianfeng Kingdom you mentioned claimed... she learned of Hanye Kingdom’s arrangements through the jade cicada’s time-reversal ability, leading Tianfeng Kingdom to victory, losing her child... family, and eventually even her husband, but the people of Tianfeng Kingdom had no memory due to time reversal, wasn’t that so?"