Chapter 394: Chapter 112: Contention
The next day, inside Qianyang Palace.
It was another routine meeting, with everyone taking their respective seats, ready for another round of prolonged discussions.
But this time, the atmosphere was much tenser than the day before.
The Eldest Prince had been bitten by a dog and beaten up by Jiang Li yesterday and was now lying in bed tormented by Disaster Qi, needing crutches even to walk.
For those supporting the Second Prince, this should have been a cause for celebration, but the good times didn’t last long. That very night, the Second Prince also suffered severe injuries. Though he did not lose his life, he had been stabbed and had the Five Vile Qi forcefully infused into him, causing great damage to his Essence Qi.
Now, the Second Prince’s injuries were a bit more critical than the Eldest Prince’s. At least the Eldest Prince could still walk with crutches, while the Second Prince could only lie down.
From the outside, it seemed like a case of both brothers struggling in the same plight, but while one side showed a hint of schadenfreude, the other side was extraordinarily grim.
The content ones were naturally Meng Jun and the people on his side.
They had been anxious about the Eldest Prince being bitten by the dog but hearing of the Second Prince’s injuries had somehow eased their anxieties, now feeling a sense of pleasure in the misfortune of others.
On the other hand, the opposing side had eyes that were cold and hard, their glances filled with suspicion. They suspected that the attack on the Second Prince might be connected to the other side.
The atmosphere immediately turned malevolent.
However, the one to first stir trouble was not the ministers seated on both sides, but King You who sat in the main seat.
"Last night, the Second Prince was targeted for assassination at Princess Huayang’s Mansion. By chance, the Judges and Soul Hookers from the Yin Law Department were nearby and followed the assassin’s trail right into the Imperial City."
King You said unhurriedly, as a chilly wind began to rise within the hall, "Judge Cui Jue sought assistance from the Divinator, attempting to divine the assassin’s identity. They inadvertently implicated the Jiang family’s child, and in return faced retaliation. When I saw him, he was barely hanging onto life and almost had his soul scattered. Gongsun Family Master, could you give me an explanation?"
The pointed words were directed at Tianxuan, and the tension in the room grew palpable.
"This palace also expects an explanation from the Yin Law Department," Tianxuan sat upright, speaking calmly and methodically, "Cui Jue framed and slandered us, attempting to tarnish my disciple’s innocence. Soul Hooker Li Mi, resenting his misdeed, abandoned the darkness for light and disclosed Cui Jue’s actions. Having learned of such wickedness, any punishment I meted out was warranted."
Abandoning darkness for light? Disclosure?
King You, being a Ghost Cultivator, felt as if his blood pressure was rising at these words.
Cui Jue was severely injured, and the Bull-headed was captured. King You had anticipated that Jiang Li and Tianxuan might interrogate him, but the Bull-headed knew little; even after being questioned, he held no critical information. He could even claim that any such information was obtained under duress and unreliable.
There were endless ways to drag this out.
Even King You had not anticipated that the Bull-headed would confess and defect so readily.
Confessing under duress? Out of the question.
Fighting dirty and breaking rules? Here was someone enlightened about Cui Jue’s misdeeds and punishing him righteously – no grounds for criticism.
"Moreover, this palace has noticed that the Evil Qi in Yuhua Palace is denser than in other places, presumably due to the Emperor’s move, which has caused a loss of royal dignity in the Imperial City," Tianxuan mentioned, as if by an afterthought.
With that statement, it was as if a single stone had stirred up a thousand ripples; the atmosphere in the hall shifted from dangerous to a covertly murderous one, akin to a battlefield.
The techniques practiced by Lawless Freedom were now known to all. The magic of deploying the Five Vile Qi inevitably brought to mind the Nine Heavens Demon Suppressing True Technique of the Daode Sect. But the key issue at hand was finding a reason for Lawless Freedom’s actions.
And now, it seemed they had one.
Assassinating one’s own brethren; how could such individuals have the audacity to rise to Purple Extreme and rule over the realms?" Huayang Princess’s father-in-law, the Wang family’s Patriarch, coldly threw in a remark.
"How dare you slander the Prince?" someone immediately retorted.
"With irrefutable evidence, what slander are you talking about?"
"Despicable wretch, having already slandered the Gongsun Family Master’s disciple, who knows if they would stoop to old tricks again!"
This was searching for evidence to strike back on the spot.
The two sides went back and forth, gradually escalating into a verbal brawl; thereafter, Qi mechanisms crisscrossed. Were it not for the watchful eyes of the three individuals presiding over the meeting, they might have already come to blows.
King You stood in opposition to Meng Jun, the Meng Family Patriarch, at a distance. Though there was no clash of Qi, the intent to oppose each other was evident on both sides.
Chaos erupted.
Originally, the longer the two sides were in conflict, the harder it became to restrain themselves. Now, the grave injuries of the Eldest Prince and the Second Prince acted like a fuse, detonating the tension prematurely.
It goes without saying that this negotiation ended fruitlessly again, exacerbating the opposition due to the ignited tension. Even though King You and the Meng Family Patriarch were restraining themselves, the others could hardly contain themselves.
This wasn’t something that could be constrained by rational thought.
With both princes lying injured, they were at a disadvantage. If you retreated, the other side would advance, possibly seizing the opportunity to push for position.
Thus, retreat was not an option. To retreat was to fail. One could only retreat when the opposition did so first.
The quarreling continued until after Noon, at which point the verbal fight temporarily subsided. However, judging by the situation, once out of the Imperial City, it wouldn’t just be limited to a war of words, but rather, it would be time for the real confrontation.
King You stepped out of the palace and immediately recognized the escalating hostility, which gave him a headache.
’Tianxuan is deliberately muddying the waters, and so is the Princess, watching the two sides fight. Do these two have their own candidates in mind? Is it the Third Prince or the Fifth Prince?’
Although the Emperor had Three Palaces and Six Courtyards, he did not possess the desires of a common man; favoring his concubines was done purely for procreation and not out of preference for many heirs.
The Eldest Prince and the Second Prince had been the most capable among the heirs. The remaining princes were unable to compete with them. The only dark horse, the Fourth Prince, had been eliminated by a certain nemesis of the Royal Family.
No matter how one thought about it, the other princes were not well-suited to enter the fray.
"King Yan."
At that moment, a shadowy figure appeared behind King You, within a faint aura of Yin Qi, a burly figure dressed in a Red Robe.
"How is Cui Jue faring?" King You inquired.
"Struck by that one’s finger, his soul refined by Yin Qi, he can no longer descend to the Yin World. The heavy Yin Qi below would only worsen his injury. He is currently healing in a private residence within the Inner City," the figure replied in a low voice.
"It is said that women and villains are difficult to raise," King You lamented.
It wasn’t enough to severely injure him; they had to torment him further. They were truly petty. Wasn’t it just a matter of wanting to take action against your disciple?
It’s not like they wanted to take his life, merely to suppress him temporarily.
"Take me to see Cui Jue," King You said.
The two figures gradually became ethereal, slowly fading away.
Elsewhere, in the now empty Qianyang Palace, Tianxuan and Ji Lingguang remained.
"I do wish the Taiping Sect would rise up sooner. Otherwise, the court will descend into chaos first," Ji Lingguang sighed.
"It won’t be long now."
Sensing King You’s departure, Tianxuan spoke softly, "The Book of Life and Death is an instrument of death against Lower Four Grade cultivators and ordinary people. Now that Cui Jue is seriously injured, it’s only a matter of time before the Taiping Sect makes a move. If Cui Jue dies, the Taiping Sect will undoubtedly rise up, and at that moment, it will be time for internal stabilization."
"The court still underestimates the Taiping Sect. King You and the other families have yet to realize the danger posed by the Taiping Sect, or maybe there are those among them who support it. If this continues, by the time the Taiping Sect rises, the internal factions of the court will have fought themselves to exhaustion. I will not allow things to reach that stage."
"Cui Jue may die, but his Dao Fruit absolutely cannot fall into the hands of the Taiping Sect," Ji Lingguang stated.
"Of course, Cui Jue’s Dao Fruit must remain in our hands," Tianxuan declared coolly.
She deliberately tortured Cui Jue, not entirely because he tried to frame Jiang Li... but to use Cui Jue as bait.
To lure out the hidden individuals of the Taiping Sect and other forces.