Chapter 124 The Sickly and Tyrannical Crown Prince 22

Xie Rong washed the dirty man clean.

You see, as long as Lu Yuanju becomes very pitiful, he will treat Lu Yuanju very, very well.

Because his favorite animal is a puppy.

He was overjoyed, as if he had returned to his days in Canglan Mountain. He was still a sword cultivator with extraordinary talent that everyone envied, while the man surnamed Lu was nothing more than his pet dog, forever following behind him and begging for his pity.

But Xie Rong was the emperor, and emperors are always very suspicious.

So after Lu Yuanju recovered from his injuries, he deliberately abandoned the man several times, watching him anxiously pace around outside the palace gates from the city wall. Finally, he gritted his teeth and crawled in through the dog hole in the cold palace.

It looks very well-behaved, afraid of being abandoned, even better than the previous dog.

As soon as Lu Yuanju finished crawling through the dog hole, he looked up and saw his emperor standing under a withered tree, looking him up and down with malice: "Since you like crawling through the dog hole in the west wind so much, you might as well come out from here from now on."

Lu Yuanju said, "Okay."

Xie Rong then hit and kicked him, called him despicable, and then, while cursing, he smiled and went up to hug his neck and kiss him, his tone sweet and gentle, saying that he was so good, and that good dogs are like this, letting themselves be hit and scolded while wagging their tails.

It turns out His Majesty was being hypocritical; what he called "lowly" was actually "obedient."

So Lu Yuanju began to like Xie Rong scolding him like that.

Xie Rong's shrewish manner of only scolding him and not others was extremely endearing.

In fact, Xie Rong would occasionally beat and scold palace servants and court officials, but none of them did so as often as Xie Rong. This was because he was the emperor's personal slave. He could climb into the emperor's bed to warm it for him, and the emperor especially loved to scold him while on the bed, even when he was crying.

Lu Yuanju was fascinated by it, and he would call it love.

To love someone means to be fascinated by them, by their words and actions, their laughter and anger, their malice, selfishness, indifference, and everything else.

Occasionally, the remnants of the northern tribes would secretly send him messages questioning whether he had betrayed the grasslands and become a lackey of the Celestial Emperor.

Lu Yuanju had a clear conscience. He had already died once in the Ministry of Justice prison, and he would rather die than reveal the whereabouts of the remnants of the northern tribes, as a way of repaying the kindness of the grasslands that had nurtured him.

He survived again because he held on to his last breath and waited for Xie Rong, so he decided to live on.

The grassland is free; it nurtures eagles and wolfhounds, but it will never prevent eagles and wolfhounds from choosing to travel alone or to seek their own masters.

However, Xie Rong's health was never very good.

She would fall seriously ill from time to time, unable to get out of bed for three or four months, lying on the verge of death in the man's arms, being carried by the man to bathe and eat.

This morning, as usual, Lu Yuanju lifted the bed curtains to help Xie Rong up, only to find himself holding a cold body.

"Your Majesty? Your Majesty, please open your eyes and look at me." Lu Yuanju's eyes reddened, and his fingertips trembled as he pinched the man's philtrum, barely able to feel his breath.

Why is Heaven so cruel, so unkind to Xie Rong?!

Xie Rong opened his eyes a crack, but was too weak to close them again.

[Main character's pain level +10]

Lu Yuanju hugged him tightly.

It's laughable that he once cursed his emperor to die soon, and now those words have finally been repaid to him a thousandfold.

Lu Yuanju rolled his eyes, suddenly remembered something, immediately got up and rushed out of the Hall of Mental Cultivation. He bumped into Empress Dowager Xue, who had come to visit the emperor, but he didn't bother to apologize. He hurriedly headed in a certain direction.

After a cup of tea, he stopped panting in front of Qingxu Palace.

This is the residence of the Imperial Advisor. Since the death of the late emperor and the ascension of the new emperor, it has become the most secluded place in the palace.

Because the emperor's dislike was so obvious, the people in the palace knew that the Grand Preceptor had lost favor. Although they dared not be as blatant as they had been in humiliating ordinary concubines, they also did not treat Qingxu Palace as the master's palace and clean and serve it carefully.

Therefore, the gates of Qingxu Palace are now covered with a thick layer of dust. When Lu Yuanju went up to push the door, the locks were rusted and jammed, so he could only kick it open with brute force.

Fortunately, Lu Yuanju was anxious and had no shortage of brute force.

He kicked the palace gate open with a loud crash.

Lu Yuanju walked along the path covered with fallen leaves, and finally saw a white-clad man standing with his hands behind his back under an orange tree that had lost all its leaves.

"No matter how many times you and he reincarnate, you will never escape this outcome," the Grand Preceptor stood for a long time, turned his head slightly, and said without exception to his arrival, "It's no wonder he hates you; your very existence will kill him."

“His Majesty dislikes you, not me,” Lu Yuanju said, panting heavily as he tried to calm his racing heart. “He always says I’m obedient, which makes others jealous, but I never imagined that the Grand Preceptor would be the same.”

The Imperial Advisor paused for a moment, then said to himself, "So he likes stupid people."

Lu Yuanju had lost patience with his rambling. Every moment he spent with this national advisor made him feel nauseous, even though the national advisor had once helped him.

But for His Majesty's sake, he had to continue, "His Majesty is seriously ill. Since you have been able to wake him up time and time again, you must be able to save him, right?"

“I can save him, but I must borrow your body,” the Imperial Preceptor said.

Lu Yuanju's thick eyebrows furrowed, revealing a hint of hostility. "What do you mean?"

"I want your body."

The Imperial Advisor approached him and stopped when he was three feet away.

The cold wind blew away the white cloth covering the man's eyes, revealing a face almost identical to his own, except that the pupils were white.

Lu Yuanju's pupils suddenly dilated, and a chill pierced his spine, sending shivers down his spine.

“I really don’t understand why he likes you so much,” the Grand Preceptor stared at him with cold and disdainful eyes, “His attempt to replace the rightful owner is truly laughable.”

He had been watching coldly for too long, and always hoped that person would show him some pity.

But now that they've actually received charity, they find it hard to accept.

Lu Yuanju took a step back and placed his hand on the dagger hidden behind his waist.

Has this sorcerer gone mad?!

However, deep within his soul, he could not resist the intimidation of this demonic Taoist, and could only watch helplessly as the demonic Taoist stretched out his hand and coldly approached his face.

Unexpectedly, a blinding, scorching red light emanated from the side of his neck, burning the sorcerer's hand.

Lu Yuanju glanced at the man's blood-soaked hand, then lowered his head to touch the burning tattoo on his neck, and suddenly chuckled.

“His Majesty’s things all have his name on them, but you look just like me, yet your name isn’t on them. He wants me, but not you.”

What I see today has exceeded Lu Yuanju’s knowledge of more than 20 years.

This imperial advisor was indeed unfathomable, but who knew that he would be completely suppressed as soon as he encountered the words that His Majesty had personally bestowed upon him, just like a dog that had been punished for disobeying its master.

With the tattoo on his neck, Lu Yuanju was no longer afraid of anything. He even straightened his back proudly so that the guy could see the words on his neck more clearly.

The Imperial Preceptor stared at the words on his neck for a long time without saying a word, then stepped around him and walked out of Qingxu Palace, heading towards Yangxin Hall.