Wei Zheng said in a deep voice, "Yuan Shoucheng is the uncle of Yuan Tiangang, the current Imperial Astronomical Observatory Director. He does indeed have some real skills."
Zu An thought to himself, "So Yuan Shoucheng is Yuan Tiangang's uncle. Should I find an opportunity to bring Yuan Tiangang over and ask him? He's quite an extraordinary person."
After seeing Wei Zheng off, Zu An immediately issued an edict to summon Yuan Tiangang, only to find out that Yuan Tiangang had gone to another place to observe the stars at night and had not been around for some time.
Zu An felt a little regretful. He had originally planned to go and see Yuan Shoucheng again, but it was too late and inconvenient, so he could only rest first.
Around midnight, a wail could be heard outside the palace gates. Many palace maids were terrified, and even Princess Yuanji trembled slightly: "Your Majesty, are there... are there ghosts outside?"
"Stop talking nonsense, just get some rest. There are no ghosts or gods in this world." Zu An remained calm and continued sleeping.
He knew exactly what was going on, and waited in his dream for the Jing River Dragon King to arrive.
Sure enough, just as I was drifting off to sleep, I suddenly felt a chilly wind blowing around me, and the temperature dropped drastically, making me feel as if I were in an ice cellar.
Zuan opened his eyes and saw that the once magnificent palace was now gloomy, with blue light everywhere and wisps of gray-white mist.
Visibility in the vicinity is extremely low; it is difficult to see what is happening just a few meters away.
In the distance, all was pitch black, from which came intermittent, eerie wails: "Give me back my life! Give me back my life!"
Zu An thought that if it were just an ordinary person, even an emperor like Emperor Taizong of Tang, who conquered the world, he would probably be scared to death by now.
However, he was someone who had even ventured into the real underworld, so how could he be frightened by such a small scene?
At this moment, he was thinking about something else. Since the other party was able to appear here, it seemed to confirm a certain guess in his mind.
Just then, the headless corpse of the Jinghe Dragon King slowly appeared from a distance, holding a bloody head in its hand, looking extremely gruesome.
The bloodied head cried out, "Emperor Taizong of Tang! Give me back my life! Give me back my life! Last night you promised to save me, so why did you send officials to execute me at dawn? Come out! Come out! I'll go with you to the King of Hell and we'll see what happened!"
Zu An had seen far more terrifying scenes than this, so he was naturally not frightened by this one. He replied in a deep voice, "Today, in order to save you, I specially summoned Wei Zheng to the palace and kept him playing chess. I didn't want to give him a chance to kill you. I thought the matter was settled when I saw him fall asleep from exhaustion. Who would have thought that he would leave his body in his dream to kill you? I have done my best."
"Do your best?" the Jing River Dragon King cursed, his face contorted with rage. "As your subject, how could you not know Wei Zheng's methods? You directly ordered him not to kill me, would he dare disobey your order? Now that I have been killed and become a wronged ghost, do you think you can dismiss me with a mere 'do your best'?"
Zu An's face darkened: "You Dragon King, you're being unreasonable. As the saying goes, every wrong has its perpetrator and every debt its debtor. Ahem, you should know better than anyone why you violated the heavenly laws, and you also know who killed you. Instead of seeking revenge on those people, you're coming after me, the only person who ever helped you. Are you out of your mind?"
The Jinghe Dragon King was taken aback, as if he had been struck by a nerve. However, thinking that he couldn't afford to offend the others, he could only curse, "Those people harmed me in a perfectly just and aboveboard way. But you, you hypocrite, promised to save me while watching your subordinates harm me. You are the most despicable. I will make you pay with your life."
With a fierce look on his face, he lunged at Zu An.
Zuan's thinking was quick, but now that his cultivation was sealed, he was no different from an ordinary person. His body couldn't react at all, and he was directly pulled back by the Dragon King.
As the two struggled, the bloody head opened its mouth and tried to bite Zu An.
Zuan's face darkened, and he was about to activate the formation he had prepared earlier.
Although his cultivation was sealed, his memories remained, so he specially set up some formations near his palace. Although he lacked some top-grade spirit stones to unleash their full power, they should be fine for protection.
Just then, a golden light suddenly appeared on the horizon. From the south, fragrant clouds swirled and colorful mist drifted. A Jurchen woman appeared, gently swaying a willow branch in her hand. The headless Jinghe Dragon King was terrified and released Zu'an, fleeing sadly to the northwest.
Upon seeing the Jurchen's attire and appearance, Zu An was filled with shock, but he showed no emotion on his face. He hurriedly stepped forward to express his gratitude: "Thank you for saving me. May I ask your honorable name, Jurchen? I will certainly repay you handsomely."
The Jurchen woman smiled faintly: "I have received the Buddha's decree to go to the East to find a pilgrim. I live in the local earth god temple in Chang'an. I heard ghosts crying and gods howling at night, so I came here to drive away the karmic dragon and save the emperor."
Zu'an wanted to ask more, but the Jurchen woman's body was enveloped in a glowing light and she disappeared, seemingly unwilling to have any further conversation with him.
He chased after it, but suddenly his foot slipped and he was instantly jolted awake.
"Did Your Majesty have a nightmare?" Princess Yuanji knelt before him and gently wiped the sweat from his face.
Zu An felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. His clothes were soaked with cold sweat, and he felt extremely tired and weak. Noticing that the eunuchs and maids were kneeling on the ground, trembling with fear, he couldn't help but ask curiously, "What are you doing?"
Princess Yuanji replied, "Just now, His Majesty kept shouting 'There are ghosts! There are ghosts!' in his sleep, and we couldn't wake him up no matter what we did, so everyone was afraid."
Zuan was taken aback. He was clearly not afraid in his dream. Was it because Li Shimin's mortal body was too weak, or was it a plot device?
He waved his hand, signaling everyone to leave, and at the same time issued an imperial decree that there would be no court session that day.
Firstly, his body was indeed weak, and he was not in a good condition to attend court. Secondly, he also needed to organize his thoughts.
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
