Chapter 276: The Winner Takes All [Combination]
Li Mansion.
Li Nuo looked at his master in surprise and asked, "Even you are no match for His Majesty?"
Su Jing nodded and said, "The emperors of the five dynasties are blessed with great fortune. An ordinary sixth realm cultivator would not be their opponent. Within the territory of Daxia, his strength is infinitely close to the seventh realm..."
It was the first time that Li Nuo heard of these things.
He has read countless books, but none of them has ever written about these things.
Since this matter was mentioned, Su Jing simply explained it in more detail, saying: "To be precise, the royal family is also a kind of school of thought, but this one is more special. They don't need to practice. As long as they become the king of a country, they can have very powerful power in a very short time..."
Descriptions of the royal family seem to be hidden in the books of various philosophers.
Li Nuo could understand.
According to Master, the royal family’s practice is probably the simplest.
In other words, the royal family doesn't need to practice at all.
The emperor himself represents the highest will of this land. As long as you become the emperor, you can become the strongest person in a country.
The more powerful the country is, the stronger the emperor himself is.
This is much easier than studying Legalism, Confucianism, or martial arts.
If everyone knew about this, it would be detrimental to the harmony and stability between the country and the mainland.
Of course, any power gained comes at a price.
In a country, only one person can possess this power, and that is the emperor himself. It will be difficult for his descendants to possess other talents for cultivation.
Unless you follow the path of Legalism or Confucianism which relies on external forces for practice.
The current royal family was once a family with supreme martial arts bloodline, no different from the Wang family, the Pei family, and the Cui family. But after the Li family took control of the throne, there has been no martial arts genius among their descendants.
The royal family’s flaws don’t end there.
Although the emperor possesses great power, he does not have a lifespan that matches his strength.
Master looks a little older than my mother-in-law, but his actual age is already 120 years old. It wouldn't be difficult for him to live another 60 years.
But the lifespan of the royal family is not longer than that of ordinary people.
Moreover, the emperor's power is deeply tied to the country.
Once a country's national strength weakens and its territory is occupied by other countries, its power will also be reduced accordingly.
If the country perishes, all his power will disappear.
No wonder he, as an emperor, dared to leave the palace alone, and could remain calm when facing a martial arts semi-saint of the sixth realm. He also safely arranged the masters in the court in the army because he had enough confidence in his own strength.
However, Li Nuo could see that there was still a hint of envy in the way His Majesty looked at his master.
He looked young, but he was already sixty years old and it was impossible for him to be emperor for another sixty years.
Li Nuo came back to his senses, bowed to the masters of Huashan, Hengshan, and the other three sects in the capital, and said, "I'm sorry for involving you seniors..."
If he had known the situation would be like this today, he would not have written those letters.
These masters also clasped their fists and spoke in a very polite tone.
"No, no, no, I have benefited a lot from these few days in Chang'an."
"Haha, my friend, if you have any problem, how can we not help you?"
"Even with Senior Su here, we can't help much..."
While Li Nuo was exchanging pleasantries with these masters, on the other side, Prince Chun had just recovered from the huge shock he had just experienced.
When he heard that King You had united so many people to attack Xuan Jing, he immediately brought people over.
However, the number of people in Prince Chun's Mansion is not enough.
But I didn't expect that when King You led his men to purge the court, my father would be here.
Just when he was worried that his father would be swept up in public opinion, he suddenly learned that the death of the crown prince was actually planned by the King of Han and the King of You.
In a flash, the offense and defense changed.
The King of Han and the King of You were demoted to commoners on the spot, and the people who followed him in causing trouble were also captured by the imperial guards.
Things turned around so quickly and the twist was so big that even he needed some time to accept it.
After coming to his senses, he immediately looked at Li Xuanjing and asked, "You knew about this a long time ago, right?"
Li Xuanjing nodded.
Prince Chun was angry and said, "Why didn't you tell me when you knew this? You made me worry for nothing. Do you know how worried I was?"
Li Xuanjing patted his shoulder gently and said, "This matter involves a lot of people. Telling Your Highness in advance may not be a good thing. The Dali Temple still has a lot of things to do. I will go there first. After I finish dealing with those things, I will explain to Your Highness..."
Prince Chun could only wave his hand and said, "Go, go..."
After arresting so many people, the Dali Temple does have a lot of things to do. It is foreseeable that he will be so busy in the next few days that he won't even be able to go home...
After Li Xuanjing left, he walked over to Li Nuo and asked, "Do you know what happened in the Donggong case?"
Li Nuo nodded.
He investigated and followed up the case throughout, so he naturally knew the whole story.
The Great Xia Dynasty is one of the five most powerful dynasties in the continent today.
Becoming the emperor of Daxia not only means having supreme power, but also supreme strength. Who wouldn't want to sit on that position?
But since the East Palace had an owner, it was impossible for the King of Han and the King of You to lay their hands on that position.
So they joined forces with Lin Fuzhi, the Junior Secretary of the Eastern Palace, who was in charge of all the affairs of the Eastern Palace at that time, and bribed some officials around the prince and the female officials in the inner palace through various means such as coercion and inducement.
These people are of low rank, but they are all able to have close contact with the prince.
For example, Gu Wenhan, the proofreader in the Sijing Bureau, was responsible for organizing and proofreading the books and classics that the prince had to read every day.
Zheng Tianxing, a clerk in the Neizhi Bureau, has only one duty, which is to grind ink for the prince.
Wu Zongguang, the chef, He Dong, the pharmacist, and Xu Zhi, the palace manager, had direct access to the prince's daily food and clothing.
And those female officials in the inner palace usually need to serve the prince and the concubines closely, and they have contact with the prince almost every day.
Xie Xiaoyu, the former head gardener of the inner palace who was secretly captured by the Mingjing Division, revealed that Lin Fuzhi, the junior secretary of the Eastern Palace's Zhanshi Mansion, asked her to apply a kind of medicinal powder on the flower arrangements in the rooms of the concubines in the inner palace.
She was the gardener of the inner palace, in charge of the inner palace gardens. One of her duties was to pick the freshest flowers every day, make flower arrangements, and place them in the rooms of the concubines in the inner palace.
This powder is non-toxic, colorless and odorless, and normal people will not have any obvious reaction when they come into contact with it.
But the prince himself suffered from lung disease, and frequent contact with this powder would cause his condition to worsen, and even the imperial physician could not find out the cause.
What's more, the imperial physician of the Prince's Mansion at that time was also bribed by them in some way.
Although Gu Wenhan, Wu Zongguang, and several other female officials in the inner palace were dead and there was no way to verify their identities, it was not difficult to guess that they did the same thing as Xie Xiaoyu.
These people are closely related to the prince's daily life and can do all this without anyone knowing.
Murdering the prince in this way was a very long process, and for this reason, no one had any doubts and thought that the prince died of lung disease.
In fact, the prince really died of lung disease.
But if it weren't for them, the prince's lung disease might not have been life-threatening.
Jingzhao Yin Lin Fuzhi was involved in this matter, and the King of Han was in the same boat with him, so he could not be innocent.
As for King You, Li Nuo was just guessing and had no direct evidence.
Judging from the circled names, Zhao He, the head of the Ministry of Rites, must have discovered this and wanted to inform King You, but he lost his life as a result.
Therefore, Li Nuo dared to assert that King You must have had a hand in what happened back then.
Li Nuo didn't know why Lin Fuzhi, who was the Junior Secretary of the Eastern Palace and held a high position at a young age, betrayed the prince and defected to the King of Han. He also didn't know how they convinced so many people to murder the prince. But he had to admit that their plan was perfect.
For a full ten years, no one noticed anything.
Even though several cases that Li Nuo had investigated before were closely related to this case, he did not think of this aspect.
It was not until he entered the Honglu Temple and happened to attend Wu Zongguang's funeral that he finally discovered some clues with the reminder of the law code...
It must be said that they are very good at planning accidental deaths.
If there were no code, Li Nuo would never have been able to detect the slightest abnormality.
This may be the case of doing more and making more mistakes.
This matter itself was a matter of exterminating the entire clan. Even if they were not killed, they dared not reveal any information. They were eager to kill them and silence them, but more and more loopholes appeared, leading to a situation where they lost everything...
After learning about the whole incident, Prince Chun sighed deeply and said, "For the sake of a throne, brothers are killing each other. It is really a sin..."
After receiving the imperial edict, officials from the Censorate of the Ministry of Justice hurried over.
However, by the time they arrived, things were already over.
After hearing what happened from Li Nuo, everyone couldn't believe their ears.
The death of the crown prince was actually planned by the King of Han and the King of You?
Before they could recover from their shock, they heard Prince Chun's sigh.
They looked at Prince Chun with an indescribable look.
Prince Chun is the prince with the least background among all the princes. He has no powerful maternal family, no support from court officials, and no support from aristocratic families. Yet, it was he who reached his current position.
The King of Han and the King of You, fighting for the throne, were so intense that they even murdered the crown prince. For more than ten years, they had been fighting tooth and nail in the court.
Even if Your Majesty does not kill them, the two of them will never have a chance of becoming emperor.
The one who wants the throne the most will be eliminated first.
Prince Chun, who always smiles and never takes the initiative to fight for anything, inexplicably becomes the eldest prince and the first in line to the throne of Daxia.
Maybe this is what it means that fools have good fortune.
Prince Chun finally realized the existence of these people and asked, "What are you doing here?"
People from the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate came to arrest the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court under the orders of the two prime ministers.
The last wave of people who arrested the Dali Temple Chief have already entered the Dali Temple.
The Chief Censor waved his hand and said, "Nothing, I was just passing by and just wanted to take a look..."
at this time.
Dali Temple.
Inside a spacious and clean cell.
The King of Han and the King of You were stripped of their crowns and imprisoned in the same cell. They both sat on the edge of the bed, both silent.
They thought that today's plan to purge the imperial court might fail.
But I never thought that I would fail in this way.
It was a complete failure with no chance of recovery.
The cell was opened from the outside, and a figure slowly walked in. King You looked at Li Xuanjing with sharp eyes and asked, "All of this was planned by you, Li Xuanjing, you are so vicious!"
Since Li Xuanjing already has evidence of the Eastern Palace case, as long as he reports it to his father, the two of them will have no chance of clearing the court.
With the intelligence capabilities of the Mirror Bureau, it was impossible for him not to know about their actions these days.
He deliberately left them alone in order to catch all those who responded today.
Behind Li Xuanjing, a figure walked in slowly.
When the King of Han and the King of You saw that figure, a trace of fear subconsciously flashed across their faces.
But after a moment, King You's face returned to normal. Now that things had come to this, he had nothing to fear.
Emperor Xia looked at the two of them and squeezed out a few words from between his teeth: "You two rebellious sons!"
King You pulled the corner of his mouth, smiled sarcastically, and said: "Why does the emperor have to criticize us? Isn't everything we do what the emperor taught us?"
Emperor Xia was furious, and an invisible aura locked onto King You, and he shouted, "Rebellious son, what did you say?"
King You turned extremely pale. Under this tremendous pressure, he forced himself to sit up straight and asked, "Isn't it true that those uncles were also eliminated one by one by father, so that it was your turn to sit on the throne? I am just imitating what father did, but you succeeded and we failed. The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit, that's all..."
As soon as he finished speaking, King You suddenly floated in the air, holding his throat tightly, his face turning from white to blue, and from blue to purple.
Just when he thought he was going to die, he suddenly fell heavily to the ground. However, he no longer cared about the pain in his body and breathed in big gulps of fresh air like a fish out of water.
Emperor Xia glanced at the two of them and asked, "Who else was involved in what happened back then?"
King You was temporarily speechless. King Han was silent for a moment and said, "All those who participated in the incident have been dealt with by me. Only Ding Fang, the head of the inner palace, is left alive..."
Emperor Xia continued to ask, "Whose idea was it to murder the crown prince?"
King You coughed a few times and said, "It's me."
Emperor Xia continued to ask: "How did you do it?"
Seeing that King You was having difficulty speaking, the King of Han took the initiative to say, "Someone gave King You a kind of medicine powder that can make the prince's lung disease gradually worse. I bribed some low-level officials in the East Palace and asked them to apply the medicine powder on the objects that the prince often touches and mix it into his food soup..."
Emperor Xia looked at King You and asked, "Where is the person who gave you the powder?"
King You lowered his head and said, "It has been dealt with secretly."
…
After a moment, Emperor Xia walked out of the cell.
Li Xuanjing followed him out and asked, "Your Majesty, how do you deal with the King of Han and the King of You?"
Emperor Xia heaved a long sigh and said, "Lock it up for now..."
"Then the others..."
"I don't want to talk about this anymore. You can do whatever you want."
Emperor Xia waved his hand, and his body gradually faded away and disappeared.
Li Xuanjing walked back to the cell. King You leaned weakly on the chair and asked, "How did you find out?"
Li Xuanjing said: "With so many officials from the Eastern Palace dead, it's hard not to be suspicious."
King You looked at King Han and said, "You are just being too clever..."
A look of regret also appeared on the King of Han's face, but he said nothing.
Li Xuanjing sat on another chair and asked, "There are still some details about the East Palace case that year. I would like to ask the two princes."
The King of Han leaned back in his chair and said, "Ask."
Li Xuanjing looked at the King of Han and asked, "How did your Highness persuade Lin Fuzhi, who was then the Junior Secretary of the Eastern Palace, to participate in the plan to murder the Crown Prince? His position in the Eastern Palace was not low, so why did he betray the Crown Prince?"
The King of Han remained silent.
Li Xuanjing said: "At this time, Your Highness should stop trying to protect Jingzhao Yin. Xie Xiaoyu has explained everything to Your Majesty, and he cannot escape responsibility."
The King of Han sighed and said, "It was all my fault that he was killed..."
He was silent again for a moment, and then said, "I have threatened him with the lives of his wife and children, so he has no choice but to help me."
Li Xuanjing took a pen and wrote down a few words, then asked, "Where are the other officials in the East Palace?"
The King of Han said: "There are too many officials in the East Palace. If they follow the Crown Prince, they may not have a good future. I can promise them more. Moreover, I threaten them with their families, so they dare not disobey..."
Li Xuanjing thought for a moment and said, "It seems that Your Highness is very good at using coercion and inducement to win over people's hearts. If any one of those dozen people had informed the Crown Prince, you would have failed ten years ago..."
The King of Han sighed again.
At that time, he easily bribed those people and successfully murdered the prince. At that time, he thought that he, like his father, was destined to succeed.
Now it seems that it might just be luck.
At this time, an official from the Dali Temple hurried into the cell and said, "Sir, this is bad. Jingzhao Yin Lin Fuzhi has committed suicide!"
Upon hearing this, the King of Han stood up suddenly and said in a lost voice: "What, what did you say!"
A moment later, a group of officials from the Dali Temple walked into another cell.
Jingzhao Yin was a third-rank official and an important figure in the Eastern Palace case. His cell was different from those of others.
The walls of the cell were covered with thick soft cloth, and there were no beams or anything like that. The legs of the table had been polished and no sharp objects could be found, because they were worried that he would commit suicide in prison.
At this moment, Jingzhao Yin was leaning against the corner of the cell, with a trace of black blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.
After the Dali Temple official checked, he walked over to Li Xuanjing and said, "Sir, he committed suicide by taking poison. He hid the poison sac in his mouth in advance. He must have known that he would die, so he committed suicide to avoid torture..."
In the cell on the other side, the King of Han shouted, "Let me out, let me out!"
Li Xuanjing walked to the door of his cell, looked behind him, and said, "Open the door."
As soon as the prison door was opened, the King of Han rushed out, but he did not escape. Instead, he rushed into another cell. Soon, his extremely sad voice was heard from inside the cell: "Fuzhi, it was me who harmed you..."
An official from the Dali Temple looked at Li Xuanjing and asked, "Sir, what should we do with the body of Jingzhao Yin?"
Li Xuanjing glanced back and said, "Let's tell His Majesty first."
A moment later, he arrived at the underground death cell.
A figure imprisoned in the cell stood up suddenly when he saw him, grabbed the bars of the cell, and said, "We don't know that the King of Han and the King of You are plotting to murder the prince. Let us go!"
If Wang Yue had known that the King of Han and the King of You would be involved in a conspiracy, he would definitely not have chosen them.
However, he was not worried in his heart.
The Wang family has nothing to do with this case, and his status is extraordinary, so the Daxia court will not do anything to him.
Li Xuanjing looked at him and said calmly, "Don't quibble. The King of Han and the King of You have already confessed that the Wang family was also involved in the conspiracy. Otherwise, why would they summon several masters today and come to silence me so anxiously?"
Wang Yue was stunned on the spot. After a moment, he pointed at Li Xuanjing through the fence and said, "Don't slander me. I don't know about this matter. I didn't know them at all ten years ago. You are slandering me. I want to see His Majesty. Let me see His Majesty!"
Li Xuanjing shook his head and said, "His Majesty is too busy to see you. If you want to explain, go and find the Crown Prince. Maybe the Crown Prince will believe you..."
Wang Yue didn't react for a moment.
The prince has been dead for ten years. How can he explain to the prince?
Li Xuanjing glanced at the officials behind him and said, "Wang Yue participated in the murder of the crown prince, which is extremely treasonous and he deserves death. He must be executed immediately without any mistakes..."
"Li Xuanjing, you..."
Not only was Wang Yue's cultivation sealed, but even his mouth was sealed. He looked at Li Xuanjing with anger and fear, and struggled while being forcibly taken away.
Inside the cell, the other masters also looked at him with horror.
Although Wang Yue is not the eldest son of the Wang family, he is the one with the highest martial arts talent of this generation in the Wang family.
The Wang family had high hopes for his advancement to the sixth realm.
He even dared to kill Wang Yue!
When Li Xuanjing looked at them, the five of them trembled at the same time. They threw themselves on the ground without caring about the Grandmaster's face and said in a trembling voice, "We don't know anything. Spare us!"
(End of this chapter)
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