News of Mi Shan's disappearance quickly reached Dai Viet.
Upon learning of this, Xie Ling immediately sent people to investigate.
At this moment, he had a premonition that Li Shengyuan might not be dead yet.
Meanwhile, Mi Shan had already been taken to the secret passage of the palace by Li Shengyuan and Li Huaiyan.
Even the most meticulous plans can have flaws.
Everyone assumed that Li Shengyuan was dead and there was no need to worry about him anymore.
After Xie Ling returned to the capital, he was busy dealing with state affairs and did not destroy the secret passage for the time being.
This gave Li Shengyuan an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
He is now charred black and unrecognizable, making it inconvenient for him to appear in public.
Li Huaiyan then rallied his soldiers to attack the palace.
They forced Xie Ling to abdicate.
They called him a traitorous minister and a spy from the State of Qi.
Upon hearing this, Feng Miao turned against Xie Ling and joined forces with the Sixth Prince to deal with him.
Prince Rui did not believe it and went to question Xie Ling in person, only to receive a simple "I'm sorry" in return.
Upon hearing of the great changes in the Yue Kingdom while at the border, Li Xuanche spurred his horse and hurried back.
By the time he arrived, the infighting within the palace was already quite intense.
The soldiers are about to break through the city gate.
At the same time, he learned that the Empress had died and that it was Li Shengyuan who ordered her execution. Li Xuanche was devastated.
Chaos began to frequently occur in the imperial harem.
Originally, when the late Emperor Li Shengyuan passed away, the concubines who had no children were all to be buried with him.
However, after Mi Shan became Empress Dowager, she asked Xie Ling to issue an order abolishing this regulation.
But nowadays, every night, concubines disappear or die mysteriously.
Unbeknownst to anyone, all these concubines were captured by Li Shengyuan, who was lurking in the underground palace, and fed to the Demon Cauldron.
Mi Shan witnessed him throw Murong Wan inside, where countless black wisps rose up, transforming into ferocious creatures that tore her to shreds.
This is probably retribution for her cruelty towards animals.
The more evil deeds one commits, the stronger the black energy that rises after being thrown into the demonic dragon, and the greater the energy it can provide to Li Shengyuan.
Li Shengyuan took a deep breath and began to calculate who would be next.
Mi Shan never imagined that even though she had changed the fate of the concubines to be buried alive with the emperor, she still couldn't save these lives.
While some of them deserved to die, the majority were innocent victims...
"Why are you looking at me like that? I've already made up my mind. Next, I'll capture Consort Ru. They were originally going to be buried with me anyway, but now they can continue to serve me in a different way. Isn't that a good thing?"
He walked over with a cold smile, grabbed Mi Shan's chin, his eyes no longer filled with love, only with hatred for betrayal.
"You and your mother plotted against me, but I loved her so much and couldn't forget her. And you, I have never treated you badly. After you entered the palace, you rose through the ranks. Wasn't that all the honor I gave you?"
You, however, have been ungrateful and conspired with Xie Ling to kill me.
"If you weren't still useful to me, I would have thrown you into this demonic abyss long ago!"
Mi Shan bit her lip and remained silent, her eyes filled with stubborn coldness.
She knew that Li Shengyuan had discovered the secret of the Gu worms.
Sure enough, he then began to torture Mi Shan, first breaking one of her hands.
The pain from the fracture also caused Xie Ling to feel pain.
He kept calling out to the Gu worms in his mind, asking about Mi Shan's whereabouts, but he received no response.
It wasn't until Jialuo Lou arrived and met up with him that they deduced that Mi Shan might be in the underground passage, because she was a Gu Master and had arranged for many bats when she built this underground palace.
The bats would sever the telepathic connection between him and Mi Shan.
No matter where Mi Shan is in the vast world, Xie Ling could find her anywhere. Only at the very bottom of this underground palace would she lose contact with the Gu worms.
And so it was.
Galo Lou and he devised a plan.
Let her go down and search for Mi Shan.
Xie Ling continued to deal with the Sixth Prince's offensive. The Sixth Prince was highly skilled in martial arts due to his practice of evil arts, and with the help of Feng Miao, Xie Ling was already at a disadvantage as she was fighting alone and her arm was injured.
At the crucial moment, it was Prince Rui who stepped forward.
What surprised him even more was that Li Xuanche also appeared with his troops.
"you……"
At the city gate, Xie Ling stood in the cold wind, his face reddened by the flames of war. Looking at the two brothers who had suddenly appeared beside him, a ripple appeared on his usually calm face.
"Don't be too touched, Second Brother. I said I would always follow you. I'm just fulfilling my promise."
He gripped his sword with one hand and patted his chest. "Don't worry, my kung fu is terrible. I've been faking it all along. Last time you and Mi Shan were in the Buddhist cave, I took care of all those Imperial Guards by myself."
"As for your identity, whether you are my brother or not, does it matter? Our feelings are real, and that's enough."
"Furthermore, as far as I know, all of Father Emperor's biological children were killed by the deposed empress. Of the princes who are still alive, only my eldest brother is his biological son; the others..."
Prince Rui stopped talking.
Xie Ling and Li Xuanche naturally understood as well.
Li Xuanche frowned: "Where did you find out?"
"My mother told me."
"The Virtuous Consort of Pudu Temple".
"Yes, in her early years, she worked for the Empress and knew that the Empress would not tolerate the birth of any of Li Shengyuan's biological children. Therefore, I, my fourth brother, and my fifth sister are all other men's children. My mother was also with someone else... well, anyway, she felt guilty and chose to go to a temple to practice Buddhism after giving birth to me, no longer caring about the troubles in the harem."
"Back then, I was thinking, why couldn't everyone be the emperor's biological son? Why were you two, my eldest and second brothers, the only ones who could? Now, I finally understand why. It turns out that you, my second brother, are just like me—a counterfeit product."
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