Chapter 657 Confrontation, the Truth
The man in black paused and stared at her for a moment.
He slowly raised his hand to lift up his hood, then tore off his black robe and threw it aside. Under the black robe was a bright yellow dragon robe.
He raised his hand and took off the mask on his face, revealing Xiao Tianhong's gloomy face.
"...When did you find out?" Xiao Tianhong wiped the blood from the corner of his lips and spoke in a deep voice.
Yun Qingqing looked at him calmly:
"Your method of shielding the secrets of heaven is indeed very clever. Although I have long suspected that the person behind the scenes is hiding in the palace, I have never been able to confirm that the person is you."
"Fortunately, I have some connections in the underworld, and I finally found some clues."
When Xiao Tianhong heard her mention the underworld, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, but he narrowed his eyes again when he heard the last sentence:
"clue?"
Yun Qingqing uttered three words coldly:
"Miao Yuanshu."
Xiao Tianhong was slightly stunned, with some interest in his eyes:
"Oh? His soul will never enter the underworld after his death. How did you find out?"
"Indeed, his soul disappeared after his death. At that time, I always thought that it was Cang Ming who ordered him to act." Yun Qingqing said, "In the battle at the Xilan border, I confiscated Cang Ming's Yin-calling Banner, but still did not find Miao Yuanshu's soul in it, so I thought his soul had been consumed in the battle."
"However, on New Year's Eve, I rescued a large number of souls that were abducted to the blood sacrifice pool in the territory of Northern Cang. It took some time to register these souls after they were sent back to the underworld, but I unexpectedly discovered that the remnant soul of Miao Yuanshu was also among them."
"That remnant soul has lost its self-awareness, but as long as there is a trace of soul in the underworld, it can trace its life. Guess what I saw in it?"
Yun Qingqing's eyes became colder and colder:
"Before the battle at the Xilan border, Miao Yuanshu received a secret order to obey Cang Ming's orders. This is the truth behind his assassination of Xiao Changheng during the war, and that secret order came from you!"
"At that time, Xiao Changheng was just missing, but the news of the regent's death for his country spread in the Imperial Capital first. Xiao Changheng's subsequent investigation into this matter never yielded any results. That's because the news didn't come from his military camp, but from you!"
Xiao Tianhong was silent for a moment, then chuckled:
"Heh... I see. I only gave Miao Yuanshu a secret order that one time. I didn't expect it to be the only flaw."
"The only one?" Yun Qingqing sneered, "Then you are a little too confident!"
Xiao Tianhong frowned and looked at her coldly without saying anything.
Yun Qingqing clenched the sword in her hand:
"Everything leaves traces. The more things you do in secret, the more clues you will leave. If I hadn't suspected you long ago, I wouldn't have been able to track down Miao Yuanshu's remaining soul."
Xiao Tianhong stared at her quietly, waiting for her next words.
Yun Qingqing spoke slowly:
"More than a decade ago, the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Loyalty and Bravery died suddenly when she was only a few years old. Her spirit had been lingering in the Marquis' mansion until I found her and took her away to settle her."
"I also discovered that she was destined to be rich and long-lived, but her fate was changed by someone else, which led to her premature death. However, I have never been able to find out who that person was..."
"It was not until Xiao Zirui's death that his hidden secrets were revealed. I was finally able to confirm that the fate of the eldest daughter of the Ye family that was replaced was in him!"
The emperor's pupils shrank slightly, and he whispered in disbelief:
"You can even figure out something like this..."
Yun Qingqing ignored his shock and would not reveal the matter of the spiritual pupil to him. She just continued in a cold voice:
"The queen doesn't have that ability, and someone has cast a spell on her that conceals her secrets, but completely abandoned her after she was caught plotting treason. The queen is just a tool."
"More than a decade ago, when Xiao Zirui was destined to die young, it was the critical period for you to ascend the throne. The Chen family, who was backed by the Queen who was still the Crown Princess at the time, was your greatest helper, so her eldest son must not be in danger!"
"So, you thought of taking someone else's fate and giving it to Xiao Zirui!"
Xiao Tianhong's eyes were distant, as if he was reminiscing:
"Oh, that's right. I hadn't ascended the throne yet, but I couldn't afford to make even the slightest mistake..."
He paused and came back to his senses, looking at Yun Qingqing with an increasingly cold gaze:
"Yun Qingqing, you are so annoying. You have ruined my plans time and time again. My biggest miscalculation was that when Chang Heng said he wanted to marry you, I didn't take the initiative and get rid of you directly!"
"Sabotage your plan?" Yun Qingqing sneered, "Your Majesty, are you saying that you took advantage of my absence from the capital to stage a scene in which you lost your soul, so that Xiao Changheng couldn't wait to go and take risks to find the Nine-Colored Magic Ganoderma?"
"Or did you mean to deliberately spread the news of the Queen's sudden death, and then tried to make Commander Yan disappear so as to shift my suspicion to him?"
"Or maybe on the same day you were assassinated by Lan Rui, but you used some tricks to distract Xiao Changheng, causing him to block the knife for you and get injured, and he even thought you were unintentional and wanted to protect you?"
Every time she said this, Xiao Tianhong's face became even gloomier.
Yun Qingqing gripped the hilt of the sword tightly and closed her eyes.
With Xiao Changheng's skills and strength, he not only failed to dodge, but he couldn't even summon the black jade armor. When asked the reason, he was vague. She knew at that time that it must be related to the emperor.
She slowly opened her eyes and said coldly:
"Once you are confirmed to be the one behind this, many things will make sense."
"A few years ago, Xiao Changheng was trapped in a siege after his military secrets were leaked on the battlefield. He was seriously injured and disabled. It was also your doing."
"But his luck far exceeds yours. This alone is not enough, and you cannot suppress him openly, otherwise you will be retaliated by the law of nature."
"So you pretended to be weak and trusted him, creating the appearance that he controlled the court. In fact, you were stirring up hostility from the Queen and the Crown Prince's faction towards him, trying to kill someone with a borrowed knife."
Xiao Tianhong snorted coldly:
"You are right! As long as Daliang has him, the fate of the country will be as solid as a rock. I have long been eager to kill him!"
"It's a pity that I didn't find out early enough, so he had the opportunity to leave the capital and find a master. But it happened that a Xuanmen rescued him from the assassin. I couldn't find his whereabouts for several years, and when he came back, the situation had already changed."
Perhaps it was because the emperor had been disguising himself for too long over the years, that when he said he wanted to kill Xiao Changheng, there was no murderous intent in him, as if he was still the sickly, mediocre, yet loving good emperor brother.
Until he sighed softly, his gaze fell on Yun Qingqing again, and the gloomy coldness gathered in his eyes again.
He took out a jade talisman from his arms, squinted his eyes and looked at it for a moment, then exerted force on his hand, and the jade talisman broke into several pieces with a slight sound, and dropped the fragments on the ground. A beam of spiritual light flew out from the broken jade talisman, went straight to Yun Qingqing, and sank into her brow.
Xiao Tianhong narrowed his eyes:
"So, you sent this amulet under the pretext of Xiao Changheng, but your real purpose was to monitor me..."
"You were able to deceive my eyes and hide your spiritual consciousness inside. That's a good trick."
"but……"
He slowly took two steps back, placed his hand on the huge black stone statue of a strange bird, and suddenly laughed softly.
"Yun Qingqing, even if you know everything, what can you do?"
"Just now, in order to break the Lucky Array, you used such a method of killing one thousand enemies and injuring eight hundred of your own. Are you betting that I don't have a backup plan?"
As Xiao Tianhong spoke, he had already smeared the blood on his hands on the stone statue.
The stone statue suddenly burst out with a powerful force, which made Yun Qingqing's eardrums buzz and her heart tighten suddenly.
A dark mist emerged from the stone statue, winding up along Xiao Tianhong's arm and into his body.
A strong wind suddenly blew up from all sides. The emperor, wearing a bright yellow dragon robe, looked ferocious and laughed loudly towards the sky:
"Unfortunately, you miscalculated this time!"
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