Xu Yixing smiled lightly. Although she didn't want Lu Anyuan to get involved in the position of crown prince, looking at the current situation, it was only a matter of time!
Within two days, on the morning of September 18, the prince's palace received an imperial decree from the palace, ordering Prince Xiaoyi to go to the northern border to comfort the troops on behalf of the emperor and to set off on September 25.
Xu Yixing frowned slightly and asked Lu Anyuan, who was about to pack his luggage, "Why the Northern Border? I thought you were asked to return to your fiefdom to comfort the soldiers in the Southern Border."
"Ever since the surrender of the Song Kingdom, southern Xinjiang has been peaceful. There have been some frictions in recent years, but no wars. Unlike the troops in the northern border, they have fought several tough battles in succession and have made outstanding military achievements. How could they ignore those who have made great contributions and instead go to a peaceful place?"
Lu Anyuan was answering her questions as he dug out the armor and sword Yixing had worn a few years ago from the bottom of the box. Suddenly, he touched something and stopped, "Madam, your sword has faded."
"Ah?" Xu Yixing hurried forward and looked at the sword he brought from home. As expected, due to long-term lack of maintenance, several pieces of vermilion on the scabbard had fallen off, leaving it mottled and extremely ugly.
"Forget it, it's been stuffed in this box for several years and it's about to break. I have let this sword down after all." Yixing touched the discolored area with great distress, and with a stroke of his finger, he brought down more paint chips.
"This..." Lu Anyuan also saw the peeling paint flakes. He stepped forward to take a closer look. Suddenly, his expression became serious: "All of you go out. I'll come back to clean it up later."
Although he didn't know why he had driven the servant away, Xu Yixing still hurried over to the windowsill to check with him. "Is there something wrong?"
Lu Anyuan thought about it, took out a small dagger from his arms, and gently scraped the sword with the back of the knife. After a while, a sword with completely different color and pattern appeared in his hand.
Xu Yixing could tell as soon as he started scraping that the vermilion paint was only attached to the outside, and the black inside was the color of the sword itself. It was just that not much paint had fallen off just now, so she didn't notice it.
"Has this sword been repainted?" Xu Yixing took the scabbard from him. Lu Anyuan was carefully observing the sword at this time without saying a word.
The exposed black scabbard not only fails to bring a sense of calmness compared to the vermilion one, but instead adds murderous intent and majesty. What's going on?
Lu Anyuan touched and looked at the sword body, and finally picked it up and slashed it with his dagger. The small dagger immediately returned to the west, which surprised Xu Yixing.
"Haha." Lu Anyuan laughed bitterly and finally put down the sword: "Madam, where did you get this sword?"
"I stole it from my house. I told you before, it's from my armory. I saw it had a thick back and a thin blade, so I took it."
"Alas!" Lu Anyuan sighed deeply, as if relieved, but also helpless. "Yixing, this is the Emperor's Sword, the founding emperor of Daxia. Rumor has it that the late emperor lost this treasure, which my father had searched for many times in vain."
"Emperor's Sword?" Xu Yixing took a moment to remember where this treasure came from. "How can you be sure? You've never seen it before, and how could it possibly be in my house?"
"The blueprints for the Emperor's Sword are hidden in the palace. Father showed it to my eldest brother before he left for the war against the Kingdom of Song. He suspected it had wandered into that area, and it's no secret. It looks like this. Actually, I was curious when I saw the sword's murderous intent, but I didn't have the chance to ask about it then. Now that I've looked at it carefully, I can't be wrong.
As for the whereabouts of the Emperor's Sword, it was all hearsay, and it's hard to tell whether it's true or not. Even after the Song Kingdom surrendered, they still haven't found the Emperor's Sword, so that proves the rumor is wrong."
Xu Yixing fell silent, calculating in his mind the probability that the Emperor's Sword, the only one in the world, would appear in his own armory and he would be able to hit the target with just one casual pick.
Seeing her silent, Lu Anyuan thought for a while and came up with a more reasonable explanation: "The Emperor's Sword was lost during the war of the previous emperor. The previous emperor conquered Miaozhou, and your Xu family was guarding Miaozhou in the early years. I think it might have been lost at that time. Then it was picked up by your ancestors by chance. Perhaps they didn't know and arbitrarily changed its color, and then it was passed down to your father."
"Thank you." Lu Anyuan's explanation was extremely biased. He cleared his family of all blame and even cleared his name from the crime of exterminating nine generations of his family. It was really hard for him.
"If they really didn't know, why would they think of changing its color and appearance? And even picked it up? Whether it's stolen, robbed, bought, or found, privately hoarding national treasures is a capital crime. My ancestors were really brave..."
Lu Anyuan smiled awkwardly. Now that the Emperor's Sword had reappeared in the world, he certainly couldn't pretend to be ignorant. He naturally had to make up a story about its origin.
"But to be honest, the 'fact' you guessed should be correct, but my father should not know about it." Xu Yixing was not trying to excuse his father. If his father really knew that this was the Emperor's Sword, he would not have kept it in the armory so openly, nor would he have ignored it after it was lost.
What's more, my father had seen it in the outer palace before, but he didn't react at all at that time.
Lu Anyuan thought for a moment and nodded, agreeing with her. "Oh, this is troublesome. You can't expect your father to wake up and find the Emperor Sword waving at him from his bedside, right?"
Xu Yixing was amused, but soon her thoughts uncontrollably wandered to another situation: Lu Anyuan wouldn't think that with the Emperor's Sword in his hand, he was the destined one to challenge the throne, right?
"Ahem! I think keeping this sword will eventually lead to disaster. I'm lucky it hasn't been discovered in the past few years. Now that we know about it, it should naturally be returned to its rightful owner. Find a way to present it to the emperor, and don't involve our family."
Without taking the Xu family, naturally, neither the merits nor the sins will be taken away. This is the best way.
"Of course. If I don't find a legitimate source, your family will be implicated sooner or later. I won't do that." After Lu Anyuan finished speaking, he looked back and forth at the sword many times. Xu Yixing felt that he was staring at the sword as if he was staring at the throne, his eyes full of calculations and schemes.
"Well, this matter needs to be done as soon as possible. It would not be a good thing if we were discovered." Xu Yixing was frightened by that look and added, she really didn't want Lu Anyuan to be bewitched by the so-called Emperor's Sword and do the same thing as the Second Prince did. That would be too bad.
"As soon as possible?" Lu Anyuan seemed to have finally had enough of the sword and lowered his hand. "Why are you so anxious about this matter? In fact, there is a logical opportunity to return the Emperor's Sword to my father right now. How could my extremely intelligent wife be blinded by this and not see it?"
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