The person Xu Jinhuan was thinking of was currently consuming the Heavenly Dao power within Lei Tingjun.
Although Zhou Ziheng knew that Lei Tingjun's power would gradually dissipate after six months, he couldn't wait any longer. He wanted to deal with Lei Tingjun as soon as possible and then go find Jin Huan.
When Zhou Ziheng discovered that the Wu family intended to expose the affair between the Crown Prince and Consort Rou, he guessed that they wanted to force the Crown Prince to hastily rebel. So he went along with it and helped them out.
He then took the opportunity to have his people in the court recommend Lei Tingjun as the commander-in-chief to suppress the rebels. Since he couldn't touch Lei Tingjun, there were naturally people who could take action against him.
As expected, Wu Daoyi and a group of officials recommended the fourth prince, and thus both princes were assigned positions by the emperor.
Zhou Ziheng originally intended to use the Fourth Prince's sword to weaken Lei Tingjun's strength, but unexpectedly, news of the Fourth Prince's death came not long after the two armies clashed.
According to reports from scouts, the arrow was originally intended to hit Lei Tingjun, but for some reason it suddenly changed direction and pierced the Fourth Prince's breastplate.
The fourth prince not only wore armor made of fine iron, but also gold silk armor that Wu Daoyi had specially bought from martial arts practitioners. It was said that the gold silk armor was waterproof, fireproof, and impervious to swords and spears.
The fourth prince himself had great confidence in the golden silk armor, so although he was knocked back a few steps by the force of the arrow, he was not worried about being injured.
But the unexpected still happened.
He happened to retreat to Lei Tingjun's vicinity, where Lei Tingjun was fighting a poison expert whom the Crown Prince had recruited at a high price.
Seeing that he couldn't defeat Lei Tingjun, the man threw out his own specially made poison powder.
The Crown Prince has said that anyone who manages to kill the Fourth Prince and the Fifth Prince during this chaotic battle will be rewarded with ten thousand taels of gold. He's determined to get that money!
But just as the poison powder was spreading, a gust of wind suddenly blew by, scattering it all onto the face of the Fourth Prince, who was standing not far away…
And so, despite all the precautions he took, he forgot to wear a mask, and the unlucky fourth prince ended his miserable life.
Zhou Ziheng wasn't very surprised. Having investigated Lei Tingjun for so long, he already knew very well how quickly Lei Tingjun's misfortune could transfer.
“It seems we can speed things up…” Zhou Ziheng murmured, tapping the table lightly.
After learning the cause of his son's death from the assassins, Wu Daoyi hated Lei Tingjun to the core. Unfortunately, Lei Tingjun's strange constitution caused all the assassins he sent out to fail.
But Wu Daoyi was not one to give up easily. He quickly contacted Rou Pin in the rebel army and told her about Lei Tingjun and her family's past framing.
Thanks to Consort Rou's influence, the rebels doubled the bounty on Lei Tingjun. With such a generous reward, there were bound to be brave men, so every time they fought, Lei Tingjun was always surrounded by a dense swarm of rebel soldiers.
Even though Lei Tingjun possessed the power of the Heavenly Dao, he couldn't withstand such intense exertion. Soon, the number of wounds on his body increased, but none of them were fatal.
This already surprised Zhou Ziheng greatly. At this rate of consumption, Lei Tingjun would surely die at his hands within half a month.
Therefore, after the death of the fourth prince, the old emperor not only had to quell the crown prince's rebellion but also deal with internal strife in the court. His already poor health quickly showed signs of fatigue.
He hastily left behind the words, "Let the Sixth Prince oversee the country, with Prime Minister Wu assisting him," and then fainted.
This one sentence turned the sixth prince, who had previously been detached from the court, into a highly sought-after figure among the officials.
Lei Tingjun, of course, would not allow anyone to touch his things, so he fought against the rebels while also battling the sixth prince.
Lei Tingjun thought that dealing with the incompetent Sixth Prince would be easy, but little did he expect that the Sixth Prince seemed to have a master behind him. Every time he came up with a move, that person would quickly counter it.
This made it increasingly difficult for him to multitask, and he suffered more and more injuries on the battlefield, while his strength was being depleted at an extremely rapid pace.
"Sir, thank you for helping me. Otherwise, I would definitely not be able to defeat Fifth Brother. Is there anything you want, sir? Just tell me and I will definitely satisfy you."
After the sixth prince finished speaking, he respectfully bowed to Zhou Ziheng.
After taking a sip of tea, Zhou Ziheng said in a gentle tone, "Sixth Prince, you flatter me. I'm only helping you because I don't want our big plans to be controlled by evil people. I don't ask for anything else."
That's what he said, but what he really thought was, of course he didn't ask for anything else. He was just lending her this position for a while. Once Jin Huan came back, he would clear away all obstacles and help her take the position.
However, the Sixth Prince was unaware of Zhou Ziheng's thoughts at that moment. He simply believed that he had truly encountered a scholar indifferent to fame and fortune from the book, and a hint of satisfaction flashed in his eyes.
It's good to be indifferent to fame and fortune. I only hope that after I ascend the throne, this person won't forget his original aspirations and that I can still give him an official position. Otherwise...
Zhou Ziheng naturally saw the scheming in the Sixth Prince's eyes. He lowered his eyes to hide his expression, no wonder the Sixth Prince's older brothers didn't include him in their games.
Given their qualifications, if it weren't for the fact that some of them were either rebels, dead, or eunuchs, the old emperor probably wouldn't have wanted the sixth prince to oversee the country.
"Sir, what should we do next? Should we continue targeting Lei Tingjun? But the imperial physician said he's already a eunuch, so why do we have to kill him?" the foolish sixth prince asked.
Zhou Ziheng chuckled and said, "Sixth Prince, have you heard about what happened before the Fourth Prince died?"
The sixth prince was taken aback. Wasn't this about Lei Tingjun? How did it bring up his dead fourth brother again?
But since he still needed this advisor, he couldn't act like a prince and obediently replied.
"I only heard that Fourth Brother was poisoned by the Crown Prince, bah, by the rebel leader."
Zhou Ziheng glanced at the Sixth Prince speechlessly. This guy really hadn't developed any power over the years; all the information he had was just hearsay.
"I heard that the arrows that were shot at the Fifth Prince on the battlefield suddenly turned and hit the Fourth Prince for some reason, and the poison master who threw the poison powder originally targeted the Fifth Prince."
Zhou Ziheng paused here, then continued to guide the conversation: "If these stories were embellished and passed down among the common people, and then spread by word of mouth, wouldn't you say Lei Tingjun was a true Son of Heaven?"
Although the Sixth Prince was somewhat dim-witted, Zhou Ziheng explained it so clearly that he couldn't possibly misunderstand, so he asked anxiously.
"Sir, what should we do? Could it be that fate is really on Lei Tingjun's side?"
Zhou Ziheng smiled and shook his head. "Don't panic. Right now, the one who wants Lei Tingjun dead the most is not us, but Prime Minister Wu. Sixth Prince, you just need to follow Prime Minister Wu and push things along."
Thus, the Sixth Prince and Wu Daoyi briefly joined forces to deal with Lei Tingjun, much to Lei Tingjun's annoyance.
The power within him was fading more and more.
"It'll be soon..." Zhou Ziheng murmured, gazing northwards.
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