When they heard that Zhong Wen was going to the palace to treat the emperor's illness, Li Yan and Shu Shu's expressions changed at the same time.
Having seen the miraculous effects of the "Life and Creation Pill", they knew that Li Jiuye's awakening was a foregone conclusion.
However, Lord Jiu, who had always been inseparable from Li Jiuye, did not show much joy. Instead, he frowned with a strange look on his face.
"Sister Nangong, I want to accompany the princess sister into the palace." Zhong Wen said to Nangong Ling, "These three injured spiritual masters will not pose any threat for a while. The remaining wine masters are Sister Qinglian and Venerable Feng Xi are here, and they won't be able to make any waves, so I'll leave you to worry about this matter."
"You can just go and leave the rest to us." Nangong Ling nodded and suddenly said inexplicably, "It's just that... His Majesty the Emperor, I'm afraid he may not need your treatment."
"What?" Zhong Wen asked curiously.
"It's nothing." Nangong Ling shook his head and said with a slight smile, "Go ahead. Maybe I guessed wrong."
Seeing that she didn't want to say more and didn't insist, Zhong Wen made a "coo" sound in his mouth.
The bald eagle heard the sound and fluttered its wings, then stopped in front of him very docilely.
"Princess sister, come up." Zhong Wen patted the eagle on the back, turned to Li Yiru and smiled slightly, "Let you experience the feeling of flying at high altitude."
"Can I...?"
Li Yiru looked at the huge and mighty bald eagle, a little curious and a little scared, with a look of hesitation on his pretty face.
"Despite its ferocious appearance, it is actually very docile." Zhong Wen laughed and stroked the feathers on the bald eagle's neck, "It won't bite."
The bald eagle felt very comfortable when he stroked its neck. It couldn't help but squint its eyes and its whole body trembled slightly, like a kitten or puppy having its belly kneaded. It looked extremely comfortable.
Seeing the cuteness of the bald eagle, Li Yiru finally stopped hesitating and slowly approached the bald eagle. Under Zhong Wen's guidance, he turned over and jumped on the back of the eagle, firmly grabbing a bunch of feathers on the neck of the eagle.
"Gugu!" Zhong Wen commanded again.
The bald eagle held its head high, flapped its wings suddenly, and jumped into the sky with a "swish". It quickly hid in the clouds and could no longer be seen clearly.
"Beauties, I'm going, don't miss me too much!" Zhong Wen smiled and waved to Thirteenth Niang, Shangguan Mingyue and others, then kicked off his feet and jumped into the sky, chasing the bald eagle. And go.
Shangguan Mingyue, Shisanniang and Hualu watched Zhong Wen's figure turn into a dot in the sky, gradually drifting away, and finally disappeared without a trace. It was as if they were watching an unparalleled hero with colorful auspicious clouds at their feet, and they had different thoughts for a moment. , no one spoke.
Prince Li Yan was still kneeling on the ground. He felt that his knees were in extreme pain like needles. He wanted to stand up, but he didn't dare. He immediately fell into a very embarrassing situation.
"Sir Shu." Nangong Ling ignored Li Yan, but turned to look at Shu Shu, the Minister of War, who was standing aside, seemingly forgotten by Zhong Wen, and asked a strange sentence, "Who are you loyal to? Who?"
…
"Is this what it feels like to fly in the sky?" Li Yiru clung to the bald eagle's back, feeling the strong wind blowing from both sides and the rapidly retreating clouds. Excitement was written on her slightly pale pink cheeks.
"Are you afraid?" Zhong Wen walked in the air on the right side of the bald eagle, seemingly walking leisurely, but his speed was as fast as that of the raptor.
"I was a little scared at first, but now I feel very comfortable." Li Yiru replied calmly, "I always feel that if I fly like this, I can forget all the unhappy things."
"What's unhappy about sister Princess?" Zhong Wen chuckled, "Tell it to make me happy?"
"How can there be people like you?" Li Yiru couldn't help laughing, and said with a puff of a smile, "Does your happiness have to be based on the unhappiness of others?"
"Isn't it?" Zhong Wen laughed and said, "Most people in the world are like this. They are living a miserable life, but if they see others living a worse life than me, they suddenly feel that they are actually pretty good."
"No way, I won't be happy if the people around me look sad all day long." Li Yiru shook his head and expressed disapproval, "I hope everyone can live happily, and I will also be happy."
Zhong Wen stared at Li Yiru's gentle and delicate face for a long time, and then said: "It is really rare that the royal family can cultivate such a character as a princess sister."
"Being born into an emperor's family, do you have to become like the eldest brother?" Li Yiru recalled what Li Yan had done before, and couldn't help but darken her face, and said in frustration, "Is the throne really so good? Is it worth it? In exchange for family affection?"
"The throne is a good thing." Zhong Wen shrugged and replied, "When you become the emperor, you become the most powerful person in the entire empire. Everyone has to listen to you. Isn't it a great thing? "
Li Yiru blinked her big, beautiful eyes with a look of confusion on her face, completely unable to understand the pleasure of being an emperor.
Zhong Wen was about to say something else when he suddenly looked at the palace that had appeared in front of him, with a look of disbelief on his face.
"We're here, let's go down." After a moment of silence, he suddenly said.
The bald eagle was extremely fast, and the journey was not far away. The destination soon appeared below the two of them.
Li Yiru glanced at Zhong Wen slightly surprised, wondering how he knew the location of the emperor's palace.
"Princess sister." Zhong Wen turned to look at Li Yiru and said softly, "Just wait here for a moment. I'll be back soon."
Li Yiru had a look of confusion on his face. Before he could say "I'll go with you" out of his mouth, he saw Zhong Wen's figure flash and disappear without a trace.
There were sounds of footsteps behind her, and when she turned around, she met Shu Yun's surprised eyes.
…
With Zhong Wen's current cultivation level, he can already enter and exit the palace freely. With the "Breathe Condensation Technique" deployed, even the Spirit Master may not be able to find him.
In just a few breaths, he appeared in Li Jiuye's palace.
Without hesitation, he opened the door in front of him, and what he saw was a golden screen with exquisite workmanship and gorgeous patterns.
Going around the screen, two standing figures appeared in front of them.
Zhong Wen recognized at a glance that the person on the left wearing golden clothes was none other than Emperor Li Jiuye of Daqian.
Standing next to the emperor was an old man with white hair and a red face.
Feeling that the old man looked familiar, Zhong Wen searched carefully in his mind for a moment and recalled that this person was Dr. Sun, whom he had met once in Prince Wu's Mansion.
"You came."
As if he had already expected Zhong Wen to come, Li Jiuye spoke slowly, as if he had been waiting for a long time.
"Li...Your Majesty, aren't you sick?"
Zhong Wen had already sensed Li Jiuye's aura, but when he saw him, he was still a little confused.
"Are you here to treat me?" A trace of uneasiness flashed in Li Jiuye's eyes.
"yes."
Of course, he would not directly say that he came to the imperial capital mainly to save Thirteen Niangs, and that he was just there to treat Li Jiuye.
"You are interested." Li Jiuye said gently.
"Have you recovered?" Zhong Wen stared into his eyes and asked word by word, "Or have you never been sick at all?"
Li Jiuye remained silent and did not answer.
Countless images flashed through Zhong Wen's mind. At this moment, he felt like he was enlightened and suddenly realized something.
"No wonder Sister Nangong told me that maybe His Majesty doesn't need my treatment." Zhong Wen murmured, "It's no wonder that Senior Jiu and Commander Xuanyuan already knew what the Crown Prince had done before they arrived at the East Palace."
"Sure enough, you can't hide it from that girl of the Nangong family?" Li Jiuye showed a look of approval on his face, "Among all the people I have met, in terms of wisdom, no one can match him. She’s not even worthy of carrying her shoes.”
"Is your Majesty doing this to trick the prince into making mistakes so that he can find an excuse to establish another heir apparent?" Zhong Wen had an unpleasant feeling brewing in his heart.
"Although I am dissatisfied with the prince, I am not so bored." Li Jiuye shook his head, "The source of this matter is still with Nangong girl."
"Oh?" Zhong Wen was stunned.
"After the rebellion in the imperial capital, I had a meeting with that girl." Li Jiuye seemed to have opened up a chatterbox and said, "At that time, she reminded me to pay attention to Shu Shu."
"I know that Nangong girl has always been very witty. Since she said these words, it must be groundless, so she placed an informant around Shu Shu."
"As expected, after I led the troops to the expedition, Shu Shu had close contacts with the prince, and even used his authority to obtain a lot of benefits for the prince." Li Jiuye continued talking by himself, regardless of whether Zhong Wen was there or not. Listening.
"It didn't matter that the minister chose to take sides. Although it was a bit premature, it didn't make me too angry." Li Jiuye continued, "However, the development of the matter was far beyond my expectation."
"The prince's temperament needs to be polished. I deliberately asked the third child to supervise the country, just to give him a wake-up call and let him reflect on himself."
"As a result, he thought that he, the crown prince, was going to be replaced. In panic, he actually sent someone to kidnap Mr. Sun's grandson and coerced Mr. Sun to poison me."
"It seems that Mr. Sun is loyal to His Majesty and has not surrendered." Zhong Wen glanced at Imperial Doctor Sun and said meaningfully.
"This is what makes me most dissatisfied with the prince." Li Jiuye's next words sent a chill in Zhong Wen's heart, "As a future emperor, you can be cruel and ruthless, but you must know how to grasp human nature. "
"With the third son's character, even if I want to pass the throne to him, he may not be willing to take it. The prince doesn't even understand his brother's character. This is one of the reasons."
"It goes without saying that Imperial Physician Sun is loyal to me. What's even more ridiculous is that he doesn't know that Mr. Sun has three grandsons, and that Sun Heng, who was kidnapped by him, is the one least loved by Mr. Sun. This is the second reason. .”
"Shu Shu's character has always liked to play both sides. He never takes the initiative to take sides and is as slippery as a loach. But after I showed my preference for the third child, he took the initiative to seek refuge with the prince. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that he has ulterior motives. But the prince naively thought it was due to his own prestige, and this is the third reason."
"How can I trust him with his failure to understand human nature and reality over and over again?" Li Jiuye's eyes were full of disappointment.
"So your Majesty just took advantage of the situation and pretended to be ill, allowing the prince to continue making mistakes?" Zhong Wen asked calmly.
"Yes, I want to see how far my prince will go if we let it go. After all, deposing and establishing a prince is not a trivial matter. There needs to be sufficient reasons." Li Jiuye sighed and continued, "In addition, for Shu I’m also a little curious about Special’s true purpose.”
"However, until now, I still don't understand why Shu Shu is making trouble like this. However, what the prince did has really opened my eyes."
"Your Majesty, I don't understand the intrigues between these royal fathers and sons, and I'm not very willing to understand." Zhong Wen's voice gradually became colder.
"You don't seem to be happy to see that I'm not sick." Li Jiuye said puzzled.
"Your Majesty, do you remember the agreement between you and me?"
"Are you talking about Thirteen Niangs and Coral?" Li Jiuye suddenly realized, and after being silent for a while, he slowly said, "I am also quite surprised that the prince would operate on them first."
"If I fail to arrive in time, will Your Majesty take action to save Thirteenth Niang and Shangguan father and daughter?" Zhong Wen looked at Li Jiuye coldly, "One of them is your third princess. "
"...I don't want to lie to you." Li Jiuye pondered for a long time before slowly replying, "I will not intervene in what happened in the East Palace today. The prince and the others can continue to do whatever they want until Shu Shu reveals his true purpose. Will wake up."
"Your Majesty violated the agreement between you and me." At this moment, a raging fire was burning in Zhong Wen's heart.
"I can't help you." Li Jiuye said softly, "For the stability and prosperity of Daqian, I must know who the person behind Shu Shu is, and I can't care about so much at the same time."
"Does your Majesty know what happened in the East Palace just now?" Zhong Wen suddenly asked.
"Just before you arrived, I had already received the news." Li Jiuye nodded, with a look of surprise in his eyes that could not be suppressed. "I didn't expect that in just a few dozen days, you would grow to such an extent. I am simply amazed. It’s unimaginable.”
"If you want to find out Shu Shu's true meaning, there are thousands of ways to do it." Zhong Wen's voice was filled with a hint of anger and a hint of sadness, "But His Majesty chose to sacrifice Shangguan and his daughter. I'm afraid it may not be possible." I have no intention of using the prince’s help to seize Shengyu Trading Company.”
Li Jiuye's body trembled slightly and his expression changed slightly.
"As for the agreement between you and me, I'm afraid His Majesty doesn't take it to heart at all." Zhong Wen's voice became louder and louder, "In your eyes, Thirteen Niang and Coral are just two common women from humble backgrounds who sacrificed their lives. It means sacrifice, and even your own daughter is nothing more than a dispensable chess piece."
Li Jiuye seemed to want to open his mouth to deny it, but in the end he remained silent.
"I'm a lazy person, not very interested in power or money." Zhong Wen's voice suddenly calmed down, "The only thing I care about is family and friendship."
"I am willing to give certain compensation to the Shangguan family, the Nangong family and the Thirteen Niangs." Li Jiuye sighed.
"What happened this time made me understand something." Zhong Wen ignored him and just said to himself, "That is, the emperor is ruthless. The things I care about are nothing more than clouds in His Majesty's eyes."
"Zhong Wen..."
"Since Your Majesty does not regard me as a friend, then I will also teach Your Majesty a truth." Zhong Wen suddenly said loudly, "Put aside friendship, in this world, whoever has the biggest fist has the final say!"
As he spoke, an unparalleled aura emanated from him, instantly filling the entire room.
