knife

Chapter 494 Pie in the sky

Standing by the window, gazing at the stunningly beautiful face inside the carriage below, Li Dachui smiled, raised his wine cup, and downed it in one gulp. As the carriage drove away, Li Dachui rested his hands on the window sill, lost in thought.

I learned a lot about Jiang Qian from Xiang Zhuang, and gained a deeper understanding of this shrewd Empress Dowager of the Great Chu.

Clearly, this person who kept pestering him wasn't just doing it because he was Li Dachui; there were other reasons as well.

He closed the window, walked back to the table, and looked at the delicious food on the table. Li Dachui raised a finger, and a blue spark danced on his finger. After a moment, the blue spark turned into a bright, soft light. The two changed in an instant and finally turned into nothingness, disappearing between Li Dachui's fingers.

Being with Jiang Qian truly gave him a very comfortable feeling, and deep down, he felt a faint impulse. Li Dachui was certain that this impulse was not because he was a lecherous man who was lustful at the sight of a beautiful woman, but rather stemmed from some kind of need deep within his heart. The ultimate source of this impulse should be the Qi of Heaven and Earth that he had cultivated.

Jiang Qian cultivates the Phoenix Flame, and has reached the Innate level.

Li Kaixin also practices Phoenix Fire, but why don't I feel the same way about him?
The reason for this is probably that Li Kaixin has not cultivated to the Innate level, so the Phoenix Fire cannot resonate with his own Qi and Kun.
If that's the case, I hope that fat bastard Li Kaixin will never reach the Innate Realm.

Li Dachui burst into laughter.

First, apologize to Li Kaixin in your heart.

If he felt such an impulse towards Jiang Qian, then perhaps the Phoenix Flame cultivated by Jiang Qian also had the same need for his Qi of Heaven and Earth.

Long ago, Zhou Zhi told himself that the Qiankun Qi he cultivated was the super healer of the Heavenly Demon, and now it seems that the Qiankun Qi is also the healer of the Phoenix Fire.

After all, both the Phoenix Flame and the Moonlight Weak Water originated from the unified Qi of Heaven and Earth.

Li Dachui let out a breath, but when the two met, it was uncertain whether Qiankun Yiqi swallowed Phoenix Lihuo or Phoenix Lihuo rebelled and killed the healer.

Never mind all that, let's just go and see.

Although he has now revealed himself to Jiang Qian, Jiang Qian no longer has any secrets from him. More importantly, the Qi of Heaven and Earth that he cultivates is still a secret to Jiang Qian, which can be considered a powerful weapon.

After all, since Qingfeng, the founder of the Demonic Sect, no one has been able to successfully cultivate the Qi of Heaven and Earth.

Over the centuries, the higher-ups of the Demonic Sect even suspected that the "Qiankun Yiqi" was actually a scheme devised by Qingfeng using the Phoenix Fire and the Moon's Weak Water to harm people, and that the people she wanted to harm were most likely the descendants of the Li family.

Originally, Li Dachui only wanted to visit the Demonic Sect's headquarters in Cloud Mist Mountain. Firstly, it was where He Qingqiu grew up, and Ke Wuji had mentioned that the Demonic Sect's headquarters should still have some of He Qingqiu's belongings; it was only right and proper for him to retrieve them. Secondly, Li Dachui was very interested in the Demonic Sect's founder, Qingfeng, especially some things he discovered from the permanently sealed documents hidden deep underground by the Black Ice Platform, which deepened his desire to understand Qingfeng. The Li Dynasty had essentially wiped clean of Qingfeng's past, but a notebook belonging to Emperor Li Qing inadvertently revealed many things that others considered incomprehensible, but to Li Dachui, it was a discovery as powerful as a thunderbolt from the heavens.

The headquarters of the Demonic Cult in Cloud Mist Mountain is where Qingfeng has spent the most time. If she is hiding any great secret, then it should be in Cloud Mist Mountain.

Therefore, even with Jiang Qian, a fierce and beautiful snake, hidden by his side, Li Dachui still wanted to feign compliance and make sure to take a look at the Demonic Sect's headquarters.

And now things seem to have taken another turn.

He had always thought that Jiang Qian had absolute control over the Chu Kingdom, suppressing the Xiong royal family to the point of having no power to resist. Now it seemed that he was wrong. Xiang Ying and the others had retreated back then, not been defeated.

To prevent internal strife in the Great Chu and for its long-term stability, Xiang Ying, Xiong Yi, and others chose to back down, because Jiang Qian was the Empress Dowager, and once the emperor came of age, the power would return to the Xiong family.

But after discovering that Jiang Qian was the Holy Maiden of the Demonic Cult, and after the Emperor's cause of death became a mystery, these old men finally began to extend their hidden claws again.

It's just that because they've been hiding for so long these past few years, many people think they're truly powerless to fight back. So, it's indeed very difficult for them to rise again, and it's understandable that they want to rely on external forces.

He was only dealing with Xiang Ying's forces, but was Xiong Yi, who had served as the prime minister of Chu for decades, really as harmless as he appeared?

Just think of the Wei Zhengdao system of the Qin Dynasty.

They were all rulers of major powers, and even without deliberately cultivating their own power over decades, the things they gradually accumulated were astonishing enough.

Moreover, Xiong Yi is a legitimate member of the royal family. If he knew that his emperor was killed by Jiang Qian, he would surely go crazy.

The former general and the renowned prime minister have joined forces to challenge the current empress dowager!

This was like a windfall for me.

He was already quite satisfied after securing Rong County and Ning County in the eight towns of Jiangnan, settling Ke Wuji and He Yiming of the Canal Gang, and helping He Zudao reclaim Fancheng, which gave He Zudao, who was now united in Xiangyang and Fancheng, more resources to contend with Linghu Ye or the State of Chu.

This trip to the Great Chu was indeed for personal reasons, but things have developed to this point, and it seems that both public and private matters need to be considered.

Li Dachui would be more than happy to throw the State of Chu into chaos.

Now that the Qin state is in chaos and internal strife, while the Chu state is in harmony, how can this be acceptable?

At first, I didn't know where to start, but when I got closer, wow! It wasn't what I imagined at all.

If we could bring Jiang Qian down, that would be fantastic.

From the time Li Dachui was just starting to gain power outside the Great Wall, he was extremely wary of Empress Dowager Jiang Qian of Chu, regarding her as his lifelong rival and the biggest obstacle to his unification of the world. If he could use these old guys to defeat Jiang Qian and let them take over, Li Dachui would think things would be wonderful.

No matter how capable the old folks are, how many more years do they have left to live?

I'll outlast them; I can outlast them all.

Thinking about these things, Li Dachui chuckled again, picked up a pearl dumpling and put it in his mouth, chewing it carefully. It was fragrant, glutinous, and bouncy, truly worthy of being one of the Eight Delicacies. He then swallowed the wine in his cup in one gulp, saying it was a twenty-year-old Daughter's Red wine, and it was indeed wonderful.

(End of this chapter)