Daqian Night Emperor

Chapter 302 He is the uncrowned king of the East China Sea!
"Boss, I'm glad to have accomplished your mission."

After Gou Xiangxi returned to the princess's mansion from Qin's mansion, he quickly found Zhao Qi'an to report.

After Zhao Qi'an listened quietly to the details of his meeting with Qin Tianguan today, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart that Gou Xiangxi was indeed useful.

If someone else went to the Qin Mansion today, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to take the initiative in the conversation and would be controlled by Qin Desheng. After all, this time he had a request for Qin Tianguan.

But when it came to Gou Xiangxi, he took the initiative and firmly controlled the topic, explaining the pros and cons, making Qin Desheng the one who "asked for a mentor".

In the end, the conditions promised to Qin Tianguan were only the lowest.

Gou Xiangxi said with some worry: "Boss, I took the initiative to tell Qin Tianguan that Dean An would take up an official post next year. Will this have any impact?"

Zhao Qi'an shook his head and said calmly, "It's okay. Dean An has the intention to be rehabilitated, and even Emperor Tianwu knows this. And he is now in charge of the market for my Zhao's Company, which is also known to everyone in Jingdu City. Let Qin Desheng know about it."

"But the Second Prince doesn't know that what we want to do is not to check and balance Prime Minister Wu, but to overthrow him. If Qin Tianguan tells the Second Prince about this..."

Zhao Qi'an glanced at him and asked, "For Qin Desheng, is it better for Wu Yong to be the left prime minister, or for Dean An to be the left prime minister?"

This is a very simple truth.

Gou Xiangxi chuckled, knowing everything in his heart.

After the two chatted for a while, Gou Xiangxi asked, "When are you going to leave for Jingzhou?"

"There's no rush for this." Zhao Qi'an said, "The soonest we can do that is after the eldest prince is crowned king."

Guanxiang and Nishang are still in Jingzhou, so he can seize the initiative no matter what, so he is not in a hurry.

His biggest purpose in staying in Kyoto was to see the attitude of the eldest prince Ji Wuchang.

Ji Wuchang has made extraordinary martial arts achievements this time and voluntarily gave up the fight for the position of crown prince. If he is willing to stand on the side of any prince, it will probably bring about a drastic change to the situation.

He couldn't stay in Kyoto for too long and would probably leave after being crowned king. After all, the army had already assembled in the southern border of Liangzhou and was waiting for Ji Wuchang to return before launching a general attack on the Southern Buddhist Kingdom.

During this period of time, both the Second Prince and the Third Prince would try their best to win the support of the First Prince.

It is estimated that Prime Minister Wu and the Third Prince will wait until they are crowned kings before sending people to Jingzhou.

The matter of conferring the title of king has been put on the table, and now the Ministry of Rites has confirmed the eldest prince's title, which is "King of Pingnan", but the fiefdom has not yet been determined, but it is estimated that it will not take a few days.

Gou Xiangxi asked, "Should the Dong family send someone to contact the eldest prince?"

Zhao Qi'an shook his head and said, "No need, the eldest prince will have Prime Minister Wu to fight for him."

Right now, the most watched person in the entire Kyoto city is the eldest prince. Now that he has to act behind Prime Minister Wu's back, it is naturally difficult for him to contact the eldest prince.

Gou Xiangxi nodded and said, "Then the Dong family might as well contact the Fourth Prince."

"Ji Qingkong?"

"That's right. The fourth prince's maternal grandfather was the governor of Dongyang County in Jingzhou. He has intelligence about the collusion between officials in Jingzhou and the Salvation Church. He is now under the protection of the Patrol of Heaven. It is estimated that he will be escorted back to Kyoto City in a few days."

Is that Lu Huaishen, the prefect of Dongyang County?

Actually, Zhao Qi'an also has to call this person "grandfather".

He pondered for a moment and asked, "What has Ji Qingkong been doing these days?"

He was really confused. Logically speaking, Ji Qingkong would make some fun every few days, and he had become a constant topic of conversation in Kyoto City.

But before the longevity banquet even started, Ji Qingkong had already fallen silent.

Originally, Zhao Qi'an promised to prepare a birthday gift for Ruan Yu's longevity banquet because of the incident in which Ruan Yu was harmed. But in the end, he seemed to have forgotten about it and did not come to pick it up. In the end, he only presented a painting of his own as a birthday gift at the banquet.

Gou Xiangxi's expression became a little strange, and he replied: "The Fourth Prince did nothing. He just stayed in the palace these days, and he has never been seen going out."

Zhao Qinan was stunned: "Is there any time when he is honest?"

Gou Xiangxi replied: "Perhaps he is afraid of the eldest prince. I heard that the fourth prince was severely punished by the eldest prince. Now that the eldest prince is still in the capital, it is possible that he is hiding with his tail between his legs."

Zhao Qi'an was speechless for a moment.

I don’t know what Ji Wuchang did to cause Ji Qingkong to have such a huge psychological trauma that he doesn’t even dare to come out and make trouble.

He thought for a moment and said, "In that case, I will go to the palace tomorrow to meet him."

No matter what, the information in Lu Huaishen's hand is still very valuable. If he can get it, it will be a good achievement. So going to meet Ji Qingkong is not a big deal.

……

On the other side, the Daqian Palace.

Inside the Taihe Palace, in the main hall.

Ji Qingkong knelt on the ground, covering his chest with his hands. His face was red, veins bulged, and a beast-like growl came from his throat.

"Uh ah ah..."

In front of him, from the shrine covered with red cloth, the sound of chanting could be heard faintly.

"No seeing, no thinking, no speech, no hearing - this is called no delusion."

"When the seven sufferings are extinguished and the seven emotions are forgotten, this is called non-delusion."

"At the beginning of time, the pure and the turbid mixed together, and this was the beginning of nothingness..."

Amid the deep and powerful chanting, Ji Qingkong slowly got up, knelt down, put his hands together, and murmured, "No sight, no thought, no speech, no hearing..."

"The seven sufferings are all destroyed, the seven emotions are all gone..."

He repeated the chanting sounded from under the shrine over and over again, and the two voices gradually overlapped.

He raised his clasped hands, placed them between his eyebrows, closed his eyes, and leaned back.

After a long time, his body relaxed, he put down his hands, slowly opened his eyes, and the pain on his face was gone.

Ji Qingkong lowered his head, unbuttoned his clothes, and exposed his chest.

His abdominal cavity was dark and smelled of decay.

"The Five Directions Talisman is not the real five internal organs after all. My body has begun to rot. If this continues, sooner or later someone will find out."

Ji Qingkong clenched his teeth, looking very embarrassed.

In order to protect the holy fetus in the second princess's belly, he sacrificed his five internal organs and refined a Five Gods Pill.

To this end, he even sacrificed his shadow servant who had been practicing for many years, forcibly took out the five divine talismans, replaced his five internal organs, and extended his life by half a year.

However, this was his first time using the Five-Directions Divine Talisman to extend his life. He never thought that even though this talisman could change his fate and extend his life by half a year, it could not stop the decay of his body.

Now, a faint corpse odor is lingering over his body, and after a while, corpse spots will begin to appear on the surface of his body. By that time, any discerning person will be able to tell that something is wrong with him.

Not to mention, this is the imperial palace, and there are many masters of the palace here.

"Why hasn't Grandpa come to Beijing yet?"

Ji Qingkong bit his fingers, and a look of anxiety appeared on his pale face.

Now that his shadow servant has been destroyed, he can no longer contact his grandfather who is far away in Jingzhou. He can only hope that his grandfather can come to Beijing as soon as possible so that he can find a way to cover up his physical abnormality.

Just as Ji Qingkong was sitting in the hall feeling anxious, footsteps were heard outside the hall door.

"who?"

Ji Qingkong stood up immediately upon hearing the voice and looked towards the palace door.

There was no one else in the Taihe Palace except some palace maids who were under his control.

And those palace maids would not come to the main hall without permission, so it must be an outsider who broke in!

He looked back and saw a eunuch standing at the entrance of the palace. He frowned immediately and said, "I remember you are a eunuch from Tianxin Palace. What are you doing here?"

The eunuch bowed and presented a letter with both hands, saying respectfully, "Fourth Prince, Third Prince sent a servant to bring you an invitation."

"Third brother sent me an invitation?"

Ji Qingkong's expression suddenly turned strange after hearing this, and he waved his hand impatiently and said, "Take it back, take it back. Just say I don't have time to go over there."

How can he face people in this horrible state now?
What's more, at this critical moment, it may not be a good thing for the third brother to meet him.

The eunuch was not angry. He put the invitation on the ground and said respectfully, "My prince said that it is up to the Third Prince to go or not. But I will leave the invitation here for you. I will take my leave."

Ji Qingkong watched the eunuch leave and his eyes quickly fell on the invitation on the ground.

He wanted to ignore it, but after thinking for a moment, he picked it up and took a casual glance at it after unfolding it. The invitation only said that he was invited to a banquet somewhere outside the city, but did not say the reason, which was very vague.

Ji Qingkong sneered and was about to throw the invitation aside.

But at this moment, he noticed a pattern on the invitation and couldn't help but exclaimed. He took the invitation in front of him and looked at it closely.

"hiss……"

After seeing clearly what the pattern was, Ji Qingkong was shocked and couldn't help but let out a soft hiss.

There was only a small pattern embroidered at the end of the invitation.

That is a lotus.

White lotus.

……

In a house in the north of Kyoto's outer city.

This house has been built for some time, but it is vacant most of the year. Only a deaf-mute old servant lives here, helping to clean the front and back of the house to prevent the house from being abandoned.

This is not surprising in the north of the city. The land price here is cheap, and many wealthy merchants from other places will buy a house in the north of the city. Most of the time, it is vacant. They will only live here when they come to Kyoto City for business for a few months. Most of the neighbors around also think that the owner of this house is also a merchant from other places.

But today, the house is brightly lit, and there are people patrolling in the courtyard, all of them are martial arts experts.

There was a fire lit in the hall.

A young man was sitting by the stove. It was July, a hot day, but he was wearing a thick fox fur coat. He put his hands on the fire and kept rubbing his palms, as if he was very cold.

"Your Highness, Qin Desheng is not here."

Zhou Xuanyi was wearing tight clothes, revealing his muscular arms, and saluted towards the young man.

The young man raised his head at this time, and it was the third prince Ji Yunrui.

Ji Yunrui was not annoyed, and said with a smile: "It seems that Qin Desheng is well-informed. He has already known about the events in the Western Desert and chose to protect himself."

"They say monkeys scatter when the tree falls. Even now, I haven't done anything, but I'm afraid many people are avoiding me like tigers and wolves."

"Ah Si, according to your opinion, what should I do?"

He turned his head and asked the person next to him.

The person sitting next to Ji Yunrui was none other than the Fourth Prince Ji Qingkong!

Ji Qingkong finally came to the appointment.

At this moment, he was sitting by the stove, sweating profusely. He kept raising his sleeves to wipe it. Suddenly, Ji Yunrui pointed his finger at him, and he looked up in surprise.

He was filled with a strong scent of women's makeup, but it still couldn't hide the disgusting stench. At this moment, everyone around him had frowned and silently moved away from him.

Ji Yunrui seemed to be unaware of this. Seeing his surprised expression, he kindly reminded him, "Fourth brother, you don't know yet, right? Now that I have broken off relations with Old Master Zhou, I have ordered my son Xinghe to seize a lot of military power in the Western Desert Army. From now on, the Zhou family will be my mortal enemy!"

what? !

Ji Qingkong widened his eyes and suddenly looked up at Ji Yunrui.

He could hardly imagine that Ji Yunrui would tell him such explosive news so casually.

But the question is...why should I tell him this?
He was a man who could shamelessly call his second brother "Uncle" in front of all the officials. Who in Kyoto didn't know that he was a die-hard fan of the Second Prince?

Ji Qingkong laughed dryly a few times: "Why are you telling me this, Third Brother? I don't understand."

Ji Yunrui coughed a few times, covered his mouth with an embroidered handkerchief, and after catching his breath, he said, "Now that I have lost my backer, if I want to continue competing with my second brother for the crown prince, what do you think I should do?"

Ji Qingkong: "..."

He didn't answer, but his expression turned slightly grim.

Ji Yunrui smiled and looked at Ji Qingkong with a sidelong glance: "Of course, it is to make Second Brother lose his backing. This is fair, what do you think?"

Ji Qingkong said sternly: "You want Wu Xiang to give up my second brother? This is impossible."

"Of course it's impossible. Not only is there a blood relationship between the grandfather and the grandson, but also in the eyes of Prime Minister Wu, Ji Haoyu is incompetent and cowardly. There is no one more suitable as a puppet than him." Ji Yunrui paused for a moment and continued, "So what I have to do is to bring down Prime Minister Wu."

Ji Qingkong's expression suddenly changed.

But the next moment, he returned to his usual carefree attitude, speaking in a lazy tone and lacking interest: "What does this have to do with me? You want to fight for the crown prince, I won't fight with you."

Ji Yunrui smiled slightly, took the hot wine pot off the stove, poured a cup into the cup, and handed it to Ji Qingkong: "Drunken Immortal Wine, there is some left in the harem after the Wanshou Banquet, I asked my father for it."

Ji Qingkong took the wine glass, frowned slightly, but finally drank it.

Now that he has lost his five internal organs, he is unable to eat. If he wants to eat, his stomach must be cut open to take out the food. The pain is unimaginable for ordinary people.

But now, he could only drink the wine in the glass. However, this fine wine that others coveted was like a torture to him. After drinking it, his abdomen felt like it was on fire.

But Ji Qingkong's expression remained unchanged. After drinking a glass, his eyes lit up: "This wine is good, but it's a pity that my brother-in-law is so stingy. I asked him for it several times, but he refused to give it to me."

Ji Yunrui didn't drink, but just looked at Ji Qingkong meaningfully, his eyes falling on his abdominal cavity.

But in the end, he just lowered his eyes quietly and said, "I heard that my second brother's sister-in-law is pregnant, but she was attacked by an assassin a few days ago and had a miscarriage. It was all thanks to the elixir that my fourth brother offered that the fetus was saved."

Ji Qingkong was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "So what?"

"I heard that Fourth Brother stole the Immortal Pill that Guan Zhenguo presented to Your Majesty?"

"What? Are you going to report me?"

Ji Qingkong showed a bit of disdain on his face, as if he was a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water.

Ji Yunrui said calmly: "My second brother had a son when he was old, and he only has this one heir. If he loses this child, there will be no more descendants. You have not only saved his son, but also preserved his qualification to compete for the crown prince. This is a great favor."

He paused for a moment, but then changed the subject: "But he knew that you stole the elixir, but afterwards he openly publicized your contribution in saving his son. This time, can't you see that he is repaying kindness with enmity?"

Ji Qingkong was silent. He could see that his second brother praised him afterwards and seemed to be full of gratitude, but in fact he was putting him in danger.

If the pill he presented was truly an elixir of immortality, his father would have already known about it by now. In the end, the one who would benefit from it would be Ji Haoyu's unborn son, while he would be the one who would be punished.

It has to be said that Ji Haoyu's action was indeed unkind.

Not to mention that this matter was proposed by Queen Wu. Since he did so, he completely ignored Ji Qingkong's kindness and regarded Ji Qingkong as a useless person who was not worth abandoning.

But what right does Ji Qingkong have to blame Ji Haoyu for his actions?
He knew very well what the emperor's sister-in-law was pregnant with.

Because of this, Ji Qingkong was not affected at all, and said shamelessly: "I am not interested in knowing."

But Ji Yunrui's next words made him tense up instantly.

Ji Yunrui said confidently, "That's not the Immortal Pill."

He looked at Ji Qingkong, whose expression had changed, and said with a smile: "If you knew what the Yuhua Immortal Pill was, you wouldn't use this as an excuse. Guan Zhenguo tried to refine this pill, but he failed because this is not Lingyuan. How can you refine the Great Pill of the Divine Dao with only the pill formula?"

"You are the Red Lotus Saint, and your grandfather is the best at blood sacrifice and elixir making. Didn't he teach you that this Immortal Pill is also called the 'God Ascension Pill'?"

Ji Qingkong stood up suddenly and stared at Ji Yunrui in fear.

Ji Yunrui looked up at him with a calm expression.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the entire hall seemed to freeze.

Until Ji Yunrui spoke again: "Do you want to know who killed your sister?"

"Yes……"

"I heard that it was An Shoudao who did it."

Ji Yunrui's tone suddenly became more serious: "But the person who gave the order behind the scenes must be your brother-in-law Zhao Qi'an!"

"Impossible! How could Zhao Qian'an harm my sister? He was just..." Ji Qingkong immediately denied it.

Ji Yunrui's face turned serious and he shouted, "But what? He is the real helmsman of the Zhao family. Even the Duke of Donghai, Zhao Wanjin, is just a target he uses in public!"

"He is a martial arts genius who entered the realm of heaven at the age of eleven! He is a business genius who has expanded his business to the nine states of Daqian! He is an amazing general who conquered the six kingdoms of the East China Sea in just three years!"

He turned his head to look at Ji Qingkong, his eyes burning, and said word by word:

"He is the uncrowned king of the East China Sea!"

(End of this chapter)