The stolen magic is a bit magical

"By imperial decree!" The official in charge of receiving the order replied.

"By order of the clan!" The Grand Master of the Clan received the decree.

The deposition and establishment of a crown prince is no ordinary matter; it requires not only an imperial edict but also a decree from the imperial clan.

Because this is not only a matter of state, but also a matter of religious significance.

However, neither the laws of the state nor the laws of the royal family could tolerate a rebellion against the emperor and father.

The ministers below, led by the prime minister, should have been the ones to oppose the decree to depose the crown prince and argue their case. However, the prime minister had already been defeated by the previous two pieces of news and dared not step forward when he was in trouble himself.
Upon receiving the imperial decree, His Majesty held the imperial seal, his hand trembling slightly.

To outsiders, this was a king's inner struggle. He personally deposed the crown prince and ended his son's path, so of course he was struggling.

No one could have imagined that His Majesty was filled with fear at that moment.

Because once the imperial seal is affixed, it will prove one thing: whether the solution of "cause and effect error" is effective or not.

If it works, everything is under control.

If it doesn't work, everything will be out of control.

He couldn't control the imperial seal, which is why he needed the crown prince to oversee the country.

If the crown prince is deposed, the imperial seal will still be out of control, and the Hong family's empire will likely be in jeopardy.

At that point, the question won't be whether he, as emperor, can remain secure, but rather whether his entire lineage can even continue to exist.

This matter concerns the vast land and the very survival of the royal family; the imperial seal in his hand is as heavy as Mount Tai!
Finally, he took a deep breath and covered it up!
Open the bow without turning back the arrow!

With the imperial seal affixed, the edict deposing the crown prince officially took effect.

Suddenly, His Majesty trembled violently. He felt as if a gentle stream had been injected into his body, and his long-empty body had regained its vitality.

In the past, he spent his days in a daze.

It was nearing dawn, and he had been feeling very tired, but now, all the weariness had vanished.

Golden light gathered above the imperial edict, and the light of the imperial seal grew stronger and stronger. Suddenly, with a loud boom, the imperial edict soared into the sky and reached the heavens.

It transformed into a giant golden dragon.

The golden dragon spat out an imperial edict, beneath which the imperial seal shone with boundless brilliance…

"By the grace of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Crown Prince Hongding is without sovereign or father, lawless and unruly, and unfit for the position of Crown Prince. He is hereby stripped of his title as Crown Prince and imprisoned in the Cold Prison of the Heavenly Prison!"

The capital was in uproar!

On the western hill, the crown prince was terrified, staring blankly at the imperial edict in the sky...

"Why...why? Father, why is this happening?" he cried out.

The golden light of the imperial road behind him was suddenly stolen, and the Crown Prince's seal shattered with a crack.

With a whoosh, a figure leaped onto the cliff—Lin Xiaosu!
He appeared before the Crown Prince: "You don't know why? Let me tell you! Your plot to assassinate the emperor has been exposed, and that is the goal I sought to achieve during my inspection today!"

"Li Chengnian!" the Crown Prince gritted his teeth. "I assure you, the entire Xihe Li clan will pay the highest price because of you!"

“Hong Ding, don’t forget one thing: you are no longer the Crown Prince! Right now, you are nothing but a piece of trash!” Lin Xiaosu said.

This public insult left none of the Crown Prince's officials daring to refute him.

Everyone was completely bewildered.

A majestic voice rang out from the airship: "By order of His Majesty, arrest Hong Ding and imprison him in the Heavenly Prison! Arrest all members of the Heart Pavilion and bring all documents back to the Ministry of Justice!"

"Yes!"

Boom! Three thousand imperial guards charged in, flooding into every part of the Heart Pavilion.

Lin Xiaosu raised his eyes and met the gaze of a person on the flying boat. It was the Seventh Prince. Throughout the entire process, he had not uttered a word and was purely a spectator. The spectacular show had passed, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a brand new sky.

"Your Highness, are you relieved now?" Lin Xiaosu smiled slightly.

The seventh prince reached out and grabbed his shoulder: "Look at the sky!"

Above the sky, there were two bright lights. One was the golden light of the imperial edict that had not yet dissipated, and the other, rising from the top of Yuping Mountain, was the light of the newly risen sun.

"Which side does Your Highness wish me to look at?"

"Look at both sides! Father's imperial seal has regained its affinity, and... it's dawn!" The Seventh Prince's voice was complex and meaningful.

The imperial edict soared into the sky—a phenomenon unseen in the past three years. Previously, no one had noticed it, but today, the Seventh Prince felt it deeply. This soaring edict was proof that his father had regained the power of the imperial seal and was also a sign of his father's good health.

This single layer of evidence, in turn, confirms Lin Xiaosu's startling conclusion: her father was not ill, but had fallen into a trap—a trap designed to wipe out his family through a karmic fallacy.

Moreover, he also thwarted this treacherous plot by taking down the crown prince, stripping him of his power, and restoring the "power" that the crown prince had taken from him.

Father will gradually get better.

They succeeded!
It's dawn!

Lin Xiaosu looked toward the top of West Mountain: "It is indeed bright here, but I wonder if the sky has collapsed in a certain Buddhist hall of Tunyun Temple."

The Seventh Prince's heart skipped a beat: "You want to take down Xuan Kong?"

Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly: "Your Highness is probably unaware of cause and effect. The law of cause and effect has a backlash. The backlash that day destroyed this master's cultivation. Today, he is suffering an even stronger backlash. I hope he will not perish here!"

"Shall we go take a look?" the Seventh Prince asked.

"go!"

The two stepped off the ground and went up the mountain. Li Gen, the captain of the royal guards, followed them with dozens of high-ranking guards until they arrived at the ancient and weathered Tunyun Temple.

Just as I approached the temple gate, a bell rang out, followed by another.

The seven tolls of the bell were heard throughout the entire temple.

The sound of Buddhist chants filled the air, brimming with compassion.

A knock was made at the temple gate, and a young novice monk came out.

"The temple bell has rung seven times. What has happened in the temple?" The young novice clasped his hands together and said, "Amitabha. The abbot has passed away and gone to the Western Paradise. The temple will not receive any visitors today. Please forgive us."

They hastily closed the door, sealing it off.

Lin Xiaosu and the Seventh Prince looked at each other in bewilderment...

"Lord Li is absolutely right. The evil monk has truly suffered the consequences!" The Seventh Prince sighed softly.

"It seems so!"

The Seventh Prince slowly raised his gaze: "The path of cause and effect is so perilous, I am very uneasy."

"Uneasy?" Lin Xiaosu asked.

The Seventh Prince said, "Lord Li's actions tonight have also disrupted the natural order. If this leads to... how can I live with myself?"

Lin Xiaosu looked into his eyes, and those eyes were very sincere at that moment.

Lin Xiaosu smiled: "Don't worry! I won't suffer any karmic repercussions."

"Why can't you do it?" The Seventh Prince's eyes shone brightly.

"Because what I did tonight was not to disrupt cause and effect, but to set things right and follow the correct path of Heaven."

The law of cause and effect is the most mysterious law in all the heavens, without exception.

Its mystery lies in the fact that it is a method of observing the heavens. People can only observe the causal relationship of the heavens, but cannot change it.

But those who change will surely be punished by Heaven.

Ordinary people have no way to do this, but there are three exceptions: the first is the Buddhist and Taoist method of mending the sky, the second is the demonic method of deceiving the heavens, and the third is the method of getting to the root of the problem.

Master Xuan Kong took the first route.

Buddhist and Taoist methods for mending the sky.

How to fix it?
One can make up for it with one's own Buddhist practice.

That day, he misused the concept of "cause and effect" to murder a monarch, a crime of extreme severity. Even though he forcibly attempted to mend the heavens using Buddhist and Taoist methods, his entire cultivation was still wiped out. Today, cause and effect have returned to the right path, and he is being punished once again.

That's why he died.

But Lin Xiaosu is different.

He merely dispelled the misuse of causal techniques by others; his essence was to rectify the source, just like the Mad Dao of that day, using "Hairy Man Killing" to bring back to the Heavenly Dao what the Heavenly Dao had overlooked.

Therefore, he did not defy the laws of nature, he did not tamper with the causal compass, he simply rectified the source, and thus he would not suffer any backlash.

Having clarified this point, the Seventh Prince let out a long sigh of relief: "This is the best outcome! Lord Li, how about we go down the mountain?"

"it is good!"

The Seventh Prince's carriage arrived, drawn by a dragon horse. Dragon-drawn carriages can ascend to the heavens and travel directly through the air. However, the Seventh Prince never flaunted his wealth and instead traveled steadily on the ground, descending from the Western Hills.

Inside the carriage, Lin Xiaosu and the Seventh Prince sat facing each other.

Suddenly, the Seventh Prince chuckled softly: "Your deputy has come along. What should we do with her?"

Lin Xiaosu had noticed long ago that Qingying was completely bewildered throughout the entire process. He understood her bewilderment; anyone in her shoes would probably be bewildered.

Yesterday, when she and Lin Xiaosu went down the mountain to keep their appointment with the Seventh Prince, she was still the deputy envoy of Xin Pavilion, and Lin Xiaosu was still the executor.

Last night, her immediate superior suddenly became a fifth-rank inspector, leading three thousand imperial guards to wipe out Xin Pavilion.

Xin Ge is completely gone.

What will become of her?
The Imperial Guards didn't arrest her out of respect for Lin Xiaosu.

But she still has no goal.

"Let's leave her for now!" Lin Xiaosu said. "There's no need to arrest her. Over the years, she's basically been my personal follower. Everything she does is arranged by me."

"Regarding the operation, Father has already said it's all up to you! You can decide her fate yourself!" The Seventh Prince said mysteriously with a smile, "Father has a gift for you at the city gate!"

"A gift? What kind of gift?"

"You'll know as soon as you see it!"

With increased speed, the dragon horse sped away at breakneck speed.

In the blink of an eye, we arrived at the city gate.

At the city gate, two servants in yellow robes, carrying trays, greeted Lin Xiaosu with a smile and said, "His Majesty said that since Lord Li is an official in the capital, he should not be allowed to wander in the capital. Therefore, he is presented with the first seat in the mansion."

A house as a gift?
Lin Xiaosu felt a deep sense of感慨 (gan3kai3, a complex emotion encompassing both admiration and reflection), realizing that this was one of the advantages of a feudal dynasty.

Appointing an official is a matter of a single word.

In Beijing, giving away a house is just a matter of a word.

In his society, everything had to follow procedures; here, the procedure was simply the emperor's word.

"Your humble servant thanks Your Majesty for your great favor!" Lin Xiaosu bowed respectfully to the north.

"At Lord Li's residence, all servants and attendants have been provided, and all supplies are specially provided by the Imperial Household Department. After His Highness announces the bestowal of titles and rewards, Lord Li may return home with His Highness."

Both of them were startled by these words.

Lin Xiaosu was surprised: why did they say they would go home with His Highness?
Could it be that this house, which was bestowed as a reward, is located in the same area as the Prince of Dingbei's residence?
The Seventh Prince was also surprised: "I also receive a reward?"

The old man in yellow stepped forward: "His Majesty's decree, Seventh Prince Hong Yun receives the decree!"

The Seventh Prince stood with his hands at his sides: "Your subject accepts the decree!"

"Your Majesty decrees! The Seventh Prince, Duke Hongyun, is loyal to the country, acts appropriately, and understands my intentions well. He is permitted to enter and leave the palace at any time to pay respects to his birth mother!"

The Seventh Prince was utterly shaken, his face turning completely pale with shock and disarray. (End of Chapter)