Mountain and River Festival

Chapter 381 Chen Yu: It turns out I'm this crucial
As soon as Lu Xingzhou spoke, Pudu, who was fighting below, exclaimed in alarm: "Oh no! The Manyan Fish-Dragon, this Dragon Emperor is fake!"

With a "bang," "Dragon Phoenix," who was alone and trapped in the formation fighting him, vanished like smoke, leaving only a lingering shadow.

Another dragon, Qinghuang, strolled down from the clouds. With a single step of her jade feet, a thousand miles of clouds stirred.

The imperial guards who were poised to charge down towards the sacred mountain suddenly stopped abruptly outside the sacred mountain formation, turned around, and went back.

This time, it turned into a standoff between Long Qinghuang's Imperial Guards and Long Yun's army. The dragons had no idea what was going on and were all dumbfounded. Before Long Qinghuang could even speak, they all knelt down, filling the sky with cries of "Your Majesty!"

Long Yun and Pu Du in the mountains below were covered in sweat.

Long Qinghuang's accumulated power was immense, and her oppressive force was overwhelming. The moment she made a move, everyone reacted. Pudu didn't even have time to feel the power of that claw before he activated the mountain-protecting formation. Upon receiving the signal, Long Yun assumed that Long Qinghuang had entered the formation and planned to launch a pincer attack.

If it really was that irritable and arrogant female tyrannosaurus, and she attacked without hesitation, then being trapped in the formation and attacked from both sides might actually cause problems. The army, however, was misled, unaware of the details, thinking it was just about executing a male concubine, but they actually attacked the Dragon Emperor, leaving them no choice but to grit their teeth and go all the way, truly rebelling.

During this short period when the dragon warriors have returned, seemingly when the dragons are at their strongest, it is also precisely when the traitors within are at their strongest. As long as Long Qinghuang is dealt with, the demon capital can be conquered in one fell swoop.

But with Long Qinghuang prepared in advance, a simple clone technique was all it took to shatter everything.

The traitor had to operate in secret because he was no match for Long Qinghuang in terms of absolute strength and dared not expose himself. Once exposed, he would be utterly crushed.

Long Lie stared blankly at Lu Xingzhou and asked in a low voice, "So this matter, which originally had nothing to do with you, you deliberately came here, and even deliberately came alone, just to give them an excuse to 'purge the court of corrupt officials'?"

“Yeah, that’s how you get him to come out. He’s so good at hiding things. He’s been trying to frame you all along. You silly dragon, you still don’t understand.” Lu Xingzhou sighed. From the very beginning, Long Qinghuang’s most suspected person was Long Lie. She made him fight Gu Zhanting together and was responsible for restraining Hai Ruyuan. She was just waiting for him to betray her right under her nose. But nothing happened. It was really like the little dragon claws of the mother tyrant couldn’t touch the dragon’s head.

Over there, Long Yun was also kneeling before Long Qinghuang, but he stubbornly shouted, "We had no intention of offending Your Majesty. We only wanted to execute this male concubine and restore peace to the Demon Realm! If Your Majesty considers me a traitor, you can kill me without batting an eye. These brothers are unaware of this. We hope Your Majesty will investigate thoroughly!"

It sounds better when spoken than when sung.

Long Qinghuang sneered, "You mean if I kill you, my clansmen will think I favored a male concubine and killed a general without permission, right?"

"I had no such intention!"

"Alright," Lu Xingzhou said leisurely, "You've kept it well hidden, but I figured out your tricks in just a few days. Are you only satisfied if I expose them in front of all the dragon soldiers?"

Long Yun said sternly, "No matter how you frame me, Heaven has eyes. Everyone knows you are the envoy of the Great Qian Dynasty and the man of the Holy Lord of Tianyao! Do you have even the slightest goodwill towards the Demon Realm or the Holy Mountain?!"

"It seems everyone knows I have a good relationship with the Holy Lord Tianyao... whether I'm her man or not is another matter." Lu Xingzhou smiled slightly: "I've always been puzzled. True Person Tinglan is always calm and kind, rarely expressing deep hostility towards anyone, but her hostility towards the Demon Realm is practically visible to the naked eye. I originally thought it was because demons were cruel to humans, but after witnessing it firsthand, I found that there was no such problem. So why is that?"

There was complete silence above and below; even Pudu below frowned as he listened to Lu Xingzhou speak.

They were all puzzled by Lu Xingzhou's analysis... The difficulty of this situation was never whether Long Qinghuang could win, but that she didn't know who the mole was, so she couldn't exert any force. No matter which "confidant" she gave orders to, she was afraid that the confidant would side with the Holy Mountain. She was also afraid that whoever she ordered to take charge of the overall situation in the Demon Capital would turn around and become the king.

Once they knew, they could confidently order those without suspicion to make arrangements, and everything would immediately become incredibly simple. So the key question was how the mole was exposed; everyone was very curious.

"Unfortunately, I can't contact Master Tinglan in the short term and can't find out the details, so I have to investigate myself first. His Majesty gave me some information, which mentioned that the former High Priest was a cuckoo... At first, I didn't think much of it, I just thought it was pretty awesome that a cuckoo could be of super quality... But then I saw the strange phenomenon on the Holy Mountain that day, and that made a lot of connections."

"As we all know, cuckoos will steal or even kill other people's cubs, and switch their own cubs with others, making others raise their cubs with painstaking care. Look at the situation of the dragon race, their own reproductive ability is getting worse day by day, but the 'demon reproduction' ability of the Holy Mountain is worshipped by the entire demon realm. Isn't the power of the Holy Mountain, which is nourished by the blood and flesh of the dragon race, a bit interesting?"

"Far-fetched!" Pudu shouted from below, "My master has already passed away, so of course you can make up whatever you want!"

"Don't be in such a hurry, we haven't even talked about you yet." Lu Xingzhou said calmly, "Besides, it's hard to say whether your master is dead or not—even if a Super Grade master is dead, is he really dead? No matter how much I trust Tinglan Zhenren's strength, I can't help but have some doubts about this."

Pudu's pupils contracted as Lu Xingzhou continued, "The reason why True Person Tinglan is so wary of the demon race is mainly due to this. After all, she was dealing with the Holy Mountain, not the Dragon Emperor. Why does she have a problem with the Dragon Emperor? Firstly, in her eyes, the Dragon Emperor is an aggressor. Secondly, she probably thinks that the Dragon Emperor is also an incurable fool who has been brainwashed by the Holy Mountain. Once he takes over the Great Qian Dynasty, he will probably be much more disgusting than Gu Zhanting. It's right to regard them all as enemies."

Long Qinghuang: "..."

"Actually, whether the legend of the cuckoo is true or not doesn't matter. The strange phenomenon of the Holy Mountain here easily makes people think that when His Majesty unified the Demon Realm, the Holy Mountain did not stop him but instead helped him. Was there a hidden intention to substitute one thing for another at that time? When pure-blooded dragons are no longer born, there are only subspecies in the world, so naturally only subspecies can sit in this royal court."

"I was wondering if there were any dragon-cuckoo hybrids among the high-ranking members of the Demon Court, and then I realized, oh dear, Prime Minister Longyan is a hybrid of a dragon and a certain bird, but whether that bird is a cuckoo or not, nobody seems to know, how strange. But why do I feel like this case is already solved without even needing to be investigated?"

Pudu: "..."

Long Qinghuang: "..." "The alliance between the Prime Minister and the Holy Mountain is already obvious. I think that the fact that a mere subspecies has been able to climb to the position of Prime Minister in the past few hundred years is inseparable from the Holy Mountain's secret efforts behind the scenes." Lu Xingzhou said calmly, "Speaking of which, even the trick of replacing officials of the Great Qian Dynasty with substitutes is so similar, it seems easy to judge who is colluding with the Great Qian Dynasty."

Long Lie couldn't help but nudge him: "Hey, isn't this taking Long Yun out of the picture?"

Lu Xingzhou couldn't help but laugh out loud: "You're quite cute."

Long Lie: "..."

Pudu retorted sharply, "In the end, this is all just your conjecture!"

"Is it just conjecture?" Long Qinghuang finally spoke: "After the incident at the Holy Mountain the other day, I monitored the suspected illegitimate son of yours in the Demon Capital... In the past two days, he has been meeting with Long Yan frequently. What did they talk about? They even set up a soundproof barrier. As Lu Xingzhou said, it seems that we don't need to listen to what they say, the case has already been solved."

Of course, Lu Xingzhou's analysis was not the only one involved. Combined with Long Qinghuang's own planning and control, it confirmed the facts to be about 70-80%.

Whether it's a perfect score or not is unimportant.

"In fact, even before there was any evidence, His Majesty and I already harbored deep suspicions about the Prime Minister's collusion with the Holy Mountain. The main reason we remained inactive was because we felt there were also culprits among the pure-blooded dragons," Lu Xingzhou said. "Gu Zhanting's preparations in the border city must be waiting for the cooperation of a certain dragon general, not the Prime Minister or the Holy Mountain far away in the Demon Capital. He may have even tricked the Holy Mountain, letting outsiders launch a surprise attack on it. Who exactly is the dragon general in the border city? This is a matter that has been weighing on our minds."

Long Yun smiled wryly to himself. It was quite complementary that the people of the Great Qian were analyzing the affairs of the Demon Realm from the perspective of the Great Qian.

"As for the traitor within the Dragon Clan, he has indeed given me quite a headache. This traitor may not necessarily be of one mind with the Prime Minister and the Holy Mountain; they may simply be using each other. So what is his motive? Love? Isn't that a bit low-minded?"

Long Lie turned his head away.

"Perhaps love played a part, but the more fundamental issue must be the power of the Dragon Clan. This person himself feels that he has no chance of being better than His Majesty, and he may not even be able to compare with generals like Long Lie and Long Xi. What makes him think he can rise to the throne? Becoming the Emperor's consort and rising to the throne through his son is certainly a shortcut."

"But His Majesty doesn't approve, so there's no point in discussing romance. If we're talking about the important issue of pure-blooded reproduction, we could coerce His Majesty into choosing from among the clansmen by appealing to popular opinion, but none of us can reproduce, so why should we choose this person?" Lu Xingzhou said leisurely, "After I discovered that my alchemy skills could help the dragon clan with some minor adjustments, I thought of someone..."

Long Yun's heart skipped a beat.

"Chen Yu, whom you captured and brought to the Demon Capital, is an alchemist, and quite skilled at it, only slightly less so than me... Ordinary alchemists might not be able to handle your unique infertility, but Chen Yu will likely have some solutions." Lu Xingzhou smiled. "Chen Yu is in the prisoner-of-war camp, under the command of General Long Lie. You can go to him anytime. Has General Long Lie gone to see him yet?"

Long Lie was dumbfounded: "How come I didn't think of that..."

"Yes, you didn't expect... who was it that managed to have a baby against all odds, and then used it as a bargaining chip at yesterday's banquet?"

Long Lie stared blankly at Long Yun: "Damn..."

It turns out my rival was right beside me, and the most insidious kind at that.

Long Yun coldly replied, "Another conjecture. Not all dragons are infertile. My ability to reproduce is my own skill, what does it have to do with Chen Yu?"

"I'm sorry," Lu Xingzhou said calmly, "Our delegation heard that I was kicked out of the banquet last night and felt deeply humiliated. Today, taking advantage of your absence from the capital, they went to your house to cause trouble... Do you think they can find Chen Yu in the alchemy room?"

Long Yun's expression finally changed.

"It doesn't matter if we can't find him. Our Vice Envoy Sheng is a well-known playboy in the capital who loves to cause trouble. I, Lu, apologize to everyone in advance."

As the voices spoke, the little girl flew in riding a pig, carrying the long-lost Chen Yu in her hand: "Master, Master, I found him! There's a pill-refining room in Long Yun's house. Chen Yu has been locked up in there refining pills for a long time, he's practically dried out..."

Long Lie flew into a rage, jumping up and down and cursing: "Fuck your ancestors! You went to my prisoner-of-war camp and secretly took people away. When His Majesty investigates, are you going to pin the blame on me?!"

Lu Xingzhou sighed: "Brother, you finally understand... When I first found out, I thought it was you."

"Wait a minute," Long Lie said, "Does this mean my house was also raided by Vice Envoy Sheng?"

Lu Xingzhou was silent for a moment: "In order not to wrong innocent people... those were all copied."

(End of this chapter)