Great Zhou Martial Immortal

Chapter 104 Just for this? A piece of cake.

Li Lingyue returned to the mansion in a daze.

Lu Chenyuan was having breakfast in his bedchamber when he saw her like this. He was a little surprised and went over to put his arm around her, asking, "What's wrong?"

Li Lingyue recounted what had happened in the palace, then said in a low voice, "You're right. Wu Chengsi and his cronies really did use the old tricks of cruel officials, getting Zhou Xing to spread rumors and slander... They're probably going to arrest Cen Lingyuan to give false testimony and frame her. Cen Changqian is in grave danger this time... You told me to save her if I can, to protect her if I can, and to let the court officials know that I care about the Li Tang dynasty... But what if we want more than just Zhou Xing to die?"

The key point is that even the emperor wanted to kill people!
Just like Lu Chenyuan's previous theory of changing the ship's planks, she wanted to eliminate the officials of the Li Tang faction one by one, so that the entire ship would be completely under the control of the Wu.

Even if you put the evidence of the slander right in front of her, she won't look at it.

Now that things have come to this, it seems there's no solution for the emperor to want people dead.

Li Lingyue once thought that as long as she could expose the slander, she could clear people's names, and then the innocent would be proven innocent and the charges would naturally disappear. But now she sadly discovered that she seemed to be able to only watch helplessly as the emperor slaughtered his court officials...

Or they were still loyal courtiers of the Tang Dynasty...

I wonder what kind of torment my fourth brother is going through in the palace.

Cen Lingyuan...

Lu Chenyuan suddenly realized that he hadn't managed to escape after all.

Right.

Only a thousand days to be a thief, not a thousand days to guard against thieves.

Besides, he was an idiot. Knowing that it was a turbulent time, he still swaggered around. No wonder those masked men were so well-trained. They were Zhou Xing's lackeys. They arrested people to fabricate evidence, accuse Cen Changqian of treason, and then drag all the anti-Wu people down with them for a purge.

"That's all?"

Seeing her expression, Lu Chenyuan couldn't help but laugh: "Your Highness is truly innocent; you clearly have no ulterior motives!"

"Are you calling me stupid again?!"

Li Lingyue glared at him, instinctively punching him, then realized what she had done and suddenly opened her eyes to look at Lu Chenyuan: "You still have a way?!"

After her initial surprise, she said, slowly and deliberately, "It was Mother who wanted them dead!"

"so what?"

Lu Chenyuan laughed, "The Martial Emperor even wanted Wei Shifang to concoct elixirs so she could live forever!"

"..."

These words were actually a bit disrespectful, bordering on insults and pointing out someone's shortcomings, but Li Lingyue didn't care anymore. She was incredibly clever and understood the implied meaning.

Since the conman could change the mother's mind, it seems that her resolve was not entirely without room for maneuver.

Li Lingyue was overjoyed and looked up at Lu Chenyuan: "Tell me quickly, what other ways are there to win her back!"

Lu Chenyuan raised an eyebrow and said, "Is this how you beg people?"

Li Lingyue grabbed him and led him to the bed, intending to "beg" him properly.

"Wait a minute!"

Lu Chenyuan was both amused and exasperated, and quickly pulled him back: "Alright, enough joking. Let's take care of business first, and we can talk about the rest later... This matter is actually not difficult. It's just a matter of giving them a taste of their own medicine."

Li Lingyue pulled him to sit on the soft couch and asked urgently, "How can we use their own methods against them?"

"First."

Lu Chenyuan held up a finger: "Let's start with his pile of messy accusations. There's no other way but to make up whatever he wants, like accusations of plotting treason in private. But there's one crucial one."

He mentioned that in the fourth year of the Chuigong era, Cen Changqian was ordered to lead an expedition against Prince Li Zhen of Yue. He used this as grounds to falsely accuse Prime Minister Cen of conspiring with the Li Tang dynasty. This was indeed a capital offense, but it was also a loophole. "Does the princess remember who accompanied Prime Minister Cen?"

A person flashed through Li Lingyue's mind in an instant.

—General Qiu Shenji of the Golden Guard!
At that time, he was serving as the Grand Commander of the Qingping Road Army, and was ordered to suppress the rebellion of Prince Yue, Li Zhen, and Prince Langya, Li Chong.

Qiu Shenji also made contributions for this reason, and was promoted to the rank of General of the Golden Guard!

Li Lingyue murmured, "If Cen Changqian is colluding with Li Tang, Qiu Shenji will also be held responsible! As long as this news is passed on to Qiu Shenji, he will definitely think that Zhou Xing is targeting him, and thus retaliate against Zhou Xing, causing chaos among the cruel officials from within!"

"Exactly."

Lu Chenyuan hugged her and kissed her. She truly deserves to be called Princess Taiping; she understands things immediately!
Lu Chenyuan said, "Qiu Shenji is worried that once the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog will be cooked, so he has spared no effort to suppress the Buqi Sect! Now that the rear is on fire, even if Zhou Xing's original intention was not so, Qiu Shenji will definitely turn against Zhou Xing to protect himself, prove his innocence, and stand with Cen Changqian. This is the opportunity!"

"well said!"

Li Lingyue couldn't help but clap her hands in praise, vaguely seeing a glimmer of hope.

The incident at the Mechanical City revealed that Qiu Shenji and Zhou Xing were outwardly friendly but inwardly at odds. There were things that Fourth Brother couldn't say, and things that he himself couldn't say, but the cruel officials could. Qiu Shenji was currently far away in Sichuan, so he could say what he wanted and do what he wanted in his name, and Mother wouldn't be too bothered by it.

This is indeed a way out.

Li Lingyue couldn't help but look at Lu Chenyuan. She really liked him so much; he always seemed to have an endless supply of ideas.

Lu Chenyuan raised his second finger: "Secondly, if we want the Martial Emperor to change her mind, we can start with what she cares about. Just as Wei Shifang was able to take advantage of her desire for immortality and longevity to profit and obtain the title of Immortal Master, we can also use this to connect these things with the life and death of Cen Changqian and others."

"Related to life and death?"

This time, Li Lingyue didn't understand and asked in bewilderment, "How is this related? Cen Changqian can neither refine medicine nor recall the clues about the elixir of immortality when things come to a head... Using this method to survive will only make Mother angrier at him for concealing the truth."

Lu Chenyuan laughed and said, "Don't just think about immortality. Why is she so eager to build the Dayun Temple and annotate the Dayun Sutra? To consolidate the legitimacy of the Dharma and prove that she is in accordance with the will of Heaven and is the one destined by Heaven!"

"God willing!"

Li Lingyue's eyes lit up: "You mean using celestial phenomena and prophecies to create the illusion that killing a virtuous person is an ominous sign?"

Lu Chenyuan nodded: "During the reign of Empress Wu, she changed the era name to Chuigong and granted a general amnesty because of the auspicious omen of a phoenix. She doesn't care about public opinion, but she does care about auspicious omens. However, this is something to be careful about and must be kept secret! The Princess's residence must not take action. Instead, someone else should handle it. It's best to be absolutely foolproof so that even if it is exposed one day, it won't implicate us."

"This is easy to handle."

Li Lingyue quickly came up with an idea: "We can arrange for the families of officials who have benefited from these courtiers to collectively go to Dayun Temple to 'kneel and beg Buddha for a miracle,' and then make the 'Buddha statue shed tears,' thereby implying that killing a virtuous person is inauspicious. As for the person who makes the Buddha statue shed tears, we can pretend to be a famous swordsman. Putting aside others for now, Di Renjie is renowned. If Zhou Xing really includes him among the conspirators, it would be perfectly normal for a righteous person to devise a plan to rescue him."

"Ah."

Lu Chenyuan raised his third finger: "Thirdly, we should start with Zhou Xing himself. The reason he dared to openly slander court officials was because he relied on the Empress's trust to commit evil deeds. History has already provided the answer on how to make such a cruel official suffer the consequences."

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Zhang Tang and Yi Zong, and during the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han, Yan Yannian, and others, did not indiscriminately kill innocent people. The problem was that they acted recklessly because of the emperor's favor, which eventually angered the imperial power. Therefore, to make them die a gruesome death, Emperor Wu had to be angered and his reputation shifted from "eliminating traitors for the country" to "acting recklessly"!

"He wants to kill someone? Then let him kill! The princess can help him. Everyone who has offended him in the past can be implicated in this case. Not all the people in the Dali Temple are heartless. If you appeal to their emotions and reason, there will surely be loyal and righteous people willing to lend a hand, acting as Zhou Xing's subordinates, to help him escalate the matter. Once many court officials are involved, and all of them have a grudge against Zhou Xing, the nature of the case will change..."

Wonderful!

Li Lingyue suddenly understood.

By this time, having thoroughly muddied the waters, Zhou Xing would find himself in dire straits.

Now that the harm caused by this cruel official is out in the open, my mother will surely kill him to appease public anger!
That gave Cen Changqian and the others a chance to survive...

Li Lingyue thought about it more and more and felt it was brilliant, so she couldn't help but pick up Lu Chenyuan and give him a deep kiss.

The kiss came suddenly and fiercely, with a touch of domineering possessiveness, as if it wanted to pour out all the admiration and love in it, and only let go when his lips were red and swollen.

"..."

Lu Chenyuan touched his lips and found that they were bleeding. He thought to himself, "This little vixen is like a dog. She even managed to bite through my invincible body. She truly lives up to her reputation as a Fifth Realm cultivator."

Lu Chenyuan couldn't help but say, "You repay kindness with enmity!"

Li Lingyue pretended not to hear, gently stroking his bitten lip with her fingertips, her eyes full of pride and tenderness: "I really... can't live without you anymore."

Her voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, yet it carried an unprecedented seriousness.

Lu Chenyuan laughed and said, "I haven't finished yet. We can finish it all before you admire me. There's a problem now: these things take time to do, and Zhou Xing has already started investigating and arresting people. So we must secretly inform these ministers that they should be patient and even confess their crimes if necessary. Don't fight to the death. Preserve your health and buy us time to work."

Lu Chenyuan's eyes were bright as he stared intently at Li Lingyue: "Once this succeeds, Princess Taiping will no longer be just Princess Taiping. Do you understand?"

To turn the tide and save the collapsing edifice!
Li Lingyue will secretly change the impression of all the court officials who are loyal to the Li Tang dynasty, and gradually become the Princess of Peace and Security.

Li Lingyue stared at Lu Chenyuan's blood-stained lips, then suddenly smiled, her eyes flashing with a wild light.

"When the big thing is decided..."

She lightly traced her fingertips across his Adam's apple, her voice low and dangerous: "I will build a golden palace—and lock you, this wicked monster who brings ruin to the country, inside, so that I can see you only day and night."

"..."

Lu Chenyuan took it as a joke, and Li Lingyue really didn't seem like a yandere.

He casually chuckled and said, "Then the golden house must be quite big; I don't like living in small houses."

"rest assured……"

Li Lingyue suddenly leaned close to Lu Chenyuan's ear, her fingertips entwining the jade belt around his waist, her breath sweet as orchids: "It must be very big, but there are no windows, so you won't always be looking at the women outside..."

Ok?
Lu Chenyuan's heart skipped a beat. He looked at her intently, feeling that her words had a hidden meaning.

Could she really be a yandere...?

(End of this chapter)