Joy of Life: Me, the Second Prince? Summon Yuan Tiangang!

"Qingmei..." Emperor Qing murmured the name softly, a name he was once very familiar with, but now he didn't even want to mention it in his dreams.

The image of that night many years ago involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

At that time, he was not yet the high and mighty Emperor Qing, but merely the Crown Prince of Cheng, who was in a precarious situation and could be devoured by his political enemies at any moment.

It was an extremely dangerous trap. The two princes joined forces to lay a deadly snare, intending to kill him. His men were almost entirely wiped out, and he himself was seriously wounded, with nowhere to retreat.

Just when he thought it was all over, she appeared.

The woman, dressed in strange clothes, always wore a bright, almost blinding smile. She carried a long, strange object wrapped in black cloth.

She did not draw her sword, nor did she unleash any extraordinary internal energy.

She simply found a very high vantage point, lay down there, and propped up the strange object.

Then, there's Thunder.

The real thunder.

There were no fluctuations of true energy, no flashes of swords, only deafening roars.

After each booming sound, a prince or general who was usually high-ranking and skilled in martial arts would have his head explode like a watermelon being hit by a giant hammer!

Even from a distance of hundreds of steps, it ignored any protective aura and any sturdy armor.

That was divine punishment, a call from the Grim Reaper.

At that moment, Crown Prince Cheng knew that he was saved.

But at the same time, a seed of fear was also planted deep in his soul.

Later, he ascended the throne and became emperor, ruling the world.

He possessed the most elite iron cavalry in the world and became one of the four most powerful grandmasters. He believed he had control over everything in the world.

But whenever he thought of the object that Ye Qingmei had casually put into the black box, he would wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in cold sweat.

That thing can kill a prince from hundreds of steps away, so naturally it can also kill the emperor from hundreds of steps away...

As long as that thing exists, his reign as emperor will never be secure.

He always felt that in some unknown corner, on the roof of some tall building, there was a cold, emotionless eye staring intently at his brow through that strange glass lens.

Therefore, Ye Qingmei must die.

It wasn't just because her ideals threatened imperial power, but also because she wielded absolute violence that didn't belong to this world and was capable of overturning everything.

"Could the thing you put in the black box be that thing?" Emperor Qing's fingers gently stroked the landscape painting on the screen, his fingertips turning slightly white from the pressure.

He searched the entire Taiping Villa and every place Ye Qingmei might have been, but he couldn't find that weapon.

After that, Wu Zhu disappeared.

Now that her belongings have resurfaced, it's obvious what's inside.

Now, Li Chengze, his second son, has obtained that item.

A fierce killing intent flashed in Emperor Qing's eyes.

Regardless of whether Li Chengze can use it or not, the moment he obtains it, he must die, because that power must not be touched by anyone other than the emperor, not even his own flesh and blood.

What made Emperor Qing even more uneasy was Chen Pingping's attitude.

The intelligence agency's report was delivered too quickly.

The events of last night were reported to the Imperial Study this morning, just after the First Prince and Fan Xian had visited the Imperial Observatory.

What is Chen Pingping thinking?

That old cripple's feelings for Ye Qingmei were deeper than anyone else's.

The world created by the invincible demon king F is all in "Joy of Life: I am the Second Prince? Summon Yuan Tiangang!".

He couldn't possibly be unaware of the importance of that box.

"Using someone else to do the dirty work?" Emperor Qing's lips curled into a mocking sneer. "Old cripple, are you trying to use me to kill Chengze, or are you trying to use Chengze to test my limits? Or perhaps you're trying to muddy the waters to protect that brat Fan Xian?"

Emperor Qing's mind raced as he calculated the power and intentions of all parties.

Kyoto's grand strategy seems to be sliding in an extremely dangerous direction.

Just as Emperor Qing was immersed in complex thoughts and calculations, a series of extremely hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the imperial study.

The footsteps were completely out of step with the rules of the palace; they were heavy, hurried, and even a little unsteady, shattering the deathly silence outside the Imperial Study.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Urgent dispatch! Top secret military intelligence!"

Accompanied by this terrified shout, Eunuch Hou, who had just retreated, practically tumbled and crawled as he burst through the door of the Imperial Study.

His face was even paler than before, and he held a copper pipe sealed with red paint high in his hand. He was breathing heavily due to extreme fear and the intense running.

Emperor Qing's brows furrowed sharply, and the murderous intent in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by the majesty and ruthlessness befitting an emperor.

He did not blame Eunuch Hou for his loss of composure, because he knew that what could cause this old eunuch, who had experienced countless storms, to lose his composure was definitely a matter of great importance that could shake the foundations of the country.

"What's the panic! The sky isn't going to fall!" Emperor Qing shouted coldly, striding back to the desk and snatching the copper tube from Eunuch Hou's hand.

He glanced at the seal on the copper pipe, a secret mark signifying the highest level and utmost urgency.

Moreover, the style of this coded mark does not belong to the military, nor does it belong to the regular channels of the Forensic Service.

This belongs to the Privy Council and is a deep intelligence network secretly established by the Qing Kingdom's military within the territory of Northern Qi, independent of the Observation Council.

With a slight squeeze of his fingers, Emperor Qing crushed the red seal with a "crack," revealing a piece of silk as thin as a cicada's wing.

When his gaze swept over the few lines of cryptic text on the silk, Emperor Qing's face, which remained unmoved even if Mount Tai collapsed before him, finally showed a very obvious distortion.

His pupils suddenly contracted, his breath caught in his throat for a moment, and then a fury even greater and colder than when he heard that the black box had been stolen erupted from his body!

The curtains in the imperial study, which moved without wind, seemed to be suddenly lifted by an invisible wave of air, and the memorials on the desk were blown about with a rustling sound.

"Good! Good! Excellent!"

Emperor Qing uttered three "good"s in a row, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying a chilling aura.

The contents on the silk were simple, but every word was soaked in blood:

"Last night at midnight, thirteen of our dynasty's secret police outposts in the Northern Qi capital, Wuzhou, Cangzhou, and other locations were simultaneously massacred by unknown forces. Seventy-two high-ranking spies and over three hundred peripheral informants perished. All contact lists and codebooks were burned to ashes. Our dynasty's military eyes and ears in the Northern Qi were completely blinded overnight!"

Emperor Qing stared intently at the silk scroll, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

He had spent over a decade, investing countless sums of money and lives, to gradually infiltrate the Privy Council's intelligence network in Northern Qi.

This was the most important dagger he prepared for his future Northern Expedition, in order to completely annex the Northern Qi.

This intelligence network was extremely well-hidden; even Chen Pingping's Bureau of Investigation only knew a small part of it.

But now, overnight, it has been uprooted!

Thirteen strongholds were attacked simultaneously. This was no ordinary gangland feud, nor was it a chance exposure. It was a meticulously planned, extremely precise, and massively powerful sweep!

Who did it?