After Earl Xitian confirmed the antidote was effective the next morning, Ye Zhen and Zhao Zhong left Xitian Commandery at nearly the fastest speed possible.
Ye Zhen knew very well that he had practically emptied out more than half of Earl Xitian's collection. If Marquis Xingqing had not been backing him, Earl Xitian would probably have already mobilized his entire commandery for war against Ye Zhen.
Marquis Xingqing was named Ji Tao, and his father was King Yangling, Ji Yu. Both were members of the Great Zhou Imperial Clan.
The Great Zhou Empire had an exceptionally long legacy, and the number of imperial clan members was simply in the hundreds of billions! One could say that if you tossed a brick into any major city in some province or commandery, it would hit three to five imperial clan members.
However, Marquis Xingqing and his father were not ordinary members of the imperial clan. In certain private settings, even the current Holy Son of Heaven had to address King Yangling, Ji Yu, as Uncle.
Marquis Xingqing and his father belonged to that small portion of the imperial clan with the purest bloodline, and thus wielded tremendous power.
For certain reasons, King Yangling, Ji Yu, was merely a first-rank King rather than one of the highest-ranking Princes of Consultation, but even so, his power remained immense.
Marquis Xingqing's original title had only been that of a third-rank Marquis, yet he had forcibly raised it to a first-rank Marquis through military achievements.
Of course, how much water had been mixed into those military achievements, and how much had come from the efforts of others, was hard to say.
But there was no water whatsoever in that power.
King Yangling Ji Yu's fief encompassed three provinces and fifty-six commanderies, all of them middle-to-upper-grade provinces