Zhao Rulíng showed no particular reaction. He simply told Meng Zhao everything he knew about Beitang Sheng, detail by detail.
In his words, Beitang Sheng was a man of grand ambition and sweeping vision, possessed of methods, skilled in commanding others, and deeply calculating. His martial arts were even more unfathomable. Even without borrowing the Imperial Dynasty's National Destiny or Human Dragon Qi, there was no one under heaven who could rival him.
But this man was not without flaws.
In Zhao Rulíng's view, his greatest flaw was that he recognized none of the bonds of kinship. Even toward his own flesh and blood, he felt nothing, seeing only tools to be used. Moreover, Zhao Rulíng quietly revealed a piece of news.
When the previous Emperor had been assassinated, the circumstances had been tangled and complex. Yet one crucial factor was that someone on the inside had cooperated, allowing the assassin to strike true in a single blow and accomplish the enormous feat of assassinating the Emperor.
Zhao Rulíng did not know what role Beitang Sheng had played in it, but he had a faint feeling that Beitang Sheng had certainly meddled in the affair.
This greatly exceeded Meng Zhao's expectations. It was not that Beitang Sheng's utter lack of familial affection and cold-blooded nature surprised him; after meeting the Twelfth Prince, Beitang Xing, and learning the inside story, he had already known that full well.
He simply had not expected that the previous Emperor's death might also have been connected to Beitang Sheng.
Nor was it impossible. After all, Beitang Sheng had ascended the throne in great haste back then, yet had everything firmly in his grasp. It was as though—though—he had been preparing for a very long time, merely waiting for such an opportunity to take the throne.