Old Loves and Hatreds, Choosing the Heir by Legitimacy, Merit, or Seniority

Chen Li appeared to refrain from acting out of fear of the Fourth Prince's status, but in reality, he kept his aura under tight control as he continuously battered the Fourth Prince, keeping him on the verge of collapse without actually letting him break.

If the Fourth Prince performed poorly, Chen Li would reduce his pressure by a few degrees. If he seemed to be adapting, Chen Li would immediately add another twenty percent. Even if he could not inflict physical harm, he was determined to damage the man's mind.

"Xiao Ming, what is going on? Broad daylight, under the clear sky—how could a prince dare to kidnap the descendant of another Sun Moon Empire noble on the streets of Mingdu and use him to threaten another family?"

Chen Li looked like a dim-witted brute. Before Martial Soul Possession, he was nothing but flab from head to toe, fat as a ball. After Martial Soul Possession, he became a hardened fighter covered in muscle from head to toe.

Yet this was merely his disguise and the weapon he showed the outside world. Beneath Chen Li's rough appearance lay a heart far more cunning than that of an ordinary person.

Perhaps his intellect and the way a Soul Master thought were not enough for him to gain anything in the most elite battles of wits, but they were more than enough for him to exploit his appearance and seize the initiative in most situations.

His roar, laced with Soul Power, traveled across several streets. The Mingdu City Defense Army, which had been rushing madly toward the scene, immediately turned green in the face when they heard that the matter involved the Imperial Family.

Even the Titled Douluo and Rank 9 Soul Engineer leading them, a man from the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Corps of the Five Guardians of the Nation, felt utterly powerless at this moment.

The Imperial Family's internal affairs were a complete mess. By now, no one knew how many people across Mingdu, both openly and secretly, had been dragged into it, targeted by it, or suffered calamity for no reason at all.

But as the contemporary emperor's Confidant, personally transferred from among the Guardians of the Nation to command the City Defense Army, even though he knew this matter would be extremely difficult to handle, he had no way to avoid it.

Looking at his grim-faced subordinates, the Rank 9 Soul Engineer, who appeared to be in his sixties or seventies, rubbed his temples and made his decision.

The low- and mid-ranking officers were assigned to secure the scene and calm the crowds. The vice-captain, a Soul Douluo, was sent to the Imperial Palace to report the situation, while the remaining Soul Engineers of Rank 7 and above, along with the team's higher-ranking personnel, continued onward with him.

Being able to send away the young ones and those without much backing or ability under the pretext of maintaining public order was already the limit of what he could do.

As for the Old Men and those with sufficiently powerful backgrounds, they could bear responsibility alongside him.

Thinking this, the old man tugged at his uniform and made the crescent moon embroidered over his chest shine a little brighter.

Before long, dozens of fully armed Soul Engineers surrounded the street and vigilantly carried out their duties. When the captain saw Chen Li, a trace of astonishment appeared on his aged face.

"Brother Chen, it's you?" The old man temporarily ignored the Fourth Prince, who had been pressed nearly to death by the aura, as well as the Black Man being held by the collar. Somewhat lacking in confidence, he greeted Chen Li.

"Kong Jie? What are you doing here? So after you were transferred out of the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Corps, you came to Mingdu?"

Chen Li glanced at the newcomer and only recognized him as an old friend from his youth after scrutinizing him carefully.

"Ever since A Zhen left, it has been decades since we met face-to-face, hasn't it? After all these decades, we've truly grown distant. You do not even call me Cousin anymore when we meet. The famed Black Moon Douluo—you're really something."

"I heard you are already holding your great-grandson now. Is your family happy?"

"I... Cousin, back then, A Zhen, she..." The old man called Kong Jie flushed crimson. He hesitated for a long time but could not utter a complete sentence.

"I know you did not betray A Zhen back then, nor was there any conspiracy or scheme involved."

"You were genuinely useless back then. You charged too far ahead and nearly got beaten to death by the enemy Soul Masters on the battlefield. My cousin was afraid you would die, so she activated her Martial Soul Avatar and forced her way forward to save you. Her internal organs were shattered in the process. After bringing you back and setting you down, she died."

"You did not betray her. You were just slow-witted and not strong enough. Although I do not like you, I do not hate you either. Things like that were normal on the battlefield. It was merely fate."

"The world is unpredictable. Anything can happen on a battlefield; even a Titled Douluo may fall. It was normal for you to fall into danger, and it was normal for her to choose to trade her life for yours."

"I also know that for the ten years afterward, you never wanted to take a wife. It was only later, for the sake of your family, that you had no choice but to enter a political marriage."

"When you became engaged, Uncle came to the Dragon Elephant Sect's mountain gate in the middle of the night to find the old Sect Master. He knelt before the old Sect Master and wanted to trade his life for yours. He would rather use his own life to repay A Zhen's than let you continue suffering."

"Back then, Uncle had seventy percent of the bones in his body broken by a single punch. I was the one who found someone to treat him before letting him go, because I believed that if she were alive, she would have chosen the same."

"If you had truly done something to betray her back then, did you think you could have lived until today? Did you think you could hold your great-grandson?"

"If you had deliberately betrayed her back then, do you think I would have let you go, even if the Dragon Elephant Sect had been willing to?"

Chen Li gave Kong Jie a sideways glance, his voice utterly calm.

"Or did you really think you survived because your granduncle was Kong Deming's Teacher?"

Kong Jie lowered his head, his face crimson, and did not dare answer.

In his mind, he recalled the first time he had met his beloved in his youth. He recalled the day when, after charging recklessly ahead and nearing death, the woman he loved had shielded him with a body as solid and weighty as a mountain and carried him away from the battlefield.

He recalled the day her broken body was buried in the graveyard, when his once-smiling prospective father-in-law, the previous Sect Master of the Dragon Elephant Sect, had tried to punch him to death with bloodshot eyes, only for the fist to brush past his ear in the end.

He recalled the day he entered marriage with his political bride, when his blood-related Eldest Son was born and a clear infant's cry rang beside his ears.

His position was not one that allowed him to be ruled by sentiment, and his special identity made it even less appropriate for him to harbor emotions in matters concerning the Imperial Family. Yet Kong Jie was not some child born with the innate ability to love others, one who could steal a sect's closely guarded secret at the age of nine.

In his heart, he still remembered the kindness he had once received.