The Fourth Prince

"The Ming Empire, Zhu Di!"

In the imperial capital of the Yan Kingdom.

The elderly emperor of the Yan Kingdom smiled, his eyes flickering and his face cold.

The assembled civil and military officials below him fell silent.

At a time like this, no one dared provoke an emperor's wrath.

They could only mourn the eighth prince in their hearts...

They didn't know whom he had offended on this trip, or what faction he had crossed, to be set up so badly.

That was right!

They were the people who stood at the pinnacle of this country, so they couldn't be fooled as easily as ordinary people.

Nor were they like the eighth prince, caught up in the situation with his mind clouded by ambition!

Although they didn't know what to make of the Immortal Bridge and the flying lanterns,

this scheme was not particularly clever. It bore too many traces of human involvement.

Perhaps the person behind it had never intended to conceal anything at all.

He was challenging the Yan Kingdom's imperial court and warning them: if they still didn't leash the mad dog that was the eighth prince, he wouldn't mind putting him out of commission!

He was just that unrestrained, that arrogant!

Everyone present could sense the message.

Otherwise, judging by the extraordinary knowledge and terrifying wealth the person in the shadows had commanded from the start, how deeply he had hidden himself, and the ingenuity of his scheme,

this was undoubtedly a terrifying faction.

But he seemed to have had no intention of killing the eighth prince outright. Perhaps he didn't want to make an enemy of the imperial family just yet!

Taking everything into account, they guessed that the eighth prince's arrogance had inadvertently provoked this unfathomable faction.

That was how it was...

"Heh heh..."

Seated on the dragon throne, at the very pinnacle of the country, the elderly emperor of the Yan Kingdom smiled.

Although he knew that the Yan Kingdom was already a place where demons danced in chaos,

he truly hadn't expected anyone to be bold enough to openly warn the imperial court.

Still less had he expected the ever self-important eighth prince to be sold out and still be grinning about it. What a... fool.

He took a deep breath and fell silent for a moment.

The emperor of the Yan Kingdom shook his head.

In Jiangnan, the mountains were high and the emperor was far away, and there were too many factions. Even he... given the Yan Kingdom's present state, was powerless to set things in order.

Revenge and the like would have to wait.

After all, judging by the strength this faction had displayed, it was no simple force, but it hadn't actually harmed the eighth prince.

It had given them a way to save face.

The Yan Kingdom was in no position for a major conflict at present. Besides, if the imperial family's forces entered Jiangnan in great numbers, they could easily provoke the collective hostility of the tangled factions there.

The worst outcome would be the Yan Kingdom's total collapse... it wasn't worth it!

"Where is the eighth prince now?"

the old man asked in a commanding voice.

"Father Emperor, Eighth Brother... should be nearing the northern border!"

A handsome young man in a purple robe spoke, his expression grave.

"Oh? Does he really think he's that Zhu Di fellow?"

The old man on the throne gave a cold smile.

"Send word to the Li Family Army to bring him back. Whatever else he may be, he's still a child of the imperial family. Let him stay in the Capital. It'll be safer."

The old man shook his head.

Although he didn't want to admit it,

he had to acknowledge that the hidden faction's scheme had succeeded yet again.

He had been outmaneuvered.

An open scheme...

A fabricated story about the Ming Dynasty had indeed frightened him, and with those strange phenomena on top of that... the eighth prince's ambition had indeed been awakened.

He couldn't let him roam free outside any longer.

Though he was deeply displeased, he was an emperor even more than he was a father. In his position, he had to eliminate even the slightest possibility of danger.

Otherwise, he would find no peace in eating or sleeping!

"Yes!"

The civil and military officials answered in unison.

Many eyes among them flickered.

Some were happy, some were saddened, and some were pondering something.

The officials aligned with the eldest prince were excited. They had one less formidable enemy.

The officials aligned with the eighth prince were depressed and angry at the faction that had acted from the shadows.

As for the officials aligned with the fourth prince, their feelings were complicated.

Though they had lost an enemy, they had also lost an ally.

From now on, the eldest prince would be like the sun at high noon in the imperial court. The fourth prince's faction still couldn't measure up...

"Tianfu City?"

In the imperial capital.

At the fourth prince's residence.

Dressed in purple, the fourth prince pondered quietly, murmuring to himself as his fingers tapped rhythmically on the tabletop.

He was pondering a question.

Just what faction was hiding in Tianfu City?

The eighth prince had originally only wanted to find a divine physician... that was what his intelligence said, nothing more.

But then he had suddenly been driven out of the struggle for the throne altogether.

This really was...

"Your Highness, I found out. That divine physician's surname is Bai. She is the legitimate daughter of the vice minister of rites, and her name is Bai Ruoli."

"She currently lives in Tianfu City and is at odds with his father's concubine... who is now the first madam of the Bai Clan. She has even suffered greatly under her oppression."

"What's a little strange is that she used to swallow every insult and endure all the bullying from her younger sister without a word, but a month ago, after she suddenly fell seriously ill and woke up..."

"Hmm..."

"Say that again!"

The fourth prince suddenly furrowed his brow, having noticed something, and spoke slowly.

"Yes!"

The guard repeated what he had just said.

When the guard came to what had happened after Bai Ruoli woke up, the fourth prince suddenly paused and asked, "Jun Jingyi, who is he?"

"He's the young marquis of the Jun Marquis Residence. He's been living with his younger sister in their family home in Jiangnan, Tianfu City, for the past few years."

"Uh..."

The fourth prince rubbed his head.

How had a young marquis gotten mixed up in this too?

After a moment's thought, he asked again, "Do you know what this young marquis has been up to lately?"

"I do!"

The guard searched for quite a while, then read out the information on Jun Jingyi. As he spoke, his tone even grew a little admiring.

For the information showed that this young marquis was a man of remarkable literary talent and noble character, who repaid resentment with kindness, returned favors, and had a kind heart.

A man like that deserved anyone's respect.

The fourth prince was impassive.

From the information, this young marquis did seem quite decent.

But...

He seemed to be involved with the eighth prince?

And that Bai Ruoli had treated the eighth prince too?

Both of them were involved with the eighth prince?

After a long while,

the fourth prince nodded and said, "If I remember correctly, Marquis Jun seems to be on Eldest Brother's side, doesn't he?"

The guard nodded.

"Phew..."

The fourth prince rubbed his head again. After all that going around in circles, he had ended up back where he started.

Had Eldest Brother been the one behind what happened to the eighth prince?

His expression turned somewhat angry, and he quietly clenched his fists.

He gritted his teeth. "Eldest Brother!"

"Noble Consort Xiao!"

He would never forget that scene from his childhood, not even in death: how his mother had been hanged in the cold palace.

He could not forget that noble consort, his stepmother in name, who had actually kept putting poison in his food!

To him, the throne didn't matter. Any of the princes could take it.

But it absolutely could not be the eldest prince...