CHAPTER 1165: CHAPTER 733: SCHEME

The cold front moving south from the Northern Frontier formed dark clouds stretching for thousands of miles, shrouding the entire Jingji, yet at this moment, a tiny crack tore open in the middle of the cloud layer.

As the view zooms in, dazzling brilliance cascades down like a waterfall, the rain has just ceased, the ground remains muddy, a brand new trench extending tens of miles appears like a scar across the land, cutting through the mountains and forests.

It all began with just a heavy sword about a foot long.

The landscape was transformed, the rolling mountains had an opening, the dense forest seemed to be plowed by a mad bull, the dense woodland scattered and fragmented, broken giant trees lay everywhere creaking.

The foot-long heavy sword sat at the bottom of a massive crater, its surface like ink, devouring the surrounding light, and the morning sun rising from the east cast its shadow very long.

But at this moment,

on this divine weapon heavy sword, there stood a boot with an ink base and golden patterns, pressing the front half of the sword firmly into the ground.

The battle ended too quickly, so fast that one couldn’t react, the whole world seemed to fall into some strange stagnation at this dawn moment.

An old, sickly figure floated in mid-air.

A middle-aged man with white hair stood on the heavy sword.

And,

on the distant horizon, the alarming military formation emerged belatedly.

Li Yaoxuan gazed at the giant pit below, and the trench connected to it, his murky eyes filled with contemplation.

After a while,

he casually commanded to the restless military formation on the horizon, "Don’t move," and slowly descended.

His sight lingered briefly on the State Preceptor whose only legs remained in place, and Li Yaoxuan walked slowly towards the Prime Minister standing on the giant sword.

As he walked, he sighed:

"Your child promoted new laws in the court, and when I return to the palace, I could have a chance to rectify, to refute with disorderly orders, but the State Preceptor dying in this Imperial Dragon Forest has indeed made this matter concrete. After all, this Northern Hunt was by my decree, and the Sects surely would think this is a double act by the Emperor and the Chancellor, the Prime Minister seems to want to put me in an unrighteous place."

Xu Yinhè slowly turned around, withdrew the hand with the Mo Ring, his eyes deep:

"There’s never a perfect plan in this world, Your Majesty should have anticipated retaliation when setting this feast..."

"Of course, I thought of it."

Li Yaoxuan stopped about a foot away, slightly intensified his tone, interrupting:

"But I didn’t expect Ran Jianli to die so quickly. Should I say you hid too deeply, or Ran Jianli was too weak?"

The moment the signal from the sky was received, the three of them realized each other’s breakthrough methods.

The Prime Minister forcibly killed the State Preceptor to solidify the new law.

The State Preceptor ought to flee, letting the two factions, Imperial and Prime Minister, argue about the new law while returning to Sword Sect to prepare for war, or forcibly kill the Prime Minister, coercing the Imperial Faction against the Prime Minister Party.

And the Emperor to seek a chance to turn back must ensure neither the State Preceptor nor the Prime Minister die.

The three of them thought so and acted.

A battle erupted,

Ran Jianli and Xu Yinhè almost acted simultaneously,

The Emperor’s nine-story land palace along with the ceremonial team were instantly evaporated.

Yet the result was shocking.

The State Preceptor Ran Jianli was killed instantly without any resistance by the Prime Minister.

With slightly disheveled hair, Xu Yinhè dusted off the ash on the Black Dragon Robe, retrieved his boot from the heavy sword, his eyelids drooping:

"Your Majesty, now with matters as they are, rather than dwell on the past, why not focus your vision on the future, or perhaps, Your Majesty still wants to continue this feast?"

Puddles after the rain mirrored the blue sky dome, thousands of armored soldiers on the horizon gradually closed silently, forming a dense military formation targeting the strongest.

Li Yaoxuan stood in place without immediately responding, seemingly weighing the Prime Minister’s strength before him.

The killing intent gradually permeated, yet was broken by a light laugh.

The northern wind swept over with a chill, and Li Yaoxuan suddenly raised his eyes to the sky, asking:

"Let’s not mention this for now, Prime Minister, what is that thing in the sky?"

"....."

Xu Yinhè looked at Li Yaoxuan with slight surprise.

The Heavenly Will, colorless and formless, invisible to ordinary people even upon descent.

Li Yaoxuan glanced at this old friend, shaking his head gently:

"In the path of cultivation, I am indeed not as good as you, but after so many years, not far behind. That thing just injured you, and not lightly, this I can see."

"Your time is not enough."

"I see."

Li Yaoxuan murmured at these words without further probing intent.

With the end of time approaching, the heart desires, yet too many things cannot be done, over time he sees through such things, not forcing.

He could only sigh slightly:

"Heaven, Emperor, hehe...I never thought there truly is such a thing overhead, if known, the mandate of heaven, long life and eternal prosperity rhetoric should be revised."

While speaking,

Li Yaoxuan casually beckoned at the giant sword embedded into the ground, the foot-long Ink Sword immediately circled and flew to him, grasping it with one hand, yet his hunched figure and that divine martial giant sword seemed extremely incongruous, but in Xu Yinhè’s eyes, this sickly elder seemed to return to the prince of the past full of vigor.

Li Yaoxuan easily held the heavy sword horizontally in front of him, through the blunt blade looking at the man opposite:

"Yin He, after being severely injured twenty years ago, I realized my time was limited, upon knowing my injury would corrode lifespan, I was truly anxious, always thinking about ways to break the deadlock, pondering how to make this world progress as envisioned after my death, but things are like this, haste is useless, rather it is unintentional that things succeed well."

"Do you remember the incident where Empress Mu attempted a palace coup?"

"I don’t want to judge short-sighted women, but cannot help but thank her, for allowing a person to enter my sight."

"It also made me abandon the idea of sentencing her to death, merely rebuked her lightly, and severed her external communications, continuing the performance of harmony between Emperor and consort.

"Because I need her alive to cover certain things, also need the Mu Family’s power to suppress many voices and support certain matters, like the Crown Prince supervising the country, like suppressing Li Zhaoyuan, and letting Li Qingyan lead troops outside....."

"As my time draws near, some things I might as well tell you.

"The person I intend to pass the throne to is Li Qingyan."

"After my severe injury, the daughter I sent to the Northern Frontier instead became the solution, to achieve this, I deliberately began cultivating her, deliberately creating situations of life and death to make her resent the Sects, and forbade the Crown Prince from contacting and severing her familial ties."

At this mention,

Li Yaoxuan looked at Xu Yinhè’s face that turned gloomy, suddenly self-mocking: "It seems you’ve almost figured it out, your third child’s ’Innate Pulse’ was indeed arranged by me, the purpose was to produce a useless figure in the Xu Family.... to be the future Emperor’s Consort."