Chapter 584: Noble Consort Ning has no son (1/2)
Chapter 584: Noble Consort Ning has no son
Predestination?
The commander of the infantry had no idea what that meant, but anything concerning the fate of the nation made him break out in a cold sweat. He only pretended not to hear a thing as he personally collected the fake Long Feiye and Han Yunxi’s corpses.
He didn’t believe that the Duke of Qin was involved in this plot, but he still had to deliver the bodies back to White City so Emperor Kang Cheng could see for himself. Whether or not the emperor believed the same thing would be up to the man himself.
What would Emperor Kang Cheng think?
He already knew that the Chu Clan was planning to turn traitor once they had pushed out the crown prince as scapegoat for embezzlement. But he never expected them to make their move so soon. He couldn’t figure out where they could retreat to at a time like this. He’d been keeping an eye on Empress Chu’s movements in Western Liang, and that didn’t seem like a possible spot! Now the Chu Clan had not only rebelled, but kidnapped his beloved empress as well. How could he tolerate such a slight!?
An irate Emperor Kang Cheng would never believe anything the Chu Clan said ever again. While sending various merciless soldiers to suppress the Chu Clan’s renegade troops, Emperor Kang Cheng was also keeping an ear out for news from Thousand Buddha Cave. The Chu Clan’s mutiny had started from there, so it was closely connected to the thousand-year ginkgo tree. Messenger hawks brought an endless stream of messages to the palace, updating Emperor Kang Cheng on the latest news from the temple. The earliest missives described Chu Yunyi unmasking the fake Long Feiye and Qin Wangfei, then went on to speak of His Highness Duke of Qin in disguise as a masked man wearing black.
It was impossible for him to trust Chu Yunyi’s words now. As he saw it, the man was simply trying to sow discord between him and the Duke of Qin so as to ruin their already delicate relationship. When the bodies of the impersonators reached Emperor Kang Cheng’s palace a few days later, he was even more convinced that everything was part of Chu Yunyi’s grand scheme.
“The Chu Clan’s full of wishful thinking. Hmph, Zhen isn’t stupid enough to shift the blame to the Duke of Qin!” Emperor Kang Cheng harrumphed.
The Chu Clan had no place to retreat but Empress Chu’s stronghold in Western Liang now. In other words, Western Zhou and Tianning’s hundred years of peace through their marriage alliances were now about to fall apart. If Western Zhou could ally with Tianning’s south central regions, they’d have Western Liang all but surrounded on the western and southern fronts. Meanwhile, Tianan laid to the east and Northern Li to the north. In other words, Western Liang had simultaneously made enemies on all four sides, leaving it isolated and cut off from help!
To put it into perspective, Emperor Kang Cheng would still pretend he knew nothing even if the Duke of Qin really had gone to Thousand Buddha Cave that day. Making friends with the Duke of Qin was his best move now in terms of strategy!
“The thousand-year ginkgo tree vanished into thin air? Your Majesty, this is just too strange. As this old servant sees it, there’s a hidden mystery in all this!” his old eunuch proclaimed.
Emperor Kang Cheng was still stewing in his temper, so the words only fanned the flames. “Watch your mouth! Spread my orders: anyone who’s learned of the news must be killed without mercy!”
The old eunuch grew alarmed at his monarch’s words. “Your Majesty, this old servant doesn’t know a thing! I’ve forgotten everything! Please spare this old servant’s life!”
“Get lost. If news of this breaks out, Zhen will be the first to take your head!” Emperor Kang Chen roared.
The thousand-year ginkgo was Western Zhou’s holy tree and the treasure of the Thousand Buddha Cave. If news of its disappearance spread right after the Chu Clan’s uprising, it would only become an inauspicious omen and make the people as well as the army panic. Although Emperor Kang Cheng still wasn’t clear on the details of what had happened, the first thing he had to do now was to issue a lockdown on the news and silence all witnesses with death.
Western Zhou had already been thrown into chaos. No matter what, he wouldn’t let anyone or anything make a further mess of the situation!
The old eunuch half ran, half stumbled out of the room. For the sake of protecting the secret and his own life, he would definitely do a beautiful job. Once he was gone, Emperor Kang Cheng privately sent out a team of personal bodyguards to investigate the phenomenon in secret. He himself focused all his efforts in rescuing his empress and suppressing the Chu Clan troops.
Meanwhile, the masked figures who caused the tree to vanish in the first place were still in the little town situated to the east of Thousand Buddha Cave. That night, Long Feiye had only agreed to stay in the Chu Estate as part of a counterplot. Although they’d slept on Chu grounds while being monitored, he still managed to contact his guards and arrange for a switcheroo. There were plenty of chances to execute the switch in the journey between White City and Thousand Buddha Cave. If there was anyone to blame, it was Chu Yunyi and his overconfidence for underestimating Long Feiye and his methods.
Han Yunxi just finished explaining to everyone how she’d made the tree disappear with the effects of Perplexing Butterfly Illusion. Because of that, Long Feiye stopped connecting it to the disappearance of the poison pond in the past.
“Duke of Qin, they’re actually planning on inducing early labor on Chu Qingge!? It’s unthinkable!” Tang Li had updated them about the missive as soon as a lull came in the conversation. He always called Long Feiye by his title when Gu Qishao or other outsiders were present.
Long Feiye had guessed their enemies would move against Chu Qingge in one way or another, but never predicted this development. However, Han Yunxi was the most surprised of all. “Really!?”
She had read some foreign classics in the modern world that described how five-month old fetuses were the earliest premature babies to survive birth, but that was with the assistance of incubators and various medical tools and medicines to keep them alive. Still, it was easy for such babies to develop health problems later on in life. She never expected Cloud Realm Continent had the skills to induce early labor even without modern-day technology! The medical academy’s skills were indeed formidable if that was true.
They had the confidence not only to birth a premature baby, but to keep it alive as well.
But with all the care and attention that child would need later, would it ever actually live to the age where it took the throne? Most likely, the Chu Clan weren’t planning to keep around the baby for long. He would be a pretence for their plots until the situation in Western Zhou stabilized. Then the Chu Clan would replace him with one of their own sons!
“It looks like the induced labor will succeed…” Long Feiye trailed off coldly.