All Heavens: From Joy of Life to The Great Feng Night Watchman

Page 183

After listening to Shadow's words, Chen Pingping fell into deep thought.

"Shadow, how many of Li Chang'an's Shadow Guards are there now?"

Shadow replied, "The Dragon Guard Manor has been completed, and His Highness Prince Yong will be moving there soon."

“The Prince Yong’s Mansion currently has one hundred Shadow Guards, and the Dragon Guard Manor has around two hundred Shadow Guards as well.”

Chen Pingping said, "Among the three hundred experts of the seventh rank or above, there are probably around one hundred of them at the eighth rank."

"And there are also the spies that His Majesty allowed him to set up in the martial arts world, which must number over a thousand."

Shadow said, "It should be about right. His Highness Prince Yong always recruits martial arts masters whenever he goes out."

Chen Pingping tapped his wheelchair and said, "This matter targeting the Second Prince was Li Chang'an's doing."

"The Crown Prince doesn't currently have such a powerful force, but the Eldest Princess does, though she won't have anyone sue him."

"Your Highness Prince Yong, you're becoming increasingly ostentatious!"

Shadow said in a deep voice, "So many people have reported on the prince, making the royal family's scandals so public that it has probably touched His Majesty's sore spot."

Chen Pingping said with a smile, "Haven't you noticed? Prince Yong's various actions are clearly testing His Majesty's bottom line."

"If I'm not mistaken, he wants to completely overthrow Li Chengze and then take the stage for the succession himself."

"This Prince Yong considers himself far superior to his two nephews and has taken an interest in His Majesty's throne!"

The shadow continued, "But Prince Yong is not a prince after all, and he is going to marry a princess from Northern Qi as a concubine. It is probably unlikely that he will be able to covet the throne!"

Chen Pingping sneered and said, "But he has the strength, and his strength in all aspects is slowly becoming apparent."

“If this matter continues to escalate, one of the Prince Yong and the Second Prince will have to fall completely.”

"If you were His Majesty, who would you let fall?"

Shadow replied almost without hesitation, "Of course it's the Second Prince. The price of bringing down Prince Yong is too high."

Compared to Li Chang'an's prestige and status, the Second Prince has no outstanding qualities other than being Emperor Qing's biological son.

Chen Pingping glanced back at the shadow and said, "That's right, even an outsider like you can understand it, how could His Majesty not understand?"

"In His Majesty's eyes, the Crown Prince must never fall."

The other competitor, whether it be the Second Prince or Prince Yong, is merely a whetstone.

"The stronger Prince Yong becomes, the greater his power will be. Wouldn't that balance out the influence of the Crown Prince and the Eldest Princess?"

Shadow still asked with some doubt, "But, if we let Prince Yong grow too powerful, what if things get out of His Majesty's control?"

Chen Pingping smiled calmly and said, "No, His Majesty is confident that the affairs of the Qing Kingdom cannot escape his control!"

Royal study room.

In this world, only in front of Hong Sixiang could Emperor Qing confide some of his true feelings.

"Si Xiang, I never intended to change the crown prince. Li Chengze is merely a whetstone to hone the crown prince."

“Back then, he was obsessed with poetry and literature. It was I who nurtured him step by step, making him strong enough to rival the Crown Prince for so many years.”

"This incident targeting Li Chengze is Li Chang'an demonstrating his power and ability to me."

"He is telling me that he is already far superior to Li Chengze, and that he is no longer content to be a leisurely prince!"

Hong Sixiang bowed and said, "The Prince Yong's three hundred Shadow Guards, including the secret agents and spies in the martial arts world, and the prestige of the Heavenly Vein, were all given to him step by step by His Majesty."

"Whether it's Li Chang'an or Li Chengze, with just one word from His Majesty, they can go from being princes who are above others to prisoners who can be slaughtered at will."

Emperor Qing examined the composite bow blueprints that Fan Xian had brought in and said casually, "That's not entirely true. Li Chang'an's literary talent wasn't given to him by me; it was a gift from heaven."

"He knows his irreplaceable position in the literary world, so even though he is only my brother, he dares to step forward and compete for the position of crown prince!"

Emperor Qing's tacit approval of Li Chang'an's Shadow Guard's growing power was originally intended to check and balance the Overwatch Council. He and his old partner Chen Pingping had long harbored their own ulterior motives.

Moreover, Li Chang'an's influence and power in various aspects have just formed a new balance of power with the combination of the Eldest Princess and the Crown Prince.

Li Chengze is now almost powerless against Li Chang'an.

The whetstone is almost worthless now; it's time to get a new one.

A prince whose chances of inheriting the throne are slim, but whose strength is extraordinary, is simply the best whetstone.

If a power is too great, but the chances of succession are equally high, then the crown prince will be afraid and lose confidence.

If the prince is not strong enough, his chances of succeeding to the throne are slim, and he has no sense of crisis.

Choosing a whetstone is also an art.

Hong Sixiang said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, this old servant always feels that Prince Yong has a mysterious confidence."

"That confidence comes from a deep-seated, unbridled fearlessness. Is he relying on something we don't know about?"

Upon hearing Hong Sixiang's words, Emperor Qing suddenly laughed, "You're overthinking it. Can his reliance compare to mine?"

The implication is that I am a grandmaster, which is why I can confidently change the whetstone without worrying about ruining the situation.

Even if Li Chang'an has something to rely on, does he really have a Grandmaster by his side?

"However, it is always better to be cautious. You should still regularly inspect the Dragon Guard Manor and the Prince Yong's Mansion."

"I will make him move out of the capital city as soon as possible and live in the Dragon Guard Villa outside the city. This will be a punishment for him!"

Hong Sixiang accepted the order and said, "This old servant obeys."

A few days later, Li Chang'an completed the relocation, and his family and secret guards all moved to the Hulong Manor outside the city.

Many people are interpreting this incident as a minor punishment from Emperor Qing for Li Chang'an's recent overbearing behavior.

After all, for a prince, not living in the capital city meant being out of touch with the world.

However, for Grandmaster Li Chang'an, with the Net and Shadow Guards around, this distance was nothing at all.

Living outside the city, away from the eyes and ears of various factions, actually gave Li Chang'an a lot more freedom of movement.

Moving out of the capital might be a punishment for the other princes, but for Li Chang'an, it was a great thing!

Li Chang'an has now mastered the Yi Jin Jing, with only the seventh cycle of the Black-level Floating Pagoda remaining uncultivated.

Having mastered the first six levels of the Floating Pagoda, one has already reached the strength of other human Grandmasters.

Li Chang'an's injuries have now largely healed, and he is also cultivating the Black-Level Floating Pagoda.

Ordinary martial artists can only store true qi in their meridians. Cultivating the White-level Floating Pagoda allows them to store qi in their acupoints. Continuing to cultivate the initial stage of the Black-level Floating Pagoda allows them to store true qi throughout their entire body.

Unlike Emperor Qing, whose meridians were completely destroyed, Li Chang'an's internal energy was more abundant than Emperor Qing's after he reached a state where his entire body was filled with true qi.

Therefore, as long as Li Chang'an cultivates the initial stage of the Black-level Pagoda, he will be able to overwhelm Emperor Qing and Wu Zhu, who wears an eye patch, in terms of combat power!

In other words, as long as one cultivates to the initial stage of the Black-level Pagoda, one will be invincible in this world!

If you want to compete with Wu Zhu's laser eyes after he takes off his blindfold, you need to be at the mid-level or perfect stage of the Black-level Floating Pagoda.

Several days had passed since the operation against Li Chengze began. Li Chang'an listened to Jing Ni's report on the situation, while Wang Qinian, Xing Yusen, and Teng Zijing stood by his side, ready to take orders.

"Your Highness, the Surveillance Bureau, the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate have all accepted the case and submitted reports to Emperor Qing explaining the situation."

"However, Emperor Qing did not issue any clear decrees regarding their memorials."

Li Chang'an was not surprised by Emperor Qing's attitude. "Not issuing an imperial decree means he doesn't oppose continuing the trial. How is it progressing now?"

Jingni continued, "The progress is very smooth, and the accounts of each shopkeeper are very detailed."

"The various government departments also verified the intelligence of the Embroidered Uniform Guard with the Supervisory Council, and basically all of it was made into irrefutable evidence."

The Shadow Guards have already copied all the intelligence on the Embroidered Uniform Guards regarding smuggling and sent it to the Overwatch Council.

"Moreover, the heads of the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review are both subordinates of the Crown Prince, so the case was handled very smoothly."

"As for the second young master of the Cui family, he has been placed under the protection of the Inspectorate. Lai Mingcheng has already obtained irrefutable evidence of the Cui family's smuggling activities."

It seems things are progressing according to plan. "Old Wang, has the Second Prince made any moves against these plaintiffs?"

Wang Qinian said, "According to Fan Wujiu's intelligence, there shouldn't be any at the moment."

"Because the Crown Prince has people in the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review, it is almost impossible to silence them."

"Moreover, the Supervisory Council has already planted a large number of spies near various government offices, just waiting for Li Chengze to send people to silence them."

Li Chang'an chuckled and said, "Fan Xian is really going head-to-head with Li Chengze. I'm not going to give him a chance to turn things around."

Jing Ni then spoke of Fan Xian's situation, "Because Emperor Qing tacitly approved the investigations of various government departments into Li Chengze, Fan Xian also launched an investigation into the corrupt officials under Li Chengze."

Li Chengze had many corrupt officials under his command. In the original drama, Chen Pingping was worried that it would implicate too many people, so he and Fan Xian set up a scheme to take advantage of Lai Mingcheng's integrity and push the task of investigating these corrupt officials to the Censorate.

But now that Li Chengze is down on his luck, everyone is kicking him while he's down, so Chen Pingping and Fan Xian are naturally going to beat him while he's down.

Li Chang'an then asked, "By the way, I secretly ordered Fan Wujiu to investigate the remaining people and goods in Shijia Town. Did he find any hiding places?"

Wang Qinian replied, "We have already found it. Your Highness, would you like to arrange for someone to go and collect the evidence?"

Li Chang'an shook his head. "No, when the wall falls, everyone pushes it down. We just need to make the first move."

"Secretly leak the clues to both the Oversight Council and the Crown Prince, and let them try to seize it themselves."

"How is Yuan Meng doing? This joint trial by the three judicial departments shouldn't be rushed into conclusion, right?"

Wang Qinian replied, "This time there is a smuggling case involved, and Lai Mingcheng attaches great importance to Yuan Meng's report."

"More than a dozen girls who were forced to do so have witnesses and physical evidence. Fan Sizhe and Li Chengping were also called in for questioning."