Chapter 548: Chapter 178: Secrets! Fan Wu’s Origin, the Jade Pendant, and the Pawn Shop! (A 10,000-word Chapter asking for subscriptions)_6
The Old Emperor’s words had just settled when a throng of palace maids, guards, and eunuchs within Yangxin Hall fell to their knees, their faces stricken with panic.
The scene dumbfounded Yun Jiuqing and Xing Fengzi and even caused the Little Prince to be stunned.
It left the young boy somewhat at a loss.
"The incident from thirty years ago?" Under such an eerily silent atmosphere, a voice suddenly rang out: "Does it have to do with the Nanjun County Prince?"
The speaker was none other than Fan Wu!
All the kneeling eunuchs, palace maids, and guards had expressions as if they’d seen a ghost. They couldn’t believe that someone would pose such a question to His Majesty under these circumstances.
Daring to bring up that matter before His Majesty!
This this this...
How could this Daoist Fan Wu from Qiulong Temple be so bold? Just how much bear’s strength and leopard’s gall had he consumed?
Everyone in the Imperial Palace knew that this topic was amongst the most forbidden of forbidden histories; even those who conversed about it in private used the most abstract terms to replace the key words.
Thirty years ago, because of this incident, His Majesty... had executed no small number of people!
"There’s nothing that can’t be mentioned," the Old Emperor’s response, on the contrary, was beyond what all the palace maids, guards, and eunuchs had expected. He continued, "After all, so much time has passed; even if some things are spoken of now, it hardly matters."
"Nanjun’s Yun Shouji had his people send my grandson to me, didn’t he? He probably mentioned some things, right? Although he might not have mentioned much, you should be able to guess some things."
"Indeed, there was a disturbance in the Imperial Palace many years ago. The Crown Prince’s eldest son, my Imperial Grandson, intended to displace his father."
"He staged an unprecedented palace coup..."
That the Old Emperor would narrate the events of that time so precisely, as if to satisfy Fan Wu’s curiosity, was surprising.
More than thirty years ago, the Imperial Grandson of the Great Zhou Dynasty often mixed with villains in the court and believed numerous slanders. Unfortunately, the Imperial Grandson himself was not very decisive.
One day, after binge drinking, he beat two palace maids to death and feared his father finding out.
He threatened that not a single eunuch or guard in the palace could speak of the incident, or he would execute them one by one.
Unexpectedly, the Imperial Grandson’s father, the current Crown Prince, quickly came to know of the incident.
The Crown Prince was extremely strict and demanding with his sons.
Even when his eldest son made such a grave mistake, he still erupted in thunderous fury, acting as if he could replace his Imperial Grandson at any moment. After that incident, the Crown Prince of Great Zhou seldom saw his eldest son, instead calling on his second, third, fourth sons, and so on, more frequently.
The Imperial Grandson panicked, as did the officials under his command.
For some reason, they concluded that...
——The Crown Prince intended to appoint a new heir!!
This conclusion seemed rather ludicrous, yet no matter how absurd, it held a possibility, especially given the Crown Prince’s inscrutable behavior towards his eldest son at the time.
Unfortunately, the vacillating Imperial Grandson believed whatever he was told by those around him.
He felt a great crisis looming over him.
He did not wish to be stripped of his position as the eldest son.
When one’s back is against the wall, anything is possible, even more so for a gullible Imperial Heir who easily trusted others.
He...
was preparing to commit patricide!
The Imperial Grandson gathered a faction of his cronies as well as ministers, aiming to contrive his father’s murder and even the assassination of his own siblings. Thus, he would be the sole legitimate heir of the imperial family, with no one able to challenge his position.
His confidence in such a plan stemmed from his own identity as a Cultivator!
He had secretly set up a hidden killing formation, hoping to lure the Crown Prince of Great Zhou and his younger brothers into it.
However, he never imagined that not everyone was willing to be part of such a plot.
Someone took the opportunity to leak the news to another of the Crown Prince’s heirs.
That’s none other than the current Nanjun County Prince!
"I didn’t think too much about it," the Nanjun County Prince began. "I only knew that my elder brother shouldn’t have done that. What he was doing was wrong, so I stopped him."
Before the old Emperor had finished speaking, the Nanjun County Prince, recalling the memory of the past, volunteered to add, "My thought was also very simple: he wanted to take my life, to take some of my brothers’ lives, to take my father’s life, so I took his life."
"He was a very talented cultivator, but he was no match for me. I only needed half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea..."
The Nanjun County Prince paused before continuing, "...to kill him."
Up to this point.
The Nanjun County Prince spoke calmly and without ripples: "In fact, my elder brother had only made these preparations and didn’t get a chance to strike. That is to say, the only one who committed fratricide that year was me."
"After the incident, the Imperial Grandfather was furious, and so was my father. But after my explanation, and their investigation, they found that I had good reasons for my actions."
"Still, my elder brother hadn’t made his move, and I, I had preemptively killed him!"
"To silence the criticism, I was sent to the Great Demon Forbidden Land. The Imperial Grandfather even instructed me not to venture deep into the forbidden area, but... in the end, I couldn’t resist the temptation of the evil demons."
Having said this.
The Nanjun County Prince looked at the Little Prince and said with a slight smile: "The Imperial Grandfather forbids young princes and grandsons from engaging in the art of cultivation for good reason. Such a major affront must not happen a second time."
"If my elder brother had been just an ordinary person without any knowledge of cultivation, he would never have entertained the thought of fratricide."
"For lack of a sharp weapon."
"One harbors no murderous intent."
The old Emperor and the Nanjun County Prince seemed to cooperate in their exchange, succinctly outlining the major events of that year, leaving the Little Prince utterly astounded!
As a Little Prince, he had never heard that such a significant incident had occurred in the Imperial Palace!
And it involved his eldest brother, the present Crown Prince of Great Zhou Dynasty!
The Little Prince instantly wilted.
He abandoned the thought completely.
Although he was young, he could sense how serious the matter was.
It was even...
...an imperial scandal.
"I am tired. The one... what’s his name..." the old Emperor, showing signs of weariness, spoke to Hu Banban, who had been kneeling for who knows how long, "You take Daoist Fan Wu and the others and provide for them tonight. They have saved an Imperial son and grandson of mine; treat them well."
"Your servant obeys Your Majesty’s decree!"
...
The next day.
Noon.
After enjoying a night’s hospitality from the Great Zhou Imperial Palace, Fan Wu set off, refreshed, with Old Blue Ox and the Destiny Coffin, leaving the Great Zhou Imperial Palace.
Today he needed to find a pawnshop to retrieve a jade pendant that once belonged to him, but was pawned off by his fraudulent master.
"Fuyuan Pawnshop..." he muttered the pawnshop’s name.
Fan Wu mused, "I remember seeing quite a few along the way."
Such a common name.
Innumerable duplicates.
...
...
