Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms - Chapter 158

Chapter 158: Escape

Li Daoye’s face turned severe. “Young master Fang, you’re saying that… the one who colluded with the Blood Spirit Cult is your Great Xia’s emperor?”

“Xiao Shence was putting on a show even in his final moments. What a foolishly loyal bastard.” Fang Chen took in a deep breath as rage surfaced in his eyes. “Now that I think about it, there was no way Xia Yu could have been competent enough to win Xiao Shence’s undying loyalty. He was the emperor’s aide from the start to the end.”

“What about the others?” Li Daoye was flabbergasted

He never thought that mere mortals would be capable of such intricate schemes. Even a cultivator like him had been duped. Not once had he ever suspected that Xiao Shence was acting in the Palace of Great Peace.

“The others? That doesn’t matter anymore, but those people probably thought they were serving the crown prince.” Fang Chen scoffed. “Xia Yu probably thought so too. He believed he had put together a group of close aides, and he could make use of the Blood Spirit Cult to become the emperor and bring Great Xia to a greater height, thus going down in history as a sage emperor. Yet, he never stopped to wonder whether his father knew about the Blood Spirit Cult or not.

“Now that Tao Yu has reminded me, do you think there’s any reason for the Blood Spirit Cult to approach a crown prince who wields little power instead of the emperor? That uncle of mine is a scheming and vicious man. He has truly mastered the way of the emperor. If needed, he doesn’t even hesitate to use his own flesh and blood as a shield to protect himself.

“He knew from the very start how huge of a controversy it would be to bring in the Blood Spirit Cult, so he prepared a path of retreat. He allowed Xia Yu to handle things on the surface while he eyed things from a distance away. How laughable it is that Xia Yu didn’t know the truth even when he was going to be killed!”

Li Daoye was infuriated. “How can that fellow be so cruel? Great Xia belongs to him, but he actually allowed the Blood Spirit Cult to use it as a pill cauldron?”

Instead of replying, Fang Chen closed his eyes, and his soul instantaneously arrived before the imperial palace.

The imperial palace had been busy recently due to the emperor’s abdication. The eunuchs, maids, and even officials were rushing around the place. The imperial guards also looked to be more vigilant than ever.

Fang Chen saw a daft Noble Consort Hua sitting in her room. He saw a group of concubines excitedly speculating the successor to the throne. The princes were busy discussing with their supporters how they could rally the officials to their side.

However, the Great Xia’s emperor and his aunt were nowhere to be seen.

“They aren’t in the imperial palace?” Fang Chen frowned.

His soul drifted to other places, such as the emperor’s outer palace, the hunting field, and so on, but the emperor was nowhere to be seen.

“He wouldn’t escape for no reason. The likeliest impetus is that he discovered that Tao Yu had entered the Fang Manor, but there’s such a short interval in between that there’s no way he could have disappeared from the capital, not to mention he’s traveling with my aunt,” Fang Chen murmured grimly.

For the following hour, Fang Chen searched the entire capital, but he found no traces of the emperor and the empress. It was as if the two of them had vanished from the face of the world.

Slowly, Fang Chen started to grow anxious.

He honestly couldn’t care less whether the Great Xia’s emperor was dead or alive, but his aunt, Fang Cangyue, was his close kin! Fang Cangyue had doted a lot on him before she entered the imperial palace, and he held those sentiments dear to his heart.

“My aunt would have been fine if I discovered this earlier. Xia Xuanji, you can be sure that I’ll find you even if I have to overturn oceans if you dare harm a single strand of my aunt’s hair!” Fang Chen roared in fury.

He felt self-reproach. He had calculated everything to ensure that his plans would go smoothly, but he ended up overlooking Xia Xuanji. I should have never underestimated him. I knew that he was a wily old fox, but I still fell for his act.

His soul dove out of the capital and combed the area within a ten kilometers radius, until he started to feel fatigued and had no choice but to return his soul to his body. Even so, he still found no trace of the two of them.

“He fled from the capital within such a short period of time despite having my aunt with him… He must have either already become a cultivator or is a stronger martial artist than I imagined,” Fang Chen murmured.

From Li Daoye’s point of view, Fang Chen had been quiet for a long time before he suddenly murmured those inexplicable words. Perplexed, he asked, “Who fled?”

“The Great Xia’s emperor.” Fang Chen harrumphed before hurriedly leaving the Fang Manor.

Li Daoye quickly followed him.

Soon, all of the Valiant Defenders were mobilized to comb the capital. The search was so thorough that they practically stopped short of digging underground. Fang Chen was determined not to leave any stones unturned here.

Perhaps Xia Xuanji simply used some kind of trickery and is actually still hiding in the capital.

Not even the ministers and powerful officials were spared from the search. The Valiant Defenders barged right into their manors and searched every nook and cranny despite the furious opposition they faced.

Some tried to bribe them to figure out the cause of this abrupt search, but the Valiant Defenders had no answer to their question as they didn’t even know what they were looking for.

News quickly spread into the imperial palace. It just so happened that all of the ministers and the Fifth King were gathered together, and they were shocked to hear the news.

Li Guozhu had a tight frown. He turned to Jiang Yushu and the Fifth King and asked, “What do the two of you think about this? Imperial Duke Fang made such a move right after His Majesty abdicated… is he thinking about tampering with the heir selection?”

“Don’t make blind speculations,” Jiang Yushu stroked his beard as he replied. “Imperial Duke Fang has his own reason for doing that. This could be an operation to dig up the remnants of the Blood Spirit Cult.”

The crowd tensed up upon hearing that.

But shortly after, they heard the servants outside calling out Fang Chen’s title. A few moments later, Fang Chen stepped into the Palace of Great Peace together with Li Daoye.

All of the officials quickly stood up to greet him.

“Imperial Duke Fang, all of the officials are gathered here,” Eunuch You said fawningly.

“Mm.” Fang Chen nodded before turning his eyes toward each of the officials, from Tao Minsheng and Ye Dongming to Li Guozhu and the others.

His gaze unnerved the crowd.

The Fifth King nervously cleared his throat and spoke up, “We received word that you have ordered the Valiant Defenders to comb the capital, not sparing even the manors of the ministers and officials. Are you looking for the remnants of the Blood Spirit Cultists?”

“It’s nothing much. It’s just for an ease of mind,” Fang Chen replied.

An ease of mind? The crowd heaved a sigh of relief.

Fang Chen looked at the officials and smiled. “Have you decided who should take the crown?”

Li Guozhu thought for a few seconds before replying, “The Second Prince should have rightfully become the heir after the crown prince’s death, but the Second Prince died prematurely. Going down the line of succession, the Third Prince should have taken the crown, but who could have thought that the Third Prince would die in Greenpine’s hands…”

“Didn’t His Majesty nominate a prince?” Fang Chen interjected.

“Ah…” Li Guozhu was stunned, then he shook his head. “His Majesty has refused to meet us in the past few days. He said from the start that we should decide among ourselves.”

“I see. You should carefully think things through then. I’ll go meet His Majesty.”

Leaving those words behind, Fang Chen made his way toward the emperor’s bed chamber, with Li Daoye following close behind him.