Chapter 297: The Imperial Advisor Appears
The Empress, her emotions calm, met Consort Ling’s gaze. “Are you so sure the First Prince will succeed?”
Consort Ling laughed until tears streamed from her eyes.
“What if he doesn’t succeed? People must always strive; if I win, I’ll be the Empress Dowager. If I lose…”
She lowered her voice. “It will simply be death.”
The Empress Dowager looked at her. “What about your family? Don’t you care about them at all?”
“Them?”
Consort Ling leaned back against the palanquin. “They are more anxious than I am.”
Who doesn’t want to vie for that position? Wasn’t she herself pushed to this point step by step by them? Since there was no turning back, she would just keep going.
“Capture them.”
Consort Ling waved her hand, and countless rebel soldiers flooded into Cining Palace.
The remaining Imperial Guards put up a fierce resistance, and the Empress even drew her sword and came out.
She was the daughter of a military general, naturally possessing genuine martial skills.
If she hadn’t been born a woman, she would have been a general fighting on the battlefield.
Princess Zhaohua, facing such a situation for the first time, had just struck someone with her whip when someone beside her raised a sword to stab her.
Her face turned pale; she had no time to resist and could only watch helplessly as the sword drew closer and closer to her.
“Ah!!!”
When it was less than a fist’s distance from her, the attacker suddenly paused and cried out. Princess Zhaohua, reacting quickly, seized the moment of pause to duck and evade.
Because she dodged with too much force, her body rolled twice on the ground due to inertia.
Qin Wanwan ran over and helped her up.
“Sister Zhaohua, are you alright?”
“I’m fine. Why are you here?”
Princess Zhaohua’s voice still trembled slightly, her hair disheveled.
“You should leave quickly and hide.”
Qin Wanwan shook her head. “I’m fine.”
She beckoned, and several palm-sized bees flew over.
Princess Zhaohua immediately understood that she had been able to escape death just now entirely because of Qin Wanwan.
“You…”
“Shh…”
Qin Wanwan stealthily released the venomous snakes coiled around her wrists and ankles.
The snakes were small but agile, slithering through the enemy ranks, making them difficult to spot.
And from inside her clothes, she pulled out several insects.
Princess Zhaohua was dumbfounded.
“Sister Zhaohua, do you want to play? You can’t play with these; they’re all poisonous.”
Those small poisonous insects and snakes went towards the enemies. With a light sting or a bite, they would quickly be poisoned and die before they even realized it.
Several people in succession died from poison, their noses and mouths bleeding. The people on the other side finally noticed something was wrong.
“Poisonous creatures!”
Consort Ling’s men, seeing the dead and hearing about poison, immediately lost their composure.
“Quick, take Consort Ling away from here first.”
Consort Ling: “I’m not leaving!”
Her eyes were fierce. “Since you’re so ungrateful, you can all die! Archers, fire your arrows!”
All the archers drew their bows, but before they could shoot, a gust of wind swept through, and many people were sent flying by a white shadow before they could even react.
“Hiss…”
“Snakes, such big snakes?!”
The people carrying Consort Ling’s palanquin were so terrified their legs turned to jelly. Some dropped the palanquin and ran, while others’ legs went weak, and they sat on the ground.
Consort Ling, who had been high and mighty just a moment ago, was tossed and fell directly from the palanquin.
“Your Highness!”
Consort Ling’s personal palace maid quickly stepped forward to help her up.
But in that short amount of time, the giant white snake had coiled around them, its head aimed at Consort Ling.
Faced with such a large snake, Consort Ling’s face turned deathly pale. Trembling, she removed the hairpin from her head and aimed it at the large snake.
“Don’t… don’t come any closer.”
“Stop all of you.”
A clear, cold voice rang out. Although the tone didn’t fluctuate much and the voice wasn’t very loud, everyone heard it.
They all turned their heads in unison to look.
A man with snow-white hair reaching the ground, dressed in white, close-fitting Daoist robes, and with a white cloth blindfolding his eyes, appeared within their sight.
“Imperial Advisor!”
At this moment, both the Imperial Guards and Consort Ling’s men lowered their weapons.
Seeing the newcomer, Consort Ling’s eyes dimmed.
“Imperial Advisor, hahaha… why, why do you all protect that mother and son? What right do they have!”
The Imperial Advisor ‘looked’ in her direction, his voice indifferent. “And what right do you think the First Prince has to be Emperor?”
“Do you think being Emperor is about indulgence, profiting from national disaster, and oppressing the weak…”
With every word spoken, Consort Ling’s face grew paler. The Imperial Advisor’s words were like knives, mercilessly piercing her heart.
“You know very well what kind of character the First Prince has?”
Consort Ling was somewhat broken. “Are the other princes any better? Didn’t he, Yin Yunhuan, just get lucky after the other princes fought themselves to death? If a good-for-nothing like him who only knows how to womanize can be Emperor, why can’t my son!”
Consort Ling’s words infuriated the Empress Dowager to the point of nearly fainting.
“You, you are insolent!”
Consort Ling scoffed. “If it weren’t for Yin Ronghuan’s luck, do you think you could have become Empress Dowager? Could you have contended with any of the late Emperor’s formidable consorts?”
Empress Dowager:………
Xuan Ce: “He is indeed a good-for-nothing.”
“But he did one thing very well: he knew his own capabilities and listened to advice. He never meddled in state affairs, which is why Tianqi has been so stable these past few years.”
“But the First Prince is different; he meddles blindly in things he doesn’t understand.”
Xuan Ce cut to the chase. “If he truly succeeded, who would the Emperor truly be? The First Prince’s, or your Wu family’s?”
Consort Ling clutched the hairpin in her hand. Xuan Ce walked over.
“Everyone, retreat.”
His single command made those who had been fighting to the death obediently withdraw from Cining Palace.
Consort Ling, now a mess, sat on the ground and began to laugh foolishly.
“Imperial Advisor, tell me, what was the purpose of my life, coming to this world? They forced me and my cousin apart for wealth and status, making me give up everything just because Yin Ronghuan took a liking to me. Later, I came to my senses and constantly climbed my way up, fighting with so many women, but in the end, I gained nothing.”
Xuan Ce: “To come into this world is simply to live once, but how one lives is not something anyone can decide. Sometimes, not even oneself can decide how to live one’s own life.”
Consort Ling laughed bitterly. “Yes, to live once, but… why is it so tiring.”
“Mother Consort, Mother Consort, save me!”
Outside Cining Palace, a group of people approached in haste.
It was the First Prince, who had been suppressed, along with the Emperor and his retinue.
The First Prince was extremely terrified at this moment.
They stood at the main gate. Upon seeing the Imperial Advisor, their previously angry emotions began to subside.
“Greetings, Esteemed National Preceptor.”
The First Prince, along with Consort Ling’s father and brothers from her maternal family, were brought forward and forced to kneel.
They were as defiant and ambitious during the rebellion as they were now terrified and regretful.
