A quarter of an hour later,
Meng Hongchen appeared in a palace.
"Your Majesty, it is done." She bowed slightly, her tender tone evoking pity.
"The Empress has worked hard. Rise."
Xu Tianran wore a smile on his face, reaching out to help her up with an empty gesture. However, if one looked closely, they could find a hint of imperceptible awkwardness and embarrassment hidden within that smile.
As his smile faded, he said, "Empress, go down and prepare first. To maintain the seed's viability, the transplant must begin immediately. The imperial physicians from the Imperial Medical Academy are already prepared."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Meng Hongchen just nodded lightly and turned to leave. As for the darkness deep in her heart, not a single trace was revealed.
But just as she stepped out of the palace, a black shadow transformed by Xue Chen had silently appeared in her previous position. Kneeling on one knee, he kowtowed to Xu Tianran and reported, "Your Majesty, I have confirmed that Prince Tianhe is indeed dead. It was definitely the Empress's doing. A single lethal strike; he died from an ice sword piercing his heart."
"Mm, you may withdraw."
Xu Tianran was expressionless, his tone ice-cold. "Call the imperial physicians to examine the body, then come see me. Also, my fifth brother's corpse needs to be properly handled. Remember, his body must not be seen."
"Yes!"
Xue Chen accepted the order and left without a sound.
At this time, Xu Tianran slowly turned his wheelchair, his emotions unreadable.
He didn't like Meng Hongchen. Making her the Empress was merely a political consideration after ascending the throne. To put it bluntly, she was just a chess piece.
And as long as she completed her task, she could be discarded.
As for how to reasonably depose an Empress later without causing turmoil... wasn't Meng Hongchen's murder of Prince Tianhe a perfect reason? Once that got out, she would undoubtedly die.
If he was worried about whether Meng Hongchen would tear the net apart and reveal that Prince Tianhe was the true father of the prince... one sentence summed it up: Did she dare?
If this was leaked, the entire Hongchen family would be executed to the last.
Of course, even if she didn't leak it, the result would be the same. It was just a difference in the order of events.
In this regard, Xu Tianran could be described as ruthless and merciless.
But even so, as the Empress, Meng Hongchen naturally represented Xu Tianran's face. Even though the process of extracting the seed from Xu Tianhe didn't require physical contact at all and could be completed using the Sun Moon Empire's soul tool technology, it still gave Xu Tianran the feeling of being cuckolded.
Awkward, truly awkward!
Of course, he could still tolerate this level of it. But if her method of extracting the seed had been more conventional... thinking of this, a cold glint flashed in Xu Tianran's eyes. He wouldn't mind replacing the Empress immediately!
As time passed, an elderly imperial physician quickly walked in from outside and knelt before Xu Tianran.
In response, Xu Tianran didn't even spare him a glance. "How is it?"
The imperial physician deliberately lowered his voice and said, "Your Majesty, the Empress is still chaste."
Hearing this, the coldness on Xu Tianran's face dissipated quite a bit. He said, "In that case, proceed according to the original plan. Go, take good care of the Empress. It must succeed!"
"If it fails..."
Xu Tianran didn't continue, nor did he need to. The imperial physician immediately kowtowed respectfully and said, "Yes. Please rest assured, Your Majesty. I have examined the Empress's body multiple times before. As a powerful Soul Master, the Empress is very healthy, and today is the absolute best time for conception. I have over a ninety percent certainty that I can help the Empress conceive."
The imperial physician spoke honestly, earning a nod of agreement from Xu Tianran. He didn't care that the physician's last sentence was slightly ambiguous. After all, from beginning to end, Xu Tianran never intended to let anyone else who knew about this matter live, aside from the Shadow Douluo Xue Chen. The more people who knew, the more likely the information was to leak.
Xu Tianran waved his hand dismissively. "Go. If you succeed, I will reward you handsomely."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Meanwhile, in another room of the palace.
Meng Hongchen lay quietly on the bed, her entire body covered only by snow-white garments. Her gaze was very calm, as if the person about to undergo the transplant wasn't her. But deep within this calmness lay an endless chill.
'Xu Tianran, oh Xu Tianran…'
A sneer rose in Meng Hongchen's heart.
'To be an emperor, one must indeed be sufficiently ruthless and merciless. Our Hongchen family has been completely loyal to the Empire, and to you as well, but in the end… Hmph, alright then! It's a pity you were clever your whole life but will make this mistake! Since that's how it is, don't blame me for being disloyal!'
Meng Hongchen looked at her abdomen. She had no emotional attachment to this child whatsoever. But this child could become her chess piece.
'Hehe— Who says women are inferior to men!'
'But... I need to find a suitable woman for my brother.'
Just then, "Your Highness, are you ready? It might hurt a little later," the imperial physician's gentle voice sounded.
The voice pulled Meng Hongchen's thoughts back. She said calmly, "I'm ready. Imperial physician, let's begin."
"Alright, then please hand the prepared seed to me, Your Highness," the imperial physician said, extending his hand respectfully.
Meng Hongchen raised her hand, and a small metal tube appeared in her palm from her storage soul tool. As she slowly handed the metal tube to the imperial physician, her expression didn't change. Only when her gaze passed through the metal, as if seeing the seed inside, did a hint of apology flash across her face.
But it was only a flash, as if this emotion had never existed from the very beginning.
...
At dusk, in an alleyway within Mingdu.
In this empty, uninhabited area, several figures suddenly appeared quietly. They looked around, scanning their surroundings.
"Eldest Sister, is this the place?"
A cool yet slightly doubtful female voice sounded from beneath a mask. Obviously, this group was entirely made up of women. Even though they were wearing black robes, it was still hard to conceal their graceful figures.
"It is."
The leading woman scanned the area and frowned. "It should be time, right?" She looked at the woman beside her, wanting to confirm once more.
"It is."
Hearing this, the leading woman fell silent. "Retreat! And switch locations!"
"Eldest Sister, where to?"
"The Imperial Mausoleum."
These four words didn't cause the group of women much shock. After all, they had done all sorts of things; as long as it wasn't breaking into the imperial palace, nothing else would really surprise them.
So they came in a hurry and left in a hurry. In the span of a single breath, the group had vanished without a trace.
It wasn't until an hour later...
Common Alliance, Qili Garden.
Shangguan Wei'er was sitting upright in her seat, holding fragrant tea, listening to her subordinate's report with an uncalm expression.
"Alliance Master, this is what we found."
A small box appeared in front of Shangguan Wei'er.
"What is this?"
Shangguan Wei'er put down her tea and reached out to take it. Her face was full of confusion. It was clearly stated to be a full "corpse," so how come they brought back such a small box?
But before she could touch it, her subordinate blocked her hand. When Shangguan Wei'er shot her a puzzled look,
"Alliance Master, this is an urn."
Hearing this, Shangguan Wei'er immediately pulled her hand back. A look of disgust also hung on her face.
Immediately after, her expression changed again. If this was an urn of ashes, didn't it mean her task couldn't be completed?
Their current cooperation with the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect could be said to have made their Common Alliance a massive profit. And this current task was to make contact with a certain group of people, obtain a "corpse" from them, and make the "corpse" "live" again.
But what was the situation now? Not only did they fail to meet the agreed-upon contact, but the "corpse" they were supposed to receive had turned into ashes.
How could they resurrect a pile of ashes!
Watching her Alliance Master's face change continuously, the subordinate asked tentatively, "Alliance Master, what do we do next?"
"What do we do?"
Shangguan Wei'er sighed. "What else can we do? We'll just hand over these ashes to complete the task."
She looked at the urn of ashes and shook her head helplessly. "You put something in that tomb, right?"
"I put in the ashes of a Century-old Wind Baboon."
"That's good."
Hearing this, Shangguan Wei'er nodded in satisfaction. The body size of a Century-old Wind Baboon wasn't much different from an adult Soul Master, so the volume of ashes would be about the same.
"Leave the urn here. You may go down first."
"Yes."
The subordinate placed the urn on the tea table and then withdrew. Only Shangguan Wei'er was left looking at the urn, then picking up her tea and taking a sip. "This matter is truly... troublesome."
At this moment, Shangguan Wei'er held her forehead with a headache.
Since this person was from the royal family and so much effort was spent, it meant they were absolutely important. But now, it had ended up like this.
"Sigh—"
Meanwhile, the story splits into two branches.
On the road from Mingdu to the Mingdou Mountain Range, the Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult—that is, the "Bloodthirsty Douluo" Yang Yuan—was hurrying to the Sun Moon Empire's military camp stationed on the Mingdou Mountain Range side to meet Jing Hongchen.
Obviously, the figure Meng Hongchen met back then was this Evil Soul Master. And the one who delivered the letter was undoubtedly Yang Yuan.
However, even before delivering the letter, Yang Yuan had already transmitted the contents of the letter to Chen Junting. But even though Yang Yuan was half-undead and essentially a puppet, when he saw Meng Hongchen's plan, he still felt a burst of shock!
"Mm."
Just then, Yang Yuan's gaze dropped below. "We're here."
If he went any further, he would be within the detection range of the soul tools. So, as Yang Yuan landed, he took out a messaging soul tool. After casually pinning the envelope to a tree, he activated the messaging soul tool to attract Jing Hongchen.
As for himself, his figure flashed, and he vanished without a trace.
At this moment, inside Jing Hongchen's tent.
"Eh!?"
Jing Hongchen's eyes paused slightly, and then he pulled an item out of his pocket that was exactly identical to the messaging soul tool Yang Yuan had used. Watching the light on the messaging soul tool light up...
"Meng has sent another letter."
Looking at the light, a complex expression appeared on Jing Hongchen's face. He knew exactly what this represented. With this in mind, Jing Hongchen slowly stood up.
As a Class-9 Soul Engineer and one of the layout planners for the soul tool defensive lines, he could leave the main camp without alerting anyone. After arriving at the small woods in the camp, the first thing Jing Hongchen saw was the letter nailed to the tree. He took the letter down and couldn't wait to read its contents.
The moment Jing Hongchen finished reading, "Sigh—"
A long, melancholic sigh escaped his lips. "Meng, oh Meng..."
In this letter, he saw his granddaughter's ambition. His own granddaughter actually planned to use the prince she would birth to usurp Xu Tianran's throne. This was outright rebellion!
But as the thought crossed his mind, Jing Hongchen's originally hesitant gaze instantly became exceptionally firm. He could guess Xu Tianran's general intentions. They were both "thousand-year-old" foxes; why play the ghost story? Since you, Xu Tianran, are unjust, don't blame their Hongchen family for being unrighteous!
Regarding this, Jing Hongchen pondered secretly. To seize the throne, the most important factor was already resolved. That was bloodline. As long as the bloodline was pure and belonged to the Sun Moon Imperial Family, then the Sun Moon Empire's Enshrinement Hall, led by his teacher Kong Deming, wouldn't intervene too much. In that case, things would be much easier to handle.
But don't forget, he was Jing Hongchen. The Dean of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, the Hall Master of the Mingde Hall. One could say that in the current Sun Moon Empire's entire court and the soul engineer regiments in the various armies... to put it exaggeratedly, the younger ones could all be considered his disciples.
The influence passed down through the generations of the Hongchen family was terrifying to such a degree!
Smack—
Jing Hongchen closed the letter, and it instantly self-ignited without a spark.
At this moment, the loyalty in Jing Hongchen's eyes gradually faded, transforming into something else—an ambition hidden beneath a facade of loyalty.
Since the opportunity was right in front of him, then... perhaps it was time for the Hongchen family to take another step forward! After all, opportunity knocks but once. Not to mention, if they didn't seize this opportunity, they would be the ones dying next.
However, they couldn't rush this opportunity to advance; they had to plot slowly. The best chance would be to wait for Xu Tianran to make a mistake. Only then would he lose the hearts of the people and be toppled in one fell swoop.
"It should be soon."
At this moment, Jing Hongchen's gaze looked far off toward the other side of the Mingdou Mountain Range, which was where the Star Luo Empire was located.
Currently, the Sun Moon Empire's war had fallen into a quagmire. This was something clear to all of them commanding troops outside. If they dragged it out, the Sun Moon Empire's advantages would become fewer and fewer. What was even more terrifying were those geniuses of the original three Douluo Empires. Once they fully matured... in terms of peak combat power, the Sun Moon Empire would absolutely be crushed.
After all, the path of soul tools was still in its infancy. This road ahead had only just been carved out by Elder Kong.
"It's difficult—"
Jing Hongchen murmured.
Right now, he both wanted to... and wanted to... Unfortunately, between these two choices, he could ultimately only pick one.
The moment he figured it out, Jing Hongchen seemed to age a few years. But immediately after, he also seemed to have grown a few years younger.
He glanced at the dust on his hands, casually brushed it off, dropped the letter—which had already turned to powder—and turned to leave. After all, if he was gone for too long, it would inevitably be discovered.
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