newbobooks Chapter 184: Throwing the dirty water of the abduction of the Empress onto the Northern Territory!
Chapter 184: Throwing the dirty water of the abduction of the Empress onto the Northern Territory!
Zhao Qingxue did not answer.
She simply gazed at him quietly.
The night wind blew from the Nu River, carrying the river's unique, turbid, and damp scent.
A few stray strands of hair at her temples were lifted by the wind, brushing against her pale cheeks before falling limply back down.
She remembered the imperial edict issued by Emperor Taizu.
That black jade talisman she had worn around her neck since childhood, never leaving her side for even half an inch.
When she was eight years old, her mother tied it around her neck and said, "Qingxue, this is the protection of the Liyang royal family for three hundred years. As long as it exists, Liyang will exist."
At the age of fifteen, she participated in court politics for the first time and was reprimanded by several senior members of the imperial family for "interfering in politics and being a hen crowing at dawn."
She retreated to her palace, clutching the talisman for the entire night. When she rose at dawn, her eyes held no trace of hesitation.
On the day he ascended the throne at the age of twenty, he was adorned with a crown and all the officials paid homage to him.
Her hands were hidden in her sleeves, her fingertips tracing the four ancient seal characters "Edict of the Great Ancestor" on the talisman, her heart pounding like a drum.
She thought that was her source of confidence.
It was her way out.
It is the last, unyielding wall that she faces in any desperate situation.
But just now—
The city wall collapsed.
The man before him casually crushed it into powder, as if brushing dust off his sleeve.
Zhao Qingxue lowered her eyes.
She suddenly didn't want to look at Qin Mu anymore.
Bitterness spread from the tip of her tongue to the bottom of her heart, thick like aged medicine that had been boiled three times, so bitter that she almost wanted to frown.
So this is what it feels like to face absolute power.
They were powerless to fight back and had no chance to resist.
Zhao Qingxue suddenly felt like laughing.
Laughing at myself.
He also laughed at Xu Longxiang.
The Northern Prince, who confidently declared that he had "discovered the true strength of Qin Mu," thought he had seen through everything, and was full of confidence that victory was in his grasp.
If he were here right now, witnessing that scene firsthand...
What kind of expression will he have?
Zhao Qingxue raised her eyes, her eyelashes fluttering slightly.
His gaze went past Qin Mu's shoulder and towards the distant night sky.
There, Li Chunfeng was still locked in battle with the giant river dragon.
The silvery sword intent poured down like a celestial river, and the jet-black dragon scales shattered in the sword light, only to reform in an instant.
One attack, one defense; one advance, one retreat.
Li Chunfeng was never able to escape.
Zhao Qingxue withdrew her gaze.
"you……"
She spoke, her voice more steady than before, but still carrying a barely perceptible hoarseness.
"What level is it exactly?"
Qin Mu was slightly taken aback.
Then he smiled.
"I don't know either."
He answered frankly.
His composure stunned Zhao Qingxue once again.
"I'm not lying to you." Qin Mu looked into her eyes. "I really don't know."
His tone was very sincere, as if he were explaining something trivial.
"I have never fought against a true land-based deity."
He paused, his gaze falling on the empty space where the illusory image of the founding emperor had vanished.
"That remnant soul from just now... doesn't count either."
He withdrew his gaze and looked at Zhao Qingxue again.
"Therefore, I don't know what level I've reached."
He smiled.
"Perhaps I'll have a chance to find out in the future."
There was a hint of loneliness in that smile that she couldn't understand.
Zhao Qingxue remained silent for a long time.
So long that the river breeze made her hair even more disheveled, so long that the sounds of Li Chunfeng's fierce battle with the giant dragon in the distance seemed to have faded away.
Then, she looked up.
The fleeting confusion and bitterness in those deep purple phoenix eyes had receded like the tide.
All that remained was a cold, silent clarity.
She looked at Qin Mu and spoke.
"What exactly do you want?"
Qin Mu raised an eyebrow slightly.
"I have already made myself very clear."
"I would like to invite you back to the palace."
"Visiting as a guest".
He paused, then added those two words.
It was as if that was truly the entire purpose of his trip.
Zhao Qingxue looked at him, her eyes growing even colder.
"You think," she said, each word seemingly carved from beneath a layer of ice, "that by capturing me and bringing me back to the palace, you can defeat Li Yang?"
Qin Mu did not answer.
I just watched her quietly.
That gaze neither denied nor confirmed, but simply waited.
Zhao Qingxue continued, her voice growing colder and clearer:
"Qin Mu, you know very well what awaits you if news of my disappearance or being imprisoned by you reaches Liyang."
"Although there are factions in the court, they are never confused in the face of foreign enemies."
"Gu Jiantang will immediately assemble an army of 200,000 from the eastern border, and Zhang Julu will draft a proclamation of attack overnight."
"At the latest, within seven days, Liyang's million-strong army will cross the Lancang River."
"By then—"
She paused, her gaze sharp as a knife:
"Your Great Qin is still locked in a fierce battle with Xiliang in the west, while 300,000 iron cavalry in the north obey orders but not proclamations."
"What will you use to fight back?"
"You think you can use your strength, which is enough to crush even a terrestrial deity?"
There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice:
"But no matter how strong you are, you're still just one person."
"Can you slaughter an army of a million? Can you be in two places at once to guard a thousand-mile border?"
"Can you make scorched wheat fields sprout again, or can you make cities trampled underfoot grow back to their original state?"
She stopped.
In the night wind, that slender figure was as thin as paper, yet stood ramrod straight.
"Qin Mu, if war breaks out, the first to die will not be you, nor will it be me."
"They are ordinary people on both sides of the Lancang River who have just finished harvesting their autumn crops and are planning to get their sons married and save up dowries for their daughters."
"They were the boatmen who had spent their entire lives carrying goods at the ferry crossing and finally built three mud-brick houses on the edge of town."
"It is the 150,000 garrison troops of the seven towns in the eastern border of your Great Qin, and the 200,000 Liyang soldiers on the other side of the river."
"They will die because of your ambition."
"And their wives will become widows, their children will become orphans, and their parents will outlive their children."
"Those prefectures and counties where you just reduced taxes this spring, those towns and villages in Jiangnan where you allocated three million taels of silver from the imperial treasury to repair dikes—"
"They will all be razed to the ground by war."
Her voice was calm and unhurried, without any fervor or accusation.
It's just a statement.
She calmly stated the facts that she knew better than anyone else.
Qin Mu listened quietly as she finished speaking.
Under the moonlight, his expression remained unchanged.
"So," Qin Mu began, his voice still calm, "you mean, I dare not touch you?"
Zhao Qingxue did not answer directly, but calmly looked at Qin Mu.
As for how much of her composure was forced, only she herself knows the truth.
Qin Mu smiled and said:
"Actually, I never intended for anyone to know that you were the one who kidnapped me tonight."
Zhao Qingxue's eyebrows twitched slightly.
Qin Mu continued:
"I have chosen this place to make my move."
"The Nujiang ferry crossing is far from the imperial city, far from any eyes and ears that might recognize me."
"Since we can't let anyone know it was you, then there has to be a murderer for tonight's events."
"A reasonable, plausible, and believable murderer that can be believed by the Li Yang court and the public."
"And that person, I have already chosen."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Qingxue's eyes trembled, and the hairs on her body stood on end.
Then, she suddenly remembered something.
Her gaze passed over Qin Mu's shoulder and fell upon the multi-story ship shrouded in thick fog on the river, and upon the Nujiang boatmen who were being escorted by the Imperial Guards and huddled together in fear.
She remembered the lean, middle-aged man who had greeted her at the ferry crossing and introduced himself as the "manager of the Nujiang Gang's fleet."
I recalled the slight trembling of his Adam's apple when he lowered his head.
I recalled Li Chunfeng's words, "This small town seems a little too quiet tonight."
All the fragments were suddenly pieced together at this moment.
An idea popped into her head.
But she wasn't sure, or rather, she didn't dare to think in that direction.
Zhao Qingxue gazed at Qin Mu, her deep purple phoenix eyes reflecting the moonlight and his moon-white figure.
"Who do you think it could be?" Qin Mu asked.
His tone was as relaxed as if he were playing a guessing game.
Zhao Qingxue's pupils slowly contracted.
"Xu Longxiang," she said softly.
It's not a question.
It's not even a statement.
It was just a cold syllable squeezed out from between the teeth.
Qin Mu's smile deepened.
"Steamed clams. As expected of Empress Li Yang, you guessed it right away."
When Qin Mu confirmed her thought, Zhao Qingxue's expression became even more serious, but she smiled and said...
"Qin Mu, do you really think everyone in the Li Yang court is a fool? That they would believe this lie?"
Qin Mu smiled but didn't say anything.
He merely turned slightly to look at the gray figure still battling the dragon on the river.
Li Chunfeng.
Li Yang Sword God, a half-step terrestrial immortal.
At this moment, he was being tightly bound by the giant dragon formed from Qin Mu's will. The silver sword intent clashed fiercely with the jet-black scales, sparking countless sparks.
He sensed the dissipation of the Emperor Taizu's edict.
His breathing was already disordered.
But he couldn't get away.
The giant dragon seemed to be alive, not fighting him head-on, but merely entangled, coiled, and delayed him.
Qin Mu withdrew his gaze and looked at Zhao Qingxue again.
"Speaking of which," he said, "before today, I was actually thinking—"
"What method should we use to make that half-step terrestrial immortal expert beside you believe that Xu Longxiang was responsible for tonight's events?"
He paused.
Under the moonlight, a meaningful smile curved at the corner of his mouth.
"The result was unexpected—"
"The surprise came so suddenly."
Zhao Qingxue's heart skipped a beat at that moment.
Qin Mu continued.
"This Nujiang Gang is actually under Xu Longxiang's command."
"The enshrined master of the Profound Realm personally confessed that the Nujiang Gang's backer was the grain transport commissioner under the Northern Border General of Pacification."
"He is a trusted confidant whom the Xu family has cultivated for many years and placed in a key position."
"He thought that speaking out would save his life."
Qin Mu shook his head slightly, as if marveling at the ingenious arrangement of fate:
"But little did they know, this was precisely the most fatal evidence."
He looked at Zhao Qingxue with a gentle gaze, even carrying a hint of sincerity:
"you say--"
"When Li Chunfeng learned that the assassins who kidnapped Her Majesty the Empress were the same group of people who controlled the northern border's secret agents at the Nujiang ferry crossing, he was shocked to discover that the assassins were actually the same group of people who ...
"When Li Yang's spies discovered that there had been a fierce battle between the Northern Army's retainers and assassins at this ferry crossing tonight."
His voice grew softer and softer, like a whisper in the night wind:
"What do you think he'll think?"
Zhao Qingxue remained silent.
She stared intently at Qin Mu.
At this moment, a chilling feeling welled up inside her.
If everything is as Qin Mu said, then the Northern Territory will truly be unable to clear its name of this mess.
Especially since Xu Longxiang stared at her with that look before leaving, it deepened the speculation that today's assassination attempt was related to him!
This is terrible!