Chapter 403: Waking Up on a Snowy Night, the Heaven Dou Palace Coup

After killing Zhuge Liang, Qian Renxue's mood did not find release; she rushed toward the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace using almost her limit speed.

As long as she arrived before Great Emperor Xue Ye woke up, everything would still be in time.

Otherwise, she knew that many new misunderstandings would arise between her and Nan Feihuang.

Feihuang would think that Xue Qinghe had been deceiving him all along, and the day he learned that Xue Qinghe was actually Qian Renxue, he might even believe he had been living in a scam woven by Qian Renxue.

By then, even if she sought out Bo Saixi and used the power of the entire ocean to wash herself clean, she would not be able to.

Especially since Nan Feihuang was already laboring under a misunderstanding about her, thinking she had orchestrated that ambush; if it had only been that one time, there would still be room for redemption.

With two consecutive incidents, Qian Renxue could hardly tell him that all of this was just a coincidence; no one would believe her even if she said it.

"Feihuang, wait for me; I will absolutely not let the misunderstandings between us continue to grow," Qian Renxue said anxiously in her heart.

At this moment, it was the usually childish Guangling Douluo who had calmed down.

After returning to Tiandou City, he immediately ordered Ci Xue to first make a trip to the Tiandou City Spirit Temple.

Since the end of the Soul Hunting Operation that day, in truth, the thousands of Spirit Masters sent by the Spirit Hall had not all departed.

For one, many of them were not lightly injured and needed to find a place to recuperate properly, and the Spirit Temple was a good place; for another, it was to prevent unexpected situations, so they could be used as immediate combat power for Qian Renxue.

Now, more than a month had passed since that Soul Hunting Operation, and many of them had already fully recovered; was this not the perfect time to utilize this force? If Great Emperor Xue Ye woke up, they would have no choice but to use force to kill him and seize control of the Heaven Dou Imperial Court.

Inside Xue Ye's bedchamber, after being nourished by Nan Feihuang's soul power, the poison suppressed by medicinal pills, and his physical strength restored by the Nine Heart Begonia, Xue Ye finally opened his eyes.

"Father Emperor, Father Emperor, it's wonderful, you've finally woken up," Xue Ke looked at her father with teary eyes.

"Ke'er, why are you here?" Xue Ye's voice lacked the slightest bit of vigor; even though he had woken up, he seemed like a dying old man. It was hard to imagine that this was the state of a Spirit Master who was only fifty or sixty years old.

As long as one reached the level of a Soul Elder or higher, at around sixty, although one was no longer in their prime, at least one would not look as old as an eighty-year-old.

"It was Fourth Brother who wrote to me, telling me what happened at the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, so I rushed over with Brother Feihuang. Father Emperor, what on earth happened? How did you become like this? And what about Eldest Brother? Fourth Brother said Eldest Brother was being controlled. Where is he now? We must hurry to rescue Eldest Brother." What Xue Ke cared about most was still Eldest Brother Xue Qinghe; saving the Father Emperor counted as a daughter's filial duty, but helping Xue Beng was truly just a side matter.

"Xue Qinghe?" Upon hearing this name, a look of anger actually appeared on Great Emperor Xue Ye's weak face. "Rebellious son, that rebellious son! He was never controlled at all; he is the culprit! It was because I drank the soup he brought me every day that I became increasingly weak. At first, I didn't notice, but by the time I realized something was wrong, it was already too late. I remember clearly that before I fell into a coma, I had already started refusing to drink the soup he brought, yet he forcibly poured it into my mouth. It is all because of him that I have become like this now."

"I want to kill him! I must kill him!"

Perhaps it was the anger that stimulated Xue Ye's potential, allowing him to enter a state of a final flash of brilliance; he spoke these words with quite an imposing aura.

"No, that's impossible." Xue Ke shook her head. "Father Emperor, you must be mistaken. Eldest Brother is benevolent and loves his people; he is of the utmost virtue. How could he possibly do the things you say? He was controlled—yes, Eldest Brother must have been controlled!" "Nonsense!" Xue Ye raged. "Xue Qinghe has been bringing me soup to drink for several years now, not just recently. At first, I thought it was his filial piety, so I never refused. Now that I think about it, it must have been a colorless and tasteless chronic poison. Ke'er, are you trying to say that Xue Qinghe has been controlled for several years? With the close relationship you and Feihuang have with him, if that were truly the case, how could you not have noticed anything at all?"

"This..." Xue Ke was speechless for a moment. Indeed, if Eldest Brother had been controlled for several years, then since she and Feihuang had met him almost every day, it was impossible that they wouldn't have seen any clues.

"Brother Feihuang..." Xue Ke cast a look of help toward Nan Feihuang.

When a girl encounters a problem she cannot solve, the first person she always seeks help from is the one who gives her the most sense of security in her heart.

"Your Majesty, like Ke'er, I believe that Brother Xue is definitely not a despicable person, but regardless, this matter must be investigated until the truth is revealed. The most urgent task now is to find Brother Xue," Nan Feihuang said.

Xue Ke nodded repeatedly. "Father Emperor, Brother Feihuang is right; let's find Eldest Brother first."

"Fine, then let's go find that rebellious son first. Someone come!" Xue Ye called out, but today was different from usual; he called for a long time, yet no one responded, which made him even more furious. "Bastards! Where have the Royal Knights died off to? Get in here!"

Still, there was no echo. Feihuang frowned; it was impossible for Xue Ye's Royal Knights to be too far away from him.

The Zhang Brothers were practically his personal guards; how could they not appear upon hearing his call? "Lord, something has happened!" Just at this moment, Lv Lingqi and the Dragon Duke and Snake Granny burst in. When outside, Lingqi was very discreet and would not directly call Feihuang 'husband'.

She knew that doing so would invite trouble; not to mention that theoretically, Nan Feihuang's first wife should be Xue Ke, and if Qian Renxue heard it, she would surely be furious.

"Lingqi? What's going on? How were you able to get in? Did the Royal Knights not stop you?" Feihuang asked in confusion.

"Just now, Xue Qinghe suddenly issued an edict. Outside the palace, there was a surprise attack by an unknown force, and the Royal Knights were all dispatched by him to block the enemy. With the Jade Seal in his hand, the Imperial Edict he issued could not be disobeyed by the two commanders of the Royal Knights, and this is indeed a fact. I can sense that right now, outside the palace, thousands of Spirit Masters have gathered," Lv Lingqi replied.

"So that's it, a 'luring the tiger away from the mountain' strategy!" Nan Feihuang understood instantly.

Xue Qinghe still did not want to trigger a large-scale chaotic war, just like the Xuanwu Gate Incident of Li Er, which is evaluated in history as the most successful coup—taking the heads of the Crown Prince and the Prince of Qi with the smallest cost, then forcing Li Yuan to abdicate, creating a *fait accompli*.

If Feihuang guessed correctly, those thousands of Spirit Masters were definitely the portion that did not return to the Spirit Hall after the Soul Hunting Operation but had gone into hiding to heal; now, they were being put to great use.

Their purpose in raiding the palace was merely to give Qian Renxue a legitimate excuse to have the Royal Knights transferred away.

That way, she could easily capture the ringleader by capturing the king first.

If his guess was right, his 'Xue Jie' should be right outside this bedchamber at this moment.

"Heh, as expected of my Xue Jie, truly swift and decisive—a good plan!"

(End of chapter)