Chapter 743: The Grand Plan

"Knock, knock, knock—"

The sound of knocking echoed. Shun Wang raised his eyes, saw clearly who had come, then closed his eyelids again, his body on the silk couch remaining motionless.

"An Xiansheng, I know you haven't given up. Sometimes I don't give up either, but things have reached this point, what is there to do if one doesn't give up? A human life is but a short hundred years; there are many things one can do, there is no need to be so stubborn here. You should also look at things more openly. In my view, you had better return to Youzhou first. Otherwise, if the State Preceptor finds out you are still running about here, he certainly will not let you off."

At the doorway, a refined middle-aged man sighed: "Your Highness, I also know it is time to give up. It is just that I heard there is a divine physician here, quite capable of bringing the dead back to life. I intend to try one more time, just one last time. If it fails, I will give up, how about that?"

Shun Wang sighed and said: "The trees desire stillness, but the wind will not cease. An Xiansheng, if you do not accept your fate, others will take your life. For the sake of our time as master and servant, you should return to Youzhou first. I will prepare a retirement estate for you; why not be a wealthy man of leisure?"

Hearing the words "retirement," An Xiansheng's gaze showed slight anger, but his expression remained calm. He said: "Many thanks for Your Highness's deep concern, but it would be better to wait until the divine physician has taken a look. The doctor has already arrived."

He turned slightly to the side, and a person emerged from behind him. They appeared to be in their twenties or thirties, with sword-like brows and star-bright eyes, full of heroic spirit, looking more like a military officer than a divine physician.

But Shun Wang could not well question this; in this day and age, the sword solves everything, and a high-end doctor is very likely also a high-end Sword Guest. Toward such an extraordinary figure, even a superior must be somewhat courteous. He sat up straight and said: "It wasn't easy for the doctor to come, was it?"

He was referring to the surveillance outside. Although he was already harmless as a human or beast, the Immortal Official from the Dao Palace would not leave, sitting right at the door. Although that person looked very kind and did not point fingers at the affairs of the estate, Shun Wang knew that if there were any cause for suspicion, he feared a bolt of Heavenly Thunder would immediately strike down.

If it were before, as a feudal prince, even if he had no guilty conscience, Shun Wang would not have been willing to suffer such grievances and would have insisted on making a grand scene. However, at this moment, although he felt unhappy in his heart, he quickly cast it to the back of his mind, possessing a kind of "let it be" leisure.

The divine physician smiled and said: "It was alright. Your estate had made arrangements early on, so no one stopped me." He scrutinized Shun Wang and said: "Looking at Your Highness's complexion, it does not seem like you are ill."

Shun Wang said: "Mm."

He did not intend to cooperate, seemingly planning to just muddle through like this.

The divine physician continued: "An Xiansheng told me before that it was a change in Your Highness's temperament. This change was caused by an external force, and now this external force is affecting Your Highness's Heart Power, leaving you listless in your actions. I have not seen any pathological symptoms in Your Highness. But if it truly is the effect of an external force, there is always a way to remove it."

Shun Wang shook his head coldly and said: "It is not that I look down on you, but to remove an external force? I fear no one in the world has this ability."

The divine physician was also very indifferent and said: "Whether I have the ability or not, let us first take the pulse; consider it a routine check for peace of mind."

Shun Wang was actually cooperative; he had truly become Buddhist-like, so he did not even want to say the words "forget it," simply turning his hand over to reveal his pulse point. The divine physician skillfully reached out to take the pulse. Shun Wang watched his movements with an indifferent expression, while An Wang was extremely nervous.

After a moment, the divine physician's expression remained calm. After a while, he said: "I do have a train of thought for treatment."

Once these words were spoken, Shun Wang's eyebrows moved slightly, and An Xiansheng was overjoyed, saying: "Doctor, please speak quickly!"

The divine physician said: "However, this requires the person themselves to cooperate. Heart illness must be cured by heart medicine; if the person themselves does not cooperate, no method will work. So I would like to ask Your Highness: are you willing to cooperate, or are you not willing to cooperate?"

Shun Wang stared at him blankly and said: "Me? I am not willing." He seemed rarely inclined to say more, adding, "Your question has no level of skill. If I were my original temperament, I would certainly say I am willing, but then I would not be ill, so why would I need treatment? And with my current temperament, naturally I am not willing, so I am ill but you cannot treat me. Thus, it cannot be treated from either end; tell me, why did you ask this?"

An Xiansheng's expression changed slightly, and the divine physician suddenly smiled, saying: "Right, I should not have asked. Some things should not be asked aloud; they should be done directly..."

As he said this, his hand was still taking the pulse, and suddenly—

The next moment, both of them disappeared together.

An Xiansheng watched from behind, dumbfounded, opening his mouth to call out, when suddenly his shoulder sank; someone behind him had pressed down on him.

"Don't shout."

A chill ran from An Xiansheng's back all the way down to the soles of his feet. He said hoarsely, "Who are you? Who are you people? Where did that person just take the Prince? Daring to lay hands on the Prince, you—you are committing treason!"

The other party told him not to shout; his voice was small at first, but gradually it grew louder, until at the end he was roaring.

Even if the other party killed him, he had to attract the attention of the people from the Dao Palace outside. If he could thereby call people in to force them to return the Prince, it would be worth it even if he died.

However, though he roared loudly, there was silence outside. Clearly the Sunlight was still good, shining through the window to cover the floor in gold, yet he felt cold all over, as if falling into an ice cellar.

The person behind him said: "What are you shouting for? Do you want to summon people? You won't summon anyone; no one will care about you. The reason I don't let you shout is because noise is bad for my ears. If you cannot speak without shouting, how about I let you shout for an hour before you speak? If you cannot shout for an hour, I will cut off Shun Wang's tongue."

An Xiansheng was filled with shock and anger, shouting: "Do not be disrespectful to the Prince! Who are you people? What is your goal?"

The person behind him said: "Who we are does not matter. I have come to ask you questions, and naturally, I am also asking Shun Wang questions. As long as you answer truthfully, not only will I not harm you, I can also cure Shun Wang. But if you do not cooperate, then we will be sorry. Do not think you can lie to deceive us; now both Shun Wang and you are being interrogated by others. Your words can be cross-verified. If they match, they are naturally true; if they contradict each other... I believe in Xiansheng, so it must be Shun Wang who is lying, and we are never polite to those who lie."

At this moment, An Xiansheng suddenly said: "So you are from Yunzhou?"

The person behind him remained completely unmoved and said: "You may guess all you like, but you must honestly answer my questions. If you go in circles again, that is not showing respect to Prince Shun Wang."

An Xiansheng thought: It must be from Yunzhou.

As Shun Wang's strategist, his wisdom was inferior to no one. That he appeared powerless now was only because Shun Wang had suddenly collapsed, dealing him a fatal blow. Otherwise, he would have long been doing great things to stir up the winds and clouds; how could he have wasted time like this?

Thinking clearly that they were from Yunzhou, An Xiansheng relaxed slightly. Yunzhou was under the control of the Gaoyuan Marquis; their reputation was quite good, and their bottom line was higher than most people's. Of course, once you enter the field, it is best not to trust anyone, but people with a bottom line have to undergo self-justification when they break it, which will always be a beat late; this was also a chance to struggle.

The person behind him asked directly: "I heard you were originally planning to do something big; what was it?"

An Xiansheng was startled and said: "We did not..."

The person interrupted: "Wait a moment, there is a delay in our communication; Shun Wang's ears will be sent over in a moment."

An Xiansheng was shocked, angry, and anxious, feeling that he had thought wrong just now. Regardless of whether the other party came from Yunzhou, they had no bottom line at all. He hurriedly said: "We were going to do something big!"

The person behind him said: "Really, I am in a hurry, yet you keep repeating yourself, rambling on; how is this good? If there is a next time, I will just cut off your nose. Ears can be covered with hair, but without a nose, one 'looks not like a ruler of men'."

An Xiansheng was startled, thinking: Since they know about this matter, we will surely fall out in the future; can what they say be trusted?

But at this moment, he truly could not gamble with Shun Wang's nose and ears, so he did not falsely say things like "there is no such thing, we are loyal subjects," and said: "We had a plan to expose the fact that the Empress Dowager killed the Emperor in front of all the nobles of the world on the fifteenth, and then overthrow the little Emperor she wants to install and invite Prince Shun Wang to ascend the throne."

This conspiracy, if called a big matter, was truly the greatest matter in the world, but if called a small matter, it was just this one sentence.

I am going to chop down the current Emperor and become Emperor myself.

To put it bluntly, isn't rebellion just this one sentence?

But how to realize this sentence is the most difficult part.

You say the Empress Dowager killed the Emperor and has no qualification to be Empress Dowager, that the Empress Dowager has lost her virtue and is not fit to be Empress Dowager, nor fit to install another Emperor—this logic is sound, but to be able to say this sentence completely in front of the Empress Dowager is not easy. Jingcheng is the royal territory, and the troops are all in the hands of the royal family, now in the hands of the Empress Dowager; why should an outsider have so much to say?

The person behind him sneered: "I fear this big matter of yours cannot succeed. Not to mention others, how would the State Preceptor allow you to make trouble?"

Mentioning the State Preceptor, a strange look appeared on An Xiansheng's face: "The State Preceptor certainly does not allow us to make trouble, but he also does not allow others to make trouble. As long as one grasps his patterns, dealing with him is actually very simple. As long as he is isolated for a period of time, and we take advantage of this period to kill the Empress Dowager and kill everyone who could be Emperor, when he comes out, he will only look for the person currently most capable of sitting firmly on the throne to be Emperor, which is my master. By then, he will instead actively protect my master's throne and become one of our arms. We will then use him to eliminate those who oppose us."

The person behind him was silent for a rare moment and said: "You truly do not treat the State Preceptor as a human. To lock him up, kill the people he protects, and then rely on your status to turn around and drive him to work for you. Do you remember what power he possesses? As long as he is a person, can he endure this?"

An Xiansheng said: "But the State Preceptor is not a human to begin with. Treating him as a human is just looking for trouble; we are just using it normally."

The person behind him said: "You are very confident. Even the Empress Dowager would not dare to be so certain. How did you learn his essence, and how do you know his patterns of behavior, to have the confidence to control him?"