Chapter 419: The Lotus Goddess Reappears in the World!

Zongzheng Yu'er!

She really is courting death, isn't she?!

The Crown Prince, in a rage, swept aside the tea cup at hand, and while waiting for the eunuch to kneel and pick up the pieces, he bellowed furiously: "Scram! All of you, get out for me!"

Until an announcement came from the gate: "Her Majesty the Empress is arriving——"

All the servants and guards knelt on the ground: "We pay our respects to the Empress!"

The Empress, resplendent and luxurious, walked in.

"Yiner, what's happened?"

"Everything was fine, why such a great temper?"

"You're not usually like this."

"As a future ruler, you must not show joy or anger, or else others will sway your decisions."

"Didn't the Empress Dowager teach you that?"

The Crown Prince then steadied his mind: "Empress, I know my fault. It's Qin Yu… she is too arrogant!"

"Empress, look, she has sent the letter right to my face!"

Upon hearing this, the Empress hastily dismissed everyone nearby.

When only mother and son remained in the study, the Empress hurriedly examined the Crown Prince's hand: "Be careful she didn't poison the paper!"

Duan Rongyin: "Empress, rest assured, I had the imperial physician examine it first before reading the contents."

The Empress then relaxed: "Being cautious is always right."

"Yiner, you just said Qin Yu sent you a letter?"

"Isn't she missing?"

"What's going on?"

Duan Rongyin furrowed his brows: "I don't know either."

"However, I suspect that because I abandoned her after using her, she turned love into hate and now simply returned to the Lotus Sect to cause me trouble."

The Empress narrowed her eyes: "This poisonous woman."

"Yiner, I said from the start: this woman knows too much; we should have disposed of her outright to avoid future trouble."

"It's you, hesitating and clinging to old feelings, saying you couldn't explain it to Great Chu, waiting for her to go on a marriage alliance to be free of this, but look at what she's doing now!"

"You've thrown the DaLiang imperial city into panic, destabilized the court, and now you've run off to do foolish cult business!"

Saying this, the Empress was thoroughly angered.

The Crown Prince Duan Rongyin, however, calmed down.

"Empress, if I can destroy one of her Jingyun Shan Zhuang estates, I can destroy her entire Lotus Sect."

"Now I truly have no further use for her forces and that filthy money, and I wish to sever ties with her clearly. Though it seems ungrateful, I am not utterly heartless."

"At least I gave her a way out and did not drive her to desperation."

"Now it's she who refuses to give face and insists on forcing me!"

"Then whatever harsh deeds I do next, she cannot blame me for them."

The words spoken by the mother and son inside the door were all heard by the Crown Princess Su Miaoyu, who had come outside carrying a bowl of tonic soup to ease relations.

Hearing the Crown Prince's shameless demeanor, Su Miaoyu's face showed bouts of mockery.

She then turned and slipped away quietly.

Soon, the Crown Prince found the place where the Lotus Sect Sect Leader had recently appeared.

It was actually in Qishan!

Someone heard bamboo flute sounds on the mountainside of Qishan.

They also saw a white-clad goddess, holding a lotus, standing on a divine stone, meditating to pray blessings for the world.

Someone guessed that it was the Lotus Sect Sect Leader—the Lotus Goddess!

She actually has a stronghold in Qishan as well!

The Crown Prince did not rashly move troops.

Instead, he sent dozens of assassins to scout first.

The result was that only one person came back alive.

"Your Highness, the Lotus Sect is full of masters; we have failed your order and beg your punishment."

The Crown Prince listened, his face full of disbelief: "How is this possible?!"

"Aren't the Lotus Sect's eight great attendants and four great incense masters almost all wiped out?"

"The rest are just a rabble, not worth mentioning; how could there still be countless masters?"

The assassin lowered his head: "Indeed, there are still many masters."

"Moreover… Your Highness, I also recognized two familiar people."

The Crown Prince: "Who?!"

The assassin: "They are… two Incense Masters Zheng."

The Crown Prince, recovering from shock: "As it turns out, she actually kept a trump card!"

"She had already saved these two, yet she deceived me, saying her people were all casualties."

"What a Zongzheng Yu'er, deceiving me again!"

"Is she perhaps waiting for this day, fearing I would abandon her, so she kept a backup and prepared to stab me in the back?"

"Good! Good good good!"

"What a Zongzheng Yu'er, what else does she plan to do next?"

"If she were to reveal her true identity before the world and speak of her relation to me…"

The Crown Prince's face turned white inch by inch.

He simply couldn't imagine such consequences.

However, before he could even mobilize troops to attack Qishan, rumors of an unclear relationship between the Lotus Sect Goddess and the Crown Prince had already spread like wildfire.

In a fit of rage, the Crown Prince disregarded consequences and produced the Northern Map Army's Tiger Tally.

Qishan.

Zhui Yu had held it in all day, finally waiting until there was no one else nearby.

Zhui Yu couldn't hold back any longer, flung open the veil, spread their legs, and began to tremble.

Que'er beside him snatched the veil from his face and quickly closed his legs with their feet.

"Do you want to spill the beans and ruin the plan?"

"The young lady and Your Highness Zhou Xiang have been planning this for days; now only the final step remains—can't you bear it a little longer?"

Zhui Yu was about to go crazy.

They tugged at the white gauze dress on their body and the hairpins covering their head, making it impossible to lift their head.

Po Feng and Leng Dian had burst out laughing in private several times.

Zhui Yu just wanted to ask: Why me? Why did I have to be the one to impersonate the Lotus Sect Leader!!

But the young lady said in one sentence: "You have experience; this burdensome task can only be entrusted to you again."

"I'll have Que'er accompany you and serve as your female attendant."

Thus, the two of them were inseparable all day, getting along like enemies.

Zhui Yu felt that this little bird kept them under strict surveillance all day, giving them no chance to breathe.

Apart from being able to lie flat with arms and legs spread while sleeping, they must maintain the decorum of a noble lady at all times.

Even advising her young lady, they dare not be this strict.

Not being allowed to speak while eating was already enough.

Even urinating required squatting.

Zhui Yu insisted on standing, but Que'er wanted to control them, so she would pull down their pants on the spot.

Que'er angrily cursed, finding them as hateful as a mastiff.

However, when faced with serious matters, the two of them still looked rather like that.

Li Qingluo also became a female attendant.

All day they just loafed around, lingering on the edge of this mountain.

Duan Rongshi sometimes came.

Sometimes they didn't come.

Their whereabouts were always unpredictable.

Just two days ago, they killed a batch of assassins sent by the Crown Prince.

They even deliberately released one to deliver a message.

Look, how kind they are.

Now they were just waiting for the Crown Prince, that big fish, to come charging up the mountain in a panic, heart full of guilt.

Li Qingluo listened to Zhui Yu and Que'er bickering on one side, while they swayed gently in a rocking chair on the other.

Leng Dian suddenly came over and said, "Young lady, another batch of merchants from Great Chu has appeared in Jinling City."

"Moreover, recently some people of unknown origin have been appearing in Qingsong Rear Mountain, probing to attack the cliff."

"Your Highness has sent a subordinate to report to you; you may decide as you see fit."

Li Qingluo gently pulled down the book covering their face.

"Great Chu? Are they here to look for Zongzheng Yu'er or Zongzheng Wu Heng?"

Leng Dian: "Not clear. Perhaps… they're here to look for those two siblings."

Li Qingluo wondered, "How did the news leak out?"

The guards of Prince Su's Manor and his own assassins would certainly pose no problem.

If there were any problems, they would be with others.

Li Qingluo's expression turned grave: "Qingsong Rear Mountain is easy to defend but hard to attack."

"But since it's already been exposed, with both sides pulling on their forces, it's indeed extremely difficult to divide oneself."

"Then let's transfer everyone here."

"There's also a dungeon down here."

"Although the Lotus Sect was partially destroyed and collapsed, we can still dig out two prison cells."

Leng Dian was somewhat surprised by their straightforwardness.

"Yes."

After Leng Dian left, Li Qingluo saw Zheng Lingzhou.

He stood in a corner of the courtyard wall, his gaze gloomily fixed on her.

Seeing her look over, he asked, "Luo'er, there's a patch of osmanthus trees blooming in the rear mountain thicket; would you like to go see the flowers?"

Li Qingluo: "No."

She wearily covered her face with the book again.

After capturing Zheng Lingzhou, Duan Rongshi indeed did not kill him.

Even when Li Qingluo wanted to see him to clarify certain matters and seek justice, Duan Rongshi brushed it off.

Only this time on Mount Qishan.

She saw Zheng Lingzhou again.

Zheng Wanxiu also came.

Li Qingluo knew Duan Rongshi's plan.

She also knew he must have had difficulties.

But she was still very angry then.

Fortunately, Duan Rongshi came to Qishan that night and explained to her.

"Luo'er, their father died because of my mother consort. I cannot kill those siblings."

Li Qingluo thought that the Zheng family's crime seemed to be implicated by a palace consort.

This palace consort, is it the Moon Noble Consort?

She listened on curiously.

"My mother consort, when she was married off via a marriage alliance, came to DaLiang; it was the Young General Zheng who went to welcome her."

"With him accompanying her all the way, my mother consort could safely reach DaLiang."

"I also heard from the mute servants that the journey was fraught with danger, and many forces did not want to see my mother consort smoothly marry into DaLiang, so all sides schemed and wanted to harm her."

"It was the Young General Zheng who sacrificed half his life to protect my mother consort's safety."

"The two of them also forged a deep friendship through shared hardship."

"This Young General Zheng is the biological father of Zheng Lingzhou and his siblings."

"Later, my mother consort died under mysterious circumstances, and it was also the Young General Zheng who petitioned to investigate the truth of her death."

"But how could he understand? My father the emperor himself is unclear, the entire Gui Fu Palace has been blood-washed and cleaned; how could he expect to make any truth public to the world?"

"The Zheng family was thus framed on some pretext and found guilty, and the whole Zheng family was killed."

"Nowadays, only those two siblings and your half-brother remain of that bloodline."

Duan Rongshi having said this, what else could Li Qingluo say?

She also did not tell Duan Rongshi that those siblings had once wanted to trade their own lives for Li Jingchuan's life.

Now Zulya is also dead, so their thought should also be cut off.

Saying these, there is no longer any meaning.

However, some debts...

She can still first collect some interest!

Thinking this, Li Qingluo rose and looked at Zheng Lingzhou, who still stood there with a dejected expression.

"What are you looking at, osmanthus?"

"Just take a walk."

Speaking, she had already turned and walked ahead.