492: Chapter 492 Suspicious Crown Prince

["De Fu." The Crown Prince of Tianqi chewed his food and looked up at you.]

[You bowed low, straining your throat to produce a high-pitched voice: "Your servant is here."]

["The matter with the family banquet, has it been investigated thoroughly?"]

["In response to Your Highness," you lowered your head, "it has been cleared up. It was the work of the Second Prince."]

[The Crown Prince's chopsticks paused, and he narrowed his eyes: "As expected, it was him."]

[Your expression remained calm, but you knew exactly what he was asking about—through the memories of this eunuch De Fu, you had already grasped the full context of the situation.]

[A few days ago, the Emperor of Tianqi held a family banquet, during which two people were poisoned: one was the Emperor, and the other was the Crown Prince.]

[Now, the Emperor is in a poisoned coma, and his bedchamber is heavily blockaded; even the Crown Prince cannot obtain the slightest bit of news.]

[As for the Crown Prince himself, he was also poisoned.]

[But strangely, he woke up the next day as if nothing had happened.]

[You have always been curious about this—even De Fu, his most trusted eunuch, did not know how the Crown Prince neutralized the poison.]

[But you always felt that this Crown Prince was a bit odd.]

[Furthermore, after the Crown Prince woke up from the poisoning, some of his minor details changed, as if he had become a different person.]

[For instance, his tone of voice, his expression and temperament, and even his habit of picking up food were different from before.]

[However, you have no interest whatsoever in the struggles for imperial power.]

[You have only one goal—to have the Crown Prince take control of the government as soon as possible, and then guide him to find the tear of eternal frost.]

[You looked up, took a step closer, and lowered your voice: "Your Highness, while your servant was investigating the poisoning, I discovered a strange occurrence."]

[The Crown Prince glanced at you and immediately understood your meaning, waving his hand to the others: "Everyone, get out."]

[The palace maids and eunuchs bowed to receive the order and slowly withdrew.]

[As they reached the door, the eunuch named Xier turned back to wink at you and smiled slightly.]

[It was Murong Zhaozhao.]

[You ignored her.]

[Once the palace doors were closed, you leaned in close to the Crown Prince, your voice even lower: "Your Highness, while your servant was investigating, I accidentally overheard a great secret regarding the world of Cultivators."]

[The Crown Prince's eyes lit up.]

[You had already investigated thoroughly—the Crown Prince's brothers and sisters all had Spiritual Roots and had been taken in by various major Sects.]

[He and the Second Prince were the only ones without Spiritual Roots, so they could only practice the Martial Dao, and were currently only in the Xiantian Realm.]

[Although a spirit awakening pill could be used to forcibly awaken a Spiritual Root, that kind of trash-tier Spiritual Root would never be looked upon by a Sect; it was better to honestly practice martial arts.]

[But the Crown Prince had always been interested in the matter of cultivation.]

["Speak," he said with anticipation in his tone.]

["Your servant heard of a miraculous treasure called the tear of eternal frost," you whispered. "It is said that consuming this item can awaken the legendary Heavenly Spiritual Root."]

[This was, of course, something you made up.]

[In this Secret Realm, even Cultivators might not necessarily know what the tear of eternal frost is.]

[The Crown Prince's body trembled slightly, and his voice changed pitch: "Truly?"]

["Your servant would not dare to deceive Your Highness, it's just..." You paused. "Rumor has it that this tear of eternal frost is extremely difficult to find, as it likes to lurk within the human body. Finding it might be as difficult as ascending to heaven."]

["What are the characteristics of a person it lurks within?"]

["It is said their body temperature is lower than normal, their body is like cold jade, and they have a violent temper, being moody and unpredictable."]

[You guessed these characteristics—since the tear of eternal frost is a condensation of malevolent energy, the person it inhabits would likely be violent and moody.]

[And for it to mask its own aura, it would inevitably need to absorb the human body's energy, so the body temperature would naturally be lower than a normal person's.]

[The Crown Prince began to mutter in a low voice: "Body like cold jade... violent temper... moody and unpredictable..."]

[As he muttered, he nodded: "Good, I will send people to search in secret. You keep a close eye on my second brother lately."]

["Your servant obeys the command."]

[You nodded and then withdrew.]

[As for the Second Prince's situation, you had already probed it with your Divine Sense just now.]

[The current Second Prince's residence was also guarded heavily, layer upon layer.]

[He was currently in the hall discussing the next steps of the plan with the Prime Minister and other officials—]

[Listening to those plans made you feel tired; military power, public sentiment, public opinion—it was all so convoluted, and none of it interested you.]

[However, it had to be said that this Second Prince indeed had some skill.]

[Almost all the officials in the court had been won over by him.]

[This was also a game left by the Emperor of Tianqi before he was poisoned—letting the Crown Prince and the Second Prince balance each other while he sat firmly in the middle.]

[Unfortunately, the Second Prince's methods were superior, and he had already taken the officials into his pocket early on.]

[Now the Second Prince only lacked one thing: control over the Imperial Guard.]

[So a few days ago, he made his move—poisoning the Emperor and the Crown Prince to end it all once and for all.]

[The plan was originally going smoothly—the Emperor was in a poisoned coma, and the Crown Prince should have died.]

[But the Crown Prince just happened not to die.]

[At this, everything fell into chaos.]

[The Second Prince and his cronies were now frantically discussing countermeasures.]

[Because the current situation was: the palace was held tightly by the Imperial Guard, the Crown Prince was alive, and the Emperor's life or death was unknown.]

[Outside the palace, the Imperial Capital was almost entirely controlled by the Second Prince.]

[The Second Prince had private soldiers and the City Defense Army; if it really came to a fight, the outcome would be unknown.]

[But the question was, could they fight?]

[Watching from the outside, you saw all those twists and turns clearly.]

[The Second Prince didn't dare to act lightly because there were three hurdles he couldn't overcome.]

[First, attacking the palace might not result in a win. Those thousands of Imperial Guards were each top-tier martial arts experts; if they really fought, it was hard to say who would win or lose.]

[Second, no one knew if the Emperor was actually dead. The news coming out was "coma," but who knew if it was a fake coma? If the Emperor suddenly woke up mid-battle and gave a call to action, the label of "regicide" would be stuck on him forever.]

[Third, those princes and princesses in the cultivation Sects were currently silent. But if a real fight broke out, would they speak up?]

[Although Cultivators are not allowed to interfere in mortal affairs, that is just a rule—and rules are always applied selectively.]

[Once it truly reaches that stage, who will still talk to you about rules?]

[Furthermore, even if the palace were truly taken, the throne would be obtained illegitimately.]

[If he can fight for it today, others can fight him for it tomorrow.]

[Who in the world would still submit to him?]

[This is the trouble with mortal dynasties.]

[Winning the world is easy, but keeping it is hard.]

[Before doing anything, one must first think through the consequences.]

[You actually thought quite highly of those thousands of Imperial Guards.]

[These thousands of Imperial Guards only listened to imperial power—first the Emperor, then the Crown Prince.]

[This was an ironclad law and their very lifeblood.]

[Because their duty was to guard the palace.]

[If they couldn't even guard the palace, what kind of Imperial Guard would they be?]

[Which emperor would dare to use them in the future?]

[To put it bluntly, the confidence of the Imperial Guard could be summed up in one sentence:]

["I'm the one who guards the palace; if you take the palace down, how am I supposed to make a living later?"]

[This was the current situation of the Tianqi Dynasty.]

[After you withdrew from the Eastern Palace, you took several turns and arrived at a side hall—this was the place where eunuchs and palace maids took turns resting.]

[As soon as you entered, a thin, sallow-faced old man greeted you with a smile.]

[He was the Chief Eunuch, Wei Jinzhi, and he was also a Great Grandmaster.]