447: Chapter 447 Support and Bridge Building

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, two years have passed like a white horse passing a crevice.

Di Pingjian has now entered the twenty-one-year-old stage of her life, and at the same time, she has successfully risen to become the Twelfth Prince's most trusted and capable subordinate.

Over time, the power held by Di Pingjian has grown day by day, which has undoubtedly brought her more opportunities and challenges.

Through her efforts, the living conditions of the people in the Slum District have significantly improved, and their days have become increasingly smooth.

The children in the Shelter have also seen new changes.

Some of the children who reached the age of twelve chose to leave to pursue their own life paths, while the number of abandoned children gradually decreased, directly leading to a corresponding reduction in the number of new children entering the Shelter.

As a result, the overall number of children in the Shelter has shown a continuous downward trend, which is undoubtedly a heartening phenomenon.

However, although Di Pingjian achieved certain results in improving life in the Slum District, to truly grant the children and people here the same life rights as ordinary people, relying solely on the Twelfth Prince's influence would likely be as difficult as reaching the heavens.

The Twelfth Prince remains his usual self—doing as he pleases and being carefree, spending his days immersed in eating, drinking, and having fun, seemingly unconcerned with other matters.

In contrast, the open and secret struggles among the other princes have intensified, especially with only five years left until the royal succession, this competition has reached a fever pitch.

Di Pingjian had once carefully considered whether to assist the prince in vying for the royal succession.

If successful, when the Twelfth Prince ascended the throne, it would be possible to abolish the discriminatory Rank system between commoners and nobles.

However, reality left Di Pingjian feeling quite helpless.

The current Twelfth Prince is truly hard to describe; he is like an innocent and heartless child, carefree all day long, seemingly having no interest in power or status.

Sometimes, Di Pingjian even wondered if there was something wrong with the Twelfth Prince's mind.

Di Pingjian had also suspected whether the Twelfth Prince's usual idleness was just a facade.

Perhaps his goal was to make the other princes despise him, thinking he posed no threat to the royal succession.

In reality, the Twelfth Prince might be silently accumulating power in secret, waiting for the right moment to seize the royal succession in one fell swoop.

However, after many secret observations and deep inquiries, Di Pingjian ultimately concluded she might be overthinking it.

The Twelfth Prince seemed to be a complete man of inaction, indifferent to everything except eating, drinking, and playing.

In this fierce struggle among princes, it has always been a life-or-death situation.

One either goes all out to fight for that supreme power or simply gives up, content to be a leisurely prince, staying far away from this cruel struggle.

Among the twenty-one princes, although some others chose to give up the fight for succession, very few were as completely 'rotting' as the Twelfth Prince.

Di Pingjian was now in a dilemma, not knowing what to do.

If she tried to persuade the Twelfth Prince to join the struggle for succession, she feared that not only would she fail to convince him, but she would also be noticed by the spies of other princes, bringing death upon herself.

However, if she didn't persuade him, she would likely remain a royal chef forever.

In that case, her ideal of helping the people of the Slum District escape their low-class status and ensuring there were no more abandoned children in this royal-ruled region would probably never be realized.

Di Pingjian knew very well that she might just be living in a world created by the Grandmist Divine Heart Tribulation.

However, she also understood that she carried an important mission, one closely linked to the people of the Slum District.

Although she wasn't yet clear on the specific details of the mission, she firmly believed that everything she was currently doing was correct.

More importantly, Di Pingjian could truly feel the reality of this world; it was by no means an illusion or a false existence.

Therefore, besides completing her mission, she also desired to live her life perfectly.

Of course, if there were a chance to leave this planet and explore the wider Universe, that would naturally be for the best.

However, Di Pingjian knew that all of this had a prerequisite: it could not be at the cost of all life on the planet.

If she had to sacrifice the life of the entire planet to achieve her goal, she would rather be trapped on this planet forever and never take that step.

Di Pingjian hadn't never thought about turning to other princes. After all, with her shocking culinary skills, if other princes knew of her existence, they would surely flock to recruit her.

However, the Twelfth Prince had tightly blocked all news of her, the master chef, leaving the other princes completely unaware of her.

Not only that, but the other princes considered the Twelfth Prince no threat at all, so there seemed to be no spies planted by other princes in his territory.

But the main reason Di Pingjian didn't choose to turn to other princes was that their Rank ideology was too severe.

According to her inquiries, most princes held extremely strict views on Rank discrimination.

In their eyes, people from the Slum District were not worthy of the same rights as them; at most, they might receive some insignificant charity, which was already the limit of what they could give.

So, Di Pingjian's ideals would likely never be realized with the other princes.

In fact, the Twelfth Prince was not entirely without the concept of Rank discrimination, but in her time with him, Di Pingjian felt that his sense of Rank discrimination was exceptionally weak, almost negligible.

Not only that, Di Pingjian also noticed that as long as she subtly influenced and guided the Twelfth Prince through daily conversation, he could entirely become a person who upheld the concept of equality for all beings.

After a period of careful consideration, Di Pingjian finally made up her mind to persuade the Twelfth Prince to vie for the royal succession.

Although there were risks, Di Pingjian believed it was worth taking, because other than this, she really couldn't think of any better way to solve the current predicament.

Di Pingjian didn't directly suggest that the Twelfth Prince vie for the succession; instead, while he was tasting delicious food, she cleverly conveyed her hidden meaning through storytelling.

These stories were not only interesting but also profound, and the underlying message was undoubtedly about the ruthlessness of the royal family.

Di Pingjian hinted, both explicitly and implicitly, that no matter how the Twelfth Prince chose to give up the throne to protect himself, it would be difficult to escape a tragic end.

Initially, the Twelfth Prince didn't pay much attention to these stories, treating them only as entertainment.

However, as the types and frequency of stories Di Pingjian told increased, the Twelfth Prince began to have doubts and worries about the deeper meanings.

He began to realize that the current royal situation was exactly like what was described in the stories.

In the royal family, there was only ever one King; there was no such thing as princes coexisting peacefully as lords.

Many records of princes showed they died heroically in foreign wars, but thinking carefully, how could all princes just happen to die on the battlefield?

There was clearly some unknown truth behind this.

Finally, Di Pingjian no longer had to beat around the bush to persuade the Twelfth Prince to fight for the succession.

Because the Twelfth Prince actually started to proactively ask Di Pingjian what those princes with tragic ends in the stories should have done to escape such a miserable fate.

This was a rare and excellent opportunity!

Di Pingjian was secretly delighted; she felt the time was ripe and she no longer needed to hide her true thoughts from the Twelfth Prince.

So, she unhesitatingly clarified her meaning to the Twelfth Prince.

Di Pingjian told the Twelfth Prince that the reason those princes met tragic ends was that they lacked sufficient power and status.

To change this situation, the only way was to fight for the succession and become the supreme King!

Only then could they truly control their own destiny and no longer be manipulated by others.

The Twelfth Prince was currently in an excellent position; he had cleverly avoided the focus of other princes, which undoubtedly provided him with a golden opportunity to build up his strength in secret.

Di Pingjian knew that in this fierce battle for succession, timing and strategy were crucial.

However, standing out among many powerful competitors was no easy feat.

With the Twelfth Prince's current strength, it was almost impossible to significantly enhance his advantage in the future succession struggle in a short period.

Therefore, he had to adopt some unconventional strategies and take an unusual path to win by surprise.

After careful consideration, the Twelfth Prince decided to follow Di Pingjian's advice.

Now the Twelfth Prince saw Di Pingjian as his trusted strategist.

Di Pingjian seemed to know more than he did, possessing extraordinary wisdom and a deep understanding of court intrigue.

Although the Twelfth Prince had doubts, as long as she could help him win the royal succession, nothing else mattered.

Under Di Pingjian's planning, the Twelfth Prince began a series of carefully laid-out actions.

First, he set about secretly cultivating a group of capable subordinates. These people not only had to be loyal to him but also possess outstanding ability and talent.

Through strict selection and training, the Twelfth Prince gradually built a reliable Shadow Squad, who would become his secret helpers in the succession struggle.

Meanwhile, at Di Pingjian's suggestion, the Twelfth Prince also sent his men to secretly collect dirt on other generals and marquises or gain control over their fatal weaknesses.

This was an extremely dangerous task, but it was also the key to gaining an advantage.

By mastering this key information, the Twelfth Prince could apply pressure on competitors at critical moments, or even cause their supporters to temporarily defect to him, leaving the other princes in a desperate situation.

Because the entire royal family was careless toward the Twelfth Prince—someone who seemingly only knew how to eat, drink, and play and posed no threat—his plan proceeded exceptionally smoothly.

No one noticed that he was secretly brewing a world-shaking change.

And when the day to fight for the succession finally arrived, Di Pingjian and the Twelfth Prince believed he would settle the matter with thunderous momentum and successfully seize the royal succession.

After a period of careful handling, the facts finally surfaced: it turned out that most of the other nineteen princes did not see the Twelfth Prince as a real threat at all.

However, among them, the Sixteenth Prince and the First Prince were quite special; they had planted several spies around the Twelfth Prince to try and monitor his every move.

However, this plot did not succeed.

Di Pingjian and the Twelfth Prince had now seen through their tricks and quickly took countermeasures.

They not only closely monitored those spies but also cleverly passed false information to them, misleading them into relaying incorrect news to their masters.

Now, the development of events had far exceeded expectations.

Di Pingjian and the Twelfth Prince had successfully bribed most of the people around the other princes through a series of extreme measures.

This meant that in the upcoming succession battle, these princes would find it difficult to pose a substantial threat to the Twelfth Prince.

However, Di Pingjian had even more far-reaching considerations.

She suggested to the Twelfth Prince that the majority of the princes' subordinates they had bribed should continue to support their original masters on the surface.

In this way, in the key battle for the royal succession, the Twelfth Prince would only need to defeat the other competitors by an extremely narrow margin to easily achieve victory.

The benefits of doing this were obvious: it would not arouse the King's dissatisfaction, yet he could win and stabilize his position while continuing to closely monitor the movements of the other princes.

The Twelfth Prince was deeply satisfied with this brilliant suggestion from Di Pingjian and highly praised her intelligence.

With victory now within his grasp, a great weight was finally lifted from the Twelfth Prince's heart, and his originally tense mind gradually relaxed.

Thus, he began to think about how to enjoy this rare leisure time; eating, drinking, and playing naturally became the first thoughts to pop into his head.

However, facing the Twelfth Prince's performance of being so easily carried away by victory, Di Pingjian couldn't help but feel a bit helpless.

She sighed inwardly, feeling that the Twelfth Prince indeed did not naturally possess the air of a king, and his character and behavior were far removed from the image of a monarch.

But things had come to this, and Di Pingjian had no other choice; after all, under the current circumstances, the Twelfth Prince was already the best choice she could make.

To ensure everything was foolproof, Di Pingjian discussed with the Twelfth Prince and wanted to win over some important figures around the King.

However, after several months of effort, they still failed.

The King's personal guards and confidants had no weaknesses to exploit, which left the two of them somewhat regretful.

Now, there were only three years left until the royal succession was established.

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