"Feeling comfortable?"
Shen Qing turned her head and looked at the beads of sweat on Yuan Zhao's forehead and her flushed cheeks, her eyes filled with smiles.
Yuan Zhao nodded vigorously. "For over a decade, I've never felt so refreshed. Shen Qing, I owe this all to you."
Shen Qing shook her head. "No, these are all your choices. It's your strength that gave yourself a glimmer of hope."
But then Shen Qing changed the subject and reminded Yuan Zhao, "I know you want to seize power, but you can't act rashly. You should understand the principle that haste makes waste. Don't poison the emperor anymore. If you become the one who kills your father and the emperor, the Heavenly Way won't tolerate you, and you won't be able to ascend the throne smoothly. Do you understand?"
Yuan Zhao recalled her father stuffing the sugar - cube cake into her mouth, her heart filled with complex emotions.
"I understand. I won't do such a thing again in the future. But even though you've reminded me, it's already too late. Father has ingested a large amount of poison. Even if I threatened Li Tianyun to take out the antidote, I'm afraid it won't be in time..."
Shen Qing pondered for a while and calculated the time. It seemed that it was still possible to get Jiang Zhijun here in time.
After making up her mind, Shen Qing said to Yuan Zhao, "If you trust me, I'll ask my friend to come and detoxify your father. But whether it will succeed or not depends on fate."
Yuan Zhao suddenly sat up, leaned over, and tightly grasped Shen Qing's hand. "Shen Qing! You're really my lucky star. What would I do without you!"
"Come on, you're exaggerating," Shen Qing said. Yuan Zhao's face was so close that Shen Qing felt that the next second Yuan Zhao might kiss her.
After Yuan Zhao excitedly exclaimed a few times, she took out a bright yellow imperial edict from the box on the table. After calming down her emotions, she seriously said to Shen Qing, "This is the imperial edict Father gave me before I left the palace today. He told me to read it after I got back to the mansion, but I haven't had the chance..."
No matter what the content of the imperial edict was, now she wanted to read it with Shen Qing.
"Shen Qing, let's read it together!"
Saying that, before Shen Qing could stop her, Yuan Zhao opened the imperial edict, and its content shocked both of them.
The emperor ordered Yuan Zhao to release the Ling family members imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison, but only the more than twenty members of the main branch.
He wanted the Ling family members to atone for their crimes with meritorious deeds. If the matter was handled well, he would order the officials of the Ministry of Punishment and the Supreme Court to reinvestigate the case of the Ling family.
In this way, it would only be a matter of time before the Ling family regained their innocence.
Yuan Zhao immediately felt a sense of guilt towards her father. Although she understood that this was her father's way of making her compete with the third prince to decide the winner.
But Yuan Zhao could clearly feel the change in her father's attitude towards her.
For a father who had made her study "Rules for Women" and "Admonitions for Women" for over a decade, it was already very difficult for him to admit the fair - competition relationship between her and the third prince.
As the one who held the supreme imperial power, his strictness towards women was no less than that of the men in the world.
Whether it was because of his guilt towards her mother or his love for her, Yuan Zhao was now extremely grateful to the emperor.
Yuan Zhao looked at the imperial edict in her hand, with what seemed like burning flames in her eyes.
"I will never let myself down!"
After chatting with Yuan Zhao for a while, Shen Qing bid farewell and returned to Li Tianyun's mansion.
As soon as Shen Qing appeared, Hong Chaoyang immediately stepped forward and told her what she had seen.
As soon as Li Tianyun returned to his mansion, he lit a talisman. The talisman gave off curling smoke that drifted towards the direction of Kunlun Mountain.
Even though Hong Chaoyang didn't know much about talismans, she knew that this should be a message - sending talisman. She immediately sent a burst of spiritual power into the smoke, which drifted away into the distance with the smoke.
But strangely, as soon as the smoke reached the vicinity of Kunlun Mountain, it was dispersed. Li Tianyun's message disappeared before it could reach the intended person.
Apart from this, Li Tianyun just paced back and forth in his room and did nothing else.
Shen Qing nodded, told Hong Chaoyang to rest in the courtyard, and then went to Li Tianyun's study alone.
There was coldness in her eyes, and the figure of a person appeared in her mind. She had some guesses and wanted to ask Li Tianyun for clarification.
When she got to the study, the few soldiers guarding the study immediately became vigilant when they saw Shen Qing. Shen Qing didn't want to say much. She just waved her hand, and these soldiers with big knives immediately fell to the ground, unconscious.
Shen Qing lifted her foot and kicked open the door of Li Tianyun's study forcefully, scaring Li Tianyun so much that he jumped on the spot.
Seeing that it was Shen Qing, Li Tianyun quickly squeezed out a smile and obsequiously came up to Shen Qing. "Why did the fairy come here in person? If there's something, just give an order."
Shen Qing looked at Li Tianyun with a solemn expression and unceremoniously sat down on a chair in Li Tianyun's study.
Li Tianyun felt a bitter taste in his mouth. Why was he so unlucky today? It was bad enough that the princess was giving him a hard time. Why did Shen Qing also look like she was going to settle accounts with him?
He silently groaned in pain but didn't dare to say anything in front of Shen Qing. He could only carefully ask, "What's wrong with the fairy? Is it that the servants in my mansion didn't entertain you well and offended the fairy?"
Because other than this, he really couldn't think of any other reason why Shen Qing would show him a cold face.
But then Shen Qing exerted a pressure on him. The pressure of a Golden - Core stage cultivator directly made Li Tianyun kneel heavily on the ground. His knee bones almost broke.
This intense pain made Li Tianyun cry out, and his face contorted.
"Fairy... What are you... doing!"
Shen Qing snorted. "Do you think that by sending a message to the person behind you, he can save you? As a cultivator, no matter how low your cultivation level is, you've already stepped half - way into the path of immortality. However, you poisoned the emperor of the mortal world. Do you think you can bear the karma that will fall on you!"
Shen Qing was stern. Just these two short sentences made Li Tianyun break out in cold sweat on his back.
She knew everything!
As smart as Li Tianyun, he immediately thought that Shen Qing must have heard all his conversation with the princess today.
But what made him even more frightened was Shen Qing's words about the unbearable karma of poisoning the emperor.
Li Tianyun gritted his teeth and said, "Fairy, I'm not a proper cultivator. I'm just an ordinary farmer from the countryside."
"I only had a few mu of thin fields at home. My parents were unable to afford my studies for the imperial examinations. To make matters worse, I got seriously ill and almost died."
"If it weren't for the immortal who asked my master to give me a pill, which brought me back to life and gave me cultivation, I'm afraid I would have turned into a handful of loess. I don't understand what you're talking about. I only know that I need to repay the kindness!"
Shen Qing closed her eyes, a feeling of helplessness and annoyance welling up in her heart.
Everyone in this world has their own weaknesses. But if everyone does things without distinguishing right from wrong because of their hardships, then there will be no order in the world, and it will eventually be in chaos.
Shen Qing recalled the chess game set by Han Ze. Perhaps his target in the mortal world had never been the so - called land of people's faith, but the emperor of the mortal world!