The Evil Emperor's Favorite: The Sickly and Poisonous Concubine Goes Crazy

"The Imperial Censorate has a petition to submit!!"

Du Ling, the head of the Imperial Censorate, stood up, glanced at the guards and snorted coldly.

His square and resolute face showed an unyielding look, and his eyes were clear as he looked at the prince sitting under the white jade throne.

"What's the matter, Lord Du?" Mu Feng's expression gradually turned cold, and his eyes, which usually showed no emotion, became completely dark with a cold threat.

As the head of the Imperial Censorate, Du Ling was upright and honest, and he had even reported to His Majesty. He never played tricks in the court, and no one could stop him from speaking the truth:

"The eyes of heaven are not clear, and the person appointed is not the right one! Today, I want to criticize His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for being unfilial, disloyal, and unkind. His virtue is not worthy of the position, and he should not be the crown prince!"

"To seek power and gain, to poison Your Majesty and put Your Majesty in danger, is unfilial!"

"To seek personal gain, to kill powerful officials, to instigate Hua Wen to surrender to the enemy and betray the country, this is disloyalty!"

"To seek a better future, he killed the people and buried the dead souls in the border town. This is inhumane! This is the evidence of the prince's evil deeds provided by the Ministry of Justice. Every word is true!"

Du Ling spoke loudly and clearly, and every word was heart-piercing. He showed no fear towards the prince. When these words came out, the crowd was in an uproar.

"Your crimes are obvious, and your behavior is so bad that you are unworthy of being the crown prince of the Great Zhou. Your Majesty is still awake, and we would like to order our wise master to ask Princess Xuyang to supervise the country and restore the glory of the country!!"

"Du Ling, how dare you!" The prince was so angry that he shouted at Du Lin.

But his angry and hateful voice could not stop the voices of the ministers in the palace:

"We wish to honor Princess Xuyang as regent and restore the country's glory!"

The people from the Imperial Censorate followed him and bowed to Mu Xi, who was standing in the center of the hall. Then came Lu Zhifan from the Ministry of Justice, and then officials from various departments. More and more people bowed. In the end, there were only a few left standing.

The prince looked at everyone in the court and felt a chill in his heart. Lu Zhifan, the Minister of Justice, actually had such a wolf under his command, and among them was the minister he had worked so hard to win over.

He didn't know that so many people were playing hypocritical games right under his nose.

The prince suddenly sneered a few times and looked at Mu Xi who was standing in the crowd with her head bowed, neither humble nor arrogant. She was dressed in rich scarlet, with the gold thread on her skirt gleaming, looking dignified and calm.

The prince took a deep breath, calmed himself, and tried to maintain his usual humility and kindness. Then, he looked at the people below and fixed his eyes on Mu Xi.

"My power as regent was personally ordered by my father. When my father was poisoned, I was not in the capital, but Mu Xi was dismissed by my father. Now someone suddenly said something about the disaster in the border town, and I was accused of being unfilial and disloyal. You are the pillars of the court, and you should know the reason better than me."

Mu Xi raised his eyes to look at Mu Feng, his cold eyes were filled with sarcasm:

"Oh? Really? Then why don't you tell me why our father has been in a coma until now, why the virtuous concubine controls the harem, and the heavy troops surround the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and even when our father is awake, only Prime Minister Liu is allowed to enter?"

"Xian Fei, what are you helping the Crown Prince bury?"

"If you don't want to see how much evidence points to you in Lord Du's memorial, then let me tell you. The poison that father was poisoned with was Soul-Falling Inducing. The poisoned person can be controlled. In the past few months, the Crown Princess sent one or two herbs to Concubine Xian's palace every day under the pretext of delivering medicine. You and Concubine Xian conspired to threaten and use the concubines in the palace to secretly poison father for you. As a result, the Imperial Hospital was unable to find the source of the poisoning."

"Also, why is my father's personal seal missing from the Imperial Regent's edict?"

"Brother, you are the one who sits on the throne of the state regent. You are the one who holds the heavy troops inside and outside the imperial city. You are the one who secretly led the troops into the city. Brother, tell me, who is plotting a rebellion?"

She looked at Mu Feng, her voice cold and her eyes showing no fear at all.

Mu Feng leaned forward slightly, looking directly at Mu Xi, with a smile on his face, with contempt and disdain, as if he didn't care at all about what she said:

"Mu Xi, I know that you ordered these people. But is that all you have done?"

He had been planning for many days and was not completely unprepared. She thought that by inciting some commotion in the court, she could bring him down.

"I am the crown prince who has been crowned and enthroned in a grand ceremony! How can you all make random accusations and offend me? Now that my father is still unconscious, I will temporarily take over the position of regent. Imperial Censor Du Ling listened to slander and neglected his duties. Considering that this is his first offense, I will punish him with 20 strokes of the cane and six months' salary. Princess Xuyang has been imprisoned for disrupting the imperial order."

He raised his chin slightly, as if he had already won the game, so there was no need to pretend. His clear eyes, which were always modest, were now full of lust for power.

A smile flashed across Mu Xi's eyes. Very good. What she wanted was to provoke Mu Feng to stop pretending and reveal his most primitive and power-hungry face. Her expression did not change, and her eyes swept towards Liu Xiang.

Prime Minister Liu looked at Mu Feng, who was sitting high up on the throne, with a complicated expression. His cloudy eyes were filled with deep disappointment. He didn't know that the emperor he saw was actually a puppet under control. And the Hell was a place where you could enter but not leave.

"Your Highness!"

"Please think twice, Your Highness! Killing the king and his relatives is a serious crime!"

He closed his eyes slightly and spoke loudly to the prince. Once these words came out, they undoubtedly confirmed the prince's guilt in the eyes of all the court officials.

The prince looked at him, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, followed by a sneer:

"Prime Minister Liu, even you want to betray me!"

"I am a minister of the Great Zhou! I am a minister of your majesty!" His voice was clear and echoed throughout the Golden Palace.

He used to teach the prince carefully because he thought the prince was kind-hearted, ambitious, and strategic. Therefore, he was capable of great responsibility and a good ruler. However, he was short-sighted and never recognized him. He had killed thousands of people in the border town, which was a taboo for him.

As a minister, one should share the worries of the monarch and solve the problems of the people. The monarch should be happy and the people should be happy. These were the words he told himself on the day he entered officialdom. He never dared to forget them during his decades of service, and finally he rose to the position of prime minister.

"Princess Xuyang, please take over the post of regent temporarily!"

"Good! Very good! You would rather listen to a woman than obey me. In this case, my lords, please don't blame me for being rude."

"Come here! Tell the Tongzhou camp that Xuyang intends to rebel. Seal the city immediately and protect the safety of all the prefectures for me!"

The prince had a gloomy expression. He gritted his teeth and gave cold orders to the guards of the palace. His eyes swept over the important officials kneeling in the palace, with a clear threat in them.

"I will give you a chance. I will get up within a cup of tea and pretend that nothing happened today. I will let you out of the palace immediately and ensure the safety of you and your family."

He leaned back slightly in his chair, with a dangerous look in his eyes. Then he waved his hand, and was quickly surrounded by a group of heavily armored guards outside the hall.

But the important ministers kneeling in the hall did not move, and seemed determined to fight the prince to the end.

"Brother, are you too lazy to even pretend now?"

Mu Xi walked to the center of the hall with an arrogant look on his face. He was not afraid of the prince at all. He helped Cheng Man and the other man who were kneeling on the ground, then turned to look at him.

The prince sealed off the city, which gave him a reason to start a rebellion.

My brother’s Beiyang Army should be here soon.

"Mu Xi, I am curious about how you are going to protect these ministers who trust you. Rely on the imperial guards? Do you think I am really defenseless against you? But right now, Su Jingmo can't even protect himself. The Beiyang Army is far away in the northern border." Mu Feng stood up from the Tan Yi, clasped his hands in front of him, with a sarcastic smile on his face.

He had already ordered his men to secretly keep an eye on the Imperial Camp, and if there was any unusual movement, anyone would be killed without mercy.

Mu Xi looked at him, with aloofness and calmness in her eyes, which looked even deeper under the candlelight. She opened her red lips slightly, and her voice was soft but firm as a rock:

"Brother, you seem to have forgotten that the court does not rely solely on force. The way of the king is to win the support of the people. You control the situation with an iron fist, but you forget that water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it."

She slowly turned around and glanced at the ministers in the hall. Every kneeling figure seemed to be telling of their firmness and loyalty to the dynasty. Mu Xi took a deep breath and continued:

"What happened today was not the result of my own efforts, but the wish of the whole world. The injustice between Cheng Man and Li Zhang, and the hatred of tens of thousands of souls who died in Border Town, have turned into a rolling torrent. Brother Huang, you can't stop it."

Before she finished her words, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside the palace, and then a guard commander hurried in, knelt in front of Mu Feng with a solemn expression, and reported in a low voice:

"Your Highness, the Beiyang Army has arrived outside the city, led by... Beiyang King Gu Yan'an. A group of masked men suddenly appeared in the city, with extraordinary skills, and ambushed near the residences of the gentlemen. Many people in the Tongzhou camp were injured."

As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar in the hall. Mu Feng's face instantly darkened. How could the Beiyang Army suddenly appear, and he had no news at all. He suddenly realized that he was fooled, and Gu Yan'an was not injured at all! Everything was done for him to see.

He had never expected that his carefully arranged defense line would be breached so easily. He glared at Mu Xi, his eyes burning with anger:

"How dare you collude with foreign troops and plot rebellion!"

Mu Xi raised a faint smile, which contained both irony and sarcasm:

"Your Majesty, you are wrong. I am not plotting a rebellion, but rather reversing the chaos. The Beiyang Army is the army of the Great Zhou, not mine alone. I was summoned to the capital, so how could I be plotting a rebellion? It just so happened that you, my Majesty, sealed off the city without authorization, which ruined your plan."

Mu Feng clenched his fists, his nails almost digging into his palms. He laughed in anger: "What a great way to set things right! Mu Xi, do you think you can win like this? I, Mu Feng, will never admit defeat so easily!"

He turned around abruptly and shouted to the guards outside the palace: "Pass the order, the whole city is under martial law, anyone who dares to help the rebels will be killed without mercy!"

However, his order did not seem to receive the expected response. Outside the Fengzheng Hall where the court was meeting, a group of imperial guards in black armor appeared outside the palace gate at some point, with their iron crossbows pointed directly at the prince's guards outside the Fengzheng Hall.

Su Jingmo led his men closer to Fengzheng Hall step by step, tightly gripping the hilt of the knife in his hand, without a trace of fear in his eyes.

Along with him came the old Grand Tutor Qi, who was walking behind him in a purple official uniform, leaning on a golden dragon-headed staff. His expression was indifferent, and his slightly hunched figure could not hide the elegance of a civil official. The black gold scepter in his hand gave him a bit more authority as an elder. Qi Nanfeng stood beside him, nodding slightly, with a humble demeanor and a scholarly air. He held Mu Xi's white jade sword in his hand, but it didn't seem to have much attack power.

But people who are familiar with Qi Nanfeng know that he is a bookish man with extraordinary talent, but he is also full of tricks. Anyone who makes him angry will end up in a bad way. He can use his red jade pen to make people die of anger.

Although Grand Tutor Qi has been retired for many years, he was indeed the Grand Tutor of two dynasties and the holy teacher of all the powerful officials in the court. He was highly regarded by the late emperor, who granted him a black gold dragon-headed staff, giving him the power to whip the emperor.

When they reached the palace gate, Su Jingmo looked impatient. He glanced at the guards in front of the palace who were pointing their swords at each other. He wanted to draw his sword and kill them, but was stopped by the old Grand Tutor.

"Your Majesty's private seal is here! Anyone who dares to stop me will be in trouble!"

He took out a crystal-white jade seal from his bosom and held it in one hand, with a black golden dragon-headed staff on top. He carried the authority of a long career in officialdom, and for a moment, no one dared to stop him.

When Mu Xi saw that it was the old Grand Tutor, a hint of surprise flashed across his eyes, but he quickly concealed it.

"Old Master." She bowed her head and saluted slightly to Old Master Qi.

All the ministers in the hall cast respectful glances at him.

Old Master Qi nodded to Mu Xi, then raised his eyes to look at Mu Feng.

"Your Majesty is still unconscious. Before this, he had expected something to happen in the court, so he secretly handed over his private seal to me. Although I am not talented, I have been the imperial tutor of two dynasties. Compared with you, I have some qualifications. Your Majesty asked me to make the decision for your Majesty if the court is unstable and hand over the Great Zhou to someone who can be trusted."

"Now it seems that the Crown Prince is definitely not someone who can be trusted. I will hand over this private seal of His Majesty to Princess Xuyang. My Lords, do you have any objections?"

Old Grand Tutor Qi had a slightly hoarse voice, and he had the character of a civil official, but no one dared to offend him, and no one dared to doubt what he said.

"Ridiculous! It's absolutely ridiculous. The old master was also bewitched by someone. Is he so confused now?"

The prince walked down the golden steps step by step, with disbelief on his face. How could it be possible? How could the emperor have noticed this?

"Although I am old, I am also able to distinguish right from wrong. Since your majesty has entrusted me with this, I will certainly do my best to complete it." Old Grand Tutor Qi curled his beard slightly, handed the private seal to Mu Xi, and ignored Mu Feng.

Qi Nanfeng handed the white jade sword in his hand to Mu Xi, who took it and nodded at him.

Then, the scabbard turned slightly, and before she could see her movement clearly, the sharp silver-white blade swept across Mu Feng's neck.

Mu Feng's pupils shrank slightly, and he looked at Mu Xi angrily:

"what are you doing!?"

Mu Xi's eyes were cold, and his voice could not hide his anger:

"Where is the antidote for the Soul-Falling Induction?"

Mu Feng was stunned for a moment, then a crazy smile appeared on the corner of his mouth:

"Kill me! Don't you want to kill me? Don't you dare, Mu Xi? If I die, the antidote will be destroyed! If there is no antidote within five days, our good father will never wake up!"

"Really? Even if you don't die, I can make you live a life worse than death. What's more, I have plenty of ways to find the antidote." Mu Xi raised his eyes slightly, with extreme danger in his eyes.

"Also, if the Soul-Falling Spell is used on the Crown Princess, I wonder if it will hurt my unborn nephew?" She lowered her voice slightly, whispering in his ear in a voice that only the two of them could hear, with a strong sense of danger.

"you dare!!"

The prince was so angry that his whole body trembled due to Mu Xi's stimulation. The sharp blade scratched his neck and blood gushed out instantly.

"Ah--"

"Royal brother, you should know that Xuyang has been practicing martial arts since he was young. When he was out there, killing people was what he was best at. Royal brother, do you think I dare to do it?" Mu Xi moved the sword closer and sneered, cold and arrogant.

“If you dare to touch them, I will bring disgrace to the King of Beiyang! Do you dare to make his identity known to the public?!” The prince had a crazy look on his face, with an evil smile on his lips.

He knew Mu Xi's weak points, besides his father, the other one was Gu Yan'an.

Mu Xi frowned, her slender wrist flew, and the sword blade that was against the prince's neck a moment ago suddenly pierced through his shoulder blade, cleanly and mercilessly.

The sound of flesh piercing frightened the ministers in the hall so much that they broke out in a sweat and buried their heads even lower.

"Imperial guards, listen up! The Crown Prince is obsessed with power and intends to rebel and assassinate Your Majesty. You are now stripped of your power as regent and imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison. We will make a decision after Your Majesty recovers from his illness! All other people involved will be imprisoned and interrogated strictly! They will be punished according to the law!"

"Yes!"

Mu Feng was sweating profusely from the pain. He was knocked unconscious by Su Jingmo's palm and was dragged away.

"I'm sorry to have frightened you all today. Jing Mo, order the Imperial Guards to escort you all back to your palace." Mu Xi turned his head and looked at the ministers in the hall. His voice was calm and he exuded dignity.

"Yes."

Cheng Man and the other person bowed three times to Mu Xi, their eyes red with relief in them:

"I have become the wronged soul of the people of Border Town. Thank you, Your Highness!!"

Mu Xi personally helped the man up and said in a clear voice: "No need to be polite. You two have helped me a lot this time. I will order the Ministry of Justice to thoroughly investigate this matter. All officials involved will be punished according to the law to restore justice to Border City."

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Cheng Man's eyes were filled with gratitude, and she bowed to Qi Nanfeng who was standing beside her to express her gratitude. If they had not met the young master of the Grand Tutor's Mansion on the way north to seek justice, they would probably have already become innocent souls under the prince's knife.

After the two of them left, Mu Xi walked towards the inner palace and asked Qi Nanfeng as he walked:

"Nanfeng, how is the Hall of Supreme Harmony?"

"Don't worry. Princess Beiyang has already led people to sneak in. When Su Jingmo rushed into the palace, he had already controlled the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Your Majesty is fine."