Wandering the Heavens

The Empress Dowager was very old. She didn't know whether she was pretending to be confused or was really confused. She grabbed Mu Nihuang and Mei Changsu's hands and put them together, saying with relief, "Good boy."

After the two of them had their own thoughts, they left together. On the way, they met Prince Jing Xiao Jingyan, and the three of them went together to talk about some random things. Xiao Jingyan respected Mu Nihuang very much, but he didn't like Mei Changsu because he was a scheming person. Having said that, Xiao Jingyan couldn't say anything with Mu Nihuang around, and being fussy was not the temperament a prince should have.

As they were talking, they heard a burst of shrill curses, which simply said that if they didn't do their job properly, they would be beaten.

Xiao Jingyan led the two people towards the sound, and saw a skinny young man kneeling on the floor under a corridor, and a eunuch waving a rattan stick and cursing.

In the end, Xiao Jingyan reprimanded the eunuch and asked the slave to leave, but Mei Changsu intervened and said he wanted to take the child as his apprentice. Xiao Jingyan was against it, because Mei Changsu was not a good person, and it was not a good thing to give the child. He could only refuse on the grounds that the palace slaves would be slaves for life unless pardoned by the emperor. However, Mei Changsu said that nothing was impossible.

The chit-chat ended here. Gao Zhan came over and took Mu Nihuang away, saying that he wanted to ask for her opinion and some details about the martial arts competition to win a bride, leaving Mei Changsu and Xiao Jingyan looking at each other coldly.

This is so damn hypocritical. The imperial decree has already been issued and they are still asking for the opinions of the parties involved.

Mu Nihuang was also very sensible. She was very grateful to the emperor for worrying about her marriage despite his busy schedule, and she didn't have any thoughts. If there was any, it was that some people wanted to marry not her, but the Southern Mu Palace.

Xiao Xuan understood what she meant. The situation of the martial arts competition for marriage would get out of control. The only way to save it now was to grasp some details. The imperial edict stated that the top ten people in the competition needed to take a written test, so the person who would judge the written test results would have a lot of room for maneuver.

Then the emperor was in a headache. Thanks to his stupid operation, none of the civil servants in the six ministries were reliable. They were either the prince's lackeys or Prince Yu's confidants. What kind of judgment could they make?

Seeing that the emperor was in a dilemma, Mu Nihuang said that the world-famous talented scholar Mei Changsu was also in Jinling, and he could be the examiner.

Xiao Xuan thought about it and agreed, so he asked Gao Zhan to find Mei Changsu.

Twelve years later, Mei Changsu finally met the emperor again. Not only was he the emperor of Liang, he was also his uncle and his aunt-in-law, and the culprit who fabricated the Meilin case for his own selfish interests.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you!" Mei Changsu knelt on the ground with mixed feelings.

"Get up and let me take a look." Xiao Xuan looked at the person in front of him and felt that he seemed familiar.

"Mei Changsu, stand up and let His Majesty see you." Gao Zhan reminded.

Mei Changsu slowly stood up, put his hands on his belt, and looked at the ground.

"Well, you are worthy of being a world-famous talented scholar." Looking at the temperament of the man in front of him, Xiao Xuan's doubts disappeared.

"Just now Princess Nihuang recommended you to me. Now it seems that the princess has a good eye for talent, so I will approve the princess's request. Gao Zhan, go to the Ministry of Rites and tell them that the talented Mei Changsu will preside over Princess Nihuang's marriage examination, and all the test papers will be graded by him." Xiao Xuan directly decided that Mei Changsu would grade the papers and put the blame on Mu Nihuang.

Mei Changsu accepted the task calmly. After all, this was part of the plan. By participating in court affairs, he would enter Prince Yu's field of vision. Now Mu Nihuang's affiliation became the best bargaining chip. This would allow the Crown Prince and Prince Yu to fight each other to the death and buy time for Prince Jing to ascend to the throne.

At this time, something unexpected happened in Yingfeng Tower. Baili Qi, a guard of the Yan State delegation, also came to join in the fun and won the first place in the martial arts test. This made the Crown Prince and Prince Yu nervous. In addition to them, Xiao Xuan was also very nervous.

Mu Nihuang had led troops into battle at the age of ten and had made great achievements in battle. Her talent was not inferior to that of the famous generals of the time. If she had married into the State of Yan, the military strength of the State of Yan would probably surpass that of the State of Liang.

When you are undecided, eat a meal first.

Xiao Xuan gathered the top ten martial arts test takers for a meal. In addition to the ten cannon fodders, the Crown Prince, Prince Yu, Prince Jing, Mei Changsu, and some royal family members and children of aristocratic families also came to the dinner.

Young people are always hot-tempered. During the dinner, they ganged up to embarrass Baili Qi, trying to stand up for Mu Nihuang. Baili Qi is big and strong and unkempt, but he is also good at talking nonsense.

The two sides couldn't argue and finally chose to fight. Xiao Jingrui stepped forward to challenge him. Xiao Jingrui was of course no match for him and was defeated in just a few moves.

Xiao Jingrui's defeat was so easy that Xiao Xuan looked a little embarrassed. He looked around the table and saw that Mei Changsu looked at Baili Qi with disdain. He could only ask Mei Changsu to come forward and see if he could save some face.

Who knew that Mei Changsu would not play by the rules and claimed that he could defeat Baili Qi by just finding three children to train for a few days.

It's to save your face, not to kill you!

At this moment, Xiao Xuan wanted to strangle Mei Changsu to death. The emperor was in a dilemma in public, and with the pressure from Baili Qi and the envoys from Yan State, he decided on the spot to let Mei Changsu select people to train. They would see the real result another day to see whether Baili Qi was really vulnerable as Mei Changsu said.

As for where to choose the child, after a lot of haggling, the topic turned to those palace criminals. Xiao Xuan asked Gao Zhan to take Mei Changsu to choose someone on the spot. Prince Jing was worried and went along to join in the fun.

Mei Changsu brought Tingsheng out of the palace as he wished and returned to the villa of Ningguo Marquis Mansion.

After Mu Nihuang left the palace and returned to Prince Mu's Mansion, she felt very bad and confused. The man with great martial arts skills was still threatening her brother and Lin Shu's lives. Now Brother Lin Shu had been dragged into the turmoil caused by his marriage, and he didn't know how he could get out of it.

"Are you in a hurry?"

Mu Nihuang was startled by the voice. This was the second time they had met since they met once at Changting that day and received his note at the posthouse.

"You...how did you get in?" Mu Nihuang picked up the long sword placed aside and prepared to attack.

"There's no need to do that. As long as you listen to me, Mu Qing and Lin Shu will be fine." Yu Xian didn't care about her little action.

"Why are you doing this!" Mu Nihuang couldn't understand.

"In addition to marching and fighting, Princess Nihuang has also read other books! I wonder if Princess Nihuang can explain to me the term 'holding a position without doing any work'?" Yu Xian walked to the table and sat down, not treating himself as an outsider at all.

"I don't understand what you are talking about?" Mu Nihuang naturally knew this word, but what did it have to do with the purpose of the person in front of her.

"Princess Nihuang, to be honest, I don't care about Liang State, or even any country in this land. So, I need someone to tear it all down and rebuild it. Do you understand?" Yu Xian stared coldly into Mu Nihuang's eyes.

"You are too fanciful! I know that you are very good at martial arts, and perhaps no one on the Langya List can be your opponent. But power and martial arts are two different things. It's not the one with the better martial arts that has the final say!" Mu Nihuang let down her guard.

"Princess Nihuang, can you explain to me why the Crown Prince and Prince Yu are trying so hard to make the person who depends on them marry you?" Yu Xian asked casually.

"Of course it's for the 100,000 cavalrymen from Prince Mu's Palace behind Nihuang. Whoever stands on the side of Prince Mu's Palace has the chance to win the final victory in the fight for the throne." Mu Nihuang replied without hesitation.

"Very good, Princess Nihuang has realized the most important thing, that is, in power struggles, as long as there are enough troops obeying your orders, then you, Mu Nihuang, do not need to obey anyone else's orders, not even the emperor! Remember, your power, Mu Nihuang, comes from the army loyal to you and the Mu Palace, not Xiao Xuan." Yu Xian persuaded.

"If there weren't the 100,000 cavalrymen under the command of Prince Mu's Mansion, would you, Mu Nihuang, be Princess Nihuang? Would Mu Qing be the little prince?"