The Attack of the Wastrel

Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan stood at a path outside the Fengyang Kingdom’s Royal Palace, with Hua Qingcheng and Yuan Zheng beside them.

Wei Hanzi had been too heavily injured in the Sacred Lands and needed at least half of a year of meditating in order to recover and had been ordered by Gu Lingzhi to stay in the Royal Palace against her will.

The four of them had taken Yirong Pills so that others would not know what their true identities were.

“The banquet should have begun by now, right?” Gu Lingzhi murmured to herself when she saw that the sky had darkened. To avoid attracting attention to themselves, they waited for two days after Xie Jianyu had left the Xia Kingdom to leave as well. They wondered if Xie Jianyu had been successful in his endeavors yet.

“When the sky has completely darkened, we’ll go in,” Rong Yuan said.

Gu Lingzhi nodded her head. If it were in the past, it would be an impossible task for them to stealthily enter a Kingdom’s Royal Palace without alerting anyone. However, with Rong Yuan’s space-dimension realm, it was now entirely possible to do so.

As the sky became darker, the number of carriages that were entering the Royal Palace started to decrease.

When night time arrived, they hid underneath a carriage that looked extravagant. When Rong Yuan activated his space-dimension realm, their surroundings rippled for a few seconds. They had disappeared into thin air.

Due to the unique characteristics of the space-dimension realm, they could be hidden in plain sight simply by creating an illusion. Additionally, the fact that it was already dark made it harder for them to be detected.

They were also rather fortunate that the person whom the carriage belonged to had a high social status. When they were going through the Royal Palace’s gates, the guards did not even bother to search the carriage due to the symbol on the carriage.

The owner of the carriage alighted after it had reached its destination. Rong Yuan gave the other three people a look, before he came out from the bottom of the carriage when there was no one around. They knocked out the guards that were on duty and pulled them into a dark corner before exchanging clothes with them, disguising themselves as palace guards.

Gu Lingzhi watched as the three men dragged the guards effortlessly as she squatted beside the guards and removed their clothes.

“Wear this outer robe.” Just before Gu Lingzhi could let her imagination roam, a guard that was wearing black armor and a red innerwear was brought to her. When she looked up, she was met with Rong Yuan’s unpleasant gaze on her, “Wear my outer robe before wearing his clothes.”

Gu Lingzhi froze for a moment before she shook her head and laughed at Rong Yuan’s ridiculousness. He was so petty that he could even be jealous at a time like this.

When the four of them had changed, they came out of the dark corner and walked towards the celebration banquet that was held for Xie Jianyu’s safe return from the Xia Kingdom.

Due to their outfits, they did not draw any attention as they easily made their way to the Taihe Palace where the banquet was held.

The banquet was extremely lively and many important advisors of the Kingdom were present. With just one glance, Gu Lingzhi saw the King of the Fengyang Kingdom that was seated on a stage higher than everyone else.

The King of the Fengyang Kingdom was a middle-aged man that looked extremely similar to Xie Jianyu. Beside him was a beautiful and refined-looking woman who evidently belonged to his harem.

At this moment, the King held a white jade cup filled with wine and smiled at Xie Jianyu, “It is the Fengyang Kingdom’s honor to be able to be in an alliance with the Xia Kingdom to fight against the North Qiu Kingdom. It was only possible because of you. I shall salute you with this cup of wine!”

Then, the King raised his cup towards Xie Jianyu.

Xie Jianyu, who sat at the King’s left, immediately raised his cup in response. “Brother, if I headed to the Xia Kingdom before I had gotten your permission, would you still have formed an alliance with them?”

Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan immediately exchanged glances. It seemed that they had arrived at the right moment. Xie Jianyu was ready to wreak havoc.

The King was stunned. “What do you mean?”

Xie Jianyu shook the cup in his hand, not intending to take a sip at all. Under the gaze of the King, he poured the wine onto the floor and articulated every word clearly, “Brother, this cup of wine… you’ve added something to it right?”

“Ridiculous! Prince Yi, is this how you talk to the King?” One of the advisors who sat at Xie Jianyu’s right hand side immediately flared up in anger. He stood up and pointed a finger at Xie Jianyu and exchanged a quick glance with the King.

At the same time, a few people dressed in military uniform that were behind Xie Jianyu stood up immediately and glared at the advisor that had just spoken. Even though they did not say a word, it was enough to intimidate that particular advisor. 

These people were Xie Jianyu’s subordinates in the military and were loyal to him. Before they had attended the banquet, Xie Jianyu had already told them about the King’s plan to betray the Xia Kingdom. As such, they did not trust anyone that had spoken up for the King. 

If it was not for the fact that the time had not been ripe yet, they would have already taken down the King the moment they laid their eyes on him. To them, he was an unsuitable King. It was such a waste of their efforts that they had fought so hard for him on the battlefield.

“You… are all of you rebelling? The King is right there, how dare you be impudent?” The same advisor stood his ground and continued to challenge them despite the fear in his heart. He had only been able to climb up to such a high-ranking position even though he lacked spiritual energy because of his loyalty to the King.

The King’s face darkened as he looked straight at Xie Jianyu, “Brother, what do you think you are doing? Even if you don’t like the wine that I have offered to you, you don’t have to overreact like this.”

Seeing how the King was still trying to come up with excuses for himself, Xie Jianyu could only laugh in response, “Brother, since young, I have not been scheming as you. Neither am I good with words, so let’s not beat around the bush today. Before I went to the Xia Kingdom, it was you who had ordered Hu Lie to keep me there, right?”

The King was shocked for a moment but regained his composure, “Why do I not understand what you are talking about? Hu Lie is an unimportant guard in the Royal Palace, how could he have the ability to keep you in the Xia Kingdom? Furthermore… you are a prince of the Fengyang Kingdom, why would I make you stay in the Xia Kingdom?”

The figureheads that had attended the banquet looked back and forth between Xie Jianyu and the King, trying to make sense of what was going on.

Xie Jianyu had no intentions of wasting any more time. He ordered one of his subordinates to summon Hu Lie.

Upon seeing Hu Lie, the King narrowed his eyes. He did not think that Hu Lie was still alive. When Xie Jianyu had returned to the Fengyang Kingdom, he had told the King that Hu Lie had gotten into a conflict with someone in the Chiyang City and died. Unexpectedly, he was very much alive and kicking.

Without waiting for the King to come up with an excuse, one of the guards brought Hu Lie back to consciousness. Instantly, a look of fear was plastered all over Hu Lie’s face before he curled his body into a ball. He looked at Xie Jianyu before stammering, “Stop hitting me, I’ll tell you… I’ll tell you anything…”

The guard that had awakened him gave a crooked smile. “Then tell everyone here about what you know.”

This was when Hu Lie realized that he was no longer locked in prison. Rather, he found himself in an extremely extravagant and majestic palace. Wasn’t that the King of the Fengyang Kingdom who was sitting up there?

When he had come to this realization, happiness rose in his heart, thinking that he could finally escape. 

“Hu Lie, my brother said that you were dead. What happened to you? Quick, send Hu Lie to the Royal Physician. Why are none of you doing anything?” There was no way he would let Hu Lie say anything that would threaten his position.

The two guards situated beside the King moved forward, wanting to bring Hu Lie away. However, they were immediately stopped by Xie Jianyu’s subordinates.

“Your Highness, Hu Lie has something to tell everyone. Why don’t we hear what he has to say before we send him to the Royal Physician?”

At the same time, Xie Jianyu gave Hu Lie a kick, urging him to talk.

The kick had triggered Hu Lie, as he remembered the horrible treatment that he had received earlier on. He could not care about anything else, not even the consequences of betraying the King. “I am indebted to the King. Before I went to the Xia Kingdom, the King ordered me to…”

As Hu Lie continued to speak, the people who were present in the palace were visibly shocked. They started to think about who they should support.

The King of the Fengyang Kingdom glared at Hu Lie as he thought of killing him on the spot.

Originally, he had organized this banquet so that he would have the opportunity of getting rid of Xie Jianyu before assigning a scapegoat for his actions. Xie Jianyu’s retaliation and Hu Lie’s appearance had disrupted his plan entirely.

He had always thought that Xie Jianyu trusted him entirely. Never would he have imagined that Xie Jianyu, whom he had taken advantage of so many times, was aware of the truth.

Xie Jianyu was right, the wine had been poisoned. However, there was only half a dosage of poison in the cup. If he had drank the wine, it was not fatal enough to kill him. However, if he had eaten anything on the table that had also been poisoned with half a dosage, it would have enough to kill him a day later. It was a poison that the King had obtained from the North Qiu Kingdom.

However, not only did Xie Jianyu not drink the wine, he even brought Hu Lie out to expose the King’s misdeeds. The King had no choice but to have a change of plans. He looked at Xie Jianyu coldly, “Brother, I know you have been upset with Father’s decision of passing the throne to me and thus have been coveting over the crown since then. Because of this, I’ve always accommodated your requests – I let you have control of the Fengyang Kingdom’s army without a word, yet you have been nothing but ungrateful!”