Chapter 152
Seeing Zheng Xuening step into the bedchamber, the several royal family members who had been gathered around the old emperor all subconsciously retreated a little, their gazes towards her tinged with a few traces of reverence.
The people in the Chaoying royal family were not all useless fools.
There were those who idled their days away, and naturally, there were also those who were better informed, who could be called versatile. They had long since found out that the black dragon last night had been persuaded to leave all because of the Crown Princess.
Furthermore, many of the common people on the street had seen that the Crown Princess had turned into a fairy who could fly to the sky. Wherever she passed, the collapsed houses would be repaired by immortal techniques, and the common people who had been injured by the hail would also have their wounds healed.
These things, with just a little inquiry, one could find out. They were all told with such detail, which made one’s heart pound.
When had the Crown Princess become an immortal?
The Third Princess, Zheng Sixin, was close in age to Zheng Xuening. In the past, because the Second Prince had also wanted to compete for the throne, she had paid a lot of attention to this elder sister of hers, and her heart had always been filled with apprehension.
But after the black dragon had appeared and her elder sister had been rumored to be a fairy, she had finally truly given up on some of her hidden thoughts—the throne could not be usurped.
Zheng Sixin slightly averted her gaze and retreated a little with her other brothers and sisters.
The situation was clear at a glance. Everyone could see who was the most important person in this situation.
Zheng Xuening’s appearance had almost made everyone else pale in comparison.
“Imperial Sister…” Zheng Sixin took the initiative to speak, her expression a little hesitant.
“Father is quite ill this time…” In fact, the news that had been spread had been suppressed.
This time, the illness had truly come like a mountain collapsing. Perhaps it was because the old emperor had been obsessed with the path of alchemy in the past and had taken too many medicinal pills that were useless to his body, and a certain amount of dan poison had accumulated in his body.
After this illness, all the dan poison had broken out, which was why the current situation had come to be.
No one dared to imagine, if the Son of Heaven really were to fall just like that, then…
Even if in the past there had been some people who had secretly had their eyes on that throne, now that they had seen that Zheng Xuening could even deal with a black dragon that had flown from the sky, they had completely extinguished their little schemes.
Zheng Xuening did not answer Zheng Sixin’s words, but just walked to the front of the bed and looked at the old emperor, who was lying in bed with his eyes closed, his face a waxy yellow, his heart calm.
She raised her hand and made a hand seal for the Spring Rain Technique.
Spiritual energy slowly circulated from her body.
Then, everyone gathered in the bedchamber saw a very magical scene.
A water mist had appeared out of thin air in the bedchamber and was slowly falling towards the Son of Heaven, who was lying in bed, having even lost consciousness.
After coming into contact with the water mist, the Son of Heaven’s tightly closed eyes slowly opened, and his face also became a little more rosy, no longer as full of sickness as before.
He looked as if he had been pulled back from the brink of death, from a hopeless illness, and could now breathe…
Everyone, including Zheng Sixin, looked at this scene, not daring to breathe, their eyes wide, suspecting that they were seeing an illusion.
Zheng Sixin murmured in her heart, her elder sister was indeed a person favored by the heavens.
It was enough to make one not even have the thought of jealousy.
“You…” Although the old emperor had lost consciousness before and was in a daze, he had not been able to wake up, but he had heard what was happening outside, and what someone had said in front of his bed.
The moment he opened his eyes and saw the people gathered around him, he propped himself up and wanted to sit up.
Sun Zongguan quickly went over to support him. “Aiyo, Your Majesty, please lie down slowly.”
Zheng Xuening’s gaze fell on her father, and she looked around. “All of you, retreat for now.”
The people around her were stunned for a moment, but it was Zheng Sixin who reacted first, lowered her head, and walked out. When she took the lead, the others also subconsciously followed.
Logically, in a place with the Son of Heaven, even if Zheng Xuening had spoken, everyone would not have been so obedient, but would have first waited for the emperor’s meaning before moving.
But after the black dragon incident, and just now, having personally seen the Crown Princess use a spell to wake the emperor from his coma, and looking much better, who would dare to go against Zheng Xuening?
The fear of immortals was deeply ingrained in the bones of mortals and had already surpassed the sense of oppression brought by the imperial power.
Even Sun Zongguan, after Zheng Xuening had spoken, paused for a moment, and quickly helped the old emperor to lie back down, and then bowed.
“This servant will retreat for now.”
Then he lowered his head and did not dare to linger, and quickly walked out of the bedchamber.
The moment the old emperor had woken up, he had seen the scene of his authority being gone, and he was angry in his heart.
He had not yet spoken. How was it that this imperial palace had already changed its master? Had this world also been changed to someone else to sit on?
Although it had been decided before to let Zheng Xuening take over the throne, for him to give up the position and for the other to take the initiative to snatch the position were two different things.
The old emperor’s eyes became sharp and wary. When he looked at his and the former Empress’s only child, there was even less of a sense of blood kinship.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Zheng Xuening did not waste any words and went straight to the point.
“Does Father still remember a person named Zheng Yu?”
She handed the bamboo slip the other had written to the old emperor, reminding him.
“The Prince of Anqing from two hundred years ago.”
“If we were to be precise, we are the descendants of this line.”
Before coming, Zheng Xuening had gone to look at the family tree and had found Zheng Yu’s name, knowing that the other could be considered an old ancestor.
The moment the old emperor had woken up, he had heard Zheng Xuening ask such a question, and for a moment, he was at a loss.
“How can I remember such old stories?” The old emperor wanted to get angry.
Zheng Xuening pressed her lips together and looked at the other for a while.
“Father probably doesn’t know yet that that black dragon has not yet left the city. If Father cannot remember any news of this person, Zheng Yu, and I cannot find any clues, what the black dragon will do in its anger, whether it will destroy the Chaoying Kingdom, is still unknown.”
She said this unhurriedly, which made the old emperor, who was lying on his sickbed, suddenly become agitated, and he remembered the fear of last night.
“It still hasn’t left?!” The old emperor lost his composure.
Zheng Xuening: “Has Father heard the legends of the immortals? Did the old ancestor Zheng Yu leave anything useful, or mention anything?”
“As far as I know, this world of ours has a barrier to protect it, which can resist those legendary creatures. But I don’t know how long it can last.”
“Now that there is a barrier to protect us, and because of some rules set by the great powers and the heavenly dao, that black dragon cannot really do anything to harm mortals. But if that barrier disappears, it’s hard to say. At that time, besides this black dragon, many other powerful enemies will appear. We mortals have no ability to deal with them.”
Zheng Xuening said this calmly, but the information revealed in her words indeed made the old emperor nervous at once.
He had not used his brain much for many years, and his memory was almost rusty.
The old emperor thought hard, trying to recall if, when he had taken over the throne back then, he had received any royal secrets and immortal legends from the previous emperor.
After a long moment, the old emperor pounded his head with his hand.
“I… I remember…”
“The plaque… go and see if there’s anything hidden behind the plaque…”
The old emperor said with great effort, looking full of fatigue.
After all, to let a person whose body was half-broken, and who had one foot in the coffin, after living for forty or fifty years, to suddenly recall all sorts of minor memories from his childhood, was really a painstaking task like looking for a needle in a haystack.
The old emperor’s brain was not enough, but there was no way. He had to force it to turn, which was a bit of a drain on his vitality.
Zheng Xuening went to the back of the emperor’s bedchamber’s plaque without a word.
She tapped the ground lightly with the tip of her foot and flew up. The next moment, the plaque on the emperor’s bedchamber was taken down by her.
After Zheng Xuening had used her spiritual power to investigate, she drew her long sword and chopped the exquisite plaque.
The wood broke into two halves. Zheng Xuening bent down and pulled out a piece of yellow cloth from the crack in the plaque.
Wrapped in the yellow cloth was actually a spirit stone a little smaller than an egg.
The moment she saw the spirit stone, Zheng Xuening knew that if the yellow cloth hidden in the plaque had something written on it, it would probably be related to that legendary cultivating ancestor.
She slowly shook open the yellow cloth and scanned the characters written on it.
…
At the same time, when Lu Dieqing woke up, she also touched her head and thought of what she should do.
She should first go and ask her mother what the origin of that jade pendant was.
Helian had prepared breakfast and brought it for Lu Dieqing to eat, but she saw the girl wave her hands repeatedly.
“I’m not hungry. I’m not eating.”
At this moment, her heart was completely filled with the matter of the black dragon. She just wanted to go and ask her mother clearly.
However, before leaving, she remembered that the breakfast was also something Helian and the others had put effort into preparing. Lu Dieqing turned back, took a basket of small steamed buns and a plate of red bean pastry to take with her.
“Has Ningning had breakfast?”
The girl did not forget to ask this.
Helian shook her head. “No. Her Highness also left in a hurry as soon as she got up.”
Under the courtyard tree outside, the well-behaved and sensible little date-red horse was already parked.
Lu Dieqing mounted it, her posture clearly much more relaxed than before.
It was too late to become very powerful by practicing martial arts at this age, but immortal cultivation was possible! At the first layer of the Qi Refining stage, at least her body had become lighter and more agile, making it more convenient to use force.
“Let’s go and see Ningning first.”
Lu Dieqing hugged the horse’s neck and soothed it with a couple of strokes.
The little date-red horse’s beautiful pair of gentle horse eyes were just like its master’s. They were also sparkling and very watery, looking gentle and harmless.
It clopped its hooves and ran towards its destination.
The packed breakfast was in a food box and was carefully held in Lu Dieqing’s hand, so as not to let it shake as much as possible.
In the imperial palace, there were guards everywhere. For an ordinary person, without a handwritten order or a waist token, it would be difficult to move an inch, and they could only move in a fixed area.
But Lu Dieqing herself, along with this little date-red horse, were clearly the only exceptions.
The horse carried its young mistress forward as though passing through an empty realm where no one existed, and soon stopped outside the bedchamber that only the emperor’s confidants could come to.
The palace maids and eunuchs standing guard outside looked at Lu Dieqing with wide eyes.
“Miss Lu.”
Everyone knew that she was the person the Crown Princess held on the tip of her heart. For a moment, they spoke and saluted politely.
Everyone was about to go in to announce her, but they saw the girl open her lips.
“No hurry for now.”
Lu Dieqing took out the little wooden doll from her sleeve and tried to communicate with her mind.
“Ningning, Ningning, come out and have breakfast.”
