"Greetings, Your Highness." The servants of the Merchant Li family came forward.
Li Yuanshang and Su Chen respectfully welcomed the two most noble figures in the current imperial court.
After the initial pleasantries, they took their seats at the banquet.
Crown Prince Sheng frowned as he looked at Li Yuanshang, asking suspiciously, "You greasy merchant, this Crown Prince has arrived in person. Why do I not see your heirs coming to kneel and pay their respects?"
Li Yuanshang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"Your Highness said it yourself—my Merchant Li family are mere merchants, reeking of the stench of copper. My children are the same. Before Your Highness arrived, this lowly subject already told the children to scram far away."
"Hmph!"
Crown Prince Sheng disliked Li Yuanshang the most, but as the saying goes, one does not strike a smiling face.
He spoke impatiently, "Li Yuanshang, you and the Imperial Preceptor sent a letter inviting this Crown Prince to a banquet, claiming you wished to gift the Li Clan Chamber of Commerce to me.
When the people of this world offer gifts to this Crown Prince, they usually have a request. Speak, let me hear it."
"My Li clan seeks nothing. Today, Yuanshang invited Your Highness here simply to tell Your Highness a story."
Li Yuanshang cast a subtle glance at Lin Wan.
"A story?" Crown Prince Sheng frowned slightly.
"A story."
Li Yuanshang began to speak in a measured, melodious voice.
"One hundred and sixty thousand years ago, there was a great clan in this world named the Zhao Clan..."
His voice echoed through the banquet.
Su Chen stared intently at the Crown Princess, Lin Wan.
From the moment Li Yuanshang began to speak, her gaze had already begun to dart away evasively.
When he reached the part about the six Clan Elders of the Zhao Clan...
Clang...
The chopsticks in Lin Wan's hand fell onto the table, the sharp clang of their collision with the golden bowl ringing out.
Crown Prince Sheng had already noticed Lin Wan's pale complexion.
"Wan'er, you... What is wrong?"
Lin Wan remained silent, her eyes vacant. Li Yuanshang continued telling the story, causing Crown Prince Sheng to burn with rage.
"You, shut up!"
This furious shout truly gave Li Yuanshang a start. Su Chen stroked the ancient "Turmoil" ring on his finger.
Following Su Chen's nod of encouragement, Li Yuanshang swallowed hard and continued,
"A fiend destroyed the Zhao Clan, but interestingly enough, eighty thousand years later, the Zhao Clan appeared in the mortal world once again.
At that time, His Majesty had driven out the Wu Clan fifty thousand years prior, yet there were still some powerful Immortal Clans and sects within the Azure Dynasty dominating their own regions.
What His Majesty disliked most were precisely those unruly subjects who refused to submit to discipline."
"That ruin was found by my clan elders again, and the Zhao Clan was destroyed once more."
Li Yuanshang let out a long breath, gazing at the panic-stricken Lin Wan.
"Crown Princess, Yuanshang dares to ask you to resolve this doubt: You lost your life one hundred and sixty thousand years ago, so how did you survive in this world eighty thousand years ago?
And just what heinous crimes against the heavens did your Immortal Zhao Clan commit to compel His Majesty to personally send men to exterminate your Zhao Clan?"
"Bang!"
But unexpectedly, while Lin Wan still wore a look of panic, Crown Prince Sheng, burning with rage, overturned the table.
The spiritual power of the Divinity Transformation realm surged from his body and struck out toward Li Yuanshang, causing Li Yuanshang's face to turn pale with horror.
Fortunately, Su Chen was prepared.
After all these years, Su Chen had actually broken through to the Divinity Transformation realm!
"Your Highness, Crown Prince, to attempt to kill a member of my Li family on our own ground—aren't you going a bit too far?"
Su Chen's tone was ice-cold. He could no longer concern himself with whether the Li family was fully prepared or not.
If the family dared to take on the Immortal Zhao Clan and the Crown Prince, then so did he.
Otherwise, if Xinnian's fat grandson were to die right before his eyes, how would he have the face to see his adoptive father, his brother, and his sister-in-law?
"The audacity!"
The Crown Prince's guards were already rushing in from outside the Li residence, sending out signals to summon experts.
Crown Prince Sheng held the panicked Lin Wan in his arms, glaring furiously ahead.
"This Crown Prince gave your Li family face by coming to attend this fat pig's banquet, yet you dare to fabricate these baseless stories to humiliate my beauty!"
"Crown Prince!" Anger surged in Li Yuanshang's heart, displacing his fear.
He shouted, "Are you still not awake? What have you done all these years? How many officials have died by your hand? Look at what you are holding in your arms!"
At this moment, Su Chen's expression changed as well.
When Li Yuanshang revealed the truth to the Crown Prince, he had initially felt a wave of relief.
That would have been the simplest solution: the Crown Prince comes to his senses, learns Lin Wan's true identity, and realizes the Zhao family has been using him.
The Prince would then burn with rage, and the Li family wouldn't even need to lift a finger.
But...
"Kill them!"
Crown Prince Sheng roared in fury, his eyes bloodshot. Numerous guards were already charging toward Su Chen and Li Yuanshang with the intent to kill!
"Damn it, this mad prince! What the hell is this?!" Li Yuanshang's expression was ugly.
He had miscalculated, and his elders had miscalculated as well. They hadn't anticipated that Crown Prince Sheng would be this insane in such a moment.
Spiritual power filled the sky as it surged toward them, draining the color from Li Yuanshang's face. Even Su Chen, who stood in front to block the attack, looked pale.
Crown Prince Sheng departed with Lin Wan, but from within the Heavenly Palace, a Void Refining aura was approaching.
"Yuanshang, you go first!" Su Chen gritted his teeth and shouted a command.
But just at that moment, the spiritual power of the Divinity Transformation cultivator attacking from the front stagnated.
As if struck by lightning, he floated in mid-air, lowering his head blankly to stare in disbelief at the wound that had appeared in his chest.
The wound was a clean hole; in that instant, he could even see everything behind him through his own chest.
A flying sword, coming from parts unknown, pierced into the earth in front of Su Chen and Li Yuanshang.
Immediately after, a white-robed figure descended from the heavens.
The tips of his white boots lighted upon the hilt of the sword.
Sword Qi swirled around his body; as the spiritual power attacking from those cultivators entered the range of that Sword Qi, without exception, it was all annihilated.
The wind generated by the spiritual power blew up the white-robed man's hair, revealing a face as sharp and defined as if carved by a knife.
He raised his head slightly, causing those Imperial Capital cultivators to retreat in panic.
"Scram back to your master. Tell him, whether he truly cannot think clearly or is merely feigning ignorance, he had best obediently play the part of his Crown Prince."
"From this day forth."
"There shall be no Zhao Clan within the Azure Dynasty."
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