Chapter 402: Suppressed

At those words, Li Musheng glanced at Cang Yinyue and Shen Anran, then waved a dismissive hand and said with a meaningful tone, "My connection with her is fairly ordinary. It is nothing like the relationship I have with Miss Cang and Miss Shen."

At those words, both Cang Yinyue and Shen Anran let a quiet delight show in their eyes.

Cang Yinyue asked no further questions and picked up her bowl of white porridge, taking a contented small sip.

Shen Anran, for her part, took the initiative to speak, mentioning that she had some questions about her martial cultivation and would like to ask for Li Musheng's guidance after breakfast.

Li Musheng gave a slight nod and agreed. Though in this life he had spent fifteen years cultivating quietly in Shun'an City and had rarely interacted with others, he had lived two lives, and when it came to reading people, he had no difficulty at all.

Just now, both of those girls were clearly a little jealous. But what could he do? His ridiculous magnetism had nowhere to go.

And on top of that, his interpersonal awareness was sharp. What girl could possibly hold out against a combination like that?

The large black cat nearby paid absolutely no attention to the charged atmosphere among Li Musheng's group. At this moment it was burning with envy over Zhao Muning.

Zhao Muning was nothing more than a Great Xuan princess, and yet Li Musheng had raised a hand and made her Great Xuan's emperor just like that.

Yet it had been faithfully by Li Musheng's side this whole time, letting him stroke it whenever he felt like it, and had not even managed to get so much as a minor title. This was undeniably its greatest failure.

The large black cat had decided. No matter what, when they went back to Great Li, it was going to pester Li Musheng until it got a decent official position.

Cao Gaoshan kept his eyes on his own business and ate his breakfast in peace. He had seen too many impossible things happen around Li Musheng.

Though the matter of Zhao Muning was indeed surprising, he had grown used to surprises and barely registered it anymore.

...

That day, however, was anything but ordinary for the Great Xuan imperial palace and the court.

First, an imperial decree was issued from the Great Xuan imperial palace to all under heaven, stripping Crown Prince Zhao Kuang of his title as heir apparent. The man who had been on the verge of ascending the throne was sent directly to the dungeon.

Then the two princes who had been in armed opposition to Zhao Kuang received simultaneous summons from the Great Xuan imperial palace, ordering them to stand down their forces and attend a court assembly with the Great Xuan officials.

The two princes initially suspected this was a scheme of Zhao Kuang's to trap them all in one net, but then the Old Ancestor of the Great Xuan imperial palace appeared in person.

He struck with the force of thunder, suppressing every martial world expert around the two princes in a single instant, then seized the princes themselves and brought them back to the Great Xuan imperial palace.

After that, the Great Xuan imperial palace released yet another piece of news that shook the world. By the endorsement of all members of the Zhao imperial family, and based on a secret decree left by the Great Xuan emperor before his death, the Great Xuan Seventh Princess was to ascend the throne that very day and receive the homage of all officials and people.

The moment this news spread, it stirred waves across all of Taixuan City and became the talk of countless ordinary residents.

After all, a woman becoming emperor was something that had never happened in all of history. It was genuinely the opening of a new chapter.

Among Great Xuan's court, there was no shortage of voices in opposition. Remonstrance officials and censors submitted memorials one after another, questioning the credibility of the supposed imperial secret decree and vigorously demanding that the palace rescind the order and remove Zhao Muning from the emperor's seat.

The response from the Great Xuan imperial palace was equally simple. Any minister who dared presume to dispute the matter of who sat on the throne would be treated as a traitor and executed without exception.

The Old Ancestor of the Great Xuan imperial palace, in order to fulfill his promise to Li Musheng, was decisive and merciless. Anyone who did not comply with his orders had exactly one fate: death.

And so the killing continued until there was no more dissent in all of Taixuan City, and the matter was settled.

Even so, Zhao Muning was reluctant to see unnecessary bloodshed, and had those people imprisoned in the dungeon instead. She only beheaded those who were genuinely trying to use the situation to overturn Great Xuan's order, as a warning to keep the entire court in line.

The effect was remarkably good. Those who needed killing were killed, those who needed arresting were arrested, and the court officials, even those who had been close allies of the two surviving princes, fell in line.

When the people of Taixuan City learned what had happened, they did not dare speak openly in public about the new emperor, clearly frightened by the lightning force the Great Xuan imperial palace had shown.

With the Old Ancestor's help, Zhao Muning gradually took command of the Great Xuan imperial palace, the emperor's secret guards, and the armies stationed in Taixuan City.

During this time, the Old Ancestor found that though Zhao Muning was only a princess, she was accomplished in both civil governance and martial understanding, and possessed a natural gift for leadership.

More importantly, she was nothing like Zhao Kuang with his ruthlessness and willingness to discard all human ties. She carried a benevolent heart, using gentle means that were nonetheless firm and decisive when the situation required it.

And Zhao Muning had her own original ideas and perspectives. The Old Ancestor had to admit, speaking plainly to himself, that if she had been a prince, she would have been without question the finest candidate for the throne.

Within a few days, Taixuan City gradually returned to its former calm. The generals and ministers who had followed the two surviving princes surrendered under the Old Ancestor's pressure.

After all, both princes were now in confinement, and Crown Prince Zhao Kuang, the person they had originally stood against with legitimate justification, had already been dealt with by the palace.

If they continued to defy the Great Xuan imperial palace at this point, they would genuinely be traitors.

And besides, their coalition had been an improvised assembly of various factions, each with their own agendas, with no capacity for unified action. Resistance would simply be a path to death.

While Zhao Muning devoted herself to consolidating the throne, Li Musheng and the others continued to wait in the inn for Daoist Qingye's arrival.

During this time, Zhao Muning sent daily dispatches with the latest updates from the palace and the court, clearly treating Li Musheng as the great benefactor who had put her on the throne and reporting every detail without omission.

Li Musheng glanced at them at first, but before long his interest faded and he barely looked at them anymore. Petting the cat was genuinely more entertaining.

The large black cat, meanwhile, had spent those days pestering Li Musheng with increasing persistence, trying to get him to arrange an official position for it in Great Li. The result was that Li Musheng unceremoniously threw cold water on the idea.

He said a cat could not hold an official post, and told it to give up on the idea entirely.

The large black cat's spirits plummeted immediately. Though it was not truly a cat but rather a person of divine nature, it was just that due to certain unusual circumstances it had spent all these years inhabiting the body of a large black cat and had picked up certain bad habits along the way.

But as far as the large black cat was concerned, it was merely somewhat fond of wealth. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it holding office. After all, if Zhao Muning, merely a princess, could become emperor, why on earth could a cat not hold a proper official post?

And thinking of Zhao Muning, the large black cat's round green eyes started spinning with an idea that took root immediately.

That night, it quietly tucked one of Zhao Muning's dispatches to Li Musheng under its belly, then slipped out of the inn and set off toward the Great Xuan imperial palace.

The Great Li Hidden Intelligence Bureau agents staying in the inn, for their part, had been quietly turning over in their minds the whole matter of Zhao Muning ascending the Great Xuan throne.

The three great demonic sects had vanished from Taixuan City overnight without a trace, and on that same night, someone had noticed demonic energy blazing above the area around the Qingxuan Temple, but all of that had been overshadowed by the news of Zhao Muning becoming emperor.

The Hidden Intelligence Bureau agents, however, understood clearly that both events were connected to Li Musheng.