(Federer, Federer…It's truly frustrating. Big tears. There's nothing perfect in this world, and where can one find a god-like being? Today is the last day of the month, sincerely asking everyone for a few more monthly votes.)

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Fan Xian’s heart skipped a beat. He lowered his head slightly and said after a long while, "I believe it."

"Do you believe there truly are gods in this world?" The Emperor asked, looking at him calmly.

Fan Xian answered directly, "I do."

He didn’t know why the Emperor was asking this question, but since Fan Xian could be reincarnated on the land of Qing, he undoubtedly believed in miracles. The Fan Xian of this life was not the Fan Shen of the previous one. He was a thoroughgoing idealist.

"Come with me."

Fan Xian was bewildered, following the mysterious Emperor toward a temple hidden among the trees on the mountain peak. Great Dong Mountain was famous throughout the land, initially for its jade, and later for its divine mysteries. Countless commoners who couldn't afford medical treatment had seen their conditions greatly improve after praying to the gods here, and it was revered as a sacred place by the ascetic monks of the world...

The problem was that Fan Xian had always thought this was just the Qing Temple putting on an act, with foolish women taking psychological comfort as real healing. But now, the Emperor's face looked so solemn. Could it be that the Qing Temple on this mountain peak could truly hear the will of heaven and connect with the mythical and ethereal temple?

Filled with countless doubts and slight excitement, Fan Xian followed the Emperor around a quiet stone path to a particularly old small temple behind the main temple. The mountain wind was strong here, causing the bells under the eaves to chime softly, emitting a crisp, calming sound.

It seemed the worshippers at the foot of the mountain weren't lying. These temples on the mountaintop clearly hadn't been renovated in many years, yet the millennial mountain wind hadn't turned this ancient small temple into ruins.

Looking at the style of this small temple's architecture, at those dark and solemn colors, Fan Xian's heart stirred, and a sense of awe arose spontaneously, just like when he was about to enter the Qing Temple in Kyoto for the first time.

But then, the Emperor was in the Qing Temple, and he was outside it. Today, however, he was following the Emperor to a place that seemed to transcend the mortal world. Fan Xian had a strange feeling that His Majesty seemed familiar with this path, or with everything on Great Dong Mountain.

Standing outside the small temple, the Emperor said calmly, "Don't be curious, and don't be bored... Actually, the reason is simple. After I met your mother in Danzhou back then, we naturally wouldn't miss the scenery of Great Dong Mountain. We stayed here for a while."

Although he didn't know how the Emperor had guessed his thoughts, upon hearing these words, Fan Xian's mood changed instantly. Looking at the ancient buildings around him again, his eyes were filled with a sense of intimacy and longing.

However, the Emperor's next words immediately shattered Fan Xian's relaxed and joyful mood.

"The sovereign of ten thousand chariots does not enter perilous lands." The Emperor sneered, repeating Fan Xian's words of advice in Danzhou yesterday, and said, "I know what you've been worried about these past two days. I'm asking you, if you were that woman in Kyoto right now, what would you do?"

Fan Xian didn't feign panic and repeatedly express his fear, but instead fell into deep thought. He had pondered this question countless times, but in the end, he realized that if a civil war broke out in Qing and problems arose in Kyoto, the Eldest Princess, who was currently confined in a separate residence, only had one path to take.

Perhaps she would do many things, but the core of all those things, the foundation of all attempts to seize power, was, as His Majesty said yesterday, only one thing – killing the Emperor.

"First, I would have to get out of the Supervision Council's surveillance and make contact with my forces." Fan Xian said somewhat hesitantly, "But this matter must have started months ago. I don't think the Eldest Princess has that ability."

The Emperor said coldly, "Can you believe that two people could set a palace on fire? Or in the middle of a thunderstorm?"

Fan Xian shook his head, not daring to show too much emotion. He had learned about the inside story of the palace change a few months ago through his own channels, and knew that the fire in the Eastern Palace was precisely an action taken by the Crown Prince to save himself and to alert the Empress Dowager. At the time, he was only admiring the Crown Prince's and his brother's initiative. Now, listening to the Emperor, he realized that this matter was strange.

"I killed so many people, and she didn't resist at all," the Emperor said. "But she still had extra energy to put into the Eastern Palace, helping the Crown Prince. My sister always acts in ways that are incomprehensible. If you tell me she was able to evade the Surveillance Council's surveillance and contact her people, I wouldn't find it strange at all."

From this conversation, it could be heard that after experiencing the betrayal of his sister and son… No! It should be said that he had self-righteously forced his sister and son to betray him, or rather, the betrayal that was yet to come. The Emperor's personality had undergone subtle changes, and he had come to regard Fan Xian, this illegitimate son who had not been by his side since childhood and who had shown exceptional loyalty and filial piety after entering the capital, as the most trustworthy person.

However, this trust made Fan Xian feel increasingly pressured. He rubbed his slightly dry throat, glanced at His Majesty, and continued, "If the Eldest Princess had already contacted her people months ago, then she only needs to wait for an opportunity. And I believe… Your Majesty's departure from Kyoto at this time is the best opportunity."

"You only need to say what she will do, no need to constantly remind me of this."

"Yes… I believe that the Eldest Princess will exhaust all the power she has cultivated over the past twenty years, striving for a decisive blow on Great Dong Mountain or on the way back to Kyoto. Regardless of success or failure, she will block the news of Your Majesty, falsely claiming that Your Majesty… has met with misfortune, and that the Crown Prince or the Second Prince will ascend the throne."

"No need to say such nonsense as 'regardless of success or failure'. Since she is going to do it, she naturally wants me dead."

Fan Xian's analysis was superficial and direct, but if Princess Li Yunrui could truly free herself, she would definitely choose this way. The so-called conspiracy was ultimately a matter of life and death, a matter of victory and defeat. As long as life and death were settled, and victory and defeat were determined, she would have the support of the princes and the Ye and Qin families in Kyoto. Then, she would pin the assassination of the Emperor on Fan Xian… Who could sit on that dragon throne? Unless Chen Pingping led his paltry five hundred Black Knights to rebel again.

He lowered his head and said, "Since Your Majesty has come here, you must have a plan in mind."

The Emperor glanced at him and said faintly, "What power could Yunrui have? The Junshan Association? Now that I think about it, I should have listened to Director Chen and you last year and wiped out that damn association."

"The Junshan Association is just a loose organization," Fan Xian repeated his father-in-law's deduction. "The key is what kind of power the Eldest Princess can mobilize."

"Great Dong Mountain is isolated by the sea, deep within the country, and cannot be attacked by a large army at all." The Emperor sneered, "A ladder to heaven of ten thousand miles. If anyone dares to assassinate me, they must first have the ability to ascend to heaven."

Fan Xian lowered his head slightly, understanding what the Emperor meant. The location of Great Dong Mountain was very subtle, making it difficult to launch a large-scale attack. The chain of high mountains and cliffs in Danzhou to the north blocked the last trace of danger from the army.

Since there was no need to consider that point, to assassinate the monarch of a country, and moreover the monarch of the strongest country in the world, one could only resort to assassins. But ordinary mediocrities were meaningless, unable to break through even the outermost defense circle of the Imperial Guards, let alone the hundreds of terrifying Tiger Guards experts on the mountain peak.

The visitor is unkind, and the kind do not come. If the Eldest Princess truly intended to assassinate the Emperor, the level of the assassins could be imagined.

"Ye Liuyun is a patron of the Junshan Association," Fan Xian said in silence. "The Eldest Princess herself doesn't have many experts, but after experiencing the valley ambush, I always thought that some people in the court are becoming increasingly presumptuous. People who are presumptuous can do anything, and it wouldn't be surprising."

This was naturally referring to the military veterans within Qing. What would happen if these people collectively stood against the Emperor?

The Emperor did not respond to Fan Xian's words, but said quietly, "This time I personally came to Dong Mountain, not only you are puzzled, but even those two grand scholars strongly opposed it, but I still wanted to come… First, naturally because I have been in the palace for a long time, and I want to come out and take a walk, to see the places I passed through back then. Second, Chengqian hurt my heart. If I want to depose him, I must depose him openly and justly, so that no one can find fault with me."

Fan Xian remembered that the Emperor beside him could probably be considered the most diligent and strangest emperor in history. Since ascending the throne, especially after the end of major wars, the Emperor had never left Kyoto again, and had not carried out the national tourism activities that were customary for emperors of prosperous times.

The Emperor rarely even left the palace. Fan Xian only knew about the time he saw him outside the Taiping Residence.

The Emperor suddenly paused, smiled, and said, "The third reason is very simple. I deliberately wanted to give Yunrui an opportunity to see if that Junshan Association… could really eliminate me, the monarch."

Fan Xian shook his head and said, "I still say the same things. Why take the risk? Why come here? Your Majesty is the ruler of the world. With a single edict, the remnants of the Junshan Association will immediately crumble and shatter, and are not worth mentioning at all."

"Is that so? But what about Ye Liuyun?" The Emperor smiled slightly, his brows gradually relaxing.

Fan Xian was at a loss for words. Only now did he finally understand how confident His Majesty really was. It turned out that he was using himself as bait, and what he was plotting against was not others, but Ye Liuyun, the patron of the Junshan Association!

Ye Liuyun, the Grandmaster of Qing! This carefree and unrestrained expert who drifted overseas, in the wilderness, and Emperor was in the court, the two balanced each other, compromised, which created loyalty and alienation relationship between the Ye family and the royal family. If the Emperor could slay Ye Liuyun with his sword, then there would no longer be any force within Qing that could shake the foundation of his rule.

In other words, Ye Liuyun had always been a malignant tumor in the Emperor's heart, and today's visit to Great Dong Mountain was to use the magic of Great Dong Mountain to remove the tumor!

But Fan Xian still felt it was incredibly absurd. Even if you have more than a hundred Tiger Guards and Hong Gonggong, this mysterious old monster, but if the Eldest Princess moves, there will definitely be countless forces to cooperate with Ye Liuyun. Even if Ye Liuyun fails to assassinate you, with the Grandmaster's transcendent and extraordinary realm, how can you keep him here?

He had personally experienced Ye Liuyun's sword destroying a building in Hangzhou City, so he knew how terrifying Ye Liuyun's strength was – unless the Qing cavalry formed a continuous camp, and continuously fired crossbows in unison, it might be possible to snipe and kill Ye Liuyun in the wilderness. But at this time, the Emperor was in an isolated peak, and Ye Liuyun would drift in and drift away, and would not give the Tiger Guards the opportunity to encircle him.

As for the Imperial Guards at the foot of the mountain, due to the terrain, they could not form a cavalry charge formation.

"How can you kill a Grandmaster?"

This was something Fan Xian had been thinking about for a whole year. He came to many conclusions, and the safest one, of course, was to be five hundred meters away, holding his precious heavy sniper rifle, and snipe that guy – but this situation was not easy to create. Grandmasters were rarely seen, and their energy sensing was too strong, making it unlikely that they would stand there and give him too much time to aim.

How to kill a Grandmaster? Fan Xian finally came to the most reliable method, which was – to use two Grandmasters to kill one Grandmaster.

This was a very boring idea, a very useless way of thinking. Two children could definitely beat one child, and two stones were definitely heavier than one stone. The problem was that Grandmasters were not mass-produced products, but rare geniuses.

Who could find two Grandmasters?

"So I must come to Great Dong Mountain, because I need a person, and this person can never leave Great Dong Mountain to cater to my thoughts."

The Emperor smiled at Fan Xian, and then pushed open the wooden door of the ancient small temple. The wooden door creaked, and Fan Xian's eyes drifted over. His heart contracted sharply, and countless surprises and suppressed joy of reunion flashed in his eyes.

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Yan Bingyun sat in the Supervision Council's room, staring blankly. Today, he was not sitting in that secret room, because… Director Chen Pingping had returned to Kyoto in a wheelchair, back to his own room, and the power Yan Bingyun had temporarily obtained was naturally returned.

He was the chief of the Fourth Bureau, and the room was also on the street side. The windows were not covered with black cloth, and the sunlight directly shone in, making the room bright. Standing by the window, one could clearly see the golden eaves of the Imperial Palace.

The Imperial Palace had no master. His Majesty's imperial carriage should be on the Dongshan Road at this time, right? Yan Bingyun thought. Since His Majesty left Kyoto, the people of Kyoto had become well-behaved and had not given the Supervision Council too many problems. Probably at this moment, everyone was afraid of being suspected of something by His Majesty, who was far away from Kyoto.

However, externally loose and internally tight, everyone knew what the main purpose of His Majesty's trip to worship the heavens was. Naturally, it was impossible to let the Crown Prince stay in the palace to supervise the country, so the Empress Dowager once again ruled from behind the curtain, and the Imperial Guards controlled by the First Prince became cautious, and the Kyoto Garrison Division also strengthened patrols.

The most crucial move His Majesty left behind, of course, was to summon Chen Pingping, the Director of the Supervision Council, to Kyoto. This old cripple who grew up in Chen Garden had finally returned to the gloomy courtyard, coldly watching all the details of Kyoto, guarding against those who harbored ill intentions.