"How dare you utter such vulgar words!"

The Queen's face turned pale with anger!

The civil and military officials behind her wore strange expressions. They suspected the Fourth Prince was swearing, but they had no proof.

"Kneel!" the Queen shouted.

"Kneel to you?" Qiao Yu curled his lip. "Maybe not now, but next Qingming Festival, definitely. I'll kneel then and burn you two hundred billion."

"You!"

The Queen pointed a trembling finger at Qiao Yu, the other hand clutching her chest.

He angered her so much her breasts hurt.

"Yang Mengxuan! Is this the good son you've raised?" Seeing that Qiao Yu was impervious to reason, the Queen turned her anger toward Consort Yang.

"Your Majesty, please forgive him! My son may have been unconscious for too long; his mind is a little muddled. Please forgive him!"

Consort Yang lowered her head in fear and trepidation, secretly tugging at Qiao Yu's sleeve, signaling him to stop talking. Only then did Qiao Yu desist.

"Your Majesty, you must stand up for me!" The Queen cried and sobbed, kneeling before the Emperor Kang Shunzheng with a wronged expression.

"Get up," the Emperor said, a glint of severity in his eyes. "If the Fourth Prince cannot give me a satisfactory answer in two days, I will settle both the old and new scores with him!"

Seeing this, the Queen could only glare at Qiao Yu.

"Two days? You'll be a dead emperor today..." Qiao Yu muttered.

"What did you say?" The Emperor, with his exceptionally keen hearing, glared at Qiao Yu.

"I said, may Father Emperor be healthy and blessed! Long live the Emperor!" Qiao Yu grinned.

The Emperor frowned, but he hadn't clearly heard what Qiao Yu said, so he let it go.

Soon, the preparations were complete, and an old eunuch with white hair scurried to the Emperor's side.

"Your Majesty, everything is ready. The hunt can begin!"

"Very well, let's depart! Giddy up!"

The Emperor took the lead, spurring his horse forward.

The four princes and the numerous civil and military officials behind him quickly followed.

The women, led by the Queen, remained behind, waiting for the Emperor and his entourage to return.

"Giddy up! Giddy up! Giddy up!"

The Emperor's brow was furrowed deeply as he urged his steed onward, as if only in this way could he vent his inner turmoil.

He had heard that the Crown Prince and Princess of the Great Witch Kingdom were both geniuses, their witchcraft already reaching a profound level at a young age.

The Great Witch Crown Prince could summon several invulnerable monsters with a wave of his hand, and the Great Witch Princess could freeze thousands of miles with a gesture – terrifying indeed.

Recently, wizards from the Great Witch Kingdom had been frequently appearing on the borders of the Scarlet Flame Kingdom, indicating that, under the leadership of these two new-generation geniuses, the Great Witch Kingdom was eager for war.

Yet none of his four sons were capable of shouldering great responsibilities.

The First Prince only knew how to eat and drink, lacking any ambition.

The Second Prince was skilled in martial arts but couldn't read a book for even a day, a complete brute.

The Third Prince was cunning and scheming but ultimately lacked a broad vision and wisdom.

The Fourth Prince was accomplished in both literary and military arts, filled with knowledge of military strategy and governance, originally his best successor. But since waking up from the incident in the bathing pool, he had become a different person, completely lawless.

Whenever he thought of this, Emperor Kang Shunzheng felt a deep sense of frustration.

"Is the heavens truly abandoning my Scarlet Flame Kingdom?" The Emperor sighed softly.

Just then, a deer leaped out of the bushes not far away, running right into the line of fire.

The frustrated Kang Shunzheng immediately drew his bow and arrow, using the deer as an outlet for his emotions.

Whoosh!

With a sound of tearing air, the arrow flew towards the deer.

But at that moment, by sheer misfortune, the deer turned its head, and the Emperor's arrow missed its mark.

This was like adding fuel to the fire, and the Emperor's frustration immediately turned into anger.

He looked at the Fourth Prince, Qiao Yu, beside him.

"Fourth Prince, you are usually the best archer! Go and kill that deer. If you fail, you will receive fifty strokes of the rod!"

The deer, startled, had already run three hundred meters away; with the naked eye, it was only a thumb-sized black dot.

In this situation, even a master archer would find it difficult to hit the target, as the effective range of a bow and arrow was only three to four hundred meters.

The civil and military officials behind him knew very well that His Majesty simply wanted to find an excuse to punish the Fourth Prince.

"What if I successfully kill the deer?" Qiao Yu unexpectedly retorted.

"Hahahaha!" The Emperor laughed in anger. "If you can kill that deer without moving from where you stand, you can ask for anything, and I will grant it!"

"Really?" Qiao Yu raised an eyebrow.

"A promise from the Emperor is never broken!"

"Good. If I succeed, I want you to make Consort Yang the Empress!" Qiao Yu said calmly.

"Outrageous! Fourth Prince, do you know what you are saying? That is the position of Empress of a nation; how can you treat it so lightly?"

As soon as Qiao Yu spoke, an official behind him couldn't help but speak up before the Emperor could.

He was the Prime Minister of the Scarlet Flame Kingdom and the current Queen's father. Naturally, he would not allow anyone to threaten his daughter's position as Empress.

"It doesn't matter!" The Emperor waved his hand. "I want to see how he can hit a deer five hundred meters away!"

It turned out that while they were talking, the deer had run another two hundred meters and was now only a pen tip-sized black dot, far beyond the range of any bow and arrow.

Seeing the Emperor's insistence, the Prime Minister could only step back for now.

Qiao Yu didn't waste any words and directly asked a nearby military officer for a bow and arrow.

But Qiao Yu didn't know how to shoot arrows. He wasn't a bow cultivator and had never even tried archery. At most, he had played Hou Yi and Galo (characters from the game *Honor of Kings*).

He imitated the Emperor's earlier posture, holding the bow in his left hand, nocking the arrow with his right, and then pulling back forcefully.

Whoosh!

An arrow shot out, but the direction it flew was completely opposite to where the deer was.

"Pfft! The Earth is round, so is the Fourth Prince planning to have the arrow fly around the Earth before hitting the deer? Truly, worthy of being the Fourth Prince!" The Prime Minister sneered.

The Prime Minister's words made the civil and military officials behind him tremble, as they were trying to suppress their laughter.

As the head of the civil officials, the Prime Minister would naturally be fine for mocking the Fourth Prince, but for them to do so would be courting death.

Seeing this, the Emperor also shook his head in disappointment. Even a cross-eyed person wouldn't shoot so wide.

"Archery is quite fun."

Qiao Yu himself didn't care at all. The first arrow was just a random shot to test the waters.

He nocked another arrow. This time, he directly activated his Ghost Eye to lock onto the deer. Under the Ghost Eye's lock, the deer had no escape. Then, Qiao Yu pulled back forcefully.

Snap!

A crisp sound rang out, and Qiao Yu was dumbfounded.

Because his strength was too great, the bowstring couldn't withstand the force and snapped with a snap. The bow in his hand was now useless.

"Hahahahahaha! I must say, although the Fourth Prince has poor eyesight, he is indeed very strong!" The Prime Minister laughed heartily.

This time, the civil and military officials behind him couldn't hold back any longer, and a chorus of suppressed laughter rose and fell.

Even the deer couldn't help but run back a bit, curiously sizing up Qiao Yu, as if it were mocking his archery skills. By now, everyone could clearly see the deer.

Emperor Kang Shunzheng's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. This Fourth Prince had utterly humiliated the imperial family.

"Guards! Drag the Fourth Prince down and give him fifty strokes of the rod!" With the Emperor's order, two black-armored warriors moved to drag Qiao Yu away.

"Wait!" Qiao Yu shouted to stop them.

"What? The Fourth Prince's bowstring is broken. Does he still want to struggle in vain?" The Prime Minister sneered.

Qiao Yu glanced at him. "Who said that a broken bowstring has no lethality?"

As soon as he said this, the civil and military officials in the arena could no longer hold back, and the entire place erupted in laughter.

"I've fought battles my whole life and have never seen a broken bowstring still have lethality!"

"Hahahaha, did the Fourth Prince sleep for half a month and break his brain?"

"What a joke!"

Qiao Yu ignored the ridicule. He narrowed his dark blue eyes, and the deer's movements instantly slowed down. Qiao Yu easily predicted the deer's next action.

Then, Qiao Yu did something that stunned everyone.

He swung his right arm around and threw the bow with the broken string with all his might.

The bow arced through the air in an absurd trajectory, then slammed heavily into the deer's head!

Bang!

The deer collapsed to the ground with a thud. The laughter stopped abruptly, and the entire arena fell silent.