Li Yao observed the burnt body carefully again, but he still could not tell whether it was poisoned or whether it had been absorbed by a certain domineering Cultivation art. He couldn't help but frown. "Why did you say that it was poisoned and that it was planted a long time ago?"
Dongfang Wang hesitated for a moment and said, "Everybody in the world knows that His Majesty was held hostage by me, and it was I who wanted to command the nobles. But what if I say that His Majesty actually trusted me very much and was worried that somebody was going to murder him, so he cooperated with me to put on a good show to deceive everybody while he was in fact hiding in my place for protection? Would you believe it?"
"Wow. So, that's the truth. Of course, I believe it!"
Li Yao said, "So, Prime Minister Dongfang is truly a loyal subject who is as pure as a white lotus and selfless for the country!"
Dongfang Wang coughed and said, "Fine. That may be too much of an exaggeration, but His Majesty and I are indeed not completely hostile. In many cases, we have to cooperate. He wants to suppress the other three Kurfürst families with my strength as well as the unstable factors in the court, including Li Linghai!"
Li Yao asked, "Is His Majesty dissatisfied with the queen?"
"Not dissatisfied, but scared!"
Dongfang Wang said, "His Majesty has a deep fear of Li Linghai. He said that in recent decades, especially after the Imperium's counterattack, Li Linghai has changed more and more. In many cases, he has turned into a completely different person, a person who makes His Majesty feel so creepy that he can barely stand on his feet.
"His Majesty said that he and Li Linghai haven't slept on the same bed for almost thirty years. Even when he met Li Linghai, he could not awaken a man's abilities biologically. But when it came to other concubines, he was still as vigorous as before, and it was not a problem for him to have sex with ten women in a night.
"Also, His Majesty said that Li Linghai often wandered in the royal palace at night stealthily. There was no telling what he was up to. His Majesty wanted to investigate it, but Li Linghai would occasionally vanish into thin air."
"Wait."
Li Yao raised his hand and asked, "Vanish into thin air? What do you mean?"
"Nobody knows how Li Linghai did it. The royal palace is the focus of the four Kurfürst families' surveillance. Surveillance cameras and our spies have been deployed everywhere. By logic, nobody can appear and disappear in the royal palace unpredictably."
Dongfang Wang said, "However, it is said that the royal palace of the Imperium of True Human Beings is built on the remains of the royal palace of the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago. Despite the passage of time, countless secrets are still buried deep below the ground.
"When Blackstar the Great supervised the construction of the royal palace, he considered this place to be the last base of resistance for the Imperium of True Human Beings. Therefore, the underground palace is well-connected. There are abundant mazes, arsenals, and entrances to world fragments, which are connected by secret tunnels and teleportation arrays. There are also all kinds of astonishing defense arrays and complicated traps that can trap even the experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage.
"It is said that Blackstar the Great mobilized hundreds of thousands of Cultivators to build the 'underground palace' a thousand years ago. Those Cultivators were mostly the captives of the Star Ocean Republic when it collapsed. Blackstar the Great promised that as long as they built the 'underground palace', their crimes would be atoned for. They would be transformed into Immortal Cultivators and start a new life in the Imperium of True Human Beings.
"However, after the 'underground royal palace' was really built, Blackstar the Great trapped hundreds of thousands of Cultivators in the 'underground royal palace' and built their souls into a very powerful defense array. Since then, the hundreds of thousands of souls had been wandering below the ground of the royal palace, and the secrets of the 'underground royal palace' were only known to the emperors of each generation. Then, the secrets of the 'underground royal palace' were kept secret until several emperors died abruptly. Nobody knew the secrets of the 'underground royal palace' anymore.
"The four Kurfürst families naturally wanted to excavate the secrets of the 'underground palace' too, but the four of us kept each other in check. None of us wanted other families to get the secrets first. Also, it was too difficult to excavate the entire underground palace. One moment of carelessness, and the crust of the entire capital planet might change drastically, resulting in an ecological imbalance. The environment would be too harsh for human beings to survive. The consequences were too severe, and there were not many benefits. So, the project was put aside.
"According to Emperor Shenwu, Li Linghai seemed to have grasped a certain way to travel freely in the 'underground palace'. It was highly suspicious. Naturally, I investigated it in secret. That was how I discovered the traces of the 'reformists' and learned the tip of the iceberg of Li Linghai's ambitions.
"But at that time, I still did not know that Li Linghai had such a grand scheme and that his methods were so meticulous and vicious. I thought that she was just one of those women who had caused trouble in the court in the past five hundred years.
"Therefore, I merely deployed the regular approaches, hoping that she would 'die of illness' to maintain the dignity of the Imperium, but in fact, I was going to capture her in secret and interrogate her slowly until she told me the secrets of the 'underground palace'.
"As for His Majesty, since he had come to seek my protection, it would be impolite of me to turn him down.
"I mean no harm to His Majesty, but his head has been overwhelmed by the victories of the Imperium's counterattack. He has grown too arrogant and ambitious for himself. As the prime minister of the Imperium, it is my duty to knock on his head and calm him down so that he will not be manipulated by other people with ulterior motives.
"But as it turned out, the secret operation to capture Li Linghai did not go well. What we captured was only a stand-in, and the real Li Linghai had long fled.
"Having no choice, we could only poison the stand-in and announce that the queen had passed away so that Li Linghai's threat could be minimized. But as it turned out, we still underestimated her.
"His Majesty, on the other hand, had been fine since he accepted my protection, but when the incident of cannibal training and the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance broke out, and I was caught unprepared and overwhelmed, all the liquids on his body were vaporized in only half an hour without any sign. Not even the slightest remaining soul was left.
"At that time, quite a few doctors and Meditation Healers were accompanying His Majesty. They performed the resuscitation as soon as possible and injected almost a hundred doses of medical drugs into His Majesty's body, but it did not help at all. There seemed to be a tiny black hole inside His Majesty's body that sucked him dry!
"As it happened, His Majesty died in such a weird way when I was most troubled. It was obvious that somebody was trying to set me up, kill me, and make me the scapegoat! It was true that after His Majesty died in my hands, I couldn't explain myself or tell anybody anything. I could only wait to be killed!
"Such a complicated scheme and such a vicious drug. Who else could it be if not Li Linghai?"
"However —"
Li Yao said, "Why did the queen do that? Why did she kill her husband?"
"Perhaps His Majesty knew too many of her secrets and was even considering abolishing the queen. That was why she took action first. Or perhaps she wanted the four Kurfürst families and even the entire Imperium to fall into chaos!"
Dongfang Wang said, "As you said just now, as long as the Dongfang family ceded tremendous interests and welcomed Emperor Shenwu back, the four Kurfürst families and the reformists would still be able to maintain a balance. Perhaps that was not what Li Linghai wanted to see. What if she wanted the Imperium to fall into chaos?
"Emperor Shenwu has been on the throne for sixty years. Of all the emperors of the Imperium, he has been on the throne for a relatively long time. The reason why he has been the emperor for sixty years is naturally because the four Kurfürst families are satisfied with the current distribution of interests, and there is no need for a restart.
"It is also exactly because of that, and because the Imperium has been focused on the war in the past twenty years, there is not even a crown prince.
"Before, the four Kurfürst families all planned to consider establishing a crown prince when the interests of the post-war reconstruction were divided after the war and considered the crown prince as a condition of the deal.
"But the situation right now is too dangerous. After His Majesty's death, the four Kurfürst families and the reformists are immediately pushed to the center of the storm.
"For the reformists, your slogan is' Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions'. Now that 'Emperor Shenwu' has been murdered by the 'rebels' himself, it is impossible for you to let go of the culprit. You are even going to annihilate the Dongfang family as collateral damage in order to maintain your righteousness, right?
"For the Dongfang family, many secondary branches could've come out to clean up the mess. As long as my branch is sacrificed, it is possible to keep the family from being destroyed. However, after such a terrible thing happened, everything has become unpredictable. Chances are that the remaining forces of the Dongfang family are going to fight for their lives in desperation!
"For the other three Kurfürst families, they naturally have their own opinions about the candidate for the crown prince and have to support the spokesperson of their interests.
"Right now, the Imperium is faced with the greatest changes in the past thousand years. In both the frontline and the rear, the interests of every field are being reshuffled. Whoever's puppet becomes the emperor will naturally have great advantages and even replace the Dongfang family as the new 'first family'!
"Therefore, the candidate for the new emperor will certainly be fiercely contested!
"Li Linghai is so sordid that he must've had other backup plans. As long as he plays a few tricks, the three Kurfürst families will certainly fight each other and be in a mess."
Although he was somewhat incoherent, Dongfang Wang had regained the level of the prime minister of the Imperium in terms of computational ability. He analyzed the whole issue carefully and clearly.
Li Yao's back was drenched in sweat, and his heart was cold.
"I still don't get it."
Li Yao mumbled, "What good can the queen get if the Imperium is in chaos?"
"I don't know what good can Li Linghai get if the Imperium is in chaos."
Gritting his teeth, Dongfang Wang struggled to say, "I only know that if the Imperium is peaceful and you are allowed to pass the transition of power, Li Linghai will forever be a minor queen. The more time goes by, the less likely it will be that she will raise any trouble. Eventually, she will only perish among the stars without anybody knowing!
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