Chapter 188

Everyone looked up at the sound and saw Feng Liwu striding in.

Tian Ying, upon seeing Feng Liwu, felt as if she had found her pillar of support.

Tears streaming down her face, she cried out, “Your Majesty, please stand up for me. I have been by your side for so long. How could I be erased as if I never served or accompanied you?”

Feng Liwu looked coldly at the woman before him and said, “Are you sure it was me you accompanied? I have never laid a finger on you…”

Tian Ying was about to retort when something suddenly flashed through her mind.

She realized that she had indeed never seen Feng Liwu’s face clearly.

He always came at night and left before dawn, and apart from heavy breathing, there was no communication between them.

Could it be…?

At this thought, she turned her doubtful gaze towards Gongsun Wuyan.

However, Gongsun Wuyan was not looking at her.

Instead, he was looking at Feng Liwu, and he vaguely understood the meaningful words Feng Liwu had said to him before today.

“Loyalty is commendable, but it is most feared when misplaced on a venomous woman. If you can wake up to this, your future will be limitless…”

Back then, Tian Ying had sweet-talked him, saying that her marriage to Feng Liwu was against her will and that her true love was him.

Believing her words, he had risked his life to send messages for her and even returned to the State of Han, enduring hardships in the hope that they could be together one day.

But in the end, at the critical moment of life and death, she had not hesitated to let Jiang Xiurun have him beaten to death.

It was clear that she had no love for him, and all her previous words were lies to deceive a fool.

Thinking of this, he looked up at Feng Liwu again.

The ruler of Qi was gazing at him with deep eyes.

And he understood the meaning behind that gaze: if he followed Feng Liwu’s lead, he would have a bright future ahead.

With his mind made up, he kowtowed and said, “Your Majesty, please forgive me. Tian Ying and I had an affair back in the State of Han, and we have been unable to let go of each other since then. We have secretly been in contact. I beg Your Majesty to punish me and spare Tian Ying’s life…”

Upon hearing this, Tian Ying was so furious that she could no longer maintain her usual gentleness.

She shouted in anger, “Gongsun Wuyan, you’re talking nonsense! When did I ever have an affair with you?”

Gongsun Wuyan did not look at her but continued with his head bowed, “In my old residence in Luo’an, there are letters from Tian Ying that can prove my words are true. I beg Your Majesty to investigate and punish me accordingly.”

At this, Tian Ying could no longer refute.

In the past, to use him as an insider in the Crown Prince’s residence, she had indeed made grand promises in her letters to Gongsun Wuyan.

If he were to produce those letters, she would indeed be unable to clear her name.

She could only weep and say, “Your Majesty, I was young and foolish back then and was indeed deceived by this scoundrel. But after entering the Crown Prince’s residence, I had no further contact with him. Today, he sneaked into my chamber disguised as Your Majesty with ill intentions!”

Tian Ying shouted hoarsely, but as she was about to say more, she saw the murderous look in Feng Liwu’s eyes.

Her heart sank, and she suddenly understood why such chaos had erupted tonight.

It must be… it must be that her betrayal of Jiang Xiurun’s route had been exposed.

That was why Feng Liwu had decided to eliminate her!

But why did he say that Jiang Xiurun had been captured? She had already written to her father, asking him to go through the motions and send troops to rescue the captured empress of Qi…

Feng Liwu felt that he had already spent too much time in the palace.

Since Gongsun Wuyan was so cooperative, it was not in vain that he had given this former aide some guidance earlier.

He no longer wanted to waste words on the desperate and hysterical Tian Ying.

He turned to the official in charge of rituals and said, “I do not wish to hear more about such scandalous matters in the palace. Please investigate this thoroughly and report to the Empress Dowager and the Empress… My palace cannot harbor such filth!”

With that, he ordered Gongsun Wuyan to be bound and taken away for interrogation.

However, upon leaving the palace, Feng Liwu had Gongsun Wuyan released.

This was a sharp blade he had been nurturing for a long time, and it was only natural to make good use of it.

Now that Gongsun Wuyan had severed his emotional ties, he was focused on his future, determined to do well for Feng Liwu.

With that, he would have grand mansions and beautiful women, so what was there to worry about?

As for Tian Ying, she was bound and imprisoned in her palace, to be dealt with later.

This scandal of adultery had greatly discomforted Empress Dowager Wei.

She did not know what her son was up to, but she had no fondness for Tian Ying either.

After going through the motions, she had the stunned Cao Xi help her leave.

Not long after, the official in charge of the investigation found the secret letters between Tian Ying and Gongsun Wuyan, confirming the charges.

Feng Liwu nodded and ordered that the palace regulations be followed in dealing with the matter, but he held off on making it public, waiting for news from another front.

Earlier, when Jiang Xiurun had told Feng Liwu about what she had heard from Tian Jing’er, he had sent people to investigate the guards and quickly found the one who had been bribed.

Following the trail, they uncovered Tian Ying, the hidden tumor.

Originally, Feng Liwu had planned to give her a future, considering she had spent so much of her youth in the palace.

Although she was of questionable character, if she could marry Gongsun Wuyan in the future, it would be a happy ending for the lovers.

But he had not expected that this woman, having learned nothing from her past lessons, would still be intent on harming Jiang Xiurun.

In that case, he could not be blamed for being cold-blooded.

However, since she had dared to secretly collude with Feng Wu, it would be a shame not to use this opportunity to give his younger brother a big gift.

Feng Liwu arranged for one of his female assassins to impersonate Jiang Xiurun and follow the planned route.

Back then, Feng Wu had gone to great lengths to arrange for a shadow woman to approach him.

Inspired by this, Feng Liwu had searched the martial world for a master of disguise who could create masks so realistic they could fool anyone.

The woman had also been personally instructed by Jiang Xiurun.

Her subtle expressions, demeanor, and gestures were absolutely convincing.

Not long after this fake empress set out, she was captured by Feng Wu’s men.

Feng Liwu immediately sent a state letter to the emperor of Han, asking him to ensure the safe return of his empress.

He also sent troops to search the mountains and fields.

In this grand spectacle, Feng Wu became convinced that he had captured Jiang Xiurun.

When the “Empress Yaren” was brought to the three counties, he personally saw the woman’s bright face under her disheveled hair and was overjoyed.

In his excitement, he did not carefully check her authenticity.

Believing her to be securely bound, he approached her.

The assassin Feng Liwu had sent was highly skilled, not like the shadow women Feng Wu had trained, who needed to wait for men to be intoxicated with desire before acting.

As soon as Feng Wu got close, she suddenly slipped out of her bonds like a snake and spat a long, sharp needle from her mouth, aiming straight for Feng Wu’s throat.

The attack was too fast.

By the time Feng Wu realized and tried to dodge, it was too late.

The needle pierced his skin.

The poison on the needle spread quickly.

By the time Feng Wu fell to the ground, half of his face had turned black and purple.

Fortunately, many of his subordinates were skilled in the martial world and managed to control the poison, but half of Feng Wu’s body was paralyzed and immobile.

Although the Meng and Yang families tried to keep the news under wraps, word of Feng Wu’s collapse quickly spread, causing chaos among the troops in the three counties.

Amidst the ongoing famine, many soldiers began to desert.

When Feng Liwu saw the three counties beginning to crumble, he publicly announced the charges against Consort Tian for causing chaos in the palace and ordered her to be executed by hanging according to palace regulations.

It was said that on the day Tian Ying died, she loudly cursed the Empress, claiming that she had been framed by Jiang Xiurun, who had bribed a former aide of the Crown Prince’s residence.

She, the most beloved princess of the emperor of Han, dared anyone to touch her! If Feng Liwu listened to the words of this demon empress, he would surely be attacked by Han troops, and so on.

However, she was later gagged by eunuchs, who said that the Empress had ordered her to die with clarity.

The eunuchs not only recounted her collusion with Feng Wu and her plot to harm the Empress but also presented the letters she had written to Yang Ruxu, condemning her venomous heart.

In the end, Tian Ying was gagged and strangled to death.

As the palace was cleansed of this tumor, the Qi army launched a full-scale attack, crossing the river and charging into the three counties, capturing Feng Wu, Empress Yang, and the Meng and Yang families.

In this battle, the female general Bai Qian performed extraordinary feats, cleverly raiding the capital of the three counties and pinning down the enemy’s main forces, allowing the main army to easily cross the river and launch the attack.

Jiang Xiurun was puzzled as to why the usually lazy Bai Qian had been so diligent this time.

Feng Liwu casually mentioned that Dou Siwu had performed poorly in the battle and had violated military regulations.

Bai Qian, in order to save Dou Siwu, had made a military pledge in the tent, promising to capture the capital of the three counties within three days, thus sparing Dou Siwu from execution.

Jiang Xiurun’s mouth half-opened in realization.

No wonder the war goddess of her previous life had been so driven—it was to save the hero’s life that she had exerted herself so much.

However, Bai Qian had personally written a letter to Jiang Xiurun from the front lines, saying that while quelling the chaos in the three counties, she had seen a man with a scarred face fleeing the city, who looked very much like the supposedly dead Qin Zhao.

When Jiang Xiurun read this letter, her heart churned, and she immediately thought of the strange occurrences before.

Could it be that the person who had also been reborn was the supposedly dead Qin Zhao?

Her mind in turmoil, she informed Feng Liwu that Qin Zhao might not be dead.

Feng Liwu frowned and ordered people to search the three counties for the man with the scarred face.

However, the war in Qi was not yet completely settled.

People said that Feng Liwu had killed two birds with one stone: punishing Tian Ying and assassinating Feng Wu, thus pacifying the three counties.

But in reality, he had killed three birds with one stone.

The third bird was the emperor of Han, whom Tian Ying had mentioned.

When the three counties rebelled, the emperor of Han had done much to undermine Feng Liwu behind the scenes.

And when the three counties were short of food, the private grain shipments that secretly supplied them had come from the State of Han.

The emperor of Han’s schemes had long been reported to Feng Liwu by Gongsun Wuyan.

Tian Ying’s collusion with Feng Wu would not have been so brazen without the emperor of Han’s approval.

Therefore, without eliminating the State of Han, the threat from the three counties could not be completely eradicated.