NOVPUBUpon hearing this,
Cao Zhi sneered even more fiercely, his hatred and disdain unmasked. He laughed until he was breathless and then suddenly leaned close to the face of the Green Robed Scholar, staring directly at him with bloodshot eyes, and gritted his teeth,
"Destiny of the Immortals, he is also worthy!"
"Initially, the cultivators in the Cultivation World merely regarded him as a dog that paid the Spiritual Grain tax, gracing him with a few pitifully small Spirit Stones!"
"With those mere Spirit Stones, even if he cultivated till death, he wouldn't achieve much!"
"His real rise to power began after the forty-ninth year of Longqing!"
"Sir, do you still remember the Virtuous Consort?"
"The Virtuous Consort?"
Fang Qingyun recalled in his mind, "I am not clear about the affairs of the harem, Your Highness, please tell me directly."
"The Virtuous Consort was my mother."
Cao Zhi clenched his fist, "Seeking Immortal Tower is formed by two families and one sect, my mother was the previous Tower Master of Seeking Immortal Tower, everything he has came from my mother!"
At this point in the conversation,
King Yan did not continue, but turned around and left, his figure quickly obscured by a bamboo grove at the end of the courtyard and vanished.
"Interesting."
Shortly after he left,
Fu Yuanjia, a spy from the Jinyi Guard hidden within the Governor Mansion, stepped out of the shadows, looking in the direction King Yan had gone, and clicked his tongue, "It's the first time I've seen a son hate his father this much."
"Old Fu."
Fang Qingyun coughed twice, "I know about Seeking Immortal Tower, but what is the situation with this Virtuous Consort?"
"Ah, the Virtuous Consort, let me think."
Fu Yuanjia, who specialized in intelligence, was well versed in the affairs big and small inside and outside the Capital City, he said, "The Virtuous Consort was the last consort Cao Kai took, but not through selection, it's said that she was a romantic debt he incurred during his travels.
"She brought King Yan Cao Zhi to recognize his father, and then she died not long afterwards. Later, Cao Zhi was adopted by Lady Zhangsun, who had no children of her own.
"Longqing year forty-nine, by then Cao Kai must have been over seventy years old, right?
"When I was gathering intelligence back then, I found it strange, Cao Kai had been celibate for over thirty years for the sake of cultivation, how could he suddenly bring back a son from outside."
"Now it seems, it's not simple!
"Does the Old Governor know about this?
"Who cares, anyway, it seems to be a good thing for us now."
"Cough, cough, cough..."
A cool breeze passed by, and Fang Qingyun coughed again. After recovering, he picked up a chess piece and firmly placed it down, saying solemnly, "We can start now."
"Good!"
Fu Yuanjia said, "I will send orders to the spies in various state offices to spread the truth about 'Yunzhou Ten Days' and 'Three Prefectures Rebellion', just waiting for the fire to be lit in the Capital City during the grand ceremony, then it will start to get chaotic.
"Once the brothers Cao Zhi and Cao Huan proceed to leave the Capital City according to our plan,
"The Young Master can make his move in Liangzhou and do so with justified cause!
"By then, you should also run away, otherwise, if Liangzhou creates turmoil, the Capital City will definitely take you hostage to threaten the Young Master."
"To move with justified cause."
Fang Qingyun murmured, "Junior, this is as much as your senior brother can do for you."
"There's one more thing."
Fu Yuanjia said worriedly, "What about your eldest senior brother?
"He is highly competitive and was displeased for not inheriting the Old Governor's mantle, and his attitude towards the court is different from yours. I'm worried he might come forward to interfere.
"I heard that after cultivating the Evil God Path, he achieved consecutive breakthroughs and with the Three Camps under his control, he is ultimately a trouble."
"That is our sect's internal affair."
Fang Qingyun leaned on his wheelchair, gesturing for the other to help him return to rest, "Let the little junior handle it himself."
...
Thousands of miles away.
In a lush green forest.
Cao Zhi knelt before a gravestone, "Mother, your son has come to see you."
Behind him,
stood the current Tower Master of Seeking Immortal Tower, Cui Zhichen, who spoke, "Is everything prepared?"
"Fang Qingyun will help us gather the evidence of the Three Prefectures Rebellion, just as he said."
Cao Zhi placed a wildflower on the grave and kowtowed three times before standing up and brushing off the dust from his body, "On the day of the grand ceremony, we'll drag my Sixth Brother into this, if it succeeds, good, if not, we will retreat to the southeast to raise troops. By then, Liangzhou will also respond to us."
"Master, have you also thought it through?"
"Speaking of which, we have a way out, but if it fails, we might very well die in the Capital City."
Cui Zhichen looked at the words "Nangong Bifan" engraved on the gravestone and said lightly, "If it weren't for Senior Sister Nangong feeding me and bringing me to the Nangong Family, entering Seeking Immortal Tower, how could I be where I am today?
"Moreover, what I have done over the years was all for today.
"If I can avenge this great wrong, why fear death?"
Nangong Bifan.
As the Nangong Family's current generation's most talented individual with a Heavenly Wood Spirit Root, she should have inherited the Daoist inheritance of Seeking Immortal Tower and pursued the path of immortality.
Based on the current situation of the loosening seal, waiting a few more years would have given her a complete opportunity to enter into the Cultivation World and establish her own immortal venture.
Who could have expected that year,
Nangong Bifan fell in love with a young foreign cultivator. Subsequently,
the cultivator earned her trust, stole the greatest treasure of Seeking Immortal Tower, and then vanished.
Nangong Bifan became a traitor to her family and to Seeking Immortal Tower.
Two years later, with nowhere to go, Nangong Bifan found out that the young cultivator was actually the Old Emperor in disguise, but by then she had already given birth to Cao Zhi and went to the Imperial Palace hoping to return the treasure.
Unexpectedly, she was instead imprisoned by the Emperor who even used her as bait, nearly wiping out everyone from Seeking Immortal Tower.
After multiple blows, Nangong Bifan succumbed to despair within a couple of years.
"Let's make our move."
