The medicinal pill Fan Xian forced the empress dowager to swallow tasted sweet and sour. Even after all the life and death situations over these two years, from the depths of the ocean to the summit of a mountain, even with a body full of injuries, Fan Xian had not lost this pill because he knew it was very important for him.
It had been a dozen years ago in Danzhou when Fan Xian’s teacher Fei Jie had formally stuffed the medicinal pouch into his little hands. He had been afraid that the Tyrannical zhenqi Fan Xian was learning would suddenly burst forth and cause him to die a tragic end.
Fan Xian never took the medicine. After he killed the Second Prince’s ally Xie Bi’an and had a direct fight with the Shadow, his zhenqi had finally exploded within his body and rendered him a cripple. Even in such circumstances, he still did not take the medicine because he knew how powerful it was. It could dispel his martial abilities.
Fan Xian didn’t want all his martial abilities to be dispelled, so he shouldered the pain of the destruction of his meridians and rigidity of being unable to move. Fortunately, Haitang secretly brought the Heart of Tianyi Dao to Jiangnan, which remarkably made his heavy injuries slowly recover.
Now, he had finally delivered this medicine into the empress dowager’s mouth. The medicinal properties of this pill were powerful. It penetrated with unusual directness straight into one’s organs and gradually submerged one’s life force.
The empress dowager was already old and weak. She only had very few years of life left. Taking this medicine gradually drained her remaining life force, accelerating her rate of death. Her life force was gradually dimming and become weaker. Her old and weak body was unable to endure and already at its limit.
Fan Xian was afraid of the aftermath, so he could not openly poison the empress dowager. This medicine was not a poison. No matter which doctor came to do an examination, they would not find anything strange.
At this time, the empress dowager was already unable to speak and soon would feel her body becoming heavier and heavier. She would not be able to raise her arm if she wanted to. Unless another Great Grandmaster appeared in the world and forcefully used the purest zhenqi to turn back time, the empress dowager could only tragically become a cripple who could not speak or move. Then, she could only slowly wait for death’s arrival.
It was not that Fan Xian was vicious or consumed by his desire for revenge. Under the present situation and with his own secret concern, this was all he could do to ensure the safety of the present and future.
The rebel army surrounded the city. The empress dowager could weaken the rebel army’s attack as a shield, but what about their future safety?
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The empress dowager did not know what sinister poison was contained in that medicine. She only thought that it was a pill to make her mute. She still stared at Fan Xian with resentment and hatred. Fan Xian did not acknowledge the empress dowager’s angry gaze. He turned his cold gaze on the two factions below the lofty palace walls. He looked intently at Ye Zhong beside the Second Prince. As he looked at the short and sturdy general, a strange light flashed through his eyes. It seemed like he was continuously thinking about something.
The Dingzhou army was presenting prisoners of war and had yet to enter the capital. According to precedent, they only had a few thousand soldiers. However, Ye Zhong and the Second Prince had led over 10,000 people into the capital. It appeared they had long been prepared. However, there was no sign of Hongcheng among the rebel army. This made Fan Xian feel a glimmer of relief.
Looking from a distance, the heads of the rebel army seemed to be arguing about something while the Crown Prince remained silent. He watched the movement at the top of the palace walls with worry-filled eyes. In his heart, he worried about the safety of his mother and grandmother. He viciously cursed Fan Xian, the Great Prince, and the scholars Shu and Hu.
Fan Xian suddenly narrowed his eyes seeing that the leaders of the rebel army had stopped their discussion. The sound of hooves gradually rang out. The Qin and Ye families each took one portion of the army and pressed away in two directions. He abruptly turned his head and glanced at the Crown Prince not far from him. The Great Prince nodded at him and gave a signal he prepared long ago.
Other than the main Palace doors, it seemed that the rebel soldiers had also chosen Taiping Square for the other main direction of attack. The palace wall there was slightly shorter. It was where the eunuchs and serving girls lived and not a strictly guarded entrance. The Great Prince had long deduced this and had moved many soldiers to guard it. He had also sent along seven or eight of the 10 loyal generals he had nurtured in the Western Expedition Army.
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This was only a little trick for a slight stall for time. They still had not found an escape or something that could change the bigger picture. Fan Xian’s eyes once again became empty. His eyes watched the dense group of rebel soldiers below the city gates. It was like he was looking through their existence toward a further place, looking into the past, toward the variable that he had been anticipating but had yet to make an appearance.
It was 30,000 to a few thousand. Even if the palace walls were taller and the rebel army did not release arrows or only used people to conquer, they could still fill the moat outside the palace with people and create a human ladder to reach high places. They could destroy everything in the palace. Watching the hurried arrangements in the rear of the rebel army and gradually rising city attacking ladders, Fan Xian’s eyes narrowed. He felt a slight chill at the bottom of his heart as the three-part ladder the three workshops in the palace treasury had developed was moved out. The attack was finally about to begin.
These military tools were all produced by the palace treasury. As the head of the palace treasury, Fan Xian couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of absurdity. The things he had produced were going to be used in attacking him, yet he could not find any way to deal with them.
His heart rate was accelerating. His scalp felt numb. His brows furrowed tightly. He suddenly sucked in a few heavy breaths, feeling something wrong with his breathing. His chest felt suffocated. Standing by the brick arrow slit, he slowly crouched down.
The hearts of the people on the palace walls jumped in fright. They all hurried toward his direction. The battle was about to start. If one of their main commanders suddenly had something wrong with his body, it would, without question, be a giant blow against the Imperial Army’s morale.
The Third Prince was close to him. He touched his left arm in fear and called out, “Sir, what’s wrong?”
Without waiting for more people to gather around him, Fan Xian buried his head and raised his right arm. In a tired voice, he said, “I need a quiet place to think about some problems. Go get ready. There is no need to mind me.”
No one who heard this was able to relax. Seeing his stubbornness and the fact that the rebel army was already preparing to attack, they could only accept the order and rush back to the area they were defending. The Great Prince stood in the commander’s position and glanced at Fan Xian from a distance. He looked at the man who had been full of baleful attitude earlier and was now crouching weakly on the palace wall. He couldn’t help but feel his heart dim slightly.
“Scholar Hu, I must trouble you to stall for time.”
Fan Xian spoke in a quiet voice with his head down. Hu the Scholar glanced at him with concern. He sighed and walked to the side of the palace wall, raising his voice to speak.
The Third Prince stayed anxiously at this side, not sure how Fan Xian was at this time.
Fan Xian just sat down on the palace wall and placed his head deeply between his legs. He breathed with great difficulty. He appeared pitiful, like a cat with no home to return to on a rainy night.
Hu the Scholar’s righteous and majestic words faintly reached his ears. It seemed that he was carrying out a last communication with the Crown Prince. Even though these words floated in Fan Xian’s ears, he could not hear a single word clearly. He had confidence in Scholar Hu to stall for a little while.
The problem Fan Xian faced was a mess of chaos in his mind. After returning to the capital from Dong Mountain, he had completed each step at a time. He and the Eldest Princess each had victories when they crossed swords. Even when he had been trapped within the Royal Palace, he was still filled with confidence because the details of many things had given him a faint signal that Chen Pingping had long calculated the Eldest Princess and Crown Prince’s conspiracy. Since it was so, when the situation had progressed to the last moment, there would always be a chance to turn the tables.
Just as he had thought in the early hours of the morning, someone would come to rescue him on a colorful and auspicious cloud. However, the morning clouds had dispersed and the red light was gone. Where was the person who would come to save him?
Assault rifle? No. Before thinking this matter through, Fan Xian would not use this trump card.
Fan Xian closed his eyes tightly and thought quickly as he coughed. He still didn’t manage to seize the important point as it flashed through his mind. He had burned through too much of his mental and physical energy. Fan Xian’s cough was becoming more and more serious. He slowly opened his eyes and they were completely filled with a blood-red color.
Making his way into the capital after being injured by Yan Xiaoyi, forcefully breaking into the Royal Palace, and his fearless lighthearted chatter on the palace walls had completely depleted his energy. It was only the Third Bureau’s ephedra pill that was forcefully stimulating his state of mind.
Fan Xian breathed heavily a few times and used a shaking hand to take out two sharp-smelling pills from his clothing. He brought them to his lips, messily swallowing them down. He knew that this medicine would damage his body greatly. In the present dangerous situation, even if he had to drink poison, he would do it willingly.
Although Li Chengping didn’t know what his teacher was eating, he had already guessed that Fan Xian’s body had reached a point of being completely drained. His blood-red eyes represented an inauspicious sign. Nervously and unhappily, he tightly grasped the hands Fan Xian had placed on his knee.
The medicinal effects were seen quickly. Fan Xian’s chest relaxed a great deal. It seemed that each breath entering his body was many times more than previously. His cough also died down. However, the lines of blood grew denser in his eyes. It created a demonic feeling in contrast to his haggard but still very heroic face.
With a slap, the sitting Fan Xian abruptly drew his hand from Li Chengping’s small hands and reached like lightning into the left path, grasping the pair of woman’s feet in golden palace shoes.
Fan Xian didn’t turn his head to look and only coldly said, “You didn’t dare to commit suicide while in the Palace, yet now you want to use your death to provoke the Crown Prince into attacking?”
When his hand had extended out like lightning, the pair of small feet in palace shoes were trying to rise to their toes and move their owner’s weak body toward the firm ground below the Royal Palace.
Li Chengping watched this sight with fear. He watched as Fan Xian’s held down the empress dowager’s feet a moment before she jumped to her death from the palace walls.
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The empress dowager had taken the medicine and was already at the end of her life. Fan Xian was not yet recovered from his heavy injury and was forcefully increasing his strength. He was also almost at the end of his strength. Although this grandmother and grandson duo had reached the ends of their roads, they still reverberated with irreconcilable differences.
If a person wanted to die, it was always easy. The empress dowager stared coldly and resentfully at Fan Xian’s profile. She looked at the strange redness in his eyes and gradually felt a sense of joy in her heart. No matter how powerful the wicked woman and her wicked son were, this world still could not tolerate them. This fate had long been set. History had already proved this point.
After Fan Xian spoke, he fell into an unexpected silence. His eyes gazed emptily into the distance as he gradually furrowed his brows. His eyes gradually lit up like when he had looked at Ye Zhong earlier. The brightness in his eyes seemed to show that he had finally come to understand some matter and come to a conclusion.
At this moment, Hu the Scholar’s negotiations with the Crown Prince had already broken down. The rebel army began to beat their battle drums and start their first attack on the palace. Suddenly, an earth-shattering sound of killing rang out in the distance to the rear and left of Taiping Square.
The battle drums thundered out. Although there was no rain of arrows, a few straw ones passed through the sky bringing with it a screeching sound. Countless rebel soldiers pushed city mounting ladders and large carriages covered in oil-cloths. Bravely facing the giant crossbows and rain of arrows, they went head-on against the fire and rocks being dropped down from the palace walls and charged forward.
In an instant, the foot of the palace walls was filled with tragic cries from the sight of flowing blood and pain of burning. The rising sun had long risen into the slanting sky, mercilessly watching as Qing Kingdom’s Jingdou bled again after more than a dozen years.
Fan Xian slowly rose and looked mercilessly at the sight before his eyes. He didn’t look at the empress dowager beside him but said to her, “I have thought through many things.”
When he pressed down on the empress dowager’s little feet, he involuntarily thought of his grandmother in Danzhou and something she had always said to him—the Fan family never needs to stand with a side because we stand forever on the Emperor’s side.
What did this mean? This was a confidence in the Emperor. In this instant, countless images flashed before Fan Xian’s eyes. Like a firefly, they flashed past and reminded him of many things and cemented the conclusion he was gradually arriving at.