Chapter 261 Wakening From a Dream
Folding his arms, Nangong Diyi leaned against the door frame and looked at Tian Lingzi playfully. “Seven years ago, I was in a bad state, so he could run away. He was lucky. Today, he dares to enter the Imperial Palace again and make waves. Does he really think that there was no one in the Tang Empire?”
While saying this, Nangong Diyi curved his mouth upward gently and smiled. “I spoke for him. Masters often talk less, and they have to have the master’s demeanor. According to Li Ye’s statement, masters have their burden of identity.”
Tian Lingzi twitched his mouth slightly, and his expression changed dramatically. He wanted to retort, but he didn’t have good sayings. If he didn’t retort, he lost his momentum. He didn’t know whether to speak or not for a while. His face turned purple immediately.
Feeling a little amused, Nangong Diyi said, “Lieutenant Tian, you got nothing to say? Well, please cut your throat directly.”
Tian Lingzi finally couldn’t help but roar, “Nangong Diyi! Don’t be arrogant. I have dozens of masters guarding me, so you can’t kill me! I have 100,000 Regal Guards controlling Chang’an. Even though you’re powerful, you only have two people, so you can do nothing to me. Can you two control Chang’an?!”
Out of Tian Lingzi’s expectation, Nangong Diyi answered seriously, “No.”
Tian Lingzi was stunned slightly, and then, he laughed. “It seems you know yourself well. Then, fu*ck off!”
Nangong Diyi looked at Tian Lingzi like looking at a fool again. “The two of us can’t do that, but the three of us can.”
Tian Lingzi was stunned. “What are you talking about?”
“What Chief Nangong meant was to include me.”
At this moment, a deep voice was heard. An armored general, who was as strong as a hill, entered the courtyard. He cupped his fists toward Li Xian and Nangong Diyi. “I’m General Wang Jian.”
The comer was Wang Jian who was transferred to the Regal Guards when he was rewarded according to his merits after the battle.
“Wang Jian?!” Tian Lingzi saw Wang Jian, just like seeing a ghost. “Haven’t you been killed by my men?”
Wang Jian and Li Maozhen served in the Regal Guards before, and they also took part in the conspiracy seven years ago. Later, they went west with Li Yan and were left in Fengxiang to assist the former Fengxiang commissioner to fight Huang Chao. This time, Li Maozhen was promoted to Fengxiang commissioner, and Wang Jian came back to be the commander of the cavalry of the Regal Guards.
Except for two Lieutenants, two commanders were most powerful among the entire Regal Guards. As the commander of the cavalry, if Wang Jian took the lead, it was easy for Li Yan to control the Regal Guards again.
Tian Lingzi naturally recognized Wang Jian and he also knew that Wang Jian had a good relationship with Li Ye, so he sent someone into Wang Jian’s house to kill him before the conspiracy. And the cultivator reported that Wang Jian had been killed by him. But now, Wang Jian suddenly appeared in front of Tian Lingzi, so Tian Lingzi was terrified.
Wang Jian didn’t care and said, “When I served in the Regal Guards, you were only an attendant of Prince Pu. You dispatched a master of the Regal Guards to kill me. You’re kidding me.”
What he said disgusted Tian Lingzi very much, as if he had eaten ten thousand flies.
Some of Wang Jian’s words were reasonable, but some were not. The condition was that he had to be extremely popular and have some luck, and Wang Jian happened to have both.
Nangong Diyi waved his hand and glanced at Tian Lingzi who lost his wits. He said lightly, “Tian Lingzi, are you going to kill yourself, or would you like me to do it for you?”
Tian Lingzi couldn’t help but step backward. He managed to barely stand and didn’t fall to the ground with despair.
Now, Tian Lingzi lost the whole game, and he knew that he couldn’t fight back. His face turned pale.
Suddenly, he took out a spiritual sword and put it in front of his neck. With his eyes full of hatred, he looked up at the sky and roared, “Li Ye! You’re my absolutely irreconcilable enemy. I won’t let go of you in my next life!”
When he finished speaking, he pulled the sword with force. Blood immediately gushed out. Tian Lingzi threw the long sword away. With his eyes wide open, he staggered a few steps back, and finally, he fell to the ground powerlessly.
Tian Lingzi finally realized that he actually died in Li Ye’s hands with years of experience of the Lieutenant of the Regal Guards. Obviously, Nangong Diyi, Wang Jian, and the others’ actions were not a coincidence, but someone planned it carefully behind them. Otherwise, Tian Lingzi wouldn’t suffer a thorough defeat. Li Ye was the only person in the whole Tang Empire who could command them at the same time.
Tian Lingzi thought that his chances would come after Li Ye returned to Qing Prefecture. Before he died, he finally realized how wrong he was. From the beginning of his plan of hijacking Li Yan and controlling the imperial court, he walked on the road of death laid by Li Ye.
But Tian Lingzi had no choice. He had to deal with Li Ye. Only when he controlled Li Yan and the imperial court could he compete with Li Ye. But the result was that his response destroyed him thoroughly.
Nangong Diyi glanced at Tian Lingzi. He curled his lips boringly and turned to smiled at Yang Fuguang. “Privy Councillor, you should go to see His Majesty.”
“Chief Nangong, you’re not coming?” Yang Fuguang’s mind was brought back to the present. He was also an insider of Li Ye’s plan. However, he only thought that Tian Lingzi would deal with him, but he didn’t expect that Tian Lingzi would be so crazy that he wanted to control the whole world by hijacking Li Yan and controlling the imperial court.
It seemed that no one feared the emperor and the imperial court at present.
Nangong Diyi waved his hand. “I have no intention to continue to be an official in Chang’an, so it doesn’t matter whether I go to see His Majesty or not. It will be fine for you and General Wang to see His Majesty.”
What he said was very clear. He meant to give Yang Fuguang and Wang Jian all the credit for killing Tian Lingzi so that they could get promoted. He and Li Xian were going to leave without leaving their names.
Yang Fuguang sighed. He knew that Nangong Diyi had made up his mind, so he didn’t persuade him and left the palace with Wang Jian. Before they went to see Li Yan, they needed to reorganize the Regal Guards and remove the traces of Tian Lingzi. After making sure everything was smooth, they went to see the emperor and ask for credit.
Walking to Li Xian’s side, Nangong Diyi glanced at the cultivator of the Regal Guards, who was in the Spiritual Master Realm, in the big hole. Suddenly, he smiled and said to Li Xian, “It appears that you have fully recovered from your injuries.”
“Thanks to Celestial Master Yuan’s extraordinary ability,” said Li Xian.
That day, on Qi Mountain, he and Nangong Diyi rushed into the Great Six Paths of Reincarnation Formation regardless. Both of them were seriously injured and dying. Yuan Tiangang saved their lives. Even Li Xian’s incompletely cured illness of the battle of Bagong Mountain healed because of Yuan Tiangang’s Spiritual Qi.
In the hall, Li Siyuan and the other master sent by Li Keyong looked at each other and didn’t know what to do for a while. Nangong Diyi and Li Xian seemed to ignore them. This time, Tian Lingzi planed the conspiracy, but he didn’t have enough masters, so Li Keyong sent them to lead a group of masters of the army to help him. Now, Tian Lingzi was dead, so their situation was particularly embarrassing.
Li Xian looked at the sky with his hands clasped behind his back and didn’t move for a long time. Of course, Nangong Diyi wouldn’t urge him to go. He also looked up at the sky. Quite a while later, he sighed. “I don’t go to see His Majesty because I concentrate on the Way of Sword and have no distractions. But you are the minister of the country, so why don’t you go?”
Li Xian said bleakly, “The minister of the country? Since the world is in such chaos, who still has face to claim to be the minister of the country?”
Nangong Diyi suddenly said, “Did you appear in the coup seven years ago because of any personal enmity?”
Li Xian didn’t answer.
In the final analysis, Li Ye launched the coup at that time because he wanted to help Li Yan become the emperor. Li Xian knew Li Yan’s qualifications. If Li Yan was an emperor, he would never be a wise emperor. In comparison, the Eldest Prince was quite famous and had virtue. For the sake of the country, Li Xian shouldn’t have helped Li Ye.
Because of the coup that brought Li Yan to the throne, the world gradually became chaotic and became what it was now.
Li Xian was loyal to the Tang Empire all his lifetime, so it was the most unacceptable for him to see the current situation.
Li Xian didn’t speak, but Nangong Diyi didn’t intend to stop speaking. He continued, “Although Huang Chao Uprising is settled, His Majesty acts the same as before, and he doesn’t plan to work hard on the political affairs… Where is the future of the Tang Empire?”
Li Xian still didn’t speak, but his figure seemed bleaker.
Nangong Diyi suddenly turned around and looked at Li Siyuan and the other who was ready to slip away. He said, “You two, go with us.”
Li Siyuan paused. “Where?”
“Pinglu.”
When Yang Fuguang and Wang Jian saw Li Yan, Li Yan was drunk, lying on the couch, and he said, “Tian Lingzi, you are a b*stard. You’ve watched me grow up… I regard you as my brother. Even though you failed to guard Tongguan, I didn’t blame you. How can you be so ungrateful… How dare you put me under house arrest…”
After looking at each other, Yang Fuguang and Wang Jian bowed and said loudly, “Your Majesty!”
Li Yan barely sat up and looked at them drunkenly. “What are you doing here? What did Tian Lingzi, that b*stard, ask you to do?”
Wang Jian glanced at Yang Fuguang. Yang Fuguang immediately said with cupped fists, “Your Majesty, Tian Lingzi is already dead! We come to report it to you!”
Li Yan was stunned, and then, he jumped with surprise. “Tian Lingzi is dead? How could that be! How did you do that?”
Yang Fuguang immediately said, “Tian Lingzi launched the conspiracy. Everyone could kill him. We were lucky to get Chief Nangong’s help and kill Tian Lingzi!”
Li Yan laughed. He threw away the wine pot and walked back and forth excitedly. “Good! Well done! Sure enough, my Tang Empire is never short of people with lofty ideals. Those who want to occupy my country and those who dare to rebel won’t have a good end!”
The next day, Li Yan issued a decree to appoint Yang Fuguang as the Lieutenant of the Left Regal Guards and promote Wang Jian to the General of Left Guards.
The same day, at dawn, Prime Minister, Wang Duo woke up from a deep sleep. As soon as he sat up, he felt a sharp pain in his head. Many familiar yet strange memories emerged in his mind, as if he had had a terrible nightmare. The beginning of the dream was that he knelt before the golden Buddha and became a devout little monk. But now, he woke up from his dream.
Volume 4 Groups of Demons