Chapter 734 – Mission to the Capital

All the princes in the Golden Palace, have long been informed, heard and not surprised, the first minister Qian Qingshu unshirkable to stand out and express their views:

“This plan, I’m afraid it’s a delaying tactic of the rebels, your majesty please think twice.”

Without waiting for Emperor Yongxing to speak, someone immediately stepped forward to refute:

“When did First Counselor Qian have such a tacit understanding with Minister Yang Buzheng?”

The speaker was the Minister of War, one of the leaders in the Jet.

Qian Qingshu frowned, scrutinizing the Minister of Military Affairs, and faintly said:

“What does Lord Yan have to say.”

The Minister of War, all of them, raised his voice:

“Your Majesty, since the fall harvest, 100,000 troops were buried by Wei Yuan at Jing Shan City, and since winter, nearly 60,000 of our elite have been lost in Qing Zhou. If we continue to fight like this, the generals of my Da Feng will surely be depleted.

“And all places are plagued by stragglers, the shortage of troops, the Ministry of War has been unable to pull out troops to support Yongzhou. I think that negotiating peace is really the right move, and can solve the urgent need of the court.”

The Minister of War wanted to speak, sighed, and chose to remain silent.

“Relief from a burning problem?”

Zhang Xingying, the Right Capital Royal Historian, coldly grunted:

“To negotiate peace, the rebels are bound to ask for a lion’s share of the money, and I’m only afraid that afterward, the court will have even less left to fight against them. The reasoning of cutting meat with a blunt knife, doesn’t Lord Yan understand?”

At that moment, the Minister of the Household stepped forward and said in a deep voice:

“As Imperial Secretary Zhang is so perceptive and insightful of the situation, why don’t I let you have this position of Minister of the Household?”

Saying that, he let out a cold smile and made a bow towards Emperor Yongxing and exclaimed:

“Your Majesty, the treasury is empty, and if the court continues to fight the Yunzhou rebels, sooner or later it will be dragged down by the war. With the spring festival approaching and the earth returning to spring, what we need is time. And negotiating peace will buy just enough time for us to survive the cold spell.”

Immediately the war and peace advocates were at loggerheads and arguing.

Every time the situation got out of hand, Jo Hyun Jin cracked his whip and shouted, “Silence!

Emperor Yongxing silently watched the arguments of the princes, until more and more people expressed their opinions, and the main peace faction gradually overpowered the main war faction, then he looked at Zhao Xuanzhen and signaled with his eyes.

Snap!

Zhao Xuanzhen once again cracked his whip, and the shiny, recognizable ground made a crisp sound, silencing the arguments in the hall.

Yongxing Emperor looked around the crowd and slowly said:

“I sympathize with the generals and the people, I can’t bear to make another move, and the matter of negotiating peace is settled.”

…………

Imperial City, Royal Mansion.

The luxurious carriage stopped outside the mansion, Qian Qingshu stepped off the car on a small stool with the help of his servant, the guards outside the royal mansion knew his identity and did not stop him.

All the way into the mansion, a moment later in the inner hall, the butler guided him into the inner courtyard to the bedroom of the head minister of Wang.

Such a decent person like Chief Minister Wang, meeting guests not in the study, but in the bedroom, it can be seen how serious the condition is.

The beast’s golden charcoal bears and radiates warmth, the bedroom’s doors and windows are closed, and two maidservants serve in each of the outer and inner chambers.

Chief Wang sat and leaned back, with a soft pillow at his waist and back.

He was thin and bony, his face could not hide the twilight, only a pair of eyes, still bright and godly.

“Ugh!”

Qian Qingshu sighed, “Why don’t you get better from this illness?”

He said, waving his hand and telling the maids to back off.

“Perhaps the big day is coming.” Wang Zhenwen smiled:

“Once a person gets older, he is as sick as a mountain, and even the immortals can’t save him. As the saying goes, when you’re fifty, you know the fate of heaven, and since it’s the fate of heaven, you should just let nature take its course.”

Qian Qingshu pondered for a moment and said:

“I shouldn’t have come to you, it’s only important that you get well in peace, it’s just ………”

Wang Zhenwen raised his hand to interrupt, pointing to the window, and said:

“Help me open the window first.”

Qian Qingshu frowned:

“It’s freezing cold and the windows are open… how do you stand up to that?”

Wang Zhenwen waved his hand:

“This house of twilight makes it hard for me, won’t it make me more likely to get sick? Cut the crap and hurry up and open the window.”

Qian Qingshu hesitated slightly and walked to the window, opening a not too big or small opening to let the cold but fresh wind blow into the house.

He returned to the bed and sat down on the round stool, mentally wording the words:

“Qingzhou is lost.”

Seeing that Wang Zhenwen did not speak, he also fell silent, and after a while, Wang Zhenwen’s voice was low:

“You continue ………”

“Supervisor of the war died in Qingzhou, the rebels now occupy Qingzhou, and Yang Gong in the border of Yongzhou confrontation ……… Yesterday, Yongzhou Buzheng Yao Hong handed up folders, Yunzhou want to send a delegation into the negotiation of peace … ……”

Wang Zhenwen listened without a word, not moving a bit during the time, and his gaze seemed to freeze.

When Qian Qingshu finished speaking, his eyes moved slightly and he regained his anger:

“His Majesty has agreed?”

There was a strong note of disappointment in his tone.

Qian Qingshu nodded lightly:

“There’s no choice, the Da Feng has lost its Supervisor and there’s a vacancy in the Transcendent Warrior Force, it’s like a sheep without a leader, sooner or later the people will be disorganized. What’s the point of fighting any longer.

“Changing places, I’m afraid I’ll be with him in general …….”

Realizing with a jolt that this was a big disrespectful statement, he sighed and changed his tone:

“It would be the same for any other prince.”

Wang Zhenwen sniffed and nodded slowly, saying:

“That’s what people ate up, and that’s why they took the initiative to send a mission for peace talks when they were winning.”

Qian Qingshu let out a bitter smile:

“There are many smart people, but they are just pretending to be fools, who does not know this truth, but what can be done? Recently, the capital is in fear, all the public forced to calm down, in fact, has long been scared out of their wits, and even think that the great Feng extinction is only a matter of time.

“It has been honorable loyalty not to seek another way out.

“His Majesty himself knows that peace talks are a blunt knife cutting flesh, but what can he do? The peace talks are his only hope, and he will grasp at them regardless, and then say to himself that it is all to buy time and wait for the cold plague to pass.”

Wang Zhenwen was silent for a long time and said:

“Without going into that, find a way to get Xu Qi’an to come see me.”

“Him?”

Qian Qingshu smiled bitterly and shook his head:

“Who’s watching this grandpa, I don’t even know where he is.”

“He is in the capital, he must be in the capital now.” Wang Zhenwen covered his mouth and coughed violently, “Supervisor Zheng is dead, he will definitely come back, hey, if the Yunzhou rebels want to negotiate peace, they have to see if he agrees.”

Qian Qingshu got up, took a big step to the window, closed the window, and turned back:

“Do you think that Xu Yinluo can crack the crisis of this matter?”

Wang Zhenwen was silent in response, and after a long interval, he whispered:

“Even if Wei Yuan is resurrected, he can’t revitalize this dead game.”

………..

Szeto.

In the seventh floor Dan room, Xu Qi’an didn’t even return home and came straight to find Song Qing.

“I’ve gathered all the materials for the Soul Invoking Streamer, but there’s still an auxiliary material.”

Xu Qi’an took out the fragments of the Earth Book, two jade bottles that emitted a morose and cold Yin Qi in turn, a stone covered in honeycomb-like holes, and a ball of silk that was as black as ink and emitted a highly poisonous gas.

Song Qing hurriedly took the poison elimination pills, covered his mouth and nose with a silk cloth soaked in medicinal water, and then pulled out the wooden stopper of the porcelain bottle to make material confirmation.

Inside the vials were the fingernails of the ancient corpse, respectively, and the pitch-black corpse water extracted from the arteries in the neck.

After the sounding stone and the silk that emitted the highly toxic gas were also confirmed, Song Qing said:

“The last material is Wei Yuan’s original body’s hair, skin, and flesh, which was used to locate it. But Wei Yuan’s physical body was destroyed in Jing Shan City, so it must have been recovered.”

In fact, Wei Yuan’s flesh was devoured by Jeanne d’Arc, and Song Qing didn’t know the details of it.

“So?” Xu Qi’an asked.

“The child bloodline can be substituted.” Song Qing slowly said.

Wei Gong has long been extinct ah ……… Xu Qi an sighed in his heart, and his tone was low:

“There must be some other method to replace it, or else the Supervisor Zheng wouldn’t have asked me to look for a magic weapon to refine the Soul Invoker.”

Song Qing stared at him:

“Wei Yuan is without an heir, but you relied on his blood pills to advance to the third grade, so in a sense, you are his heir.

“So next, you need to refine a blood elixir, it doesn’t need to be much, the size of a fingernail cap will do, this won’t affect your cultivation.

“Then, you also have to help me get rid of the toxicity contained in the Underworld Silkworms, the poison of the Divine Demon Descendants, I have no way to get rid of it.”

Xu Qi’an swept his gaze over the Underworld Silkworm:

“Refining the Bleeding Dan to get rid of the poison will take three days anyhow.

“These are not problems, the real question is, can you work with such a powerful magic weapon as the Soul Invoker?”

Supervisor Zheng is no longer in, Sun Xuanji recuperating from injuries, Yang Qianyi is also not in the capital at this time, the highest status of the Siantian Supervisor is Song Qing.

But Song Qing was only a sixth grade alchemist.

As a bigwig in the field of alchemy, Song Qing had a deep knowledge of himself and held alchemy in high esteem, and would definitely not try to be brave as he shook his head decisively:

“I can’t!

“A metal like the Songstone cannot be melted by mortal fire, and you need to condense a fire spirit with a fire line formation in order to melt it.

“Well, I can raise the flame temperature with some combustion-aiding materials, but it will require the construction of a new furnace, and the combustion-aiding materials are unique to me, and not stocked by the Szeth.

“That aspect alone will take half a month.”

Song Qing had been stuck in rank for many years, steeped in alchemy, and had figured out many methods to replace formations, but these methods were certainly not as convenient as directly laying down formations.

“That’s why you’re needed to use your qi to replace the fueling material, melt the sounding stone, and refine the pole of the soul invocation streamer. As for the cloth of the Soul Inviting Streamer, you can only wait until Senior Sun’s injuries have healed. This is because the weaving process requires the non-stop incorporation of formations.”

Xu Qi’an listened patiently and said:

“Refining the soul invocation will awaken Wei Gong?”

Song Qing still shook her head:

“And after that is to carve the Yin Gathering Formation and wait for one of the three moments in the year when the Yin energy is at its peak, for you to summon Wei Yuan’s soul.”

Xu Qi’an frowned:

“When was the most recent one?”

Without thinking, Song Qing replied:

“Spring Festival Day!”

A month or so ………. Xu Qi’an let out a breath, deeming this acceptable.

………….

On this day, a long boat that was riding on clouds and mist broke through the sea of clouds and slowly landed at the capital city boundary.

Royal Wind Boat, this magic weapon was originally something of Dongfang Wanrong, in the battle of Jianzhou, it fell into the hands of Ji Xuan, this boat travels thousands of miles per day, it is an extremely rare large transportation tool.

At the head of the boat stood three people, in the center was a young man in Chinese clothes, handsome features, temperament gentle and elegant, hand cupped a silver bone small fan.

His looks and Ji Xuan have four or five points of similarity, temperament but completely different, Ji Xuan favor masculine, sharp but hidden.

This young man, on the other hand, has a scholarly spirit and the arrogance of a belly filled with learning.

On the left and right sides, were the black-clothed teenager Xu Yuanhuai, and the cool young girl Xu Yuanfang.

These three people are the core of the mission, in addition to them, there are sixteen old and respected readers, composed of the negotiation team.

As well as a hundred elite guards with notable cultivation.

“The capital city ah ………”

The small silver bone fan in Ji Yuan’s hand rotated a few times and laughed:

“Long known and long admired, Yuanhuai Yuanfang, are you not pleased?”

Xu Yuanhuai and Xu Yuanfang both had the personality of a stranger, one indifferent and the other cool, which was related to the environment they grew up in.

But they really couldn’t be happy, anyone could see who their father was targeting when he asked them to enter the capital to negotiate.

“I heard that outside of Yongzhou City, Xu Qi’an was merciful to the two of you and did not kill you painfully. When we enter the capital, you two must protect me.” Ji Yuan smiled and said:

“That guy doesn’t care to kill his younger siblings, I’m afraid he won’t even blink an eye if he kills me, his cousin.”

Seeing the faint expression on his cousins’ faces, he felt self-conscious and lamented:

“This time, I came to the capital, first, to seize greater benefits for Subterranean Dragon City. Secondly, to establish merit, seventh brother is already a transcendent powerhouse, but I haven’t established an inch of merit. If I can do this errand beautifully, father will pay more attention to our brothers. Seventh Brother’s position will be more secure.

“The third thing is to test Da Feng’s strength. Your big brother is the first person I will test. Tsk, do you guys think that he has ever thought about peace talks?”

Xu Yuanfang faintly said:

“He won’t!

“This man would rather bend than break.”

Ji Yuan nodded and then said:

“Being strong in nature does not mean being pedantic; if he agrees to peace talks, it is a delaying tactic, which means that Da Feng still has a backhand.”

As he spoke, the Royal Wind Boat slowly docked outside the capital.

The government offices in charge of welcoming the Yunzhou delegation were the Honglu Temple and the Pedestrian Department, and the leader was the Secretary of the Honglu Temple, an official of the third rank, which really gave Yunzhou a great deal of face.

The Secretary of the Honglu Temple is a middle-aged man with a goatee and a thin face, with deep crow’s feet and a perennial smile.

People are practiced and smooth.

He led his subordinates to meet the Royal Wind Boat and waited for the Yunzhou delegation to come down.

But wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

A quarter of an hour later, one of the guards poked his head down from the side of the ship and spoke in a loud voice:

“Dare I ask who your honor is?”

The Honglu Secretary piled on a professional smile and made a bow:

“My official, the Secretary of the Honglu Temple.”

That guard “oh”, head shrunk back, a dozen breaths later, poked his head out again, faintly said:

“My lord said that you don’t have enough status, so please go back.”