Those were the index and middle fingers of Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui’s right hand, breaking off at the root. There was still a pool of blood accompanied by Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui’s screams, making those who were watching to back up a few steps. Some people even shouted: “The Eighth Prince is crazy! He’s gone crazy!”
And at this moment, Imperial Concubine Li who arrived late also arrived in front of the main hall, she saw this alarming scene and could not help but tremble, and her mind which was already not that normal seemed to snap further. Some panic appeared on her face and she constantly searched amongst the crowd of princes and her vision finally focused, finding her son Xuan Tianfeng, quickly approaching him. Then she asked in an odd, crazed tone: “What’s going on? What happened to have to call me here in the middle of the night? Why did those palace staff say that I cursed the Emperor? Since when did I harm the Emperor? The person I harmed was clearly……”
“Imperial Concubine Mother, watch your words.” Xuan Tianfeng cut off Imperial Concubine Li’s words with a frown, “Imperial Concubine Mother should know what words can be said and what cannot be said, if you wish for your son to stand here and be well, then think more thoroughly in your heart, then look at the Eighth Prince and Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui, you do not wish for your son to follow in their footsteps, right?”
Imperial Concubine Li jolted and immediately understood what Xuan Tianfeng meant. She glanced at Xuan Tianming while feeling guilty but seeing that the other party did not look in her direction, she mentally breathed a sigh of relief. However she did not dare to careless speak anymore and wanted to ask the Empress, but right now, where would the Empress find the time to entertain her? Everyone’s thoughts were focused on the Eighth Prince and Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui!
Biting off two fingers from Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui did not lessen the agony felt by the Eighth Prince at all, not only was he in pain, he bore some hatred towards Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui. If it was the past, the Eighth Prince would not hate Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui, even if the matter did not succeed, that was fate, he still felt a bond towards his Imperial Concubine Mother. But ever since something abnormal occurred in his physical condition, ever since Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui went to Sheng Palace, he suddenly understood, this Imperial Concubine Mother already had the thoughts of abandoning him. She wanted to give birth to another son, as long as she still had another son, even if he was injured, or dead, it would not affect her interests, she can still prop up her other son on the throne.
It was these thoughts from Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui which caused feelings of hatred to brew in the Eighth Prince. With the mother and son having an estranged relationship, under the rage and the strange itchiness he felt, he bit off two fingers from Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui.
Currently, the mother and son were slumped in the plaza in front of Zhao He Hall and howling, each one shouting louder than the last. The Eighth Prince spit out the fingers in his mouth and finally remembered one thing, shouting loudly: “Where is Zhang Yuan? Why hasn’t he come out yet? Feng Yuheng! You harmed me with fake medicine! You deserve to die!”
Pa!
Once he said these words, a whip flew with great force from an unknown location, savagely hitting his back, the impact causing him to almost cough up blood.
Xuan Tianmo got a huge shock, turning around to look. He saw Xuan Tianming rolling up his soft whip little by little, asking as he did so: “Who did you say deserves to die? Believe it or not, if you say one more sentence, This Prince will whip you to death!”
A dark feeling assaulted them, this was the Ninth Prince everyone was familiar with! This was the Ninth King Yama! For a long time, Xuan Tianming kept a low profile because of the huge change in the Emperor’s temperament, never saying more than needed in political affairs and did not get into direct conflicts with the Eighth Prince who was currently flourishing, to the point that many people thought that the Ninth Prince had backed off, all of them thinking that the Ninth Prince had lost that bearing and was no long a King Yama. But unexpectedly, he was just in hibernation. When it was a crucial moment, that domineering spirit was still there.
Xuan Tianmo did not dare to scold Feng Yuheng again, because he knew this Ninth Brother too well, he knew, when Xuan Tianming said such words, when such a look appeared in Xuan Tianming’s eyes, it meant that he was going to kill someone. He was certain that if he continued scolding one more sentence, Xuan Tianming would definitely whip him to death. If it was in the past, he could still put up further resistance, but with his physical condition now, he could not even stand and did not have the ability to resist.
In addition, other than Xuan Tianming, the Seventh Prince Xuan Tianhua and the Sixth Prince Xuan Tianfeng were looking at him with a gaze containing a stern warning. The meaning was clearly, if you scold Feng Yuheng further, the few of us would cause trouble for you.
He wanted to laugh loudly, wanting to say that Feng Yuheng had messed with so many men, was old Ninth not afraid of wearing a green hat in the end? But when the words reached the edge of his mouth, he could not say it. The first reason was that he could not bear the itch on his body, the second reason was that he did not dare. Even with the current situation, he still wanted to live!
Outside Zhao He Hall, the Empress watched this scene coldly, but did not say anything. Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui lost fingers and was rolling on the ground in pain, but even the imperial physicians ignored her. Without the Empress’ orders, no one dared to approach and treat her.
Imperial Concubine looked towards Xuan Tianmo, fire burning in her eyes, scolding him loudly as she broke down: “You’re a beast! A beast! I am your Imperial Concubine Mother and you actually bit off my fingers, I really wasted all those years raising you! Why don’t you die? Why don’t you die?”
Imperial Concubine’s hysteria invited everyone’s mockery. The mother and son pair who used to be so ambitious have turned on each other, this was a really good show! However, when the people were worried about this show, they were also speculating about the Emperor who was still sleeping in the side hall, someone said softly: “I heard that the Emperor’s mind cleared just now, but what do all of you think, would he become muddled again after sleeping for a while? It was not as if it had never happened before. What if he changes back once he wakes up, then aren’t we just adding insult to the injury? Knowing the personalities of Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui and the Eighth Prince, will they take revenge on us?”
Someone shook their head, saying: “It won’t happen. Backpedalling the last time after sleeping one night, that was because he did not have Yao Xian and Princess Yu at his side. Right now, those two have entered the palace, and with two those treating him personally, how would he have the chance to become muddle-headed again? Don’t worry! Just by seeing the Ninth Prince’s confident attitude, this matter must be related to Imperial Concubine Yuan Gui in some way.”
The people were still speculating. Finally, Zhang Yuan returned from where Feng Yuheng was, holding another bottle of medicine in his hands. He stopped in front of the Eighth Prince, holding back a smile and saying: “This Servant has kept His Highness the Eighth Prince waiting, Princess Yu said, because she needed to examine the Emperor’s illness and was too busy, the box of ointment just now was given by mistake, that was not for relieving itching, but causes itching, this one is the real cure.”
“Fuck.” Xuan Tianmo hated that he could not run into the side hall and bite Feng Yuheng to death, gave the wrong medicine? She ended it so easily with just one sentence? How much did he suffer? He stared at Zhang Yuan intently, gritting his teeth in hatred.
But Zhang Yuan looked at him in confusion, asking: “Your Highness the Eighth Prince is not taking the medicine and using it quickly, but is looking at This Servant, why is that? Do you not want it? If you don’t want it, This Servant will bring it back to Princess Yu. Princess Yu said, this medicine is expensive!”
“I want it!” Xuan Tianmo crawled forward and snatched the medicine in Zhang Yuan’s hands, then without any hesitation, he reached into his pants in front of everyone and the result was that everyone covered their mouths and laughed secretly at him.
The good thing was that the medicine this time was very effective, just a short while after application, his itchiness eased and a short while after that, it actually disappeared completely. Xuan Tianmo tried to move and the itch was no longer present, but he could feel an acute pain, that was because he was only focused on scratching in the past and ruined the flesh of his lower body due to all the scratching.
But after itching for so long, this degree of pain was still bearable to him. Right now, he was more willing to die from pain than die of itchiness. Therefore, he quickly got up from the ground and the pain he had not felt for a long time made him feel good and comfortable. He exhaled deeply twice and thought that this 1000 silver taels per box of medicine was not spent in vain. It was really effective after all and he did not have to suffer any longer and get laughed at by others. He started to calculate, when he returned, even if he had to spend all of Sheng Palace’s fortune, he had to buy all of Feng Yuheng’s medical ointment to prepare for when he needed it.
Xuan Tianmo asked Zhang Yuan: “You sent someone to get the silver, when will the ointment be sent to This Prince?”
Zhang Yuan said: “Your Highness, don’t fret, Princess Yu said, when His Majesty recovers, she can leave the palace and will naturally send the ointment to Sheng Palace.” After saying this, he did not say anymore and silently backed up, entering the side hall again. The old Emperor were still lying there, and although Feng Yuheng and Yao Xian were there, he still wanted to keep watch personally, hoping that the old Emperor would be able to see him after waking up and speak with him.
Once Xuan Tianmo heard that he can only get those medicines after leaving the palace, he became a little anxious. After all, this would only last two hours, if the matters in the imperial harem were not settled after 2 hours, wasn’t he going to itch again? Therefore he quickly said to the Empress: “Whatever Your Highness the Empress wants to ask, please do it as fast as possible, wasn’t it said that Imperial Concubine Li harmed the Emperor with Gu? Since she is here, why aren’t you interrogating her yet?”
The Empress glanced at him, her expression turning cold, warning him: “ Eighth Prince will speak to This One this way? This One might not be your birth mother, but as an Empress, I am your legal mother. I can overlook the fact of you not addressing me as Empress Mother, but right now you are questioning This One and even giving orders?”
Xuan Tianmo was really angry, pointing at the Empress and saying loudly: “You’re only a decoration, letting you sit there is because Da Shun needs an Empress to show to others, do not think that you really have actual authority.”
“Is that so?” The Empress glanced at him and nodded suddenly, saying: “That’s right, in the end, This One’s authority is not as much as Eighth Prince, at least the commanding authority of the palace guards are still in your hands now. If you have any intentions, this imperial palace will fall as you see fit!” After saying this, she stared at the Eighth Prince deeply, then looked towards the Sixth Prince Xuan Tianfeng, speaking once more: “This One remembers that 30,000 Northeast soldiers were handed over to Eighth Prince, but he is only a temporary guardian and has not formally accepted the military rights, that military tally is still in Sixth Prince’s hands, is that so?”
Xuan Tianfeng took one step forward, bowing respectfully, saying: “Empress Mother is correct, the military tally to command the 30,000 Northeast army is in This Son’s hands.” As he spoke, he pulled out that military tally from within his clothes, then said: “This Son will deploy the whole Northeast army to protect Zhao He Hall, Empress Mother does not need to worry.”
Xuan Tianfeng showed the military tally and this angered Xuan Tianmo so much that he wanted to throw up blood. He was so close to getting that military tally, if he did not suddenly take ill on the night of the imperial banquet, the Emperor would definitely want to give the military tally to him. Unfortunately, with his illness, he was preoccupied in searching for doctors and medicines these few months and forgot about this matter. As a result, he was thwarted by this elderly madam the Empress and Old Sixth, it was too late to regret this.
There were many people belonging to the Northeast army in the imperial palace. Those were transferred into the palace by Xuan Tianmo in order to maintain his own faction in the palace. He did not expect that these people would be taken back one day and suffered a loss today. When he saw Xuan Tianfeng lead the group of Northeast army troops to surround Zhao He Hall, he had a feeling that his fortune had run out.
