Chapter 647: Repercussions of the Assassination

The ninth prince didn't panic; panic wouldn't help save him. Only a fool would dare to assassinate a prince within the palace, so whoever this stranger was, he might only be here to give the ninth prince a warning, or perhaps to kidnap him, but regardless, the ninth prince didn't think he would be in life-threatening danger.

As long as he were alive, he had a chance to break free.

When the ninth prince turned around to see the man behind him, however, he instantly relaxed. "Master!"

Zhang Lie calmly sipped his tea.

As though he had just thought of something, the ninth prince suddenly cried out, "Why are you here, Master?"

Zhang Lie rolled his eyes at him. "What, am I not welcome?"

The ninth prince shook his head. "Of course you are, but this is the palace!"

"So what? It's not a problem for me to enter the palace at will. The only place that poses even a little challenge to me here is your father's chambers—the rest of it might as well be my backyard. I even toured the palace before stopping here."

The ninth prince praised, "As expected, Master! Where else did you go?"

The moment he saw Zhang Lie, his face suddenly brightened and his eyes lit up. He rushed to sit by the table, looking more like a little rascal than a dignified prince.

"I had a look at your father's concubines, and, well, he has rather... interesting... interests."

The ninth prince smiled awkwardly; he didn't know how to continue this thread of conversation, or even if he should.

"Then, I went to your third prince's quarters and added a bit of pepper and the like to his underwear. While I was there, I heard about something interesting."

"What?"

Zhang Lie stretched out two fingers. "I learned two things on my tour. First, that your father's doing much better than he appears. At the very least, he's not at the point where he'll die within the next two or three years. I was almost discovered while skulking around."

The king of the realm wasn't stronger than Zhang Lie, but the fact that he was supported by the will of the world meant that Zhang Lie had to deceive that higher-order entity if he wanted to travel the palace freely.

If not for the king of the realm's old age preventing him from accessing all that authority, his aura would be able to encompass the entire palace. That would have allowed him to detect even a foreign mosquito's presence.

In fact, he would even have been able to expand his aura to the capital at large.

Zhang Lie stretched out another finger. "Second, the third prince isn't the one who wants to kill you."

That revelation shocked the ninth prince more than his father's feigned ill health.

Zhang Lie recalled what he had seen: the third prince, his face sullen, was returning to his quarters. The Wang clan head followed quickly behind him. The third prince beckoned him to a meeting room. "Wang clan head, are you dissatisfied with me?"

The Wang clan head bowed. "Of course not, third prince."

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The third prince grabbed the Wang clan head by the collar. "In that case, do you hope for my death?!"

The Wang clan head glanced at the third prince calmly. "Why do you say so, third prince?"

The third prince countered, "Why did you send the Wang bladewielder to kill the ninth prince, that useless piece of trash?"

The Wang clan head replied smoothly, "As I explained in court, Wang Jian wasn't the one who tried to assassinate the ninth prince."

"Let's hope so, then." The third prince let go of the Wang clan head and returned to his seat. "You should know that the Wang clan isn't the only important clan in the capital; I think the Feng and Qian clans would be happy to work with me as well. After all, putting all your eggs in one basket isn't necessarily a good idea."

This was little more than an idle threat, however. The third prince could indeed work with the Feng and Qian clans, but it wasn't an opportune time to break off ties with the Wang clan. A partnership required mutual trust, and the third prince knew the Wang clan the best of the three major clans.

The third prince asked, "What do you think?"

"What do you mean, third prince?"

The third prince was so angered that he almost jumped out of his seat again. "Don't try to fool me—how do you intend to clean up after your mess?"

The Wang clan head smiled again. "Third prince, what mess is there to clean up? I haven't done anything."

"I know what you've done—as does my father, the ninth prince, the crown prince, and the entire court. The reason my father didn't punish the Wang clan right then and there is because the Wang clan's blades are still useful to him.

"It's only for that reason that my eldest brother wasn't able to do anything to you on the spot, but given his personality, he won't give up on this opportunity to weaken your standing in court. I'll be caught in the aftermath, too. You know how important Father's will is. If the crown prince comes up with enough evidence, you and I will both suffer."

The Wang clan head changed the topic. "Third prince, I think the most important thing we should focus on is the upcoming hunt, not anything else. Even if the crown prince were to make trouble for us, it would be after the hunt. By that time, don't you think we would have the opportunity to come up with evidence of our own?"

The third prince nodded. "You've thought about this, then?"

The Wang clan head smiled. "The king has made his stance clear. Regardless of how much evidence the crown prince comes up with, as long as we deny the charges, who can stand against us?"

"Be that as it may, things are coming to a head. I feel as if something's about to happen—no, that it's in the process of happening."

The Wang clan head bowed. "You're overthinking things, third prince."

"Why did you suddenly strike at the ninth prince?"

"I think he's a bit dangerous."

"Hoh? How can a piece of trash without any backing be dangerous?" The third prince simply had no idea how the Wang clan head viewed him as a threat.

"Isn't it dangerous enough that he was willing to oppose us so publicly during his first appearance at court?" The Wang clan head's eyes sharpened, as though they were blades that had been unsheathed. "I keep thinking that this ninth prince will become a thorn in our sides in the future. Even now, he's in the middle of forging an alliance with the crown prince. Nipping this problem in the bud is the best way to proceed."

The third prince rejected the Wang clan head's idea immediately. "We'll have to pay too high a cost to do so. I disagree."

"If there's nothing else, may I depart, third prince?"

The third prince narrowed his eyes. "I hope you recognize just whom you're working with. Go—prepare for the next hunt. This year, I have to beat the crown prince."

"Yes, third prince!" The Wang clan head walked out of the third prince's quarters and was just about to leave the palace when he saw a man standing before him.

The man's hair was slathered with oil. He was rotund and porcine, and he seemed as round as a meatball. The fat on his face narrowed his eyes into slits. The Wang clan head immediately recognized this man as the fifth prince. His behavior, however, wasn't princely at all. He looked far more like a merchant instead.

"Ah, clan head Wang! I've finally found you." The fifth prince waved at the Wang clan head from afar.

The Wang clan head bowed toward the prince, then marched quickly away as though he hadn't seen a thing.

Many people knew that the Wangs and Fengs didn't like the Qian clan, and that intrinsic dislike extended to the fifth prince whom the Qian clan supported. Even before the battle for succession, the Wangs and Fengs were united in their distaste of merchant clans like the Qians.

The fifth prince called out, "Ah, clan head Wang, wait up! Don't ignore me!"

The Wang clan head continued on his way without turning back. "Fifth prince, please, be mindful of your actions. Who can say whether or not we're being watched here in the palace?"

The fifth prince plastered a smile on his face. "What could you mean, clan head Wang? Surely no one will report on idle gossip."

"Our alliance isn't public knowledge. Be more prudent!"

The fifth prince smiled again. His narrow, slit-like eyes glinted coldly. "Don't worry. I've bribed the nearby ?palace maids and guards. No one will overhear our conversation."

The Wang clan head shook his head again. "Better to be careful."

"I'm simply too anxious to speak to you. You did very well, clan head Wang—except for the fact that the ninth price didn't perish. You didn't let him go intentionally, did you? Or does he really have someone in his employ strong enough to take down the Wang bladewielder?"

The Wang clan head sighed. "I was very shocked to hear the news. My plans all went haywire—I was planning to lay the blame on the third prince, and now..."

The fifth prince replied, "Well, we'll try again. The hunt will be an excellent opportunity."

"Indeed—I don't intend to spare the man who killed the Wang bladewielder, either."

The Wang clan head narrowed his eyes as sword energy flared up around him. Someone who ruined his plans so completely had to suffer for what they had done.

If this plan had been a success, the fifth prince would have been able to take out the third—but the assassination attempt had failed thanks to the appearance of the ninth prince's mysterious master.

Thankfully, the third prince still needed the Wang clan's aid. If the third prince had pushed aside the Wang clan in a fit of rage, the Wang clan could have suffered terribly for this mistake. Only with the third prince dead would the Wang clan be safe from retribution.

However, this incident had forced the Wang clan and the fifth prince's hand. Regardless of the success of the assassination attempt, the Wang clan and the fifth prince were tied together.

If the Wang clan were to break the alliance off, the fifth prince could bring up the Wang clan's attempted assassination; similarly, if the fifth prince were to do so, the Wang clan could do the same.

The fifth prince continued, "I've been trying out the famous sword cultivation techniques of the Wang clan, but they don't seem to be anything impressive."

The Wang clan head smiled. "You've chosen the path of wealth. It's easy to accumulate wealth, but converting that into power is a slow process. Rather than quality, it cares more about quantity—simply surround your sword with whatever treasures you're willing to spare."

The more the fifth prince sacrificed to the sword, the stronger he would become.

The Wang clan head continued earnestly, "As long as you're wealthy, you can accumulate a whole sea of sword energy and defeat your opponents by exhausting their reserves!"