After being dressed as Wu Zetian's daughter, she was favored by the group

Chapter 196 The Princess’ Uncle

Chang'an City, Xue Mansion.

In the study, Xue Shao was wearing a green robe and holding a sleeve stove in his hand. He was sitting in front of the window, having tea and playing chess with a chubby old man.

The old man was fatter than before. His eyes were obviously open, but the fat on his face was squeezed together, so that only a gap could be seen.

If Liu Yaoji, Prince Yu and others are here, they must be very familiar with this old man. He is none other than Old Man An, who has not been seen for many days.

As for why he appeared in Chang'an and why he knew Xue Shao, no one knew.

The two of them played Go in silence. After half a stick of incense, Xue Shao, who had always had a hard time meeting an opponent, abandoned his piece and surrendered. He cupped his hands towards Old Man An and said:
"Sir's chess skills are so good that I am convinced by him."

Old Man An laughed, and while packing up the chess pieces, he said to Xue Shao:

"Young Master is joking. When it comes to Go skills, I am not as good as you. Just now, Young Master is holding the white piece, and his tactics are step by step, both offensive and defensive. After ten moves, I will definitely give up and surrender. However, Young Master only focuses on the offensive in front of him, and cannot tolerate anything that stands in front of him. He knew he couldn’t be killed, but he still had to kill him!”

Xue Shao smiled slightly, neither denying nor agreeing. He stroked the sleeve furnace with his slender fingers, waiting for Old Man An to continue.

"And I can win by chance, just because I can get a glimpse of the golden mean from the overall situation. The middle is the foundation of the world; the harmonious is the great road of the world. To achieve neutrality, where is the position of heaven and how is the development of all things! I use sunspots to make it. Use bait to lure Young Master Bai Zi into the game, and then you can win in danger!"

After Old Man An finished speaking, Xue Shao was noncommittal. The two seemed to be discussing the chess game, but in fact they were discussing matters.

"Sir, are you here to stop this junior?" Xue Shao asked straight to the point.

"Yes and no!"

Old Man An chuckled and explained: "Even if I persuade you to stop now, the East Palace side may not be willing to give up. Empress Wu's side seems to be retreating steadily, but in fact it is retreating in order to advance. It is not yet known who will win. I advise you, young master, to understand Be prepared for a rainy day and make plans early!”

With a simple sentence, Xue Shao immediately sensed the crisis. He put down his sleeve stove and gave Old Man An a deep fist:

"Senior, please give me some advice!"

Old Man An nodded with satisfaction and subconsciously wanted to stroke his beard, only to realize that his chin was bald and he had no beard for a long time.

"Don't take it seriously. I'm just passing on a message. As the saying goes, 'When the moon is full, it will be full, and when the water is full, it will overflow.' Since the goal has been achieved, you should stop when you are ready. Even if you can't stop, you should stop fighting and fight another day. , if we blindly kill them all, it will only be counterproductive. "

Xue Shao smiled coldly when he heard this and said rather disdainfully:
"Sir, what you said is wrong. Now that the prince is in charge of the government, he is supported by all the ministers in the court, and his majesty is also backing him. If we don't kill them all now, when will we wait?"

Old Man An shook his head, pointed at the chessboard in front of him, and said in a deep voice:

"The situation in the world is like this chess game. Only with the presence of black and white chess pieces can we form the way of attack and defense. Since ancient times, the art of emperors has been the golden mean with both yin and yang. In the eyes of the emperor today, he will never let the white piece stay alone on the chessboard. , I won’t watch helplessly as the imperial court is dominated by only the East Palace. If you don’t stop, the advantage established in the early stage will be lost, and in the end, the imperial court will become a bloody storm again.”

Xue Shao fell into silence after hearing this. To be honest, he would not be willing to give up on the power of Empress Wu. Putting aside his political stance, it would be difficult for him to do so based on his personal hatred for Empress Wu, so he refuted it. road:
"Sir, what you said is true, but now that the Queen has taken the power and killed many good ministers and ministers, what's wrong with us waiting to fight back? Besides, this is also to maintain the stability of the Tang Dynasty. Can't Your Majesty be considerate?"

"Confused!"

Old Man An glared and yelled: "Don't you understand now? Do you really think that the harem can have such great power was established by the Queen deliberately? The supporter behind this is none other than our Majesty!"

One sentence left the always wise Xue Shao speechless. He didn't understand that Li Zhi was standing behind Empress Wu, but he just didn't want to admit it. Now that Old Man An was put on the table, he really couldn't find a reason to refute.

When Old Man An saw Xue Shao fell into silence again, he turned to look out the window. Outside the study was a unique garden. All other flowers were withered, except for a few winter plum trees in the corner, which were green and green, with many flower bones exposed on the branches. Ready to bloom at any time, Lao Antou couldn't help but let out a long sigh!

"Alas! Ruixue is coming. I hope you can live through the New Year. As for this, you can make your own decision!" After that, he stood up, took off the cloak hanging on it from the hanger, and prepared to leave.

When he walked to the door, Old Man An remembered something, turned around and said to Xue Shao:
"By the way, I have one more thing to remind you!"

Xue Shao cupped his hands and said, "Sir, please speak!"

"It's not a big deal, but I just need to remind you, don't be blinded by hatred. You can't afford to offend the princess, and you can't offend her. If you touch Empress Wu's evil side, your majesty won't be able to protect you, and it won't harm your family." According to Tianmou’s rules, even if it’s not for Tianmou’s sake, please give me some noodles. After all, according to seniority, I was once the princess’s uncle!”

After saying that, Old Man An opened the door and walked out, leaving Xue Shao alone in the room in a daze.

After a long time, there was only a "bang" sound, and a turtle-shaped sleeve stove was hit to the ground hard.

……

On the other side, on the official road leading to Chang'an City, a hundred Taoists in white escorted a carriage back to Luoyang.

There were two female Taoist priests sitting in the carriage. The older one was wearing a Taoist robe and was meditating with her eyes closed, while the younger one was holding a leaf fan and gently fanning the fire to keep warm and make tea.

These two people are naturally Yu Zhenzi and Lingyun of Tiandao Sect.

Yu Zhenzi's trip to the Eastern Capital was extremely depressing. He originally brought a group of disciples back to Luoyang to raise an army to question the crime. Unexpectedly, when he arrived in Luoyang, the Taoist temple was occupied by Li Lingyue. Afterwards, he went to a banquet in Prince Yu's palace and was almost considered to have murdered Yu. Wang's murderer, his men searched everywhere for half a month, but they couldn't even find the murderer's shadow. In the end, they had no choice but to admit defeat by eating Coptis chinensis.

Yu Zhenzi's dojo was not in Luoyang Taiping Temple. When he went to Luoyang, he just wanted to tame the princess Li Lingyue as the master of the Tiandao Sect, and he became the master of the royal heir. Now he has failed in his success, and he is asking for trouble if he stays.

Lingyun already knew that there was no hope of revenge, so he followed Yuzhenzi back to Xuandu Temple in Chang'an, preparing to spend the rest of his life praying for the salvation of the souls of the Wei family with the green lantern as his companion.

The team suddenly stopped after traveling for more than 20 miles. A young Taoist priest stood beside the carriage and reported through the window:

"Master, there are a large number of officers and soldiers occupying the official road ahead, obstructing our progress!"

Yu Zhenzi in the carriage frowned and snorted coldly: "Have you found out who the other party is?"

The disciple replied awkwardly: "This... I haven't asked yet. Master, wait a moment. I will ask now!"

After that, just as he was about to leave, Yu Zhenzi called him and said bluntly: "No need to ask, you just go and tell the other party that the Heavenly Master, the head seal of the Tiandao Sect is here, and ask them to get out of the way quickly!"

"Disciple obey!"

After a while, the disciple left and returned, followed by a man in rich clothes.

The two of them came to the carriage one after another, and the disciple was the first to report:

"Master, in front of you is the guard of honor of His Royal Highness. His Royal Highness wants to pay you a visit!"

The curtain of the car was opened, and Yu Zhenzi looked out and saw that the person coming was none other than His Highness Li Xian.

Li Xian seemed to finally recognize Yu Zhenzi. When he saw his true appearance, he quickly stepped forward and gave a Taoist salute to Yu Zhenzi with a smile!

"Little Wang Li Xian, I have seen the Palm Seal Heavenly Master!"