I have Taoism and can understand other worlds

Chapter 565 The Secret of the Li Family
"Your Highness seems to have a poor memory, having forgotten even this humble Taoist priest." Jiang Wen appeared, standing calmly before the Prince of Pingnan. He bowed respectfully, his manner unrestrained. "Your Highness once sent men to vandalize this humble Taoist temple; have you forgotten that as well?"

"Your Taoist temple?" Marquis Pingnan stared sharply at Jiang Wen.

His hands, bony and angular, were bound by black iron shackles, their nails etched with dried blood and rust, yet still curved like eagle claws. His ochre prison clothes had long since faded to gray, but the remaining gold thread and dragon scale patterns on the collar rose and fell with his breath, like a lurking dragon. His sideburns were disheveled like winter grass, which only accentuated the sharpness of his brow bone—the broken eyebrow scar that had once made thousands of troops bow their heads now appeared as menacing as a snow-capped mountain valley in the cold light filtering through the palace.

His posture, seated cross-legged on the couch, still resembled that of a king, his spine straighter than the pillars of a palace. His eye sockets were deep-set like ancient wells, yet his pupils held two cold stars, like embers of a beacon flickering in a pile of ashes.

Although the Prince of Pingnan was not a burly man, Jiang Wen felt the demeanor befitting a king.

Their eyes met, and after a moment of silence, the Prince of Pingnan suddenly laughed and said, "So it was you."

“Your Highness should remember by now.” Jiang Wen walked to the bedside and sat down to play chess with the Prince of Pingnan.

He pointed at the chain from a distance, and the chain snapped off. The Prince of Pingnan wasn't surprised; he simply rubbed his wrist and nodded to Jiang Wen.

“I do remember now,” said the Prince of Pingnan. “I should have captured that girl Yunshang, but who knew that all the Life Fire cultivators I sent would be wiped out. I heard they were killed in a small temple, their bodies torn to pieces.”

“That’s right, it was I who did it,” Jiang Wen said nonchalantly. “If the men sent by the Prince hadn’t fought to the death that day, I wouldn’t have taken their lives.”

"Haha, that's true. It's all about survival." Prince Pingnan laughed loudly. "But while you survive, I am going to die."

"Does Your Highness mean that I ruined Your Highness's plans, leading to Your Highness's arrest?" Jiang Wen said with a half-smile. "If that's the case, Your Highness has truly wronged me."

“I had no such intention,” the Prince of Pingnan shook his head. “It’s just a matter of victory and defeat. I lost, and of course I will admit my guilt. It’s just that I can’t help but sigh every time I think about it.”

"If I hadn't intervened that day, would Your Highness's request have come true?" Jiang Wen asked.

“If I had been able to capture that girl Yunshang back then, I wouldn’t be in this predicament now.” Prince Pingnan stretched his limbs and faced Jiang Wen frankly. He took out a chess piece from under the chessboard, indicating that Jiang Wen should make the first move. “Since you saved Yunshang, you should know my plan.”

"Your Highness, are you referring to the twenty-four seals?" Jiang Wen asked, seemingly having a sudden realization.

“Indeed,” the Prince of Pingnan replied. “That girl Yunshang stole the twenty-four seals I made and presented them to my third brother, which is why I was stripped of my military power and ended up here. If my good third brother hadn’t found out about the twenty-four seals, I could have used them to fight against fate. At that time, I would have commanded a large army in the south, and the entire Great Qian Empire would have been mine.”

Having said that, he sighed deeply. He placed the chess piece down and said helplessly, "It's a pity that all my efforts were in vain, and I was ultimately defeated by you. This is my fate, and I accept it."

The words of the Prince of Pingnan reached Jiang Wen's ears, which made him quite emotional.

I never imagined that saving Li Yunshang so casually back then would have such an impact now.

Today, he is going to save her again, but here he is chatting with the Prince of Pingnan.

"Can these twenty-four seals contend with the Mandate of Heaven?" Jiang Wen was quite interested in the twenty-four seals.

Li Yunshang once said that the twenty-four seals represent the twenty-four states of the Great Qian Dynasty, and each seal can command a state.

However, those twenty-four seals were lost during the War of the Eight Princes, and their whereabouts remain unknown to this day. Jiang Wen wanted to learn about these matters from the Prince of Pingnan.

Just as I was about to hear him speak, I heard Mako's voice in my ear.

"Twenty-four seals? I know about that."

"Does the sect leader know about the Twenty-Four Seals?" Jiang Wen asked, somewhat surprised.

"Hmph, I am a direct descendant of the Li family. How could I not know about the Twenty-Four Seals? Besides, I was the one who held those Twenty-Four Seals back then," Zhenyangzi said proudly.

"Wait, Sect Leader!" Jiang Wen, as if he had overheard a major secret, hurriedly asked Zhen Yangzi. "Does the Sect Leader mean that he personally obtained those twenty-four seals?"

“Of course,” Zhenyangzi replied. “Without the Twenty-Four Seals, how could I have seized that bird's throne, how could I have defied the Mandate of Heaven?”

"Does the sect leader know about the War of the Eight Princes?"

"What War of the Eight Princes? It was nothing more than my seven brothers trying to take advantage of the situation. But thanks to them, I was able to seize the Mandate of Heaven." Zhenyangzi said with great pride, recounting his glorious past achievements one by one.

Jiang Wen listened to Zhen Yangzi's rambling while also listening to the Prince of Pingnan recount past events.

"The Twenty-Four Seals are treasures left behind by the Great Ancestor," said the Prince of Pingnan in a gentle voice. "The Great Ancestor felt that the Mandate of Heaven was unpredictable and not something that would last long. So he, together with the various sects of immortals, invited twenty-four sages to forge twenty-four seals using the divine weapons of the former Tai Cang Dynasty. Each seal represents a province. Even a mortal with no cultivation can use a seal to command the wind and rain, and bestow divine titles and subdue ghosts within that province. Even a True Person from an immortal sect or palace would find it difficult to fight against the seal holder within a single province."

"Possessing the twenty-four seals would allow one to control the entire Great Qian Dynasty. It would be enough to contend with the Mandate of Heaven and to contend with the ways of the world. It is a pity that the twenty-four seals were lost during the War of the Eight Princes. I can only make other plans and use the fake seals as tools to regain control of the twenty-four seals."

"These twenty-four seals can possess such power?" Jiang Wen was intrigued by the twenty-four seals. To enable a mortal to fight against a Dao Palace True Person, this treasure was no ordinary item.

"Of course, I heard that a long time ago, a prefect took up the imperial seal and besieged a wicked immortal sect. There was a Dao Palace Realm cultivator in that sect who escaped but was imprisoned by the Twenty-Four Imperial Seals." Speaking of such past events, the Prince of Pingnan seemed quite nostalgic, and a hint of regret appeared between his brows, revealing his emotions.

“Your Highness is a member of the royal family. Even without these twenty-four seals, you could live a peaceful life. Why would you act so rashly?” Jiang Wen placed a piece on the board and asked the Prince of Pingnan in a pretense.

The Prince of Pingnan then placed a piece, and sneered, "Live a peaceful life? Do you think the Emperor will let me live a peaceful life? I know very well what kind of person my third brother is."

“He’s no longer the emperor; he’s just a puppet possessed by fate. He wants to devour us! He’ll devour his brothers and sisters!” the Prince of Pingnan hissed in a low voice. “If I don’t rebel, am I just supposed to wait to be eaten by him? He wants immortality, he wants to cultivate like the immortals. He wants to sit on that throne forever and enjoy an eternal reign. But fate cannot be defied; how can an emperor become an immortal? He’s already lived for several hundred years by eating his own crown prince. Now he’s dying, so he wants to eat even more.”

"Of my brothers, only the Prince of Zhongshan remains. The rest have been devoured by this madman. Tell me, should I rebel? Am I just supposed to wait to be eaten by him?!"

The Prince of Pingnan gritted his teeth and glared at Jiang Wen with bloodshot eyes.

"I do not want to rebel, but I have no choice but to."

(End of this chapter)