Jie teaches the Immortal Sweeping Heaven’s Cultivation of All Heavens

Becoming the crown prince does not guarantee ultimate victory.

There have been quite a few deposed crown princes in history.

Zhao Wentian's biological father was the deposed crown prince who committed suicide.

Knowing this, Cheng Yixue always reminded her eldest son not to be too opinionated and to put the emperor first.

Cheng Yixue understood Zhao Wentian very well. With her guiding her two sons, although Zhao Wentian was somewhat wary of the Crown Prince, it was still within the acceptable range for everyone.

However, as the crown prince, he became a target for the other princes.

The crown prince was being targeted by his brothers in various ways, and he was exhausted from dealing with them.

Zhao Wentian was in his prime, and every three years a woman would enter the palace, and some of them would become pregnant.

After that, princes will be born.

When those princes grow up, they will all become the Crown Prince's enemies.

Cheng Yixue felt very sorry for her son, and she was already fed up with so many women in the harem.

Cheng Yixue's mindset has changed. She no longer has the love she had for Zhao Wentian when she was young; now, all she feels is weariness.

For her son's sake, Cheng Yixue took action against Zhao Wentian.

Zhao Wentian was very satisfied with Empress Cheng Yixue, after all, she was the woman he had loved in his youth, and Cheng Yixue was a qualified empress.

Therefore, Zhao Wentian trusted Cheng Yixue more than any other woman in the harem.

Cheng Yixue took advantage of this trust to poison Zhao Wentian and then pointed the evidence at Zhao Wentian's most favored concubine, Zhenfei.

Consort Zhen was very beautiful and talented. Her poems and lyrics are classics that have been passed down through the ages. For example, the poem "Qinyuanchun: Snow" that she wrote when she first met Zhao Wentian.

"...All that is past; to find truly remarkable figures, look to the present."

This greatly pleased Zhao Wentian.

Upon hearing this poem, Liu Tong learned about Consort Zhen's background and instructed Liu Heng and Qi Mingcheng not to have too much contact with her.

As soon as Consort Zhen entered the palace, she was made a concubine, and the emperor spent half of each month with her.

If Consort Zhen gives birth to a child, Cheng Yixue fears that the child will become the Crown Prince and the Eighth Prince's biggest rival.

Cheng Yixue cannot allow this situation to occur.

She decided to address the root cause ahead of time.

Cheng Yixue rarely made a move against the women in the harem. Unless those people overestimated themselves and attacked her and her son first, she would not cause trouble for the other women in the harem.

Therefore, Empress Cheng Yixue was actually quite respected by the women in the harem.

To solve the root cause, the solution lies in dealing with the man all women share: Emperor Zhao Wentian!

But Consort Zhen, relying on Zhao Wentian's favor, did not take Empress Cheng Yixue seriously and repeatedly provoked her.

Cheng Yixue then included him among the enemies she was dealing with.

Not long after, the emperor died in the bed of his favorite concubine, Consort Zhen.

The empress took control of the palace, and the crown prince ascended the throne with the support of the ministers.

The other concubines and princes, though unwilling, accepted the reality.

They vented their anger on Consort Zhen, that vixen, and unanimously demanded that Cheng Yixue execute her.

Cheng Yixue gave Consort Zhen a cup of poisoned wine.

Consort Zhen didn't want to drink it. She had only been in this world for a few years, and she didn't want to die!
As a time traveler, isn't she the protagonist of the world?

Shouldn't she win the power struggles in the harem, defeat the imperial concubine and the empress, and become the empress and the empress dowager?
Why did the emperor die?
Consort Zhen was bewildered.

Perhaps she really did have some kind of protagonist's halo; after being forced to drink the poisoned wine, Consort Zhen did not die, but only faked her death.

After she was taken out of the palace, one of her former suitors came to collect her body and discovered that she was still alive. The man quickly took Consort Zhen back to his home and asked a doctor to do everything possible to save her.

The man spared no expense in using precious medicinal herbs and finally saved Consort Zhen's life.

Out of gratitude, Consort Zhen married that man.

Later, she gave birth to a son and two daughters for that man, and lived a simple and ordinary life.

Liu Tong and Liu Heng knew about Cheng Yixue's attack on Zhao Wentian, as did Xu Ruofeng, but Qi Mingcheng, who still retained some naivety, was unaware of it.

Xu Ruofeng was Zhao Wentian's earliest subordinate, and their relationship was better than that with Liu Heng and Qi Mingcheng.

But the change in their status and the passage of time have long since erased their brotherhood.

Xu Ruofeng realized that Zhao Wentian was merely an emperor.

Or perhaps it was an emperor who was wary of him.

After all, Xu Ruofeng held military power and had made great achievements on the border, so his merits were somewhat overshadowing his superiors.

Xu Ruofeng's wife is the Empress's sister, so he is naturally on the same side as the Empress and the Crown Prince.

Therefore, he remained silent about Cheng Yixue's actions.

After the crown prince ascended the throne, Xu Ruofeng relinquished his military power and withdrew from the court.

He was going to find his old friends.

Just as the struggle for the throne was beginning to take shape, Qi Mingcheng and Liu Heng submitted their resignations and left the capital.

Bai has passed away, and her dowry estate has been left to Liu Dong.

Liu Dong bought the entire mountain where the manor was located and built it into a manor.

He would rest at the mountain villa every time he returned from his travels.

The environment there is really nice.

After handing over the Duke's mansion to her son, Liu Heng went to the mountain villa to recuperate.

Like Qi Mingcheng, Liu Heng married women chosen by his mother, with whom he had little affection. Liu Heng's wife actually had feelings for another man, her cousin. After giving birth to their son, she no longer slept with Liu Heng. Liu Heng raised their son himself. The child and Liu Heng's wife were not close. Liu Heng's wife was deeply unhappy and passed away when her child was ten years old.

Qi Mingcheng was Liu Heng's apprentice, and since his master had passed away, of course he had to go with her.

The two of them cultivated in the mountain villa, and the results were much better than in the city.

Liu Dong set up a spirit-gathering array in the manor, and the two of them absorbed spiritual energy and converted it into internal force, making the quality of their internal force outstanding.

The deeper their internal energy, the better the nourishing effect of the cultivation technique on their bodies.

Wu Yazi and Li Qiushui are over ninety years old, but they look no more than twenty or thirty. Qi Mingcheng and Liu Heng are only in their forties, and they will only look younger.

However, they don't show it in public.

When they go out, they always try to cover their faces.

The main reason was that they didn't want the emperor to find out.

Who knows if the emperor might be after immortality and capture them to make elixirs?

After the two had mastered their internal strength, Liu Dong simply taught them techniques for cultivating their souls.

If their souls become stronger through cultivation, the effects of the Meng Po soup on them will gradually diminish in future reincarnations. It's possible that they will be able to reincarnate with their memories intact.

When the soul becomes powerful enough, it can ascend to immortality in the form of a divine soul.

You said it's only right for Liu Dong to take care of Liu Heng, after all, he came here for Liu Heng's sake.

Why are you taking such good care of Qi Mingcheng?

Because after regaining her memories, Liu Dong discovered that Qi Mingcheng was actually the reincarnation of Liu Heng's confidant from her previous life! (End of Chapter)