Chaotic Times and Disasters: I Hunt Down Martial Arts Masters and Become a God

Tuoba Gui paused in his chewing of the biscuit. He put down the biscuit, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

"I didn't experience that generation. When the first prince passed away, my great-great-grandfather wasn't even born yet, but the story passed down through generations of princes is always the same..."

"The old prince was poisoned by Emperor Gaozu. At that time, the Li Kingdom had just been defeated by the Jing Kingdom and offered a batch of treasures to seek peace, including the Gu formula for the Five Internal Organs Temple. Emperor Gaozu accepted the Gu formula and then used it on his own brother."

He slammed his teacup down on the table.

"The rumors circulating outside are that the Li Kingdom used Gu poison. That's utter nonsense. No matter how skilled the Gu masters of the Li Kingdom are, they couldn't possibly poison the old prince in the Feng family's army camp. There's only one person who could make the old prince drink poisoned wine without any suspicion in the camp."

"The ancestor of Lingyu Book." Fu Qing's voice was calm.

"Yes, the Feng family army guarded the border for over a thousand years, but in the end, the cruelest blow came from their own people."

Tuoba Gui grabbed the pancake and took another bite, chewing it with a crunching sound, as if he were chewing someone's bone.

Suwen, who had been sitting quietly beside Fu Mingxuan wiping her mouth, suddenly looked up, put down the handkerchief in her hand, and...

"I also stumbled upon this matter when I was going through old files in the Medicine Palace. The Medicine Palace has a batch of secret files that have been sealed for who knows how many years. They record the origin of the Five Organs Temple Gu Formula. It was indeed a tribute from the Li Kingdom, but the person who received the Gu Formula was not a Gu master from the Li Kingdom, but the royal pharmacist of the Jing Kingdom."

"The secret file also recorded that Emperor Gaozu personally administered the poison, and afterwards secretly executed the imperial apothecary."

She paused, lowered her eyes, and traced a line on the table with her finger.

"My master knew about this and never told me to tell anyone. She said it was a very important matter, and if word got out, the entire Medicine Palace would be implicated."

Fu Qing picked up the teacup and took a sip. The tea had gone cold and tasted slightly bitter.

He put down his teacup and nodded. "I understand."

Tuoba Gui put down the cake in his hand, looked into Fu Qing's eyes, and became serious.

"General, my visit to Jingjing this time is not just about recognizing relatives. The troops in the northern border... the Feng family army may have changed its banner, but its core remains the same..."

"We still have over 90,000 elite troops, all of whom are skilled warriors who have seen battle and bloodshed. They are not comparable to those pampered good-for-nothings from other places."

Fu Qing's eyes lit up. More than 90,000 elite troops—this was real military strength, not just the kind including logistics.

Tuoba Gui sighed.

"But there are also many unruly fellows in the North. Some of them run rampant in the local area by taking advantage of the name of the Feng family army. I can control some of them, but not all of them."

"In addition, the imperial court has been sending people to the northern border in recent years in an attempt to dismantle the Feng family's banner. I am about to collapse... This time I came to Jingjing to ask the general to return to the northern border to calm people's hearts. Only the descendants of the Feng family can carry the banner of the Feng family."

Fu Qing picked up the teacup, took a sip, and put the teacup down.

He recalled Ling Yushu's gentle and sincere smile in the Imperial Study, the blood of 60,000 soldiers in the Southern Frontier exchanged for a Heavenly Seal, and the fact that the entire Feng clan had been exterminated but had yet to be exonerated.

The enmity between the emperor and him was not a personal grudge, but a blood feud etched in their very blood.

The emperor would never believe him and would never allow the Feng family to rise again, so a conflict between him and the emperor was inevitable sooner or later.

If we could send my wife and children to the northern border, where they would be protected by the Tuoba clan and the 90,000 Feng family soldiers, it would be much safer than Jingjing.

Otherwise, if he falls out with the emperor in the future, it would be bad if his wife and children were implicated.

He made up his mind, looked up at Tuoba Gui, and said...

"I will resign from my post and go to the northern border under the pretext of paying respects to my ancestors. I will leave as soon as possible, taking my wife, children, and elderly parents with me across the border."

Tuoba Gui was stunned for a moment, then slammed his hand on the table, making the dishes and bowls rattle. Fu Mingxuan almost dropped the bun in her hand, and quickly held it up with both hands.

He threw his head back and laughed.

"Good! Good! I've been waiting for this day for countless years! General, rest assured, once we reach the Northern Border, it will be the Feng family's territory! No matter how far the Emperor's reach extends, it can't reach beyond the Fengxue Pass!"

Fu Qing turned to Song Yawei and Song Nini.

Song Yawei was serving food to Fu Mingdao when she noticed his gaze. She put down her chopsticks and gently took her son's hand.

"I've followed you for thousands of miles, what difference would it make if I travel another thousand miles?"

Song Nini was chewing on a piece of braised beef when she heard this, so she quickly swallowed it, picked up her soy milk, and took a swig.

"I'll go wherever my brother-in-law goes. Anyway, my daughter is all grown up now, so it's a good opportunity for her to see the snow and wind of the North. She's never seen snow before. I've heard that the snow in the North can bury people, so I'll bring a lot of cotton-padded coats."

Fu Mingxuan raised her greasy little hand,

"I want to build a snowman! I want to build one for Leo too!"

Fu Mingdao added earnestly from the side,

"I heard that the northern border is much colder than Jingjing."

The Leo, with a bone in his mouth, glanced up at Fu Qing at the doorway before continuing to gnaw on the bone.

"I am a homeless demon; wherever my lord goes, I will go."

Fu Qing turned to Suwen.

Suwen was wiping the oil off Fu Mingxuan's hands with her head down, her movements very light and slow, as if she was deliberately delaying the time.

He reached out and took her other hand, which was resting on the table. Her fingers were cold, but she didn't pull away.

"Come with me too, I won't treat you badly."

Suwen's face flushed red.

She lowered her head and remained silent for a long time, her fingers gently twitching in his palm.

"I... can go to the Northern Territory for a while. The Northern Territory has many local herbs, such as Dragon-Slaying Grass, Snow Green, and Ice Crystal Flower. These are herbs that are recorded in the Medicine Palace's books but few people have actually collected them. This is a good opportunity to explore them."

She gently pulled her hand away from Fu Qing's grasp, and used her teacup to shield her face.

"It's not for you."

Fu Qing smiled slightly, "Yes, for the medicinal herbs."

He didn't expose her, but simply pushed the teapot on the table towards her.

The Leo, holding a meat bone in his mouth, looked up from the doorway and rolled his eyes.

"Humans are so interesting; they clearly want to mate, but they always have to find a reason to justify it!"

Before he could finish speaking, Su Wen hit him on the forehead with a bone, and he shrank back to the doorway, feeling wronged, to continue gnawing on the bone.

...

The next day, Fu Qing presented his memorial to the emperor, while ambergris incense burned in the imperial study.

The fragrance rose gently from the gilded incense burner, swirling into white mist between the beams of the hall, bringing a sense of peace to the mind.

Ling Yushu sat behind the imperial desk, holding the memorial in his hand. He read it from beginning to end, then flipped back to read it a second time.

Fu Qing stood in the hall, his back straight, waiting for the emperor, who was over three hundred years old, to speak and ask him to stay. He had already prepared his words and thought about how to deal with those polite words such as "The court cannot do without Minister Fu" and "Jingguo still needs Minister Fu".

Ling Yushu put down the memorial, picked up a vermilion pen, and wrote two words on it: "Approved."

Then he looked up, a gentle smile on his face.

"Fu Qing is a pillar of the state. It is only natural for him to go to the northern border to pay respects to his ancestors. His position as General of Shengjing will be temporarily retained. He will be reinstated whenever he returns."

He beckoned to the eunuch standing beside him.

"Go, withdraw some silver from the Imperial Treasury as a settlement allowance for Minister Fu. Minister Fu has made many contributions during his time in Jingjing, and I cannot treat a meritorious official unfairly."

Fu Qing was slightly taken aback, accepted the approval document, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I thank you for your great favor."

"No need for such formalities."

Ling Yushu waved his hand, picked up his vermilion brush again, and lowered his head to review the next memorial, as casually as if he were chatting about everyday matters.

"The northern border is windy and snowy, Fu Qing, please be careful on your journey. When you arrive there, please offer incense to the ancestors of the Feng family on my behalf."