The Emperor Reigns Them All

Splendid Pavilion.

Liu Sanniang looked at the cyan-robed man who was standing in front of the window with his hands behind his back and who was staring at Chang'an City, absent-minded.

She hadn't looked at him like this for a long time.

When was the last time, a few years ago?

At that time, the gray-haired man in the front was the most powerful minister and the brightest star in the whole Tang Empire. Wherever he went, he was surrounded by others. Even when he stood quietly, he was radiant and commanding.

But the middle-aged man in the front no longer had the breathtaking spirit and aggressiveness. He stood in front of the window, but Liu Sanniang felt that he was far away in the sky. He was like a gust of wind without any breath and the cloud in the sky, calm and natural.

And his face... In the past, he had a face that would make a young girl's heart beat faster even at a glance, without any defect. But now, his face was so ordinary that no one would have the interest of looking at it the second time.

His face had changed, so had his temperament. He was totally different from before.

But Liu Sanniang didn't feel strange at all.

He had long been rooted in her soul, so no matter how he changed, he was still him in her eyes.

Liu Sanniang just didn't expect that she would see him and serve him again in her rest of life—it would have been impossible. How could the living ever see the dead again?

Liu Sanniang wiped her wet eyes. When the cyan-robed man turned around, she smiled as usual. "Your Highness, it's lunchtime. I'm going to prepare."

"Don't bother. Sit down." The cyan-robed man sat down in front of the table again. Suddenly, he frowned slightly and then he coughed. He took out his handkerchief to cover his mouth and eventually he stopped coughing. But when he put down his handkerchief, there was scarlet blood on it.

"Your Highness!" Liu Sanniang was frightened and hurriedly rushed over to support the cyan-robed man, her eyes full of horror and confusion.

She had known him for years and never seen him vomit blood. Before that incident, she had always thought that nothing in the world could hurt him.

"It doesn't matter." The cyan-robed man waved his hand and smiled calmly. "I had a few fights in Huangli County... When I injured Wei Jiangnan, I also planted a prohibition in his body. Maintaining the prohibition will consume a lot of my energy."

The cyan-robed man glanced at Liu Sanniang who looked pale. "And you don't have to call me Your Highness."

After all, Liu Sanniang wasn't a young girl, so she could control her emotions. She bit her lower lip and nodded, not asking much.

The cyan-robed man leaned on the back of the chair and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked a little better. "Sanniang, I'm afraid that I have to stay here for some time. Will I bother you?"

"Your Highness... Sir, of course not. It's my pleasure." Liu Sanniang didn't know whether to cry or laugh. It would be the happiest and the most anticipated thing for her to serve the man in front of her in her life.

He was the former most outstanding person in Tang Empire. In the past, it would be a gift and an exciting thing for others to meet him more than once. But now, he began to worry about bothering others.

"The world is changing, people's hearts are changing, and even I have changed. It's good that you haven't changed." The cyan-robed man smiled and closed his eyes gradually. "I feel tired, so I need a rest. I don't know if there will be any fierce battles waiting for me."

"Sir, you can rest with ease. I will accompany you all the time."

"All right."

...

Hanyuan Palace.

Li Cui threw all the memorials to the throne on the royal table.

His anger boiled over and he glared at Wei Baoheng who was kneeling in the palace. He gnashed his teeth and said, "My Prime Minister is actually the biggest corrupt official in the world, who has accepted more than a million taels of silver in bribes! You disgrace me! Do you still have me in your heart?!"

Wei Baoheng lay prone on the ground, trembling all over. He cried for his being slandered as he heard this.

Beside him, Wang Duo and Lu Yan glanced at each other and saw each other's smiles from each other's eyes. Wang Duo cupped his hands and said to Li Cui, "Your Majesty, Wei Baoheng's crime of corruption has irrefutable evidence. If you dispatch people to search his manor, illicit money will be found!"

Lu Yan followed to echo, "Both witness and evidence are present, so he cannot escape his crime. Hope Your Majesty will make a judicious judgment!"

Xu Shaomu also echoed hurriedly, "Hope Your Majesty will make a judicious judgment!"

Li Cui's face twisted and he was in a very bad mood. He was so angry that he wished he could swallow Wei Baoheng.

As an emperor, even if Li Cui was incompetent, he also knew that Wei Baoheng was guilty. In Li Cui's view, it wasn't a big deal. If someone worked for him, he would give him some advantages. What really made Li Cui angry was not Wei Baoheng's corruption, but that he embezzled too much money?

A million of taels of silver... As an emperor, Li Cui didn't have so much money in his treasury!

In other words, putting Li Cui's identity of the emperor of Tang Empire and the national treasury aside, Wei Baoheng was richer than him in terms of private property!

It made Li Cui disgust like eating a fly.

"You work for me and then I will give you a reward, but finally, I find out that you are richer than me, which is unreasonable."

"Wei Baoheng!" Li Cui gnashed his teeth and he almost lost control of his anger. "I hate you so much that I wish I could eat your meat and peel off your skin! Is this how you repay me for my trust in you and my defense of you in daily life? You're a son of a bitch. I will kill you and all your relatives!"

Li Cui didn't mind Wei Baoheng's corruption and bribery, but the premise was that Wei Baoheng was totally loyal to him with sincerity. However, it seemed that Wei Baoheng had no loyalty to him at all!

Li Cui felt that he was deceived. He was very painful that he was deceived by his most trusted favored minister.

He didn't only feel painful but also humiliated.

When all people in the world knew Wei Baoheng's behavior, they would also laugh at Li Cui because he was so silly that he had been keeping an ungrateful person by his side.

By contrast, it seemed not so important that Wei Jiangnan had framed Li Ye.

"Search! Now! Search his manor inside out!" Li Cui swung his sleeves angrily. "Wang Duo and Lu Yan, you two go to search personally! Take the officials in the Chang'an Office! Let Li Ye go together! Search it thoroughly!"

Wei Baoheng was scared to death as he heard these words.

Li Cui knew that Wang Duo and Li Ye didn't get along with him, but Li Cui still let them search his mansion, which was a complete abandonment of him and not giving him a living chance!

Heartless!

Li Cui intended to kill him!

When Wei Baoheng realized it desperately, he was scared out of his wits. He let out a whine and kept kowtowing, causing loud noise. "Your Majesty! I'm being slandered! They do this to frame me! I'm faithful to you. Your Majesty, you need to uphold justice for me..."

"Come!" There were killing intents in Li Cui's eyes. "If he dares to speak again, pull out his tongue for me!"

Wei Baoheng's body was stiff and his hands and feet were cold. Inside and outside the palace, a number of powerful breaths focused on him. If he dared to make any move, he would be struck immediately.

There were top masters inside the Imperial Palace.

Wei Baoheng could do nothing only with his cultivation!

Li Cui threw the account book to Wang Duo. "Check one by one!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" They all bowed down and looked at each other, feeling very happy.

...

Early in the morning, to avoid that Wei Baoheng would hear the news and transfer evidence, Li Ye and the officials in the Chang'an Office lurked on the streets near Wei Baoheng's Manor and spied on the manor from a distance, disguising themselves. They would rush in as soon as they received the emperor's edict.

To ensure the smooth action, the Chang'an Office turned out in full strength. Top masters of Wang Duo and Lu Yan were also standing by in the dark to ensure that nothing would go wrong.

The entire Wei Baoheng's Manor had been surrounded firmly. The busy streets seemed calm, but they were full of danger and turbulence.

Li Ye, who dressed up as a peddler, was free and at leisure. Sitting on the street, he was eating melon seeds and looking at all kinds of beauties on the street, enjoying himself.

"Get out of my way! Don't you know where it is? The street in front of the Prime Minister's Manor is where you can stay?"

Enjoying the scenery in high spirits, Li Ye was suddenly kicked on the shoulder. In fact, he had discovered the other side, but he didn't move because of taking into account the identity of a peddler.

Li Ye stood up and saw a large crowd of people dressed as servants and hatchet men rushing towards him aggressively. In the front, a childe in splendid clothes was holding a folding fan. He lifted his head, very arrogant.

Li Ye patted the dust on his shoulder and decided to go a little farther in order to emphasize the overall situation.

"Stop him!" His attendants rushed forward immediately and surrounded Li Ye completely as the childe waved his hand. "You dare to stay in front of the Prime Minister's Manor, but you don't make amends to me. You want to leave so easily?"

There were more than a hundred steps away from the Prime Minister's Manor.

Li Ye glanced at the childe calmly. "Are you from the Wei Baoheng's Manor?"

"My father is the Prime Minister on the court! So, are you afraid? If you're afraid, you kneel down and kowtow obediently. Then I'll spare you! Otherwise, I will break your hands and feet and throw you into the moat!" The childe raised his jaw in an extremely arrogant look.

Li Ye saw an acquaintance behind the childe, who was smiling at him sinisterly.

Li Yao!

So that explained it. Li Ye understood it was Li Yao that abetted Wei Baoheng's son to get him in trouble without any reason.

"What's the matter, Childe Yao? You now are a flunky of others?" Li Ye took a glance at Li Yao calmly, spitting out a piece of melon seed's shell.

Li Yao walked over to Li Ye and stared at him viciously. Li Yao said in a weird tone, "What's the matter, Your Highness Prince An? You can't get along in the Chang'an Office, so you run an errand for others?"

He sneered. "You're unlucky to meet me today! Aren't you arrogant? I want to know how arrogant you can be in front of the Prime Minister's Manor and the Prime Minister's son!"

"You don't need to tell him so much!" The childe waved his hand in a disdainful look. He said to Li Ye coldly, "No matter what your status is, if you want to survive in the official circles in Tang Empire, you have to rely on my father! Now, kneel down, or I'll make you suffer!"

With the corner of his eyes, Li Ye saw a yamen runner of the Chang'an Office waving a small flag on the street corner—that was a signal of good news from the Imperial Palace.

"The son of the Prime Minister?" Li Ye glanced at the childe. "Did you just kick me?"

"What will you do for my kicking you? If you make any nonsense again, I'll kill you..." the childe shouted.

However, before he could finish his words, Li Ye punched at his face. All his teeth flew out and then he rose in the air. He was screaming and turning countless times in the air. And then he crashed down on the street heavily.

Everyone was shocked and looked at Li Ye incredibly without any reaction.

"Li Ye! You dared to beat the son of Duke Wei. You..." Li Yao was stunned. But when he came to his sense, he was overjoyed. He pointed to Li Ye and began to yell at him.

His words weren't finished.

"Bang." Li Ye punched straightly at his nose causing his nosebleed splash immediately. Li Yao jerked his head backward and his body flipped forward and backward in the air many times. Finally, he hit the wall with his eyes rolling.

"A fly." Li Ye swung his hands disdainfully.

The attendants of the childe finally reacted, and they were in a mess. They looked ferocious and pounced on Li Ye. "You dared to hurt the Prime Minister's son. How dare you! You court death!"

Li Ye snorted disdainfully and stamped his right foot.

"Bang." A wave of Qi spread out quickly and the hatchet men around him flew away. They fell to the ground at all sides like dead leaves. They were unable to get up, howling on the ground.

"What will happen for my hitting the Prime Minister's son? I'm going to tear down the Prime Minister's Manor today!" Li Ye stepped over the hatchet men and pulled off the peddler's costume, showing the official uniform of the four-class vice magistrate in the Chang'an Office.

On both sides, there were many officials pulling off their disguise costumes to show their official uniforms of the Chang'an Office. They rushed into the Wei Baoheng's Manor outrageously with their knives in hand!

At this moment, the childe, Li Yao and the servants and hatchet men of the Wei Baoheng's Manor who fell on the ground were all dumbfounded. They were so shocked that they felt like their jaws were dropping to the ground, in a look like seeing a ghost in the daytime.