Lv Zhu finished pouring the tea, and Zhang Yuge immediately gave the order:
“Use water to wake him up.”
“Young Master, shouldn’t we first nail his joints shut with steel nails? Just like we did with that other person earlier.”
“No need. Just splash water to wake him. He won’t escape.”
This was mainly because this little prince’s strength was much weaker than Wu De’s.
Besides, Zhang Yuge truly wanted to kill Wu De back then, so his methods had been harsher.
A bucket of water was thrown, and Li Yuluo suddenly snapped awake, looking around in confusion.
In front of him, Zhang Yuge sat back in the chair like a godfather, surrounded by a row of burly men.
“Greetings, Kang Wang Dianxia. We meet again,”
Zhang Yuge said with a smiling tone.
“Where is this place? Release me at once! Or else I—”
Before he could finish, Zhang Yuge cut him off.
“Or else, what can you do to me?”
“You—”
“Or perhaps, Kang Wang Dianxia wants the whole world to know that someone from the Royal Family practices the Demonic Path?”
As soon as this was said, the other Zhang Family Servants’ faces all changed drastically.
“He’s a prince?”
“Someone from the Royal Family… practicing the Demonic Path?”
Li Yuluo bit his lip tightly, remaining silent for a moment before speaking.
“If you say I practice the Demonic Path, do you have any proof? I’m just an ordinary man.”
Li Yuluo knew that most people couldn’t sense the presence of his spiritual power.
As long as he denied it even if they killed him, they would have no way to prove otherwise.
Zhang Yuge’s expression turned cold, his tone indifferent.
“I don’t know what spell Kang Wang Dianxia used to make others unable to sense your power. But facts are facts. Whether you admit it or not doesn’t change the truth. I know you practice the Blood Nether Sect Secret Technique of the Demonic Path. I ask you, is that Imperial Advisor a disciple of the Blood Nether Sect?”
“Hmph, who do you think you are, daring to give orders to me? Listen carefully, I have been taken hostage. Royal Brother will definitely send the Imperial Guards to search every household in the capital for me. How long do you think you can keep me locked up?”
Although Li Yuluo spoke confidently, Zhang Yuge could still hear the tremor in his voice.
When he heard
“Royal Brother,”
Zhang Yuge’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Earlier, when the little prince called for help to the man in the black robe, I distinctly heard him say something starting with “Huang”—then he corrected himself to .
“Imperial Advisor.”
Well, there’s no point wasting more time with him.
Better to be straightforward and brutal.
“System, do we have any pills in the warehouse that compel people to tell the truth?”
“Ding, system searching…”
“Ding, search complete. The system warehouse currently has ten Truth Pills. After ingestion, one cannot lie for a period of time and must only speak the truth.”
“Good, I want one of those.”
It looked like an ordinary black pill.
Zhang Yuge stood up and walked toward Li Yuluo.
“Kang Wang Dianxia, are you hungry? I’ll feed you the medicine.”
“W-wait, what are you doing? Stop! Don’t come near me!”
No matter how much Li Yuluo shouted, Zhang Yuge deliberately slowed his pace, wearing a sinister and triumphant expression.
Li Yuluo grew even more frightened and kept yelling.
“If I die, Royal Brother will punish your entire nine clans on my behalf!”
Zhang Yuge grabbed Li Yuluo’s chin, gently but firmly forced his mouth open, and shoved the Truth Pill inside.
At this moment, Zhang Qingyao also came over carrying a tray with some steaming Soft Glutinous Pastries.
She casually grabbed two and popped them into her mouth as Zhang Yuge spoke absentmindedly.
“The cooking skills still need improvement.”
Hearing this, Zhang Qingyao immediately frowned.
Forcing her to cook in the first place, now that it’s done, he’s still complaining.
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat,”
the girl said with a pout.
Suddenly, a warm and soft thing was pressed against her mouth.
“You’re hungry too, right? Go sit on that chair first.”
Zhang Yuge picked up a piece of pastry and stuffed it into Zhang Qingyao’s mouth.
At this point, after taking the Truth Pill, Li Yuluo looked somewhat dazed.
“I ask you again, who is the Imperial Advisor?”
Zhang Yuge questioned.
“…He is my Royal Brother.”
Li Yuluo’s eyes were lifeless, his voice flat, as if hypnotized.
Upon hearing this answer, Zhang Yuge’s doubts were finally resolved.
So that’s why.
When I caught Li Yuluo, he instinctively shouted
“Royal Brother.”
“The Royal Brother you mentioned, who is also the Imperial Advisor, is actually the Mingxue Divine King?”
“…Yes.”
“So, besides you, the Mingxue Divine King also practices the Demonic Path secret technique?”
“Yes.”
This revelation stunned not only the other Zhang Family Servants around but even Zhang Qingyao.
Why would His Majesty rebel?
This must be what they meant.
“Besides you and the Emperor, are there others who practice the Demonic Path secret technique?”
“No one else.”
“So, the ones hunting down lone cultivators, collaborating with Wu De to harm Five Spirit Sect disciples, and abducting people for Root Testing are all the doing of you two brothers?”
“Yes.”
“Why does the Emperor disguise himself as the Imperial Advisor?”
“Royal Brother said there were many spies from the Five Great Families within the palace. So he prepared a puppet and took on the identity of Imperial Advisor himself to make it easier to go out.”
“Why do you practice the Demonic Path instead of the righteous cultivation path? What’s your purpose in doing this?”
At this, Li Yuluo fell silent, refusing to answer further.
Seeing this, Zhang Yuge fed him another Truth Pill, increasing the dosage.
He didn’t believe Li Yuluo could resist.
“Because… when the Great Zhou was founded, the Five Great Families set a rule forbidding the Royal Family from cultivating immortality. If we cultivate the righteous immortal path, surely… surely the Five Great Families would discover it. So we can only cultivate the Blood Nether Technique—they can’t detect it. The Five Great Families are arrogant and disdain the Royal Family… Nowadays, their status is even higher than the Royal Family. Great Zhou… Great Zhou is not the Great Zhou of those Five Great Families. It’s our Li Family’s Great Zhou. It’s Royal Brother’s Great Zhou.”
At the same time, in a deserted courtyard of the Imperial City Cold Palace, a figure sat leaning against the wall.
He was the Imperial Advisor who had escaped from the prince’s mansion—Li Yuhan, the Emperor of Great Zhou.
Clad in a black robe, he muttered to himself in a daze, the mask that had concealed his face carelessly tossed aside.
“Li Yuhan, you deserve to die. How dare you… dare to block me time and time again!”
“You want to kill my brother. I won’t let you succeed. You’ve already killed so many, but he… absolutely not!”
“How utterly foolish… The truly strong are solitary. How can they be burdened by external attachments?”
“Get out of my body immediately! I am the ruler of this nation! How can I allow you to act so recklessly?”
“Heh, laughable. A ruler of a nation? Without the aid of the Mingxue Divine King, you, Li Yuhan, would still be a powerless puppet emperor! If not for me being reborn within your body, bringing this tremendous surge in strength, how could it have fallen to you?”