Chapter 686: Confrontation
Editor: Atlas Studios

The interior and exterior of High Sage Temple were under martial law. The Gao family’s army had already surrounded High Sage Temple, so Qi Haoran mixed in the crowd to admire the majestic temple. Now, even the ordinary people knew that the Gao family wanted to replace the Duan family.

Of course, the Gao family also had a legitimate-sounding excuse, which was that they were arresting the culprits who murdered the Crown Prince—the Empress and the Eldest Princess.

Regardless of whether everyone believed it or not, the Gao family did come up with a very righteous and noble reason to rebel.

The Crown Prince of Dali was the Emperor’s nephew and the Eldest Princess’s cousin. He had been brought up in the palace since he was young. When the Eldest Princess came of age last year, the Emperor officially conferred his nephew the title of Crown Prince last year. However, in less than a year, the Crown Prince fell off his horse and died. Before the Crown Prince’s funeral, General Gao brought soldiers to storm the palace and asked the Emperor to hand over the Eldest Princess and the Empress who had caused the death of the Crown Prince.

With the eldest princess missing, the Emperor and Empress temporarily hid in High Sage Temple under the protection of the guards. On the surface, the Gao family looked like they were seeking justice for the Crown Prince, but even ordinary people knew that this was just an excuse.

There was no such thing as a female monarch in Dali. Besides, the eldest princess and the Crown Prince had grown up together since they were young, and they had always been on good terms. Since there were also no conflicts of interest, why would the eldest princess want to harm the Crown Prince for no reason?

However, the Gao family had witnesses and evidence in their hands. There were letters from the eldest princess colluding with the Crown Prince’s guards, as well as the confessions of the killers sent by the eldest princess to murder the Crown Prince. Not to mention that everyone did not have time to identify the authenticity of these ‘evidence’ amidst the chaos, even if both sides sent people to distinguish the authenticity, they would not be able to figure out the truth because these could be faked.

Now that the Gao family surrounded High Sage Temple to ask the Emperor to hand over the Empress, the Emperor naturally would not agree. Even if all the ministers knelt on the ground, the Emperor remained unyielding and refused to let anyone take the Empress away.

It was not that he had deep feelings for the Empress, but he knew that capturing the Empress was just an excuse. If he handed the Empress over, the next target of the Gao family would be him and the eldest princess.

His daughter was the Emperor’s bottom line, and the Gao family had already crossed his line.Now that both sides were already at the end of their rope, he could only try his best to stall for time so that his daughter had more time to escape. The Empress was a tool to stall for time, and so was he.

The Empress clearly knew this, so for the sake of her daughter’s safety, she had been carefully protecting her life these few days, hoping to stall for more time.

When the Emperor staggered in with his walking stick, he saw the Empress kneeling and praying sincerely to Buddha. He looked up at the benevolent Bodhisattva and sighed slightly.

When the Empress heard the commotion, she quickly turned around. “Your Majesty, what did the abbot say? Are the elders willing to see us?”

His Majesty shook his head slightly. “The elders are already old. They’re all in seclusion and won’t come out. The abbot has sent them a letter, so it’s not appropriate to ask again now.”

The Empress’s eyes turned red as she said, “But this is the Duan family’s territory.”

His Majesty sighed and shook his head slightly.

The Duan family had always been in power in Dali. When Dali was an independent country, the Emperor came from the Duan family. When Dali was a prefecture, a member of the Duan family was conferred the title of the Prince of Zhennan by the Imperial Court. In fact, his father was the one who helped Dali gain independence from the Great Zhou. At that time, he and his brothers were already fighting to the death for the title of the Prince of Zhennan. As soon as his father separated Dali from the Great Zhou and helped it become an independent country, everyone fought even more fiercely.

In the end, when he ascended the throne, his father became one of the few Dali Emperors who did not enter the High Sage Temple to become a monk in his later years because he died of illness just five days after abdicating.

Longevity had always been a trait of the Duan family, especially the retired emperors who were willing to shave their heads and enter the High Sage Temple to cultivate. For example, his grandfather and great-grandfather were still alive. His grandfather was 87 years old this year, and his great-grandfather was 103 years old. Both were still alive and kicking.

However, it seemed to be God’s retribution for fighting his brothers to the death for the throne. His brothers died in the struggle, and even their children were implicated. In the end, when the dust settled, only his second brother’s youngest son was alive when he ascended the throne. As for him, he only had this one daughter.

It was precisely because of this that he had been practicing benevolence all these years. He had reduced taxes many times because he wanted to accumulate more merit so that the remaining two bloodlines of the Duan clan could grow up safely.

He had already chosen to abdicate to the Crown Prince at the age of 55, but who knew that such a thing would suddenly happen?

The Emperor felt that this was really retribution from the things he had done in his younger days. He did not know if the elders were unwilling to come out and see him because they thought the same way. In fact, as long as the elders were willing to appear, with the connections and merit accumulated by their ancestors, the Gao family could not rebel against him.

However, monks didn’t tend to involve themselves in the worldly affairs of the mortal world. Even if historically there had been a few cases of the High Sage Temple helping the Duan family to quell a rebellion, he was not sure that the High Sage Temple was willing to stand up for him. After all, his daughter had been sent away when she came to the High Sage Temple.

The High Sage Temple had the responsibility to protect the Duan family’s bloodline, but just because the eldest princess was a daughter and not a son, the High Sage Temple was unwilling to protect her with all its might. The Emperor was very angry, so he naturally did not have a good impression and much expectations of those elders who had not appeared up till now.

The couple knelt in front of the Buddha hand in hand and prayed seriously for the safety and happiness of their daughter.

At this moment, Qi Haoran, who wanted to sneak into High Sage Temple, was glaring at the person in his hands with fury. Looking livid, he instructed Fei Bai, “Go and find out who this person is.”

When Fei Bai heard that someone was coming over, he agreed while saying anxiously, “Master, let’s leave quickly. Otherwise, it’ll be too late.”

Qi Haoran nodded and reached out to throw the person in his hand away. After some thought, he ultimately was not heartless enough, so he decided to flee with said person. Even if they were good at martial arts, everyone still barely managed to escape the pursuers, especially since Qi Haoran was holding an injured and unconscious person. There were a few times when he wanted to throw the person away, but he felt that the possibility of escaping was quite high. In addition, he was unwilling to carry a life on his back. Just like that, Qi Haoran carried the person into a dilapidated temple.

Sweating profusely, Fei Bai caught up from behind and said, “Master, we’ve shaken them off.”

Only then did Qi Haoran release his grip on the person he was grabbing and instruct his subordinates, “Treat his wound. When he wakes up, ask him about his identity and background.”

“Fei Bai, bring people to High Sage Temple tomorrow and see if there are any changes in their defense layout. We have to look for an opportunity to sneak into the temple.”

“Master, considering we alarmed the guards this time, it’d be too difficult to sneak in again. Besides, it’s too dangerous.”

Qi Haoran said, “Try again. If it doesn’t work, we’ll retreat.”

He had originally gone with the intention of giving it a try. It would naturally be good if he could see the Emperor of Dali, but it would be a pity if he couldn’t. However, he didn’t expect that just as he was about to succeed, a person who also wanted to sneak into High Sage Temple accidentally attracted the attention of the guards.

This was why they had to retreat at the last minute.

After giving the instructions, Qi Haoran came over to look at the person who was already wrapped up like a dumpling and asked, “How is it? Will he die?”

The guard who was bandaging the injured man wiped his sweat and said, “Master, he’ll likely survive. Although he has many injuries on his body, they’re not fatal. He fainted only because he lost too much blood. Now that he’s stopped bleeding, he should wake up after we feed him some things to replenish his blood.”