The Tyrant's Beloved Empress

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Edited and Proofread by KitKat

Shu Guifei was the birth mother of the Third Prince and having entered the palace for many years, she was immensely favored by Emperor An Qing.

She hailed from the Shu family of Ding An, her brother being the General of Yuzou, Shu Lin Ting. Her maternal family was the Xue family of Yejing. The Xue clan was one of the six founding families of the Da Ye Empire. As such, her influence should not be underestimated. This had also given her an edge to stand against the Empress.

Before, when the third prince was still young, and Emperor An Qing was still a somewhat responsible monarch, Shu Guifei had to give way to the Empress. However, ten years later when her son was coming of age and Emperor An Qing was becoming muddle-headed, Shu Guifei's ambitions had resurfaced.

As the Crown Prince's position was becoming more stabilized, Shu Guifei had gotten impatient. Seeing Emperor An Qing's obsession with the crazy Taoist, she hatched a plan and arranged for the appearance of this 'Alchemist'. If it weren't for Xiao Zhige's scrutiny, her plot would've been seamless.

Nonetheless, Xiao Zhige had no intention to expose her. He had his scouts collect a sample of the pills that Emperor An Qing was taking and had it examined. The pill indeed contained valuable tonic ingredients that even the Imperial Physicians could find no fault with.

However, after sending Hu Shifei the list of ingredients, he simply wrote back: Highly potent concoction, not suitable for regular intake.

This tonic pill was indeed effective in energizing the body but if taken incessantly, the body would get used to this state and become dependent on the pills. Discontinuance in usage would reduce the body to a withered state, even worse than before taking this pill.

Furthermore, the pills lose their effectiveness with each dose. It would still be effective if taken for one to two months but, after that, the dosage had to be strengthened to achieve the same result. As such, the potency of this pill would only increase to the point that the body could no longer absorb, causing the meridians to burst out like a broken dam.

In any way, there was no upside to taking this pill.

As of now, Emperor An Qing was very fond of this Taoist master and had kept him by his side. It seemed it wouldn't be long till he felt the destructive aftermath of this pill.

An Chang Qing bit his lip. He did not expect that the Emperor would die this soon in this life.

In his previous life, Emperor An Qing was bedridden for two years before he reached his end and called Xiao Zhige back to Yejing. This time, it happened too soon... 

An Chang Qing looked at Xiao Zhige and wondered if there would be any repercussions to this acceleration.

In his previous life, the Crown Prince lost his virtue in the eyes of the court and was stripped of his title. The Third Prince was sent to subdue an uprising and was assassinated by the refugees. As a result, Emperor An Qing only had Xiao Zhige left to pass his throne to. This had caused countless rumors to spread, that the Crown Prince's immoral acts were a setup by Xiao Zhige and the Third Prince had died by his hands... Even Emperor An Qing's death was his doing.

With the suspicion of killing his brother and father, Xiao Zhige's throne reeked of malfeasance.

An Chang Qing looked at Xiao Zhige with some heartache. He did not know how Xiao Zhige had managed it in his last life but in this life, he refused to let him bear this unwarranted reputation.

An Chang Qing asked softly, "When we return to Yejing... What does Wangye intend to do? Are you going to compete with the other princes for the throne?"