Fiancée Stolen by MC, I Trip Them up-Chapter 377 - 279: The Rebel Army!

Imperial Palace.

The old emperor slumped in the dragon throne as if boneless, looking weak and staring at the ceiling, lost in thought.

He was still in the same outfit he wore when he met the protagonist earlier, entirely cloaked in black, revealing only a pair of bloodshot, furtively glancing tiger eyes.

Humph!

Beneath the dragon throne, the regal empress sat on a smoothly polished small stool, snorting coldly, obviously displeased with the old emperor’s improper posture.

The empress participating in state affairs by sitting on a small stool was a feature of the Great Xia Dynasty.

That stool was passed down from the ancestors of the Zhao clan to warn the empress.

The Zhao royal family was aware of their own issues, so they accepted the empress’s involvement in politics.

However, there is a distinction between ruler and minister.

Even the empress, at the imperial court, is a subject of the emperor and must not overstep.

Hence, now there is a small stool beneath the dragon throne for the Zhao clan.

That small stool is a reminder from the ancestors of the Zhao clan to future empresses, letting them know to whom their power is owed and whose interests they must protect.

No one knows what the stool is made of, but the empresses who have sat on it through the years have not worn it out, leaving it exceptionally smooth over a millennium.

Sitting on the small stool, the empress looked at the old emperor who was sulking in indignation, her face showing a hint of helplessness. She coaxed him as if he were a child, saying, "I know you’ve always disliked the Left Prime Minister. We needed him before, and we also had to maintain the court’s dignity, so I didn’t let you act against him. Now that we’ve finished using him, you can deal with him, can’t you?"

The old emperor abruptly sat up at these words, complaining, "I didn’t lose to him! Who told you to cripple that old man’s cultivation right away? If this gets out, how will the righteous armies view me? Where does that leave my reputation? How am I supposed to lead the rebel forces?"

The empress felt exhausted.

If not for the Sixth Prince needing her and the emperor to maintain order, she would have taken the old emperor to the New World to reverse their cultivation technique long ago.

Watching this madman go insane every day, her head was about to explode!

And this madman has no self-awareness.

High Ancestor Zhao Xuan was right; the Zhao descendants’ talents indeed deteriorate with each generation.

But this is normal.

A person’s talent and potential are often only triggered in dangerous situations.

The Zhao clan has ruled the kingdom for over a thousand years.

In the beginning, with internal and external troubles constantly pressing, geniuses from the Zhao lineage emerged without end.

In recent centuries, the Great Xia has seen almost no wars.

People getting idle tend to become lazy.

It’s entirely normal that the descendants’ talents and cultivation diminished.

Eventually, even someone with the old emperor’s talent could become emperor.

This would have been inconceivable when the Great Xia was founded.

But the old emperor isn’t the worst; his sons are even worse.

Only Zhao Yi, the Sixth Prince, has absolutely no talent, pinning the old emperor completely on the pillar of shame.

Thankfully, the Zhao family all have a touch of madness and don’t have high expectations for their descendants’ talents.

Otherwise, Zhao Yi would have had a miserable time.

By contrast, the Left Prime Minister, who rose from the bottom layer step by step, can almost be called divinely gifted.

It should be noted that this world has immortal sects and immortals. If there were no masters in the imperial court, the lofty immortals would have long turned everyone in the Great Xia into their slaves.

Therefore, the Great Xia Court selects officials based on not only learning but also cultivation.

To prevent aristocratic families from monopolizing the court, the Zhao court enacted laws that if someone passed the Child Scholar exam, the court would provide all subsequent cultivation resources.

The effect of this law is excellent. In a thousand years since the establishment of the Great Xia Dynasty, the positions held by aristocratic families in the imperial court did not exceed one-third. Moreover, these families only grew after the founding, while only a few ancient families like the Kong and Wang remained.

This situation was unimaginable in previous dynasties.

The aristocratic families are naturally unwilling to decline, and the children of commoners are striving for progress.

The Left Prime Minister emerged from this intense competitive environment.

The emperor competing with him in terms of talent is indeed somewhat overestimating himself.

There is a benefit to this, though.

As the Zhao descendants’ talent deteriorates, the influence of the Zhao bloodline curse seems to wane.

In the peak of the Zhao clan, once the ancestors of Zhao began to go insane, they would soon die.

Now, the old emperor is nearly sixty and still retains a shred of sanity, which was unimaginable in the past.

"There’s no need to worry about the rebel army!"

The empress said wearily, "You’ve already handed the kingdom to them. They’re so eager to build a temple for you that they couldn’t possibly insult you behind your back."

Hearing this, the old emperor panicked, "What do you mean, the Sixth Prince doesn’t plan to take them with him? If they don’t go, neither will I; as their leader, I can’t ignore them!"

The empress’s expression became more difficult to look at, but thinking about the upcoming departure and the fact that the old emperor would return to normal after reincarnating his cultivation, she felt more tolerance was needed since they’d meet again later as a couple.

The empress patiently explained, "It’s not that the Sixth Prince doesn’t want to take them; they simply don’t believe him. The Holy Decree was issued over six months ago, and none of them have sought the Sixth Prince for relocation."

The old emperor, upon hearing this, immediately felt pleased: "Of course! They were handpicked by me and won’t be deceived by your schemes!"

After saying that, he suddenly realized something and glared at the empress, "You, you, you know where my subordinates are?"

The empress, quite annoyed, rolled her eyes.

The emperor had raised a rebel force outside, intending to overthrow the Great Xia and extinguish the Zhao royal family.

With such significant matters at hand, if the empress were clueless, places like Xuanzhen Temple, the Imperial Clan Court, and those spies of the Great Xia Imperial Court would have had their heads rolling, blood flowing like rivers under her watch.

In fact, the empress not only knew about the rebel army but had several times sent covert aid when they were cut off from water and food. Otherwise, the rabble would have long starved to death.

Whenever she thought of these things, the empress felt utterly exhausted.

Since marrying into the Zhao family, she hasn’t had a single peaceful day.

This whole family continually finds new ways to pose challenges for her!

"Sit properly!"

The empress finally lost patience, "The Sixth Prince will be here soon, what do you think you look like?"

Watching the old emperor slumped lethargically, her brows furrowed in a "川" shape.

Then, the empress lifted her hand and, expertly as if spinning a top, slapped the old emperor upright, setting him into a proper sitting position.

The old emperor sat there dazed, dizzy, with a vacant, confused look, clearly not understanding what had just happened.

ps: Request to be read entirely and followed along!