The Sims: I Open the Immortal Path for All Beings

Chapter 895: 845

As for the intentions of these people, Pei Xuanjing was naturally crystal clear; these individuals were from enemy nations and various nefarious forces. They believed that Pei Xuanjing was without his own power and therefore controllable, wishing to use him as a puppet to divide the Dahong Dynasty.

Pei Xuanjing flatly refused them, but they were not willing to give up.

Faced with Pei Xuanjing’s rejection, these people were insistent and would not back down due to just one refusal.

In the time that followed, they visited Taixuan Temple repeatedly, trying to persuade Pei Xuanjing to join the succession struggle, offering lavish gifts as a temptation.

“Gifts blind the eyes,” as the saying goes. Such actions signified that these people’s schemes were anything but trivial. After pondering, Pei Xuanjing decided to feign agreement, accepting their proposal for the time being.

However, what these people did not expect was that Pei Xuanjing only agreed on the surface. After accepting their favors, he immediately reported everything to the old Emperor and the many Princes.

Regarding Pei Xuanjing’s actions, the old Emperor and various Princes had differing opinions, but no matter what, they all had to present him with rewards to set an example.

It could be said that, through this event, Pei Xuanjing had his cake and ate it too, gaining a significant amount of cultivation resources. These resources undoubtedly saved him much cultivation time, allowing him to speed up the cultivation progress of his body.

The struggle for the throne was a matter of life and death. Any interloper would surely face the united retaliation of the Princes. They were enraged by these factions’ attempts to entice Pei Xuanjing into joining the struggle for the throne and immediately sent people to eradicate these factions’ agents.

A ferocious battle erupted in the Royal Capital. What was thought to be just a group of opportunists turned out to have mysterious origins and terrifying strength.

Among the experts sent by several Princes were powerhouses from the Tenfold Tower, but they were unable to annihilate the enemy. Surprisingly, there were several Martial Artists within these mysterious people who had reached the Tenfold Tower Realm.

If not for the deployment of several powerhouses from the palace by the old Emperor in the end, the many Princes would not have been able to eliminate this group and would have suffered severe losses themselves.

Regarding all this, Pei Xuanjing was quite astonished; he suddenly speculated that the mysterious individuals behind the scenes might have been supported by other Dynasties. Perhaps they aimed to prop up a puppet Emperor like himself and then use this as a means to carve up the Dahong Dynasty.

The hand-to-hand Great War in which Martial Artists of the Tenfold Tower Realm had fallen made many shudder with fear, sending chills down their spines and instilling an even greater dread of the succession struggle.

One must realize that over the many years of the Dahong Dynasty’s history, the struggle for succession had occurred more than just once or twice. Or rather, every ascension of a new Emperor had been through countless killings and treading over bones to sit on the throne.

However, in so many succession struggles, Martial Artists of the Tenfold Tower level were generally regarded as stabilizing forces for all sides. Unless it was the final life-and-death moment, there had never been such early-stage deaths of high-level experts.

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“It seems that the struggle for the throne this time is going to be even more vicious than in the past,” someone thought to themselves.

However, this situation did not dissuade the forces already involved in the fight for the throne; on the contrary, it made them double down on their stakes because they all understood that the more intense the struggle, the greater the price of failure. To succeed, they could only press forward with everything they had, without any thoughts of retreat.

The ferocious competition for the imperial throne was fully underway, especially after the fall of a powerhouse from the Tentacle Building, which made the princes realize the gravity of their situation. With no options left for retreat, they poured all their resources into the struggle.

The first to be eliminated was the Sixth Prince. This prince, with an exceptional talent in martial arts and backed by kings and lords, was caught in a vice; his subordinates were gradually removed until he was left almost completely alone.

Facing this situation, he had no choice but to exit the stage, deprived of any qualification to contend for the throne. Next, he could only wait for the final decision of the victor of the imperial throne, even his life hung in the balance of others, beyond his control.

Following the departure of the Sixth Prince, the subsequent struggle among the Second Prince, Third Prince, and Fifth Prince, did not diminish; instead, it intensified. Especially during the process of dividing and capturing the areas left vacant by the Sixth Prince’s exit, intense conflict erupted between the three camps.

Perhaps because of the old Emperor’s suppression within the Royal Capital, the princes did not dare to be overly brash and bring their disputes into the open, but outside the capital, in the regions of the Dahong Dynasty, the struggle never ceased.

From minor district magistrates to major prefects and state shepherds, the three princes continuously placed their own people and nurtured their followers. Likewise, outside the Court, the rivers and lakes forces loyal to them were also engaged in fierce battles, plundering wealth for their princes to solidify their forces and gather more adherents with wealth.

Two years flashed by, and before one knew it, Pei Xuanjing, now twenty years old, should have left the Royal Capital for his fief according to normal circumstances, not to enter the capital lightly without the summons of the Emperor.

However, curiously, after Pei Xuanjing’s coming of age ceremony, the Emperor bestowed a reward, but did not order Pei Xuanjing, the Seventh Prince, to leave. This undoubtedly deepened the original rumors: the Emperor seemed intent on cultivating this prince with exceptional Taoist skill, as a candidate for the imperial Formation Technique master in the future.

As for not being ordered to leave, Pei Xuanjing did not pay it much mind. In any case, he was also cultivating in the Royal Capital. Together with the annual benefits of a prince and the resources he had previously obtained, he had enough for his cultivation. Thus, he remained peacefully in Taixuan Temple, immersed in the mysteries and understanding of Tao.

But the tranquility was ultimately short-lived. The old Emperor’s health declined day by day, with signs that he might pass away at any moment. The conflict between the three princes also reached its final critical juncture, and the outcome of becoming king or falling as a bandit was soon to be revealed.

Indeed, just at that time, rumors suddenly spread. It was said that the Fifth Prince had secretly trained private soldiers and colluded with a general in charge of border counties, plotting rebellion.

After this rumor surfaced, there was immediate shock. Before the Fifth Prince could even defend himself, a messenger arrived in the capital, reporting that bandits were raiding the border and the general in charge was preparing his army for battle, ready to exterminate the bandits.

If this had happened at any other time, it might have been seen as perfectly normal. But combined with the preceding gossip, it seemed to corroborate the fact that the Fifth Prince was plotting a rebellion.

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