Special Expert of Beauty CEO

Within the Imperial City, the situation is as Qin Tian anticipated, unpredictable and treacherous.

The Ninth Prince, the Crown Prince, and the Fourth Prince, his three sons, cause the Ice Emperor endless headaches.

Initially, the overt and covert rivalry between the Ninth Prince and the Crown Prince already troubled the Ice Emperor excessively, but now, suddenly with the addition of the Fourth Prince, the Ice Emperor was momentarily bewildered, especially since the Fourth Prince’s influence is substantial, leaving many political matters even beyond the control of the Ice Emperor himself.

The public and private conflicts among the three princes leave the Ice Emperor mentally exhausted; he does not wish for any harm to befall any of his sons. However, the Ninth Prince has already been harmed by Qin Tian, and lacking cultivation, he means the Ninth Prince will struggle to gain support and struggle to lead the Tianyuan Dynasty.

He has since come crying several times to plead with the Ice Emperor to kill Qin Tian and annihilate his entire clan.

But under the current circumstances, the Ice Emperor must consider carefully that if he were to kill Qin Tian’s women, the situation within the Tianyuan Dynasty could potentially become even more chaotic.

Within the Imperial City, the struggle between the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince becomes increasingly apparent.

Initially, the Ice Emperor leaned towards supporting the Ninth Prince to inherit his throne, but after the incident with the Ninth Prince, the Ice Emperor naturally hoped for the Crown Prince to further consolidate power.

Yet things did not go as he wished; in hindsight, he had neglected the Fourth Prince.

This Fourth Prince, after years of meticulous planning and quietly building his strength, now reveals that more than half of the court is loyal to him, with many generals inclining towards supporting the Fourth Prince, immediately forming a balance of power against the Crown Prince.

The Ice Emperor finds it difficult.

To help the Crown Prince suppress the Fourth Prince, he could not find a method in the short term.

On the contrary, the Fourth Prince is quite aggressive, coercing the Crown Prince to retreat step by step through his schemes, with many positions held by the Crown Prince’s close aides subsequently being taken over by the Fourth Prince’s men.

The Ice Emperor watches this with worry.

And at this moment, a major event changing the landscape occurs within the Imperial City!

The Ninth Prince is truly hateful of Qin Tian to an extreme degree, privately leading over five thousand elite soldiers to surround the Qin Mansion, launching a fierce attack! He intends to kill Fan Bing and others, to make Qin Tian pay dearly!

However, unexpectedly, the Ninth Prince’s attack met with fierce resistance from the Fourth Prince and his guards.

It is evident that even though the Ninth Prince lacks martial arts, his subordinates are numerous and powerful, and the Fourth Prince’s troops alone are utterly unable to fend them off.

The Fourth Prince is captured by the Ninth Prince, and his elite soldiers break into the Qin Mansion, starting a frenzied slaughter.

However, they encounter resistance—

Fan Bing, Qiao Wenxuan, Liu Fei’er, and Du Qiuniang rise up to resist!

Due to Liu Fei’er and Du Qiuniang’s superior cultivation levels, the Ninth Prince’s soldiers struggle to advance.

Naturally, within the Qin Mansion, there are actually Duan Xiaodao and his few trusted generals.

Yet, due to their identities, they dare not reveal themselves recklessly; otherwise, they would risk being spotted by the Ninth Prince and accused of being mutineers, giving him a legitimate reason to execute Duan Xiaodao.

The combined resistance of Liu Fei’er and Du Qiuniang leads to dozens of the Ninth Prince’s soldiers dying on the spot, and the Ninth Prince, losing his senses, decides to increase manpower for a strong assault.

But before he can reinforce his troops, the Fourth Prince arrives with reinforcements.

Not only the Fourth Prince, but also the Imperial City Inspector General overseeing law enforcement and the head of the Imperial Guards managing Imperial City’s law and order arrives on the scene, capturing the Ninth Prince red-handed.

The Ninth Prince is forcibly taken away by the Fourth Prince, while Fan Bing and others are surrounded by the Fourth Prince’s troops.

The Fourth Prince does not harm Fan Bing and others but instead assigns guards to watch them in a small courtyard within the Qin Mansion, euphemistically calling it ”protection.”

Simultaneously, the Fourth Prince makes two preparations.

First, he collaborates with the Inspector General and the head of the Imperial Guards, along with over a dozen ministers, to write a joint petition accusing the Ninth Prince of flouting royal law, arbitrarily leading troops to kill in the Imperial City, causing innumerable casualties, and requesting stern action from the Ice Emperor.

Secondly, the Fourth Prince writes a letter, delivered by his most trusted aide directly to West State, indicating to Qin Tian the situation of the Ninth Prince’s attack on the Qin Mansion, primarily explaining how he protected Fan Bing and others in a timely manner. At the end of the letter, he assures Qin Tian that he will promptly send Fan Bing and others to West State, hoping that Marquis Qin retains trust in him for cooperation.

The turmoil caused by the Ninth Prince enrages the Ice Emperor; even with his plea, faced with overwhelming evidence of the Ninth Prince’s crimes, he cannot show leniency, banishing the Ninth Prince to his domain in the Northern Border, forbidding him from entering the Imperial City without an imperial edict!

Although the Ice Emperor suspects this might be a trap by either the Crown Prince or the Fourth Prince to remove the Ninth Prince, he is well aware of the reckless and unrefined nature of the Ninth Prince. Having endured the Ninth Prince’s impulsiveness in the past, the Ice Emperor, having reached the limit of his tolerance, descends upon the Ninth Prince.

Though not fatal, the Ninth Prince’s opportunity to rise again is lost forever.

Within the Tianyuan Dynasty, the overt power struggles are now left to the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince.

Meanwhile, Qin Tian, upon receiving the Fourth Prince’s letter, immediately responds with gratitude for the Fourth Prince’s ”care” of Fan Bing and others, affirming that his trust has remained, hoping to join hands for the prosperity and strength of the Tianyuan Dynasty.

Upon receiving the reply, the Fourth Prince, very pleased, immediately consults with the Fourteenth Prince to send Fan Bing and others to West State.

The Fourteenth Prince initially disagreed, but after verifying with Qin Tian through letter correspondence, he agreed to send a hundred people alongside the Fourth Prince’s fifty-person guard team to escort Fan Bing and over three hundred others to West State.

Naturally, Duan Xiaodao is among the convoy.

As Fan Bing and others set forth from the Imperial City, another letter from the Fourth Prince simultaneously reaches Qin Tian—

The Fourth Prince, on behalf of his subordinate General Lin Yao, requests three thousand soldiers from Qin Tian for an eradication campaign against bandits in the southern mountain city.

Lin Yao is the City Lord of South State’s mountain city, plagued severely by bandits, but his forces only number over ten thousand, insufficient for complete eradication, thus seeking soldiers from Qin Tian.

However, the deeper implication of the Fourth Prince is well understood by Qin Tian—

I have safely returned your women to you; as a gesture of cooperation, you should express some goodwill?

Thus, the Fourth Prince’s so-called request for three thousand soldiers is essentially a demand from Qin Tian.

Should Qin Tian refuse, it’s likely Fan Bing and others might encounter unforeseen troubles.

After consulting Zhou Yang and others, Qin Tian replies to the Fourth Prince, agreeing to lend two thousand soldiers to Lin Yao for the bandit eradication, timed with the arrival of Fan Bing and others in West Capital City, marking the day two thousand soldiers will proceed to the southern mountain city to join City Lord Lin Yao.

These two thousand, having been screened by Zhou Yang, are primarily weak, aged, and disabled soldiers, thus Qin Tian is willing to use them as a test of the Fourth Prince’s willingness for cooperation.