Chapter 38

A day later, in the bedchamber of Xingqing Palace.

Yang Yuhuan woke up after sleeping for a whole night.

"Are you feeling better?" Hongjun's voice sounded in her ears.

Hongjun had changed into a sky-blue robe and was sitting on the edge of the couch. He looked even more handsome like a jade tree. At this moment, he was pressing his slightly cold index and middle fingers on Yang Yuhuan's neck.

The Jasper Peacock Plume glowed, and the five-colored light flowed inside Yang Yuhuan's body. The people in the Exorcism Division were afraid that Madam Guo had done something to her body. In the last chaotic battle, the fox spirit's words were ambiguous, leaving too many mysteries.

Hongjun said to Li Jinglong and the others in front of the couch, "I didn't feel any demon aura."

Everyone was relieved. Li Longji said again, "Guozhong is in Hebei. This matter must be written down in detail so that we can give him an explanation."

Yang Yuhuan remembered. Two lines of clear tears flowed down her face. "My … my eldest sister?"

"What do you remember?" Hongjun handed a glazed bowl to the eunuch. "Put the medicine in this bowl."

Yang Yuhuan's thoughts were intermittent. She only vaguely remembered that she had seen a fox spirit and had a very long dream. However, the fragmented memories made it impossible for her to describe the events in a coherent manner.

"It should be the effect of the Soul Leaving Pollen," Li Jinglong explained to Li Longji.

"I remember that a carp saved my life," Yang Yuhuan said in surprise. "Where is that fish?"

Everyone was speechless.

Li Longji had said that whoever saved Yang Yuhuan would be promoted. They didn't expect Yang Yuhuan to recognize a hairy carp as her savior. This was awkward.

"It's my good friend Zhao Zilong," Hongjun said with a smile. "I'll introduce you to him someday. Come, drink the medicine. Drink it and you'll be fine. "

Hongjun held the glass bowl in his hand. Li Longji stepped forward and helped Yang Yuhuan up. Yang Yuhuan stared at Hongjun in a daze.

Hongjun: "?"

In Yang Yuhuan's eyes, Hongjun was handsome, with red lips, white teeth, eyebrows, eyes like the evening stars, a tall nose, fair skin, slender fingers, and a faint smile in his eyes.

"Your … your surname is Kong Xuan?" Yang Yuhuan was puzzled. "Who is Kong Xuan to you?"

The Ksana Hall was silent. Hongjun's hand couldn't stop trembling. He actually spilled some of the medicine. He forced himself to be calm and asked, "You know my father?"

"You're Kong Xuan's son!" Yang Yuhuan grabbed Hongjun's wrist and said, "Where are your parents?"

"Beloved concubine." Li Longji hurriedly said, "Rest well. It won't be too late to discuss this later."

Hongjun's eyes were filled with shock. He looked at Yang Yuhuan and then at Li Longji. Yang Yuhuan turned to Li Longji and said, "Doctor Kong! Your Majesty! Do you still remember? Sixteen years ago, chenqie contracted a strange disease. The person who saved me was Doctor Kong! "

Li Jinglong glanced at Hongjun. For a moment, the hall was completely silent. Li Longji replied, "There seems to be such a person. I heard Su 'er mention it before … En."

Li Longji hesitated for a moment. Yang Yuhuan smiled and said, "Your mother is Jia Yuze. How are your parents now?"

"They've both passed away." Hongjun said sadly.

Yang Yuhuan was stunned and didn't say anything for a long time. Li Jinglong said behind Hongjun, "The people of the world are all His Majesty's people. It's their duty to share the worries of the Emperor and the Imperial Concubine. Hongjun, the Imperial Concubine is tired. Let her rest well. "

Li Jinglong knew that Li Longji didn't want to talk about the past. After all, Yang Yuhuan was once his daughter-in-law. There were some suspicions of infidelity. Thus, he called Hongjun over. Hongjun said again, "Let's talk about it when you're better."

Li Longji nodded and ordered everyone to leave.

In the side hall, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. After killing the demon last night, fortunately, Xingqing Palace wasn't destroyed. The members of the Exorcism Division didn't go back. They fell asleep in the palace. When they woke up, they ate, took a bath, and changed their clothes. Under the afternoon sun, Li Longji allowed everyone to rest and wait in the tea room. He went to the imperial court to deal with a series of problems in the past few days.

Previously, Li Jinglong had been brought by Li Longji to talk with the officials who entered the palace. First, it was the Supreme Court, then the Ministry of Justice, and then the Commanders of the Six Armies. Only now did he have a chance to take a breather.

"Fortunately, last night didn't involve too many people." Li Jinglong said, "For now, we can handle it. The people of Chang 'an don't know what happened."

"They shouldn't know too much. Just let them smell the Soul Leaving Pollen." Qiu Yongsi said with a smile.

"The last Golden-winged Roc. I don't know where it came from." Mo Rigen said, "It's like a god."

The Carp Demon was sleeping at Hongjun's feet. When it heard this, it looked up vigilantly and glanced at Hongjun. Hongjun stammered. Fortunately, the others didn't notice his abnormality. They tirelessly discussed the appearance of the Golden-winged Roc.

The Golden-winged Roc was a legendary divine bird. It had a very high reputation among the people of the Tang Dynasty. In the end, everyone unanimously came to the conclusion that the bird might have been the guardian of the Tang Dynasty. After the fox demon occupied Chang 'an, it left for a while. But after the Exorcism Division worked hard, it finally returned and guarded the Tang Dynasty.

Was it? Hongjun himself didn't know that Qing Xiong had such a big background. It seemed that even demons had a good reputation and a bad reputation.

When evening came, Li Longji still did not let everybody go back. He waited until after the evening meal, when the Son of Heaven bestowed a meal, before a eunuch announced that His Majesty was summoning him at the Golden Flower Fall. Thereupon he held a lantern and led everybody to the side chamber.

In the early winter, the four hundred year old ginkgo tree in the Golden Flower Fall had lost all its leaves. It was bare in the middle of the pond. On the huge screen in the Golden Flower Fall, it was still bright and clear, but the scene had changed to a sky full of snow. Behind the screen, a figure was still gently plucking the zither strings, occasionally making one or two sounds. It was like a clear spring in the snow, making one feel relaxed and happy.

The five of them still sat in the seats where Li Jinglong and Hongjun sat last time. Qiu Yongsi was still arguing with Mo Rigen about who would win in the fight between the Golden-winged Roc and the flood dragon. After a while, someone announced, "The Crown Prince has arrived."

Li Jinglong didn't expect the Crown Prince to come. He hurriedly stood up to welcome him. A tall, thin, and dark-skinned middle-aged man quickly walked in. He lightly patted Li Jinglong's shoulder and smiled. "Jinglong."

"Your Highness!" Li Jinglong was both surprised and happy.

This person was the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty, Li Heng. When Li Linfu was on the throne, Li Heng was ostracized and led the army outside. Last year, when Li Linfu was dealt with, Li Heng finally got rid of a big problem. He had one less enemy and finally made a name for himself. Li Longji made him the Crown Prince and summoned him back to the Chang 'an.

"King Chu has arrived."

"King Shou has arrived."

Before Li Heng left the capital, he had met Li Jinglong several times. Li Jinglong's Long Wu Army had accompanied Li Heng to the hunting grounds of Mount Li to hunt. At that time, Li Jinglong had a good impression of Li Heng. Li Heng also had a deep impression of this young man who spent all his family's wealth to buy a sword. Li Jinglong even had the thought of following Li Heng to the northwest.

However, in order to protect himself, Li Heng didn't have the time to get close to Li Jinglong and hurriedly left the Chang 'an.

"Oh, who is this?" Li Heng saw Hongjun behind Li Jinglong and turned around with a smile. "He's even better than our family's!"

King Chu Li Yan and King Shou Li Mao came together. The people of the Exorcism Department hurriedly bowed. Li Mao looked like his mother, Wu Huifei. He was handsome but lacked some masculinity. Li Yan, on the other hand, had the temperament of a martial artist. There was a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

"Imperial Father ordered us to come first so that we can get closer to Jinglong." Li Yan smiled. "The ignorant are fearless. Last night, such an earth-shattering event happened and we actually slept through it."

"Your Highnesses have the protection of the true dragon's might," Li Jinglong hurriedly said. "Ordinary demons naturally can't do anything to you."

As they spoke, the two sides took their seats. Hongjun observed the crown prince and saw that he was wearing a string of jade beads. The beads were the size of mutton fat. They were glossy and radiated light, making him feel even more intimate. He said, "Your beads are small with me …"

Li Heng observed his expression and smiled. "Do you like it? I'll give it to you. "

As he spoke, Li Heng took off the string of beads and had someone pass it to Hongjun. This time, Li Jinglong was moved. Hongjun was about to decline, but Li Jinglong didn't know whether to accept or not. He could only say to Hongjun, "Why aren't you thanking him?"

Li Heng's string of jade beads was called the "Heavenly Mountain God's Tears". Ten years ago, Li Heng had personally led Gao Xianzhi to the Seven Rivers Basin. When Ge Luolu had become a subject, he had offered it to Gao Xianzhi. Over the years, Li Heng had loved it so much that he couldn't part with it.

Hongjun couldn't bring himself to say, "It's exactly the same as the beads I played with when I was a child." He could only accept it with both hands and hurriedly say, "Thank you."

The princes exchanged a few words with each other, each with their own style. From their words, it seemed that they hadn't seen each other in a long time. However, they all followed Li Heng's lead. When Li Heng spoke, everyone fell silent. Seeing this, Hongjun couldn't help but think of what the Madam of Guo had said before her death. If Yang Yuhuan had also given birth to a child, perhaps the child would be younger than them and would be sitting here right now.

After defeating the fox demon, Qiu Yongsi had analyzed the situation. Although he didn't know what kind of magic the fox demon had used, it was probably extremely vicious. It had made Yang Yuhuan pregnant three times with Li Longji's child, but she couldn't give birth successfully. Li Jinglong's guess was that the Madam of Guo didn't want Yang Yuhuan to give birth to a prince for Li Longji, so there might be changes.

However, all of this became an eternal secret with the death of the fox demon. It was also because of this that Li Heng's position as crown prince was no longer threatened.

"Father is still in the middle of a meeting," Li Heng said with a smile. "Jinglong, tell us what happened."

Li Jinglong started from the beginning, including the imperial examinations that the princes did not know about. He described the entire process in detail. Halfway through, Li Longji arrived, but indicated that there was no need to be overly courteous. After listening to Li Jinglong's recount, the princes' faces were filled with shock.

"This …" Li Heng sighed to Li Longji. "I didn't know it was so dangerous!"

Qiu Yongsi said, "Although demons ran rampant and caused chaos, the heavens protected the Tang Dynasty. At the last moment, a golden-winged Roc fell from the sky. It was an auspicious sign."

"Yes." Li Longji sighed. "I saw the Roc with my own eyes."

Hongjun thought to himself, Fortunately, it wasn't the Chong Ming that came. Otherwise, just putting out the fire would take three days and three nights.

Li Heng and the others nodded, but their eyes were still filled with confusion. It was clear that they didn't believe this story, and their faces were saying, 'What the hell is this?'. But since Li Longji believed this story, they could only let him be.

After this, Li Longji's expression seemed to be even more exhausted. After listening to the story, he forced himself to be spirited and said, "In the end, it was a carp that saved your mother."

"Carp." Li Yan and Li Mao still hadn't recovered from the thought of 'you're kidding me' and subconsciously nodded. Li Mao said, "Carp is not bad."

"It's a good fish." Li Heng listened to the string of stories about the fox demon and the turtle fish. He didn't know how to comment and could only nod in agreement.

Li Longji asked again, "Where's the fish?"

"Zhao Zilong." Hongjun tilted his head and said, "I'm calling for you."

The Carp Demon poked his head out from behind the table and moved his mouth. He looked at the Hetian Yuzhu that Hongjun had placed on the table and then looked at the princes. In an instant, the Golden Flowers Fall was silent.

The Carp Demon said, "When you see injustice on the road, draw your sword and help. Don't be polite."

"Waah —"

The three princes were so shocked that they almost choked. They knocked over their teacups and almost called for the guards. Li Longji laughed loudly and said, "So, now you believe me?"

Li Heng's heart still had lingering fear. He lowered his head to look at the carp, but quickly regained his composure and nodded. "Now we believe you."

"I promised in front of the Xuande Gate that whoever saves the Imperial Consort will be rewarded." Li Longji asked, "What do you want? Speak. "

The Carp Demon suddenly thought of something and said, "There's no need to be an official. It's quite strange for a carp to be an official. I just have a favor to ask. Your Majesty, I once had a benefactor who is now dead. I heard that he left a lot of relics in the Xingjiao Temple. Can you give me one as a memento? "

"Of course." Li Longji said to Li Heng, "In a few days, you can go and do it for him."

"Yes, yes." Li Heng wiped his sweat with his sleeve and hurriedly nodded. Li Yan and Li Gui were still looking at the Carp Demon with fear. The Carp Demon poked his head into Hongjun's teacup and drank a few mouthfuls of tea. He was used to the human's gaze, so he shrank back into the table and lay down at Hongjun's feet.

Li Longji said again, "Of course, Jinglong's contribution in eliminating the demon is indispensable. Starting tomorrow, the Exorcism Department will reward you. I'll also give you a piece of land. When the time comes, you can choose it yourself. "

Li Jinglong hurriedly bowed to express his gratitude. Li Longji said to Li Heng, "Originally, the Exorcism Department was under Guozhong. Starting tonight, it will be under your command."

Everyone knew that Li Longji had seen the Exorcism Department's godly abilities. He was still worried about leaving it in the hands of an outsider. He still had to keep it in the Li family and serve the imperial family. Now that he had directly given it to the crown prince and listened to everything the crown prince said, the emperor could sleep soundly at night.

"I do have a question." Li Heng asked again, "Jinglong, are there any demons left in Chang 'an? How many are there?"

Li Jinglong pondered for a moment before replying, "There's almost none left, but I can't say for sure if there's not one left."

Everyone looked at each other. In fact, the Exorcism Department had already set out separately yesterday to observe various places in the city. Last night, they had discussed repeatedly on the Star Observation Platform. Chang 'an was no longer like before, when there was a haze shrouding the city. Presumably, with the death of the Demon King, all the demons had scattered like monkeys on a fallen tree.

Mo Rigen said, "The return of the Golden-winged Great Peng is the strongest evidence. Although we don't know where it is hiding, there shouldn't be any abnormalities in the short term."

"Oh …" Li Longji nodded. "The Garuda is painted in the Great Mercy Temple. It's the divine bird that guards the country against demons and evils. Since it's returned, there's no need to worry. Alright, that's all."

Li Longji clearly had no intention of staying any longer. He had to go back to see Yang Yuhuan. Everyone stood up to send him off. After the Emperor left, Li Jinglong chatted with the princes for a while. Seeing that everyone was somewhat absent-minded, Li Heng was the first to disperse. He left the Golden Flower Fall and personally sent Li Jinglong and the others to the main hall of Xingqing Palace.

It had rained last night. At this moment, the night sky was filled with brilliant stars. The Milky Way was like a belt, and the stars illuminated the earth. After the execution of the fox demon, Chang 'an's atmosphere had clearly changed.

"Your Highness." Li Jinglong turned around and said, "The Exorcism Department has divine abilities, but it's unable to deal with mortals who don't understand magic. Please understand."

"Of course." Li Heng smiled. "Imperial Father specially warned us today that he wouldn't send you all to do mundane things like assassinations. I hope that the sharp sword that is the Exorcism Department will never be unsheathed again. "

Li Jinglong replied indifferently, "I hope so."

After that, Li Jinglong and Li Heng bowed to each other. They had a tacit understanding. Li Jinglong led the Exorcism Department to pledge loyalty to the future Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, while the Crown Prince thanked the Exorcism Department for saving his family. The two of them left the drill ground.

"It seems like there's no demonic aura. It's really different." Hongjun said with a smile.

Mo Rigen replied, "It's strange. Right now, the night sky looks like it's on a grassland."

The Carp Demon behind Hongjun replied, "When demonic aura enveloped Chang 'an, the stars were dark and gloomy. Guest stars offended their masters, and there was a murderous aura. Now that the Demon King is dead, the spiritual energy of the stars naturally increased. "

Everyone walked on the drill ground. Just as they were about to leave the Meridian Gate, Mo Rigen took a few breaths of fresh air and said, "But I don't know where Hei Jiao went."

Qiu Yongsi gave Mo Rigen a meaningful glance, but this small gesture couldn't escape Li Jinglong's eyes. Li Jinglong asked, "What's wrong?"

"We'll talk about it in a few days." Qiu Yongsi smiled. "There are some things that need to be discussed in the long run."

Li Jinglong didn't ask and nodded. Suddenly, a carriage came and stopped in front of the Meridian Gate. A person came down from the carriage. It was Li Longji.

"Your Majesty?!" Li Jinglong said in surprise.

"Accompany Zhen for a walk." Li Longji said, "Hongjun, Imperial Consort Gui has a few things to ask you."

Everyone tactfully left the palace. Li Longji took Li Jinglong and walked along the Meridian Gate to the edge of the drill ground. Hongjun had the Carp Demon follow Mo Rigen back. He got into the carriage and lit a brazier. Yang Yuhuan was wrapped in a large cloak and was lost in thought. When she saw Hongjun, she smiled slightly.

"Your Majesty doesn't like me to talk about the past." Yang Yuhuan said softly, "You can listen to it, but you can't talk about it too often."

Hongjun asked, "Why? I was just about to ask you … "

Yang Yuhuan smiled and said, "You grew up at home and didn't know much about the world, right?" She touched Hongjun's ear and asked, "What happened? Where did you get hurt? "

Hongjun tilted his head and scratched the edge of his injured ear. He answered, "It's nothing. I always bumped into things when I was young. It's just a minor injury."

Yang Yuhuan sighed and asked about Hongjun's family. Hongjun gave her a simple explanation. Yang Yuhuan said, "That is to say, after Yuze and Doctor Kong passed away, you spent twelve years on the mountain."

"What kind of people were my parents?" Hongjun had no memory of his parents.

"A perfect pair." Yang Yuhuan said softly, "A golden boy and a jade girl. Your mother was a daughter of the Jia family in Huayin. She once accompanied me to Chang 'an to attend Princess Xianyi's wedding … Not long after, there was a plague in Luoyang, Hongnong, Sili, and other places. Your father practiced medicine to help the world and saved many lives. "

Yang Yuhuan looked up at Hongjun. Hongjun pondered for a moment and remembered what Madam Guo said before she died. He was still worried, so he pressed his finger on Yang Yuhuan's pulse.

"His Majesty told me everything about my sister." Yang Yuhuan whispered, "When did she come to me? Do you know, Hongjun?"

Hongjun frowned and checked Yang Yuhuan's meridians again with the Five-colored Divine Light. Yang Yuhuan didn't practice martial arts like Li Jinglong, so her meridians were empty and didn't reject his Five-colored Divine Light.

Hongjun crossed his arms and stepped on the partition of the carriage. He tilted his head and asked Yang Yuhuan, "Do you remember when you saw something strange?"

"When I was young, I saw a white fox." Yang Yuhuan pondered and said, "When I was fourteen."

"White fox?" Hongjun suddenly felt that something was wrong. "Isn't it gray?"

Yang Yuhuan nodded and said, "Later, after I married … married Li Meng, I fell seriously ill. I was tortured in my dreams and had a high fever. Before I fell ill, your father and mother suddenly came to the mansion and said that I would be in trouble soon. There was only one way to save my life. "

"What way?" Hongjun asked.

Yang Yuhuan frowned and said, "He drew a mark on my back with medicine and said that it could ward off demons …"

Hongjun felt as if lightning had exploded in his mind. He vaguely deduced what had happened.