15 Everyone with their own schemes

Following Li Feng's birth, Yao Cheng was blessed with a total of eight more sons one after the other with the first one being born less than half a year after Li Feng.

Unfortunately putting aside how Yao Cheng due to this was even more sure that Li Feng was the auspicious sign awaited by his kingdom, the king was disappointed at how useless each one of them was.

Excluding his three oldest sons, the remaining six of them were so useless and narrow minded that Yao Cheng still had a hard time believing that they were his sons.

Despite all of this, Yao Cheng had granted all of his sons a higher status than his daughters who were older than them because in his view most of his daughters were only good for political marriage and as gifts to anyone who does something which benefits his kingdom.

Excluding the second princess whose talent was only lesser than Li Feng, that is.

But as the saying goes, good things come alone, but bad things arrive in groups.

To Yao Cheng who had just begun dreaming about finally fulfilling the dream of his ancestors, he learnt that Li Feng was not interested in the throne, and the out of the other two who were worth it, one of them had trash talent in cultivation, and the other one's situation was too complicated to let him ascend the throne.

In the end though, no king could leave the position of the crown prince unoccupied for too long since not only did this trigger the fighting intent of the others and might bring out pleasant surprises, but also because there needed to be someone who could ascend the throne and keep the kingdom from falling, Yao Cheng ended up choosing his second eldest son, Yao Lin.

Though his identity was complicated due to being Zhi Rou's daughter, due to which him becoming the next king would mean that the power of the throne would essentially belong entirely to the Zhi Clan, it was better than letting his third son become the crown prince.

After all, even though Yao Long was very smart, his talent in cultivation couldn't be any worse due to which it was impossible to let him obtain the throne.

Even if Yao Cheng chose to forget his orthodox thinking of how strength reigned supreme and even an idiot could rule the world if they were strong enough, Yao Cheng really couldn't let Yao Long become the crown prince and then the king due to how short his lifespan was.

A hundred years might seem like long, but how long could Yao Long rule the kingdom after becoming the king?

Ten, twenty? At most thirty years. After thirty years, Yao Long would be forced to leave the throne and let someone else become the next king.

When that happened, how would he ensure that he would be able to choose the next king, or even that any of his successors would be better than him?

'Don't blame me son, it's your own fault for being so useless.'

Not bothering with thinking about any of his other sons for the time being, Yao Cheng looked towards the only one he felt that mattered.

Li Feng.

Despite the thoughts he had, Yao Cheng after learning that Li Feng had no thoughts on becoming the king had long since started making plans on how to tie him down to the kingdom for as long as possible.

When that happened, he'd do everything possible to push Li Feng up the throne even if it was only for a few years.

Everything was fine as long as Li Feng finished his goal and ruled the entire world.

As for the other princes, so what if all of them were going to fight? Everything would be fine as long as at least two brothers stuck together.

Considering that one of them is Li Feng.

After all, just like how a man needed two legs to stand straight, two strong brothers who were bonded by blood were what his kingdom needed to rule the world

One king and one general.

As for his remaining sons, it was good if they had enough brain to support Li Feng to the throne, if not, he wouldn't bother even if they were killed due to their greed for the throne

As for Li Feng losing? Laughable.

Even if you put aside his own talent in cultivation, Yao Cheng never revealed it but he himself was always afraid of the maid who followed him.

Therefore, how could it be possible that with someone whom he feared supporting Li Feng anyone could defeat him?

…

"Congratulations second brother! The throne is yours in the future!"

"Of course it is! Who can hope to compete with our second brother?!"

Inadvertently looking towards Li Feng in the distance when one of them spoke those words, everyone hastily went back to praising the black faced Yao Lin.

At the same time in another corner of the hall was another group of princes surrounding Yao Long.

"Brother Long, we definitely can't let that bastard Yao Lin become the king."

"Yes yes! If that Yao Lin becomes the king, he and his 'noble' lackeys would kill all of us for sure."

Speaking such words despite not being too old, and could even be considered as young for that matter, Yao Cheng's sons who were born to his 'inferior' wives who belonged to lower ranked noble families were all cooking up plans to help Yao Long, the group's unelected leader who was the son of a precious palace maid to become the next king.