Ambitious King

After the court session, the King returned to his chambers. While writing, a eunuch went in and bowed, "Your Highness."

"Has the sword of death assassin guild accepted my request?"

"No, your Highness," the eunuch lowered his head to avoid seeing the king's angry countenance.

"What is their reason this time?"

"My king, like always, they didn't say anything," the eunuch explained.

The king stared furiously at the stroke he made on the paper before he crumbled it into a ball and shifted it out of his way before the eunuch spread another sheet for him.

"What about the head guard who escaped that day, have you caught him yet?"

"No, my king. However, I believe they will all be caught this time. The Little Prince would surely come for his parents' ritual unless he's no longer living. As for the guard, I have the intuition that he'll also come," the eunuch said.

The king stayed silent for a while before he asked again, "my sister, has the Emperor not visited her yet?"

"Our people sent a message that the Emperor has never visited any of his concubines ever since they got into his harem."

"Hmm… it's a known fact." The king said and continued writing.

However, the eunuch shook his head, "my King, I don't understand something. Why does the Emperor not like to visit his harem? He also refused to get an Empress for the Kingdom, plus, he didn't reject any woman brought to his harem.

He keeps accepting them and now, Right Prime Minister Su Tian and Left Prime Minister Huan Chung are both preparing to hand their most precious daughters to the Emperor. Does that mean an Empress will soon emerge?"

King Zhou raised his head to look at the eunuch. This boy here used to be his best friend's son. After his best friend died while protecting him, King Zhou took care of his friend's pregnant wife and when she gave birth, King Zhou killed her, castrated the male child, and made him his eunuch, just so he could get a trusted subordinate by his side.

He never stopped to remind the twenty years old eunuch that he was able to enjoy the privileges he has because of his (king Zhou's) benevolence.

Thanks to that, the eunuch would willingly go extreme miles just to show his loyalty and gratefulness to the King, which included doing uncouth things to get information from the Capital.

Matters from the Captain, especially from the Imperial Palace are well concealed but with eunuch Zhi who has the talent to blackmail people, he was able to get confidential information from anywhere.

King Zhou lowered his gaze to his book, "the Emperor is unpredictable. For the Emperor to make the Ministers choose which one of their daughters would be made to carry his heir means that the Emperor is setting them against each other. Keep watching them, we will understand his aim soon."

The king brought out three bottles from his drawer. He placed them on the table and said: "These three bottles should be given to my sister. This blue one…" he pushed the blue bottle forward.

"...Tell her it's for the Emperor. If she can add it to his food or drink a few times, he would become addicted to the opium in it and would start to visit her regularly.

After she realizes that he has fallen victim to opium, she should use this…" he pushed a red bottle to the eunuch.

"This should be burned along with her incense sticks. It's an aphrodisiac."

"Then this third bottle," he held it to his face while looking at it intensely.

"It is for my sister to use. Tell her it would make the Emperor addicted to her. It will help her to win the Emperor's, strong heart... It is good for her to hold him down in bed so she could receive his blessing.

The eunuch accepted all the bottles and bowed before he headed out.

An evil smirk found its way to the King's villainous face.

"The Emperor's position belongs to me, I was born to rule a kingdom not a small Country. Emperor Yin An, watch how I'll slowly get rid of you and snatch the kingdom, just like I did to my family… hahahaha…"

King Zhou's memory flashed to five years ago…

Just like every royal household, his Imperial father, King Shen Huo had fifteen sons and daughters, however, the man favored his first son who was the only child born from the woman he loved.

His Queen died after giving birth to Prince Shen An.

The Little Prince whom the king didn't hide his love for, was taken in by the first Concubine who would stop at nothing to get the king to notice her.

Thanks to her fine move, the king noticed her after she took his beloved son in and started to care for him.

The king found himself in her bed a few times and each time, it resulted in pregnancies. With the frustration and anger that he had betrayed his late Queen, the king started to visit his harem more and conferred his favors on all his concubines.

His idea was that, after all his 20 concubines started to have their own children, no one would have time to plot against Prince Shen An.

His plan worked well for years as the concubines fought against themselves. Some killed each other while some died in the cold Palace.

However, the quietest ones in the harem are always the most scheming ones.

This statement was proven right when the one whom everybody thought had no interest in power struggle turned out to be the villain who had been causing the downfall of every other concubine and their children.

This evil woman was none other than Prince Zhou's birth mother.

Her evil was exposed when she tried to kill Prince Shen An. The King didn't have a second thought before he threw her into the cold palace and ever since then, Prince Zhou who had always been the odd one among the other princes became more distant from everyone.