Empress Wu and Emperor Hao are a young couple. One is an unfavored prince, and the other is the daughter of a small family, and the two have no sense of existence in the huge court.

Emperor Hao has a gentle personality, never speaks loudly to the Empress Wu, and has beautiful concubines around him, but his pets will not cross his wife. For a woman who is quiet in her duties, this marriage seems impeccable.

It was a very quiet time.

One day, the first emperor suddenly summoned Emperor Hao to study in Xiaolan Hall on a whim. The princes of Great Qin had no privilege to go to school, and they all entered the Taichu School Palace like the children of the nobles of the imperial capital. The first emperor only asked the princes about their studies, and only often brought a few of his favorite sons and nephews with him, and Xiaolan Hall was the place where he read books and put up ideas for his nephews in his spare time.

The first emperor's move to let Emperor Hao enter the Xiaolan Hall should have been eye-catching, but it didn't attract much attention at the time, and the older princes had already fledged up, and the competition for the storage position became more and more fierce, attracting most of the attention of the clan and nobles. Moreover, Emperor Hao's brothers who are expected to have storage positions have all stayed in Xiaolan Palace, even if there will be one more storage competitor in the future, the starting line has fallen behind a lot.

After the rebellion in the court, some people remembered the past and couldn't help but wonder if the emperor had been prepared a long time ago, but the disaster of the palace was too tragic for anyone to speculate.

The most profound memory of Empress Wu is not the promotion of Emperor Hao's status after entering Xiaolan Hall to study, that day was the first time she heard the name Lin Xitang. 's understanding of her husband made her keenly feel that Emperor Hao's happiest thing was not that he finally got the attention of the first emperor, but that he had a prince to speak.

In the days that followed, Empress Wu heard Lin Xitang's name more and more from Emperor Hao's mouth, and the young prince who always had a gentle face became vivid and lively in front of her.

It seemed that a long time later, on the way back from the end of a palace night banquet, Empress Wu saw that person, under the moon, silver hair, wide sleeves, cold as a fairy, too far away to touch. Emperor Hao happily called "teacher", and the man turned his head slightly, smiled, and saluted sideways, as if he was contaminated with red dust in an instant.

Empress Wu suddenly woke up from her memories, and a group of people on the palace road in front of her walked towards her, and the other party had no intention of avoiding the line, and the distance was getting closer and closer. Empress Wu frowned slightly, stopped, raised her hand to signal to the back, and gave way to the left passage.

The pedestrian swept past Empress Wu's side, only some low-ranking female officials saluted, and Concubine Shun didn't even glance at Empress Wu from the corner of her eye, and the gorgeous and dazzling group suddenly broke into the field of vision, and exited shiningly.

According to the rank, the concubine of Concubine Shun is not more than the same as the third-class prince, and there is no reason for the emperor to make way for her. However, Concubine Shun's dominance is not a day or two, the first emperor died, Emperor Hao was in power, and Concubine Shun, who had always been low-key in the harem, suddenly became public, as if she wanted to spew out all the grievances of so many years.

Concubine Shun has looked at her unpleasantly since she was the princess of the martial arts, and now she is sought after by various families competing for the rear position, and she doesn't even have a face.

It's just that Empress Wu has no waves in her heart, and her going, joy, sorrow, happiness or misfortune has never had anything to do with that woman.

Without exception, the female officials and maids around her were either filled with righteous indignation, or comforted and appeased, and blew in the ears of the Empress Wu and the autumn breeze. Her mind drifted away again with the faint fragrance of osmanthus flowers, crossing the palace walls, the wind brushed through the sideburns, and there was a hint of coolness, just like the coolness of the fiery summer night in the Weishui Palace, and it was not chilling.

"Look at these twists and turns, who belongs to the back?! What does Lin Qing think?"

"Later, the emperor's belonging, what His Majesty thinks makes sense. ”

"It was Lin Qing who taught me, the heavenly family has no selfish affairs, don't you say a word about official affairs?"

"There are some things that Your Majesty can dictate to the table. ”

"Teacher, why did you fulfill that marriage contract in the first place?"

“......”

"Teacher, if I can't keep my promise, will you be disappointed in me?"

"Your Majesty, the minister is not an emperor, don't call him that anymore. And you are already pro-government, and no one can doubt your decision, including me. ”

At that moment, Empress Wu, who accidentally heard the secret conversation, should have been apprehensive, but she had a strange sense of peace of mind. The fate of the future never depends on others, but the emperor's ear. And her wish has never been small and ordinary, even if she does not have the ability to control her own destiny, at least she can accept it calmly.

She thought that the days ahead would not be sad, to get rid of those distractions that she had never been used to, to be no longer surrounded by the sudden enthusiasm of the family, to no longer have to look at those bright eyes that could not hide her ambition, to get rid of the heavy crown, maybe she would have more courage to miss that person.

Then, not long after, Empress Wu discovered that it was also a kind of happiness to be able to like it so secretly.

In the distant Kumara sky, the moonlight tides rise and fall and cause the slightest wave on the main star. Only a few hunters on a special mission, wandering in the Phantom Beast Forest, occasionally caught a glimpse of the mist engulfing the rocky beach of the shoreless, and no one dared to enter the forbidden land.

Lin Xitang woke up again and found himself lying on a rock as flat as a tabletop, the white mist like the water flowing like a falling tide, so thin that it couldn't cover the stones under his feet. More than ten paces away is the edge of the rocky beach, where a large forest casts a gloomy silhouette in the night.

It wasn't just a dream.

Lin Xitang sat up and looked at the forest not far away, in the current field of vision, the tree species that can be distinguished by his eyes are very similar to evergreen broad-leaved forests, the canopy is vigorous, such as microwave undulations, the ground shrubs are dense, and the vines are developed.

The forest was not very quiet, and occasionally the neighing of wild beasts and birds of prey pierced the night sky with a ferocity that often saw blood.

This observation says a lot, but it's not enough to tell where you are, and the "pole" nature of the strange rocky beach interferes with the Great Heaven's decision, even at the edges.

Lin Xitang was not in a hurry to go to the other side of the forest to find out, he inspected his body, took off his coat, took out some sundries and weapons in the bag, and then tore his coat into pieces.

This coat is in the style of the Imperial General's uniform, although it is not as defensive as a real combat uniform, and the material is much stronger than normal clothing. The force was suppressed on the rocky beach, and it took Lin Xitang a little effort to tear it apart completely with his saber and bury it under the rock.

Something happened suddenly in the hot spring, and he didn't have anything at hand, but fortunately, he had developed good habits after years of fighting, and he always carried weapons and original crystals with him, as well as some small things commonly used by secret spies.

After Lin Xitang finished cleaning up, he stood up. Now he is wearing a light-colored linen shirt on his upper body, and military pants and military boots underneath, although the texture of the pants and boots is not bad, but unless he is a person who is familiar with the logistics of the Great Qin army, he can't see anything if he doesn't look carefully. His silver hair was still completely black, and he tied it up casually, looking like he was several years younger.

When Lin Xitang stepped out of the edge of the rocky beach, he had not yet gained a firm foothold on the black earth, and the accident was prominent.

The shadow of a sparse bush on the ground squirmed, and a snow-white sword light burst out, sweeping towards Lin Xitang.

This attack is extremely tricky in terms of time and angle, Lin Xitang has just escaped the influence of the shoreless rocky beach, the force can operate, and the knife momentum is coming, the only gap is the right rear, there is a lone rock, but the surface of the stone is moving, obviously someone is ambushing.

But the attacker suddenly found that Lin Xitang's figure had been in front of the sword light, and suddenly reached above him, as if it was always attached to the tip of the knife, and followed the knife momentum in an arc in the air. The next moment, the attacker's throat was slit, and his body fell to the ground like an empty bag, and not even much blood splattered.

The other attacker, who was the same color as the rock surface, had just stood up, and he didn't expect his companion to be killed in a single shot, and seeing the snow-white knife light that was originally controlled by his companion, he didn't pause for a moment, drew a second arc, and flew head-on.