Chapter 831: The Price

  Thank you for the powerful support from brothers, this book successfully rushed to the new book list on the homepage last night, which is the greatest encouragement for Xiaoxian. However, due to the signing contract of this book reaching the starting point after the recommendation arrangement yesterday, there will still be no website recommendation next week, and it needs everyone's continued support to continue impacting the new book list on the homepage. Xiaoxian explains the situation here in advance, please remember to support "Han Huang System" next week! In addition, a book club has been set up, friends who like this book can join the group chat, give Xiaoxian more opinions, and thank you for supporting this book. It's really not easy for new authors to write books, readers have already found many problems, Xiaoxian is working hard to improve, thank you all brothers who support this book!

  However, Liu Bian was clear in his mind that today should not have any results because the progress of his branch task was only 50%, it should be impossible to complete directly like this, so he didn't take this matter to heart.

  After the banquet was over, Liu Bian also moved into the Northern Palace. He chose a palace called Xian De Hall, which was close to the outer wall of the palace and had a large garden behind it, suitable for setting up a training ground.

  After Liu Bian had arranged everything in the palace, he went to Ning'an Palace because he received a system prompt that the third temporary task had appeared, and the content of the task was unexpected.

  "Temporary mission: Kill Wang Meiren, time limit ten days."

  "Mission Reward: Increase combat power by a small level, 500 merit points, 10 faith points, and randomly gift one strange item."

  "Task Penalty: Reduce combat power by two small levels, deduct 1,000 merit points, and faith by 20 points."

  Liu Bian was familiar with history and knew that Wang Meiren had been poisoned by Empress He, but he hadn't expected the system to assign such a task to him. Apart from the time limit, there were no other difficulties because this was different from the previous two temporary tasks, which did not require changing history.

  However, after careful consideration, Liu Bian felt that perhaps the difficulty of this task lay in its time limit. He couldn't recall when Wang Mei Ren was poisoned by Empress He in history, but it probably wasn't these few days. Killing Wang Mei Ren ahead of time now seemed to not change history, but perhaps some historical events had already been altered.

  "The child pays respects to his mother."

  Liu Bian received the task prompt and immediately rushed to Ning'an Palace. To complete this task, his personal strength was not enough, he must have the support of Empress He.

  "No need to be overly polite, today's matter of establishing the crown prince may not have been settled, but for us it is also a victory. I know that in your father's heart he originally wanted to establish Liu Xie as the crown prince, but today you really performed exceptionally well, and with the support of many officials for my son, your father hesitated, which means your opportunity has arrived."

  The empress was overjoyed, and she excitedly told Liu Xian, "To be honest, I was worried that my son wouldn't make anything of himself, but I didn't expect that in just half a year, he would become so excellent!"

  "Empress, to be honest, for the Crown Prince, the position of Crown Prince is a must-have. In the past, I was not competitive enough, but it won't be the case in the future. The imperial brother is still young after all, if he wasn't instigated by her behind his back, he wouldn't have said those words to the Emperor. Now, the biggest obstacle for me to ascend to the position of Crown Prince is that lowly woman Wang Meiren. If she were gone, I believe the Emperor would no longer be biased towards her."

  "That Wang Meiren is a worthless person, recently she seems to have contracted some kind of illness that's too shameful to be seen by others, it's better if she just dies from the disease."

  "Empress Dowager, since Wang Meiren is ill, as the Empress in charge, shouldn't you go see her? Even if she doesn't die from illness, the Empress Dowager can still make her die."

  "Yes, I wonder why I didn't think of that. No wonder your father hasn't spent the night at her place for some time now. It seems she really has some problem. But with eunuchs Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong by her side, as well as the imperial guards led by Xiaohuangmen Jian Shuo, it won't be easy to make her illness worse."

  "Empress, what's difficult about this? As long as you use a large sum of money to buy off one or two people closest to her, everything can be easily resolved. Who would dare not listen to you, the Empress? Now that the Emperor doesn't even go to see her anymore, it's as if she were already dead; even then, the Emperor wouldn't care about her."

  "You're right, this matter requires careful consideration by the empress dowager. If we are to act, we must do so discreetly and avoid any leaks, for even though I am the empress, if word gets out and reaches the ears of the court officials, it will have an adverse impact."

  "The empress dowager has made her move, and I believe it won't be a loss for us. It's just better to get rid of her quickly, otherwise if time drags on and her illness gets better, we'll lose our chance."

  "This matter, you don't need to worry about it anymore. The Empress Dowager will naturally eliminate all obstacles for you. If I don't let her illness get better, she won't recover. When I say that her illness should worsen, it will worsen at that time. My son, during this period of time, you also need to be more careful. In the palace, there are all sorts of people, especially many eyes and ears of the Ten Attendants. Although they dare not disobey the Empress Dowager, sometimes they still pretend to obey but actually disobey. And the Imperial Guard is in the hands of Wei Zheng, I'm afraid they might be unfavorable to you."

  "Don't worry, Mother. I will still be staying at the Shi residence for the time being because Xian De Hall needs some renovation and it's expected to be ready in about ten days. At that time, I'll move back here. By the way, the maids and old servant women at the Shi residence have been very nice to me, so I'd like them to come with me to attend to my needs. Also, I hope to bring some of the Imperial Guards sent by Uncle to protect my safety."

  "These are all small matters, as long as you're happy, Mother will certainly agree."

  Liu Bian then left the Ning'an Palace and returned to the Shi estate. For this temporary task, he could not rely solely on Empress He, although historically it was indeed Empress He who sent someone to poison Wang Meiren. However, with a time limit of ten days now, he did not know if Empress He would be able to do so within that timeframe, so he had to think of other methods.

  "Mr. Shi, do you know some imperial physicians in the palace?"

  "Your Majesty, I often study medicine and pathology with the imperial physicians in the palace, so I'm quite familiar with them."

  "Alright, tomorrow you go and find out which imperial physician is treating Wang Meiren's illness, and bring him to the mansion for a visit. Just say it's to help me take a look at my condition."

  "Ah, Prince Wang, you've fallen ill, where does it hurt? Let me take a look."

  "The king is not sick at all, he just wants him to help with some things. However, if he doesn't say he's sick and asks for his help, it will cause trouble. And when you bring him back, it's best that no one sees you, understand?"

  "Oh, I see."

  Liu Bian didn't care whether he really understood or not, and went back to his room to practice. His martial arts had now reached F9 level, and it wouldn't be long before he could advance to E level. This filled him with confidence in his future.

  As for how Shi Daoren went to invite the imperial physician, Liu Bian didn't think about this issue, because Shi Daoren had been in and out of the palace for over a decade. If he couldn't even handle such a small matter, he would have been kicked out of the palace long ago.

  It is by