The emperor summoned the ministers to the great hall and announced that the great prince Orede would take his place in handling state affairs, and exercised all of the emperor’s rights and duties.

The ministers, each with their own little thoughts, all had different expressions. In the hearts of those associated with the second prince, they naturally didn’t want to agree with the emperor’s decision. But the laws and customs of the empire stipulated that whether in the nobility or the royal family, the eldest son would be the sole heir. Unless the eldest son died, or there were some other exceptional circumstances, only then might the second son have the chance to inherit. Now that the great prince’s body was back to normal, they couldn’t think of any reason to oppose the emperor’s decision.

The second prince Louis lowered his head, his eyes full of anger and unwillingness.

Just when neither the ministers nor the second prince could speak out, Carnia stepped forward and said, “Your Majesty, his Majesty the great prince has never been able to dispel the demon magic in his body in the last five years, and now he suddenly returned to normal. I believe that there is something strange about it.”

The emperor narrowed his eyes. “What do you think is strange?”

“The great prince was injured by the demon clan’s blood pearl treasure. The blood pearl only creates a single drop every two thousand years, the demon magic contained within it is extremely dense. After entering the human body, it can never be cleared.” Carnia was extremely certain.

“You seem to have a good understanding about it.” Orede smiled sarcastically.

Carnia said with a serious and earnest expression, “Previously I wanted to help the great emperor clear out the demon gas, so I went to great lengths to research the demon blood pearl, but unfortunately I also couldn’t clear the demon blood essence. How strong my light power is, I’m sure all of the ministers here are well aware, and even I was unable to succeed, then how did the great prince suddenly recover?”

Carnia looked at Jing Yang standing next to Orede. “I hope that the great prince will not be blinded by some people, think of the fake light power as real light power, and then later on it will definitely become an even greater tragedy.”

“Since you’re so about it, then how would you like to prove that the demon magic in my body hasn’t been cleared out?” Orede asked.

“The simplest way is also the most effective, the great prince just needs to stand under the holy spring of the light temple and allow the spring water to wash over his body. If demon magic still exists, then everyone will be able to see.” Carnia really did not believe that all of the demon magic in Orede’s body had been cleared. The demon king himself had personally confirmed to him how powerful the demon blood pearl was. He even more so did not believe that Sylvie’s light power would be able to clear out the demon magic from the blood essence, something that even his grandfather couldn’t do, how could he achieve it.

Orede was just waiting for him to say this. “That is possible, but for how long I have to stand under the holy spring, you will also need to stand in the holy spring for that long. I dare to agree with your method, then do you dare to agree to my request?”

Carnia’s heart tightened, he guessed flusteredly, Orede making such a request, could it be that he found out something. But because he was concerned about making others suspicious, he didn’t dare to hesitate too long. After pausing a bit, he immediately agreed, “My light power is not only very strong, but also very real, I of course dare to agree.”

Jing Yang and Orede exchanged a glance. They knew that Carnia agreeing to their request so quickly meant that he definitely had a trump card. But that didn’t matter, they were just trying it out, even if the holy spring didn’t expose Carnia’s demon magic, they would still think of other methods to make him expose himself.

The ministers also wanted to confirm that Orede had really cleared out all of his demon gas. Carnia had made the request that they all didn’t dare to make, which was exactly along with their intentions.

The emperor brought the ministers with him to the temple of the holy light.

Orede took off his clothing, exposing his strong muscles. Only wearing a pair of thin trousers, he walked into the holy springs and stood.

The holy light spring had appeared after the light column disappeared, and thousands of years later, the water flow had become much smaller. And when the spring water is retrieved, the light power would also slowly dissipate. The spring water that used to be placed in Orede’s temple to enclose him needed to be replaced every five days.

Those who have light power, when being washed by the spring water, would glow with holy light. Those with demon magic in their bodies, when being washed by the holy spring water, would be surrounded by a black fog.

The water flowed down from Orede’s head, washing over his body. Carnia and Louis stared hard at his body, anxiously waiting for the black mist to appear.

Orede’s spiritual strength was very high, but he did not have any light power. The demon magic in his body had already been cleared, so when standing under the spring, normally nothing would happen. But after he was washed by the spring water for a while, his body was surrounded by a white mist-like light, extremely faint, but still clearly visible to the naked eye.

The white light emitted from Orede’s body was the holy light that had been left in his body when Jing Yang was helping him clear the demon magic, which still had not completely dissipated.

Carnia was completely stunned, and he howled in his heart, impossible! That’s impossible!

The ministers looked at each other. The ministers who had supported Orede were finally relieved, and those who had supported Louis were regretful in their hearts, but they still had nothing they could say.

Louis stared hard and watched Orede come out of the spring, his heart incomparably disappointed.

Orede dried his body, took his clothes from his attendant and put them back on, then said to the frozen Carnia, “Your turn.”

Carnia came back to his senses, looked at the spring water, and clenched his teeth. He took off his outer clothes, walking under the spring in his inner clothes. He kept his back to the crowd and didn’t turn around, afraid that they would see his painful expression while being washed by the spring water.

The demon king had given him the treasure, an , that was always kept in his body. He had had a bone taken out of his body, and then had this illusion bone replaced in it. The illusion bone could not only hide the demon magic in his body, but could also create the illusion of holy light when he released his demon magic. But illusions are still false in the end, even if he was just standing under the spring, and it looked like his holy light power was dense and strong, he would still feel extreme pain from being flushed by the holy light water.

This kind of pain like his flesh was being peeled and his bones were being scraped made his face twisted and pale. He persisted for only a dozen seconds before his body couldn’t support any longer, falling to the ground.

Louis rushed over to hold him. “Carnia, are you all right?!”

Carnia’s expression was very ugly, covering his stomach. “My wounds…really hurt.”

“As someone with the power of light, you actually suffer from so much pain while under the holy light spring water, isn’t this the real strange thing?” Orede coldly said.

Carnia couldn’t speak from the pain, but Louis looked up, indignantly defending him. “If it weren’t for royal brother hitting him previously and making him suffer a very serious injury, how could he be in so much pain!”

Orede mocked, “You are really good at finding excuses for him, the holy light spring water would only be beneficial for those with light power, never harmful. I’ve never heard of a man with light power collapsing from pain while in the holy light spring. You best be able to always protect him like this, and not regret it one day.”

Louis hugged Carnia up and firmly said, “Royal brother, rest assured, I will definitely never regret. But royal brother, you better !”

After Louis finished, he held Carnia and quickly left. The emperor watched everything, a sharp light shining in his eyes.

The demons had signed a peace treaty with the humans, which had only exchanged for five years of peace. But now Orede had killed their demonic beast, which meant they were likely to break this kind of peace. The ministers who supported Louis seized upon this point and hoped that emperor would not take back all of Louis’s rights. They believed that the demons were only willing to keep the peace because of Carnia and Louis, and now Orede had killed the demonic beast, so they still needed to rely on the two of them to negotiate with the demons.

The meaning of those ministers who supported Louis was very clear, right now Orede needed to rely on Louis to clean up this situation, and the peace between the humans and demons would also need to be sustained by Louis and Carnia.

Not long afterward, the demons did send a message, saying that the human royal family had killed their demonic beast, which was deliberately wanting to provoke war. As a result, then they would follow the human royal family’s wishes, and prepare for war.

As for whether or not to go to war, the ministers argued for a long time.

After Jing Yang’s holy light treatment, the emperor’s health was much better than before. Even though he was unable to fully recover, he was at least able to preside over the ministers’ quarrel and personally make decisions.

After a private consultation between the emperor and Orede, in front of all of the ministers, he announced that they would send a diplomatic group to go to the border between the humans and the demons to negotiate. Orede and Louis would simultaneously represent the diplomatic group, and each would bring a group of people with them, which the emperor would personally select.

This news made Carnia ecstatic. Louis and Orede would go to the border at the same time, which meant that he would also be able to follow along. Then later with the demon king’s help, he would make Orede and Sylvie never be able to return.

The emperor chose all military officers for Orede, and for Louis, all of them were those officials who supported him.

In the past few years, Orede’s former subordinates had been transferred by Louis to remote locations, and defensive points and important positions had all been replaced with Louis’s men. Now that Orede’s body had recovered, they were all being brought back to Orede’s side. Their feelings of joy and excitement were uncontrollable, each returning to the capital as quickly as possible.

The two groups seemed to be departing together, but in reality their division was clear. Each side didn’t like the other, and also maintained a certain distance away from each other.

When resting halfway through, they would settle down in a small temple and wait to continue in the morning.

Orede got off his horse and walked to Jing Yang’s carriage. He opened the door and reached up to help him down. “Be careful.”

Jing Yang placed his hand in Orede’s hand, got out of the carriage, and walked side by side with him into the little temple.

Carnia, who was also walking off his carriage, saw this scene, and was filled with jealousy, as if thousands of ants were biting at his heart. He felt that he was hundreds of times stronger than Sylvie, but Orede actually liked Sylvie and not him. He was simply blind, he definitely had to make him experience the taste of regret.

———

[1] – 頭頭是道, clear and logical, good argument

[2] – 靈像骨, basically a camouflage bone

[3] – 重蹈覆轍, means to repeat a disastrous policy