She wiped her face with a hot towel, then asked: “Was it the Seventh Prince who requested the meeting?”

“Not exactly, it was a strategist beside the Seventh Prince.” Wei Zhong told the truth.

She handed the towel to Wei Zhong, her voice gentle and slow as she picked up the salt water at the washstand: “First, send someone to watch over him. Whatever requests the Seventh Prince has, try to satisfy them. There’s no need to meet for now.”

Before Bai Qingyan received the battle report of Prince Han Cheng’s death in battle, she had already sent envoys carrying three fake jade cicadas to Dongyi. Originally, she wanted to stabilize Dongyi, but who would have thought Dongyi would be so bold?

Now the Great Zhou envoys who carried the jade cicadas to Dongyi had long since arrived and were imprisoned together with Liu Rushi. The three jade cicadas on them had all been taken by the Second Prince, who had already ascended to the imperial throne.

The Dongyi Emperor, wearing Dongyi’s black imperial robes, placed the three jade cicadas sent from Great Zhou on the table before him and had the young man from Tianfeng whose legs had been destroyed… who had now become Tianfeng’s Grand Shaman, come forward to examine them.

The young man was carried by guards and placed opposite the Dongyi Emperor. He carefully sensed with his hands above the jade cicadas, then leaned close to examine them carefully before shaking his head: “They’re all fake!”

Hearing this, Sa’er Khan inevitably felt disappointed and raised his hand to signal the guards to carry the Grand Shaman back.

The Dongyi Emperor frowned deeply, picking up the jade cicadas from the table to compare them with the one in his hand. He thought again of what the Great Zhou envoy had said – perhaps the Tianfeng Emperor had generously given the jade cicadas to the Second Prince so that when the Dongyi Second Prince collected the jade cicadas in the future and used the time reversal method, Tianfeng could control Dongyi. At that time, Dongyi would merely be making wedding clothes for Tianfeng.

The Dongyi Emperor glanced at Sa’er Khan, whose brows were tightly furrowed, and said: “I can’t see any difference. Why don’t we try the time reversal method to test them? That would distinguish the real from the fake. I wonder… after having two jade cicadas in hand, what exactly is the method for time reversal?”

Sa’er Khan turned to look at the Dongyi Emperor, glancing at the mother jade cicada in the Dongyi Emperor’s hand. How could he possibly tell the Dongyi Emperor the real method? If this madman dropped the mother jade cicada, and the male jade cicada wasn’t in their hands, the time reversal would occur without bringing memories – everything would repeat exactly as it had happened before, which would only benefit whoever held the male jade cicada… this person might very well be the Great Zhou Emperor.

Originally, Sa’er Khan used this jade cicada to gain the Second Prince’s trust and have him provoke Great Zhou, hoping to make the two countries fight.

Now this Second Prince was acting like a madman, not only sending out almost all the elite naval forces to pursue the Great Zhou envoys, but when he couldn’t find the Seventh Prince, he had Du Yulang wage war against the Great Zhou. After Du Yulang’s death, the Dongyi naval officers brought back Prince Han Cheng’s corpse.

The Second Prince was convinced that the Great Zhou was gambling with Yan, and now would be unwilling to let problems arise at the coast. Bringing back Prince Han Cheng’s corpse was originally just planned to leverage it for more benefits when the Great Zhou sent envoys to sue for peace in the future.

Unfortunately, after Du Yulang’s death, the naval commanders were jointly bought by Tianfeng and Yan. They presumed that the newly enthroned Dongyi Emperor wanted to wage war against Great Zhou anyway, so behind the new emperor’s back, they deliberately made insulting proclamations against Great Zhou, saying… unless the Great Zhou Emperor came personally to claim it, they would chop up Prince Han Cheng’s corpse and feed it to dogs.

Such extreme humiliation… based on Sa’er Khan’s understanding of Bai Qingyan, the Great Zhou Emperor, she would not tolerate it. Even if Bai Qingyan truly didn’t want to fight Dongyi for the sake of the national gambling matter, wouldn’t the former subjects of Great Liang harbor resentment? Bai Qingyan’s coastal territories… even the entire former Great Liang lands would become very troublesome.

The objective had been achieved, and the two countries might be about to fight. Sa’er Khan felt it was time for him to take his leave.

So Sa’er Khan smiled and said: “The method of time reversal, it’s said that when two jade cicadas are placed together, if they’re real… time will reverse, and the person holding both the male and mother jade cicadas will be brought back with the cicadas during the reversal!”

The Dongyi Emperor tried holding the jade cicada in his hand together with the three sent by Bai Qingyan, but indeed nothing happened.

“The Great Zhou Emperor also said that these three were ones she found, but they’re not necessarily real. We could send envoys to the Great Zhou to have the Great Zhou Emperor continue searching, or allow Dongyi to send people into the Great Zhou territory to search. Perhaps the real jade cicadas are in the Great Zhou Emperor’s hands! Only when the Dongyi people go there would it be convenient to investigate, since the Great Zhou is currently amid national gambling and wouldn’t dare wage war with the Dongyi! I only hope that when the Dongyi Emperor can truly achieve time reversal, you won’t forget our two countries’ alliance.” After Sa’er Khan finished speaking, he added, “Calculating the time, I have been away for quite a long time. Tianfeng and Dongyi have signed their alliance, and it’s time to return to Tianfeng. I’ll take this opportunity to bid farewell to the Dongyi Emperor.”

The Dongyi Emperor paid no attention, only focusing on staring at those jade cicadas, gripping them one by one in his palm, trying to attempt time reversal.

When Sa’er Khan came out of the hall, he looked back at the Dongyi Emperor, knowing that this Dongyi Emperor had become obsessed with the time reversal method, just like he had been when he first learned of it.

In this world, even someone like him with truly strong inner resolve and firm goals would be influenced by the jade cicadas, wanting to find the other jade cicada to activate time reversal, let alone this Dongyi Emperor.

After Sa’er Khan brought his people out of the palace and returned to the diplomatic quarters, he said to the guard who had been following him, “Since we’re leaving, find a way to switch back the real jade cicada. We’re returning to Tianfeng!”

“Yes!” the guard beside Sa’er Khan responded.

Sa’er Khan looked at the flickering candlelight, the corners of his mouth curving up. How could he possibly hand over the mother jade cicada for real?

Currently, among the eunuchs serving the Dongyi Emperor, we have our people, and the Dongyi Emperor doesn’t keep the jade cicadas on his person day and night. Soon we should be able to return it to its rightful owner.” The young man who had become the Grand Shaman said in a low voice.

“Our people still need to hurry up and search for the other jade cicada.” Sa’er Khan was deeply worried. Previously isolated on the other side of those snowy mountains, Sa’er Khan truly hadn’t thought beyond the mountains, where powerful nations surrounded them, and their Tianfeng had already lost the best opportunity for expansion. Now they could only rely on the jade cicadas.

“Indeed!” the young Grand Shaman said quietly, “We must hurry our search. Now, the Great Zhou Emperor is certainly anxiously searching for jade cicadas, too. We absolutely cannot let them find the jade cicadas first. Otherwise, after the Great Zhou and Yan merge in three years, whether it’s Yan or Great Zhou… both have the strength to seize the mother jade cicada from our Tianfeng.”