Chapter 262: Your Majesty, Do You Want the Southern Domain?

Xiao Yang had originally planned to soak in the hot springs for ten days, giving herself a proper vacation. She absolutely wouldn’t return to court unless something major happened.

However, after only three days, she beat a hasty retreat back home.

If anyone asked, it was because she loved her work, loved court affairs, and missed her dear ministers.

It was definitely not because she couldn’t handle Li Wei’s seductions.

A woman must never admit she can’t take it!

Mustering her last ounce of pride, Xiao Yang straightened her back, held her head high, and returned to the palace.

Li Wei watched her ’utterly heartless’ departing figure and sighed. He blamed himself for not holding back and scaring her away.

’Still, Her Majesty is so adorable like this.’

And he was finally, completely, Her Majesty’s man. From now on, his soul had a place to rest; he would never be lost again.

A soldier glanced back and saw the Great General grinning like a fool. *Ewww...*

When Xiao Yang actually wanted to get things done, the work was truly endless. It was just that she usually preferred to slack off.

After the New Year, court affairs resumed.

The agricultural Research Institute was complete. The first generation of corn and hybrid rice developed by Xie Liuzheng and others was ready for trial planting.

Agricultural research couldn’t be completed in a year or two; the results would take time.

Meanwhile, the engineering Research Institute was also nearing completion. Prince Jing was its undisputed first director. The Research Institute answered directly to the Emperor, and the Emperor would decide the ownership of all its discoveries.

Engineering was divided into three categories: agricultural, military, and civilian, covering the needs of both the state and the people.

After engineering, a third institute was also ready: the medical Research Institute.

Han Yang was nominated to lead it, but he tried to decline, saying he was too young and his medical skills weren’t refined enough to hold such an important position.

However, the Emperor gave him three reasons: at over forty, he wouldn’t be worked to death and was at the perfect age to strive; if his medical skills weren’t refined, he could learn management first; and last, he could either do a good job, or he could start properly settling the Imperial Hospital’s accounts from over the years.

Han Yang couldn’t straighten his back in the slightest. "This subject will not fail Your Majesty’s trust. I will ensure medicine flourishes and grows."

If medicine failed to prosper, the Emperor would see to it that *he* was scattered to the winds.

The three major Research Institutes were located on the eastern, western, and southern sides of the Imperial City. In addition to the institutes, there were also affiliated schools: classics, military, medicine, engineering, and agriculture.

The schools were still under construction, but the maps were already drawn up. The entire Capital City had more than tripled in size.

Xiao Yang was speechless when she saw it. ’Other people become emperors to enjoy themselves, to hold the world in their palm and beauties in their arms. Why have I become a civil engineer?’

’Building schools, funding research, and I even have to build roads and walls.’

’This doesn’t fit my image as a tyrant at all.’

Just as Xiao Yang was fretting over her public image, a secret letter was quietly delivered to her desk.

She opened and read it nonchalantly, but for a moment, she almost lost control, her expression nearly twisting in shock.

What in the world did he mean, ’accidentally conquered the Southern Domain’?!

And what was this about asking if *she* wanted the Southern Domain?!

The political system of the Southern Domain was rather unique. Alongside the political authority existed a very special appendage: the Witch Clan.

The Southern Domain was home to many venomous creatures, and the Witch Clan controlled the medical system. They could treat all injuries and poisonings from venomous creature bites, and they also possessed the ability to train these creatures.

In the Southern Domain, the Witch Clan’s image was one of reverence, mystery, and strangeness.

The common people couldn’t live without the Witch Clan, and neither could the Royal Family. It was clear, however, that the Witch Clan held more sway with the people than the Royal Family did.

After countless years of evolution, the relationship between the Witch Clan and the Royal Family was close, yet they were also in constant opposition.

The Royal Family could no longer control the Witch Clan, and the Witch Clan coveted the throne.

Historically, the Witch Clan and the Royal Family did not intermarry. But the current Southern Domain King was unable to keep the clan in check, so he set a precedent for marriage between them.

Yin Tianqi was the Southern Domain King’s younger brother. He appeared to be on good terms with the Holy Daughter, Qi Yue, but he was actually part of an anti-Witch Clan faction. Everything—from introducing Qi Yue to Mu Yunlian, to condoning her torture of him, and even bringing her out of the Southern Domain—was part of his scheme.

It was all a trap he had laid. His goal was to use an outsider’s hand to kill Qi Yue, prevent the marriage alliance, and incite a falling-out between the Southern Domain King and the Witch Clan.

Mu Yunlian had clearly sensed something was amiss, but he endured it for the sake of certain collaborations.

All of this happened before he met Xiao Yang. With only money and no real power, how could he dare to provoke the Southern Domain Witch Clan?

When Yin Tianqi saw that Mu Yunlian had settled in Da Wei, he requested to be sent as an envoy in order to kill Qi Yue before the grand wedding. At the same time, he passed information about Mu Yunlian to Qi Yue, secretly luring her out.

He knew Qi Yue’s personality all too well; she was bound to cause trouble. If Mu Yunlian wouldn’t kill her, would the Empress of Da Wei not dare to?

And now, he had succeeded.

Qi Yue had made a move against Mu Yunlian and even used the Mandarin Duck Knot—the very thing the Empress detested most—which finally provoked the Empress into joining forces with him.

Yin Tianqi played on Qi Yue’s ambiguous feelings for Mu Yunlian, adding threats of the Witch Clan’s punishment. With a few words of incitement, he effortlessly convinced Qi Yue to attack the elders and then flee along the route he provided—straight into the Empress’s trap.

Qi Yue was dead, but she had run away on her own accord and had even harmed several elders.

Yin Tianqi and the Empress remained hidden from the whole affair.

Back in the Southern Domain, the grand wedding was approaching, but the Holy Daughter had fled. The Witch Clan was in the wrong, giving Yin Tianqi the exact opportunity he needed to turn the tables and seize power.

He had laid low for many years, waiting for this very chance to take the throne and become the Southern Domain King himself.

In return for Yin Tianqi’s help, Xiao Yang had agreed to lend him an army—one equipped with firearms.

Xiao Yang had agreed. The army was already at the border, but to justify their entry into the Southern Domain, she had dispatched Xiao Hong as an envoy on the second day of the New Year. Xiao Ziling had volunteered to go with him.

It would take ten days at the fastest to travel from the Capital City to the Southern Domain. It was currently only the twenty-third day of the first lunar month, yet Xiao Hong had used a Hai Dongqing to deliver a letter, dropping the first bombshell of the year on Xiao Yang.

Xiao Hong’s orders were not to get involved in the power struggle between Yin Tianqi and his brother, but simply to take the opportunity to deal with the Witch Clan.

He was to obtain the Witch Clan’s secret medicinal formulas and, at the same time, destroy their Gu-rearing Holy Land.

Everything had been proceeding smoothly, but the Southern Domain King resisted to the death, fighting with Yin Tianqi for four or five days. In the end, the Southern Domain King was rescued by the Witch Clan and taken to their Holy Land, where he planned to use an army of Gu insects as a natural barrier.

Unaware of this, Xiao Hong and his people waited for the opportune moment and then simply bombarded the Holy Land.

The Witch Clan’s Holy Land was flattened. Countless oil canisters burned the Gu insects inside, and the towering flames blazed for half a day.

By the time they finally discovered that both the Southern Domain King and Yin Tianqi had died inside, the two were charred beyond recognition.

The Southern Domain King was dead—and killed by the Da Wei people at that. The people of the Southern Domain naturally wouldn’t let it go, and they swarmed forward to settle the score.

Xiao Hong had brought an elite squad of the Black Dragon Cavalry. The troops deployed earlier were led by Ye Shao, and Xiao Ziling was with them as well.

The three of them were forced to fight back. After a frenzied slaughter, they actually managed to scare the attackers into submission.

The situation was now very awkward. They couldn’t leave, but the Southern Domain People couldn’t defeat them either. So, they were forced to occupy the Southern Domain’s royal palace.

The letter concluded by asking Xiao Yang: "Your Majesty, do you want the Southern Domain or not?"

Xiao Yang’s eyelid twitched violently. ’How could they possibly cause such a colossal disaster?’