The golden palace, the East Hall.
At this moment, in a study room within the palace, two men were playing chess in front of the table.
These two men, one old and one young.
The younger one had an elegant temperament and features that were somewhat similar to both Yan Fengjun and Yan Chen.
However, his face and figure were clearly weaker.
This person was precisely the third prince, Yan Hongyi.
The other old man, with white hair and eyebrows, had a pair of gleaming eyes.
His name is Yang Zhe, was once a Crown Counselor who assisted the Crown Prince, the official position is not low.
But a few years ago, after the death of the Crown Prince, he switched to the Third Prince's side.
His daily life was like retirement, accompanying the Third Prince to play chess and drink tea, and he no longer participated in matters of dynastic power externally.
"Hehe, Your Highness the Third Prince, this move of yours is wrong again, what's on your mind?"
Yang Zhe let out a faint smile.
As he spoke, the chess piece in his hand, too, landed on the chessboard.
This time, he directly blocked Yan Hongyi's upper right corner area into a dead game, suffering heavy losses.
Yan Hongyi looked at the chess game, smiled and shook his head, saying, "It's been three years, and Teacher's chess skills are still unfathomable, and I've never won at chess with you."
"Therefore, even if I didn't make any mistakes in my moves, winning or losing is only a matter of time."
Saying that, Yan Hongyi calmly put away all those killed pieces in the upper right corner of the chessboard.
"Oh? Is that so."
Yang Zhe, however, hissed a laugh and said in a profound manner, "The chess field is like a battlefield, even if you know that you are undefeated, you can't lose your fighting spirit and backbone."
Hearing this, Yan Hongyi nodded with a rather educated expression, "What teacher said is very right."
He deeply recognized Yang Zhe's wisdom and experience.
"Now that the dynasty is in turmoil, if Third Highness wishes to protect himself, he must maintain the status quo and wait and see what happens."
Yang Zhe put down the chess piece in his hand and suddenly changed the topic.
Hearing these words, Yan Hongyi's face was slightly stunned, and then sighed softly and said, "Today I went to see my father, his body, seems to have weakened quite a bit again ..."
Yang Zhe's eyes sank slightly, and he did not say any more.
Because, he knew Yan Hongyi's heart, what he was worried about.
Nowadays, Yan Wang, due to his body, is getting weaker day by day, I am afraid that he does not have much deterrent power in the dynasty anymore.
When the time comes for the throne to be replaced, it will be up to the princes to do their best.
The eldest prince Yan Peng, always ambitious, plus is the eldest brother of all the prince, may not be willing to be a servant to the emperor brother to bow down.
The second prince Yan Fengjun is the same as the eldest prince, are born of the same mother and siblings, they are the closest relationship.
Therefore, Yan Fengjun had always looked up to Yan Peng, and he was undoubtedly a great help to the eldest prince in the battle for the throne.
As for Fourth Prince Yan Chen, he was gifted in martial arts cultivation, and was quite appreciated by King Yan, and he was extremely deep and skillful.
In just a few short years, he had already established a faction that belonged to him to fight for the throne.
Just like the Qin Clan's general's residence, it is enough for him to have the strength to fight against the Grand Prince and the Second Prince.
However, as the third in line amongst the princes, Yan Hongyi.
Regardless of the personal force, or the power in his hands, there is a considerable gap compared to the other three emperors.
If once initiated a dispute, he won the situation, extremely slim.
However, the struggle for the throne of this kind of thing, throughout the generations, there are many previous experience.
In the supremacy of the throne, behind the scenes is often accompanied by killing and bloodshed.
At that time, what kind of bloodline affection, or friendship, all became a joke.
Yan Hongyi understood the reasoning behind it, so he had always tried not to cause trouble.
Even though he had a martial arts talent not weaker than that of the Fourth Prince Yan Chen, he was very slow in martial arts cultivation.
Even so, Yan Hongyi didn't even diligently exercise his body, always attending various occasions with a weak look.
In this way, it caused the other several princes to scoff at him, not feeling any threatening power.
Otherwise, he wouldn't even be able to keep his life!
Those circumstances were just like the crown prince three years ago, who had suddenly and innocently died violently.
"I've heard that a very powerful genius has appeared among the new students of the Tianyan Academy this term."
Immediately, the chess piece in Yang Zhe's hand, landed on the chessboard, and continued to talk and chat.
"Oh? A genius? Who is he?"
Yan Hongyi's gaze flickered as he curiously inquired.
"He is called Lin Hao."
Yang Zhe said with a faint smile.
"Lin Hao ..."
Yan Hongyi nodded and laughed, "This name, it has a very symbolic meaning, the word 'Hao', represents vast and boundless, no wonder he is famous."
Hearing this, a hidden light flashed in Yang Zhe's eyes, but then he secretly shook his head.
It seemed that this third prince usually lived in deep seclusion in the palace, and could be said to know nothing about the news of the outside world.
As for Lin Hao's popularity, it had already been widely rumored as early as the Tianyan Academy's recruitment test a few months ago.
It wasn't until two days ago when he was ranked number one on the Illusory Killing Stage Ranking List that his popularity was even more completely erupted, and almost the entire Imperial Capital City's streets had already been rumored.
However, Yan Hongyi was surprisingly unaware of it until now.
"It seems that His Highness the Grand Prince guessed correctly, this Third Prince, is truly a waste of space, and does not have any covetousness for the fight for the throne."
Yang Zhe's inner thoughts that he had been secretly spying on were instantly released.
Obviously, the reason why he chose to come to this Eastern Palace these three years, on the surface it looked like an auxiliary, but in fact it was an ulterior motive.
Yang Zhe's true identity was a double-faced person sent by Grand Prince Yan Peng to secretly spy on him.
And after such a long time of probing, as well as spying, he found that Yan Hongyi's ordinary life, indeed very monotonous, and chest without great ambition.
In this regard, Yang Zhe could already be certain that Yan Hongyi had absolutely no hope of winning in the battle for the throne.
"Third Highness, I remembered that I still have things to do, so I will take my leave first."
Thinking of this, Yang Zhe suddenly stood up and said with a smile.
Although his eyes were still calm, inside, he could not wait to leave this boring life.
"Teacher, take your time."
Yan Hongyi similarly stood up, with a smile on his face, without the stance of a prince.
However, when Yang Zhe's aged figure stepped out of the door of the house, the smile on Yan Hongyi's face slowly converged.
And at the same time as the smile tightened, the black chess piece in his hand landed on the chessboard.
With the fall of the black pieces, the originally defeated chess game was actually reversed.
The white pieces on Yang Zhe's side were surrounded into a dead game, and he actually won the game.
"Oh, the chess field is like a battlefield, I have been holding back for many years, it's time to change the situation."
A smile reappeared on Yan Hongyi's clear face.
Only, this time, in his smile, it was undisguised, clearly carrying a hint of icy cold chill ...
That evening, as night fell.
The Imperial Capital's west side of the Imperial Capital's Imperial Captain Wang's residence was brightly lit.
The streets on both sides of the mansion gate were even parked with many luxurious carriages.
The family crests on them were all prominent nobles in the city.
At this time, a young figure appeared in front of the mansion gate.
"May I ask who you are?"
The servant of the royal mansion who greeted the guests, seeing that the young man was wearing the uniform of the Heavenly Diffusion Academy, as well as the parrot on his shoulder seemed to guess what was going on, and hurriedly greeted him.
"Lin Hao."
Without a doubt, this person was none other than Lin Hao, who had come to the banquet, and he said indifferently.
Determining the identity of the person who came, the face of that royal mansion servant was first stunned, and then became more and more respectful, "Please go inside."
Lin Hao didn't immediately enter the mansion, secretly manipulating the vision of the four treasures, sweeping towards those luxurious carriages parked nearby.
With this scanning, he found that there was a gold-encrusted carriage among them, with a crest labeled with the crest of the Ma Clan.
Obviously, his prey for tonight, 'Ma Shuo Liang', had already arrived.
"I don't know what kind of experts there are in this mansion, let's explore the bottom first before making a move."
Lin Hao pondered in his heart, then stepped into the gate of the royal mansion.
Generally speaking, when it came to official socializing, no matter what kind of banquet it was, it would always be courteous.
The servant who was in charge of welcoming the guests and leading the way already had the habitual action of wanting to mention a gift to Lin Hao.
However, he realized that the latter was empty-handed and didn't want to take out gifts from his storage ring.
In this regard, Lin Hao was unimpressed, still looking calm, following that servant to the meeting hall.
He came to the banquet this time to kill people, any socializing was simply unnecessary and uninteresting to him.
As soon as he entered the parlor, a clamor of voices immediately came to his ears.
However, he saw that the bright and spacious hall was incomparably bustling with people and shadows towering.
It was not difficult to see that the people who could be invited here by the Grand Imperial Prince were all socialites from all sides, or popular figures within the Imperial City.
They were all wearing gorgeous dresses, holding wine cups and chatting about various topics, their every move showing aristocratic etiquette.
"Tian Yan Academy, Lord Lin Hao has arrived!"
Seeing Lin Hao who came in, the master of ceremonies, who had received the summons, shouted out as if he had arranged it earlier.
All of a sudden, Lin Hao, who originally came here to keep a low profile, undoubtedly became the center of attention for everyone present.
Inside the hall, hundreds of gazes all looked towards the doorway, landing on Lin Hao's body.
Facing the gazes of so many eminent nobles of the imperial capital, Lin Hao had a bland face as he slowly walked into the hall.
The Heavenly Diffusion Academy uniform he wore tonight was relatively much more ordinary than the gorgeous clothes of those nobles in the arena, though.
However, Lin Hao had gone through this period of dual cultivation in battle techniques, and both his essence and vigor were very abundant.
Therefore, even though he was dressed in ordinary clothes, at this moment, among the crowd, the sharp aura that was vaguely emanating from his body was exceptionally dazzling.
"So he's Lin Hao, he sure looks imposing."
"Ultimate cultivation talent, number one on the Illusory Killing Stage Ranking List, tsk tsk, remarkable."
"I heard that his eyes are crippled, how come it looks like there's nothing different except for his pupils being different from normal people?"
"That's what you don't understand, the blind sword saint of the Tianyan Academy, do you see him as powerful?"
Lin Hao's arrival instantly drew the crowd's conversation, all centered around him, just like he had become the main character in this banquet.
"Brother Lin Hao, you've finally arrived."
At this moment, Yan Fengjun walked out from the crowd, walking towards Lin Hao with a rather eager expression.
Hearing this 'Brother Lin Hao', Lin Hao couldn't help but have an odd feeling in his heart.
Wanting to draw a relationship wasn't so quick to warm up, was it?
Even Qin Yu and Lei Meng, who had known each other for such a long time, didn't call each other brother as meaty as that in normal times.
Next to Yan Fengjun, Lin Hao realized that there was a stout man standing.
His face was stalwart, and although his features were slightly similar to Yan Fengjun's, they were much more mature, and his age was around thirty.
Lin Hao secretly guessed that this fellow should be Grand Imperial Prince Yan Peng.
And while Lin Hao utilized the vision of the four treasures to secretly observe the other party.
Yan Peng's sharp, eagle-like eyes were also sizing up Lin Hao.
Young, calm, and cold.
Very good, what second brother has his eye on this time is indeed a talent.
This was the impression Yan Peng commented on Lin Hao in his heart when he first met him.
As for Lin Hao's mutilated eyes, he didn't care at all.
A person with excellent martial talent, if he grew up in the future and wanted to observe the wind and grass around him, there were naturally many ways to do so.
Well for example, that blind sword saint of the Tianyan Academy was like that.
"Lin Hao, this one standing next to me is my eldest imperial brother, Yan Peng."
Yan Fengjun introduced with a smile.
"I'm glad to be invited to the grand imperial prince's banquet."
Lin Hao was not humble and smiled politely.
And while speaking, Four Treasures' eyes, too, looked around covertly, searching for Ma Shuo Liang in the crowd.
Soon, it was to find out the prey.
His official position was the Minister of the Household Department.
As we all know, the Ministry of households is in charge of household financial institutions, oil water is very much.
Seeing this guy's fat head, wearing gold and silver, he must not have gotten much oil in the past.
In this regard, Lin Hao very much liked this kind of rich prey, and after completing the mission, he could also make a profit in the process.
However, Ma Shuo Liang also seemed to be someone who was afraid of death.
Yet, he saw that by his side, he was followed by an attendant guard, and judging by his aura, he should be at the level of a rank seven warrior.
"Lin Hao, I already know about all aspects of your performance in the Tianyan Academy in recent times, and when I see you today, you are really different."
After Great Prince Yan Peng sized up Lin Hao for a while, he said with a deep smile.
His voice was thick and powerful, and his eyes were full of fury, at first glance, he was someone who had been honed on the battlefield.
This kind of person in power had extremely ruthless and ferocious methods.
"Thanks for the compliment, Great Prince."
The corner of Lin Hao's mouth still wore a smile, but in his heart, he was searching for how to carry out the next assassination stealthily.
At the very least, one must never give the slightest sign of suspicion.
"Ten years ago, I also practiced at the Tianyan Academy, so counting, you and I's relationship is also considered a senior and a junior."
Yan Peng was obviously very satisfied with Lin Hao, opening his mouth with a strong socializing routine.
"I'm very curious about how you exterminated the seventh wave of illusory enemies in the illusory realm of the Illusory Killing Stage, thus obtaining the top spot on the ranking list."
"It's too noisy here, so if you don't mind, follow me forward to the study to explain."
Yan Peng's face was quite agitated.
On the surface, he was like a martial arts nerd, wanting to discuss with Lin Hao about the battle on the Illusory Slaughter Stage.
However, those present were all veterans who were well versed in the official world, and a clear-eyed person would know at a glance that the grand prince was planning to change the venue, intending to pull Lin Hao in privately.