The Evil Emperor's Beloved

As the Five Nations Competition approaches, candidates from various countries are starting to leave their own countries and head to the Xuanyuan Dynasty.

For countries that are farther away, we even set off half a year in advance.

There are also merchants from far away countries who have come to participate in the Five Nations Competition. They have gathered in the Xuanyuan Imperial Capital and they also hope to find some business opportunities from it.

......

Xuanyuan Imperial Capital Imperial Study

Emperor Xuanyuan continued to review memorials in the imperial study after the morning court session as usual.

He still looks so majestic in the bright yellow dragon robe. Although he is nearly fifty years old, there are still no traces of time on his face. Perhaps it is because he is a cultivator.

The list of candidates for the Five Nations Competition had been delivered to the desk. Emperor Xuanyuan was looking at it carefully. After a while, he said,

"Prime Minister Xuan Jing, General Leng, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Personnel, the Minister of War, the Minister of Revenue, the Minister of Works, and the Minister of Rites, please come to the Imperial Study to discuss matters."

Eunuch Lu: "Yes, Your Majesty."

Upon receiving the order from Emperor Xuanyuan, Eunuch Lu immediately bowed and left the imperial study.

In less than a moment, eight eunuchs at the palace gate drove their carriages out of the palace one after another and headed towards the residences of the gentlemen.

Passerby A: "What's going on? What happened? Why did so many eunuchs leave the palace at the same time?"

Passerby B: "Something must have happened. Look at the eunuchs. They are all heading to the inner city. Who lives in the inner city? The residences of the ministers, the prime ministers, and the generals."

Passerby A: "Are we going to start a war somewhere?"

Passerby C: "Probably not. The Five Nations Competition is still half a year away. If we start a war now, won't the competition have to be postponed? Will the academy agree to that?"

Passerby B: "What you said makes a lot of sense."

Passersby turned into experts and scholars and began to comment on what they saw.

When the eunuchs passed by Fuyue Tower, two people who were sitting by the window on the second floor opposite had a panoramic view of what was happening on the street. One of them said, "The ministers are being summoned to the palace at this time. The list of names for the Five Nations Competition should have arrived."

"Well, according to the news yesterday, the other four countries have royal family members participating this time, and almost all of them have two places."

"It looks like there will be something interesting to watch in this competition, with royal families from all over the world gathering together. You must not show mercy to Ye Zhengyu then."

"What? Are you still angry? Haha..."

"Why would I be angry? Am I such a petty person? I just don't like him, huh."

These two people were none other than Xuanyuan Chen and Leng Tianchang.

......

Half an hour later, outside Emperor Xuanyuan's study

All the adults have arrived, but no one has gone in first. They are all complimenting and being polite to each other.

Emperor Xuanyuan inside heard the voice and signaled to Eunuch Lu to let them all in.

Eunuch Lu immediately trotted over and opened the door of the imperial study, "My Lords, His Majesty is here to summon you."

At this time, all the adults stepped in and saw Emperor Xuanyuan sitting at the table sipping tea.

"Your Majesty, I am your humble servant." The gentlemen bowed to Emperor Xuanyuan.

"No need to be so polite, everyone, sit down and let's talk." After that, the adults didn't think much about it, and sat down in the nearest seat, and then listened to Emperor Xuanyuan.

"This time I'm in a hurry to invite all of you to the palace because of the Five Nations Competition." As he said this, he handed the list of competitions from other countries that he had obtained earlier to Eunuch Lu, and signaled him to circulate it to everyone below.

The first person to get the list was Mr. Jing. He just glanced at it and gave it to Mr. Si who was doing the work, and then passed it down one by one.

After reading the list in their hands, no one spoke first. Seeing them like this, Emperor Xuanyuan said, "What do you think of the list, my dear ministers?"

At this time, there was a movement below. What was unexpected was that the first to stand up was the Ministry of Rites, Jing Yueli's maternal grandfather's family. They only heard him say, "The five countries will gather in our Xuanyuan Imperial Capital for the Grand Competition. At that time, the Ministry of Rites will definitely take responsibility and make corresponding arrangements according to your majesty's requirements. Please rest assured, your majesty."

Who said Wen Yunzhao is an honest man? Look at what he said. He just threw the hot potato away. He said he would fully cooperate, which means he would not take the lead in this matter. Don't come to me if anything happens. I am only responsible for the work and it has nothing to do with the list.

In such a big event, the Ministry of Rites would be involved, so he might as well come out and sell himself out. Since he couldn't escape anyway, he might as well take advantage of the situation and stand up and express his stance.

The second person to step out was Grandpa Jing. Since his father-in-law had spoken, he would certainly agree. "Your old minister Yiran, the Five Nations Competition is such a grand event, and my Jing family is willing to contribute. Before Yue Li went into seclusion, she mentioned to me that she would definitely participate in the competition to win honor for my Xuanyuan Dynasty."

Emperor Xuanyuan... Who asked if your granddaughter would participate? You are so cunning.

"Your Majesty, please let me know how many men I will need to deploy to protect the imperial capital during the competition so that I can make arrangements in advance." These words were spoken by General Leng, who was in charge of the military power.

The two ministers of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Justice looked at each other, as if this had little to do with them.

At this time, the Minister of Finance, the Queen's father, finally stood up and said, "If Your Majesty trusts me, I will leave the Five Nations Competition to you. However, I still need your cooperation. For example, I will need to trouble General Leng to protect the safety of the Imperial City, and to receive participants from other countries, etc...."

Blah blah blah, he said a lot of things and it was obvious that he came prepared.

Everyone knows that the Five Nations Competition is a very cumbersome matter. Not only does it require entertaining participants from various countries, but it also requires receiving the elders and mentors from the three major academies.

The best thing would be for the royal family to take the lead directly, but I didn't expect that old man Ning Li would take the initiative to take charge of this matter this time.

Emperor Xuanyuan thought for a long time and finally decided that the Minister of Revenue would take the lead, the royal family would send four elders to receive the visitors from the three major academies, General Leng would dispatch 10,000 soldiers to be responsible for the security of the imperial capital, the Ministry of Rites would be responsible for receiving contestants from other countries, the Ministry of Justice would arrange personnel for supervision, and Prime Minister Jing would be responsible for arranging the list of participants of our Xuanyuan Dynasty this time, and finally he would make the final decision...

After Emperor Xuanyuan made a series of arrangements, everyone roughly understood what His Majesty had in mind, and agreed to them one by one without any objection.

Only Mr. Jing was a little confused.

"This..." Old Master Jing was about to shirk responsibility, but then he heard Emperor Xuanyuan say, "Old minister, there is no need to be modest. I believe that you can definitely pick out good talents for my Xuanyuan Dynasty."

Mr. Jing...is this a humble thing to do?

Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Ning Li did not expect that Emperor Xuanyuan would give such an important matter to the Jing family. He had originally taken the initiative to take charge of the arrangements this time because he wanted to keep the matter in his hands. He did not expect that His Majesty would kick out the list of candidates for the competition alone and give it to the Jing family.