Ministers Begging Me to Ascend the Throne Chapter 1087 - 125: The Southern Wei People Deserve to Die! (3)

Inside the Imperial Study, the Emperor obviously caught the quarrel right outside the door, yet he feigned complete ignorance of it.

Sun Kui pondered silently to himself: Did the Empress actually consume the Divine Pill?

Right now, the inhabitants of a specific manor beyond the capital were stunned to discover that the Emperor had decreed a ban on Divine Pill sales and seized countless individuals.

"How did the Emperor uncover the flaw in the Divine Pill?" declared a middle-aged man. "No one can possibly spot anything wrong with the Divine Pill, so what's really happening here?"

A gaunt-looking middle-aged man chimed in, "Word is, Prince Han of the Swamp Prefecture banned the Divine Pill several days back. Prince Han must have informed the Emperor."

Upon learning it involved Prince Han, the middle-aged man's face darkened with fury. "Prince Han again?!"

"All of Lingnan is rounding up sellers, buyers, and producers of the Divine Pill," a youth reported. "In mere days, nearly all our contacts in Lingnan got nabbed."

With a loud crash, the table next to the middle-aged man exploded into splinters. His features hardened as he gnashed his teeth. "Prince Han, you scoundrel!"

"Prince Han has clamped down hard at the borders too, blocking Divine Pills from Annan into Lingnan. Once Prince Han outlawed them, folks from Annan and Johor did the same, so now our Divine Pills aren't moving at all."

The middle-aged man's gaze sharpened menacingly. "How on earth did Prince Han learn of the Divine Pill's defect?"

"To date, Prince Han hasn't pinpointed the issue in the Divine Pill."

"He found zilch, yet he banned the Divine Pill anyway?"

"Prince Han openly branded the Divine Pill as poison, without naming the toxin involved."

"Nothing discovered, and he still banned the Divine Pill?!" the middle-aged man exclaimed in disbelief.

The lean man from before added, "Prince Han is downright frightening!" Their Divine Pills circulated solely among officials, with no poisoning cases surfacing yet, but Prince Han sniffed out trouble and slapped a ban on them instantly. This insight... it's uncanny!

"This Prince Han ruins our grand schemes every time!" In that instant, the middle-aged man yearned to shred Zhao Yao apart.

"Most of our operatives in Southern Wei Prefecture are in custody, but luckily, the pill-makers fled into the Phantom Rainbow Forest, averting disaster."

"Prince Han exposed our operations, and now the imperial court has banned the Divine Pill too. Our schemes might be doomed."

"I must eliminate Prince Han!" Their intricate plots, built over years, lay in ruins thanks to Prince Han. The middle-aged man's eyes reddened with bloodlust, his visage contorted in wrath. "Prince Han has to die—no more meddling from him!"

The rest fell quiet. They craved Prince Han's death as well and had dispatched killers repeatedly, only for every effort to fail.

"Whatever the price, we kill Prince Han and end his interference in our plans!" Prince Han stood as their archfoe, foiling their plots time and again. With the Divine Pill scheme, they believed it foolproof, but Prince Han sensed the anomaly.

"The lord across the way likely knows of the Divine Pill affair now and suspects our involvement. He won't let it slide lightly."

"What lord? He's no master of ours. Even if he knows, who cares." The middle-aged man brushed off Prince Wei. "Despite the ban from Prince Han and the Emperor, some will still seek the Divine Pill. We press on."

"Our pill-makers hid in the Phantom Rainbow Forest, but they can't linger forever or they're finished," the young man pressed on. "Plus, Prince Han posted guards around the forest. Emerging means capture by his forces."

"We hold the formula—can't we produce elsewhere besides the Phantom Rainbow Forest?"

"The key ingredients for the Divine Pill grow exclusively in the Phantom Rainbow Forest, nowhere else."

"I hear Prince Han aims to torch the Phantom Rainbow Forest."

"What?!"

Though Zhao Yao, distant in Swamp Prefecture, had no intention of burning the Phantom Rainbow Forest, he planned to demolish it with explosives.

Even without decoding the Divine Pill's makeup, Zhao Yao figured its vital components thrived in the Phantom Rainbow Forest—why else base production in Southern Wei Prefecture? Moreover, droves of Southern Wei folk lurked there. To flush them out, he'd blast the forest, stripping their shelter and obliterating the essential ingredients.

Chu Huan's team had earlier demolished a Mountain Yue outpost, snaring many foes, gaining expertise in blasts. As capital arrests targeted Divine Pill traders, Zhao Yao tasked Chu Huan with exploding the Phantom Rainbow Forest.

The Southern Wei hideouts in the Phantom Rainbow Forest, ignorant of explosives, felt the ground quake violently, panicking them into bolting from the woods straight into ambushing guards.

At first, they clamped their mouths shut on the Divine Pill recipe, but days in total darkness broke them, spilling everything.

Upon getting their confessions, Zhao Yao's eyes blazed with killing intent.

As anticipated! These Southern Wei scum merit death! All of them should face dismemberment and lingchi execution!