Chapter 034: Contradictions and Deductions

According to Wu Zetian's account, half a year ago, a demonic pearl appeared and bewitched a group of imperial palace guards, who sought to control the emperor and command the nobles.

But at the time, they failed.

The emperor was wounded, all the guards died, and the demon pearl fell into the hands of the court.

Wu Zetian began using condemned prisoners to probe the secrets of the demonic pearl.

In the end, before the secret of the demonic pearl could be uncovered, the pearl beguiled a group of people and incited a rebellion. Although the rebellion was suppressed, the demonic pearl vanished without a trace thereafter.

During this period, a eunuch surnamed Li turned misfortune into a blessing and fully mastered the power of the demonic pearl.

Wu Zetian ordered an investigation into the matter, but half a year passed, and the demonic pearl still left no trace.

Yet now, Wang Bo learned the whereabouts of the Demon Pearl from Wu Zetian's own mouth.

This seems somewhat contradictory.

And with the Demon Pearl under such tight guard, why would it suddenly go missing—could it be that the Demon Pearl grew legs?

Previously, Wang Bo had not suspected these things, but today, upon meeting Wu Zetian and discovering that she wanted to monopolize the demon bead, he began to have a trace of doubt.

Thus, Wang Bo formed his own deduction.

Half a year ago, Emperor Li Zhi was injured in the incident of the demonic pearl, lingering on his sickbed, gravely ill and unable to rise. All state affairs were handed over to Wu Zetian to handle.

Wu Zetian handled state affairs day and night, and seeing that Emperor Li Zhi's illness showed no sign of improvement, her ambition stirred.

She wanted to become emperor.

But she knew that her desire to become emperor would inevitably be fraught with difficulties. Historically, after Li Zhi's death, Wu Zetian did not immediately ascend to the throne; the one who inherited Li Zhi's position was his seventh son, who was also Wu Zetian's third son.

Li Xian!

That is, the historical Emperor Zhongzong of Tang!

At this time, the Empress Dowager Wu Zetian presided over the court as regent, which was not much different from the later practice of ruling from behind a curtain, but at this point Wu Zetian was still not the emperor—she was the Empress Dowager.

Li Xian had been emperor for only a few months when his wife whispered in his ear, asking him to promote his father-in-law. As the supreme leader of the Tang regime, promoting his father-in-law was truly a matter as light as a feather.

Thus, a few days later, the venerable father-in-law received his letter of appointment. Yet, what he never expected was that his failure to report the promotion of his own father-in-law to his mother had actually angered her.

When Wu Zetian learned of this, she was furious, thinking: How dare he not report such a matter to me? Will I still be able to keep him in check in the future?

So, after a few days, Li Xian was deposed.

But after Li Xian, Wu Zetian was still not the emperor.

The one who ascended the throne was Emperor Ruizong of Tang, Li Dan—the eighth son of Emperor Gaozong (Li Zhi), the fourth son of Wu Zetian, the younger full brother of Emperor Zhongzong (Li Xian), and the father of Emperor Xuanzong (Li Longji).

It was not until several years later that Wu Zetian proclaimed herself emperor, changed the dynasty name to Zhou, and established the capital at Luoyang, while Li Dan was demoted to imperial heir, re-titled as Prince of Xiang, and imprisoned within the palace.

But even so, Wu Zetian's throne was still not secure.

Over a decade later, when Wu Zetian was gravely ill, Chancellor Zhang Jianzhi and others launched the "Shenlong Revolution," restoring Emperor Zhongzong of Tang to the throne and forcing her to abdicate.

From these it is amply evident that Wu Zetian's path to the throne was by no means smooth.

And she herself clearly knew this; even now, as one of the Two Sages, the ministers still remonstrated in a steady stream, showing that for a hen to announce the dawn—a woman to rule—was no easy matter.

But as a woman of cunning, the appearance of the demonic pearl gave Wu Zetian hope.

She longed to possess the power of the demon pearl, to use its power to ascend the throne and consolidate her rule.

Therefore, Wu Zetian valued the power of the demonic pearl more than anyone else.

Perhaps in the process of studying the demon pearl, Wu Zetian had already grasped its secrets and, using its power, created someone like Eunuch Li.

From the fact that Eunuch Li was willing to confront Wang Bo head-on for Wu Zetian, it can be seen that Eunuch Li is Wu Zetian's trusted confidant.

But after Wu Zetian grasped the secret of the demon pearl, she kept it hidden and undisclosed, even concealing the very existence of Eunuch Li.

Because she was well aware that once she announced the secret of the magic pearl had been cracked, the first to have the magic pearl used on them would be the soldiers and officers of the Great Tang.

The more people remained loyal to the Great Tang, the slimmer her hopes of ascending the throne became.

Thus Wu Zetian concealed everything and personally orchestrated a rebellion.

During this riot, the demon pearl was taken away by Wu Zetian's people and sent out of the imperial palace.

Eunuch Li also played the role of one who finds fortune in misfortune during this riot, smoothly regaining his sanity and acquiring formidable power.

After that, Wu Zetian began to play the thief crying 'stop thief,' having her trusted aides hide the demon pearl while ordering the soldiers of the Great Tang to search for its whereabouts.

She knew both sides of the situation inside out; if the soldiers of the Great Tang could find the demon pearl, that would be a miracle.

And the reason Wu Zetian did this was to keep the demonic pearl all to herself.

Then, Wu Zetian used the demon pearl to create people like Eunuch Li; this group was undoubtedly her trusted confidants.

After Li Zhi's death, Wu Zetian could use these people to easily take control of the palace and forcibly ascend the throne to proclaim herself emperor.

After all, whether in ancient times or modern, that power grows out of the barrel of a gun is a universally acknowledged truth.

If there were a ghostly, divine force that could fight a hundred to one, even just a thousand men could match an army of a hundred thousand. If such a force truly existed, Wu Zetian's ascension to the throne would have been far easier than one might imagine.

It is precisely for this reason that Wang Bo made the above conjecture.

But these conjectures are not unassailable.

Because there are still many points that don't add up.

If that riot was indeed orchestrated by Wu Zetian, then the demon pearl should have been securely in her hands. But as it stands, the demon pearl is in the hands of a person from the martial world.

The second point is, why would Wu Zetian need to act herself.

Given her status, cultivating a group of loyal assassins and trusted confidants should not be a problem; she could have acted entirely without the court's knowledge.

But why, of all people, did Wu Zetian find herself? What is really going on?

This was precisely what Wang Bo found baffling, even incomprehensible.

Why was it specifically me?

Wang Bo found it very strange and couldn't come up with a reason. With his intelligence, being able to deduce the above situation was already an extraordinary feat.

After all, he was no Bruce Wayne, much less Sherlock Holmes.

After pondering for a while and failing to make any sense of it, Wang Bo simply gave up thinking, since these matters really had little to do with him.

He was merely an ordinary person who wanted to live a simple life.

What he needed to do now was find the demon pearl, determine its danger, hand it over to Wu Zetian, receive the reward of one hundred thousand taels of gold, and then settle his grudges with Wu Zetian once and for all, living an ordinary life.

If afterwards, Wu Zetian dares to harass Wang Bo again, or thinks that using the demon pearl to create a group of soldiers can kill him, Wang Bo will not hold back and will strike back without mercy.