"Master He, we've arrived."

He Yuan hummed at the driver absentmindedly before alighting the carriage. A couple of feet in front of him was a huge patterned gate made of pure gold with two carefully sculpted door gods at the sides.

At the very top of the gate was a plaque with the words 'IMPERIAL PALACE OF SHAN' written in exquisite calligraphy.

He Yuan barely paid the gate a glance before walking to the side and entering through a smaller gate. The imperial palace was like an entire city divided into different sections.

The outer court, contained the great hall and throne room where the morning court was held alongside several halls for different entertainment purposes.

The inner court was forbidden grounds since it was the residence of the imperial harem but it was even larger than the outer court as it had many different smaller palaces that served as Courtyards for the Empress, the Imperial Noble consort and other ranked members of the Emperor's harem.

As He Yuan advanced towards the great hall, he decided 888 was definitely not in the Imperial palace. First, the carriage that the system had been occupying the day before looked to be of very low quality.historical

Even if he was indeed in the palace and had just taken a low quality carriage to go incognito, it didn't excuse the fact that the carriage was barely holding together. Also, the driver of the carriage had looked a little malnourished and even the horses were not much better.

Another point was the fact that if 888 had been in the palace then with the system's capabilities, he would've been able to get enough information to know that General He Yuan was actually him, He Yuan. There was no way 888 would've missed that.

In conclusion, 888 had to be in a place where information was limited. Which could be literally anywhere from the Capital to Xiangshan country at large.

He Yuan sighed as he got to the doors. He'd noticed that 888 hadn't been with his glasses so there was a possibility that the System hadn't recognized him from that distance.

'If only he hadn't lost his memory when he transferred into this realm.' He thought as he pushed the door open and walked in.

The Emperor hadn't arrived yet so most of the ministers were seated at their positions and either keeping silent or exchanging small talk with those by their side whilst some others were standing and conversing."

Aside from He Yuan, two other Generals were also present in court. The middle aged General of the Eastern army, General Gong and the loud and bulky General of the Western army, General Li.

The second General Li laid eyes on He Yuan, he walked over and gave him a firm clap on the back. "Ha Ha! He boy! Using just 7 days to deal with the pesky troublemakers from Qinmen... good, Good!"

He Yuan side eyed the large General and arched his lips a little in a polite smile. This was an ancient time period and the qi here was relatively rich. As Generals, it was imperative that one practiced martial arts.

That being said, if he didn't know better, he would have thought General Li held a grudge against him due to the force of that slap.

With the noise from General Li, the other officials looked over and expressed their acknowledgement. The left Prime minister, Meng Di, nodded at He Yuan whilst the right Prime minister and father of Lu Xuilan, Lu Qian, narrowed his eyes and scrutinized He Yuan deeply.

A lot of people in the capital knew General He was rich and thought he was born noble but the ministers in court knew better. General He was in fact the only child of a wealthy merchant.

When he was young, his parents had established themselves in the Capital and because of their money and generous contributions to the Nation, they'd been given Honourary titles.

Too bad the both of them had lost their lives in a bandit raid five years ago, leaving the young boy all alone. He had joined the Northern army but no one had taken him seriously until he began to rake in achievement after achievement.

At present, he was the most admired General beside the Fifth prince due to his young age.

Prime minister Lu craned his neck. It was about time he coaxed the young General over to his side -which was of course the Ninth prince's side.

Although the Emperor was still healthy and seated firmly on the throne, that did nothing to hinder preparations for the fight for the throne. In fact, the said fight already began the moment the princes were born to their various Imperial consort mothers and concubines.

At that moment, a call came from the door, "The Princes are here!"

One by one the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth princes all walked into the hall and the officials in the hall all collectively paid their respects. "Your Highnesses."

The princes nodded and walked over to their positions by the throne. One prince in particular, glanced at He Yuan briefly before looking over to Prime minister Lu pointedly as he moved to his spot.

Seconds later, another call came from the door, "His Majesty, the Emperor, has arrived!"

The Emperor of Xiangshan was quite handsome and well maintained at the prime age of 45. When every single prince and official kowtowed to give their greetings, he kept silent, steadily walked over to his throne in his yellow dragon robes, seated himself, before saying, "You may rise."

"Imperial father is wise."

"The Emperor is merciful!"

With that, they all rose.

The Emperor looked around the hall and cleared his throat. "Zhen had been bothered lately by those people from Qinmen but luckily, Zhen has capable ministers to ease the burden on Zhen's shoulders and that has made Zhen quite happy." His eyes landed on He Yuan and his lips arched. "General He."

He Yuan was already expecting this so he stepped forward and cupped his fists. "This General greets the Emperor."

The Emperor's eyes roamed over He Yuan's figure and he nodded. "You ha-"

CREAK!

At that sound, the doors of the great hall opened up and a masked man in purple robes entered the hall on a wheelchair.

The officials all turned to the Emperor. It was customary that the Emperor be the last to arrive at any event but knowing that the Fifth prince was favoured by the Emperor, none of them had the guts to call him out on his behaviour.

"Greetings to His Highness the Fifth prince." They called out instead.

Tian Weisheng ignored their greetings and went straight to the front of the hall. "Father."

Again, only the Fifth prince dared to refer to the Emperor this way and judging from the smile on the Emperor's face, he wasn't the least bit mad.

How could he when this was the only child given to him by his beloved before she died? Others may not know but he knew that there was nothing wrong with Tian Weisheng's face. In fact, the boy had grown up to look a lot like his gorgeous mother which only increased the Emperor's love for him.

After acknowledging his fifth son, the Emperor turned back to He Yuan. "As reward for the perfect execution of Zhen's commands, the following shall be bestowed onto you..." And then he went on to list a bunch of things one after the other.

By the Emperor's side, Tian Weisheng eyed He Yuan from head to toe and raised a brow. This was the General He? Normally, he wouldn't pay any attention to some random General who wasn't part of his army no matter their achievements but this General He had smoothly captured his attention the day before.

How could he ever forget the man who had dared to hold the body of a woman he considered his in his arms? Even now, Tian Weisheng still felt anger blaze through him whenever he thought of He Yuan smoothly catching Lu Xuilan before she fell.

He'd wanted to catch her too but he'd been far behind in his carriage and even if he wasn't, his legs weren't functional at the moment!

Was it fun to hold the bethrothed of another man in your arms?! What General? This man was clearly a rogue in disguise!

His anger only increased when he remembered how Lu Xuilan had called He Yuan handsome. How was the man before him handsome? Compared to his own face, General He was much more average in comparison!

He was going to show that loose mouthed girl what handsome truly was! She should just wait until he fully captured her! As for the so called General He... When was his woman so free for others to arbitrarily touch?

There were numerous ways to deal with the eager General.

As vicious thoughts stemming from possessiveness formed in Tian Weisheng's mind, He Yuan calmly cupped his fists before the Emperor to accept his rewards. "This General thanks the Emperor for his grace."

The morning court officially began after that and the ministers presented their petitions for the day.

.

.

.

After the morning court ended, He Yuan wasn't in a hurry to leave the Imperial palace. Although he'd made various assumptions, he still wanted to look for a way to verify if 888 was in the Imperial palace or not. Just in case.

Too bad there were always people who would come in the way of one's plans because as soon as he left the great hall, he heard,

"General He."

He Yuan turned around with an inward sigh. "Prime minister Lu."

Lu Qian lifted his chin a little with a thin smile. Even if General He had won so many rewards from the Emperor and even had the Emperor's acknowledgement, he wasn't a true noble afterall so his ranking was much lower than him, the right Prime minister. "General He has been doing well lately."

He Yuan raised a brow. If he hadn't figured out what Lu Qian was trying to do by now then he may as well drown himself in mud. The man was clearly trying to sound him out to see if he'd joined any factions in court. He smiled. "It's all thanks to the Emperor's trust in me."

Before Lu Qian could speak again, He Yuan smoothly changed the topic. "I had a dream recently."

Lu Qian frowned in confusion but that didn't faze He Yuan. Since the man was so nosy, might as well make him useful. "I dreamt of a man. A man as beautiful as an immortal with hair the vibrant colour of silver and eyes that remind me of the far seas.."

The more He Yuan spoke, the narrower Lu Qian's eyes became. Although he tried his best to hold it in, his expression cracked at the end. That boy had been abandoned in the deepest parts of the Lu mansion since birth.

How did General He find out about his appearance? Was it really just a dream?

On the other hand, He Yuan's lips twitched as a smile threatened to burst through. He'd caught the change in Lu Qian's expression the second it happened. At first, he was just randomly saying things to waste time and shut Lu Qian up. Who knew he'd actually hit the mark?

888 was most likely in the Lu mansion -around the Leaser and Special one as he'd initially thought. Even if he wasn't, Lu Qian definitely had an idea where his System was!

Looks like he didn't need to search for and wide anymore.