At this moment, Ye Luo glanced dismissively at the frail old man and said, "Speak plainly, old man. Don’t beat around the bush. Aren’t you just trying to say that I want to seize the position of Crown Prince? Or maybe you want to accuse me of planning a rebellion to overthrow the throne? Fine, I admit it. Go ahead, report it to Emperor Brother, report it to Father Emperor. See if they will believe you!"

Ye Luo actually admitted this! And he even directly turned the accusation back on them.

The few elders froze for a moment. According to their calculations, the situation wasn’t supposed to develop this way!

The Great Tang Royal Family fears sibling rivalries the most. Even though every transfer of the throne inevitably leads to internal struggles, at least in daily life, no Prince or Royal Family member would ever dare to show any inkling of such thoughts!

Because expressing such ambitions would not only incur the wrath of the Emperor and other Princes, but even the officials wouldn’t spare them!

Thus, when these old schemers used this tactic to threaten other Princes, it had always worked without fail. But to their surprise, with Ye Luo, it had absolutely no effect!

In truth, they only came because they heard about the anomaly at the Sacred Temple of Yun Kai. Normally, they barely meddled in the affairs of the younger generation.

As for Ye Luo, their understanding of him was far too limited!

"How dare you! Ninth Prince, you’re so audacious to possess the intent to rebel! Your words just now have been recorded by us. We will surely report this to His Majesty! I want to see if you’ll still have the nerve to speak this way then!"

The frail old man was enraged, resorting to his usual tactics of intimidation.

But Ye Luo couldn’t even be bothered to spare him a glance.

"Go ahead, report it to Father Emperor and the other brothers. Tell them Ye Luo harbors ambitions to seize the throne. No, wait—tell them Ye Luo has already started preparing to take the throne. Hurry up! Stop being an eyesore in front of me!"

Ye Luo spoke coldly, dismissively to the old man.

His words left the frail old man pointing at Ye Luo in rage, struggling to articulate anything beyond repeated attempts at "You... You..." but unable to get out a full sentence.

Why was Ye Luo so confident?

Not only because he knew he was but a mere pawn. The key reason was that he had no political backing whatsoever.

Aside from the ten thousand Imperial Guards that the Emperor had assigned him to hunt down members of the Demon Clan in the Great Tang Empire, Ye Luo had no other forces under his command whatsoever.

Beyond the young students at the Royal Academy, Ye Luo didn’t even know anyone else!

Well, there was the Heavenly Palace Corporation. But given how insignificant a company it was, who would pay it any attention?

Ye Luo had the right to establish his own faction, yet still had not done so, nor had he begun building his base of power.

Thus, claiming Ye Luo intended to rebel or take the throne would sound unreasonable to anyone with half a brain!

Even if Ye Luo did harbor such intentions, it certainly wouldn’t be now—he would choose to develop his forces in secret during a time of imperial favor, rather than act so brazenly at this stage.

Because of this, Ye Luo was not worried in the slightest!

These people had miscalculated. Ye Luo was not like the other princes—they couldn’t hope to threaten him in this way.

It wouldn’t work!

The frail old man was too frustrated to say anything further, but another, more hot-tempered elder wasn’t as restrained. This individual, believing Ye Luo had obtained something extraordinary from the Sacred Temple and destroyed it afterward, was determined to force Ye Luo to hand over whatever he had acquired. His focus was entirely on the object; Ye Luo’s status meant nothing to him!

"Hah, such arrogance! Since you admit your ambition to take the throne, very well. Today, I will act on behalf of His Majesty and arrest you, you insolent fool!"

"Men, seize him!" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The elder spread his command to the surrounding Imperial Guards.

Perhaps it was his long-standing habit of issuing orders—except this time, not a single person responded!

Ye Luo cast him a sidelong glance and sneered, "Idiot."

Then he turned away, preparing to lead the crowd in departure. The appearance of Demon Clan members at the Sacred Temple of Yun Kai certainly warranted reporting. After all, the demons were growing increasingly brazen, and they had evidently targeted Ye Luo. For him not to take action would be tantamount to letting the demons think they had frightened him!

Watching as his command went unanswered—not even his family disciples moving to act—the elder boiled over with anger!

"What’s this? Are you all planning to rebel as well? As the General of Suppressing Bandits, I command you all to arrest this insolent fool and send him to the Imperial Capital to face His Majesty’s judgment!"

General of Suppressing Bandits?

It turned out he wasn’t a small figure—quite the high official, in fact. But still, apparently lacking intelligence.

Ye Luo wasn’t in the mood to waste words with them. He turned to the crowd and proclaimed loudly, "Everybody, return quickly. Inform your families of the events at the Sacred Temple of Yun Kai and have them remain vigilant!"

Ye Luo intentionally refrained from mentioning the demons, solely to make these old fools uncomfortable!

Sure enough, upon hearing his words, the young disciples dispersed without hesitation.

In truth, the prolonged performance by these old fools had been entirely ignored by everyone present. What they’d seen with their own eyes at the Sacred Temple of Yun Kai was what truly mattered.

They had personally witnessed Ye Luo slay over a hundred demons. If there were any strange circumstances surrounding the temple’s destruction, they would rather believe it was the work of the Demon Clan!

Indeed, during their exploration of treasure within the temple, they’d been mysteriously teleported out, leaving Ye Luo as the sole individual who lingered behind momentarily.

But it was also Ye Luo’s intervention that had allowed them entry to the inner sanctum in the first place. Two guardian puppets had stood vigil—one of which Ye Luo had slain single-handedly!

Without him, they wouldn’t even have qualified to step foot in the grand hall, and most likely would have been picked off by the demons one by one outside!

Thus, in the eyes of these young disciples, Ye Luo was their savior!

Even if a minority harbored doubts about Ye Luo, the vast majority firmly believed in him.

Now, hearing Ye Luo’s orders, the crowd wasted no time summoning their storage items or heading toward the Transmission Array, clearly intent on leaving promptly.

Meanwhile, the Imperial Guards stationed nearby decisively formed ranks to follow Ye Luo’s lead in departure!

This left the old men furious. They’d been blabbering away for ages, and absolutely no one had paid attention.

And yet, Ye Luo only had to say a single sentence, and everyone was obediently following him.

To them, this was nothing short of a slap to the face!

Prince?

What of a Prince?

These men belonged to eminent and ancient clans, families so powerful that even the Emperor had to show them respect—let alone a Prince who’d seemingly popped out of nowhere!

In their eyes, Ye Luo was nothing more than a bastard child!