Prince An twisted aside, avoiding the sword from behind him as he exchanged blows with several monks. The fight rang out with clashing strikes, each side advancing and retreating in turn. Beside the Emperor, the Crown Prince narrowed his eyes as he watched Prince An trade blows with the others.
Prince An’s martial skills were impressive, but there was a saying: one could not overcome sheer numbers, and two fists could not defeat four hands. Before long, he took a palm strike to the chest and gradually fell into a disadvantage, surrounded by several assassins.
The Crown Prince rose to his feet. “For the sake of our brotherhood, I will not harm Prince An’s residence. Is there anything you wish to say, Imperial Younger Brother?”
Xiao Yi wiped the blood from the corner of his lips and curved his mouth into a meaningful smile. “Imperial Brother, are you so certain you can kill me?”
The Crown Prince’s eyelids lifted slightly. He did not answer and merely spat out a cold command. “Kill him.”
Prince An’s gaze swiftly flicked toward Shen Xiabai before he retreated, dodging the incoming attacks.
The assassins’ blades were about to close in on him from all sides when, at that very moment, a commotion suddenly erupted outside. The uproar grew louder and louder, until even their eardrums began to throb.
Everyone turned to look outside.
Shouts of slaughter rang out without end, drawing steadily closer to the main hall.
“Impossible.” The Crown Prince’s expression changed drastically. His Imperial Father’s forces could not possibly have broken through the defenses he had set up so quickly.
The Emperor’s expression relaxed slightly as he glanced at the Crown Prince.
“Protect His Majesty!”
Led by Zhou Yu, a large contingent of imperial guards stormed into the hall with weapons in hand. They immediately cut down several assassins, then surrounded everyone else—including the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince’s gaze followed the imperial guards as they moved around him. His face had gone deathly pale, and he stood there in stunned disbelief.
“Zhou Yu.”
How could he possibly have appeared here? Had he not sent a large force to intercept and kill him?
Even if Zhou Yu had managed to escape, he should not have arrived so quickly. His men should have been able to delay him for at least two hours.
The assassins holding the Emperor captive were subdued. Once freed, the Emperor rose to his feet and looked down at the Crown Prince.
“Since I had already been on guard against you, how could I have failed to make other preparations?”
The Crown Prince stared at him. “Impossible. You had no other forces available to rescue Zhou Yu.”
He could not have been foolish enough to miscalculate the forces his Imperial Father could mobilize.
“Then we must thank His Highness Prince An.” Zhou Yu cupped his hands and bowed to Prince An. “Had His Highness not given instructions and arranged my rescue, it would indeed have been difficult for me to escape.”
Prince An smiled faintly. “The Crown Prince has rebelled. As for purging the court of traitors and protecting His Majesty, it is simply my duty.”
The Crown Prince stared at him, then suddenly let out a cold laugh. “My dear Imperial Younger Brother, you have claimed both the reputation and the benefits for yourself.”
What a perfect excuse—purging the court of traitors. He was the one who had plotted to kill his father and brother and seize the throne, while Xiao Yi had become the loyal and filial prince, the one who had defended the Emperor to the end.
The Emperor cast Prince An an approving look. “Your younger brother is indeed nothing like you.”
The Crown Prince’s face turned ashen. He gave a flustered laugh. “That is what Father says. In your heart, he has always been superior to me, your eldest son, in every way.”
And so the Emperor had joined forces with the prince he favored to scheme against him and lay a trap to destroy him.
Zhou Yu’s timely arrival had been entirely beyond his expectations.
The Emperor looked down at the Crown Prince, imperial authority radiating from him. “Xiao Chen, you intended to kill your father and brother and usurp the throne. I can no longer tolerate you.”
“A defeated man has no fear of death.” The Crown Prince gave a mocking laugh.
Killing his father, murdering his brother, and usurping the throne—what unforgivable, heinous crimes they were.
The Emperor looked at him coldly. “But for the sake of the fact that you are my legitimate son, if you take your own life here today, I can spare the lives of your Crown Princess and your Empress Mother. To the outside world, we will say that the Crown Prince died in an assassination attempt.”
The Crown Prince raised his eyes and gazed steadily at the Emperor for a long while.
From childhood to adulthood, he had hardly ever looked properly at his father’s face. Every time, he had been kneeling with his head lowered, his caution and trepidation long since carved into his very bones.
He had revered his father, and once even worshiped him.
He had thought that all royal fathers and sons were like this. But later, after seeing the way the Emperor and Xiao Yi interacted, he realized that it was not so.
In truth, it was not that the Emperor was partial. He himself was simply too weak. He lacked Xiao Yi’s ruthlessness and courage, and was not even worthy of sitting at the same table as him.
That face was familiar—so familiar that it seemed strange to Xiao Chen.
The Crown Prince suddenly began to laugh. He nodded. “This son thanks Father for your grace.”
He bent down and slowly picked up a large saber that had fallen to the ground.
In the end, he had lost because he had not been ruthless enough. He lacked the methods and resolve of both his Imperial Father and his Imperial Younger Brother.
His father could order his death without the slightest change in expression, yet even in the situation just now, he had still clung to the faint remnants of their bond as father and son.
He had been unwilling to take his life so easily.
“What is done is done. There is no point in saying more.” The Crown Prince pressed the blade against his neck, his expression resolute. “I only ask that Father keep your word and spare the lives of my Empress Mother and my wife.”
The Emperor waved his hand, signaling that he could proceed.
The Crown Prince slowly closed his eyes. But just then, an even more bizarre scene suddenly unfolded.
The chief eunuch standing behind the Emperor moved. His action was even faster than the Crown Prince’s.
The sound of a dagger piercing flesh rang in everyone’s ears as it drove viciously into the Emperor’s back.
The coldness on the Emperor’s face instantly froze. He turned his head slightly to look behind him, his eyes stretched wide.
The eunuch pulled out the dagger, gripped the Emperor by the shoulder, and plunged it viciously into his abdomen several more times.
The eunuch’s face and body, as well as the floor, were spattered with bright-red blood.
The Emperor’s eyes remained wide open as he fell to the ground. His body convulsed violently several times, disbelief, panic, fear, and bewilderment flashing in his eyes—feelings he had no time to comprehend.
“Father.” The Crown Prince stood frozen.
The man in the bright-yellow robes lay on the ground, staring with eyes that would never close. His breath had already left him.
The scene plunged every official in the hall into panic. One by one, their faces turned pale as they trembled in terror.
None of them had recovered from the shock of what had just happened.
The Crown Prince had clearly lost, so how had the Emperor suddenly died?
Was that eunuch one of the Crown Prince’s men?
“Imperial Brother, now that matters have come to this, you still refused to spare Father. Even on the verge of death, you had to kill your sovereign. Just how much did you hate him?” Prince An’s voice pulled the Crown Prince back to his senses.
The Crown Prince’s mind cleared. He stared fixedly at Prince An, then glanced at the eunuch, his face filled with mockery.
“Xiao Yi, when it comes to ruthlessness, I truly am inferior to you.”
He looked at the Emperor’s corpse. Perhaps even in death, the Emperor had never realized that it was his most favored youngest son who had killed him.
How absurd.
Xiao Yi took several steps forward and bent down before the Crown Prince. “Imperial Brother, did your Empress Mother never teach you that the softhearted cannot survive in the royal family?”
The Crown Prince raised his head and looked at him.
“I have been enlightened.” His father had died right before his eyes, yet he felt not the slightest trace of sorrow. He continued carrying out his plans without changing expression.
As if the man who had died were merely a stranger he had never known.
“He brought this upon himself.” The Crown Prince stared at the Emperor’s corpse. “Who would have thought he would allow you to place one of your own people beside him?”
The Emperor had always kept a strict watch over those who served at his side. Had he not let down his guard, Prince An would never have had the opportunity.
Prince An’s gaze drifted, seemingly unintentionally, toward Shen Xiabai. He said nothing.
“Father has passed away, but I will still fulfill the promise he made. Imperial Brother, please proceed to your death.”
