Chapter 320: Your Highness, How Are You?

These days, Chu Jin lives like a body without a soul.

For half a month, he traveled hundreds of miles outside the city of Yanjing, but couldn't even find the shadow of Manluo's skirt.

His once meticulously tied black hair was now as messy as dead grass, with stubble covering his chin. Only his hand, clutching the orange bellyband, still retained some strength.

He lay on the bed in the bedroom of the house on the outskirts of the city every night, and it seemed that her body fragrance still remained on it.

During those three days, the two of them cuddled on the bed all day long, and she nestled in his arms like a cat, being more obedient than he had ever been since they met.

At that time, he wanted to give her his life.

But now, this ball of soft brocade has become his life-saving straw. He holds it against his chest every night, muttering:

"Manluo...where are you..."

The sinister and fierce national teacher who was once so high-spirited now drowns his sorrows in alcohol every night.

Xiao Nanyan forced the little prince to issue an edict to seal off the Imperial Master's Mansion. He also ignored the objections of Su Qinyao and Helian Feng and insisted on moving back into the mansion.

Helian Feng thought that he would call him back to Chiyu Peak after he calmed down, so he did not stop him.

The spy reported that Xiyan and Manluo were also missing from the Regent's Palace. He suddenly gritted his teeth and sneered:

"Xiao Nanyan, ah Xiao Nanyan, I'm not the only one who has lost a loved one..."

…

On the day of national mourning, the funeral procession meandered along the long street like a black snake.

Helian Feng mingled among the mourners, his eyes hidden under his wide-brimmed hat, staring at the coffin.

At this moment, his heart felt like it was being cut by a sharp knife.

Lying in the coffin was his father, the emperor he respected most in his life, and the arrow that took his life was shot by his own hand.

Seeing the coffin moving further and further away and the crowd dispersing, he ran madly to a deserted place in the wilderness, tore off his cloak, revealing the plain white mourning clothes underneath.

"Father!"

He kowtowed heavily to the ground in the direction of Qianling Mausoleum, with blood oozing from his forehead.

"I am an unfilial son. I didn't mean it... No!"

The wilderness echoes tore his sobs to pieces, turning them into bone-eating hatred:

"Xiao Nanyan! You had to secretly make me attend my father's funeral! Why can you support your child and attend the court, while I, Helian Feng, have to endure this great humiliation!"

He pulled out the short blade from his waist and carved the crooked word "夺" (take away) on the bluestone.

The knife flashed in his red eyes, and his shoulders trembled with hatred:

"The kingdom of Tianqi was left to me by my father. If it weren't for you, my father wouldn't have died, Xiyan wouldn't have disappeared, and I would still be in charge of Yandu, Xiao Nanyan!"

His heart was completely shattered by the death of Helian Cong and the disappearance of Xiyan. Then, it was cast into a blade again by the flames of hatred.

Suddenly, a sneer came from behind him, like an ice-hardened steel needle, piercing straight into his spine in this wilderness.

Helian Feng turned around suddenly, only to see a gray shadow standing a few feet behind him. The afterglow of the setting sun cast a dark shadow under his hat.

"Who are you……"

Before he finished speaking, the man raised his hand and took off his hat, revealing the face of a handsome middle-aged man with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and a slight smile on his face. It was Xiao Beicheng who was supposed to die in the fire.

"Xiao Beicheng, you, you are not dead?" Helian Feng's pupils suddenly shrank, and he involuntarily tightened the hilt of the sword.

"Your Highness, how are you?"

Xiao Beicheng smiled slightly, his voice filled with creepy calmness:

"All the mechanisms in Feiyun Temple were developed by me over the past ten years. How could they possibly have trapped their owner? The moment the rear hall collapsed, I jumped into the secret passage and simply swam downstream."

Helian Feng's long sword was unsheathed with a clang, and the tip of the sword pointed:

"Xiao Beicheng, you came here today, are you trying to hunt down Yu Gu?"

"No, rather than being enemies that hurt both sides, it's better to be allies that benefit both sides."

Xiao Beicheng paced with his hands behind his back, the sound of his boots crushing dead branches was particularly clear in the silence:

"Your Highness, you are a descendant of the royal family. If Xiao Nanyan hadn't deliberately exposed this, you would still be in your Prince's Mansion, enjoying yourself with that beautiful woman. You want to take back the throne, and I want to take back the Xiao family army. This is the same path."

"Cooperate with you?"

Helian Feng sneered, his sword blade reflecting the other party's calm expression:

"You just want to use my private army in Chishou Peak and the old forces in Tianqi to deal with Xiao Nanyan together. If he dies, given your personality, you will definitely get rid of him."

Xiao Beicheng laughed loudly:

"If it were in the past, perhaps I would. However, after this ordeal, I suddenly realized why I should be so obsessed with the throne. Your mother was my former woman, and Shu'er is your biological sister. So, we are a family..."

"Shut up!" Helian Feng's face turned red and white. Thinking of his mother's romantic affairs, he had become the laughing stock of the whole Apocalypse.

Seeing Xiao Beicheng bringing up the matter again, he became furious and swung his sword, but was easily avoided by Xiao Beicheng.

"Alright, it's a fait accompli. What's the point in trying to make amends now? Helian Feng, you've fallen into this state. Is your reputation really that important?"