deal with

The emperor walked into the emperor's bedroom in the twilight.

The Emperor had been confined to his own chambers. He was closely monitored by those sent by the Emperor. He could neither leave the chambers nor communicate with the palace servants outside. Even his meals and water were provided to him by the Dragon Guards surrounding the chambers.

Seeing the emperor come in, the emperor felt a little relieved.

"My dear son, please tell me what you have done."

The emperor did not answer him directly.

"Your Majesty, Father is already old. You should just enjoy your retirement in peace."

After saying this, he left with the people surrounding the bedroom. Soon, palace servants arrived to clear away the bodies scattered throughout the bedroom. The retired emperor's daily life seemed to have returned to normal, but his confidants had all disappeared, and court officials no longer visited him.

Just as the emperor said, he lived out his life in peace and contentment.

At the Duke of Ying's mansion, Xiao Wan'er had been living in the largest guest house for several days.

Ever since her defeat, she had been wearing a restriction that sealed her cultivation. Pei Yingguan had placed her in his mansion without restricting her movements within it, but he didn't allow her to leave, and she couldn't understand what was happening outside.

After Pei Yingguan brought her to his house, he didn't see her for several days. One day, he finally plucked up the courage to walk up to her.

"Master Pei, what can you do for me?" The restrictions on her cultivation and freedom did not make her lose her usual rationality. Instead, Pei Ying always felt a little uncomfortable when he looked at her.

"I just wanted to tell you that the spell on Liu Mingyin has been lifted."

"I understand," Xiao Wan'er nodded, "Then where is he now?"

Pei Yingguan didn't want to talk about Liu Mingyin much. When he saw Xiao Wan'er asking about his situation, he looked a little unhappy.

But he still answered truthfully: "He is currently imprisoned in the Dali Temple, his cultivation is completely sealed, and he will probably be executed on a certain day."

Neither of them mentioned Mingshu. Seeing the outcome was already decided, she immediately ignited a teleportation talisman and fled. The emperor had been sending people to capture her, but how could a Transcendent Realm cultivator so determined to escape be so easily apprehended?

At least they still have no clue now.

"Did my father and brother leave Chang'an safely?"

This was what Pei Yingguan said himself as the direct factor that led to Xiao Wan'er and others being imprisoned, but now he didn't know how to answer.

After a long while, he said with difficulty: "They have left safely and no one disturbed them."

"Oh, I understand." After Xiao Wan'er said that, she turned her head to look out the window, no longer paying attention to him, and made an attitude as if to drive him away.

But Pei Yingguan didn't want to leave.

"Don't you want to know what's happening in the court?" After staying silent for a while, he couldn't help but change the subject.

Xiao Wan'er really turned her head and stared at him without blinking.

She sneered: "If I want to know, can you tell me?"

"Why not?"

Pei Yingguan actually said it.

After this coup, the emperor completely seized power. He slew all the old chancellors who had served the retired emperor and replaced them with his own loyalists. Officials who didn't support him were demoted, and the entire court seemed to have been purged.

Princess Taiping's family was purged completely—any court official who sided with her was imprisoned, and those who could be executed were put to death even on trumped-up charges. Within Princess Taiping's palace, with the exception of Xue Chongjian, the matricider, who was given the surname Li, all other young men and women were executed. The golden medal of immunity from death granted to Princess Taiping by the retired emperor was simply disregarded by the emperor.

Furthermore, several historians have died in recent days, for a simple reason: they refused to record the coup as "the emperor perceived Princess Taiping's rebellion and preemptively took action," insisting instead on recording "the emperor's murder of Princess Taiping and the slaughter of officials." Several of these historians were killed, until finally one spineless individual recorded the emperor's instructions, and the situation subsided.

After gaining power, the emperor abolished or reorganized some official agencies, including the Shenlong Guard.

"The Divine Dragon Guards were already struggling to recruit cultivators, and now, Junior Sister, you and your men have almost wiped out all the existing cultivators. They can no longer sustain themselves," Pei Yingguan said. "From now on, the Divine Dragon Guards will be integrated into one team and incorporated into the Emperor's Secret Guards. I've lost my position as the Divine Dragon Guards' deputy commander."

"You're just a deputy commander, so what?" Xiao Wan'er said calmly, "You can still hold the title of Duke, right? Is there any other position the Emperor can offer you?"

Pei Yingguan smiled.

"I'm afraid not in the short term."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Wan'er raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"I insisted on asking His Majesty to grant us a marriage, and His Majesty must be angry with me," Pei Yingguan said with a wry smile, "His Majesty was originally going to demote you to a commoner and lock you up with Liu Mingyin."

Xiao Wan'er said helplessly, "Why are you doing this? As long as the emperor wants to mess with someone, he will never give up because of others' opposition. He will just find a new way to humiliate me."

Pei Yingguan did not refute her, but his expression showed that he disagreed with it.

Unexpectedly, the next day, he was slapped in the face.

"My Lord, please accept the order."

After the eunuch finished reading the imperial edict, he saw Pei Yingguan kneeling in a daze and reminded him in a sharp voice.

Pei Yingguan mechanically accepted the order and escorted the eunuch out of the palace without any expression. He rushed to the guest house where Xiao Wan'er was staying in a daze and stood in front of the door, not knowing what to say.

When the servant saw him coming, he immediately opened the door for him. Coincidentally, Xiao Wan'er was brandishing a knife in the yard, and the two of them bumped into each other face to face.

"Junior sister..." He spoke with difficulty, not knowing how to continue.

"What's wrong? Has the emperor issued another decree?"

"The emperor ordered his sister who was practicing in the Taoist temple to return to secular life and marry me. He also ordered you to be a concubine. You will no longer have the title of princess and will not be allowed to receive any imperial decrees in the future." He didn't know how he said this.

Xiao Wan'er was not surprised.

"He's capable of doing anything he can do. He's never been aboveboard, and he's always insulting and doing evil. Hasn't our Majesty always been such a disgusting person?"

"Junior sister..."

"Alright, Prince Consort," Xiao Wan'er interrupted Pei Yingguan impatiently, "from the moment you surrendered to him, you should have been prepared for today's outcome. How can you have it all? And do you really not know what kind of person the emperor is? You're just being optimistic. Besides, you can't change anything, so just obey the imperial decree and prepare to welcome the princess."

He had no way to refute, so he left in a hurry, leaving behind a sentence "Just prepare for your marriage, I will protect you."

Xiao Wan'er sneered as she watched Pei Yingguan walk out of the guest house. After that day, she locked the guest house from the inside and stopped receiving anyone.

Until the emperor personally visited the Duke of Ying's Mansion.

The emperor himself didn't want to come, but he had to. Xue Chongjian, who had personally murdered his mother during the coup and made great contributions, was seriously ill. He had been ill since he was untied and the cloth wrapped around his mouth was removed. At first, he didn't take it seriously. But when the illness progressed to a rotting and stinking state, and every rotten part of his body was painful, he finally panicked.

He summoned physician after physician, but none could help. They reported the matter to the emperor, who dispatched the few remaining monks from his secret guards to treat the patient. Finally, they received the answer: a curse, yet none of the monks could break it.

The stench of decay could not be concealed. Even with the emperor's suppression, Xue Chongjian's illness continued to spread secretly and in a small area. Ordinary people did not know what the curse was, so when talking about this illness, they often said it was retribution for matricide.

Of course the emperor didn't like to hear this.

After killing several people who spoke harshly and angrily scolding the secret guards who were powerless against the curse, the emperor finally stepped into the Duke of Ying's Mansion and knocked on the door of the guest house.

This time, the courtyard gate that had been closed for several days was finally opened.

The emperor led the secret guards into the courtyard and then ordered them to close the gate again. He went straight to Xiao Wan'er's room. The secret guards pushed the door open roughly. Xiao Wan'er was practicing calligraphy in the room.

"It's so strange that His Majesty would come to the room of a concubine like me." Xiao Wan'er was even more unhappy with the emperor than usual.

"Remove the curse." The emperor was too lazy to beat around the bush with her.

Xiao Wan'er smiled upon hearing this, then raised her hand to cover her mouth, looking surprised. "Your Majesty, why don't I understand what you're saying? What curse?"

The emperor really wanted to order her to be beheaded.

"Don't say you didn't cast the curse on Li Chongjian!"

Now Xiao Wan'er finally stopped pretending to be confused.

"I can't solve it, and I don't know how to solve it. Your Majesty, please go back."

The emperor raised his sleeves and swept everything on Xiao Wan'er's desk to the ground.

"You're a prisoner, yet you dare to refuse me?" He practically roared, "Do you believe I will kill you and Liu Mingyin right now?"

Xiao Wan'er didn't care: "Isn't it all death whether you die early or late? I think my junior brother would be very happy if he could cause trouble for His Majesty before he dies and take someone with him to be buried with him."

"What about your relatives? I..." Before the emperor could finish his words, Xiao Wan'er grabbed his throat tightly.

"Your Majesty, let me remind you that even though I have lost my cultivation, I am still a warrior who has trained hard for many years. Killing you will be easy."

Her grip slowly tightened, and the emperor felt suffocated.

"When asking for help, you should behave in a begging manner. Threatening me like this will only make me think that if you, the emperor, are buried with me, my entire clan will not be in vain."

"I...I won't order you to be my concubine..." The emperor struggled to squeeze out a weak voice from his throat, "As long as you save him, I promise you."

Xiao Wan'er still refused to let go, so the emperor added, "I will not kill Liu Mingyin. I will keep my word."

Xiao Wan'er let go of her hand.

She took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the hand that was pinching the emperor's neck. Seeing that the emperor's face turned ugly again, she decided to stop while she was ahead.

"I really don't know how to break the curse, but I know someone who can."

"Who?" the emperor demanded immediately. "I'll send someone right away!"

Xiao Wan'er couldn't help laughing when she saw him like this. The emperor unconsciously had a bad feeling.

"Your Majesty, do you still remember Qingyang and his junior fellow apprentice? One of them was killed by your men when he tried to leave the Divine Dragon Guard, and the other died avenging his junior fellow apprentice. You then forced his sect to expel him. His master can break this curse."

Xiao Wan'er paused, then added considerately, "This curse has always been known to be difficult to break. There are many cultivators who can cast it, but there's only one person in the entire cultivation world who can break it. Your Majesty can send someone to ask him to break the curse for Young Master Li."

Xiao Wan'er didn't know whether the emperor, who had left the Duke of Ying's Mansion in a panic, had sent someone to invite Qingyang's master. She only knew that on the morning of the third day, Pei Yingguan sent a servant to convey the message that Xue Chongjian was indeed dead.

"Has the emperor sent anyone to Lingxiao Temple?" Xiao Wan'er ordered the messenger to ask Pei Yingguan, but the answer she got was no.

She raised the corners of her lips in satisfaction, returned to her room, and sat cross-legged. The person whose cultivation was sealed was actually in the state of casting a spell.