Just as Zhao Wuwang was weeping and desperately trying to pin the blame on the Third Prince, attempting to prove his loyalty to his new master and step on his old master to rise to power.
An old eunuch dressed in a dark purple palace attendant's robe, with a white face and no beard, and whose eyes always held a hint of a smile, quietly slipped up to Li Yuheng and Shu Bai's vicinity.
He looked quite old, but his back was straight and his movements were light and agile. He was the old man who had served the emperor for many years, the Grand Eunuch.
The Grand Eunuch's eyes were fixed on the chaotic scene in the center of the hall, where the Third Prince was sitting, as if he too was filled with worry.
The voice that came out of his mouth was neither too loud nor too soft, just enough to reach Li Yuheng and Shu Bai, carrying a hint of elder-like concern:
"Your Highness is well. What's wrong with Little Li? He looks exhausted?"
Li Yuheng, still leaning on Shu Bai's shoulder, chuckled lazily upon hearing this:
"...If that's what you're saying, then who's the handsome young man?"
The old man's smile remained unchanged as he calmly replied, "A handsome man? Of course, it's our own man."
Li Yuheng chuckled and finally lifted his head off Shu Bai's shoulder a little:
"You? At your age, you're already past the age of being considered a handsome old man, let alone a great handsome man? Goodness, long time no see, you're still as shameless as ever."
Grandpa Xiang wasn't annoyed at all. He smiled and casually remarked, "The Yangtze River's back waves push the front waves, and new people replace the old in this floating world. Who hasn't been young and handsome? Everyone gets old."
"Old? Grandfather, you're mistaken. I, Li Yuheng, the Crown Prince of the Underworld, am eternally youthful, peerless in my glory, and live as long as heaven and earth, shining as brightly as the sun and moon. What does the word 'old' have to do with me?"
Li Yuheng glanced sideways at Shu Bai beside him, his eyes carrying a hint of playful warning, before turning back towards the eunuch:
"But you, don't do what you did last time, winking and making peace signs at my Shubai. It's understandable that your eyesight isn't good as you get older, but too much movement can hurt your back."
The old man's ever-present smile finally cracked open a little.
He slowly turned his head to look directly at Li Yuheng, and sighed as if helplessly, "Well, alright then."
Then, to Li Yuheng's surprise, the old eunuch suddenly raised his hands and made two peace signs, placing them next to his wrinkled cheeks.
Immediately afterwards, he gave Li Yuheng a sharp wink with his left eye.
wink.
"How is it, Your Highness?"
If I won't point my finger at your house, then I'll point it at you. Is that alright now?
Even an old man can keep up with the times.
Li Yuheng: "…………"
Looking at this mischievous old vixen, he opened his mouth, then closed it again, as if something was choking him.
Seeing this, Grandpa Xiang smiled and put his hand down, tilting his head and spreading his hands towards Shu Bai.
The top-ranked fan, Shu Bai, smiled slightly and gave a low-key thumbs-up.
Grandpa Xiang received the reward and happily glanced at Grandma Zhen across from him.
Grandma Zhen received his look, rolled her eyes, and clearly despised her husband's antics at a time like this.
But when she turned to Shu Bai, her eyes softened, she smiled kindly, and nodded in greeting.
In the short time it took for Grandpa Xiang to come over and talk to me, the situation had already quietly changed.
Xifeng and the other four had already taken their places.
The emperor's face turned ashen at Zhao Wuwang's wailing, and he was about to speak.
"Report—!"
A hurried announcement suddenly came from outside the hall, and a commander of the Imperial Guards rushed in and knelt on one knee:
"Your Majesty! Liu Yiheng, the son of the Grand Commandant, has led three hundred soldiers to surround the Jiying Hall, claiming that he wants to purge the court of corrupt officials and eliminate evil spirits!"
The entire hall erupted in uproar.
Liu Yiheng, clad in silver armor and with his hand on his sword, stood outside the palace gate and shouted: "Your Majesty! We have arrived late to protect you! The Prince of Zhenbei's Mansion has colluded with evil spirits, unleashing ghosts to commit heinous acts, with ulterior motives! We are willing to slay this villain to restore order to the court!"
The imposing armor behind him indicated that he was out of the loop and unaware of the dramatic changes that had taken place inside the palace.
The panic that Liu Yiheng had anticipated did not materialize.
Everyone in the hall, including the emperor on the throne, looked at him with extremely complicated expressions.
In those eyes, there was astonishment, absurdity, and even more so, a pity for someone who looked down on a fool.
Liu Yiheng's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously felt that something was wrong.
His gaze swept quickly across the hall, and the first thing he saw was Qin Lu, who was being held up by two imperial guards and looked ashen-faced.
How could Qin Lu...?
Immediately afterwards, his gaze settled on the center of the hall.
The Third Prince Jing Hong was curled up on the ground, no longer resembling a human being.
What about his father, Commander Liu?
Wasn't the plan to coordinate from within and without, take advantage of the chaos to seize the Prince of Zhenbei, and control the Crown Prince?
How did Jinghong end up looking like this?!
The righteous indignation on Liu Yiheng's face froze instantly, replaced by a hint of barely perceptible panic.
The guards behind him were also getting restless, clearly the scene before them was far from what they had expected—the extermination of evil and protection of the emperor.
The emperor was so angry that he trembled all over. He pointed at the palace gate, his lips quivering, but he couldn't say a word for a moment.
Zhao Wuwang's eyes darted around, and he immediately crawled on his knees toward the palace gate, raising his voice with righteous indignation: "Your Majesty! Liu Yiheng led troops to besiege the palace, this is treason! He and the Third Prince's evil arts must be birds of a feather! I beg Your Majesty to make a wise judgment!"
Liu Yiheng: "???"
The emperor looked at Liu Yiheng outside the palace gate, then down at his third son, who lay on the ground looking neither human nor ghost. After a long while, he finally managed to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth:
"Excellent...very excellent! Truly my good son! My good subject!"
He had barely finished speaking.
"Pfft!"
A muffled thud, like a ripe fruit bursting open.
In the center of the main hall, the Third Prince Jing Hong, shrouded in thick black mist, suddenly swelled to his limit before exploding with a deafening roar.
Countless twisted and howling streams of vengeful black energy surged forth in all directions like a burst dam.
A dense mixture of resentment, malevolent energy, and death energy, accompanied by piercing wails and howls, instantly swept through the entire Jiying Hall.
The temperature inside the hall plummeted, and the candlelight flickered wildly, burning uncertainly as if it would be extinguished at any moment.
The doors and windows rattled loudly from the impact, and dust fell from the beams and pillars.
"Protect the Emperor! Quickly, protect the Emperor!"
"Mother—!"
The screams of the female relatives of civil officials, the sound of cups and plates shattering on the ground, the hurried footsteps of the imperial guards...
The various voices mingled together, and the scene completely spiraled out of control.
Just moments before the Third Prince Jinghong's body swelled, black energy hissed, and he was about to explode into a procession of a hundred ghosts.
Xifeng raised his eyelids slightly.
There was no eye contact, and no signal.
Five invisible energies, like a spider web suddenly spreading, instantly locked down five points around Jing Hong's body.
The vengeful spirits and black energy that were about to burst out of the body seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall, and were suddenly compressed back into the body that was on the verge of collapse.
To ordinary people, the scene appears bizarre and somewhat comical.
The Third Prince Jinghong's body, which was swollen like a ball, seemed to be suddenly gripped tightly by a large hand, and then suddenly released.
He suddenly floated half a foot off the ground, his limbs stiffly outstretched, and paused suspiciously in the air for a moment.
Then, like a punctured balloon, he fell straight down and crashed onto the gold bricks.
It stopped moving.
The black mist dissipated, and the roaring stopped.
Only an indescribable smell, mixed with rot and burnt odor, filled the air.
He died.
Thoroughly.
The chaotic screams abruptly stopped, and everyone was stunned by the sudden turn of events.
Zhao Wuwang reacted extremely quickly, practically scrambling over to him. Trembling, he reached out to check Jing Hong's breath, then let out a mournful cry that was hard to tell whether it was from fear or relief:
"His Highness the Third Prince... has passed away!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com