"The Crown Prince? Ha, is he really my Crown Prince? Not necessarily." The Prince of Ye was never a kind father. Behind that mask of pretense lay the scheming and ruthlessness of an emperor: "But whether he is real or not doesn't matter. As long as he can temporarily deal with the Queen and the rebellious ministers of the previous dynasty for me, he is my Crown Prince."
Just then, a gust of wind caused the candles in the hall to flicker. He squinted and glanced casually at the window. Suddenly, his eyes widened as if he had seen something terrifying.
"Where are they? Where are the guards in the lonely palace?"
Li Gang glanced outside and respectfully replied, "Your Majesty, it's probably time for them to change shifts. Don't worry, this old servant will stay here to serve you."
"What good are you? You eunuch, how can you deal with assassins? Go and summon the commander of the Imperial Guards for me!"
Li Gang guessed that the Prince of Ye must have accidentally seen the bloodstains on the window, which made him wary.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this old servant is unable to do it for you."
"you--"
The group of palace servants kneeling on the ground seemed deaf and blind, maintaining their original postures as if they didn't care at all about the King of Ye's fury and the Grand Eunuch's disobedience.
At this moment, the King of Ye was gripped by a powerful unease. He struggled to get up, but with no one to help him, he would fall back down again and again.
During this time, the chief eunuch Li Gang simply watched coldly, neither persecuting him nor saying anything to provoke him.
Suddenly, the palace doors were violently flung open by a force, a strong wind howled into the palace, black curtains billowed wildly, ghostly shadows twisted, and a group of people rushed in with unsteady steps, their faces showing obvious tension and worry.
"Your Majesty—"
The Prince of Ye turned his head and saw that it was indeed the Imperial Guards. His face immediately lit up with wild joy: "Quick, quick, protect me—"
The word "Giddy up" was still in his throat when, in the next second, his expression froze on his face.
A sharp and ruthless sword aura appeared behind them. Even before it got close, it gave off an overwhelming sense of power. The cold light of the sword cut through the waist of the Imperial Guard, and immediately red and yellow substances fell to the ground.
In an instant, the stench of blood assaulted the senses, so strong it was suffocating. The King of Ye's mouth gaped open, and his whole body trembled like a leaf.
A slender yet tall figure, carrying a blood-dripping longsword, strolled leisurely toward the bedchamber, even humming a strange and eerie tune in a cheerful mood.
"...Who is it?!"
When the King of Ye uttered those words, his tone unconsciously changed, like a cat startled in the middle of the night.
Dark clouds obscured the moon, and the person standing under the eaves, holding a weapon as if about to unleash a massacre, calmly replied when asked, "Father, don't you even recognize me?"
The King of Ye was stunned for a moment, then asked uncertainly, "Xing... Xingzhou?! How did you end up here? Weren't you participating in the Six Kingdoms Military Trial at the Golden Egret Hunting Grounds?"
Yuan Xingzhou stepped across the threshold, the candlelight in the hall illuminating his face. He walked over blood and over gruesome corpses, finally arriving before the King of Ye.
“That’s right. Everyone knows I’m participating in the Six Kingdoms Military Trials, which is why I’m here at this time. That way, if you die, no one will suspect that I did it.” He smiled, and the brilliance and light in the hall seemed to be concentrated on him alone.
Li Gang stepped aside, and the palace servants kneeling on the ground also got up, turned around and stood against the wall. Although there were people in the hall, the Prince of Ye felt as if only he and Yuan Xingzhou were left in the huge space.
Hearing him state his purpose so bluntly, the King of Ye turned pale. He shouted, his voice trembling with fear, "How dare you! I am your father! How dare you commit patricide?"
"Why wouldn't I dare? Isn't this a tradition of our Yuan family?" Yuan Xingzhou smiled, his eyes fixed on his pitiful yet despicable state.
The Prince of Ye's face stiffened: "W-what are you saying?"
"Didn't you also seize the throne by killing your father and brother? Has our great King Ye forgotten?"
Seeing that Yuan Xingzhou couldn't be intimidated at all, the Prince of Ye immediately changed his expression and said gently, "My son, my throne will be yours sooner or later. Can't you even wait a little while?"
“I can’t wait any longer, because I’ve waited too long.” Yuan Xingzhou shook his head, picked up a lamp from the side, and shone it on his face: “Father, do you really still not recognize who I am?”
Upon hearing this, the Prince of Ye was suspicious. He leaned closer to focus and take a closer look. The face was indeed Yuan Xingzhou's, but his expression and aura had completely changed. That familiar, chilling sense of crisis—he had only ever felt it from one person before—
“You…you bastard?!” he blurted out.
“Isn’t it just an bastard?” Yuan Xingzhou squatted down, their eyes meeting, his gaze sharp and excited like a dagger: “A bastard created by you and your former queen.”
He suddenly leaned back and laughed wildly and gleefully.
"But now, you're going to die at the hands of this bastard. Isn't that ridiculous? Isn't that funny?"
The King of Ye kept shrinking back, trying to hide his large body in the corner of the bed: "No, it has nothing to do with me. I am your father. You, you want to avenge your mother?"
"Mother?" He seemed to savor the word, but the more he tasted it, the more bland it seemed: "A bastard child doesn't deserve to call her mother. She hates me, Yuwen Hao hates me, and you naturally do too..."
"It's laughable that I thought you knew nothing, but it turns out you knew the whole truth all along." King Ye didn't want to die, so he tried to act like a remorseful old father: "No matter what I've done, I'm still your biological father. You can't kill me. If you don't kill me, I'll pass the throne to you and make you the new king of Ye. Is that alright?"
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