Chapter 398 Lovers Return to Strangers
Chen Jie watched all this and sneered, "Do you think you can deal with me, Chen Jie, just because you're the Marquis of Ningyuan?"
"Wishful thinking. I have an army of 100,000. You have no chance of winning."
"My lord, the Prince of Langya has returned." A soldier covered in blood stumbled in. Chen Jie stood up from his throne. "What did you say?"
Who's here?
"The Prince of Langya..."
How many men did he bring?
"The Prince of Langya came alone." The soldier's voice trembled as he spoke.
Chen Jie breathed a sigh of relief. "Since you came alone, why are you so flustered?"
Before he could finish speaking, Prince Pei Yanchuan of Langya walked in, dressed in silver armor and holding a long sword. The faint moonlight shone on the armor, making him look like a divine warrior descending from the heavens.
Chen Jie squinted at Pei Yanchuan.
Marquis Ningyuan breathed a sigh of relief, "Good son-in-law, you've finally arrived."
“Pei Yanchuan?” Chen Jie said. “Oh no, Xie Chuan.”
"You're far too confident in yourself. You dare to barge in all by yourself? Do you think these people are enough?"
Chen Jie pointed to the people that Marquis Ningyuan had brought into the main hall.
Before Pei Yanchuan could speak, another soldier rushed up behind him, "Sir, Gongsun Xuance led troops into the palace gates, along with some Jianghu gangs, something called the Netherworld Sect."
Gongsun Xuance?
Despite Chen Jie's meticulous planning, he overlooked this former subordinate of the Duke of Ying, Gongsun Xuance, who was in Cangzhou, not far from the capital.
"You didn't even go to the frontier?" Chen Jie finally realized.
Going to the frontier was just a pretext.
Pei Yanchuan did indeed go to seek reinforcements, but not to the frontier. He went to Cangzhou, where someone took his place and continued on his way.
Cangzhou is only a day and a night away from the capital by fast horse.
"Chen Jie, you've lost," Pei Yanchuan said slowly.
"The soldiers outside have already surrendered. Are you sure you still want to resist?" Pei Yanchuan said to Chen Jie's soldiers inside the hall. "This matter has nothing to do with you."
"If you stop resisting, you will not be held accountable."
After Pei Yanchuan finished speaking, Xiao Yu nodded, "The Prince of Langya is right."
Some of the soldiers slowly threw their swords to the ground, and those who had hesitated before also put down their swords upon seeing this.
They were merely following orders and were not loyal to any one person, so there was no need for them to risk their lives for it.
Seeing this, Chen Jie's shoulders relaxed. He walked around the throne to the dragon desk, sat on the steps, and looked at Pei Yanchuan. "So many years, I have been lying low for so many years."
"They always thought I had been lying low for so long because I was cautious and because I could endure."
"But they were wrong, everyone was wrong."
"The reason I lay low like this is because from the very beginning, I have been casting a divination for myself every day, and the divination results were good at first."
"But in the end, the divination result was always the same, and I always lost."
Chen Jie gave a wry smile. "I've been lying low for so many years, how can I completely believe in this divination? I'm not convinced, I want to take a gamble."
But the final result was still the same...
"I just want to know why you wiped out my entire Xie family back then, and who is the person who allied with you from Western Xia?"
Pei Yanchuan said coldly, "If you tell me, I can let you die a quick death."
Allowing Chen Jie to die a quick and painless death was the biggest concession Pei Yanchuan could make.
Pei Yanchuan could not sleep at night whenever he thought of the tragedy that happened at the Duke of England's mansion.
Chen Jie laughed and said, "You probably know in your heart how few people in the Western Xia Dynasty could actually hold power back then, but do you dare to?"
Back then, the Western Xia held great power, and the only person who could cooperate with Chen Jie was Lin Qingshuang, the leader of the Lingxiao Sect.
The Western Xia emperor did not hold power at the time.
"Pei Yanchuan, I want to see what you would do when faced with your beloved on one side and your father's killer on the other."
"What will Jiang Wan Ning do next?"
Shen Ruzhi is different in Jiang Wan Ning's heart. Now, the other person who killed Pei Yan Chuan's father is Shen Ruzhi's biological mother.
Regardless of their choice, some of the three will suffer, and some will experience inner turmoil.
This is exactly what Chen Jie saw.
"Chen Jie, why do you have to be so ambiguous?" Jiang Wan Ning's voice came from outside.
"You're just saying that on purpose to make us fight amongst ourselves and cause us inner turmoil."
Chen Jie looked up at Jiang Wan Ning, his eyes filled not with hatred, but with scrutiny...
Jiang Wanning, dressed in red, approached Pei Yanchuan and said, "Chen Jie, the person you cooperated with back then was Emperor Tuoba Xiong of Western Xia, not Lin Qingshuang."
"Back then, Tuoba Xiong had no power and listened to treacherous officials, so he cooperated with you. First, he helped you destroy the Duke of Ying's mansion, and then you helped him regain real power from Lin Qingshuang."
"But what he didn't expect was that Lin Qingshuang had no intention of seizing power at all."
"Tuoba Xiong felt guilty and broke off his cooperation with you. Later, you cooperated with Tuoba Wenjing."
"In every collaboration, you promised to cede territory from my Dongling Kingdom."
Chen Jie sneered, "You know all this? You really are a chosen one."
Jiang Wan Ning ignored Chen Jie and instead took out the message that Shen Ru Zhi had given her and handed it to Pei Yan Chuan. "In the message, Zhi Zhi said that Tuoba Xiong has passed away."
"Before he died, he told me about this, and Zhizhi immediately wrote to me, hoping to help you."
The murderer is dead, so this matter can no longer be brought against other people in Western Xia.
It has nothing to do with Shen Ruzhi and Lin Qingshuang.
Pei Yanchuan clutched the letter tightly in his hand. After so many years, he had finally avenged his great grudge.
Chen Jie stretched out his legs, propped himself up on his arms, and lay half-reclined on the steps, as if he had given up resisting. He smiled at Pei Yanchuan and said, "I lost."
"We lost to the variable that was Jiang Wan Ning."
“If Jiang Wan Ning and Pei Yan Chuan weren’t by your side, you wouldn’t live long.”
Chen Jie continued, "She helped you succeed, but do you think the two of you can live peacefully and smoothly from now on?"
"How about I perform another divination for you? Consider this one a gift."
As Chen Jie spoke, he took out a tortoise shell and three copper coins from his pocket.
Pei Yanchuan tightened his grip on the sword and was about to raise his hand when Jiang Wanning pulled him back. "He can't cause any more trouble now. It's okay to wait a bit."
Chen Jie placed three copper coins inside the tortoise shell, then lifted the shell and shook it in the air.
The last three copper coins landed, and Chen Jie repeated this process six times.
Finally, he opened the divination box and burst into laughter, "Great, great, very good."
Chen Jie looked up at Pei Yanchuan, "Lovers become strangers."
"We meet, yet we cannot recognize each other."
"Pei Yanchuan, in the near future, all you'll have to do is suffer, hahaha..."
Hearing Chen Jie say that, Pei Yanchuan felt inexplicably uncomfortable, as if he were about to lose Jiang Wan Ning. He tightened his grip on her arm.
He threw the sword, aiming it at Chen Jie's heart.
The exact location where the British Duke was fatally stabbed...
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