Di Wuyou stared unblinking at the woman sitting cross-legged on the ground, and for a long moment he did not move.

He understood full well that now — if he were to go over and deliver a single blow — no matter how powerful her martial arts, it would be enough to take her life.

Yet for reasons he could not fathom, his legs had gone rigid, and he could not make himself move.

With a sudden sound, Zhan Liyue coughed up blood once more.

Ye Luosha, who had just returned from outside, caught the sound and strode swiftly over, throwing back the tent flap.

Inside the tent, Zhan Liyue sat cross-legged on the ground with her eyes closed. Her robes and the floor around her were marked with spreading stains of dark, black blood.

Not far from where she sat stood Di Wuyou, true energy gathered in his palms. His eyes held a trace of confusion — but the killing intent had not left them.

“Wretch!” Ye Luosha moved with rapid steps and drove a palm strike with force straight toward Di Wuyou’s heart.

Her speed was so swift that Di Wuyou had no time to evade it. The blow connected squarely.

He had barely managed to steady himself when Ye Luosha’s next lethal strike was already bearing down on him.

“Stop!” Zhan Liyue’s low and muffled voice rang out. “He is Wuyou — do not harm him!”

Ye Luosha’s eyes had gone red. True energy surged through her palm as she shoved it with full force toward Di Wuyou.

“He is not!”

With a thunderous crash, Ye Luosha’s palm struck home at Di Wuyou’s heart, and the entire tent collapsed in an instant.

“No!” Heedless of her own precarious condition, Zhan Liyue forced herself forward and shoved aside the fallen beams bearing down on her.

Before the attendants outside could react, Zhan Liyue came out of the collapsed tent with the white-robed young man cradled in her arms and moved swiftly into another tent.

Behind her followed one other — Ye Luosha, who had entered the tent just behind her.

Both moved with exceptional speed. The attendants who lacked such martial skill could barely make out more than a blur of passing figures before they were gone.

“Quickly — go and find the military physicians! Go! Hurry and notify the Second Prince that something has happened! Have the Crown Prince and the Second Imperial Prince return at once — hurry!”

All the attendants could see were two silhouettes flashing past. What remained was only Ye Luosha’s voice.

“Yes — yes!” At last one of the guards came to his senses, his face still blank with shock, and gave a dazed nod.

Zhan Liyue brought Di Wuyou into the other tent and immediately sat down cross-legged to channel her inner energy and treat his injuries.

Ye Luosha’s blow had struck Di Wuyou squarely in the heart meridian. Blood kept pouring from his lips, and his condition was perilously precarious.

“Your Majesty.” Ye Luosha knelt at Zhan Liyue’s side, her brow tightly creased. “He is Feng Jiu’er’s spy. He is not Wuyou.”

“Feng Jiu’er knows too much. She knows Wuyou has a birthmark on his neck — she could easily have applied one to him. He is not Wuyou.”

Di Wuyou kept coughing up blood. Zhan Liyue’s own condition was without question far worse than his.

The color had drained entirely from Zhan Liyue’s face, and dark blood kept seeping from the corner of her mouth at intervals.

Ye Luosha was sick with worry, yet she did not dare rashly interrupt Zhan Liyue as she treated Di Wuyou’s injuries.

She was truly afraid that the moment she intervened, she would set in motion something that could never be undone.

“Your Majesty, please stop! He is not—”

“He is!” Zhan Liyue gave a cold grunt, and dark blood continued welling up in her mouth.

She bit down hard on her lip and kept channeling true energy from within her body into Di Wuyou.

“He is not — he tried to kill you!” Ye Luosha looked at her, and her eyes had long since grown misted.

“Get out!” The moment Zhan Liyue opened her mouth, a mouthful of dark blood came spraying out.

“No!” Ye Luosha sank down to her knees beside her. “Please — say no more. Let go of him. Let me take over.”

“Yes — he is Wuyou, your youngest son, Di Wuyou. Sister — please do not channel your inner energy any further. Let go of him and let me take over — please?”

Zhan Liyue paid no heed to Ye Luosha. She clenched her jaw and continued to concentrate every faculty she had on treating Di Wuyou’s injuries.

Di Wuyou’s heart meridian had been gravely damaged by Ye Luosha’s blow. He could not summon even the slightest force from his body — yet his mind was still perfectly clear.

Di Wuyou… youngest son… birthmark… Mother Empress… The words that Zhan Liyue and Ye Luosha had spoken circled endlessly through his thoughts.

He could not forget the last words Zhan Liyue had said to him. Mother Empress — was she truly his Mother Empress?

Yet deep within Di Wuyou’s mind, another voice persisted.

Zhan Liyue had killed his own birth parents. For the rest of his life, he must kill Zhan Liyue and avenge his mother and father.

Zhan Liyue is his Mother Empress. Zhan Liyue is his enemy. Zhan Liyue is his Mother Empress. Zhan Liyue is his enemy…

Di Wuyou’s thoughts had never been in such turmoil. His life felt as though it had been mapped out for him long before he was born.

He had followed the path laid out by the person who had saved his life, walking forward step by step, never once in doubt.

Yet now — watching his enemy swallow the poison he had given her and cough up black blood — he had begun to lose his way.

His thoughts were in chaos. Utter chaos.

“Ah—!” Suddenly, Di Wuyou flung his arms wide and cried out.

His outcry caused the healing energy that Zhan Liyue was channeling into him to abruptly break off.

The moment Di Wuyou cried out, his whole body went limp and he could not keep himself upright.

Zhan Liyue steadied herself as best she could and gathered him into her arms.

“You… you are not! You are not my Mother Empress. You killed my parents. You are my enemy!”

“You are not my Mother Empress — you are my enemy! You harmed Jiu’er, you killed my parents — you are my enemy. I will certainly… put you to death!”

“Wuyou.” Zhan Liyue held Di Wuyou in her arms, and even her hands were trembling slightly.

“I did not!” She looked at him and shook her head. “Wuyou, I am your Mother Empress. Your birth father was the Emperor of the former dynasty, Di Dingtian.”

“Wuyou, you are my Wuyou.”

Zhan Liyue’s breathing had grown disordered. Dark blood kept flowing from the corner of her mouth without pause.

Di Wuyou slowly opened his eyes and looked at her, his own breathing labored.

“No! You are my enemy. I must kill you — you are…”

With a sharp crack, a sound rang out inside the tent.

“Di Wuyou — she is your own mother, and you would even try to kill your own mother? You…!” Unable to contain herself any longer, Ye Luosha stepped forward and struck Di Wuyou across the face.

Di Wuyou stared at Zhan Liyue, rooted in stunned stillness.

“Get out!” The moment Zhan Liyue’s temper flared, dark blood streamed anew from the corner of her mouth.

She cupped Di Wuyou’s face in both hands, her expression suffused with tenderness and grief.

“Wuyou, do not be afraid. With Mother Empress here, no one will ever bully you again.”

Zhan Liyue helped Di Wuyou into an upright position, and once more placed both palms on his back.

When Ye Luosha moved to stop her, Zhan Liyue turned her head and shot her a sharp look.

“If anything should happen to Wuyou — I will hold you solely responsible!”

With those words left behind, Zhan Liyue closed her eyes once more and continued channeling true energy into Di Wuyou’s body.

Di Wuyou, whose complexion had just been deathly pale, began in short order to regain some of his color.

Yet Zhan Liyue grew more pitiful to look upon by the moment — her color shifting from white, to a dark flush, to black, and her breath growing weaker and weaker with every passing instant.

Ye Luosha knelt to one side, frantic with anxiety, yet utterly powerless to intervene.

In the blink of an eye, two military physicians arrived. Ye Luosha instructed them to go and prepare medicinal decoctions, and they hurried out of the tent in a rush.

“Let me take over — please?” Ye Luosha sat at Zhan Liyue’s side and said softly.

“Let me take over. I will not hurt him again — you have my word. Let me take over — will you?”