Seeing that the ministers still seemed hesitant, the Imperial Guard Commander righteously shouted: “The Second Prince forced his way to the throne through rebellion… he committed patricide and fratricide, a brutal and tyrannical person. Such a person is fundamentally unfit to be the ruler of our Dongyi nation! Men, seize him!”

As soon as the Imperial Guard Commander finished speaking, he protected the Empress as they retreated. The Dongyi court ministers, seeing the Imperial Guards advancing with heavy shields and bows, all scrambled up from the ground and hastily retreated toward the hall entrance with terrified expressions.

The Dongyi Emperor’s eyes widened as he watched the heavy shield bearers continuously closing in, using their shields as cover while aiming their bows at him, the Dongyi Emperor.

He gripped the jade cicada in his hand tightly. If he could not rely on the jade cicada’s time reversal ability in this lifetime, then… death was not a choice to be feared.

In that world, she was there. If he could not save her, then he would go seek her out.

The Empress stood right behind the Imperial Guard Commander, her gaze fixed on the pouch he wore at his waist. She recognized it as the pouch her niece had once given to the Second Prince.

Hah… the person was already gone. What use was keeping a pouch?

“Loose arrows!”

With the Imperial Guard Commander’s command, countless arrows rained down toward the Dongyi Emperor.

He stared at the arrow storm rushing toward him and calmly sat down on the dragon throne. His loyal subordinates who had been protecting the emperor threw themselves forward, trying to use their bodies to shield the emperor from the arrows, but the arrow storm was too dense!

In just that instant when countless arrows whistled through the air, blood flowed down from the gleaming golden dragon throne and the white jade steps…

The Empress turned her head away, unable to bear watching.

Under the dragon throne and imperial seat lay the blood and bones of countless people. Perhaps the Empress had once thought this phrase merely described the conspiracies and schemes during princes’ struggles for succession, but now, watching this Second Prince, she truly understood the meaning of these words.

She remembered the Second Prince from before. Back then, when her niece was still alive, the Second Prince was just an unremarkable and unfavored prince in the rear palace. No one had expected that the Second Prince would one day sit on the dragon throne, and die on the dragon throne.

If… her niece had not died so miserably in front of him while protecting the Second Prince, perhaps… the Second Prince would not have become what he was now, would not have developed such a great obsession with power and the throne, and would not have become such a brutally excessive person.

“Your Majesty, the Bai family army led by the Great Zhou Emperor and the Yan army led by the Yan Regent are approaching our capital’s east and west gates, respectively. What should we do now? You must make the decision!” the Imperial Guard Commander said to the Dongyi Empress.

The Empress clenched her fists at her sides and spoke without hesitation: “Great Zhou is helping our Dongyi’s legitimate Seventh Prince ascend to the throne. Open the city gates. This palace will personally welcome the Great Zhou Emperor into the city. Clean up the main hall and receive our honored guests!”

After giving the order, the Empress left without even glancing at the Second Prince, who had died on the dragon throne.

Knowing that the Yan Regent had also brought troops, the Empress quietly calculated in her heart. If Great Zhou and Yan had agreed to jointly attack Dongyi and support her son, the Seventh Prince’s ascension, that would be fine. But if Great Zhou had originally intended to support her son’s ascension, while Yan wanted to get a share of the benefits…

Then she could use this opportunity to carefully plan and scheme, using the Great Zhou Emperor and Yan Regent to gain greater benefits for her son.

After all, if Great Zhou alone supported her son’s ascension, her son would become a puppet emperor, only able to follow the Great Zhou Emperor’s orders. Now that the Yan Regent had also come to Dongyi, this… created variables.

Variables were good. With variables… There was room for scheming. Otherwise, with the Great Zhou acting alone, she could see at a glance that her son would become a puppet.

Bai Qingjue had already joined forces with Bai Jinzhi, Cheng Yuanzhi, Bai Qingyan, and Shen Liangyu. Now the great army was assembled and marching majestically toward the Dongyi capital under Bai Qingyan’s lead.

The Dongyi people, hearing from afar that the Great Zhou Bai family army was coming, all hurried home to close their doors and windows, too frightened to come out.

The great army had been marching for some time and was still some distance from the Dongyi capital when Cheng Yuanzhi, who had not fought a satisfying battle since arriving in Dongyi, saw that the Dongyi Empress had sent people on fast horses to say that she would soon open the Dongyi capital’s gates wide and personally lead the Dongyi officials to welcome them. Cheng Yuanzhi perked up and moved closer to Bai Qingjue: “Young Master, do you think… this might be a trap set by Dongyi, with heavy troops lying in ambush in the city waiting for us?”

Hearing this, Bai Jinzhi glanced at Cheng Yuanzhi and couldn’t help laughing: “General Cheng hasn’t had a good fight all along the way and is hoping that Dongyi has set an ambush!”

Cheng Yuanzhi raised his hand to rub his nose and complained: “Dongyi’s soldiers are too weak. Are they even less fond of reading than I, Old Cheng? They don’t even know how to use military tactics!”

“General Cheng, don’t act smug after getting a bargain. This time the Bai family army won so easily and effortlessly, who knows how many of our brothers’ lives were spared…” Bai Qingjue’s voice was gentle and slow. “This is a good thing!”

Hearing Bai Qingjue say this, the smile on Cheng Yuanzhi’s face faded as he admitted Bai Qingjue was right…

Not long after Bai Qingjue finished speaking, they saw someone approaching on horseback from ahead. When the rider drew near, they discovered it was Shen Qingzhu in traveling clothes.

Bai Jinzhi’s eyes widened: “Isn’t Sister Qingzhu supposed to be with Uncle Ping, accompanying Little Seven?”

Bai Qingjue immediately reined in his horse and raised his hand to signal the great army to halt.

Bai Qingyan’s brows carried a gentle smile as she spurred her horse forward.

“Eldest Miss!” Shen Qingzhu leaped down from her horse, knelt on one knee, and saluted Bai Qingyan. “The person has been brought! But… Seventh Miss also followed. Qingzhu is incompetent… when we were leaving with the person, Seventh Miss discovered us, so in the end I could only bring Seventh Miss and Bai Yusheng together with Lu Ping.”

After speaking, Shen Qingzhu knelt on both knees and kowtowed to request punishment.

“Little Seven came too?” Bai Qingyan’s brows furrowed slightly. After thinking for a moment, she understood… Little Seven was first worried about Bai Yusheng, who had shared life and death with her, and second, she was concerned that this Bai Yusheng might ruin her eldest sister’s plans, so she wanted to follow personally.

“Get up first!” Bai Qingyan’s gaze fell on Shen Qingzhu. “Did you say everything that needed to be said to Bai Yusheng?”

Shen Qingzhu straightened her back upon hearing this: “Everything that needed to be said was said. Bai Yusheng is very willing. He harbors deep hatred for Yan and is willing to spend the rest of his life fighting Yan to the death.”

“What riddle are Eldest Sister and Sister Qingzhu speaking?” Bai Jinzhi listened with complete confusion, pulling her reins forward to ask her brother: “Seventh Brother, can you understand?”

Bai Yusheng… was the young Wei Emperor who had escaped back with Little Seven after Little Seven was captured by refugees outside Yunjing in Western Liang.