Bai Qingyan looked at Tuoba Yao with a deeply solemn expression, her gaze profound and filled with disapproval, hoping that Tuoba Yao would understand… that in the future he must never treat his own life so carelessly.

“Enough!” When Bai Qingyan spoke these two words, only then did Tuoba Yao release his grip on the sword hilt.

The heavy long sword fell from the bloodied hands of the Dongyi Empress, and she collapsed to the ground, held tightly by her serving maid. Her fingers and palms revealed white bone, with clear sword marks etched into the bone itself, showing that Tuoba Yao had truly been prepared to thrust the blade into his own body without fear of death.

Seeing her Empress looking as if she had been frightened senseless, the serving maid frantically tore cloth from her garments to bandage the Empress’s wounded hands, then turned to kowtow before Bai Qingyan: “Great Zhou Emperor! Please allow the imperial physicians to enter and treat our Empress! If the Empress dies here from excessive blood loss, it would benefit the Great Zhou nothing!”

But Bai Qingyan paid no heed to the maid’s tearful pleas, only watching the Dongyi Empress.

The Dongyi Empress raised her hands, blood flowing freely, looking at that masked child. Her heart felt as if it were being cut by knives – for this child to be so reckless with his life, it must be… when he was previously in Great Zhou, he had already experimented and learned that when he was injured, her son would suffer even graver wounds, and if he died… her son would have to die in his place, trading one life for another.

Her son in Great Zhou didn’t know how much suffering he had endured, how much torment he had experienced. Her son had been raised in golden luxury and jade honor – in all his years, his skin had barely been broken a few times. In Great Zhou… she didn’t know what kind of life he was living, what kinds of torments he had suffered!

The Empress nearly couldn’t restrain herself from crying aloud, her heart aching unbearably, yet she was powerless to help.

She only regretted – regretted why she had sent her child into that den of tigers and wolves that was Great Zhou.

“Then… the Empress should cooperate well with our Great Zhou from now on. If you cooperate well, after three years… I will allow you, mother and son, to reunite! I may even allow Dongyi to survive as a nation, as a vassal of the Great Zhou. But if you don’t cooperate well, I will also send you mother and son to reunite – though at that time… it will be a reunion in the underworld.”

Bai Qingyan’s words made the Dongyi Empress’s entire body shudder with cold. Her face pale, she turned to look at Bai Qingyan: “Now I have no leverage at all – how can you expect me to trust you?”

“Precisely because you have no leverage, you can only trust me!” Bai Qingyan’s lips curved upward. “The Yan Regent may arrive very soon, and perhaps will want to sign some kind of alliance with your Dongyi. If you think of using Yan to oppose the Great Zhou, you’d better have the ability to do so without leaving any traces. Otherwise… once I learn of it, you should understand what fate awaits your son!”

The Dongyi Empress knew that Bai Qingyan was a cruel person who could order the execution of one hundred thousand surrendered prisoners without hesitation, so naturally, she would show no mercy to her son. After trembling, she responded: “I understand…”

“Let me remind the Empress of something – in your Dongyi court… we Great Zhou have more than just the Assistant Minister of Revenue.” Bai Qingyan’s eyes carried a smile. “Around the Empress, and in even higher positions in that court… There are also our Great Zhou people. After the Seventh Prince ascends the throne, these people will all become important court ministers of Dongyi. So after the Empress becomes Empress Dowager, you must never play tricks with Great Zhou, or you truly risk being separated from your son by death itself.”

The Dongyi Empress’s eyes widened – Bai Qingyan intended to turn the Dongyi court into something in Great Zhou’s palm, under her control!

“I trouble the Empress to tell your officials to prepare for the Emperor’s enthronement ceremony. After the new Emperor ascends the throne, I… will also return to Great Zhou.” After speaking, Bai Qingyan also addressed the Empress’s serving maid: “Help your Empress down to bandage her wounds. How you explain the injuries on her hands to your Dongyi court ministers is your affair.”

Having finished speaking, Bai Qingyan walked toward the exit, with Bai Jinzhi immediately following.

“Yes!” The serving maid crawled on her knees, facing Bai Qingyan as she kowtowed to respectfully see her off, not daring to rise. Only after the great hall doors opened did she turn back, just about to help up her Empress, when she saw that the masked “Seventh Prince” had already helped the Empress to her feet.

Seeing the silver-armored Bai Qingyan and Bai Jinzhi emerge, Shen Qingzhu and the Bai family army soldiers who had been guarding the entrance immediately followed behind Bai Qingyan, walking together toward the bottom of the high steps. Only then did the Dongyi court ministers hurriedly enter the great hall, kowtowing before the Empress and Seventh Prince.

Bai Qingyan’s fists, clasped behind her back, tightened. Leaving Tuoba Yao alone in the Dongyi court to face these Dongyi ministers by himself, she wondered if that child was afraid.

Though Tuoba Yao was still a child, he was also the Emperor of Great Wei. Bai Qingyan hoped that after three years… Tuoba Yao would have disappeared, leaving only Bai Yusheng.

The Dongyi Empress glanced sideways at the “son” supporting her, grinding her teeth in hatred, yet helpless.

“Empress, your hands…” The Imperial Guard Commander’s eyes widened as he looked at the Dongyi Empress’s hands.

The Empress steadied herself and spoke: “It’s nothing. I just swore a blood oath to the Great Zhou Emperor that our Dongyi will forever submit to the Great Zhou! This… is the only path for our Dongyi to survive! Otherwise… when the Yan Regent arrives, without Great Zhou’s protection, we would become territory to be divided between Great Zhou and Yan.”

Hearing these words, the court ministers all fell silent and bowed their heads.

Just as the Empress said, their Dongyi now had no other path except submission to the Great Zhou.

“A nation cannot be without a ruler for a single day. Please, Seventh Prince, ascend to the throne!” The Imperial Guard Commander was the first to kneel, requesting the Seventh Prince’s enthronement.

“Please, Seventh Prince, ascend to the throne!”

Though the Empress felt ten thousand parts unwilling in her heart, she still had to say to this “Seventh Prince”: “My child, the court ministers all know that your father Emperor, passed the throne to you before his death. You are the legitimate heir, rightfully entitled to occupy this throne. Now that you have returned, you should ascend to this throne!”

Seeing the ministers kneeling on the ground in entreaty, and hearing the Dongyi Empress speak thus, Tuoba Yao solemnly bowed deeply to the court ministers, speaking in his hoarse, unpleasant voice: “I thank you, ministers, for not abandoning me, supporting me on the righteous path of a strong nation. I am young, and the great task of jointly supporting Dongyi can only rely upon you all!”

His etiquette and words were impeccable.

The Dongyi ministers were moved to tears, hearing their young lord still harbor ambitions to strengthen the nation. Their hearts filled with mixed emotions, they kowtowed heavily before their young master.

The Empress gripped her hands that ached to the very core, trembling. Great Zhou… had been prepared for this all along!

“Mother Empress, to protect Dongyi, swore a blood oath. This son remembers the blood Mother shed today, and will never fail Mother’s heart in protecting Dongyi!” Tuoba Yao performed the great kowtow ceremony before the Empress, then said: “Quickly help Mother Empress go bandage her hands!”

“Yes!” The palace attendants hurriedly supported the Dongyi Empress as she departed.

The Dongyi Empress turned to look at that false son, momentarily uncertain where the Great Zhou Emperor had found such a person – someone whose bearing and conduct seemed even more like imperial nobility than that Great Zhou Emperor herself?