Murong Li glanced at Wang Jiuzhou, and seeing Wang Jiuzhou nod slightly, he finally felt at ease.

“So, you think this young emperor is not easy to control, and you violated imperial orders, not hesitating to kill the Imperial Guards and hidden guards at the palace, just to request Mother Empress’s return…” Murong Li slowly stood up, his voice neither hurried nor slow, showing no panic at all, very composed. “You want to… first place me under house arrest, then have Mother Empress depose me as emperor and choose someone easier to control to sit on the throne. Is this not so?”

“Your Majesty!” The elderly imperial clan relative tremblingly kowtowed to Murong Li. “Your Majesty has been too deeply bewitched by the national traitor Murong Yan and cannot listen to loyal but harsh advice! When the battle report arrived in the middle of the night, we hurriedly entered the palace, thinking we should immediately deploy troops to resist the enemy. But Your Majesty said… that Great Zhou’s war with Prince Xiping, without sending a declaration of war, must be suspicious! You even wanted to first ask the Regent Prince’s opinion! Your Majesty… that Murong Yan is a national traitor! He betrayed our Yan Country and became the Great Zhou’s imperial consort, and had two children with the Great Zhou Emperor! He covets this Yan Country throne but dares not bear the reputation of being a treacherous subject who usurps power, so he can only plan for his flesh and blood. Your Majesty must not be deceived by him anymore!”

“Your Majesty…” The elderly clan relative seemed to have only a sincere patriotic heart left, kowtowing to Murong Li again, his voice carrying a sobbing tone. “We do not wish to offend Your Majesty, but for the sake of Yan Country’s ancestral foundation, we had no choice but to risk requesting the Empress Dowager’s return to take charge of the overall situation. This old minister is a descendant of the Murong clan and dares to consider himself Your Majesty’s elder, not an ordinary subject. So what other ministers dare not say, this old minister will say! What other ministers dare not do, this old minister will do! To prevent our Great Yan’s ancestral foundation from being seized by that national traitor Murong Yan… from Your Majesty, who is the legitimate imperial bloodline, and given to his and the Great Zhou Emperor’s son!”

The Yan Empress Dowager’s face was ugly as she turned to speak to Murong Li, “Your Majesty, your grand-uncle is also doing this for Yan Country. In earlier years… you were young, and Mother was just a woman of the inner quarters. You and I both trusted Murong Yan completely, entrusting the entire Yan Country to Murong Yan, letting him serve as Regent Prince before you came of age. But he developed second thoughts about Yan Country…”

She slowly stepped forward, standing beside Murong Yan, “A’Li, Mother has returned this time to correct our previous mistakes! Mother knows… the national wager was all instigated by Murong Yan behind the scenes! He deceived you into joining him in performing an act! Murong Yan deceived you!”

As the Yan Empress Dowager spoke, she placed her hand on Murong Li’s arm, “Both of us, mother and son, were deceived by him!”

Murong Li looked at his mother before him with tears in her eyes as if he didn’t recognize her, and forcefully shook off the Yan Empress Dowager.

The Yan Empress Dowager’s steps became unsteady, and she staggered backward. If the eunuch protecting her hadn’t caught her in time, she would have fallen to the ground.

The pushed-away Yan Empress Dowager wasn’t angry. Looking at her son’s cold gaze, she trembled all over with distress, struggling to stand straight and speaking slowly, “Just like back then… to gain the trust of us mother and son, he said he would… deal with the clan relatives, that he would step forward to kill those who should be killed and punish those who should be punished, bearing the bad reputation and playing the villain, while you would step forward to win over the clan relatives’ hearts! It was because of this that we both trusted him wholeheartedly! But A’Li… we trusted the wrong person. Why won’t you believe Mother, why won’t you believe the clan relatives!”

Wang Jiuzhou looked at the Empress Dowager’s heavy layered skirt brushing against the ground, seeming to leave blood marks, quite surprised.

“The Empress Dowager still doesn’t forget to slander Ninth Uncle even now, truly blinded by greed and devoid of conscience! Mother Empress uses several forged letters… to establish Ninth Uncle’s crime of treason and handing over Yan Country’s territory to the Great Zhou. But Mother Empress seems to have forgotten…” Murong Li now looked at his mother with only disappointment. “If Ninth Uncle wanted this Yan Country’s territory, why would he have given the throne to me in the first place? When Father Emperor’s deathbed edict…”

“A’Li!” The Empress Dowager screamed out of control, her whole body falling toward the eunuch, nearly unable to stand. The wound in her abdomen seemed to have torn open again, and she clutched her abdomen, too pained to stand.

Murong Li paid no attention, “When Father Emperor’s deathbed edict instructed Ninth Uncle to inherit the throne and ascend as Yan Emperor, at that time… Second Imperial Brother and Eunuch Feng were both present! Otherwise, why would Eunuch Feng choose to follow Ninth Uncle after Father Emperor’s death? Mother… when you were throwing mud at Ninth Uncle, did you forget all of this? To help me secure the throne, Ninth Uncle personally burned the imperial edict in front of me and Second Imperial Brother. Does Mother Empress need Second Imperial Brother to return and confront this face to face?”

The Yan Country ministers and clan relatives in the golden hall were greatly shocked, unable to believe there was such inside information.

But if this weren’t true, why would the Emperor say it?

Now that the truth was exposed before everyone, the ministers seemed to… gradually find traces of the late emperor’s intention to pass the throne to the Regent Prince from Emperor Murong Yu’s attitude toward the Regent Prince before his death, such as when the Yan Emperor entered Wei Country’s capital, he had the Regent Prince and His Majesty ride in the same carriage, standing side by side.

The court ministers were all shocked.

The Empress Dowager couldn’t withstand the blow of Murong Li revealing the truth and leaned backward.

Wang Jiuzhou saw that under the Empress Dowager’s elaborately embroidered heavy layered skirt, blood seemed to be seeping out faintly. His palm tightened, and he quickly stepped forward, calling softly, “Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager seems to be injured…”

Murong Li turned to look at the Empress Dowager, only to see fresh blood slowly flowing from under her heavy, layered skirt onto the mirror-bright floor tiles. The eunuch supporting the Empress Dowager couldn’t hold her up either and fell to the ground with her. Only then did everyone discover that under the Empress Dowager’s heavy, layered skirt was covered in blood.

“Mother…” Murong Li was startled and rushed over in two or three steps, pushing away the eunuch and holding the Yan Empress Dowager. “Mother! Quickly… summon the imperial physician!”

Murong Li had given deadly orders that if the Yan Empress Dowager stepped out of the palace, she should be killed without question. Therefore, although those hidden guards watching the Yan Empress Dowager were surrounded and attacked by death warriors several times their number, they still completed their mission before dying, driving a blade through the Yan Empress Dowager’s body.

The Yan Empress Dowager had returned fighting for her last breath. When she heard that Xiao Rongyan, in cooperation with the Great Zhou Emperor… had killed Prince Xiping’s two sons and daughter-in-law, she forced herself not to die and returned, all to protect her husband’s territory. Yan Country was something Murong Yu had painstakingly rebuilt to glory bit by bit, and she absolutely could not let Xiao Rongyan hand over her husband’s territory to Bai Qingyan!

She knew she wouldn’t live long, so she had people bandage her wound tightly, using medicine to sustain her life. In the carriage, she used tea water to wipe away the blood traces, applied full makeup, changed clothes, and appeared at the entrance of the golden hall.

Back then, she had even gone to persuade Xiao Rongyan to agree with A’Li’s national wager strategy. Thinking about it now… Xiao Rongyan must have been overjoyed!

She had thought Xiao Rongyan was unwilling, had thought… that having Xiao Rongyan go to Great Zhou to negotiate the national wager was wronging Xiao Rongyan!

This was simply a huge joke!