After clearing the Empress Dowager’s people from the secret passage, only her people remained. When Xiao Changfeng entered the passage, the one who emerged was no longer “Xiao Changfeng.”

Xiao Changfeng’s command flag would fall to Lu Bing. Having fought alongside Xiao Changfeng against Xiao Changgen for so long, Lu Bing remembered and mastered most flag commands. With armies facing each other and killing reaching the heavens, troops weren’t commanded by voice but by the flag.

With the flag, Lu Bing led “Xiao Changfeng” out and could command the Divine Brave Army to stand by with flag signals.

“Good!” Emperor Youning forcefully praised with a mix of anger and laughter, then broke into violent coughing.

His increasingly pale face coughed up thin traces of red, looking even more frightening.

“Your Majesty, I accept your concession,” Shen Xihe placed her final piece.

On the board, the black pieces were divided into three, each section surrounded by white pieces, with no escape.

Since nothing could change the situation, Emperor Youning stopped his futile struggles, throwing down the piece he could barely hold steady. Yet he didn’t speak, as if unwilling to accept defeat until the very end.

Shen Xihe didn’t mind, nor was she impatient. She looked at the sky outside: “Half a watch remains before the fifth watch ends.”

After the fifth watch, daylight would break.

The situation in the Northwest wasn’t like the imperial city, easily controlled by Shen Xihe. With “Xiao Changfeng’s” command flag, the Divine Brave Army stood by as ordered. Xiao Changgen and Xie Yunhuai led their army in a face-off, the sides just three to five steps apart.

This conflict was temporarily halted.

In the Northwestern Royal City, after the second watch, Shen Yun’an mobilized troops to help suppress the Tubo uprising.

By the third watch, with Xue Heng’s help, Wang Zheng easily entered the Northwestern Royal City with the army Emperor Youning gave him.

The city’s commoners shut their doors tight. Wang Zheng led his army straight to the Northwestern Prince’s mansion but was intercepted by several forces halfway, his massive formation cut off by troops charging from alleys.

At this point, the armies began fighting chaotically.

Everyone knew this was a battle of life and death and fought desperately.

The Northwest was too far from the capital for Emperor Youning to order an immediate stop even if he wanted. His carefully trained Divine Brave Army didn’t disappoint, showing courage and agility. If the Northwestern Army hadn’t been battle-hardened with slightly better combat experience, they would have had little chance against such troops.

The ink-like night gradually faded. The thick smell of blood swirled in the high air above the Northwestern Royal City like dawn clouds.

From the third watch until the fifth watch ended – a full four watches of encirclement and killing. Of over twenty thousand Divine Brave troops, only a hundred remained. The Northwestern Army also lost thousands. Corpses filled the city. The Northwestern Royal City hadn’t seen such slaughter in a long time.

Only when victory horns sounded did civilians hiding at home emerge cheering. Living in this land, they were used to war. Even with corpses everywhere, they showed no fear, even helping officials handle the bodies.

“Prince, where are these enemies from?”

Shen Yueshan’s battle robe was covered in blood. Facing the clan elder of the great Northwestern family, his gaze fell on the fallen Divine Brave soldiers: “Perhaps tribes seeking revenge against this prince.”

The deputy commander at Shen Yueshan’s side hesitated to speak, finally daring not to say more.

Seeming to notice his oddness, Shen Yueshan turned, his blood-covered face extremely imposing: “Take the remaining prisoners to the capital for the court to handle. Remember to send the signal.”

The signal was naturally the Northwestern Army’s fireworks.

One after another, city by city, until they could be seen from the northwestern corner of Qinzheng Hall in the capital’s imperial city.

As dawn broke while some darkness remained, brilliant fireworks bloomed before Shen Xihe and Emperor Youning’s eyes.

Shen Xihe closed her eyes slightly. Her tightly clenched hands only now loosened slightly. Even with extensive preparations in the Northwest and confidence in her father’s abilities, until the final moment, Shen Xihe still wasn’t at ease.

With the dust settled, she finally felt some sweat on her back.

That burst of fireworks rose and bloomed from a point of light in Emperor Youning’s somewhat blurry and clouded gaze – the Northwestern Army’s victory signal. It instantly took him back to his youth, when he and his brother, accompanied by Shen Yueshan, fought their way from the Northwest to the imperial city. Every time they saw such fireworks, they would share knowing smiles. If they had wine, they would certainly drink heartily.

Back then, they only wanted to hold their heads high, to prove to the late emperor who never took them seriously that they, the legitimate brothers, were united in heart and invincible on the battlefield.

But somehow, the ambition for power gradually corroded him.

Killing his brother to seize the throne was Mother’s doing, but for someone as strong-willed as him, if he hadn’t already harbored such thoughts, how could Mother have succeeded? He didn’t know if the outcome would have been different without Mother.

Perhaps… it would still be the same.

The fireworks were brilliant but fleeting. As the sparks faded, something in Emperor Youning’s eyes gradually extinguished.

He turned to look at Shen Xihe, his dim gaze still hiding a sharp edge: “I can draft an edict passing the throne to Junsu. You return to the Northwest, not to govern at court.”

“Your Majesty, at this moment, you have no right to negotiate with me.” Shen Xihe couldn’t possibly separate from her child.

“Is that so?” Emperor Youning sneered, “Embroidered Guards!”

At the emperor’s call, twelve Embroidered Guards seemed to appear from nowhere, all gripping their sword hilts.

Mo Yu and others immediately prepared for battle.

“I let the Northwest respect your Shen family, made Junsu emperor, and never meant to separate mother and son. If you have no intention to disrupt court order, why stay in the imperial city?” Emperor Youning forced out through gritted teeth.

Shen Xihe smiled faintly: “Your Majesty, I never submit to coercion, not even from the Son of Heaven.”

Emperor Youning broke into another violent coughing fit: “Seize them!”

The sound of unsheathing swords rang out with gleaming blades, but Emperor Youning never imagined that six of the twelve would point their swords at their colleagues’ throats instead of at Shen Xihe’s group.

At this sudden turn, Emperor Youning’s anger attacked his heart. Coughing up blood, he abruptly stood, pointing at Shen Xihe: “You-“

Seeming to exhaust all his strength in an instant, he only got out one word before his vision darkened and he collapsed, hurriedly supported by Liu Sanzhi.

“Axi.” Shen Xihe calmly ordered.

Emperor Youning was helped back to his couch, his face ashen.

Random Axi was quickly brought in. After checking the Emperor’s pulse, he swiftly applied acupuncture. Liu Sanzhi didn’t stop him or suspect Shen Xihe of using this to harm the Emperor – he knew better than anyone that the Emperor was already beyond needing to be harmed.

Emperor Youning, who had fainted from Shen Xihe’s provocation, regained consciousness again. Seeming drained of strength, he stared weakly at the canopy, only managing to say very feebly: “Take… take care of… the Empress Dowager.”