The moment Commander Xu collapsed, everyone around him followed suit, clattering weapons dropped left and right, and the fully-drawn archers looked like they wanted to turn their bows on themselves and shoot in atonement!
Before long, Ziqing and Jun Beiyue found themselves surrounded by three full rows of kneeling people, inside and out.
Consort Li lay sprawled on the ground nearby, frozen mid-motion with her head still raised, mouth not even fully closed, her whole body locked stiff!
Yingzi and Hongyi couldn’t possibly be mistaken!
Prince Yao and the Princess Consort had actually returned!
Heavens!
What had she just done? She’d just called the Princess Consort a shameless woman, she’d just been lording it over them, offering to bestow favor on Prince Yao?!
After all, the two people standing before her now were the true masters of the Prince Yao’s estate—no, of the entire realm of Longyuan itself!
Wasn’t everything the Emperor had, given to him by these two?
They… they’d come back!
Consort Li desperately wanted to cry, but at this moment she couldn’t summon a single tear. Her heart pounded faster and faster, completely beyond her control.
What was she supposed to do?
She realized her hands, her feet, her whole body had begun trembling uncontrollably. If there was ever a feeling of wanting to cry but having no tears, this was it.
At this moment, no one had the presence of mind to marvel that after more than a decade, Prince Yao and his consort still looked so young—everyone was trembling, as if awaiting a death sentence.
In the dead silence, Jun Beiyue slowly turned, his gaze sweeping over Consort Li without so much as a glance her way. Yet that alone was enough to make her neck go weak, her head slumping down, not daring to lift it again.
Jun Beiyue’s gaze landed on the shadow guard whose face Consort Li had just stepped on. He walked toward him step by step, the silence around them so complete that even his footsteps rang out unusually loud.
With each approaching step, the shadow guard grew more terrified—he knew exactly what mistake he’d made.
As a shadow guard of the Glass Pavilion, he never knelt to outsiders, and never allowed anyone to insult him by stepping on his face like that—it was a disgrace to the Glass Pavilion itself! As Jun Beiyue drew near, the shadow guard pressed himself flat against the ground, not daring to lift his head.
Just as Consort Li had done before, Jun Beiyue set his mysterious dark gold-threaded boot upon the shadow guard’s face, saying coldly, “You hadn’t finished what you were about to repeat.”
The voice was cold, as though it had come straight from some frozen polar wasteland, chilling straight to the bone. The shadow guard couldn’t stop his whole body from shaking.
“Say it. Let this prince hear it,” Jun Beiyue said again, seemingly patient. But anyone present who knew this master understood: the more patient he appeared, the more it meant his patience had already run out long ago.
The shadow guard trembled so hard even his voice shook. “Just… just now, that… that maidservant said… said…”
At this point, he was so frightened he wet himself, hurriedly explaining, “Master, it was all at the young master’s order—this subordinate didn’t dare disobey. Just now, Consort Li wanted to enter the bamboo grove, and the maidservant stopped her, saying the young master had ordered no one to enter this bamboo grove. Consort Li grew displeased.”
So that was it.
Jun Beiyue said coldly, “Useless.”
He slowly raised his foot—and just as everyone thought he might let the shadow guard off, he suddenly stamped down viciously without warning. In that instant, the shadow guard’s entire body simply shattered, blood and remains splattering across the ground!
“Ahh…!”
All of Consort Li’s terror erupted at once, and she screamed without stopping.
Not until Ziqing turned a cold glance her way did she hastily clamp both hands over her own mouth, forcing back her terror, not even daring to beg for mercy.
That had been a shadow guard—Prince Yao’s most trusted confidant!
And he’d just been crushed with a single stomp…
Never mind the other shadow guards—even the newly recruited guards who’d only just joined the estate, the newly formed imperial guards, the guard commander, the imperial guard commander—
Some of them belonged to Consort Li’s faction, some to Jun Buli’s.
But in that instant, they all understood who the true master truly was. They understood at once that no matter how powerful their backing, no matter how great their influence, it meant nothing—the moment you angered Prince Yao and the Princess Consort, blood and broken bodies scattered across the ground was the only outcome.
After silencing Consort Li, Ziqing let out a breath and asked, “Hongyi, where is my son?”
Hongyi’s age, Consort Li’s presence, this “Emperor” everyone kept speaking of—all of it left Ziqing with a nagging unease. But this wasn’t the time to dwell on it—better to see her son first.
At Ziqing’s question, Hongyi finally snapped out of her shock, immediately jumping up and rushing toward Ziqing. While everyone else remained wary of Ziqing, this lowly maidservant threw caution to the wind and hugged her tightly, overwhelmed with both joy and sorrow, bursting into tears. “Master, my dear master, you’re finally back! You all left without a single word—this servant thought she’d never see you again in this lifetime! The young master has missed you every single day, so heartbroken all this time!”
At these words, Ziqing’s eyes instantly welled up, while Jun Beiyue’s dark eyes flickered with a pang of heartache, all his fury at the chaos in the estate having long since evaporated.
He said flatly, “Let’s go. We’ll talk inside.”
Hongyi glanced around, understanding the Prince’s concerns, and nodded repeatedly.
Both Ziqing and Jun Beiyue were consumed with worry for their son—they had no mind left to deal with everyone present. Without another word, they left with Hongyi.
But everyone still remained kneeling, staring at the shattered remains of the shadow guard. None of the guards dared rise, let alone Consort Li, who didn’t dare so much as move, let alone leave.
Not long after Ziqing and the others left, Baili Weisheng finally caught up, tracking them down. Seeing three rows of kneeling archers, guards, and imperial soldiers, and Consort Li sprawled off to the side, he blinked in confusion and wandered over. “Um… what exactly are you all doing here?”
Unfortunately, no one answered him.
Though they didn’t recognize him, at this moment no one wanted to risk offending yet another mysterious intruder who might well be an assassin.
Baili Weisheng grew even more puzzled, studying Consort Li—her clothing and bearing made it obvious at a glance that she was some palace consort.
Baili Weisheng crouched down before her, speaking gently. “Your Highness, did you happen to see Prince Yao and his consort pass through here just now?”
To his surprise, Consort Li not only failed to answer, but suddenly burst into loud wailing sobs, as if she’d suffered some enormous injustice, crying so pitifully it was heart-wrenching.
Startled, Baili Weisheng grimaced awkwardly and was about to stand and leave when suddenly a sharp voice rang out from behind him. “Who dares run wild here?”
Baili Weisheng blinked, then slowly grinned, letting out a long “Ohh”—that voice sounded oddly familiar.
It had a bit of Xiong Bao’s tone to it—could it be his voice had changed as he’d grown up?
But just as Baili Weisheng was about to turn and look, Consort Li suddenly scrambled up from the ground and threw herself at the person behind him, wailing, “Your… Majesty!”