The sky was still gray, not yet fully bright—yet the lights across the entire capital blazed far brighter than the sky itself!

Never before, since the founding of Da Zhou, had a New Year’s Eve been thrown into such chaos, with the hearts of the people so unsettled!

Never before had the beginning of a new year arrived amid such turmoil!

After a full night of searching, one could say the capital had truly descended into disorder!

Prince Baxian paced back and forth anxiously through the entire night in the main hall of Prince Yao’s residence, yet Jun Beiyue never once returned!

Only Situ Haonan came back.

He rushed hurriedly toward the West Garden, apparently also looking for Jun Beiyue, but finding no one there, immediately rushed back out in a great hurry!

Prince Baxian quickly caught up and grabbed hold of him. “Wait… wait… wait a moment!”

“No time, let go!” Situ Haonan snapped fiercely, too anxious even to care who Prince Baxian was—at this moment, likely only Jun Beiyue and Han Ziqing would be spared his temper.

Prince Baxian, clearly not expecting Situ Haonan to be so fierce, was too stunned to speak for a moment, and Situ Haonan shook him off and rushed out again!

Only then did Prince Baxian recover, chasing after him once more. “Wait, when you find Beiyue, tell him—he can’t act so recklessly over one woman!”

At that moment, Situ Xin’er secretly peeked her head out from behind a wall. She had never seen her brother so furious before—no matter what trouble she had caused growing up that he’d had to cover for, he had never been this angry.

It was just some Han Ziqing, just some outsider—why all this fuss?

But just then, Jun Beiyue suddenly returned, with Yingzi following close behind.

“Master, please calm down, calm down—you can’t do this!”

“Master, I beg you, calm down for a moment, think it through calmly, surely there’s a way. All the city gates have been sealed in time, every wall is guarded, no one has been seen leaving. She must still be within the city. Master, if you act like this, you’ll only alert them and put the consort in even greater danger!”

…

Yingzi pleaded with him the entire way, but Jun Beiyue paid no attention at all, his handsome face as cold as some bloodthirsty Asura’s, the kind that made anyone who saw him instinctively step aside.

Prince Baxian had meant to try persuading him too, but upon seeing that icy expression, he too retreated to the side at once.

“Master, that is the capital’s water source—you absolutely cannot poison it! How will the common people of this capital ever accept you again?” Yingzi was nearly in tears. His master, unable to find her anywhere in the entire city, was now prepared to poison the capital’s water supply—did he mean to destroy this centuries-old capital himself?

Hearing this, Prince Baxian immediately rushed forward to block Jun Beiyue’s path. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Send the order—open the North Gate, let all the citizens exit through the North Gate, and search them one by one!” Jun Beiyue said coldly.

He had no way to remain calm. Ziqing was suffering such harm—she would be afraid, she would be in pain, she needed him!

He wanted nothing more than to tear this entire capital apart!

Open the North Gate on one hand, poison the water supply on the other, cut off the water entirely—he refused to believe that wouldn’t force those people out into the open!

“This is madness!” Prince Baxian said coldly. “Whoever dares carry out such an order, I will absolutely not forgive it!”

Jun Beiyue looked at him coldly. “The common people—this prince will not harm a single one of them. The capital—this prince will simply rebuild it! What’s wrong with that?”

“Slap!”

Prince Baxian raised his hand and struck it violently against a nearby pillar, so furious he nearly fainted from rage. “Jun Beiyue! Prince Yao of Da Zhou—well done, indeed! Do you even know what day it was last night? Do you know what day it is today? Last night was New Year’s Eve, the night every household reunites together. Today is the first day of the new year, the day every household begins anew! You won’t harm a single person, you’ll simply rebuild the capital—well done indeed! Do you have any idea how much suffering you’re causing the people?!”

Prince Baxian panted heavily with fury, and it took him a long while to recover his composure. “Jun Beiyue, you are the guardian deity of the people of Da Zhou! Yet for the sake of one woman, you’ve disturbed every single household in this capital, and now you mean to drive them from their homes at the crack of dawn! You mean to destroy the very place they’ve lived and worked in peace for generations!”

Faced with Prince Baxian’s furious rebuke, Jun Beiyue finally began to calm down.

Yet Prince Baxian, heartbroken, continued, “Beiyue, do you remember what you said to me at fifteen, before you set out alone for the Northern Frontier? You said you wanted to secure Da Zhou’s borders forever, that you wanted Da Zhou to never again know the flames of war, never again know displacement and homelessness! And what are you doing now? Not only have you failed to ascend to the throne, you’ve been running yourself ragged all over the realm, chasing after one woman’s origins for her sake alone!”

Unable to hold back any longer, having harbored so much resentment for so long, Prince Baxian let it all pour out at last. “Beiyue, are you even still worthy of the character ‘Yao’ in your name? You are not the sun of Da Zhou—you are Da Zhou’s nightmare!”

All around, silence fell, broken only by Prince Baxian’s heavy breathing. Jun Beiyue’s face darkened, but he said not a single word in his own defense—though no one knew what was going through his mind at that very moment.

Seeing that Jun Beiyue offered no rebuttal, Prince Baxian felt considerably comforted.

If not for Han Ziqing, perhaps by now Jun Beiyue would already be the emperor of Da Zhou. In the war at the Northern Frontier, Da Zhou could have gained vast territories from Eastern Qin; in the campaigns against Xijing and Western Chu, Da Zhou would have gained far more.

Yet all because of Han Ziqing, Jun Beiyue’s imperial ambitions had been delayed time and again!

Han Ziqing was from the Lone Island, and her very existence threatened the relationship between Da Zhou and Nanzhao. What’s more, being immune to all poisons made her inherently dangerous!

Though Prince Baxian admired her, in his heart of hearts he had never wanted her to become the mistress of Da Zhou.

After a long silence, Prince Baxian finally spoke, his tone heavy with meaning. “Beiyue, let this matter go. Announce that the Consort of Prince Yao fell unfortunately ill… and passed away.”

But to everyone’s shock, the moment these words left his mouth, Jun Beiyue immediately raised his hand and struck—whether at the pillar beside him or at Prince Baxian himself, no one could quite tell. In any case, Prince Baxian was so startled he stumbled backward, nearly falling over!

And at that very moment, Situ Xin’er could no longer hold back and burst out from her hiding place. She knew that if she didn’t speak up now, once Brother Beiyue eventually found out later, she would never earn his forgiveness again.

“Brother Beiyue, I know which inn that purple-clad woman is staying at!”

At these words, Jun Beiyue immediately released his grip and turned around. “You know?”

“I… I… I…”

Seeing Jun Beiyue’s blood-red, bloodthirsty eyes, Situ Xin’er burst into tears at once. “I… I didn’t mean to, Brother Beiyue, I really didn’t mean to. That woman deliberately got close to me, that’s why I…”

Before she could even finish, Jun Beiyue had already seized her by the throat. “Where!”

Situ Xin’er’s face flushed red, nearly choking, barely able to get any words out at all. Her legs kicked out desperately, and only then did Jun Beiyue release her. “Where!”

“In… in the south of the city, the Yuelai… Yuelai Inn. She was staying there before. I went back to look for her afterward, but she was already gone, she…” Situ Xin’er stammered out, breathless.

Before she could even finish speaking, Jun Beiyue had already vanished!

Situ Haonan, arriving just in time to hear this, immediately moved to give chase, but after only a few steps, he turned back and, without warning, kicked Situ Xin’er hard just as she was steadying herself, shouting furiously, “Get yourself back to Situ City this instant, or I won’t be able to protect you!”

With that, he too took off after Jun Beiyue…