He pointed at A’Li in Tongque’s arms: “This little bastard is…”

“Your Majesty!” A stern shout from behind interrupted the Chen King.

Everyone looked toward the sound and saw the Empress Dowager being supported by an old nanny as she hurried into Zhaohua Palace. They couldn’t help but breathe a slight sigh of relief.

The Empress Dowager had, after all, once controlled court affairs for several years. Clearly knowing the current situation, her face still showed no unusual expression. After approaching, she said: “The current battle situation is urgent. Your Majesty is unwell and should be recuperating properly in the bedchamber. What are you doing at Zhaohua Palace?”

Hearing this, the mockery and resentment on the Chen King’s face intensified. He threw his head back and laughed loudly. After finishing his laugh, he asked: “Why is this King unwell? Does Mother Empress not know the reason?”

He pointed his sword at Tongque and the others: “That Great Liang poisonous woman imprisoned this King in Zhanghua Palace, making this King consume poisonous elixirs daily. If not for Mother Empress ordering people to stop feeding your son those poisonous elixirs after that poisonous woman left the palace, would your son have had the life to walk out of Zhanghua Palace?”

He slapped his own chest with his hand, questioning the Empress Dowager as if consumed by hatred: “This King is Mother Empress’s own son! Even now, does Mother Empress still insist on protecting her just because that poisonous woman bore the Jiang family’s evil spawn?”

As soon as these words were spoken, the assembled ministers erupted in commotion.

Tongque’s arms tightened around A’Li. Amidst A’Li’s frightened crying, she shouted sternly: “You’re slandering us!”

The Empress Dowager also darkened her face: “Outrageous! Stop spouting nonsense!”

But the Chen King continued laughing crazily and deliriously, mocking: “This King knows—in Mother Empress’s eyes, what does it matter if Chenguo’s royal house changes hands? As long as the continuing royal bloodline is still the Jiang family’s, isn’t that enough!”

Viciousness burst from his bloodshot eyes. Wielding his sword, he spread both arms wide: “This King is incompetent. For several years after ascending the throne, this King has been a puppet sovereign under Mother Empress’s hand. When the Jiang faction held absolute power, this King couldn’t protect our Chenguo’s national destiny. Now even an outsider Liang woman dares to covet usurping my Chenguo throne…”

His gaze turned sinister as it shifted to A’Li held in Tongque’s arms: “Now this King will stake this life to rectify our Chenguo’s dragon lineage. Only then can this King face Chenguo’s successive ancestors beneath the earth without shame!”

Then the long sword in his hand pointed directly at the assembled ministers led by Qi Simiao: “If you all still remember even half of the late King’s benevolence, remember from where the salaries you consume originate, you should have already offered your necks for execution long ago!

“That Liang woman first borrowed troops to quell her Liang territory rebellion, greatly exhausting our Chenguo’s national strength. Now to save her Liang Kingdom, she wants our Chenguo from top to bottom to serve as cannon fodder! Her heart deserves execution! Yet you all still serve her loyally! Can you be ashamed to be ministers of my Chenguo?”

The court ministers all remained silent. Though they lowered their heads respectfully with sorrowful expressions, this deathly silence was undoubtedly a silent choosing of sides and betrayal.

Tongque had originally been very worried that after the Chen King revealed everything, it would be detrimental to Wen Yu’s rule at the Royal Court. But in this moment, she suddenly understood something in this silence, so all those words of defense she had prepared—not a single one left her mouth.

—It was no longer necessary.

That Chenguo could have today’s prosperity was entirely the result of Wen Yu’s bold reforms and diligent governance.

The late King’s benevolence the Chen King mentioned—if it referred to the grace of promotion and employment, there might be something to say. But when the late King was on the throne, he was extremely fond of selecting consorts. The entire rear palace could be said to be a complete smoky mess.

The consorts all came from great aristocratic families. Thus the rear palace’s favor became entangled with the promotions and demotions of front court officials in ways impossible to untangle. The several major family faction accomplices causing trouble to this day could be said to have been cultivated at that time. The upright court ministers had long suffered unbearably.

The disaster of treacherous ministers disrupting the court that Great Liang had experienced—Chenguo had experienced it all as well.

Various faction officials in the court impeached each other, attacking with words and writing, only to eliminate dissent and support their own kind. Ministers who truly planned for the state and the common people instead became anomalies, repeatedly suppressed.

Chenguo’s treasury could be said to have already been emptied while the late King was alive.

If not for Wen Yu’s father lending troops back then, with that succession struggle, Western Ling would likely have been able to directly capture Chenguo.

Although Chenguo denied that great kindness after Great Liang’s fall, the volumes of annual account audits from the Ministry of Revenue piled in the archives couldn’t lie.

The Chen King and the former family faction accomplices always loved to accuse Wen Yu of usurping their Chenguo’s royal power. Little did they know that the current Chenguo was exactly what Prince Changlian had preserved with his troops back then.

Now with great calamity approaching again, Wen Yu, to protect the people of both nations, willingly went personally to the border pass.

The danger involved—how could these ministers at the center of the political vortex not know?

By contrast, since ascending the throne, the Chen King had no achievements whatsoever, only continuous scandals.

When Xiao Li besieged the Royal Court, he had been able to do something as shameful as offering surrender, damaging his integrity—making the ministers still feel they had lost all face to this day.

Now at this moment when the survival of family and nation was still unknown, he spoke such slanderous words. Setting aside truth or falsehood, just his desire to sever A’Li, this sole connection between Chenguo and Great Liang—the court ministers could never comply!

In this prolonged silence, the Chen King suddenly felt a sense of humiliation, and that fear and fury after some unshakeable belief collapsed.

He was Chenguo’s King!

The only legitimate bloodline!

How dare they!

The Chen King looked around. His face twitched, his eyes bulged: “Rebellion! You’re all rebelling…”

“Enough!”

The Empress Dowager’s heavy voice interrupted the Chen King. Having heard so many of the Chen King’s treasonous words, her face showed no anger. Behind that stern expression, there seemed to be only exhaustion and disappointment: “How much longer does Your Majesty intend to continue this foolishness?”

Tongque seized the opportunity to kneel while holding A’Li: “Empress Dowager, please provide justice for the Princess and the Princess Commandery! The Princess personally went to the front lines, facing extreme danger. Yet His Majesty listened to Daoist masters’ words and, seeking longevity, didn’t hesitate to use his own flesh and blood’s blood as a medicinal catalyst. After Consort Jiang’s child died from having blood drawn multiple times by the Daoist master, His Majesty actually set his sights on the young Princess Commandery!”

As Tongque spoke, tears fell: “How can the Princess and Princess Commandery bear such infamy!”

Hearing this, the court ministers had various reactions—sudden realization, shock and alarm—and they all looked toward the Empress Dowager.

The Chen King became even more furious beyond measure. He raised his sword to strike at Tongque: “You lying, slanderous servant wench, this King will kill you!”

The Azure Cloud Guard and Yulin Guards hastily stepped forward to block him. The ministers also grabbed the Chen King’s arms or embraced his waist, pleading with confused voices: “Your Majesty! Do not remain obstinate!”

They all appeared to have believed the claim that the Chen King’s actions today were for taking A’Li’s blood to refine elixirs.

Tongque held A’Li, lowered her head, and continued wiping tears, understanding in her heart that only if the Empress Dowager personally acknowledged this matter would A’Li’s background truly never be questioned in the future.

The battle situation changed in an instant, filled with extreme danger. With Western Ling’s one hundred twenty thousand troops besieging Gele City, whether Wen Yu could return completely intact was still unknown.

Even though the court ministers, for the sake of the current overall situation, didn’t deeply investigate A’Li’s background, to avoid leaving hidden troubles, she still needed to make A’Li’s background “perfectly flawless.”

Consort Jiang and her child had already secretly left the Royal Court two days ago under the Empress Dowager’s arrangements. The story told to the Internal Affairs Bureau was that Consort Jiang’s child had suddenly contracted a terrible illness and died young. Consort Jiang, unable to accept it, had also ended herself with a white silk sash. Because these were troubled times, the funeral matters were handled hastily without making a public announcement.

Now Consort Jiang and her child’s “deaths” were the perfect weapon to legitimize A’Li’s origins.

After all, the Chen King claimed A’Li was Jiang family bloodline, and the Empress Dowager protected Wen Yu because of this.

Then Consort Jiang was the Empress Dowager’s own niece. Her child was acknowledged by the Chen King personally in front of all the court ministers as royal heir.

Wen Yu was currently not at the Royal Court, yet Consort Jiang and her child were dead. It couldn’t possibly be that the Empress Dowager had harmed her own niece and grandson.

The Empress Dowager, supported by the old nanny, stood in place without speaking.

In her ears, the Chen King’s savage shouts of death threats and the ministers’ confused pleading voices seemed separated by a layer of water curtain, all becoming buzzing sounds.

The Empress Dowager watched this absurd farce before her eyes like watching a shadow play.

She knew the Chen King’s purpose.

This son of hers was unwilling to have been a puppet emperor in her hands since ascending the throne, and even more unwilling to continue being a puppet in the Liang woman’s hands after marriage.

He was staking everything to try to restore order and rectify Chenguo’s royal bloodline.

She also knew that Great Liang servant woman’s purpose.

She was a trusted confidant the Liang woman had left behind to protect her daughter. She wouldn’t let her young mistress suffer even half a mishap.

How should she choose?

Actually, the answer was already quite obvious, wasn’t it?

After her son was injured in the succession struggle and became a cripple, for all these years, she had always done this.

As the Chen King injured a Yulin Guard, kicked over an old minister, and was about to continue swinging his sword, the Empress Dowager closed her eyes: “Your Majesty’s delusion has relapsed again.”

“Yulin Guards, bind His Majesty and return him to Zhanghua Palace. Guard him strictly!”

After saying this, the Empress Dowager seemed to have no more energy to handle this mess. She held the old nanny’s hand, wanting to leave this place.

The Chen King’s expression became even more mocking and resentful. He suddenly swung his sword wildly, hacking at the Yulin Guards coming to seize him, shouting as he struck: “Get away! All of you get away! Don’t touch this King!”

That manner was somewhat hysterical.

Though the Empress Dowager had spoken, the Yulin Guards, to avoid injuring the Chen King, under such desperate hacking, still couldn’t get close to the Chen King for the moment. They only dragged away the few ministers the Chen King had kicked and injured.

The Chen King was thin as a bamboo pole. Under such fierce hacking, he quickly became exhausted. He leaned on his sword, gasping in embarrassment. Looking at the Empress Dowager’s departing back, that face twisted with anger suddenly squeezed out an extremely strange smile. He shouted to the Empress Dowager:

“Is Mother Empress abandoning this child again?”

The Empress Dowager’s footsteps paused slightly.

The Chen King’s smile was filled with extreme malice. He continued shouting: “Then Mother Empress had better be certain that Liang woman will pass both nations’ thrones to that little bastard in the future!

“When the Royal Court was breached, that Xiao from Liang territory entered and exited her Zhaohua Palace as if entering an empty realm! If the two of them secretly conceive again, Mother Empress’s hope of making Jiang family bloodline become the co-sovereign of both nations will likely fall through!”

While everyone was stunned by these words, the Chen King suddenly drew his sword horizontally across his own neck. In that moment, on his gaunt face, besides despair and sorrow, there even seemed to be some twisted pleasure of revenge: “‘Unfilial son Chen Yin’ has failed Chenguo’s successive ancestors!”

The bloodied long sword clattered to the ground. When blood splattered on the bluestone tiles outside Zhaohua Palace, everyone froze.

The Empress Dowager heard the sound of a heavy object falling behind her. Only when she heard the ministers crying out “Your Majesty” in anguish did she turn back in disbelief to look.

With just one glance, the Empress Dowager’s entire body went limp, nearly collapsing to the ground. The old nanny beside her could barely support her.

“Yin’er…” As tears rolled down from the Empress Dowager’s eyes—which had only reddened upon hearing of Jiang Yu’s death—she called out this name almost inaudibly.

Tongque was also shocked by the Chen King’s sudden action. A’Li in her arms was frightened and cried incessantly.

Tongque pressed A’Li against her chest, not letting her see this bloodshed. Looking at the Chen King’s corpse lying on the ground not far away, she pressed her lips tightly together, suppressing the shock in her pupils inch by inch. Her gaze became resolute once again.

The Chen King had chosen suicide after knowing there was no hope of rectifying Chenguo’s royal bloodline.

But if she hadn’t made the Empress Dowager say those words today, if Wen Yu and Xiao Li couldn’t return, and Chenguo’s people used A’Li as reason to return to Liang territory, if they developed ulterior motives in the future, they could also use the Chen King’s words today to make an issue of it.

Wen Yu had already chosen the path for the Chen King and the Empress Dowager. It was the Chen King himself who was unwilling—even in death, he wanted to make this final struggle.