Many children, many blessings; a stunningly beautiful wife is given to you right from the start.

Central Continent, the capital city.

Inside the Third Prince's residence, a warm fragrance wafted through the air, and all was quiet and still.

A weary messenger was kneeling on the smooth, mirror-like gold brick floor, performing a full prostration.

He has been in this position for almost half an hour.

The northern border changed hands, Yuwen Biao was beheaded, and his 100,000-strong army was wiped out.

After he uttered the news, the entire room fell into a deathly silence.

The room's owner, the Third Prince Xia Jie, sat opposite him in a rosewood chair, engrossed in reading an ancient book.

It was as if the messenger, along with the news he brought that was enough to shake the court and the country, was nothing but air.

Extreme repression.

The messenger could clearly hear his own heart pounding; each beat sounded like a drumbeat.

He dared not raise his head, dared not move, and even breathed very softly.

Cold sweat seeped from his forehead and slid down his cheeks.

He dared not wipe it.

Such terrible news came.

The third prince did not get angry, did not question, and did not even lift his eyelids.

But the more this happened, the more uneasy he felt.

He now wishes he could turn into a wisp of air and drift away with the wind.

Finally, a bead of sweat the size of a soybean slipped from the messenger's chin.

"clatter."

A soft sound.

Sweat beads hit the floor tiles, splashing a small wet patch, which sounded particularly jarring in the room where you could hear a pin drop.

The messenger's body trembled violently.

He knew that the Third Prince had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) about cleanliness, and it was a morbid OCD.

This floor is wiped repeatedly with lambskin every day by a dedicated person to ensure it is free of any dust.

"Your subordinate deserves to die! Your subordinate deserves to die!"

He was terrified, kowtowing as he wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve.

The more you wipe, the more sweat you produce, making that small patch of floor even dirtier.

The messenger's face instantly drained of color.

Get up.

A gentle voice suddenly rang out.

The messenger stiffly raised his head, meeting the Third Prince's smiling eyes.

Xia Jie put down the book in his hand and slowly stood up from the chair.

He walked up to the messenger and even bent down to extend his hand.

"Look how scared you are."

There was no hint of blame in Xia Jie's voice; instead, there was a trace of concern.

The messenger was so flattered that he forgot to do anything for a moment.

"I'm not going to eat you."

Xia Jie smiled and took out a silk handkerchief embroidered with golden cloud patterns from his sleeve.

With gentle movements, she wiped the cold sweat from the messenger's forehead.

"The ground is cold, get up quickly."

The handkerchief carried a faint scent of ambergris, and the hand was long and warm.

The messenger's mind went blank; he was completely bewildered by this sudden gentleness.

He stood up shakily, at a loss for what to do.

"Thank you so much, Your Highness."

"Go down and collect your reward. You've worked hard."

Xia Jie patted him on the shoulder, his tone gentle.

"Yes, yes!"

The messenger, feeling as if granted a pardon, bowed repeatedly and turned to leave the suffocating study.

However, in that very instant when he brushed past Xia Jie...

puff-

The messenger felt a chill run down his spine.

He lowered his head stiffly.

A magnificent dagger tip, inlaid with rubies, protruded from his chest.

Fresh blood was gushing out along the sharp blade.

He wanted to turn back, but he no longer had the strength.

The smile on Xia Jie's face had long since vanished.

His handsome face now held an almost distorted calm.

"Lin...Mo!"

He forced out two words through gritted teeth, and his hand gripping the dagger twisted violently!

"ah!!!"

The messenger was in pain.

However, Xia Jie did nothing.

"Pfft!"

He pulled out the dagger and stabbed it in again.

A knife.

Two cuts.

Three knives.

……

He seemed to have gone mad, mistaking the pitiful messenger before him for the figure he hated to the core.

With all his might, he thrust the blade into his opponent's body again and again.

Blood splattered, staining his luxurious robes and splattering the gleaming floor tiles.

The maids who had been standing in the corner of the room were already pale with fright. They all knelt down with a thud, trembling like leaves.

Xia Jie only stopped when the messenger's body was reduced to a bloody mess.

His chest rose and fell slightly, and the madness on his face receded like the tide, replaced by a deathly coldness.

He first used the still relatively clean corner of the corpse's clothing to roughly wipe away the bloodstains from the blade.

Then, slowly and deliberately, he took out his gold-threaded cloud-patterned handkerchief.

He carefully wiped every inch of the dagger, over and over again.

Only when the gem shone again and the blade gleamed like a mirror did he contentedly put the dagger back into his sleeve.

"Your Highness...Your Highness..."

A maidservant's voice trembled, and she was on the verge of fainting.

Xia Jie raised his eyelids and glanced at them.

"Drag him out."

His voice was calm and undisturbed.

"Feed the dog."

Several guards immediately entered from outside, expressionlessly lifted the mangled corpse, and dragged it out like a dead dog.

"besides."

Xia Jie's gaze fell on the gold bricks stained with blood and sweat.

He frowned slightly.

"I don't like these floor tiles."

He turned and walked into the inner room.

"Change them all before tomorrow."

"Yes, yes!"

Behind them came the sobbing, relieved responses of the maids.

Xia Jie returned to his study and dismissed everyone.

He walked to the wall, where a huge map of the entire territory of the Great Xia Dynasty was hanging.

Xia Jie's gaze passed over the bustling Central Continent and landed directly on the vast land at the northernmost tip.

north.

His fingers slowly traced across the air above that area.

From the very beginning, something was wrong.

The assassins sent to Blackwind City have disappeared without a trace time and time again.

He should have been wary then.

But he was too far away to reach it.

It wasn't until he received Yuwen Biao's plea for help that he realized Lin Mo had already captured Tiebi Pass.

It hasn't been that long.

Half a month?

The entire Northern Territory changed hands just like that.

Unbelievable.

More than anything, there was anger.

A furious outburst from being provoked by ants and then devoured by a pawn.

"The Lin family's bastard..."

Xia Jie's fist slammed hard onto the map, producing a muffled thud.

"If I had known this would happen, I should have executed your entire family!"

He hates.

I hate my father's ridiculous kindness back then.

Why shouldn't they be exterminated because of the Lin family's reputation...?

it's good now.

Trouble is brewing.

These remnants of the Lin family are clearly plotting a rebellion, making the situation more complicated than ever before.

And what about his own father, the emperor?

A mocking smile curled at the corner of Xia Jie's mouth.

That high and mighty emperor is currently in seclusion on Mount Yunmi, thousands of miles away, with a group of charlatans, attempting to find the elusive path to immortality!

The fate of the nation is not as valuable as a "magic pill" in the hands of a swindler.

ridiculous!

Xia Jie's finger struck heavily on the location of the capital.

With the military tally not in his hands, the troops stationed in the capital region alone were simply insufficient to launch a war to quell the rebellion.

He must... seek help...