The Crazy Emperor's Pampered Cousin

However, Ye Duhuai's composure exceeded his expectations: "Why doesn't Your Highness... unfold the imperial edict yourself and take a closer look?"

The King of Qi's certainty was shaken by Ye Duhuai's overly calm attitude.

He lowered his head suspiciously, with a sense of foreboding, and slowly unfolded the imperial edict in his hand.

The flickering firelight illuminated the smooth brocade.

blank.

A blinding, empty expanse of bright yellow.

There were no inscriptions, no imperial seal, and none of the two private seals he knew so well that represented his parents.

King Qi's pupils contracted. He examined the imperial edict from every angle, but found only emptiness.

"How could this be... how could this happen..." he muttered to himself.

King Qi was very confident in the location where he hid the imperial edict. When exactly, and who, managed to switch it right under his nose?

King Qi suddenly let out a chilling yet knowing laugh: "Heh... Hahaha! Xie Yanzhao! Good, good, good! Truly worthy of being the good grandson favored by Father! His methods are extraordinary, and his plans are flawless!"

Few people know that his father and mother bestowed upon him a blank imperial edict; even His Majesty the current emperor probably doesn't know.

Xie Yanzhao actually knew this and even swapped it out.

Ye Duhuai gave him no chance to breathe, raising his arm and swinging it forward: "Take him down!"

"Take it down?"

King Qi muttered to himself, then suddenly burst into laughter, a laugh filled with madness and despair that sounded particularly chilling in the quiet night.

"I've truly had enough! Imprisoned like a piece of trash in this damned Xingzhou for so many years! My father and mother owe me a debt, the whole world owes me a debt! What I want, no one has ever given me; I have to fight for it myself, to snatch it!"

He slammed the useless blank imperial edict in his hand to the ground, drew his sword from his waist, and pointed it at Ye Duhuai, as well as at all the Xuanjia Guards.

"Kill them all—!!"

"Tonight, even if I die, I will take my whole family down with me! This Xingzhou City will be my graveyard! You... will all be buried with me!"

A bloody battle suddenly erupted on the long street.

The torches flickered, reflecting the glint of swords and the shadows of blades, as well as the King of Qi's eyes, which were burning with a maddening, all-consuming flame.

……

The fighting finally came to an end.

The long street was filled with a strong stench of blood.

Ye Duhuai leaned on his sword, his chest heaving violently, his armor stained with blood, and several bloodstains splattered on his face.

The hand gripping the sword trembled slightly from excessive force and exhaustion after the fierce battle.

He looked ahead, still shaken.

The King of Qi's final outburst of ferocity and madness far exceeded expectations.

After his personal guards were all subdued or killed, this prince, who had been pampered for many years, single-handedly charged left and right through the encirclement of the Xuanjia Guards with a sharp sword, like a madman, and held out for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

He seemed oblivious to the pain, his body riddled with countless wounds, yet he continued to roar and swing his sword.

Each strike was carried with a resolute determination to perish together, and he slew several elite Xuanjia Guards to death with his sword.

It wasn't a prince fighting; it was more like a trapped beast stripped of everything, left only with the primal instincts for survival and destruction, making its final, desperate attempt to tear itself apart.

At this moment, King Qi knelt on one knee on the ground, where blood and dust mingled, barely managing to support his body with the chipped sword so that he wouldn't collapse completely.

His body was covered in wounds, the deepest one being under his ribs, from which blood gushed out, staining a large area of ​​his robes red.

Blood kept spilling from his mouth, dripping down his chin and accumulating into a small dark red pool in front of him.

Ye Duhuai's sword tip was firmly pointed at his throat.

The King of Qi seemed completely oblivious to the imminent threat of death.

He raised his blood-stained face, looked at Ye Duhuai, or as if looking through him into the distant void, and even twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a very faint, even somewhat dazed smile.

The clamor of the battle receded like the tide, and the blood and sword light before my eyes blurred and distorted.

Time seemed to flow backward, pulling him back to that afternoon decades ago.

At that time, the emperor's righteous army had just captured Ye City, which guarded a strategic pass, and was only one step away from the crumbling capital of the previous dynasty.

With victory in sight, the entire army was in high spirits and filled with the ambition to change the world.

The long procession marched through the still-ruined streets, which had just been ravaged by war.

Banners fluttered, and swords and spears gleamed in the sun.

As a young boy, he was still a teenager, excitedly and curiously following behind his older brother.

Looking up at the tall and straight backs of my father and brothers, my heart was filled with anticipation for the future and pride in our "benevolent and righteous army".

Then, he saw the street corner.

A mother and daughter huddled there, their clothes tattered and barely covering their bodies. Their faces were withered, just skin and bones, and their eyes stared blankly at the "royal army," filled with fear and numbness.

The little girl's lips were cracked and bleeding, and she was unconsciously licking a stain on her mother's thin arm.

Without thinking twice, he broke away from the group, ran over, and handed the mother and daughter the dry rations and water pouches that were still warm from his body.

Several more refugees, looking equally miserable, emerged from the surrounding corners, staring longingly at him and the soldiers behind him.

His heart softened, and he distributed all the food and drink he had on him, and even took off his cloak and covered a shivering old man with it.

His bodyguard reminded him that it was time to rejoin his unit. He looked up and saw that his father and brothers' troops had not stopped and had already gone some distance, but he could still see their flags.

He thought that once he finished this good deed, he could catch up immediately, so it didn't matter.

At that very moment, a sharp whistle pierced the air!

A scattered remnant of the former dynasty's army suddenly charged out, causing chaos in the streets with screams, cries, and the clashing of weapons.

In the chaos, he was knocked down by a powerful force, his head hitting a hard object, and everything went black...

When I woke up again, I was surrounded by deathly silence and an impenetrable darkness.

He lay in a dark alley filled with clutter and reeking of foul odors.

There were no guards, no father or brothers by his side, only the cold night wind.

And so, he was completely separated from all his relatives.

The next twenty-six years were twenty-six years of displacement and struggle for survival.

He fell from grace and into the mire, becoming a beggar who begged on the streets and fought with stray dogs for food.

To survive, he joined the den of ruthless bandits in the mountains.

I also stole things when I was starving.

He had killed people and was used to betrayal and treachery.

He gradually came to understand that the virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness that his father and mother had taught him were ridiculously fragile in the face of the naked laws of survival.

He kindly helped someone but was swindled out of his only possessions. The injured person he rescued out of momentary pity almost smashed his head with a stone in the middle of the night.

To survive, you have to fight!

If you don't want to be bullied, you have to be more ruthless than others!

If you want something, you have to take it yourself, or kill someone to get it!

The creed, steeped in blood and mud, replaced the sacred texts he had once studied and was etched into his very bones.

When he was finally found by royal spies and brought back to that magnificent palace, he thought that heaven had not completely abandoned him after all, and that everything he had lost could finally be returned.

However, he was wrong, terribly wrong.

He discovered that he had lost more than just twenty-six years of princely honor and luxurious life.

The supreme position of the emperor, the dragon throne that should have belonged to him, the second son of the legitimate wife, also slipped through his fingers.

The burden fell on his younger brother, who had grown up in the palace and received a pampered education.

His father did feel guilty towards him, and his mother felt even more pity and made amends, giving him extraordinary rewards and leniency.

But so what? They still left the best things and the most core power to their younger brother.

Even, when necessary, the Emperor would use him to temper and intimidate his useless younger brother.

In his father's eyes, he was probably always that wild and untamed son who had been living away from home.

It is a knife that can be used to hone the true heir, a "whetstone" that needs to be appeased but also must be guarded against.

He was like an abrupt, out-of-place intruder in this wealthy and powerful family.

A "superfluous person" who carries the indelible stench of the underworld and can no longer blend into the world of luxury.

The icy touch of the sword blade jolted him from his long reverie.

Pulling my thoughts back, I saw Ye Duhuai's cold, hard face, the mess everywhere, and the impending end.

A sharp pain shot through his ribs like a tidal wave, and he could feel his life rapidly slipping away with his warm blood.

The King of Qi muttered to himself, his voice so low it was almost inaudible, yet every word was filled with resentment:

"Imperial edict... private soldiers... ha... what use are they..."

"It's not that...it's just that I'm trapped here to die..."

"I clearly... I clearly could... be the emperor..."