The tremendous impact caused Xiao Changqing to faint, collapsing right beside Shen Xihe. Shu Fei picked up Xiao Changqing’s sword and was about to stab Shen Xihe when a figure moved first, raising a blade to slit her throat.
The moment You Wenjun appeared holding Xiao Changying’s head, Xiao Changqing’s men all halted. They were Hidden Guards raised by Xiao Changqing, who had been dispatched countless times to protect Xiao Changying. They knew how important Xiao Changying was to Xiao Changqing.
With them standing down, Moyu seized the opportunity, though she was injured.
After killing Shu Fei, she pulled Shen Xihe up and pointed her sword at the unconscious Xiao Changqing on the ground.
Xiao Changqing’s Hidden Guards immediately stirred with killing intent.
Shen Xihe pressed her hand against Moyu’s sword. She silently gazed at Xiao Changying for a moment before slowly shifting her gaze and addressing the leader of Xiao Changqing’s Hidden Guards: “Prince Xin and I have never been enemies. As someone trusted by Prince Xin, you should know that his sudden loss of control today was caused by someone’s machinations. Now that Prince Xin is unconscious, what will you decide?”
The leader of Prince Xin’s Hidden Guards found himself in a dilemma. He rushed to Prince Xin’s side, and Shen Xihe did not stop him. Holding the unconscious prince, he glanced at You Wenjun nearby.
Just as Shen Xihe had said, as Prince Xin’s confidant, he knew full well that the prince had no intention of turning against the Crown Princess. Prince Xin’s actions earlier had been highly abnormal—ordering them to ambush Xiao Changgeng and Xie Yunhuai, joining forces with the Empress Dowager’s men to trap them at the city gates—none of this aligned with Prince Xin’s usual conduct.
If Prince Xin had long intended to play the role of the oriole stalking the mantis, even if he concealed it from Prince Lie, he would not have hidden it from him!
“I await the Crown Princess’s orders!” After much deliberation, he decided to trust his understanding of his master and make a choice.
The Crown Princess was the very person Prince Lie had risked his life to protect.
Last winter, when the Crown Princess went to the imperial mausoleum to pay respects to the Crown Prince, Prince Lie had braved the wind and snow to follow her silently from behind. It was Prince Xin who had dispatched him to escort Prince Lie.
“Welcome Prince Yan and Duke Xie into the city,” Shen Xihe immediately commanded.
“Yes!” The Hidden Guard leader handed Prince Xin over to You Wenjun and promptly led his men out.
Witnessing this, the Empress Dowager was disheartened and bewildered. She stared at Xiao Changqing in disbelief: “How could this be…?”
She took a bell from her robes and shook it repeatedly, but she could not rouse the unconscious Xiao Changqing.
Though unconscious, Xiao Changqing seemed to be trapped in immense agony, his face contorting as if something were tearing at his features.
“Moyu!” Shen Xihe’s gaze turned icy.
Understanding her intent, Moyu raised her sword and struck at the Empress Dowager’s bell-shaking wrist. The blow was forceful enough to sever her wrist, but Liu Sanzhi, who had been standing by, intercepted it with his horsetail whisk and pulled the Empress Dowager away.
Suddenly, the Youning Emperor, who had been lying still, sat up. He turned, planting his feet on the footstool, terrifying the concubines who had already endured one heart-stopping assassination attempt after another, their faces growing even paler.
“Your Majesty…” The Empress Dowager’s face turned ashen.Youning Emperor walked down barefoot, his steps steady and deliberate. He personally helped the Empress Dowager to her feet, his expression grave yet devoid of emotion. Guiding her to the chaise lounge by the window, he settled her there. "Since childhood, I sensed your dislike for me, Mother. At first, I thought you simply favored Elder Brother more. Later, when the three of us were exiled to the northwest and hunted along the way, had it not been for Brother’s protection, neither you nor I would have survived to reach the northwest."
"At that time, I came to accept that your preference for Elder Brother was justified, and I suppressed my envy and resentment. While Brother toiled outside, you constantly praised him in my presence. With him around, it seemed as though no one noticed me, and my discontent grew. Though Elder Brother’s death was orchestrated by you, Mother, was I truly innocent?"
Having listened this long, Youning Emperor had pieced everything together.
The Soul-seizing Art—he had heard of it before.
An extraordinary technique to control the human mind, yet without his own hidden desires, how could he have been so easily manipulated by the Empress Dowager?
He had craved the throne, yet Shen Xihe was not wrong: without the Empress Dowager’s sorcery, he would never have mustered such ruthlessness. But had he not harbored such ambitions, the Empress Dowager could never have ensnared him.
In the end, he was the executioner in his brother’s death; his mother had merely handed him the blade.
"You…" The Empress Dowager looked flustered, gazing at her impassive son, uncertain of his thoughts.
In truth, between her two sons, the elder had been more straightforward and easier to read. The younger was profound and inscrutable.
Had both sons not died, leaving no one to stabilize the court, she would have eliminated them both back then and placed the infant Xiao Huayong on the throne.
But the Soul-seizing Art, though seemingly miraculous, could not maintain long-term control over a person—especially one with a resolute will, like Youning Emperor or Xiao Huayong. To sustain control, the spell had to be reapplied periodically.
She had succeeded once with Youning Emperor before his ascension, but after he became emperor, how easy was it to get close to him?
Even Xiao Huayong, raised by her side, had broken free during the second attempt when he was only ten.
The Soul-seizing Art could lie dormant within a person for years, even decades, as long as the Hidden Command remained unactivated. But once triggered, over time, the victim would grow suspicious and wary, and the spell’s influence would gradually weaken.
"Mother, I have promised to ensure you live out your years in peace and comfort," Youning Emperor said, as if to soothe her.
Having calmed the agitated Empress Dowager—seemingly oblivious to her unease—Youning Emperor turned and resumed his imperial dignity, addressing Shen Xihe. "I have always known you were an extraordinary woman not to be underestimated, yet I still underestimated you."
At the very least, he had never detected the Empress Dowager’s schemes. If not for Shen Xihe exposing the truth about the real Qilang while he was unconscious, he would never have suspected the Empress Dowager.
Now, reflecting on it, he couldn’t even be sure whether the Qilang involved in the assassination attempt during the sacrificial rites was the real one—after all, Shen Xihe possessed the bone-restructuring technique and had produced a Bu Shulin.
At this thought, Youning Emperor couldn’t help glancing back. "Mother, is Qilang still alive?"
The Qilang he referred to was not Xiao Huayong, but his own trueborn son.Back then, both Qian Wang's consort and the late empress gave birth to legitimate sons. If the Empress Dowager intended to pass off Xiao Huayong as the legitimate son of the Youning Emperor, the other child had to be sent away. If Qian Wang were to retain a son, it would inevitably stir unrest among the people.
To the outside world, it could only be claimed that Qian Wang's consort had given birth to a princess who died young, ensuring no upheaval would occur.
At that time, the Youning Emperor, unaware that the Empress Dowager's Soul-seizing Art had stripped him of self-control, had followed his inner desires to kill his elder brother and seize the throne. The Empress Dowager, deeply aggrieved, reprimanded him harshly. Using the Emperor's debt to Xiao Huayong as leverage, she forced His Majesty to compromise and switch the two children.
The true legitimate son of the empress was also entrusted to the Empress Dowager.
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