Chapter 127

While unconscious, Gu Yuanbai had a dream.

The dream felt so real it could fool anyone. In a daze, Gu Yuanbai felt as if he had returned to the modern world.

He sat in a helicopter, the massive roar thundering in his ears. His hair danced in the wind, and the high-altitude breeze carried blinding light and a cold as sharp as snow and ice.

With just one glance, Gu Yuanbai knew this was right before a skydive.

It was during this jump, in the instant he pierced through the clouds, that he had awakened in the little emperor’s body.

The pilot turned back, shouting over the noise: “Almost there!”

The wind hitting his face and the pilot’s trembling cheeks as he yelled—every detail was so real it didn’t seem like a dream. If it wasn’t a dream, had he returned?

Gu Yuanbai raised his hand to touch the invisible wind. Black leather fingertips covered his palm, his five fingers emerging from the gloves—long and strong, with distinct knuckles. Pale, but a healthy kind of pale.

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He couldn’t move his body, so he slowly blinked.

His long lashes swept across Xue Yuan’s palm. Xue Yuan’s whole body stiffened. He was stunned for a long moment before hurriedly lowering his head, pressing his forehead against Gu Yuanbai’s through his hand, and asking carefully: “Are you awake?”

His voice trembled with nervousness.

Gu Yuanbai blinked again, very slowly.

He was awake.

His Majesty’s face was pale, his coughing intermittent. He lowered his hand and looked at the terrified ministers below, slowly smiling: “What’s wrong? Lost your tongues at the sight of me?”

Minister Wang and several other officials turned deathly pale, their knees giving way as they collapsed to the ground.

His Majesty called out softly: “Minister Wang.”

Minister Wang’s face already showed despair: “Your subject is here.”

“You still haven’t answered me,” His Majesty took a step forward. The jade crown on his head finally entered the blazing sun, sunlight passing through his side and casting a long, gently swaying shadow on the ground. “That I’m not dead—is that reason enough or not?”

His Majesty walked down the steps one by one, approaching Minister Wang step by step. His footsteps were like a death-dealing blade. The civil and military officials knelt and made way for the path beneath His Majesty’s feet.

At the end of this path waited Minister Wang and his accomplices.

Minister Wang’s mind went blank. His legs went weak, and he no longer had the strength to keep his spine straight. Regret and fear screamed in his heart. His Majesty’s coma for dozens of days had made Minister Wang forget his majesty and terror. Now that His Majesty had awakened and stood before him again, every pore of Minister Wang’s body howled with fear. Only now did he remember what this emperor had done before.

Gu Yuanbai—this was the same Gu Yuanbai who had once bloodily purged Prince Qi’s mansion and executed rebellious troops.

Minister Wang’s hands trembled involuntarily. He heard the sound of chattering teeth nearby and turned to see it was his allied officials.

They were already so frightened they had begun to shiver.

Gu Yuanbai finally reached Minister Wang and his accomplices.

The golden dragons on his bright yellow dragon boots were fierce, their eyes cold. These dragons reflected in the eyes of the men kneeling on the ground as sweat dripped from their foreheads, falling before the swimming dragons.

“Your Majesty,” someone couldn’t help but kowtow, the dull thuds echoing repeatedly, “Your subject was wrong!”

Gu Yuanbai’s face lacked some color, and the medicinal smell on his body was strong. He coughed softly and asked gently: “I cannot bear your wrongs.”

Heavy footsteps rang out in unison as a team of black-armored imperial guards rushed in from outside. The guards held shields and great swords, each one strong and tall, eyeing the civil and military officials on the ground with fierce stares.

Gu Yuanbai said: “Arrest them.”

The imperial guards surged forward like fierce tigers, precisely capturing and subduing several accomplices Minister Wang had secretly contacted. Gu Yuanbai watched those ministers who kept crying innocence and admitting fault, his expression remaining completely calm and unmoved.

A minister risked his life to speak, his voice trembling: “Your Majesty, the proposals made by Minister Wang and the others were also for the sake of court stability and to ease the people’s minds.”

“I understand,” Gu Yuanbai suddenly smiled, “Tian Fusheng.”

Tian Fusheng immediately came forward holding an imperial edict, proclaiming the crimes these men had committed.

His Majesty turned around during this recitation, walking unhurriedly toward the inner palace.

The officials looked up at His Majesty’s retreating figure, their unease and panic gradually calming. After Tian Fusheng finished reading and said with a smile, “Please, honored officials, return to your offices,” the officials didn’t even voice a single objection. They peacefully walked in groups of two or three toward their respective offices.

Once His Majesty awakened, he was like a towering mountain. As long as this mountain stood here, it could suppress all officials and stabilize the hearts of the people throughout the realm.

In the hall, Minister Wang and his Fusang friend had been forced to kneel in the great hall.

The Fusang man had lost four fingers, blood flowing and spattering the floor. Two evil wolves were held by guards to the side, their fangs dripping with saliva mixed with blood from biting off the Fusang man’s fingers.

Gu Yuanbai was helped step by step by Xue Yuan to slowly walk to the table and sit down.

This collapse from great mental shock, combined with the harm from inhaling Xixia incense for dozens of days, had left Gu Yuanbai’s body extremely weak. He leaned against the chair back, and after every sentence he spoke, he had to rest and catch his breath.

“Fusang,” Gu Yuanbai closed his eyes slightly and had someone bring over an unlit incense stick, saying, “Fusang incense.”

Minister Wang’s previously calm, death-accepting expression finally darkened.

Gu Yuanbai chuckled softly and handed the incense to Xue Yuan: “Show it to them.”

Xue Yuan took the incense and approached, flicking it right under Minister Wang’s nose.

Minister Wang stared at the incense intently for a while, then closed his eyes without saying a word.

Xue Yuan clicked his tongue and stood straight, walking to the side.

Gu Yuanbai breathed quietly several times before continuing: “While I was unconscious, Xixia’s second prince had already fled back to Xixia with his people.”

He spoke slowly: “The people I sent to investigate Xixia report that the useful talents in Xixia are either imprisoned in dungeons or hiding behind closed doors to avoid disaster.”

“Those in Xixia who inhaled the incense you made were all political enemies of the second prince, national parasites, and powerful obstacles,” Gu Yuanbai coughed several more times before continuing, “He used the incense to secretly have his political enemies persecute good ministers, then secretly rescued them. Those talents imprisoned in dungeons, those good ministers, have all submitted to the second prince of Xixia.”

Gu Yuanbai laughed grimly: “Even the generals who held military power became his followers.”

“He spoke beautifully to me, saying Fusang was the perpetrator and Xixia the victim,” Gu Yuanbai’s smile deepened as he pointed at Minister Wang and the half-unconscious Fusang man, “but clearly he was the one who used you Fusang people.”

The second prince of Xixia had used Fusang incense to thoroughly cleanse Xixia’s upper echelons. That’s why in the original story, he could overlook Kong Yilin’s background and promote him—because he had no one else to use.

Those talents in the dungeons, the good ministers he had won over—these weren’t enough. Far too few.

Now the second prince of Xixia felt the Fusang incense had outlived its usefulness and that Fusang was becoming a hot potato, so he wanted to work through Da Heng to provoke a war between Da Heng and Fusang.

This way, Xixia could benefit from the conflict between the snipe and the clam.

Probably because of Gu Yuanbai’s long coma and the second prince of Xixia being on his journey home, their guard had dropped. The intelligence service had uncovered shocking information, and when Gu Yuanbai awakened, they presented him with a great gift.

Minister Wang’s breathing had become labored.

He had prepared to die today, but hearing the Da Heng emperor say these things, he still felt unwilling. If only he could get this information back to his country! If only he could get news of the Da Heng emperor’s awakening back home!

But with himself as the fish and others as the knife, Minister Wang simply couldn’t do what he wanted.

Gu Yuanbai seemed to know his thoughts and smiled faintly, saying casually: “I’ve already sent people to deliver news of my death to your Fusang accomplices.”

He stood up and slowly walked to Xue Yuan, drawing the great sword from Xue Yuan’s waist.

“The Da Heng emperor is dead, so Fusang will quickly send naval forces to attack our coastal areas,” Gu Yuanbai’s lips curved up, and with his pale complexion, he looked like a demon from hell, “I will deploy thousands of troops and prepare an inescapable net to ensure they never return, burying them in Da Heng’s soil!”

Minister Wang’s neck veins bulged as he roared ferociously: “Gu Lian, you tyrant! I curse you to die without a complete corpse and never find peace!”

“I’ll send you to eternal damnation first!” Gu Yuanbai’s chest heaved violently, his fierce intent surfacing, “I’ll make you watch how your country crumbles in my hands. I’ll make them lose everything they can lose! I’ll make them think they’re Da Heng people speaking Da Heng language. I’ll make you see how you become your country’s sinner!”

He suddenly raised his hand, the cold blade crossing Minister Wang’s neck: “This is the price for causing Concubine Wan’s death.”