CHAPTER 552: CHAPTER 551: WHY SHOULD THE DEAD COME BACK TO LIFE?

After a day and night of rain, the Chu Kingdom Imperial Palace regained its usual tranquility.

The only prerequisite was to avoid looking at the corpses on Mass Burial Mound.

Concubine Mei had witnessed with her own eyes how Su Bai killed people; to her, human lives were no more significant than that of ants.

In the following days, in front of the thirteenth prince, she did not mention a single word about asking him to kill Su Bai.

She was now entirely focused on getting pregnant.

With Concubine Mei no longer causing trouble, the harem suddenly became peaceful.

Only Chen Jieyu was sullen every day, restless for not receiving any news about her brother.

It wasn’t until she received a note from a mysterious person that Chen Jieyu began to recuperate in comfort.

...

Time flew like a white steed flashing past a crevice.

Soon, it was the eve of battle.

Within a small village more than ten miles away from where Dawei and the Chu Kingdom had set up their camps.

Yan Hongzhao, dressed in red soft armor, stood on a mountain next to the village, overlooking the scenery.

"Boss, what are you looking at?" Ghost Face gently inquired.

In the distance, there were only endless tents.

Everything else was engulfed by the night, invisible to the eye.

Yan Hongzhao did not answer.

She was feeling very complicated.

Not long ago, Yan Li’an had returned to the Qin State, covered in wounds, and only then did everyone learn of their eldest sister’s situation.

Alive, but not doing well.

Ghost Face watched Yan Hongzhao’s expression and swallowed hard, "You’re not planning to snatch your sister back during the battle between the two armies, are you?"

Yan Hongzhao looked up at him.

"Why not?"

Ghost Face thought Yan Hongzhao was joking, but seeing her serious expression, he was stunned, "The eldest young master said she is now a killing deity, and you couldn’t beat your sister before, so how will you snatch her away?"

"If I can’t beat her alone, I’ll do it with a group." As long as she was alive, there was always a way.

Yan Hongzhao was frustrated, "Anyway, I can’t let elder sister stay in the Chu Kingdom any longer." Thinking of Chu Qi and Song Huaxu, her teeth itched with hatred.

A bunch of beasts!

They had turned their elder sister into a killing deity.

"It’s not just for elder sister, but also for Xingze." Yan Hongzhao’s tone grew heavy, "Xingze has been born for three years now and has never seen what his own mother looks like."

"If it’s really as big brother said, and Song Huaxu is brewing a world-ending conspiracy, I must have elder sister and Xingze meet before we all face death together."

A family should face difficulties together—if it really came to the world’s end one day, they should all go to their deaths together!

Ghost Face nodded solemnly, "We’ll follow Boss’s lead!" His eyes were resolute, and his gaze briefly fell upon the beautiful profile of Yan Hongzhao, bolstering his resolve.

He would stay by her side forever, always...

...

Within the Dawei Camp.

"Take him away." The merciless words tumbled from the man’s thin lips.

He did not even glance at the features of the person kneeling on the ground before soldiers dragged the man out of the tent. Accompanied by a string of blood beads spraying onto the curtain, the screams cut abruptly to silence.

"Your Majesty, a mere logistics officer, does not deserve death," Yan Jing said, standing on the side, his cassock standing out vividly against the candlelight.

The man in the high position had an expression as frosty as ice, "Because of his selfishness, he delayed the delivery of military rations, impeding military affairs. Taking only his life is already letting him off easy." He casually picked up a memorial from the table and browsed it under the candlelight before tossing it aside after glancing through briefly.

His handsome eyebrows looked even sharper.

Yan Jing picked up the memorial, giving it a look.

It was the heartfelt words of a minister.

Have Xiao Pingfeng expand the harem as soon as possible, and stop focusing his energy on leading troops into battle.

"Your Majesty..." He had just opened his mouth.

Xiao Pingfeng had already raised his hand: "Shush."

His slender finger placed at his lips, he squinted his phoenix eyes, the depths of which were full of icy light: "Do not speak words I do not wish to hear."

Yan Jing tugged at his lips and chuckled softly, "Then I must say something Your Majesty wishes to hear." He straightened his expression: "The Empress is still alive."

After hearing these few words, Xiao Pingfeng sneered twice, "...And so what?"

This was not the expected reaction.

Yan Jing was stunned: "Does Your Majesty not care?" If His Majesty did not care, why then assault Chu Kingdom for three long years?

Xiao Pingfeng wore an unintelligible smirk tinged with mockery.

"Why should I care about a woman who faked her death and attempted to flee?"

"And a woman who sent away my child in advance!"

Back then, when he thought Yan Wanqing had left, at least she had left their child behind, and he had forcibly suppressed his grief, intending to raise their child himself.

Yet, who could have predicted that as time passed, the child aged to resemble neither of them, but instead bore a growing resemblance to the nanny.

Xiao Pingfeng, being inherently suspicious, seized the nanny and after a round of torture, learned that Yan Wanqing, before courting death, had entrusted their child to her own younger sister to be sent away.

The child he had painstakingly raised for three years was actually a changeling.

How laughable!

Laughable to the extreme!

"After all, you were husband and wife, and now she, out of her mind, has been trained into a demon who kills without blinking. Your Majesty cannot just stand by idly, can you?" Yan Jing couldn’t help but speak up.

Xiao Pingfeng turned his head to look at him, his eyes filled with malice.

"I would rather she were truly dead! That alone might quench the rage of being treated like a fool for these three years!" Looking at Yan Jing, Xiao Pingfeng spoke with mockery: "Yan Jing, I know your Yan Family has already shifted to Qin State, now under the protection of Qin Wu. Do not worry, after I win this war, taking over Qin State is just a matter of time."

"When that time comes, I will personally bring back my Crown Prince and let your Yan Family truly taste what it’s like to betray one’s country!"

Yan Jing fell silent.

He had thought his trip would gain him an ally, someone who could help rescue Yan Wanqing as well.

He never imagined that Xiao Pingfeng had completely cast aside all past affection.

Now, he probably wished for Yan Wanqing’s death more than anyone else, for the destruction of the Yan Family.

If that was the case, staying even a second longer in Dawei Camp was dangerous.

"Your Majesty, there is another matter I need to report to you." Yan Jing cleared his throat, "Song Huaxu is not dead."

At those words, Xiao Pingfeng’s hand hidden beneath his wide sleeves clenched into a fist, a sight unseen by Yan Jing.

He tensed it, then slowly relaxed.

"I am aware."

The reaction, in Yan Jing’s view, was exceptionally calm.

Does Your Majesty truly have no lingering feelings for Yan Wanqing?

"If there is nothing else, I ask that you stay within the camp and not wander about. It is a critical moment before the onset of battle, and if you go out carelessly, you could be taken as a spy and summarily executed on the spot," Xiao Pingfeng’s voice was cold and devoid of warmth.

Yan Jing knew this was a warning to him.

He put his hands together in gratitude: "Thank you for Your Majesty’s consideration." He could not leave now, but surely during the battle, he could.

Besides, if he truly wanted to leave, who could stop him?

Yan Jing revealed a gentle and warm smile: "Then the monk shall take his leave first, Your Majesty should rest early."

After Yan Jing departed, silence returned to the tent.

Xiao Pingfeng looked at the memorials on the table, abruptly swept his sleeve aside, and the piled reports scattered instantaneously to the floor; he then punched the nearby pillar.

"Why..." His voice hoarse, tortured pain suppressed from his chest, unconcerned with the fresh blood streaming down his hand, his dark pupils filled with madness.

"Why... did the dead have to come back to life?"