The Crown Prince’s eyes finally widened in terror.
He was no longer the Crown Prince; he was merely a pawn. Baili Chongyan could kill him, and no one would ever know.
He would rot away slowly in his own palace.
No one would see, no one would discover. He would die, his body left here to decay and fester, with no one to even collect his remains…
"Ah!" he suddenly shrieked, scrambling to his feet, desperate to flee.
A guard kicked him forcefully. He was sent flying back, crashing into the head of the bed, wailing in pain, a far cry from his former bearing.
[Target's Blackening Value -10, Current Blackening Value 30]
Hearing the system’s words, Zhu Tan instantly understood that he had given up.
"Your Highness, I shall kill him for you!"
They all knew of the Crown Prince's past betrayal of Baili Chongyan, and for years they had harbored thoughts of revenge. Now that he was a captive, who would pass up such an opportunity?
"There's no need."
Baili Chongyan’s expression was cold. He took his long sword and approached. "I won't kill you. What you gave me back then, I shall return to you."
With that, he drew his sword and severed the Crown Prince's Achilles tendons, then his face.
"Ah!" The Crown Prince clutched his face, blood gushing uncontrollably through his fingers. He writhed on the ground in agony.
Witnessing this, his blackening value ceased to decrease, and Zhu Tan abandoned the thought of killing him before her.
Of course, retribution was still due.
She looked at the man on the ground, resembling a pool of dead flesh, and sneered, "What he suffered before was far greater than what you are enduring now. He endured and was reborn. Can you?"
The Crown Prince glared at her, his face contorted with hatred.
"Do you know how the Second Prince died?" she continued, speaking as if to herself. "He wasn't lying. There truly are ghosts in this world, and there is karma. How did that person die earlier?"
She was referring to the guard who had failed to restrain him during their wedding.
At the time, Zhu Tan had stopped the Crown Prince from killing that man, not out of a desire to save him, but simply to prevent their wedding from being disrupted.
Could the Crown Prince's cronies be good people?
Therefore, after leaving the Yan Prince’s mansion, that person was still killed by the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince froze.
The next moment, he began to wail in terror again, this time not just from pain, but from the figure slowly crawling in from the doorway.
The person he had personally executed, cut in half. The subordinates had said he lived for a quarter of an hour after being severed into two pieces, constantly crawling out of the dungeon until he bled to death.
And now, that person, with only half a body remaining, was dragging his mangled limbs, covered in blood, towards him.
"Your Highness!"
"Your Highness…"
"Don't come near! Get away! Don't come near…"
"Ah!"
As they departed, they could still hear the Crown Prince's screams.
[30 remaining, Host, keep going!]
Zhu Tan also believed that these remaining 30 blackening points would soon be cleared.
However, subsequent events proved her to be mistaken.
—
With the Crown Prince dealt with, the Emperor was next.
Baili Chongyan did not wish to alert the two factions, so they went at night.
The Empress claimed to be "taking care" of the Emperor. Regardless of whether she personally attended to him or not, once she had obtained the power that the Emperor held, she paid little attention to him anymore.
The sparse palace was patrolled by only a few guards. They bypassed the patrols and entered the palace, with hidden guards keeping watch outside.
The Emperor lay on his dragon bed. Compared to the previous winter, he had lost a lot of weight and his hair had turned considerably gray. His mouth drooped, saliva dribbling out. Upon seeing Baili Chongyan, he looked shocked and made continuous muffled sounds.
"Nei... fei lai... le."
He struggled to sit up, wriggling on the dragon bed like a worm. He seemed to have many things to say to Baili Chongyan, but his mouth was twisted due to a stroke, making his speech slurred and accompanied by drooling.
"Nei... hao le, shei... shen yi, gei wo... wo..."
His eyes were filled with a yearning for life and recovery. However, Zhu Tan would not grant him his wish.
"I cured him, but I will not cure you."
The Emperor pointed a trembling hand at Zhu Tan. "Nei..."
There were too many things he wanted to ask.
For instance, how had Zhu Tan cured Baili Chongyan? Who was she really? Why had she refused him back then…
But he struggled to utter a complete sentence, let alone anything else.
"Do you know what the situation is like outside right now?"
Zhu Tan pointed outside. "The Crown Prince is crippled, the Second Prince is dead, the Third and Fifth Princes are locked in a bitter struggle, the Fourth Prince's leg is broken. Oh, and the younger ones, they are all slaves to power. Are you satisfied?"
The Emperor fell silent for a moment.
Then, as if remembering something, he pointed at Baili Chongyan and asked, "Is, nei... tai, zi, si... nei..."
"It was I who acted," Baili Chongyan stated, his emotions unreadable. "I severed his tendons, and also Fourth Brother. What they did back then, I will repay them one by one."
The Emperor became terrified.
He feared Baili Chongyan would not spare him either.
"As for the Second Prince, that was my masterpiece," Zhu Tan said with a smile. "He suffered greatly and died a terrible death. He was waiting for you to save him all along, Emperor."
"Mad, man! Nei men... mad, man." Su Dan Xiao Shuo Wang
"Don't worry, I won't act anymore."
[Target's Blackening Value -10, Current Blackening Value 20]
"I will be watching from the south. You watch from here, and witness them fight for power until they are both defeated and decimated. Only then will I return. Father Emperor, you must live well and observe clearly."
"Nei... er!"