Niao Ni
Chapter 687 Chen Pingping's Revenge
The Emperor of Qing Yu Nian and Chen Pingping were no ordinary sovereign and subject. The war between these two also differed greatly from ordinary wars in terms of its form. Even at this moment, Chen Pingping was merely using words, or perhaps just the intent represented by those words, to poke and prod, hoping to prick the other party's naked and delicate heart, drawing out drops of blood, creating fresh wounds.
An unhealthy pallor lingered beneath the Emperor's cheeks, refusing to dissipate. His eyes were vacant, no, they should be described as utterly hollow. His slightly gaunt face, combined with his current expression and gaze, made him appear exceptionally cold.
No one knew what kind of turbulent waves were crashing in the Emperor's heart at this moment. He merely looked quietly at Chen Pingping, and after a long silence, slowly said, "On what basis do you monitor... me?"
He said coldly, "I have abandoned everything in this world. What I seek, have you ever understood?"
This was a disdainful remark from an emperor towards his old black dog. However, Chen Pingping's hands rested naturally on the armrests of his black wheelchair, gazing at him calmly, his eyes filled with nothing but coldness and disdain. The mutual coldness and disdain between the sovereign and his subject permeated the entire imperial study.
"No matter how powerful Your Majesty is, no matter how powerful Qing Yu Nian is, you still cannot change one fact, the fact you are most unwilling to admit." Chen Pingping lowered his eyelids slightly and said, "The strength of Qing Yu Nian ultimately relies on her legacy. If it weren't for the Internal Treasury constantly supplying the court with the lifeblood it needs to survive, if it weren't for the Supervisory Council helping Your Majesty control the balance in the court, with Qing Yu Nian's years of war, how could you have sustained Qing Yu Nian to this day?"
"You want to prove that without her, you can still do things to the best of your ability, even better than when she was alive." Chen Pingping slowly raised his head, his voice hoarse as he said, "You want to tear away that sky that covers your head, but in reality, you have only proven that you must rely on her."
"You are far inferior to her." Chen Pingping's calm and natural words pierced the deepest part of the Emperor's heart.
The Emperor suddenly thought of that stormy night three years ago, when he was in Guangxin Palace not far from the front lines, personally strangling Li Yunrui's throat, saying to that most beautiful younger sister, "You can never compare to Ye Qingmei."
His heart stirred slightly, his face paling slightly, his thin and ruthless lips pressed together tightly, as he said coldly, "History is ultimately written by the living. I live, she is dead. That is enough."
"So, why should Your Majesty explain anything? You only need to admit your cold-bloodedness, ruthlessness, hypocrisy, inferiority..." A hint of a smile appeared on Chen Pingping's face. "That is enough."
"Was she truly a fairy? Untainted by worldly concerns, compassionate and merciful?" The Emperor suddenly opened his mouth with a touch of mockery. "Or is it that in your heart, you only allow yourself to imagine her as such a person? No, not just you, including Fan Jian, including that useless Prince Jing, and probably even Anzhi, all of you believe that I am cruel and heartless, yet you recklessly, based on your own imagination, painted too many golden edges on her."
"She was not a person, nor was she a fairy, nor was she a deity come to save the world." The Emperor sighed softly, his brows gradually furrowing, as he slowly said, "She was merely the imagination of you people, no, including me in the past. She was merely our imagination gathered together, coalescing into such a person. I often wonder, did this woman never appear at all, and was she merely a product of our imaginations converging together?"
Chen Pingping coldly shook his head. "You know that is not true."
"But it is still imagination!" The Emperor's face turned cold, and he looked at Chen Pingping with a slight curl of his lips, saying, "You useless fools have placed all your beautiful imaginations of the world on her, so she is incomparably radiant in your hearts, and you cannot even find a trace of shadow."
"Ice-clear intelligence, yet without scheming intentions, compassionate and merciful, yet not a naive woman ignorant of worldly affairs, but a pragmatist with the actual means to act." The Emperor continued coldly, "What kind of person is this? A person without any flaws or loopholes. Is such a person... still a person?"
He suddenly laughed, laughing sadly and with a violent aura. "Unfortunately, there is no such person in the world. She was just a mortal, with joys, anger, brilliance, darkness, scheming, and plotting. In the end, what difference is there between her and me?"
"Your Majesty." Chen Pingping slowly shook his head. "If she were truly the kind of person you imagine, how could she have died at your hands?"
"Is that so?" The Emperor's pupils shrank slightly, and he let out a strange laugh. "Hahahaha... Everyone becomes their own king? What a presumptuous idea. So, the Supervisory Council was originally monitoring me... Only today do I realize that you, old black dog, were left behind to monitor me! If she hadn't doubted me back then, if she hadn't guarded against me, would she have left behind such a saying?"
"You are mistaken, Your Majesty." Chen Pingping said woodenly, "No matter who sits on the dragon throne, my Supervisory Council must supervise him. This is not evidence that she was wary of you from the beginning, wanting to deal with you."
"Then what about the tyrannical martial art?" For some reason, the Emperor's tone suddenly became extremely dark and deep, his voice was somewhat louder, but it did not give people the slightest sense of warmth. His voice was like a sword that had been soaked in the Nine Nether Springs for billions of years, piercing straight into the surrounding of the imperial study.
The Emperor's face was not distorted, but a trace of sinister coldness flashed in his hollow eyes, as he said, word by word, "Back then, she passed on the tyrannical martial art to me. I originally thought that she had this decision because there was a grandmaster in both Northern Qi and Eastern Yi, and I was deeply grateful... With this tyrannical martial art, I led you, Ye Zhong, and Wang Zhikun, traversing the battlefields, sweeping across the land, rarely suffering a defeat. However, who would have expected that this so-called supreme art actually concealed supreme misfortune behind it!"
The Emperor's voice became exceptionally cold after his outburst of anger. "During the first Northern Expedition, I noticed that the tyrannical true energy in my body was restless and uneasy. However, the matter was imperative, so I led the army forward and fought fiercely with Zhan Qingfeng in the northern mountains. However, at this moment, the hidden danger erupted. Within my body... my meridians were completely severed!"
Chen Pingping remained silent. He was one of the people who knew this history best. Back then, the Northern Expedition was difficult, and Grandmaster Zhan Qingfeng's use of troops was extremely sophisticated. The Wei Dynasty's soldiers were especially strong, and it was truly a life-or-death choice for Southern Qing to risk advancing north with tens of thousands of troops. However, the Wei Dynasty had already become corrupt and the people were living in misery. If they wanted to change the general trend of the world and create new situations and future possibilities, Southern Qing's dispatch of troops was inevitable.
The then-Crown Prince, now the Emperor, led the troops on the Northern Expedition, while Chen Pingping remained in the newly established Supervisory Council. On the one hand, it was to ensure the safety of the capital, and on the other hand, it was to maintain a distance from the battlefield and ensure a calm decision-making perspective.
The situation was already one where the enemy was strong and they were weak. Just when the great battle was at its most intense, when Zhan Qingfeng led a large army to encircle the Qing army outside Mount Xiao, the Qing army's commander, the Crown Prince, suddenly suffered a serious injury, his meridians were completely severed, and he was lying stiff in the military camp, unable to move!
Although Ye Zhong, who was the deputy general at the time, and Wang Zhikun, a young officer in the personal guard battalion, stood up at the most critical moment, Southern Qing was already at a disadvantage on the battlefield. The commander suddenly became unable to manage affairs, and in an instant, Zhan Qingfeng's army advanced, the Southern Qing army was beaten into pieces, and the Crown Prince was trapped in the mountains.
It was at that time that Chen Pingping led the Supervisory Council's Black Riders to complete their world-shocking first long-distance raid, tearing open a large gap in the Wei army's web, risking endless dangers to rescue the Crown Prince, who is now the Emperor.
The arduous journey need not be mentioned, the Black Riders were almost completely wiped out to save His Majesty the Emperor. At that time, Chen Pingping had a doubt in his heart, what kind of strange injury did His Majesty suffer? There were no major wounds on the outside, but the meridians on the inside were all broken, turning him into a cripple.
Over the years, Chen Pingping had guessed at something, and Fan Xian had also faced the danger of having his meridians severed. He naturally knew where His Majesty the Emperor's strange and terrifying injury came from.
It must have been the dangerous threshold that would inevitably appear after practicing the tyrannical martial art to a certain level.
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"I could not move, I could not see, I could not speak. It was as if countless sharp knives were constantly cutting my internal organs and my flesh." The Emperor's eyes were vacant as he said coldly, "That kind of pain, that kind of despair, that kind of loneliness, that kind of darkness, you cannot imagine. My will has always been strong, but at that time, I could not help but have thoughts of suicide... But I could not even move a little finger, so I wanted to die... but I could not even die."
The Emperor's lips curled up slightly, and he laughed self-deprecatingly, "What a sad and miserable end." He glanced at Chen Pingping lightly, "If you hadn't saved me at all costs that day, perhaps I would have died then."
Chen Pingping remained silent, neither mocking nor responding.
The Emperor's nostrils twitched slightly as he took a deep breath coldly, "However, Heaven did not abandon me. After enduring such pain for several months, I finally woke up, and not only did I wake up, but I also finally broke through that barrier of the tyrannical martial art."
The Emperor's voice trembled slightly. Decades had passed, but when he thought of that terrible threshold that no human could bear, his strong heart still couldn't help but shake.
He lowered his head and looked at Chen Pingping mockingly, saying, "What exactly did she want to do by passing on this deadly martial art to me?"
"I asked her how to break through the barrier, and she said she didn't know." The Emperor suddenly laughed loudly, his eyelids narrowed slightly, and a cold light shone from the slits, "She didn't know! She created Kū He, created Si Gu Jian, created me, and she actually said... she didn't know!"
"She wanted to hold me by this weakness, to make me listen to her for the rest of my life, to agree to her requests." The Emperor's lips curled up strangely, and he said mockingly, "But... how could I be such a person? I survived this life-and-death crisis, and I also saw everything in this world as insignificant. I also finally understood that the radiant woman in your eyes actually had her most cruel side. Since Heaven did not abandon me, how could I abandon myself?"
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After listening to the Emperor's words, Chen Pingping smiled slightly. After sighing, he continued to show that slightly restrained smile to the fullest extent, shaking his head and laughing hoarsely, "Doubt, ah, doubt... Your Majesty, you will probably never be able to get rid of this in your life."
Chen Pingping's laughter was very vicissitudes, very sad. He looked at the Emperor quietly and said, "Excuses are always just excuses. Perhaps that's what Your Majesty thought back then, but Fan Xian is also practicing it now. If it weren't for Haitang helping him, I'm afraid he would also fall into that hellish threshold."
"The Heavenly Dao mental cultivation method was originally in her hands." The Emperor slowly closed his eyes.
"But it is possible to always remain in the ninth-rank realm." Chen Pingping said mockingly, "Are you willing to accept that?"
Without waiting for the Emperor to answer, he gently waved his hand and sighed, "There is no need to mention the past anymore. Since you can doubt even her, you can naturally doubt everyone in the world, but... this kind of doubt seems too ridiculous."
Since it was ridiculous, of course he had to laugh, so Chen Pingping laughed, leaning back and forth in the black wheelchair, tears almost squeezing out of his old eyes.
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"I just want you, this old dog, to know before you die that what you remember is just a illusory illusion." The Emperor opened his eyes, broke free from his memories, and looked at Chen Pingping coldly, saying, "You are my dog, but you want to ask me for her sake. I want you to know that the female master you are loyal to is not an untainted fairy either."
Chen Pingping stopped laughing, his shoulders sank slightly. After a moment of silence, he replied, "This old servant is not a saint who takes the world as his responsibility, nor is he qualified to be a saint. My previous criticism of Your Majesty was not for the sake of the world's people, nor was it because my heart had any pity for them. It was just her last wish... Yes, Your Majesty, today's meeting is not for the sake of the world's people, but just a private grievance."
He raised his head and looked at the Emperor calmly, "You killed her, so I must avenge her. This is a private feud, not some bullshit righteousness. It's just a very simple matter that doesn't need to carry any other meaning. I don't care what kind of person she is, whether she is a fairy who has fallen into the mortal world, or a little witch with other plans in mind, what does it matter?"
"Her name is Ye Qingmei, that's enough." Chen Pingping said slowly, looking at the Emperor.
The Emperor looked at his old comrade-in-arms in the wheelchair for a long, long time, then sighed softly, a smile appearing on his face, but this smile represented an even deeper meaning. In his eyes, this old black dog was already dead.
"This is a very deformed and chaotic emotion." The Emperor said coldly, "Monitoring the monarch of a country, a eunuch obsessing over a woman, you were already crazy many years ago."
"Of course, I must admit that I have been deceived by you for many years... The Supervisory Council in your hands, old dog, is indeed a bit troublesome. The entire Supervisory Council today only knows Chen Pingping, but does not know the Emperor. This is due to my tolerance of you, but it is also your ability. But I don't understand, on what basis do you raise the knife of revenge against me, and what ability do you have?"
The Emperor looked at Chen Pingping with a hint of disdain, picked up the cup of cold tea that he had not drunk for a long time from his side, and slowly took a sip.
Chen Pingping also picked up the cup of tea that still had some warmth from the front end of the wheelchair armrest, moistened his dry lips, and then responded softly after a moment, "Yan Bingyun must already be rectifying the Supervisory Council for Your Majesty."
The Emperor's gaze at the clear yellow tea in the teacup froze slightly, then returned to normal.
"Since I have returned to the capital alone, I naturally do not want the entire Qing Yu Nian to fall into turmoil because of this old servant's revenge." Chen Pingping said, "So I will not pay attention to Yan Bingyun's situation."
"Coming to die with a generous spirit, just to scold me a few words?" A hint of a rather elusive smile appeared on the Emperor's lips.
"Your Majesty understands me, so you will accompany someone who is destined to die to say so much idle chatter." Chen Pingping said with a smile, "Because you don't know what my final trump card is, so you must accompany me to continue talking until I finish saying what I want to say."
"Now that the words have been spoken, I want to see what cards you still haven't revealed." The Emperor smiled warmly. At this time, he had long since broken free from the previous emotional turbulence and the emotions brought about by the past, and returned to the calm and powerful appearance of an emperor.
Chen Pingping did not answer, but looked at His Majesty the Emperor meaningfully, and suddenly asked another question, "In these twenty years, I have already done so many things, don't you understand now, Your Majesty?"
The Emperor's fingers slowly turned the celadon teacup, but his gaze slowly fell to the ground. Several volumes of documents lay quietly on the ground at the foot of the black wheelchair, recording how Chen Pingping had driven all the relatives around the Emperor to the opposite side step by step over the years.
"The fire in the Huichun Hall was set by the Supervisory Council, and that imperial physician was killed by my men, and that royal relative met the same fate. As for the medicine used by His Highness the Crown Prince, it was prepared by Fei Jie himself. Of course, Fei Jie has already left this continent, and even if Your Majesty wants to punish him with death, I'm afraid there is no way." Chen Pingping looked at the Emperor coldly and ruthlessly, and said word by word, "The affair between the Princess Royal and the Crown Prince was something I watched coldly from the sidelines and helped a little, but I tried every means to let Your Majesty know about it."
The Emperor's fingers turning the teacup stopped.
"That night, it was raining and thundering, and Your Majesty should have been out of control in Guangxin Palace. Although this old servant did not see it with his own eyes, this old servant feels comforted just thinking about it." Chen Pingping's face full of wrinkles melted away, appearing extremely comforted, "Your Majesty, why were you so angry about the affair between the Princess Royal and the Crown Prince? Is it because you always felt that this younger sister should belong to you? However, because of the idea of a benevolent monarch that tortured you in your heart, you could only suppress it all the time?"
"Who knew that the Crown Prince would actually do it." Chen Pingping laughed in a low, sharp voice, "You couldn't do it, you couldn't do what was done, but it was done by the Crown Prince, how could you not be angry? How could they not die?"
"The Crown Prince is dead, the Princess Royal is dead, the Empress is dead, the Empress Dowager is dead, and the Second Prince is also dead." Chen Pingping's sharp gaze stared at the Emperor, "All your relatives are equal to dying at your hands. You are the most selfish and ruthless monarch in the world, and I will let your relatives die because of your selfishness."
The Emperor's fingers holding the teacup trembled slightly, gently tapping the cup, making a crisp sound.
Chen Pingping's voice was crisper, colder, and sharper than this sound, "This old servant has no trump cards. This old servant just wants to return to the palace to tell you one thing. You so coldly let her die alone back then, and I can let you also smell that kind of loneliness, and then die in this kind of torment... Perhaps I cannot kill you, but letting you live like this, isn't it the most wonderful and complex method?"
"I still have several good sons." The Emperor said slowly, "You even wanted to kill the Third Prince, and I... can't help but be amazed by the coldness and hatred in your heart."
Chen Pingping said coldly, "As long as they are people with the surname Li in this palace, they should all die."
"What about Anzhi?" The Emperor's fingers tapping the celadon teacup suddenly stopped, and he frowned and said mockingly, "He is the son of me and Qingmei. You are so loyal to her, so why would you want to kill him again and again? I'm afraid that even today, Anzhi still thinks you are the most loving elder, but he never thought that, including the assassination in the valley, including the aftermath of the Suspended Temple incident, he almost lost his life under the dagger, all of which were arranged by you."
After a moment of silence, Chen Pingping said in a low voice with an extremely cold tone, "Fan Xian is just a bastard... What qualifications do you have to be the father of her son? Fan Xian's existence is a shameful mark for her. I feel that he is an eyesore when I look at him."
The Emperor laughed, his laughter full of resentment, "Very good, you are indeed a perverted eunuch... Wouldn't it be too much to your liking if I just killed you like this?"
"How I die is never the problem." Chen Pingping looked at the Emperor mockingly and said, "I only know that my revenge has been successful, and that is enough."
The Emperor's hand holding the teacup hovered in mid-air. After a long time, he said quietly, "I still have three sons..."
"But since I have returned to the capital, I am afraid that your three sons can no longer be your sons." Chen Pingping's pupils gradually shrank, and he laughed in a cold and delighted tone, "I died at Your Majesty's hands, how will Fan Xian look at you? How will the eldest prince look at you? How can you explain it to Fan Xian? Could it be that I am avenging his mother? Then how do you explain the things of that year to him?"
The chill in Chen Pingping's narrowed pupils intensified. His face gradually paled, whether from excitement or other emotions. He stared at the Emperor and said word by word, "Your Majesty, you will inevitably be betrayed and separated from your family. In loneliness, you will watch the land of this world, but... have nothing."
Looking at the land of the world, but having nothing, what a vicious curse and hatred! The Emperor's body shook slightly, and his face gradually paled again. He looked at Chen Pingping with a devouring aura and said coldly, "You dare!"
When the Emperor said these two words, it meant that he already knew that Chen Pingping's complex plan spanning twenty years had finally gradually embarked on an irreversible path to success. Whether it was Fan Xian or the Eldest Prince, they had extremely close relationships with Chen Pingping, and if Emperor Qing wanted to explain anything to these two sons, he would have to touch on the story of many years ago, which he could not open his mouth to.
Could it be that this strongest monarch in the world could only gradually age and die while his sons looked at him with angry and hateful gazes?
Emperor Qing's face was pale, and he felt endless coldness and anger in his heart. He looked at Chen Pingping's equally pale face, knowing that the other party had already calculated everything that followed. He was using his own death to launch the final and darkest offensive against this palace.
The imperial study fell into a silence as dead as death. The autumn rain outside was still falling slowly, moistening the palace's originally dry land, as well as the gaps in the bluestone slabs. The glass windows produced by the Internal Treasury installed in the imperial study, the carved flowers on the windows, looked like human faces, watching the final dialogue between this pair of monarchs and subjects of Qing Yu Nian.
"You seek death, but I am unwilling to let you die easily." The Emperor's face was pale, his pupils were empty, like a deity suppressing endless anger, and he said coldly and calmly, "I will escort you to Meridian Gate. I will let you be naked in front of all the people. I will let the world know that you, this old black dog, are a eunuch without genitals, a freak who brings shame to your ancestors... I will let countless eyes stare between your thighs, to see how you, this resentful eunuch, used the rotten flesh between your legs to weave these vicious conspiracies."
Emperor Qing's words were very soft, but they contained endless resentment, endless humiliation, and unceasing anger. He said coldly, "I will tear you into pieces, slice you to death slowly. I will let the people of the entire Qing Yu Nian tear off the flesh on your body bit by bit, and then bury your skull next to the Three Great Workshops, so that you can watch with your own eyes how I kill her first, then kill you, and then use the things she left behind to slaughter the land, unify the world, and achieve an immortal foundation."
"I will let you, let you know that I can kill you, and I will let you watch all of this with your own eyes, but there is nothing you can do, so that you can cry, struggle, and regret in the underworld..."
The Emperor's face was getting paler and paler, but his voice was getting calmer and calmer, and his pupils were getting more and more empty, more and more unlike a living person.
Chen Pingping's face, sitting in the black wheelchair, was also very pale. He knew that the genes of a madman were also passed down in His Majesty the Emperor's blood, and he also knew what kind of inhuman end he would face under the Emperor's mad anger.
The two monarchs and subjects were using each other's words to cut each other's hearts, cutting each other bloody, with no intact place on their bodies. Like two pale ghosts, they were devouring each other's souls.
Chen Pingping slowly and laboriously leaned over and placed the teacup on the ground, then held the front end of the wheelchair armrest with both hands, using his elbows as an axis, and placed his forearms calmly and comfortably on the black and smooth armrests. He did not think about anything, but repeated the habitual action that he had repeated countless times over the years.
His gaze swept over His Majesty the Emperor's pale face, his thin and powerful shoulders, and looked straight at the wall behind the imperial study, as if he had seen through this wall, directly to the small building in the harem, and saw the portrait. The back of the woman in the yellow shirt in the portrait was extremely desolate and lonely, watching the scene of the great river and the people repairing the dikes at the foot of the mountain, silent for a long time.
Chen Pingping was silent for a long time. He thought to himself, this is good, this is good.
"Little Yezi?" A strange smile appeared on the corner of his lips, as if he saw the appearance of that little girl emerging in the air behind the imperial study.
That little girl looked at him in distress and asked, "Are you really a eunuch? Then should we call each other sisters, or what should we do?"
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His Majesty the Emperor heard these three words spoken by Chen Pingping, Little Yezi... this name had been hidden in his heart for many years. This name was like a curse, always preventing him from being free. Although he could not think of it for a long, long time, once he realized that he had not forgotten, that face, that person would appear out of thin air, looking at him with a hint of doubt, a hint of sadness, and a hint of disdain.
He subconsciously followed Chen Pingping's gaze and turned his head slightly, and then he heard a loud noise.
With a bang! A strong wind swept through the imperial study, and two violent air currents mixed with powerful gunpowder, iron sand, and steel balls fiercely bombarded Emperor Qing's body.
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(Emperor Qing is a doctor, so it is not so easy to die. Sister Pingping is a persistent person. His revenge has actually completed a lot in the past. He has tried his best within his ability, and his direction of revenge is very correct. As for what he said is just to help Fan Xian in the end, I think everyone is clear.
This chapter basically scanned the mental journey of the Emperor and Chen Pingping over the years. Everyone should be able to deduce and feel many places that are not written in detail. I originally wanted to finish writing this section today, at least to write until the Emperor dealt with Sister Pingping, instead of stopping here, like deliberately whetting your appetite. However, I am really powerless to continue. I have been writing seriously for five or six hours in a row, and I am too tired. I will continue tomorrow. Also, Chen Pingping is a man, let's not call him Sister Pingping in the future. Finally, as usual, I sincerely call on everyone to ask for monthly tickets.)