Chapter 77 Part 1

Xiao Jin was slightly taken aback, because she suddenly recalled the intelligence the original owner had ordered Ye Juege to investigate.

— Chu Shao, the Ninth Princess of the Emperor of Yao, birth mother was Consort Rong.

After Consort Rong died, she was raised by the Empress for a year. When the Imperial Preceptor returned victorious to the capital, she was handed over to the Imperial Preceptor to be raised to adulthood.

Calculating, only these three people were closely related to Chu Shao’s past.

Through the play on stage, Xiao Jin had also learned a bit about the lives of Rong Lian and the Empress. Only that mysterious Imperial Preceptor remained somewhat inscrutable.

However, if she wanted to know more about Chu Shao’s past events, Xiao Jin felt that choosing Rong Lian’s memory fragment would be better.

Xiao Jin was just about to make her choice but paused.

Because she suddenly recalled the book she had once read in the study. It recorded a period of Yao Kingdom history, called the Imperial Preceptor’s Misrule of Politics.

At that time, Xiao Jin had been very confused about the internal logic behind this person’s various actions.

After all, in the end, that Imperial Preceptor had reached a position second only to the Emperor and above all others, possessing virtually everything.

Yet a perfect hand of cards was played terribly. In the later period, there was a series of blind operations: large-scale construction of something called “Glazed Glass City,” and massive conscription to attack small border countries.

This ended up benefiting the Prince Yan of Qi. When the original owner led troops to attack the main city of Yao Kingdom, only a little over twenty thousand elite soldiers remained in the city.

Thinking of that Glazed Glass City built by conscripting tens of thousands of civilian laborers, Xiao Jin said to the System, “Let’s watch the Imperial Preceptor’s.”

A silver flash streaked across the long street.

Xiao Jin watched the cold, dense light shining from the blade and was slightly stunned, instinctively wanting to draw the dagger from her boot to block.

But the opponent’s saber technique was simply too fast, so fast it caught Xiao Jin off guard.

Before Xiao Jin could even consider where exactly she was currently situated, or whether she was in a transparent form, in the next instant, the tip of the blade was already pressing towards her face.

The man in black raised his blade and brought it down. In a flash, blood splattered across the wall of the long street.

Xiao Jin looked down at the white blade passing through her own body. Where the blade met her body, faint fluorescence shimmered.

Alright, she was a transparent observer.

It seemed the System was indeed very efficient—so efficient that one second she was still talking, and the next, upon opening her eyes, she had entered the Imperial Preceptor’s memory fragment.

For now, Xiao Jin refrained from pondering whether having such an efficient System was a blessing or a curse.

She turned around, looking at the densely packed men in black and the dozens of corpses on the ground, and couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

Was the Imperial Preceptor the one standing, or the one collapsed?

Recalling the book’s description of the Imperial Preceptor, Xiao Jin always felt that searching among that pile of masked men in black, she would surely find the other’s figure.

Taking advantage of her status as a transparent observer, she was just about to observe from multiple angles.

At that moment, the men in black suddenly paused, because standing beneath the blood-red blades was a girl no more than three or four years old.

The girl stood with her back to the men in black, her tiny figure extremely slender. The crimson-purple skirt she wore, however, was splattered with bloodstains.

The man in black furrowed his brows, seeming somewhat puzzled. Both parents had already been killed, so why was this girl just standing there dumbly, unable to even cry out?

But such doubts were not enough to change the girl’s fate. After a brief moment of confusion, the man in black expressionlessly raised his blade.

In his eyes, the girl’s family was merely a stumbling block on that esteemed person’s path to the throne, nothing more than necessary sacrifices.

A richly dressed man standing beside the man in black watched this scene and exclaimed, “Yi.”

“Hold.”

The tip of the blade shimmered with cold light, suspended above the girl’s head.

The richly dressed man used his fan to cover his face, blocking the smell of blood filling the alley. Then he stepped forward, smiling as he looked at the girl standing before him.

Not only was the man watching, but even the outsider Xiao Jin was staring in astonishment at the girl, who was no more than three or four.

The reason was simple: because that child had turned around just as the gleaming blade tip approached.

The girl’s face was very young, completely incongruous with the surrounding horror and bloodshed.

Behind her lay the corpses of Prince Gong and his Princess Consort.

Everyone in the martial world knew that the blades of Reed Pavilion were always very fast. So at this moment, Prince Gong and his Princess Consort’s heads had already parted from their bodies.

Their heads were pressed close together, piled beside the girl’s shoes in a posture of dying with unresolved grievances.

But what surprised everyone the most was the girl’s subsequent reaction.

Under the watch of numerous gazes, the girl tilted her head up and gazed at the eerily silent group of men in black.

After a moment, her brows and eyes curved slightly as she actually smiled at them.

Her voice was sweet and gentle: “Father Prince and Mother Consort have already fallen asleep. So, are you here to pick me up?”

At this very moment, Xiao Jin’s shock was beyond description.

Because the smile that appeared on the girl’s face was exactly the same as Chu Shao’s.

The richly dressed man didn’t respond immediately. It was a long while before he burst into loud laughter. “This Seat thought the Princess Consort of Prince Gong had given birth to a prodigy. Turns out it’s not a prodigy, just a foolish child who doesn’t understand the world.”

Having laughed enough, the richly dressed man closed his folding fan and said to the man in black beside him, “This child is interesting. Spare her life.”

The man in black showed a troubled expression. “My Lord… but this child is the Heiress of Prince Gong’s Residence. If we don’t eliminate the roots, and the Second Prince finds out, it will be difficult for us to explain…”

The richly dressed man raised his hand and patted the little Heiress’s head, smiling. “What does a three or four-year-old child understand?”

“Besides, when the Second Prince ascends the throne, today’s matter will be his greatest stain.”

Stroking the girl’s hair, the richly dressed man’s tone gradually became casual.

“When the time comes, after the Second Prince crosses the river, he might just tear down our bridge. Reed Pavilion will have sold its life for him, only to meet disaster. After he ascends, he might push us out as the scapegoats for the massacre of Prince Gong’s entire household.”

The man in black asked, “What does My Lord mean?”

The richly dressed man took the girl’s hand. “This child is good. She’s sand in the new Emperor’s eyes, and also a handle we can control.”

Through observation, Xiao Jin roughly understood.

The Emperor of Yao was seriously ill. The Princes were still young, and the Crown Prince’s position was unresolved.

Prince Gong was the Emperor’s elder brother. According to Yao Kingdom law, he was extremely likely to replace his young nephews and ascend the throne.

But before internal strife could erupt, someone had already made the first move.

The final result was obvious: Prince Gong’s entire household was slaughtered without cause. Second Prince Chu Xuan naturally ascended the throne and succeeded to the crown.

Only, a variable had appeared.

That little Heiress, led away by the richly dressed man’s hand, had turned her head before boarding the carriage to look at Princess Consort Gong’s beautiful head lying on the ground.

Xiao Jin saw clearly—with her back to the richly dressed man, the expression on the girl’s face was indescribable.

Seeing this scene, she had wanted to try reading the girl’s inner thoughts.

Who knew, the scene suddenly shifted.

Incense smoke swirled and lingered. A light smoke rose from the carved bronze censer.

In the smoke, drifting like silk gauze, a hand passed through the silk and pushed aside the beaded curtain.

That hand was slender and thin, a string of white jade Buddhist beads encircling the wrist. It made the fresh blood staining the knuckles appear even more richly vibrant, as if splashed with dye.

Once the fragrant breeze dissipated, Xiao Jin finally saw the newcomer’s features clearly.

The woman wore crimson robes, a purple official sash tied at her waist. Every aspect of her appearance was noble and refined.

Standing by the window in the bleak autumn wind, yet she seemed to be bathed in spring light, casually draped in an air of languid elegance.

The woman in blue beside her looked at her and cupped her fist in salute to report: “My Lord, all thirteen yards of the Reed Pavilion have been brought under our people’s control.”

The woman merely smiled faintly, then raised her blood-covered finger and lightly traced the several peach blossoms carved on the square table.

Her knuckles moved under the light, dust seemingly swirling around them.

Blood was a natural dye. Very quickly, the yellow rosewood table the Pavilion Master of Reed Pavilion loved most bloomed with a large expanse of brilliant red peach blossoms dyed in blood.

Looking at those peach blossoms, the woman smiled with utter delight and said to the woman in blue, “Shiyi, look, the peach blossoms are blooming.”

The woman in blue remained silent for a long time before slowly saying, “My Lord, autumn has already arrived now.”

The autumn light fell on the woman’s cheek.

She smiled, seeming somewhat regretful. “So autumn has already arrived.”

Her following words, however, were laced with chill: “The peach blossoms have withered… In that case, kill all the remaining loyalists in the tower who resist.”

The woman in blue hesitated for a moment. “What about the former Pavilion Master? How does My Lord plan to deal with him?”