Chapter 760

As Xiao Yin's words fell, Gu Jiu Ling nodded, stepped forward, and looked at the bewildered Gu Kang and Mr. Wen before her.

She took out a tablet from her bosom and presented it to Mr. Wen.

When Mr. Wen's gaze touched the tablet, he snatched it up and examined it closely.

He then lifted his head, staring fixedly at Gu Jiu Ling before him, his voice turning sharp.

"Where did you get this?"

Gu Jiu Ling looked at Mr. Wen before her, yet her heart was a tangle of mixed feelings.

This person had indeed done much for the Murong family, yet he was thoroughly a wicked old man.

Gu Jiu Ling coldly smiled and said, "Naturally, I found it in my mother's coffin."

Mr. Wen questioned, "Your mother is of Murong lineage, but when the underground palace was built back then, your mother never entered it; your maternal grandfather merely supported the then crown prince..."

The two words "crown prince" again caught in his throat and stopped abruptly.

Since Gu Jiu Ling had already entered the underground palace, she must surely know the Murong family's greatest secret.

The bloodline left by the Murong family is not a son but a little princess.

Back then, Old Master Du carried the coffin a thousand miles, burying the princess in the underground palace, yet now Gu Jiu Ling holds this tablet.

It is a token that only the direct line of the Murong royal family can possess, yet it is completely unlike the princess's token, leaving him bewildered for a moment.

Gu Jiu Ling glanced at Gu Kang standing to the side, then gave a bitter smile.

"You're mistaken; when my maternal grandfather went to Mang Shan to bury the Murong descendants, he sent two coffins, not one."

"What... what are you saying?" Mr. Wen's eyes widened suddenly, staring incredulously at Gu Jiu Ling before him,

feeling that Gu Jiu Ling's words were deceiving him; the tablet she had retrieved—he, as a servant of the Murong family, could not possibly not recognize it.

Even if he did not know his own parents, he could not fail to recognize this tablet, for it is the heirloom his family has guarded generation after generation.

Gu Jiu Ling said slowly, "When my mother gave birth to me, she was already dead."

Gu Kang suddenly lifted his eyes, his gaze filled with astonishment—not merely astonishment, but even despair.

Gu Jiu Ling looked at the expressions of Mr. Wen and Gu Kang, and instead felt a little more sympathy for these two.

Gu Jiu Ling's smile carried a hint of bitterness: "Back then, my mother was already pregnant before she married Gu Shijie."

"" I am not... a qualified daughter, and only a few days ago did I know he is a divine physician."

But my father, under the threat of Emperor Longqing, did not expose my mother, and she was ultimately tortured to death.

Later, my mother, pregnant, married into the Gu family, supporting Gu Shijie all the way as part of the bargain.

My mother's health was indeed poor; she died after giving birth to me, but I was still young, and it was hard to drift about, not knowing where to place me.

My maternal grandfather, having no choice, let me grow up in the Gu minister's residence, so he continually sent all kinds of jewels and silver to the Gu minister's residence.

A large part of the intention was to let me establish myself in the Gu household.

"But my mother is already dead; if her identity were exposed too early at this time, I would surely not live well, so my maternal grandfather actually found a dead warrior puppet to replace my mother in raising me at the Gu minister's residence."

"So Gu Kang has no Murong bloodline; he is merely the child born of that obscure female puppet."

"The dead warriors' bodies are severely depleted from training; that woman never imagined she would develop feelings for Gu Shijie, and yet she bore Gu Kang."

"And it was then that she passed away."

Gu Kang's face turned deathly pale, his head unmoving, feeling as if a terrifying zombie had lost its own consciousness.

Mr. Wen also dazed; the Gu Kang he had supported all along turned out not to be of the Murong family, and all these years of effort have, in others' eyes, become a joke.

And the Murong family's sole bloodline is Gu Jiu Ling before us, yet she has fallen in love with a descendant of the Xiao family and even borne a pair of twins.

Mixing the bloodlines of the Xiao and Murong families renders all of Mr. Wen's previous hatred and revenge meaningless.

Mr. Wen knows Gu Jiu Ling has no need to deceive him; everything speaks for itself through facts.

The tablet he now grips in his hand is a token left by the Murong royal family.

Mr. Wen suddenly burst into laughter, his smile bleak and hopeless, lingering in the Hall of Nourishing the Heart and impossible to dispel.

The laughing Mr. Wen, his laughter abruptly ceased.

His whole body slumped to the ground, leaning against the coiling dragon pillar of the Hall of Nourishing the Heart, his eyes fixed rigidly ahead, not even having time to close.

Xiao Yin stepped forward, reached out to test Mr. Wen's nostrils, then immediately straightened up and shook his head at Gu Jiu Ling.

Gu Jiu Ling sighed and said softly, "Let him be buried in the Murong family's graveyard."

This is an internal matter of the Murong family; Xiao Yin also finds it hard to comment.

If it weren't for this bloodline connection, he could skin old Mr. Wen alive.

He has always been open and aboveboard, and he despises such behind-the-scenes scheming the most.

Mr. Wen never expected to die in such a way; the officials in the Hall of Nourishing the Heart all sighed, a great Confucian scholar of an era, now come to this end—one does not know whether to pity him or hate him.

This time, everyone's gaze turned to Gu Kang, clothed in a bright yellow dragon robe.

Gu Kang is absolutely a legendary figure in the Southern Qi dynasty, from a spoiled noble son of the capital to later becoming the top scholar.

Then to a harsh official who petitioned for the people, finally becoming the prince consort of Southern Qi, and even ascending to the peak as emperor.

In the end, it was like a dream in Nanke; he should have not a trace of yellow blood, merely an ordinary commoner, yet he lived out his life in such tumultuous grandeur, full of intrigue and change.

Xiao Yin stared fixedly at Gu Kang; Gu Jiu Ling now has no standing to beg Xiao Yin for mercy toward Gu Kang, to let him go.

Formerly, Gu Kang and she were related by blood, so one had to consider Gu Kang; now there is no need to worry about that at all, and he and Gu Kang should have no connection whatsoever.

Gu Kang slowly lifted his head, looking at Xiao Yin and Gu Jiu Ling before him.

"Although I and my sister share no blood relation, after all we grew up together, so we still have some affection."

"Please, elder sister, have my body burned to ashes and scattered over the temple threshold, to wash away the sins of my lifetime."

Xiao Yin nodded.

"Any last words?"

Gu Kang gave a faint smile: "I have toiled through half my life, endured hardship; to still obtain an intact corpse today, I, Gu Kang, consider it worthwhile."

He slowly removed the dragon robe from his body, and it fell to the ground.

Afterwards, he slammed hard into the Coiled Dragon Pillar, and a startled cry rose all around.

Gu Kang slowly collapsed into the pool of blood.

He had been controlled by others his whole life.

As a child, he was treated as a brat and ruined by the Lin family.

As a youth, he was again forced by his elder sister to strive, and after striving he became a tool in Mr. Wen's hands.

Now this is Gu Kang's first choice made for himself, and also the only one.