Chapter 1360: I Am Prince Ziqing (Second Update)

Prince Ziqing's state, which had endured a thousand years, shattered like glass under the siege of the myriad races' cultivators.

I watched with my own eyes as the enemy tore apart my father the Emperor, my wife pierced through the head by a magical artifact, and my young son curled in the shadow, gradually growing cold.

I had no time to save them...

Nor did I have the ability to save them...

At the very moment this war began, I was cursed and sealed by the myriad races' spellcraft, my cultivation blocked, reduced to a mortal.

In my grief and rage, my brother charged toward the pursuing troops and detonated the last of Prince Ziqing's state's fortune.

And he poured that fortune into my body.

As I was overwhelmed by that fortune, I saw countless eyes.

—Those were the eyes of my dead kin, my subjects, watching me from beyond time.

I, will have revenge!

The thousand-year-old Prince Ziqing's state shattered more easily than a琉璃 cup.

The vast and auspicious purple aura had long been torn apart and erased by the foul, stinking winds of the myriad races' cultivators' spells.

Inside and outside the imperial city, the once-majestic jade pillars symbolizing immortality are now merely a graveyard of massive ruins, trembling amid the deafening slaughter and the grating sound of bones breaking.

I stand upon the broken丹陛, my feet in sticky blood-mud, the piercing smell of iron rust almost solidifying each breath.

Father, that figure once like a pillar holding up the heavens, was seized ruthlessly by a shadow that tore through space right before my eyes.

I couldn't even hear his final cry clearly; I only witnessed his robe symbolizing supreme majesty—the purple-gold dragon robe—along with his powerful body, torn open instantly by an invisible force!

Blood rain mixed with bone fragments like shattered jade poured down from the sky, scalding my face with pain.

Those scorching drops of my father's blood fell into my eyes, and my vision instantly blurred into a bloody red.

The purple-green heavens of Prince Ziqing collapsed completely within this blood rain.

And yet, I was powerless.

My cultivation, my divine abilities, even my physical strength—all were cursed by the myriad races at the war's outset with infinite force, sealing my cultivation and stripping me of all combat power.

Reducing me to a mortal.

And it was at this moment I realized I was not as strong as outsiders had rumored...

My weakness is no less than anyone else's.

"Your Highness! This way!" The hoarse shout of the surviving guards pierced through the deafening roar.

I, as if pulled by invisible strings, numb, followed them in retreat.

In the instant I passed through the collapsing palace gate, my peripheral vision was suddenly seized by a blinding light.

That was the direction of the Phoenix Ritual Hall!

There, a sea of fire!

My heart trembled as I staggered closer; amidst the thick smoke and flames, I saw her—my wife of bound hair.

She leaned against a half-charred corridor pillar, a blood-stained silver hairpin deeply embedded in her forehead, the slender hand that once flowered for me now limp and fallen.

Her eyes were open, staring blankly at the sky obscured by black smoke; in her frozen pupils, it seemed some lingering concern remained.

My outstretched hand froze in midair, fingertips icy, something in my chest shattered with a boom, emitting a silent scream.

The ancient lotus pattern on my palm, symbolizing the power of the Prince Ziqing imperial house, suddenly flared hot like a branding iron, searing my soul to the point of splitting.

"Father..." A weak voice like a kitten's, trembling with the brink of death, came from beneath the overturned heavy shadow.

Under the heavy broken beam, a small body curled up—my seven-year-old imperial prince.

His small body was icy cold, except for the small hand still tightly gripping the rough wooden sword I had carved myself, which seemed to retain a faint warmth.

I trembled as I held him; that pitiful warmth quickly faded, leaving only stiff cold.

The wooden sword slipped from his limp little hand, making a soft "tap" as it struck the cold floor tiles, joining the roars of the myriad races' cultivators in piercing my eardrums and heart.

My father, my wife, my imperial prince, my state—all had grown cold.

"Run! Your Highness!" The remaining armored soldiers, using their bodies to forge a broken dam, desperately blocked the horrifying torrent surging from all directions; their twisted faces etched with despair and resolve to die.

I, like a puppet with its strings cut, was swept along by a desperate force, slammed open the swaying palace gate, and charged recklessly into the unknown darkness.

Behind me lay my utterly ruined world.

The palace gate groaned behind me, unable to bear the weight, then collapsed with a boom.

An extremely sharp, destruction-laced icy divine sense, like a bone-eating maggot, instantly locked onto my back; the chill of death nearly froze my marrow.

"Prince Ziqing, the Crown Prince, you now lack your former vigor and spirit."

That voice carried the teasing of a cat playing with a mouse, icy and sticky, drilling into my ears.

At the very moment that destructive force was about to strike my body, a familiar yet resolute figure, like a meteor rushing into flames, 逆流 the fleeing crowd, and suddenly threw itself between me and that terrifying divine sense!

It was my brother!

The brother unfavored by our father, usually silent and reserved, living in my shadow, with whom I had little contact!

He clutched the jade seal, his tattered robe fluttering violently under the fierce spiritual pressure, his hair blown into disarray by the strong wind.

He turned his head sharply and glanced at me.

In those eyes burned the madness of a all-or-nothing gamble!

In the next instant, his emaciated body suddenly swelled like a balloon inflated to its limit, and piercing purple light erupted violently from the jade seal and every pore of his body!

That light was so pure, so tragic, as if it compressed and ignited the last remaining fortune of Prince Ziqing's state, along with his own lingering life and soul!

Boom!

An indescribable roar echoed through the world.

Heaven and earth seemed to have completely lost their hearing at this moment.

This force, containing the ignited fortune of Prince Ziqing's state, like an invisible great hammer, surged into my body and merged within me.

In my body, a roaring surged, shattering the powerful curse meticulously prepared and branded upon me by the myriad races, and even breaking through the cultivation sealed by their combined strength.

This caused the long-lost power, as well as that dormant cultivation, to revive like collapsing frozen earth, resurging within this body on the verge of withering decay.

Yet, within the eruption of that cultivation power, a rolling scarlet blood mist appeared in my mind, within which countless pairs of eyes seemed to suddenly emerge!

Father Emperor, younger brother, beloved wife, young son…… and countless faces I once knew well, those soldiers and subjects who shed their last drop of blood for Prince Ziqing……

Their gazes, filled with farewell, seemed to come from beyond time, from that unreachable far shore.

Gazing upon them, a drop of viscous blood-tear, I know not when, overflowed from the corner of my eye, detached from my cheek, and silently fell within the endless black void.

It fell toward that direction where the homeland ruins, devoured and annihilated by blood and fire, lay, plunging toward the unfathomable depths of eternal silence.

At this moment, behind me lay the utterly collapsed past, the submerged ruins of time.

And ahead, only a stretch of void-dark road, waiting to be soaked through with blood.

I will have revenge!