Chapter 26: The Cause of the Shen Family's Annihilation

Of course, just as before, she only mentioned the Divine Power and the Shen Xian Bao Ku, and said nothing else.

The matter of the Broken Temple still had to be told to Grandmother; she also hoped Grandmother could be prepared.

"What? How dare those beasts do this?!"

She concealed part of it, but even what she disclosed was enough to make the old lady tremble with fear.

Thinking that they had almost perished at the hands of those beasts, she almost couldn't see her son, daughter‑in‑law, and granddaughter, and felt a wave of dread.

"Even if these soldiers are formidable, they could not act so lawlessly and fearlessly; is there someone backing them up?"

The ancestors, indeed long‑lived, immediately hit the crux.

Shen Qingquan lowered her gaze, concealing a flash of Cold Beam.

Naturally, there are people.

They are old acquaintances of theirs.

Her good cousin, Shen Qinya. And also her fiancé… Xia Chengche.

The Third Prince of the Xia Dynasty.

The old lady looked at her, a trace of complexity flashing across her face.

"Little girl, does this matter have any connection with the Third Branch?"

Shen Qingquan was startled, meeting the old lady's sharp, seemingly all‑seeing gaze, and understood in her heart.

Grandmother has always been perceptive yet unspeaking, and given the Third Branch's long‑standing virtue, it would be normal for Grandmother to suspect them.

"The leading soldier, I once saw Shen Qinya go to find him alone."

She didn't say it outright, but the old lady already understood.

"This wretched beast!"

The old lady was furious, as if a layer of frost covered her face!

As for the Shen Family's Third Branch, it was not born of Grandmother, but of Grandfather and a concubine.

This was the only pain between Grandfather and Grandmother.

Grandfather was schemed against that year, mistakenly getting involved with a woman; that woman later became the concubine, the head of the Third Branch, and the biological mother of his third uncle—Shen Lüping.

Later, when Grandmother learned of it, she caused a scene and dealt with the concubine with thunderous methods. In fact, if the concubine had been honest and obedient, Grandmother could have turned a blind eye. But this concubine was not content to stay at home; several times her actions crossed Grandmother's line.

So Grandmother directly bound her, without a word, sold her to a human trafficker, and sent her out of the Imperial Capital.

After that, she never appeared again.

As for his child, Grandmother was not a scheming, petty person; although the third uncle was born of the concubine, Grandfather and Grandmother never mistreated him. Whatever his father and second uncle had, he also possessed.

Unfortunately, he was never satisfied.

Perhaps following his biological mother, he became selfish, greedy, and profit‑driven. The larger he grew, the more evident it was. His father's generation were all of the Jiongzi generation, yet he alone was not named according to Jiongzi, but was given the name Lüping.

Lü means self‑discipline; Ping means peace.

Grandfather hoped he would be strict with himself and have a peaceful temperament; even without great talent, at least his conduct would be upright.

Unfortunately, whether the former or the latter, he achieved neither.

The Third Branch had become completely twisted, even rotten to the core.

"Little girl, tell me truthfully, was this disaster that befell the Shen Family orchestrated by the Third Branch?"

The old lady was more perceptive than Shen Qingquan imagined; in the Shen Mansion, nothing could be hidden from her eyes.

In fact, Shen Qingquan knew the Third Branch had secret dealings with her good fiancé, due to past lives, because their disguise was so perfect that no trace was left.

Nobody would believe that these two, as far apart as can be, had long been secretly colluding.

"Shen Qinya and Xia Chengche."

She only said those two names, yet the old lady instantly understood, startled, "You mean they… are secretly colluding?"

She nodded, "I only learned of this later by chance. Moreover, the Rebellion Book recovered from the mansion is most likely the one Shen Qinya placed. Grandfather's study is a restricted area; ordinary people cannot approach it unless they are from our household…"

This was also what she knew in her previous life, and Shen Qinya herself had told her.

Sending the Shen Family to hell,

The heavy evidence—identified as the Rebellion Book issued by the Xue family, a treason case—was the one she secretly placed in Grandfather's study.

Later, needless to say, soldiers quickly arrived and surrounded the entire Shen Mansion. Yet one day, the Shen Mansion, once praised as a pure civil official and a pillar of the court, was ransacked overnight and its occupants thrown into prison.

The next day, the treason evidence was issued; Grandfather never even saw the lofty Emperor before he died miserably in prison. The Emperor, "grateful" for the Shen Family's contributions over the years, claimed the principal offender Shen Qingru had already committed suicide in jail, so he did not implicate the family and changed the sentence to exile.

Thinking of this, Shen Qingquan sneered.

The so‑called evidence, the alleged treason, were merely the Emperor's pretext to wipe out the Shen Family! She did not know before, but now she sees through it.

The Xia Dynasty royal house was tyrannical, debauched, hypocritical, and inhumane; after a hundred years it had reached the brink of collapse. In the past thirty years, external threats like the Xiongnu and Japanese pirates eyed them, while internal Feudal Lords stirred. Under such internal and external troubles, the Xia house should have been diligent, the royal family and ministers united to eradicate corruption.

Yet they, due to momentary suspicion, easily brandished the slaughtering knife against loyal ministers.

Those loyal officials were regarded as disrespectful to the sovereign.

The truly righteous were slandered for fame.

The unyielding nobles were called arrogant and haughty.

At times, those who worked diligently were less favored than sycophants who flattered the ruler.

The court atmosphere had long changed: scholars no longer thought of governance, and warriors no longer thought of battle.

More laughably, the Emperor, for his own selfishness, while the Nine Provinces suffered natural disasters and countless people were displaced, nearly emptied half the state treasury to build Guanghan Palace for his Consort.

The absurdity grew: five thousand craftsmen were forcibly conscripted, working day and night; any slight disobedience or resistance was brutally suppressed, and daily exhausted craftsmen who died were carried out of the palace and casually dumped at the Chaos Burial Ground. Within a month, the burial ground piled bodies like a mountain; how many wronged souls roamed forever, unwilling to depart?

The people had long voiced grievances, public sentiment boiled. Yet the Xia Emperor seemed blind and deaf, continuing his heavenly‑earthly carefree life.

Why, in just thirty years, could the Feudal Lords across the lands develop so rapidly?

Why were external enemies free to invade recklessly?

The common folk preferred to pledge allegiance to the Feudal Lords rather than to the court?

Everything has already been explained; the Xia Dynasty has gradually approached the brink of its extinction.

And the downfall of the Shen Family is not only for Shen Qingquan, but also a heavy warning bell struck at the many subjects who still cling to a sliver of hope for the Xia Dynasty.

A nation will cease to be a nation.

What can be called home!

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