Chapter 698

The picture first showed a palace hall; from a bird's‑eye view, the Baili clan's ten‑odd people only felt it familiar, not yet recognizing what place it was, and then sound began again in the heavenly curtain.

A baby's cry.

Then the picture fell silent again.

How strange, to see a newborn in the Yellow Springs Realm.

No one had seen it more clearly yet; in the next instant the picture switched, a man in black robe and gold crown walked down a corridor, followed by a group of palace attendants, and the Baili family felt familiar again.

Everyone stared without blinking, as if the time‑stopped Eleventh Hall finally had something to do—this was no easy matter—and the deadly foes who swore vengeance against the fallen dynasty all appeared at once.

Only when Zhang Zong let out a cry of surprise was the Eleventh Hall's silence broken.

"Crown Prince?!"

Everyone turned to him; his father, the young He Zong, hurriedly asked: "What crown prince? Your crown prince?!"

The images of the Human Realm's emperors lingering in the Eleventh Hall were not how they looked when they left the Human Realm. Take the Grand Ancestor: when he died he was already seventy, but his image in the Eleventh Hall remained as he was around fifty, ten years after he seized the realm, possibly the peak of his prosperous life.

He Zong reigned only ten months, dying before twenty; his current image is that of his coronation day, a frail handsome youth. Meanwhile, Zhang Zong, whom he was pulling and questioning, is a weathered old man.

At this moment, a fifty‑ or sixty‑year‑old old man pulled a handsome youth and said, "Father Emperor, it is your subject‑son's crown prince, your grandson!" Though he had grown a little older and a little fatter, having been away only a few years, he could not fail to recognize his own son.

This scene was bizarre, and it made the Baili clan's few people explode.

Everyone knows Zhang Zong is the youngest in generation here; he's only been here a few years, and now the ruler of the Great Jin is his son. So… this is actually an image of the Human Realm!

In the picture, a little eunuch rushed to Zhang Zong's crown prince—that is, Emperor Ningde's—face, and said, "Your Majesty, congratulations, Your Majesty, the third imperial son has been born."

Zhang Zong pulled the handsome youth and Zong, happily saying, 'Father Emperor, the Crown Prince has again begotten a prince!' Several others also followed with beaming smiles; after so many years, to still see a great-grandson and great-great-grandson born—what a joyous occasion.

In the image: '…but Lady Wei suffered a difficult childbirth… and passed away.'

Emperor Ningde began to sigh and frown; upon looking up he saw Venus in the sky, he threw down the words 'The Third Prince is bestowed the name Jing' and turned and left, not even glancing at his newborn son; this whole group of the Eleven Halls was happier than he himself.

However everyone also understood, Lady Wei's death left the Emperor in a bad mood, so this guy went back, glanced at a few memorials, and still feasted that evening; thus Zhang Zong lost face.

Even Taizu has glanced at him several times!

He silently cursed his beloved son in his heart, really being unworthy! Lady Wei, this surname is most likely from the Wei clan of Southwest Changzhou; would Marquis Wei Ting be pleased knowing your attitude? This is practically alienating the frontier general.

He doesn't know that the one who should have left already left; when in the Southwest he demanded ten shipments of grain and fodder but his eldest son only gave one, his heart was already gone.

At this moment he still doesn't know the seriousness of the matter; Zhang Zong has reigned for thirty-eight years diligently, and is still fairly clean; don't look at his sixty-year-old face, for he is the youngest generation of the Bai Li clan of the Eleven Halls, and has always been infinitely favored by his ancestors.

Even the Iron-Blood Taizu would affectionately call him Little Twelve.

Who could have imagined that once this heavenly curtain appeared, his personally selected eldest son would completely shatter his position as the group's favorite.

The images in the sky appear irregularly each day, with varying durations; after watching for several days they still couldn't discern any pattern, and regardless of content good or bad, everyone watched with relish.

After watching a lot, one can basically confirm that the heavenly curtain's viewpoint mostly revolves around the Great Jin palace; sometimes it faces Emperor Ningde, sometimes it's a prince, and extremely rarely it faces officials and the common folk.

Every time the viewpoint turns to the common folk, it is a day of revelry for the previous dynasty's royal family, and a day of misfortune for Zhang Zong.

It is obvious that nowadays the common folk live very poorly.

Taizu sensitively smelled that familiar scent; his Great Jin seems to already… have the embryonic form of the late Zhou dynasty.

And among the princes, the one who appears most frequently is that third son who was born when the heavenly curtain first appeared.

Each time after watching Emperor Ningde's decadent, pleasure-filled good days, Zhang Zong would always be subjected to a round of affectionate concern from his forefathers. The time of the human world flowed by in Zhang Zong's dire straits; that day, after Taizu watched a hundred li Jing yawning multiple times at the Hongxue Academy for an hour, he understood.

'Although we can't see much yet, this little three definitely has something special! The heavenly curtain appeared after his birth, and usually the scenes we see are mostly related to him.'

When the great king's great-grandfather and Zong left, Zhang Zong was already this big; he felt infinite pity for the great king, although now he already has a fourth son, he still likes the third. Hearing Taizu say that, he excitedly said: 'Ancestor, are you saying… our third will succeed as emperor?' Isn't it that after waiting another hundred years we'll be able to see his beloved third here?

Taizu nodded, 'He looks quite clever; I hope he strives and doesn't go astray like his father. The maternal clan with military power in this era could help him secure the throne…… As long as he succeeds, our Great Jin still has hope.' Anyway he doesn't have high hopes for the eldest; he's completely like the present Ningde.

Zhang Zong shrank his head, quiet as a chicken.

Who would have thought that after Taizu said that, within two days Emperor Ningde began to enfeoff the princes. He sent his eldest son to the prosperous Yuyang, and he outright exiled Taizu's favored third son to Youzhou.

Zhang Zong sucked in a breath; Youzhou, that barren land…… his survival environment in the Eleven Halls is estimated to become even harsher……