Chapter 343: Is Everything a Forgery?

Pff—!

Hearing this, Cui Hong could no longer suppress the raging fire in his chest and fell straight backward.

"My lord! My lord!" the chief steward hurried forward to support him.

"Gu Ziyuan... Gu Ziyuan! How dare he! How dare he!!!"

Cui Hong never imagined, even in his dreams, that the low‑born scholar they thought they could manipulate was actually a peerless ferocious tiger cloaked in sheep's skin!

Not only did he refuse to play by bureaucratic rules, he overturned the entire board, wiping out their clan's power in Youzhou completely!

"Fifty Imperial Guards... just fifty Imperial Guards—how could they possibly annihilate thirteen noble families in a single night?! Is the inspector's great seal in Yuandao merely a decoration?! Are the tens of thousands of troops in Youzhou's main camp dead bodies?!"

Cui Hong racked his brain for an explanation, but he knew this was not the time to scrutinize details.

The heavens over Youzhou have collapsed; if he does not act immediately, the prestige of the noble families will vanish, and forces in other provinces will stir.

"Prepare a sedan chair! Immediately prepare a sedan chair!"

Cui Hong pushed the chief steward aside, haphazardly wiping fresh blood from his mouth, his eyes flashing with extreme venomous resentment.

"Contact Minister Wang and Elder Li, and inform all court officials from noble families! Immediately enter the palace to face the emperor!"

"Gu Ziyuan has unjustly slaughtered imperial officials and exterminated an entire clan; this is a capital crime of treason! Even if I were to die crashing into the dragon pillar in the Hall of Supreme Harmony today, I will have His Majesty eradicate his nine families and have him torn apart by lingchi!"

In less than half an hour, the entire capital trembled.

The shocking news of Youzhou's upheaval spread to the mansions of the great noble families as if it had grown wings.

For a moment, chaos erupted in the capital; countless officials rode sedan chairs, carriages, and even summoned official qi to soar into the air, swarming like a horde of locusts, rushing madly toward the Forbidden City.

…

…

Da Yin Divine Dynasty, capital.

Forbidden City, Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Today's morning court was suffocatingly oppressive.

In Jinluan Hall, one could hear a pin drop; even the censors who usually cough twice to announce their presence now hunched their necks like quails.

Minister of Personnel Cui Hong stood at the forefront of the civil officials, his hands gripping the ivory tablet that signified his rank, his eyes bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the Da Yin Emperor seated on the dragon throne.

Half an hour earlier, the urgent Youzhou military report had arrived at the Ministry of War and quickly spread throughout the capital's bureaucracy.

Youzhou Inspector Cui Yuandao, along with the heads of the thirteen top noble families of Youzhou, were slaughtered entirely in a single night.

Heads hung all over the walls of Youzhou city.

Moreover, the newly appointed Youzhou Governor Gu Ziyuan immediately stripped the inspector's office of military authority, opened granaries, distributed grain, allocated land tax‑free, and squandered the centuries‑old foundation of the noble families.

This is no longer merely eliminating rivals in the bureaucracy; it is digging up the ancestral graves of the world's noble families!

"Your Majesty!"

Cui Hong could no longer restrain himself; he leapt out of the ranks, fell straight onto the golden bricks, his voice wailing as mournfully as a cuckoo bleeding.

"Gu Ziyuan has gone mad! He led troops to storm the inspector's residence at night, slaughtered imperial officials without cause, and indiscriminately killed innocent noble families! Such deeds are no different from rebellion!"

"I earnestly petition Your Majesty to issue an edict at once, stripping Gu Ziyuan of all offices, depriving him of official qi, ordering the Ministry of War to muster a hundred thousand troops to execute him on the spot, as a warning to others!"

As Cui Hong knelt, a wave of officials behind him fell to their knees in a rustling mass.

"We concur! Gu Ziyuan is blood‑thirsty by nature; heaven cannot tolerate him!"

"Youzhou is a key frontier defense; now the bureaucracy is paralyzed. If the demon tribes exploit the void, the Da Yin realm is in danger! Please, Your Majesty, decide swiftly!"

The crowd was incensed.

The officials of the noble families were truly frightened this time.

Gu Yuan's methods are too ruthless, too extreme, leaving them no room for maneuver.

If the emperor protects Gu Yuan today, tomorrow that slaughtering blade may be poised over the necks of the capital's noble families.

The emperor sat upright on the dragon throne, his complexion as dark as water.

He looked at the half‑court of civil and military officials kneeling below, his heart also roiling with turbulent waves.

He promoted Gu Yuan, indeed intending to use that swift blade to cut a piece of Youzhou's noble families, but he never imagined that Gu Yuan's knife was not only fast but would also cleave bone and flesh together.

In a single night, more than a dozen families were wiped out; such boldness and method even made the emperor himself feel his heart race.

Yet after the shock, a secret exhilaration followed.

The Da Yin Divine Dynasty has long suffered under the noble families!

These families, relying on ancestral merits and vast resources, constantly curb imperial authority.

Now that someone has uprooted this malignant tumor for him, he is so pleased he hasn't even had time to think of killing Gu Yuan.

Moreover, just last night he clearly felt the auspicious golden dragon above the imperial city let out a joyous roar, a supremely pure qi flowing back from the direction of Youzhou, lightening the dark spots on the golden dragon.

What does this indicate? It shows that Gu Yuan's killing was correct! It aligned with the Way of Heaven!

But as an emperor, he cannot express it directly; he needs a platform, a perfect excuse that can shut up the endless mouths of the world's noble families.

While the emperor was deep in thought, the second prince Yin Zhen, standing among the princes, slowly stepped forward.

"Father, I have an essential matter to report."

The second prince, clad in a single python robe, possessed a gentle temperament, yet his gaze now carried a sharp edge.

"Second son, what do you have to say?" the emperor asked, going with the flow.

Yin Zhen drew a thick memorial from his sleeve and presented it with both hands.

"Minister Cui repeatedly claims that Governor Gu has unjustly slaughtered imperial officials; it is the greatest absurdity under heaven!"

Yin Zhen turned, coldly staring at Cui Hong on the ground,

"Father, this is a top‑secret dossier urgently sent by Governor Gu. Inside it records ironclad evidence of Cui Yuandao and others embezzling military provisions and hiding population counts!"

"What is even more outrageous is that Cui Yuandao, for his own profit, secretly colluded with the Green Lion King of the Ten‑Thousand‑Mountain range, intending to lure the demon tribes to breach the gates, using a knife to kill and harm the imperial envoy!"

At these words, the Hall of Supreme Harmony erupted in a sudden uproar.

Colluding with the demon tribe—this is a crime punishable by execution of nine generations!

Cui Hong's face twitched violently, he forced himself to retort:

"Your Highness, watch your words! This is clearly evidence fabricated by Gu Ziyuan to cover up his massacre!"

"Forged?"

Yinzhen let out a cold laugh, pulling from the memorial a letter tinged with demonic aura,

"This is a secret letter personally written by Cui Yuandao to the Green Lion Demon King, bearing his private seal as inspector! Moreover, Inspector Gu, on the night he raided the inspector's residence, personally went to the border and slaughtered the three hundred thousand Green Lion Demon army that sought to breach the pass, beheading the demon king and pacifying the border—could that also be forged?!"