Chapter 352

In the blink of an eye, seven days passed.

The Emperor of the Great Yin still lay asleep in the Mysterious Ice secret chamber, clinging to his last breath by the life‑prolonging decoction the Imperial Medical Institute poured into him each day.

Yet the situation in the court underwent a complete upheaval because of Gu Yuan's arrival.

The apparition of a ten‑thousand‑zhang golden dragon utterly shattered the psychological defenses of the Eldest Prince's faction.

The once rock‑solid aristocratic camp began to show cracks; a large number of neutral officials, and even some vassals of the Eldest Prince, started to send furtive glances toward the Second Prince Yinzheng through various channels.

The gates of Gu Yuan's mansion were shut tight, refusing all visitors.

He spent each day watering flowers and feeding fish in the rear garden, but in truth he was organizing the ever‑strengthening Yellow Springs law within his inner world. The fortune of Youzhou and the capital poured in incessantly, and the heavenly mandate of the Great Yin Divine Dynasty was being devoured by him bit by bit.

But Yinzheng found himself ensnared in a different kind of anxiety.

The Second Prince's mansion, a secret chamber.

Yinzheng sat cross-legged on a futon, his face ashen.

Deep in his dantian, that clump of gray‑black annihilative force was surging wildly.

As his power and influence ballooned, this force seemed to be awakening as well.

This was his master urging him, urging him to take the dragon throne posthaste and finish the final step of ascending to the great treasure.

"Not enough…… The capital's outer garrison is still in my elder brother's hands, and although the commander of the Palace Guard has been changed, the core Dragon Shadow Guard still obeys only Father Emperor and the Empress."

Yinzheng opened his eyes, a flash of scarlet flickering in their depths.

His current influence is indeed vast, but it rests upon the illusory notion of "mandate of heaven".

Should the emperor suddenly collapse, the Eldest Prince would overturn the table and deploy troops; the civil officials and fence‑sitters in his employ could not possibly stop him.

He needs absolute military backing.

……

Tranquil Splendor Palace.

The master of Tranquil Splendor Palace is the birth mother of the present Second Prince Yinzheng, Noble Consort Shu.

Unlike those consorts born of top‑tier aristocratic clans with deep‑rooted behind‑the‑scenes power, Noble Consort Shu was merely the daughter of a local magistrate; thanks to her peerless beauty, a chance encounter earned the emperor's favor, and she gradually climbed to the rank of consort.

Within the inner palace, Noble Consort Shu was known for her vegetarian diet, Buddhist chanting, and her avoidance of conflict and greed.

But only a handful of core figures know that this seemingly frail consort actually commands an extremely covert assassination force of the Great Yin Divine Dynasty—the Blood Droplets.

This was a poisoned blade the former emperor secretly entrusted to her years ago to counterbalance the aristocracy.

Late at night, inside the Buddha hall of Tranquil Splendor Palace, sandalwood incense curled lazily.

Noble Consort Shu wore a simple palace robe, knelt on a futon, and turned a string of polished bodhi‑seed prayer beads in her hand.

Although her looks were no longer youthful, the years had left few traces on her face; instead they had deposited a clear‑cold, dignified air that seemed to see through worldly affairs.

"Squeak——"

Yinzheng entered without any attendants, alone.

He did not perform the usual respectful salute; instead he walked straight to Noble Consort Shu's back and gazed intently at the compassionate Buddha statue.

"Mother Consort, it's late—are you still praying for Father Emperor's blessings?"

Yinzheng's voice echoed in the empty Buddha hall, betraying a barely concealed excitement.

Noble Consort Shu's hand paused slightly on the prayer beads; she did not turn, her voice cold as water:

"The emperor's dragon body is ailing; as his consort I ought to chant sutras day and night, begging the Buddha to safeguard the Great Yin's realm. Yinzheng, you entered the palace at midnight—has something else happened at court?"

"A change? No, it's a tremendous joy!"

Yinzheng flung his arms wide, the fervor on his face no longer containable: "Mother Consort! Gu Ziyuan entered the capital and, beneath the Dragon‑Watching Gate, stirred a ten‑thousand‑zhang surge of fortune! Ten‑thousand zhang! Even the founding sages were no more than this! Now all under heaven knows this heaven‑mandated sage belongs to me, Yinzheng! That foolish pig of an Eldest Prince has been scared into shutting his doors!"

"Mother Consort, Father Emperor has little time left. If you now hand over the Blood Droplets' tiger talisman, I can take command of the capital's nine‑gate night watches overnight, and together with Gu Ziyuan's prestige, the Great Yin throne will be as easy as taking something from a bag! By tomorrow morning I will be able to behead the Eldest Prince and make those aristocratic old dogs kneel at my feet in submission!"

Yinzheng grew more excited as he spoke, even stepping forward a pace and fixing his gaze stubbornly on Noble Consort Shu's back.

"Mother Consort, you have endured all these years, suffering the contempt of those aristocratic upstarts; now is the time for us mother and son to turn our fortunes around!"

However, faced with her son's bombastic rhetoric, Noble Consort Shu slowly rose to her feet.

Noble Consort Shu did not turn around.

"Do you think you have Gu Ziyuan under your control?"

Yinzheng blinked, then replied bluntly:

"He is nothing but a poor‑born scholar; even with extraordinary talent, in this capital's game, without my patronage the aristocracy would have devoured him alive. He now can only rely on me."

"Foolish."

Noble Consort Shu spat out two words, her tone devoid of disappointment, only icy.

"That ten‑thousand‑zhang golden dragon outside Zhengyang Gate—I saw it crystal clear from Eternal Harmony Palace. It is not the Great Yin's fortune shielding him; it is the Great Yin's fortune wagging its tail and begging for mercy from him."

Noble Consort Shu rose, walked up to Yinzheng, and looked down at him from above.

"You think you hold a blade, but you don't realize it has no hilt; you don't even know his origins or who stands behind him, yet you dare to stake your life and fortune on him. You're playing with fire and burning yourself."

Yinzheng's face twitched slightly, but was quickly replaced by unwillingness.

The gray‑black energy within him stirred faintly, making his temper extremely volatile.

"Mother Consort! What's the use of saying this now? The arrow is on the bow; we have no choice but to release! If I get the tiger talisman, I, your subject, can……"

"I won't give it to you." Noble Consort Shu cut him off without mercy.

Yinzheng jerked his head up, his eyes brimming with malice: "Why?! I am your own son! Do you really want to watch my elder brother ascend the throne while you let them throw mother and son into the heavenly prison?!"

"Because I don't want to die with you. Go away, and don't come back to Tranquil Splendor Palace."

Noble Consort Shu turned, knelt again before the Buddha statue, her back resolute.

Yinzheng stared fixedly at his mother's back, his chest heaving violently.

His hands hung at his sides, clenched until the joints cracked; a wisp of extremely faint gray‑black mist coiled around his fingertips.

For a moment he even entertained the thought of killing his mother to seize the talisman.

But finally, reason suppressed madness.

「Good. Since the Mother Consort insists thus, your humble son also does not insist. 」

「Yinzhen rose to his feet, his voice cold as ice, Your humble son will prove to you that in this world, your humble son can also take it down. 」

He turned and strode out of Yonghe Palace, disappearing into the night of the deep palace.

Since his birth mother refused to lend aid, he could only have his master reduce a portion of his power.

As for Gu Ziyuan……

Yinzhen snorted coldly in the bitter wind.

「The Mother Consort is nothing but a woman who observes proper female virtues; she's grown old, and her courage has also shrunk. 」

「She simply doesn't understand; to deal with Gu Ziyuan, this sort of self‑important poor scholar, as long as I continue to put on the airs of respecting the virtuous and humble, eager for talent as if thirsty, lifting him high onto the altar, giving him plenty of vanity and power, he will surely be grateful and devoted to me, wholeheartedly becoming my sharpest blade. 」

「Wait for him to wipe out the aristocratic families for me, chop off his older brother's head, help me attain the supreme position…… If this born sage is willing to be an obedient dog, that's fine; if he doesn't know what's good for him, truly thinking he can climb onto this prince's head, this prince has plenty of means to make him never to recover. 」 「But for now it's not the time; this prince must still make good use of him, and also those behind him…… the Cui Clan's aristocratic gate. »

However, this Second Prince, who imagined himself playing the world in the palm of his hand, failed to notice that, deep in the boundless void above his head, a pair of indifferent eyes were silently observing all of this.