Chapter 361: Another Person

Deep within the palace, Jinghua Palace.

"Bang!"

Two massive vermilion lacquer doors were violently slammed open by a burst of great force, splintering wood everywhere.

Yin Zhen, drenched in blood and with his hair in disarray, fell into the courtyard.

His nine‑dragon robe had already been torn into strips, and gray‑black mist leaked uncontrollably from his body, making him look like a demon crawling out of hell.

"Mother Consort! Mother Consort, save me!"

Yin Zhen scrambled and crawled his way into the Buddha Hall.

Inside the hall, sandalwood incense still rose in gentle curls.

Before the compassionate white‑marble Guanyin statue, Shu Guifei, dressed in a plain azure palace robe, faced away from the door and knelt silently on a prayer mat.

In her hand, a string of bodhi beads clicked rhythmically, producing a crisp clatter, as if the cataclysm outside had nothing to do with her.

"Mother Consort!"

Yin Zhen crashed to his knees behind Shu Guifei, clutching the hem of her palace robe with both hands, his voice hoarse and desperate,

"Your son has failed, that bastard Gu Ziyuan deceived everyone; he not only ruined my coronation ceremony but also released that useless elder brother! Now the entire court has turned against me! I have nowhere to go!"

"Mother Consort, I know I was wrong, I should not have ignored your counsel. Please, for the sake of mother and son, give me the Blood Droplet's military token! If the Blood Droplet can block Gu Ziyuan for the time it takes a single incense stick to burn, I can open the altar, summon the Master, and then they will die!"

Yet faced with her own son's desperate plea, Shu Guifei's hand never paused in moving the beads.

The wooden fish clanged repeatedly as the beads turned.

Throughout the hall, only Yin Zhen's heavy breathing and his desperate, tear‑stained cries could be heard.

After more than a dozen breaths, Shu Guifei's voice finally drifted through the empty hall: "Are you saying... the Crown Prince won?"

Yin Zhen shivered all over.

He had imagined countless possibilities—Mother Empress might refuse, might agree, might rebuke Gu Ziyuan—but he never considered that she would be indifferent to all of it.

She only cared that the Crown Prince would be the ultimate victor!

"Mother Consort, why!" Yin Zhen roared.

Yet Shu Guifei still gave no answer.

"When a person errs, they must pay the price. Return, Blood Droplet; last night you all swore allegiance to Lord Gu."

Those words hit him like a blunt club, leaving Yin Zhen stunned.

"What?! Why! Didn't you say you would keep it yourself!" Yin Zhen stared in disbelief.

"Because I sent them to pledge loyalty to Lord Gu."

Shu Guifei's voice remained calm, without a ripple,

"A good bird chooses a suitable tree. Following you, the doomed treacherous minister, leads only to death."

Yin Zhen was dumbfounded.

He stared blankly at Shu Guifei's back, as if seeing her for the first time.

"Mother Consort... what are you saying? I am your son! I am the flesh you bore in the tenth month!"

A surge of uncontrollable anger and sorrow rose in Yin Zhen's eyes,

"Even a tiger's poison won't eat its cub! Will you just watch me die with open eyes?! Is your heart made of stone?!"

"Thud—"

The wooden‑fish clatter abruptly stopped.

Shu Guifei slowly set down the wooden mallet in her hand. She rose, turned, and looked down from her height at the kneeling, blood‑splattered Yin Zhen.

When Yin Zhen saw Shu Guifei's gaze, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cavern, his blood seemingly freezing at that moment.

What kind of eyes were those!

No kindness, no pity—only deep disgust, unabashed sarcasm, and even a hint of relieved delight!

"You..."

Yin Zhen opened his mouth, voice trembling, "Why do you look at me with that gaze... I am your son..."

"Son?" Shu Guifei sneered coldly, her laugh echoing endless sorrow and mockery, "Do you deserve it? You filthy monster, dare you call me mother?"

"You speak nonsense! I am of the Emperor's blood! I am the prince of Da Yin!"

Yin Zhen's most sensitive nerve was struck, and he roared like a hair‑raising beast.

"No, you are not."

A cool, mocking voice suddenly came from outside the hall.

Yin Zhen whirled around to see Gu Yuan with his hands behind his back, strolling leisurely across the hall's threshold.

Crown Prince Yin Ti followed closely behind, his gaze at Yin Zhen filled with the pleasure of avenging a great hatred.

"Gu Ziyuan, I will kill you!"

Seeing Gu Yuan, Yin Zhen's reason shattered completely.

He roared, the lingering Destruction Source power surged wildly, and the tentacles behind him, like long spears, thrust straight at Gu Yuan's brow.

Yet Gu Yuan didn't even flick a finger.

"Kneel."

Gu Yuan simply whispered two words.

Words become law!

"Boom!"

A terrifying, unstoppable Law Power surged like a hundred thousand mountains, pressing down on Yin Zhen without warning.

"Crack! Crack!"

Yin Zhen's knee bones shattered instantly; the terrifying gravity pinned his whole body to the slate floor, limbs sprawled, unable to move a single finger.

Gu Yuan walked up to Yin Zhen, looking down on him from a lofty height, as if he were looking at a low‑quality defective item.

"Second Prince, you keep claiming that you are of the Great Yin royal bloodline, and you keep questioning why your mother consort disgusts you."

Gu Yuan's mouth curled into a meaning‑laden smile; his gaze passed over Yin Zhen and fell upon the Noble Consort, who had closed her eyes and whose body trembled slightly.

"How about I, the young master, answer this doubt for you."

Gu Yuan's divine consciousness, comparable to an Immortal King‑level, combined with the high‑dimensional perspective of the Ten‑Thousand‑Way Time Lamp, had, as early as his first day entering the capital, already seen through the Great Yin royal family's rotten accounts, along with the karmic threads hidden in the long river of time, in great detail.

"More than twenty years ago, in the Great Yin harem, a mysterious visitor silently evaded all the imperial guards and formations, and slipped into the bedroom of the Noble Consort, who at the time was still an unloved noblewoman."

Gu Yuan's voice was even, as if he were recounting a story.