Chapter 363: The Late Emperor... Not Dead

However, at the instant when the sharp blade was less than half an inch from Yin Zhen's neck, and the sword wind had already sliced his skin—

Buzz—

A faint sword sound rang out, stopping him.

The Crown Prince froze, his eyes widening as he looked up at Gu Yuan standing nearby.

"Holy... Holy Master?"

A hint of confusion and urgency tinged the Crown Prince's voice,

"These traitors commit countless evils; they deserve death! Why do you block me? Do you intend to keep this scourge alive?"

Even the ever‑watchful Consort Shu could not help but furrow her brows.

She could not understand why, after Gu Yuan had exposed Yin Zhen's lineage and cast the spawn into an irredeemable abyss, he would still spare his life at the final moment.

Gu Yuan stood with his hands behind his back, his violet‑gold first‑rank official robe fluttering gently in the breeze.

Not a ripple of emotion crossed his handsome, flawless face at the sight of Yin Zhen's plight.

His deep eyes did not glance at the fallen Yin Zhen; instead they passed over the layered red walls of Jinghua Palace and fixed straight on the deepest part of the imperial palace, the year‑round ice‑covered forbidden zone—the Xuanbing Secret Chamber that housed the Late Emperor's remains.

A faint, mocking smile curled at the corner of Gu Yuan's mouth.

"Don't rush to kill."

Gu Yuan's voice was soft, yet it carried a strange authority that instantly calmed the restless aura in the Buddha hall.

He brushed away nonexistent dust from his sleeve cuff, his tone even.

"Your drama has indeed concluded. Whether you're the Crown Prince seething with vengeful fury, the second prince lying here, rebounding, or the Consort who has endured over twenty years... your parts are all finished."

Gu Yuan paused briefly, the mockery in his eyes deepening.

"But the biggest yellow sparrow of the Great Yin Divine Dynasty hasn't appeared yet."

"Yellow sparrow?"

The Crown Prince and Consort Shu both froze, a hint of bewilderment flashing in their eyes.

Yin Zhen had been utterly stripped of power, the aristocratic houses cleansed spotless; the Crown Prince clutched the true posthumous edict, backed by three ministers and this unfathomable Holy Master. In the Great Yin realm, who else could be the yellow sparrow?

Who else dares to be the yellow sparrow?

"Holy Master..."

Crown Prince Yin Ti's voice was hoarse; he glanced cautiously at Gu Yuan, trying to read something from his placid, well‑like face,

"What... what do you mean? Could there still be Yin Zhen's lingering evil hidden within the capital?"

"The mantis catches the cicada, the yellow sparrow follows."

Gu Yuan's tone remained even, as if stating a fact unrelated to himself,

"You think yourselves mantises, believing you've plotted everything, yet you never realized that from the start you were merely cicadas targeted by the yellow sparrow."

"What... do you mean?"

Consort Shu's voice trembled uncontrollably.

The exhilaration of avenging her great hatred was being replaced by a deeper, more overwhelming dread.

She vaguely sensed that she had overlooked something.

A crucial link that everyone had ignored.

Gu Yuan did not answer directly; instead he posed a seemingly unrelated question.

"Your Highness, aren't you curious? Your father, the wise and mighty emperor who has ruled the Great Yin for centuries—could he truly be ignorant of harem affairs? Could he truly allow an impure‑blood spawn to grow right under his nose, even threatening your crown prince's position?"

"He..."

The Crown Prince opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for a rebuttal.

Indeed, the emperor was such a figure, his eyes seemed able to pierce the heart.

Although the demonic aura on Yin Zhen was subtle, it could not remain entirely concealed as his cultivation advanced.

How could the emperor remain completely unaware?

"Consort Shu, aren't you also curious?"

Gu Yuan turned his gaze toward Consort Shu again,

"You hate Yin Zhen to the bone, praying day and night that he meets a bad end, yet why did Your Majesty the emperor give you the blood‑droplet that can monitor, even counterbalance Yin Zhen? Isn't he afraid that a moment of impulse from you might prematurely detonate this spawn and ruin his own realm?"

Consort Shu's body jolted.

She had always believed it was the emperor's trust, allowing her to personally watch her own enemy.

But Gu Yuan's words now exposed the flaw.

She suddenly realized something was amiss.

"What... what does he actually intend?" Consort Shu's voice carried a thread of desperate sobbing.

Gu Yuan smiled.

At that moment, the smile was exceedingly cold and cruel.

"What he wants to do is simple."

"He wants you to fight."

"He wants you brothers to slay each other, you mother and son to turn against one another, the aristocratic houses behind you and the imperial power to clash fiercely, the more brutal the battle, the more deaths, the better."

"Because, in his eyes, whether prince or aristocratic house, loyalist or rebel, they each have only one purpose..."

Gu Yuan's voice paused slightly, "a sacrifice."

The moment his words fell, a sudden anomaly surged!

Boom—!

An unprecedented, earth‑shaking, terrifying roar thundered from the direction of the Xuanbing Secret Chamber deep within the palace!

The royal forbidden zone, forged from millennia‑old Xuanbing and etched with countless sage formation sigils, exploded with a deafening blast at that instant.

Countless huge mysterious ice shards shot up into the sky, exploding above the capital city, turning into an ice-crystal blizzard that covered the entire imperial city.

Immediately after, a terrifying aura far surpassing that of all past emperors of the Great Yin, and even stepping into the legendary realm of a 'sage', swept over the entire capital city in an instant!

Under this aura, space froze, and the laws wailed in sorrow.

Inside and outside the capital city, countless mortals, officials, and cultivators who were busy preparing for the new emperor's enthronement were, at this moment, crushed to the ground by the vast, matchless imperial dragon aura, unable to move, their souls trembling.

On the Taihe Hall Square, those officials who had just barely survived the demonic might of Yin Zhen could not even utter a groan, their eyes rolling back, foaming at the mouth, collapsing on the spot.

Only Gu Yuan, and the few people he protected behind him, could barely stand.

The Eldest Prince and Noble Consort Shu raised their heads in shock, looking toward the direction from which the aura came.

Only see, in the air above the exploded mysterious ice ruins, a towering figure clad in a bright yellow nine-dragon robe, stepping through the void, walking step by step toward Jinghua Palace.

His complexion was ruddy, his eyes like lightning, and his body was surrounded by nine substantive dragons formed from the purest purple auric dragon energy.

With each step he took, a ring of purple-gold ripples appeared beneath his feet in the void, and the capital city's fortune cheered for him, submitting to him.

Such vigorous vitality, such an aura of ruling the world—how could there be even a trace of a dying person's appearance?!

"Father... Father Emperor?!"

The Eldest Prince looked at that familiar yet strange face, his legs went weak, and he collapsed straight to the ground, the true last edict in his hand falling with a 'pap' into the pool of blood.

The man who should have been angrily killed to death by Yin Zhen three days ago in the Yangxin Hall.

The man who should have lain quietly in the mysterious ice secret chamber, awaiting burial as the former emperor.

He's alive!