Chapter 382

"Regret what?"

Zheng Qi looked at the ground and said with a hoarse voice.

"A person lives a lifetime and must have something they cling to. If I could let go of everything, why would I have hidden in the ship's cabin, eating rotten rat meat to escape to the Great Ming, and why would I have survived until now?"

"Wang Hai, Battalion Commander Wang, actually, among the people in that room just now, only you are most similar to me, and only you can understand me, which is why you would talk to me."

"If one day Li Miao died at someone's hands, for the sake of revenge, let alone Nanjing, even if it meant burning the entire world, you wouldn't hesitate, would you?"

Wang Hai did not answer.

After a long while, he said slowly.

"Shall I help you, or will you do it yourself?"

Zheng Qi took a few heavy breaths and walked slowly toward the burning palace.

"No need to trouble yourself."

"The things I could do are already done. In the future, Zheng Yi still has to work with you. If I die at your hands, it will ultimately be a trouble for her."

"Let it end like this... I am tired too."

Stepping over the charred corpses on the ground, Zheng Qi stepped into the burning main hall.

The scorching air rushed into her lungs, and the burning sensation intertwined with the excruciating pain all over her body, slowly gathering her consciousness together.

"Ha—"

She let out a long breath.

Over forty-eight years, she had thought about her own ending many times, and had also pondered what kind of mood she would be in before death—unwillingness? Hatred? Hysteria?

Now she finally had the answer.

Relief.

Forty-eight years ago, Yingzhou attacked Penglai, and everything the young girl had was burned to ashes. She hid under the body of her mother, which was gradually rotting and swelling, watching the flickering firelight not far away.

From that moment on, she had already died.

The firelight reflected in her pupils, and the corners of Zheng Qi's mouth slowly curled up, as if she had seen something.

"Mother... I'm back."

She stumbled, threw herself into the sea of fire, as if the young girl who had been wandering for so long had once again thrown herself into her mother's embrace.

The flames that had been burning fiercely since forty-eight years ago gently embraced her.

The last disciple of Penglai fell into a long sleep in the sea of fire.

————————

"You heard everything she said just now, right?"

Li Miao reached out and grabbed Cun Dong's head, shaking it left and right.

Because Zheng Yi was present, it was inconvenient for him to torture Zheng Qi. But he had no such concerns with Cun Dong. Before he even started questioning, his true energy had already been poured into his body through the Baihui point, following the meridians to stir up unbearable pain.

This was much more brilliant than the "minor paths" Li Miao had taught Cao Hanyan and Gao Anyu. With the circulation of true energy, healing while injuring, the parts that usually needed to be dug out to make flower cuts could now be easily sliced into Wensi tofu, without fear of striking too hard and killing the living captive.

Cun Dong's eyes popped wide open with a snap, and he opened his mouth to wail, but was suppressed by Li Miao's true energy from within his body, unable to move at all.

After a long while, Li Miao stopped his hand.

Cun Dong suddenly collapsed to the ground, his whole body soaked in sweat, yet he still couldn't stop struggling and rolling.

After a cup of tea's time, he finally stopped slowly, gasping for breath.

The officers of the Brave Cavalry Right Guard and the black-clad eunuchs kneeling beside him were already sweating like rain, trembling uncontrollably.

"Now it's the questioning session. You all heard about Yingzhou just now. Now for the first question."

Li Miao asked.

"Besides Zheng Anqi, have you colluded with other Yingzhou people?"

"Or rather, besides Zheng Anqi, have you seen anyone who looks similar to me?"

Cun Dong did not answer.

Instead, another black-clad eunuch spoke up abruptly.

"Yes!"

"Before we set off for Nanjing, someone who looked seven or eight parts similar to you arrived at Shuntian Prefecture, and Liu Jin met him once." Li Miao nodded, showing no surprise.

Liu Jin was not looking for Zheng Anqi from the beginning, but for Yingzhou; the collusion with Zheng Anqi was mostly due to coincidence. And Yingzhou came to the Central Plains in pursuit of Zheng Anqi, so meeting Liu Jin along his trail was also a natural outcome.

He asked: "What did they say, and what did they do?"

Before the black-clad eunuch could speak, Cun Dong on the ground suddenly shouted: "Traitor! Rebel!"

"Aiding the tyrant, clinging to the great rebel, are you worthy of His Majesty! You—"

Xiao Si raised his hand and pressed it on him, and Cun Dong suddenly lost all movement, his whole body stiffened again, and he couldn't stop trembling.

The black-clad eunuch hurriedly spoke.

"We really don't know about this..."

"It's not that I'm deliberately hiding it! After it was decided that we few would come to Nanjing, everything in Shuntian Prefecture was kept away from us! If it weren't for the sudden arrival of that person who looked like you, Liu Jin wouldn't even have let us see him!"

"This person Liu Jin is the confidant of His Majesty... no, the pseudo-emperor. Although young, his aptitude, methods, and ruthlessness are all outstanding. From the very beginning, he considered the possibility that we would fall into your hands, so he wouldn't let us know any useful information!"

Li Miao flicked his fingers in a leisurely manner.

"Oh? You don't know anything... then you're useless, right?"

The black-clad eunuch did not speak, but the officer of the Brave Cavalry Right Guard hurriedly spoke up.

"Useful, useful!"

"I originally didn't want to get involved in this matter, but these eunuchs, in order to gain my trust, showed me a few things—they are right in my bosom! You'll know as soon as you look!"

Cao Hanyan stepped forward, took them out, and presented them to Li Miao.

Li Miao flipped through two pages casually and sneered.

"Heh, I said the Commander was too soft-hearted. If he had listened to me and used a sharp knife to cut through the mess and killed them all, fewer people would have died instead."

"As the saying goes, 'Kindness does not make an official, sentiment does not establish affairs, benevolence does not follow politics.' The old man throws books at people all day, but he doesn't know how to open them and look; he'll suffer sooner or later."

He flipped through a stack.

"The Minister of War's personal letter, the imperial court."

The next stack.

"The Five Military Commissions, the Vice Commander, the army."

The last stack.

"An imperial edict without a seal; the palace wasn't cleaned out thoroughly either."

"These people, Liu Jin, plus Yingzhou—the little bit of power in the Great Ming has all been turned over by you... quite good."

Li Miao waved his hand, and Cao Hanyan put the stack of documents into his bosom and retreated to the side.

"Is there anything else?"

"Those who have opened their mouths, I can give them a quick death, and it won't implicate their families; as for those who haven't spoken... everyone knows who I am, so I won't say much more."

"Oh, you eunuchs, don't think that because you have no ties, you can pretend to be loyal subjects with me. In the Embroidered Uniform Guard prison, there has never been a shortage of eunuchs who opened their mouths to confess, only seeking a quick death."

Li Miao walked slowly to Cun Dong and raised his foot to flip him over.

"Eunuch Cun, what do you say?"

Cun Dong still gritted his teeth, not saying a word.

Li Miao said in surprise.

"This is rare. Are you really a loyal subject?"

"I want to see how loyal you are. Xiao Si, I'll leave it to you."

Xiao Si nodded with a smile, called Gu Feixuan to help her carry Cun Dong, and jumped out the door with her hands behind her back.

A moment later, Gu Feixuan rushed back, covering his mouth with a pale face, and handed a piece of paper filled with words and blood-stained edges to Li Miao.

Li Miao scanned it up and down, and his expression sank.

He stepped out.

"Let's go, back to the capital, time to kill!"

(End of chapter)