Chapter 89: The Free and Easy Young Marquis (22)
Xiao Jinli’s face froze for a moment before he let out a mocking sneer. “Regret? Regret is useless now. Today, I will make you watch as I step over Huo Xian’s corpse and— ascend— the— throne.” As he spoke, he began to walk down the steps from the throne, one pace at a time.
“Stop, do not hurt…” Emperor Haoyuan reached out to stop him, but he had been truly ill since the day the Noble Consort committed suicide. After days of rest, his health hadn’t improved; instead, it had worsened. The last bit of strength in his body had long been drained. His attempt to stop him was powerless.
Huo Xian looked at the person approaching him with a sword. His face was tense, but he spoke up. “You are not the Noble Consort’s biological son. Even if you kill me, your ascension to the throne will be neither legitimate nor justified.”
“Neither legitimate nor justified?” Xiao Jinli acted as if he had heard something hilarious. After a few laughs, his expression snapped shut. “I want to be the Emperor. What do I care for names? What do I care for justifications? I don’t need them. Whoever dares to speak a single word, I shall cut off the heads of their entire family.”
Huo Xian’s gaze narrowed. “Aren’t you afraid that such brutality will lead to chaos in the world?”
“Chaos! Chaos is good! Without the foundation of blood, where would this so-called ‘peace under heaven’ come from?” Xiao Jinli’s face was distorted, his expression manic.
“Madman,” Huo Xian spat out two words.
In response to Huo Xian’s evaluation, Xiao Jinli answered with a sword strike.
Xiao Jinli didn’t intend to kill him with this strike. Thus, the sword carved a gash across Huo Xian’s shoulder, leaving a faint trail of blood.
“Stop—” Emperor Haoyuan shouted with all his might. In his agitation, he fell off the Dragon Throne.
Xiao Jinli turned back, looking at the powerless, raging Emperor with cold eyes. The mockery on his face deepened. He spoke, “Keep your eyes wide open. Watch how I drain Huo Xian’s blood, watch how he dies a miserable death, unable to do anything…” The rest of his words vanished abruptly. He spun his head around. What met his eyes was first the loosened ropes on Huo Xian’s body, and then Huo Xian’s hand, which had already gripped his wrist.
“Yang Jindong!” Xiao Jinli’s reaction was fast enough. He knew his martial arts weren’t as good as Huo Xian’s, and once Huo Xian caught an opportunity, their positions would be reversed. Therefore, while calling out to Yang Jindong for help, he lunged toward Princess Jin’an. He knew full well that to kill a snake, you must strike its heart—the Princess was Huo Xian’s weakness.
One could say that for him to think of a way to suppress his enemy in such a short time meant Xiao Jinli was incredibly calculating.
If “Yang Jindong” was still Yang Jindong, and the “Capital Guards” guarding the Princess were still Capital Guards, that is.
There was no coordination. Things didn’t go in the predicted direction. By the time Xiao Jinli realized something was wrong and tried to pull back, he had already lost the initiative.
Huo Yuan, who had been using Huo Xian’s body to hide half of his own, and Ning Chen, the fake guard beside the Princess, struck at the same time. While Ning Chen twisted Xiao Jinli’s wrist behind his back, Huo Yuan landed a solid blow with his staff. A clear sound of bone snapping echoed through the hall.
Huo Xian: […]
He had wanted to act cool by twisting Xiao Jinli’s sword and holding it back against his own throat. As for now? Xiao Jinli couldn’t even hold the sword anymore. Well, it didn’t hinder him from capturing the ringleader.
The situation reversed in an instant. A single misstep led to a total loss.
Villains die because they talk too much. This remains an eternal truth regardless of the era.
Xiao Jinli’s face was ashen. His gaze was fixed on “Yang Jindong.” He hadn’t noticed before, but now that he looked again, he realized that although the “Yang Jindong” before him was ninety percent similar to the real one, there were still slight differences in the contours of his facial features. It wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny.
This wasn’t Yang Jindong. This was—Huo Siyuan!
“Even if your sword is pointed at me, so what? The Capital Guards take orders from me now. Today, even if I die, I will wash the Hall of Supreme Harmony in blood and make you all be buried with me! Hahahahaha!” Xiao Jinli was acting like a total lunatic.
“Yang Jindong is at your feet. Do you really think that without him, the Capital Guards would follow you in a rebellion? Are they tired of having their heads on their shoulders? Do they want their entire clans executed?” Huo Xian kicked the unconscious, mangled Yang Jindong over.
However, even though Xiao Jinli saw Yang Jindong, he remained manic. He seemed to have fallen into a world of his own, a world where he could do as he pleased. In common terms—he was having a psychotic break.
[Huo Xian, something is wrong with him.] Huo Yuan also noticed the abnormality.
[Yeah.]
A grand coup fell silent and came to an end without a sound.
Ning Chen’s father, the Duke of Wei, had left the city overnight to summon the garrison. The Capital Guards surrendered their weapons when they were sandwiched between the garrison and the Imperial Guards. If you said they were innocent, they were quite innocent. Yang Jindong’s order to them was to capture the rebels and rescue the Emperor. The Huo family and the captured ministers were supposedly the rebel faction.
To go from being rescuers to being traitors… every one of the Capital Guards broke down on the spot.
Amidst this massive upheaval in the palace, while Emperor Haoyuan fell into a coma again and the Empress had been killed, leaving no one to manage the situation, the Fourth Prince, Xiao Jinchi—whose presence had always been limited to “the blind Fourth Prince”—actually stepped forward to take charge. He didn’t need eyes to see; he only needed to give verbal instructions. Although everyone was still a bit distrustful of this Fourth Prince, his orderly arrangements gradually brought the palace back to normal, earning him some slivers of confidence from the officials.
Huo Xian gave the poised Xiao Jinchi a long look, arranged for people to send the Princess back to her manor, and then left with Huo Yuan.
[Huo Xian, Xiao Jinchi is ‘watching’ us.] Ever since entering the palace, Huo Yuan had been paying attention to the Fourth Prince, who had also been brought to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. He wasn’t a real human and wasn’t affected by human sight lines. Of course, “watching” someone with the back of his head cost points.
Huo Xian pondered for a moment and said: [Yuanyuan, let’s go see Xiao Jinli. Do you have professional psychiatric testing materials in your database?]
[Huo Xian, do you suspect Xiao Jinli has a mental illness?] Huo Yuan understood his meaning immediately. [I have the materials. I can learn them right now.]
[Xiao Jinli has one face in public and another in private. Long-term switching between two states will cause some mental issues,] Huo Xian said slowly. [If he already had a mental illness and was then stimulated or manipulated, the condition would worsen.]
Since coming to this world, Huo Xian hadn’t had much contact with Xiao Jinli. However, since Xiao Jinli was a transmigrator (or reborn), he shouldn’t have been so reckless. From how he initially tried to use Wang Yunshi to ruin Huo Xian’s reputation and was able to pull back quickly and frame Prince Ji when it failed, his mind should have been clear. Yet, this coup was reckless from beginning to end, with poor planning. It was as if he was worried he wouldn’t die fast enough and intentionally threw his neck onto the blade.
Before seeing Xiao Jinli, Huo Xian ran into another person—Tu Nan, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.
Back then, Huo Xian had protected the crime scene immediately, which prevented Xiao Jinli from having enough time to dispose of the evidence. Although a suicide note from Wang Yunshi was later forged, the evidence that should have been erased was almost entirely gone. Tu Nan had no way to investigate further and could only mark the case file with a “Suspicious.” Similarly, because he hadn’t found more clues, he hadn’t become a target for Xiao Jinli to silence.
Huo Xian greeted him politely. He returned the salute, looking hesitant as if he had something to say.
“Master Tu?” Huo Xian called out in confusion.
Despite being young, a deep furrow had already formed between Tu Nan’s brows from long-term frowning. He pondered for a good while before saying, “Young Marquis, could we step aside for a moment?”
Huo Xian was slightly surprised. Could it be that Tu Nan had continued investigating Wang Yunshi’s case in private and found some clues?
Despite his doubts, he still walked to a less crowded area with Tu Nan. Tu Nan glanced at Huo Yuan, who was following Huo Xian step-by-step, and hesitated.
Huo Xian read his meaning and smiled. “He can be trusted. Master Tu, please speak freely.”
Tu Nan glanced at Huo Yuan again. He was too embarrassed to ask if this was the other protagonist of the imperial marriage decree that had caused a storm in the city recently. Whether Huo Xian really had a “Dragon-Sun preference” and wanted to marry a male wife had nothing to do with him.
“After Yang Jindong, the Commander of the Capital Guards, woke up, he kept repeating a single sentence,” Tu Nan said.
It was Yang Jindong?
“What sentence?” Huo Xian asked.
Tu Nan looked around again to ensure there wasn’t a soul in sight. He stiffened his posture and whispered in an extremely low voice, “He said…”
The voice was like a mosquito’s buzz, but Huo Xian heard it clearly.
“Did he really say that?” Huo Xian frowned.
Tu Nan nodded. “I wasn’t the only one who heard it.”
Huo Xian was silent for a moment. Tu Nan didn’t ask too many questions either. The two of them bid each other farewell.
After he left, Huo Yuan said, “Yang Jindong said he is Xiao Jinli’s biological father and the future Retired Emperor. Combined with what Emperor Haoyuan said about giving the baby to the Noble Consort… it seems understandable why Yang Jindong was willing to rebel.”
Huo Xian shook his head. Meeting Huo Yuan’s confused gaze, he said, “It’s illogical.”
“What’s illogical about it?” Huo Yuan asked.
“Yang Jindong was deeply in love with his wife. He never remarried after her early death. His inner court only has one concubine, his daughter left by his wife, and a son by the concubine. The Yang family has a clean reputation. Where would he get a son to give to Emperor Haoyuan?” Based on the relationship between Marquis Huo and Yang Jindong, Huo Xian knew quite a bit about the Yang family.
“Then… is it possible his wife actually gave birth to twins back then?” Huo Yuan’s imagination ran wild.
Huo Xian found it funny and pinched his cheek. “His daughter is only ten years old. His son is even younger, only six.”
“Then…” Huo Yuan wanted to guess again.
Huo Xian cut him off. “We’ll know the details after we see Xiao Jinli.”
By the time they reached the cell where Xiao Jinli was held, Xiao Jinli had already woken up from his manic state in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. His face was incredibly gloomy, and his entire being was shrouded in an aura of malice.
[Wow, the bad luck on him is so heavy,] Huo Yuan said in surprise.
[Bad luck? Not luck?] According to his understanding, anyone chosen by a mechanical lifeform should be blessed with great luck, because the mechanical lifeform needs to rely on luck to survive.
[It’s strange. The mechanical lifeform on him is gone. It was clearly there when we were in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.] Huo Yuan also knitted his brows.
Something flashed through Huo Xian’s mind, but it was too fast for him to catch. He only asked: [Would a mechanical lifeform actively leaving a host’s body have an impact on the host?] He remembered Huo Yuan saying that forcefully stripping a mechanical lifeform would cause the host to die or become an idiot.
[If a mechanical lifeform has enough energy, it can actively leave the host. The drawback is probably taking all the host’s luck with it?] Huo Yuan hadn’t encountered this situation before either, but he felt the guess was reasonable. Otherwise, Xiao Jinli wouldn’t be covered in bad luck in such a short time.
“What are you doing here?” A sinister, eerie tone interrupted their mental exchange.
Huo Xian lowered his gaze, meeting the bloodshot, poisonous eyes of Xiao Jinli in the cell.
The two stared at each other in silence. Huo Xian looked down from above. Although Xiao Jinli was looking up, his momentum didn’t falter.
“Get lost!” In the end, it was Xiao Jinli who lost. He loathed seeing Huo Xian’s face; he wanted to personally snap every one of Huo Xian’s bones.
Huo Xian suddenly laughed, his laughter filled with mockery.
Xiao Jinli was triggered in a second. His eyes flew wide, and his face turned hideous as he scrambled up and lunged toward him. “I’ll kill you!!!”
However, this “luxurious” cell was made of refined iron. The distance between the bars was only a palm’s width. Now that one of his hands was broken, Xiao Jinli couldn’t even try to pull them apart.
Huo Xian stood less than ten centimeters from his hand. Looking at that hand that clearly could have reached his throat if it could just go a little further, his smile grew more brilliant, and his provocation became even more intense.
Huo Yuan thought to himself: He’s here, he’s here! My boyfriend is coming online with his villain buff to scare people!
Huo-Villain-Xian slowly raised his hand. Before Xiao Jinli could react, he grabbed his arm with lightning speed and struck his elbow with his palm.
CRACK—
“AAAAARGH—”
The sound of the bone breaking and the scream echoed at the same time. When Huo Xian let go, Xiao Jinli’s entire arm had been completely divided into two sections, with only a layer of skin and flesh connecting them.
Huo Yuan: [Shocked-until-hair-stands-on-end.jpg]
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