Part 2
Ichi’s expression changed. “Marshal, you’re going to the palace?”
Zong Hao hummed in affirmation. “Cultivating such a team is absolutely not easy, nor can an ordinary person achieve it. The energy crystals alone are no small expense. I need to enter the palace to ask the Crown Prince.”
Ichi breathed a sigh of relief, having almost forgotten that the Crown Prince and his Marshal were friends.
He hesitated, then asked worriedly, “But what if… it’s the one above? What then?”
Zong Hao didn’t speak. The past few months had overturned decades of his understanding overnight.
He wasn’t even sure anymore if what he had seen and heard in the past was real.
Or perhaps, he had only been shown what they wanted him to see, and he had never touched the truth?
Ning Yunyi went straight to sleep upon returning to the castle.
Zong Hao held a token that allowed him entry to the palace at any time. Since he was only seeing the Crown Prince, by the time he walked toward the palace, the Crown Prince had already been informed.
When Zong Hao arrived outside the hall, the Crown Prince was wheeled out, draped in a robe. His eyes still held the weariness of sleep as he forced himself to be alert. “Ah-Hao, why did you come to the palace so suddenly? Is there a problem with your health?”
Zong Hao met the Crown Prince’s concerned gaze and glanced at the surrounding servants.
The Crown Prince immediately waved his hand to dismiss them.
Only then did Zong Hao recount the events of the night, using the official cover story: “Because General Ning was framed while executing a classified mission for me, I asked Ichi to keep an eye on the Ning family’s situation as compensation. Earlier, I heard Mrs. Ning had an accident. I intended to visit the Ning home to see if I could help, but I discovered someone following Mr. White. I followed them, and who knew…”
The Crown Prince’s face changed drastically after listening. “You say there were two 3S-ranks, and the rest were Double-S? That’s impossible. The reports for the entire Capital Star don’t show that many, and most are already serving in the military.”
Zong Hao nodded. “I had Ichi check, and he just sent the results. All 3S-level mental power users are on duty; no one is missing.”
So, these people were not from the military, yet they still claimed to be official.
The Crown Prince looked grave. He hesitated for a while before finally lowering his eyes. “I’ve been recovering in the palace these past days, so I don’t know much about what’s happening outside. But since you suddenly mentioned these things, I recall something that might be related.”
The Crown Prince looked serious, seemingly debating whether to speak.
Ultimately, because Zong Hao was his friend and he trusted him, he thought for a moment, then suddenly pulled up his robe, revealing the injury on his calf.
Zong Hao frowned as he followed the movement. At first glance, his brows knitted tight. “Your Highness said publicly this was a fall from a horse, but this looks more like a mark left by a mental attack.”
When subjected to a high-level mental attack, if severe, it would leave marks resembling flame patterns after treatment.
What appeared before his eyes on the Crown Prince’s leg was a patch of mottled fire-cloud patterns.
The Crown Prince said, “It was indeed left after an attack. Not just me—Mrs. Ning, Father Emperor, and Mother Empress were all affected.”
Zong Hao looked up. “What?” Is that how Mrs. Ning got injured?
Since he had started, the Crown Prince didn’t hide it anymore. “Months ago, on the anniversary of the late Emperor’s death, which happened to be the same day as Royal Uncle’s death anniversary, Mrs. Ning was staying in the palace temporarily due to Ning Zhanfeng’s situation. She attended the rehearsal for the sacrificial ceremony a day early. Since it was the first night, not many people were allowed to go to the altar. Those present were Father Emperor, Mother Empress, myself, Mrs. Ning, and Father’s personal guard.”
Zong Hao didn’t speak, sensing what the Crown Prince was about to say.
The Crown Prince looked down at his leg. Although his injury wasn’t as severe, it would take nearly a year to recover, and the scar would remain forever.
“Who knew that during such a secretive palace ritual, someone had buried a controlled mental attack in a special container on the altar? I have never seen such a violent and powerful mental blast. The moment Father Emperor stepped up, it exploded. Mother Empress and Mrs. Ning have no spiritual power, so… their condition was severe. Because Father Emperor was closest to the center, he suffered the most. To this day… he has not woken up.”
Zong Hao lowered his eyes in silence, evidently not expecting this outcome.
When the news of Mrs. Ning’s accident came, his first thought had been the same as Ning Yunyi’s: the only person capable of doing this and hiding it so deeply was His Majesty.
But His Majesty has actually been in a coma for months?
“Did Your Highness suppress the news? Do you know who did it?” Zong Hao asked the most critical question. To tamper with the palace altar, it had to be someone from within the palace.
And someone with significant power to do it quietly.
The Crown Prince held his forehead, his expression unreadable. Finally, he sighed. “I fear it has something to do with the Second Prince.”
Zong Hao, who spent years abroad and cared little for palace affairs, knew very little about this nearly invisible Second Prince—even less than he knew about the Third Prince. “Why would he do this?”
His Majesty was his father, the Empress his mother. Was he committing patricide and matricide?
The Crown Prince pressed his lips together tightly, his expression grim. To lay bare such palace secrets to his childhood friend was truly difficult.
But he had no backbone left to rely on. Despite months of effort, his father hadn’t woken up. He could barely keep it hidden any longer, so he revealed everything. “Actually… the Second Prince was not born of the Empress. He is the son of a noblewoman Father met before he met Mother. He is actually older than I am.”
This explosive secret left Zong Hao stunned into silence.
The Crown Prince gave a bitter laugh. “At that time, the late Emperor had already selected a prominent noble family for Father to marry into. Father refused. In her anger, the noblewoman broke up with Father and left without saying goodbye.”
“Ironically, a year later, after Father had given up searching and met my Mother… this time, Father resolutely rebelled against the late Emperor. In the end, as the rumors say, he went through great lengths to marry Mother.”
“A year after their wedding, I was born. It was exactly at this time that the woman’s brother came with a three-year-old child, claiming it was born of that woman and belonged to Father. The woman had remarried, and because of internal family strife, the child hadn’t been raised well, so they decided to send him over. Later verification confirmed he was indeed Father’s blood.”
“Mother was of commoner origin and had no support. If this news had leaked, the late Emperor would surely have found a way to break up a marriage he was already dissatisfied with. Plus, Father hadn’t ascended the throne yet. After reaching an agreement with the brother, who was the head of that family, they concealed the child temporarily.”
“Later, Mother feigned pregnancy and, ten months later, ‘gave birth’ to a prince—the Second Prince.”
“Externally, they claimed the prince had a difficult birth and was weak, so he wasn’t seen for the first few years. He only began appearing in public years later. And this child was the flesh and blood of that noblewoman.”
Zong Hao felt a bit dizzy listening to this. He thought the Zong family was complicated enough—aside from him, the true bloodline, everyone else was fake.
He didn’t expect the palace to be the same.
“The Second Prince found out about his origins and became resentful? But that shouldn’t be enough to make him act so ruthlessly,” Zong Hao still didn’t understand.
The Crown Prince shook his head. “Just that wouldn’t be enough. But at some point, the Second Prince learned of his origins—or was deceived. He thinks my Mother’s existence caused Father to abandon his birth mother, leading to her dying in difficult childbirth. I only learned later that the family head back then didn’t tell the truth. The noblewoman didn’t remarry; she heard Father had married another and died of a difficult birth due to excessive grief. He has always believed Father failed his birth mother, leading to the tragedy.”
“Because of this guilt, Father has tried to satisfy all the Second Prince’s requests over the years, even though he rarely shows his face.”
“But I never imagined he would be so cruel to Father and Mother, and that he had secretly trained such a powerful squad of death soldiers.”
Zong Hao frowned. “Where is the Second Prince right now?”
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thanks for the chapter!