Volume 1, Chapter 25: Blood in the Eastern Palace
That trusted aide shuddered all over. He felt a cold killing intent lock firmly onto him, as though his head would be severed from his body the very next moment.
His legs gave way, and he dropped to his knees with a thud. His voice trembling and choked with tears, he stammered, “Your Highness... the men sent to intercept and kill the Eighth Prince on the road to Northern Liang... they... they failed!”
“What?!”
The fury on Ye Tian’s face instantly froze, replaced by utter shock and disbelief.
He seized the aide by the collar and hauled him bodily from the floor. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a maddened tiger.
“They failed? How could they have failed?”
“I personally allocated three thousand silver taels for you to hire a fifth-rank expert from the black market! He is nothing but a cripple. How could there have been any mistake?”
Ye Tian’s voice was hoarse and shrill, filled with incredulity.
Three thousand silver taels!
That was enough to hire a renowned fifth-rank expert to assassinate a useless prince who could barely lift a chicken.
It should have been a massacre without the slightest suspense!
Could it be that the useless Ye Xuan had a hidden expert protecting him?
The thought had barely arisen before Ye Tian crushed it himself.
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
The Emperor had long since lost all hope in him, while the officials of the court regarded him as if he were a plague. He was a disgraced good-for-nothing who had been thrown into the Imperial Prison. Who would be willing to follow him? And who would dare?
“Go investigate this for me!”
Ye Tian flung the aide violently to the floor. His chest heaved, and a crazed light flickered in his eyes.
“Find out immediately! I want to know exactly where things went wrong! Did the assassin organization take the money and fail to do the job, or is there some other explanation? If you cannot get to the bottom of this, do not come back!”
“Yes! Yes! Your subordinate obeys!”
As if pardoned from death, the aide scrambled out of the room on hands and knees, as though demons were chasing him.
Ye Tian panted heavily and kicked over the sandalwood table beside him.
The fine wine, delicacies, golden cups, and jade vessels atop it crashed noisily to the floor.
He returned to the room, but the sensual atmosphere that had filled it was completely gone.
The beautiful concubine cautiously approached him and spoke in a soft, fragrant breath, “Your Highness, please calm down...”
“Get out!”
Ye Tian’s eyes were icy, and the two words he uttered held not the slightest trace of emotion.
The concubine’s lovely face went pale with fright. She did not dare say another word and hurriedly withdrew, wrapped in her gauze robe.
The vast room was left with Ye Tian alone.
He slowly put his luxurious python robe back on, the garment symbolizing his status as Crown Prince. His expression was so dark it seemed water might drip from it.
Failure...
That word filled him with immense humiliation.
Time passed second by second.
Just as Ye Tian was about to lose patience, the aide finally returned.
His face was as pale as paper, and his entire body trembled like a leaf in the autumn wind. The moment he entered, he prostrated himself on the floor without a word, not even daring to raise his head.
“I... I have found out...”
Ye Tian’s gaze suddenly sharpened. “Speak!”
The aide’s voice trembled so violently that the words were almost forced through clenched teeth.
“Your... Your Highness, the three thousand silver taels we... we allocated... by the time they reached... the few assassins who were to carry out the mission... only... only twenty taels remained...”
“What did you say?”
Ye Tian wondered if he had misheard. Slowly, word by word, he asked, “What did you say?”
The aide closed his eyes and, as though throwing caution to the wind, shouted at top speed, “Your Highness, the three thousand taels you allocated first reached Eunuch Wang De, the Chief Steward of the Eastern Palace. Eunuch Wang said he needed to grease the black market’s connections and withheld one thousand taels! The remaining two thousand went to General Li Yuan, the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guards in charge of this matter. General Li said he needed to smooth things over on all sides and withheld another one thousand five hundred taels! The final five hundred reached a black-market middleman called Ghost Hand. He subcontracted the job again and again, and in the end found several desperate outlaws roaming outside the city. He promised to pay each of them four taels after the deed was done, for a total of twenty taels!”
“So... so the men sent to assassinate the Eighth Prince were not fifth-rank experts at all. They were merely a few common thugs who had not even crossed the threshold of martial cultivation!”
Boom!
The aide’s words exploded in Ye Tian’s mind like a thunderclap.
His entire body went rigid.
The muscles on his face convulsed violently under the force of his fury. His expression shifted from shock to humiliation, then to a monstrous rage born of betrayal and mockery.
Three thousand taels!
Had become twenty!
He, the Crown Prince of Great Qian, heir to the throne, had been toyed with like a fool by a pack of wretched servants beneath him!
They had not only embezzled his money—they had ruined his plan!
This was no longer mere greed. They were undermining Ye Tian’s very foundation. They were slapping the Crown Prince in the face!
“Heh...”
“Hehehe...”
“Hahahahahaha!”
Ye Tian suddenly threw his head back and laughed. His laughter was filled with boundless coldness and madness.
He slowly drew the decorative longsword hanging on the wall. The blade reflected a chilling gleam in the candlelight.
“Good! Very good indeed!”
Sword in hand, he walked step by step toward the aide kneeling on the floor.
The aide sensed death descending upon him and frantically kowtowed as he begged for mercy. “Your Highness, spare me! Your Highness, please spare me! I only just found out the truth! I did not conceal a single thing!”
“I know you did not conceal anything.”
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Ye Tian’s voice was unnaturally calm—so calm that it made the heart tremble.
“That is why I must thank you.”
Before the words had even faded, a flash of sword light streaked through the room.
“Splurt—”
A fine head soared into the air. Scalding blood sprayed across the magnificent carpet, staining Ye Tian’s gold-threaded boots red.
The aide’s headless corpse swayed, then crashed heavily into the pool of blood.
His eyes still held the overwhelming terror and confusion of his final moment.
Ye Tian did not spare the corpse a glance. Holding the blood-dripping longsword, he walked out of the room expressionlessly.
“Men!”
His voice rang throughout the entire Eastern Palace.
“Seize Chief Steward Wang De, Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guards Li Yuan, and every person involved in this matter!”
“I will... interrogate them personally!”
At that moment, a bloody purge officially began within the Eastern Palace.
Ye Tian would use the cruelest possible means to tell everyone one thing:
Those who betrayed him and made a fool of him would meet only one fate—death!
...
Cloud Peace City, the Liu Residence
Liu Chengye was personally directing the servants as they arranged the food on the dining table.
“Come, come, put this here. Remember, do not place anything too spicy in front of Doctor Ye.”
“He is a physician. He should prefer lighter food.”
“And this soup—put it here, so it will be convenient for Doctor Ye...”
Watching Liu Chengye personally direct the servants, his wife, who was seated nearby, was rendered utterly speechless.
“My lord, there is no need to fuss over these things. They all know what to do. You need not handle everything yourself. It is beneath your dignity!”
Liu Chengye immediately became displeased upon hearing this.
“Do you hear yourself? Doctor Ye is the benefactor of our family. If we offend him over something so trivial, would we not suffer a loss for nothing?”
Madam Liu naturally understood the reasoning, but as the head of the household, Liu Chengye was doing the work of a servant. It truly was beneath his dignity.
Just as Madam Liu was about to say more, Ye Xuan appeared outside the main hall.
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