“No. This subordinate acted out of selfish motives,” Su Ruhan admitted without attempting to conceal it.
“What selfish motives?” the Third Prince asked coldly.
Su Ruhan stared straight in the Third Prince’s direction but gave no answer. The Third Prince suddenly struck him with a palm. Su Ruhan spat out blood and his face turned pale, yet he did not sway in the slightest, remaining upright on his knees.
“You dare defy me!” the Third Prince roared. What angered him was not that Su Ruhan had developed selfish motives, but that Su Ruhan had dared destroy his own internal energy in front of him and attempt something that would cripple his body and end his life. Had the Third Prince’s palm not disrupted the current Su Ruhan was circulating through his body, he would already have collapsed and died.
Su Ruhan’s actions had destroyed more than half of his martial arts, rendering him little better than a cripple in the Third Prince’s service. For the Third Prince to keep him now would be nothing but a humiliation. His Yingjue Sword had already been broken in two, signifying that the man named Su Ruhan was already dead.
Su Ruhan closed his eyes and waited for the Third Prince’s palm to descend upon him. The Third Prince had once said that every other servant could die beneath Su Ruhan’s sword, but Su Ruhan himself could die only beneath the Third Prince’s palm.
A long time passed without Su Ruhan hearing any movement. Although his eyes remained closed, he knew the Third Prince was still beside him. Suddenly, the sound of fabric tearing reached his ears. Su Ruhan’s eyes snapped open. Pieces of clothing lay scattered all around him, while the Third Prince had already moved behind him and was loosening his robes.
What followed was as fierce as a sudden storm, leaving both of them drenched in sweat. Neither spoke a word, as though they were merely exchanging martial arts moves. After the violent exertion ended, the Third Prince calmly dressed himself, leaped into the air, and landed steadily at the foot of the artificial hill. Su Ruhan clearly remembered the warning the Third Prince had spoken at the moment of release: “You saw something you should not have seen. I spare you only because I am unable to kill you.”
A cold wind swept across the artificial hill. With every meridian in Su Ruhan’s body severed, the chill made his mind considerably clearer. He recalled the young man he had accidentally glimpsed during his nighttime patrol. Although the youth possessed peerless beauty, he had merely awakened a memory Su Ruhan had buried deep within his heart. The young man’s appearance could astonish every passerby, but it lacked the quiet beauty of the person Su Ruhan loved. So even the Third Prince could make errors in judgment. At the thought, Su Ruhan unexpectedly curled his lips into several cold laughs.
In truth, Mu Xueshi had awakened the moment the Third Prince left the bedchamber. He crept quietly around the room, searching for books he could consult. Mu Xueshi had now realized that he could no longer live as carefree and thoughtlessly as before. This concerned his entire future and fate, so he absolutely could not treat it as a game. He had to pay attention to every detail, or he might unknowingly bring fatal disaster upon himself one day.
Many memorials reviewed by the Third Prince were arranged on the desk. The Emperor had already settled upon the Third Prince as his intended choice for Crown Prince, so he frequently asked him to examine some of the memorials. Mu Xueshi rifled through them and spread every one across the desk, struggling to study their contents. From the red seals stamped upon them, he could vaguely discern the era in which he now lived, but the titles and forms of address were entirely unfamiliar to him. He also examined several scrolls resembling historical records of major national affairs, yet everything described within them was something he had never heard of before.
“Am I even still on Earth?” Mu Xueshi murmured, looking utterly miserable.
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