“The weather is cold, and you don’t look well, Empress. Stop standing outside and hurry back to rest.” Rather than concern, the Empress Dowager’s words were filled with obvious satisfaction at his misfortune, and the smile covering her face was unmistakably mocking. “It is probably too late to regret things now, but I will remember the favor you have done me. Once my son ascends the throne, he will ensure you spend the rest of your life in comfort and wealth. If you wish, you may even be granted office and noble rank. For now, however, I advise you not to waste your effort doing anything foolish. The outcome has already been decided. No one has the right, much less the ability, to change it.”
As they passed one another, Nalan Xuan struggled to raise his stiff arm and caught hold of the Empress Dowager. She frowned in displeasure, while Nalan Xuan seemed almost frozen solid, every muscle rigid with cold.
“The man sitting inside that Imperial Study is also your son. No matter which one sits on the throne, you are still unquestionably the Empress Dowager. Why are you so partial? Why is it unacceptable for anyone but Feng Xuanzhe to be emperor?”
Feng Xuanzhen’s words had echoed repeatedly in Nalan Xuan’s ears. He had insisted he did not care about Feng Xuanyi’s past and held everything about him in contempt, yet those words had somehow taken root and sprouted inside his heart. Their childhoods had been different, yet strangely similar. Nalan Xuan did not want to empathize with him, much less understand his difficulties or the things he had supposedly been forced to do. Who in this world did not have their own hardships? Who had never been forced into something against their will? If one considered everyone’s circumstances and hesitated at every turn, nothing would ever be accomplished. The rise of one great man was built upon ten thousand bones. Nalan Xuan understood that principle better than most. Yet he had still come here, and when he saw her, the question escaped his mouth before his mind could even examine or restrain it.
The Empress Dowager’s answer was simple. “There is no reason. I like whom I like, and I dislike whom I dislike. They may both be my sons, but in my eyes I have only ever had one son. One is enough. All my effort and affection went into him alone. As for the others, I neither wished to care nor had the energy to care. It is the same with this position of empress. There are countless fine women under heaven, yet why did your generation suddenly produce an unprecedented male empress? Of all the men and women available, why did he choose only you to sit in that position?”
She lightly patted Nalan Xuan’s shoulder. “Do not blame yourself. You were never someone inclined toward self-reproach anyway. You actually see the situation quite clearly. The position of empress does not suit you because it was a mistake from the beginning. Even the emperor himself is a mistake, much less the empress beside him. Fortunately, you chose the correct path. Restoring the throne to its rightful line is the proper course. I told you that I would remember what you have done. This position should have belonged to Zhe’er from the start, but the fact that everything has gone so smoothly and happened ahead of time is also partly your achievement. I will overlook your rudeness today. You may withdraw.”
As though he had heard some extraordinary joke, or perhaps as though he had suddenly awakened from a dream, Nalan Xuan stared at the Empress Dowager with faint amusement for a long while before finally turning away without saying a word.
He had thought he would never make this move. He had believed everything could end smoothly without ever needing this piece on the board. Yet although Feng Xuanzhe was now advancing successfully toward the imperial palace, every unit of the palace’s Imperial Guards remained under Feng Xuanyi’s command. Between Feng Xuanyi and Feng Xuanzhe, their odds were still roughly even. Xiliang’s movement could be interpreted as cooperation with Feng Xuanzhe, but it could just as easily mean they intended to sit back and profit from the conflict. Under these circumstances, Nalan Xuan’s choice suddenly became extraordinarily important.
The scale in his mind swayed endlessly, one side against the other. Although Feng Xuanyi had ordered the Nalan clan executed, the soldiers who had once followed Nalan Jian remained fiercely loyal. For every man who admired Nalan Jian and believed he had suffered injustice, there was another willing to place himself beneath the command of Nalan Xuan, his only surviving son. This was Nalan Xuan’s leverage in a time of upheaval, and his final hidden card. Compared with depending on an Empress of Xiliang who claimed kinship based only on one-sided words, or some inexplicable Xiliang princely title bestowed upon him, the military achievements he had personally earned were far more reliable.
He changed out of the heavy, elaborate robes of the empress and into a clean set of plain white military clothes. His silver hair, whiter than snow, streamed freely behind him.
“M-Master…” Ji Yu stared at Nalan Xuan’s appearance in astonishment, his tongue practically tying itself into knots.
Nalan Xuan circulated his internal energy throughout his body. Whether his hearing had truly become that sharp or it was only imagination, he could almost hear the clash of weapons outside the hall, the cries of soldiers locked in combat, and the rapid clatter of hooves charging straight through the palace.
He pulled down the imperially bestowed sword of authority that had hung on the wall for so long as little more than decoration. Radiating a sharp, formidable aura, Nalan Xuan had taken only a few steps when a shadow flashed before him and an arm barred his path.
“This subordinate pays respects to Her Majesty the Empress.” The man dropped to one knee and saluted. Except before the emperor himself, they never knelt on both knees before anyone, not even the empress. He was one of the shadow guards Feng Xuanyi had trained for many years, Xuan Guang.
Nalan Xuan tried to step around him, but Xuan Guang immediately moved with him and said stiffly, “This subordinate has been ordered to protect Her Majesty the Empress.”
One of Nalan Xuan’s brows rose. “Protect me?” He gave a cold laugh. “Then follow.”
With a turn of his body, Nalan Xuan leapt upward, toes brushing lightly against a pillar and the doorframe before he twisted through the entrance and disappeared outside, leaving only a streak of white behind. Xuan Guang did not dare hesitate and followed immediately. Ji Yu ran after them for several steps, then stopped at the entrance of Yuliu Palace. His expression shifted repeatedly before finally settling into quiet relief. In the end, he still couldn’t let go.
This game had been designed by Nalan Xuan from the beginning. Naturally, he alone should decide how it developed and where every piece moved. He hated being controlled by others, and he hated even more the feeling of having his own cleverness turned against him, forced to drift with the current while others used him to kill with a borrowed blade. What did it mean for the outcome to be decided? What did it mean for the tide of events to be irreversible? Nalan Xuan would show the world exactly what it meant to turn the tide with one’s own hands and seize control of the entire board.
A column of red signal smoke shot into the sky from the direction of Yuliu Palace, and from that moment, the variable entered the game. Among the soldiers who had followed Feng Xuanzhe into the palace, no one knew who swung the first blade against his own comrades. The once-unified attacking force instantly erupted into chaos. A small disturbance expanded into complete disorder, and then, from another direction, a large contingent of fierce soldiers appeared with weapons drawn, shouting battle cries as they charged directly into the rebel ranks.
Blades rose and fell, sending blood spraying across the battlefield. If Nalan Xuan had already astonished the world with his martial skill and military command when he once led troops to suppress the rebellion along the northwestern frontier, then the Nalan Xuan of today, whose martial arts and strategy had advanced far beyond what they had been then, could only be described as possessing extraordinary, almost peerless brilliance.
Countless men died beneath Nalan Xuan’s sword before they could even clearly see who had struck them. Others tried to exploit their numbers and attack him from behind, only to be intercepted one by one by Xuan Guang, whose movements were just as ruthless now that he no longer bothered concealing his true abilities. Feng Xuanyi had ordered him to escort the empress safely out of the palace without allowing so much as a hair on his head to be harmed. Yet if the empress himself refused to leave, Xuan Guang could hardly restrain him. All he could do was follow Nalan Xuan’s wishes while still obeying the emperor’s command that the empress remain completely unharmed, guarding him every step of the way.
The situation, which had originally been overwhelmingly one-sided, gradually tightened and became increasingly uncertain. Some rebels had not even managed to understand what was happening and could only stare dumbly as their own forces descended into chaos. Then, from the rear, Feng Xuanzhen arrived at the head of a heavily armed force, every soldier radiating murderous intent.