I left Han Ruo’s private residence with more questions than answers.The conversation replayed in my mind over and over again like a loop in a bad dream as I walked down the long stone steps, my mind was still stuck in that room. But it wasn’t Han Ruo's words that haunted me. It was his pauses. The way he breathed and averted some questions. The look in his eyes. Han Ruo knew a lot of things. Slot he has told me but so much he’s still holding back. And somehow he didn’t seem like a player in the game, not like those trying to rule the world. He looked like an onlooker. A spectator sitting in the front row, holding the rulebook, watching the play happen, but doing absolutely nothing to stop it. He had all the knowledge in the world, yet he chose to just watch.The moment I stepped out of the inner gates of the Taishi Quarter, the heavy silence vanished. The palace air hit me, thick with tension.I felt a hundred pairs of eyes on me immediately. Everywhere. Two ministers walking toward

The court erupted into a wave of murmurs again. “A masked assassin…”“Who could enter the Inner Palace?”“Why was he after the crown princess?”“Who benefited from eliminating a crown princess with no political background?Wei Jue slowly raised a single hand. The whispers died instantly.“We still don’t know who would attempt to murder the crown princess, but I know why.” He looked across the hall. The entire room seemed to hold its breath.His next sentence landed like thunder."The Crown Princess is with a child."Boom.For a moment nobody breathed.Then chaos exploded. The entire hall completely lost its discipline. The ministers didn't just whisper; they openly shouted in surprise. “The Crown Princess is pregnant?”“An heir!”“The Imperial bloodline continues!”A royal heir.But in the back of the room, my own mind was spinning with questions. Pregnant?Lin Xue’er?Since when?It made no sense. According to the official imperial documents and palace logs I had reviewed, she ha

Morning arrived with a painful, suffocating ordinariness. After witnessing the Emperor creep into the Crown Princess’s quarters like a terrified servant the night before, I had expected the dawn to bring some kind of chaos or at least a quiet execution. A sudden trial. Anything.Instead, nothing happened.The palace adapted to its new, locked-down reality with terrifying speed. The chaotic, mismatched patrol routes we had stumbled through yesterday already felt like second nature to the guards. Servants learned exactly which new corridors they were allowed to cross. High-ranking officials openly complained about the delays, and exhausted guards openly yawned their guts out. Life simply… continued.The frantic energy of the assassination scare was already becoming old news, replaced by the cruel misery of longer shifts and shorter meal breaks.Yet, that single image refused to leave my mind. Wei Jue, the supreme ruler of the empire, looking anxious, hunched over, stepping into Lin Xu

I keep getting the worst form of surprises. Yan Hu didn’t bypassed the formation with clever magic. The arrays were designed strictly to trap and suppress dark energy and wicked arts. They had a massive blind spot against raw, unguided, overwhelming physical force. Yan Hu had simply found the weakest exterior point and torn it apart with his bare hands.He skidded across the dirt, his eyes widening as he saw me covered in blood.“There you are!”I stared at him in total shock. "What are you doing here?!" I shouted, dodging a sword thrust."I came looking for you!" Yan Hu roared back, swinging his massive blade to cleave an incoming prodigy in half. "How did you even get into the palace?!""I have my ways! Everywhere has a blind spot!" Yan Hu yelled, his face flushed with adrenaline. Of course, he would say that. “You should’ve stayed outside.”"You disappeared for a whole day without a single word! I thought you were dead!"“I’m fine!” I yelled. “Yeah, I can see how fine you are!

My mind spun into complete chaos.The image of the quiet Taishi appeared in my mind.Wei Wenzhi? The Grand Taishi? The fragile, always hunched older man who walked through the palace halls like he was carrying the weight of a failing body? How could that man be the fearless, lethal swordsman who leaped from the canopies of the bamboo forest and slaughtered elite prodigies without blinking? What kind of terrifying strength was he hiding behind that frail facade?It didn’t make sense.Nothing about it made sense.“You're sure it's him?” The question escaped my lips. “I couldn't have seen it wrong. It's him. I got the description right, and I still remember his face. He accompanied the Emperor to my clan after the coronation.” Yan Hu responded, but from his voice I could tell he was still caught in disbelief. Most importantly…Why?That question hung in the air even though no one asked it. Wei Wenzhi belonged to the Wei Clan. The Emperor’s own clansmen and bloodline and so far, I do