Chapter 394: The Truth Behind the Fall of Great Qin (Part 2)

Chapter 394: The Truth Behind the Fall of Great Qin (Part 2)

"I never meant to kill Yao'er. I never wanted Yao'er to die. I pushed Yao'er away, but at that time, I was in a rush to pull her back. I did pull, but ultimately, I was just one step too late. Just one more step, and I could have saved her.

That night, after I led the troops into the Qin palace, I went to find Sister Jun immediately. But she chose not to leave; it wasn't that I didn't want to save her."

Emperor Yu looked at the blood-stained letter, at the plea from his 'imperial son', and the deep paternal love, hidden beneath his imperial demeanor for years, finally surfaced. His intentions were inscrutable...

As Prince Yi had once evaluated him:

Emperor Yun Lang, his thoughts are unfathomable.

But at this moment, a single tear rolled down the cheek of the inscrutable Emperor Yun Lang.

"It's not that I didn't want to save them. I never intended to harm them."

Admitting it, Emperor Yu finally confessed his true imperial thoughts. Everything he had done was driven by his lust for power, the inflated ambition and desire within his heart.

"Power, what a curse!"

Hearing Emperor Yu admit it himself, Yun Mujing murmured, standing up.

The fury on his face had completely vanished.

"You loved my mother, but your imperial ambitions came first. For those cold ambitions, you sacrificed my mother, you sacrificed my brother's mother. And now, after only a short year on the throne, you will stay here with my mother's cenotaph! You don't deserve to visit my mother in Yunjun. Your imperial ambitions are now mine to claim."

Gazing at Emperor Yu, who had aged decades in mere months, Yun Mujing turned and strode away.

His mother's vengeance, his aunt's hatred, his father's love—all debts were settled. He refused to kill his own father.

"Jing, you must be wary of Jì Yuè. He is not as good as you think. Be careful not to be used as a pawn."

Yun Mujing brushed off Emperor Yu's fatherly warning. The stone door closed, and only then did he pause. In his mesmerizing gaze, the silhouette of YueHua appeared.

"Cough..."

The tomb's air was stale, and the cold night wind bit sharply. Yun Ji had waited there for an unknown time.

He stifled a cough with his fist. His pallid face, illuminated by candlelight, seemed even more fragile.

"Why do you torture yourself? Will these questions bring you peace?"

Yun Ji murmured softly, then turned to leave.

"Brother..."

Yun Mujing suddenly seized his wrist.

"Master Hui Shan said your illness stems from unresolved emotions, manifesting another version of you. Don't you wonder if Uncle Royal ever truly saw you as a nephew? Did he ever feel a moment of guilt?"

"Jing..."

A flicker of helplessness crossed Yun Ji's face.

"I don't want to know, nor do I need Uncle Royal to feel guilty. Whether the affection was real or not, over the years, Uncle Royal's protection of me was real, his care for me was all true. That is undeniable. Since it's all true, why bother probing into its authenticity."

There was not a trace of hatred for Emperor Yu on Yun Ji's face, because there were already two versions of him that hated Emperor Yu, even to the point of reducing Emperor Yu to his current state. As for him, his heart no longer had the energy to hate.

"Come on, Jing. It's time to go. You've lingered here long enough."

Such a calm and collected elder brother, if it weren't for what Yun Mujing saw that day in the bamboo grove of Wanglu Temple, he would never have imagined his brother could have such a bloodthirsty and murderous appearance, that he...

"Brother's illness will get better, won't it?"

Finally, Yun Mujing let go of Yun Ji, no longer forcing him to seek clarity.

Yun Ji neither nodded in agreement nor shook his head in disagreement, simply saying again: Let's go back.

As the two stepped away, just one step out, a shout came from behind the stone door, a sharp and urgent voice:

"Jì Yuè, what I did was to seek the world, but I also had a personal motive, I truly wanted to avenge Sister Jun, this is true, don't go, tell me, where exactly did I slip up, that made you the chess player."

He and the Dan Liang royal family, once the third prince of the Dan Liang vassal state, secretly allied, using a stunning beauty to orchestrate a grand scheme, a beauty trap, to lure Emperor Xuan Ye into the trap, waiting for the opportune moment to incite the most powerful vassal state, Zhu Xian, to join, under the guise of clearing the court, to overthrow Great Qin, and divide its territory among the Three Kingdoms.

And he, the Yun Lang Crown Prince who helped his father, the Cloud King, to capture the heads of Emperor Xuan Ye of Great Qin and his Crown Prince, naturally became the Crown Prince of Yun Lang after the founding of Yun Lang, and ascended to the throne after his father's death.

But he was not satisfied, not satisfied with just being the king of Yun Lang, he aspired to be the ruler of the entire world.

The first thing he did after ascending the throne was to centralize royal power, using the daughter of the Su family as a pawn in his scheme, involving all the princes and ministers in his plan to reclaim the military power of the Su family, to hold the power in his own hands.

And using his most beloved Jing'er to control Su Er, a fierce general, ensuring that even after relinquishing their military power, the entire Su family would remain loyal to him, to be used by him.

But he never anticipated that all his meticulously laid plans would be thwarted by the very nephew he had trained, the most capable pawn he had cultivated, who had fallen for the daughter of the Su family, thus ruining his scheme.

For this pawn, he had not even managed to save his own second son in time, he had secretly dispatched people to protect him, ensuring he could be safely sent to his uncle's side, for this, he even poisoned the real Jì Yuè, to let him live under the identity of Jì Yuè.

He had deceived everyone, raising the son of Sister Jun in secret, the illegitimate child that Rong Ke believed had perished in that snowy night massacre, all these years, he had nurtured him into the most capable pawn in his hands, to avenge his mother when he grew up, to conquer Dan Liang without shedding blood, and then their two countries could join forces to attack Zhu Xian.

He had planned for so many years, but at the crucial moment, his plans were once again thwarted by the daughter of the Su family, his pawn wanted to return to Dan Liang early for the safety of the Su family's daughter, Emperor Wei of Zhu Xian had not yet died from poisoning, how could he let him return to Dan Liang at this time, letting Zhu Xian detect his ambition and become alert.

Just as he was at a loss on how to keep this pawn, Rong Yuer brought him such a great gift, he took the opportunity to eliminate the remnants of the former dynasty, successfully keeping Jì Yuè, to prevent Jì Yuè from disobeying again, he even sacrificed the Su family, sacrificed the living tiger talisman of Yun Lang, cutting off his own arm, just to make Jì Yuè and the remnants of the former dynasty enemies from then on.

All his plans, step by step according to his plan, but unexpectedly, unexpectedly, there was a mistake in the part about his second son who had been dead for ten years, Jì Yuè, the pawn he had taught, actually allied with Zhao Wenjian to bite him back, the pawn he had personally taught, in the end, turned out to be the chess player, and he became the pawn.

To this day, he still does not know how Jì Yuè knew everything about that year, where exactly he slipped up, that made Jì Yuè the chess player, step by step, leading him to this state, he is unwilling, unwilling to be trapped like this...