The deposed empress married a prince, and the dog emperor wept with regret!

Standing on the marble floor, Xie Lu's back was ramrod straight. His expression was extremely serious, as if he were about to face something terrible.

Li Wei was waiting outside the hall. Upon seeing him, he bowed and stepped forward.

"Greetings, Lord Xie!"

Xie Lu waved his hand, "I haven't been an official for many years, and I don't deserve to be called 'Your Excellency' by your title, sir."

Li Wei smiled broadly, "If it weren't for your plea back then, sir, I wouldn't be where I am today! This way, sir, please."

Li Wei personally led the way for Xie Lü. He had previously sent all the servants inside the hall outside. The hall was filled with the smell of medicine, and Xie Lü unconsciously frowned.

Li Wei tactfully opened a window to let in some fresh air.

"My lord, please come in. I will wait outside. Just call me if you need anything."

Xie Lu nodded, and only after Li Wei left and closed the door did he enter the inner hall.

On the bed in the inner hall, Yuwen Wuji stared at Xie Lü with his round eyes wide open.

After being given the medicine today, he felt much better than before, and he never expected to see Lawyer Xie.

Xie Lu looked down at him, then pulled up a chair and sat opposite him. Xie Lu's gaze revealed undisguised disgust. The two remained silent. Yuwen Wuji couldn't speak, while Xie Lu was trying to calm himself. He feared that if he got too agitated and lost control, he might scare Yuwen Wuji to death before he could finish speaking, which would be a loss.

After a long while, just as Yuwen Wuji's eyelids began to droop, Xie Lü spoke.

"Does Your Majesty believe in bringing the dead back to life?"

Yuwen Wuji was startled when he heard him speak so suddenly.

After a pause, Xie Lu, not receiving a reply from Yuwen Wuji, muttered to himself, "Oh, I forgot, His Majesty cannot speak right now."

Yuwen Wuji widened his eyes even further to express his dissatisfaction.

"The Emperor naturally doesn't believe it, and I wouldn't have believed it before either. But now that Wanwan is back, I believe it." Xie Lu's voice was calm, but it carried the joy of having something lost and then regained.

Yuwen Wuji stared wide-eyed, incredulous, and didn't even immediately understand the meaning behind Xie Lu's words.

"Oh, Your Majesty doesn't know yet, does he? Song Yaozhu is Wanwan." Xie Lu couldn't help but smile as he mentioned this. "The dead cannot be brought back to life, but I truly didn't expect that something like possession would happen. Your Majesty doesn't need to think I'm lying to you; you're not worth me making up such a story."

Yuwen Wuji's pupils dilated suddenly as images of his interactions with Song Yaozhu flashed through his mind. Especially the techniques she used against him at Huangjue Temple—they were exactly the same as Xie Wanqing's! At the time, he had only assumed she had been trained by Xie Liwei, so the answer was actually that she was Xie Wanqing?!

He had thought more than once that she resembled Xie Wanqing, and he had only assumed that Xie Liwei had deliberately molded her into that shape! So Xie Wanqing really was standing right in front of him!

Yuwen Wuji's skin broke out in goosebumps instantly, and a chilling sensation spread from the soles of his feet up his body.

He tried to struggle, but he couldn't move at all! Damn it! Why couldn't he move!

Seeing the fear in his eyes, Xie Lu smiled with satisfaction.

"Does Your Majesty want to know when Wanwan returned? Let me tell you, it was the night of Ali's wedding. Isn't that a coincidence? Ali got married, and then my Wanwan returned. It's clear that the two of them are each other's true love, while you are nothing more than a calamity for my Wanwan. Even though you ruined Wanwan's body, Heaven still gave her a second chance."

Xie Lu's words were like a knife piercing Yuwen Wuji's heart. He wasn't jealous of Xie Liwei; he just couldn't stand the contempt and disdain in Xie Lu's words!

He's the emperor, the ruler of the country, the Son of Heaven! What right does he have to look down on him!

He had built his empire himself; the Xie family was nothing but a treacherous wretch, trying to undermine him! He had long seen through their hypocrisy. Back when he followed his father into battle, his father's fame was widespread, and he had countless followers. It was during this time that the Xie family clung to him. His father said Xie Wanqing was very capable and that he should marry her as his principal wife and treat her well, so that the prosperity of the Great Chen Kingdom would surely last long.

But he couldn't stand it, couldn't stand a woman making decisions beyond his control. He was the husband, she was her everything! Why were her decisions better than his? Why were her schemes more brilliant than his?

He could tolerate her during wartime, but when he held power, he truly couldn't tolerate it. He was a man; how could he listen to a woman in everything? So he opposed her at every turn. Yet, so many officials in the court agreed with her ideas, even advising him to listen to the Empress.

Ha, he's a man! If the whole country listened to women, wouldn't everything be in chaos?

He killed the empress to restore order and to solidify the Chen dynasty! What did those people know? What did they know? He was the emperor of this country; how could he possibly harm them?

Seeing the growing madness in Yuwen Wuji's eyes, Xie Lu scoffed.

Sure enough, evil people will never admit their mistakes, even on their deathbed. They will only find all sorts of reasons for their evil deeds, and even if all the evidence is presented to them, they will never admit their mistakes.

"Does Your Majesty think that the Empress is a hen crowing at dawn, so you're right?" Xie Lu ruthlessly tore off his mask. "If Your Majesty were a capable ruler, why would the ministers think the Empress's decision was better? Your Majesty, you must admit your incompetence. It is your incompetence that makes you jealous of my daughter, and it is because of your jealousy that you harbor murderous intentions towards her! Yuwen Wuji, admit it, you are such a narrow-minded person!"

Xie Lu directly ripped off his pretense, which was what Yuwen Wuji found most unbearable. As an emperor, he had to pretend to be kind, respectful to scholars, and magnanimous; he tried his best to conform to the qualities an emperor should have, but he knew he didn't possess them at all!

A fake is a fake. No matter how much he tries to pretend, he just doesn't have that kind of magnanimity!

That's why he was so frustrated by those ministers, and why he kept consolidating power, making imperial authority supreme. It was all thanks to him; without his autocracy, Xie Liwei wouldn't have been able to use him to so quickly overpower the cabinet.

Yuwen Wuji tried to control his body and stand up. He wanted to tell Xie Lu that he was the emperor and that he didn't need any reason to kill someone!

Moreover, everyone who knew about what happened back then is dead, so who can testify against him!

"Your Majesty, people must pay the price for their actions. Your Majesty doesn't think that just because Gao Ping took the blame for you, you can escape the guilt of murdering your wife, does he?" Xie Lu chuckled, his smile so gentle that it made Yuwen Wuji tremble involuntarily.

"Thanks to your good son, he somehow found out the truth about you murdering your first wife, so he secretly rescued Gao Ping and raised her in a secret room in the Eastern Palace. Originally, he wanted to use this to blackmail you into abdicating in his favor, but unfortunately, he was too impulsive and accidentally killed his own wife. Alas, you really are father and son; you murdered your wife, and he murdered his wife too. You tell me, this is hereditary, isn't it?"

Yuwen Wuji forced a weak "woo" from his throat; he didn't want to hear it anymore! He didn't want to hear it! He wasn't that kind of person! He was the king, the most virtuous man in the world! He would be remembered for eternity after his death!

Yes, no one can take away his chance to be remembered throughout history! He founded the Great Chen Kingdom and also made the monumental contribution of digging the canal. He will be a great emperor for all time, worshipped by future generations!

Perhaps sensing his thoughts, Xie Lu spoke again gently: "Your Majesty is recuperating in this palace, and you probably don't know that Prince Jing and Prince Yan have conspired to seize power. Prince Jing is currently under house arrest in the Imperial Clan Court, never to leave again. As for Prince Yan, he has already launched a rebellion, but was repelled at Yunzhou. Now you only have the Fifth Prince left." Xie Lu paused, then clarified for him: "I forgot to tell you, the Sixth Prince is not your biological son."

Yuwen Wuji's pupils dilated again, his eyes seeming to reflect flames of anger.

"Your Majesty need not be angry. Those who abandon others will be abandoned in return. When Your Majesty gave Consort Zhen that secret medicine, did you not consider that Consort Zhen might resist? It was using her own life to support another life. Even if she were a mother, she could not be so selfless. So she secretly stopped taking the medicine. As you know, once the medicine is stopped, the weak fetus in her womb will only die. But she cannot give up her position, so she found a pregnant palace maid in the Yeting Palace."

The Imperial Palace! The Imperial Palace! The women there are dirtier than those in brothels! How dare she use a bastard to impersonate the imperial heir!

The thought of how he had once hugged and embraced that bastard made Yuwen Wuji feel as if his skin had become dirty.

Yuwen Wuji's chest heaved violently, and soon a mouthful of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

"Is His Majesty truly angry?" Xie Lu kindly helped him up, then placed a cushion under his lower back so he could sit up. "Sit for a while; if you lie down, you'll choke on your own blood. His Majesty wouldn't want to die such a pitiful death, would he?"

Yuwen Wuji coughed violently, splattering blood and saliva. Xie Lu took several steps back to prevent his clothes from being splashed by the bloody saliva.

He didn't go forward to pat his back. The violent coughing continued for a long time, until Yuwen Wuji lost all his strength. Only then did Xie Lu continue, "The Fifth Prince's leg was broken by someone hired by Prince Jing, and he is now lame. According to the Great Chen Law, a person with a physical disability cannot inherit the throne. Therefore, the ministers have always believed that the Sixth Prince is the rightful emperor."

Yuwen Wuji's pupils widened once more. He couldn't accept this ending! He couldn't! He now desperately hoped that the Prince of Yan would head north and kill Xie Liwei! Kill the entire Xie family!

Or King Xuan would also work; King Xuan could be the emperor!

"Your Majesty, please don't force Prince Xuan. Prince Xuan knows that you have always been wary of him, so he has not dared to harbor any disloyal thoughts all these years, and he still doesn't dare to now. However, Your Majesty's younger sister is quite resourceful."

"It was she who proposed this idea: to make the sixth prince emperor, and for her, the eldest princess, to rule from behind the curtain."

Yuwen Wuji breathed a slight sigh of relief. Yuwen Xian was fine too. Yuwen Xian was a descendant of the Yuwen family. As long as the country was still in the hands of the Yuwen family, he had not lost!

"This suggestion is indeed quite good, but I disagree." Xie Lu smiled slightly. "Your Majesty, the Yuwen family's empire was won for you by our Xie family at the cost of our lives. You betrayed our Xie family first, so don't blame us for being ruthless. The Xie family will reclaim the empire of Great Chen."

Yuwen Wuji looked at him with a mocking expression, as if laughing at his lack of ability. But Xie Lu's next words shattered all his confidence.

"Your Majesty, after all these years, you still don't know Xie Liwei's real name, do you?" Xie Lu let out a long sigh, as if he had been holding his breath for a long time and was finally exhaling. "In my entire life, I only have one child, Wanwan. Xie Liwei is not my biological son; he is an adopted son I brought back from the fiefdom of the Prince of Qin. Your Majesty, guess whose child he is?"

King Qin?

The Qin king of the previous dynasty died at the hands of the common people—that womanly benevolence!

“Yes, he is the last descendant of the previous dynasty, the person in this world most entitled to inherit the throne of your Great Chen.” Xie Lu smiled brightly, stroking his goatee. “The emperor of the previous dynasty was licentious and tyrannical, but the Prince of Qin’s reputation was renowned throughout the land. When he died, the entire city mourned for him for three months. Everyone thought his child was dead, but what if those people knew that the Prince of Qin’s heir was still alive? Your Majesty, Great Chen has only been established for a little over ten years. Those people are old, but they are not dead yet.”

His words made Yuwen Wuji tremble uncontrollably. The skin on his lips was shaking. He hated Xie Lu. He knew that Xie Lu had no good intentions and that he was holding back from him!

"Your Majesty, leaving a way out for others is to cut off your own life." Xie Lu looked down at him. "I have finished speaking today. You will never see me again in your life, nor will you ever see Wanwan again."

Mentioning Xie Wanqing, Yuwen Wuji's eyes lit up with a strange light. His feelings for Xie Wanqing were complicated. He had truly loved her when he was young, but he loved himself and power more, which is why he killed her without hesitation.

But after killing her, he regretted it! He was afraid, so he found a Taoist priest to perform a ritual to suppress the vengeful spirits in Fengwu Palace, and he could only fall asleep by taking herbal medicine every day.

He's gone to such lengths, why would Xie Wanqing come back?

"The Emperor has committed countless evil deeds; Heaven must have had enough," Xie Lu said with a mocking gaze. "I will have your tongue cut out, your mouth and nose sealed, and your eyes gouged out, so that when you die and reach the King of Hell, you will be unable to see or speak. I will write your sins all over your body with cinnabar, so that you will be reborn with the sins of this life. You must believe me, Wanwan is a person who has returned from hell; she said it herself. Doing this will send you to the eighteenth level of hell!"

Yuwen Wuji was terrified. More whimpering sounds escaped his throat, and more blood gushed from his mouth. He couldn't die like this! He couldn't die like this!

He is the ruler of a country! He is the Son of Heaven!