Chapter 234: Because It’s More Satisfying to Kill You Now

Inside the main hall of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Xiao Yang tossed Xiao Mo aside, placed the Emperor’s Sword on the table, and unhurriedly began to light incense.

She lit just three sticks of incense, placing them in the very center.

Her gaze fell upon the spirit tablet placed at the very bottom.

The spirit tablet of the Mingde Sage Emperor, Xiao Zhuo.

This man was the father of the body she inhabited. In memories that felt simultaneously foreign and yet her own, he had been very good to her.

Though he was an Emperor, he had shown a father’s love, taught her diligently, and painstakingly paved the way for her to ascend the throne before he died of his illness.

The late Emperor was not at fault.

He never knew of Xiao Mo’s existence, so he was blameless. For that reason, Xiao Yang never resented him for Xiao Mo’s appearance.

’Then who was wrong?’

’Was it the Empress Dowager who hid my gender, or was it me for being born the wrong sex?’

’One wrong step from birth, and everything that followed was a mistake.’

’Fate plays cruel tricks, leading to this very day.’

Xiao Yang turned back to look at Xiao Mo. He was awake now, his forehead beaded with sweat from the pain, but his mind was clear. His eyes were locked on her, filled with terror and hatred.

Xiao Yang raised a hand and fanned away the drifting smoke. "What you wanted—to be acknowledged by the ancestors—was to step foot in here, wasn’t it? I have brought you. Are you happy?"

Having been dragged here through a path of slaughter, Xiao Mo had now witnessed the Empress’s madness firsthand.

He was filled with regret and true fear. She was just as the rumors said: a complete and utter madwoman.

"You..." As he spoke, a mouthful of blood surged up. His voice was hoarse and pained. He forced the blood back down before he could finally speak again. "Why... did you bring me here? Don’t tell me... you plan to kill me here?"

Xiao Mo felt that no one could possibly commit such a brutal act before their own ancestors, yet the feeling Xiao Yang gave him was overwhelming. She was going to do exactly that.

Xiao Yang leaned lightly against the Emperor’s Sword. "Someone told me that you are the son of heaven’s destiny, nurtured by the dragon vein of the Xiao Family. So, I thought I’d put it to the test. I am going to kill you. Let’s see if the ancestors of the Xiao Family can protect you."

Xiao Yang was merely stating a fact—that she intended to kill him—but Xiao Mo’s mind immediately jumped to the struggle for the throne.

"I won’t fight you for the throne."

Xiao Yang scoffed. "Don’t use that charitable tone, as if you could win even if you tried."

Xiao Mo swallowed another mouthful of blood and made another poor move. "Believe it or not, from the moment I learned of my birthright, I’ve thought of you as my own sister. I only ever wanted to acknowledge our relation and take care of you."

Xiao Yang gave him a cold, wicked glare. "So you still don’t understand, even now. First, I do not acknowledge you as my elder brother. I don’t even acknowledge you as family. Your very existence is merely repulsive to me. Second, I am the Emperor. Why would I need your recognition or care? You can’t grasp reality, and you’re pathetically sentimental."

’The bargaining chip of family ties was useless between them. They had no such thing.’

’My own sister? Who the fuck would want to be his sister?’

"The late Emperor passed the throne to me, but the reason I’ve survived to this day and secured my position is not because of him. It’s because I fought for it time and again, risking my life to do so."

"Even Prince Jing wouldn’t dare lecture me with the authority of an elder. Yet you, a wild Prince, have the gall to put on the airs of ’an elder brother is like a father’."

She walked toward him slowly, the longsword in her hand scraping against the ground with a piercing shriek.

"Everything you’ve done up to this point, all the support they’ve given you—it’s only because you are a man, and I am a woman."

"The very sight of it is disgusting."

Xiao Yang made no attempt to hide her disgust and killing intent.

Xiao Mo leaned against a pillar, looking up as she approached step by step. The panic in his eyes was, in an instant, replaced by defiance.

"So what if it is?"

It was as if a switch had been flipped within him, and the sharp edge he had kept hidden was instantly revealed.

He looked at her mockingly. "You only got the throne by dressing as a man and deceiving everyone. If I had grown up in the Imperial Palace, I would be the eldest son. The throne should have been mine from the start."

"My return to claim my heritage is just to take back what is rightfully mine. But you’re scared, aren’t you? You have a guilty conscience. The moment you saw me, you lost your composure, oppressing and making things difficult for me at every turn, wishing you could just kill me. Aren’t you just afraid I’ll take your throne?"

He sneered at her. "This empire and its Imperial Power belong to men! Even if you have it for now, you will eventually become nothing but a stepping stone beneath my feet!"

The moment he finished speaking, a cold glint flashed from behind the spirit tablets. An arrow that had long been aimed at Xiao Yang’s head shot forth in an instant.

SHUK!

The sharp arrow pierced flesh and blood, but it was not Xiao Yang’s.

In that split second, she had caught the fatal arrow, and with a turn, used its momentum to plunge it directly into Xiao Mo’s throat.

Xiao Mo’s blood instantly sprayed out, trickling down Xiao Yang’s pale cheek and making her already wicked smile seem all the more demonic and bizarre.

"See? I still prefer hearing the truth. It’s much more satisfying to kill you this way."

Xiao Ziling and Li Wei sprang into action, knocking over the spirit tablets to reveal the hidden assassin, whom they killed on the spot.

As Xiao Mo watched with a look of unwilling defeat, Xiao Yang slowly rose. Her Dragon Robe was the most brilliant sight in the grand hall, but her arrogant madness was even more dazzlingly insane.

Her tone was light, yet carried a heavy authority. She looked down on him—the loser about to die—with the air of a victor. "The throne belongs not to men, nor to women. It belongs to the strong."

"You are of the late Emperor’s bloodline, and you had the right to contend with me. If you had built up your own power and fought me openly and honorably, then win or lose, I would still have respected you and called you ’elder brother’."

"But you didn’t. You chose the most disgusting method. You thought you could simply use your status as a man to steal the empire I’ve bled for. You wanted it all without any effort, taking for granted that it should all belong to you."

"Putting on a noble front while hiding the most disgusting appetite. You... think you’re worthy of defeating me?"

"Destiny? Fate? Right now... I am heaven!"

Xiao Mo breathed his last in the Xiao Family’s Imperial Ancestral Temple. The great path of destiny could not protect him, nor could the ancestors of the Xiao Family.

"Xiao Mo committed high treason, attempting to assassinate the Emperor, and was executed on the spot. Effective immediately, he is to be expunged from the clan and stripped of his surname. However, the Emperor is merciful, and grants him a simple coffin for burial!"

The verdict on Xiao Mo’s fate spread throughout the Imperial Palace. The bodies of those so-called ’loyal ministers of the late Emperor’ who had tried to rescue him had long since been dragged away, carted off, and dumped in a mass grave. The blood on the ground was wiped clean, leaving it spotless once more.

The officials at the palace gates heard the announcement and were overcome with a despairing sense of inevitability.

The Emperor had killed him after all.

Who in this world could possibly stop the Empress now?

But while some despaired, others thought those officials were simply fools.

’Are they crazy? The Empress conquered the Xirong and the Beimeng. Gold, bronze, iron, and gems are piled up like mountains. Cannons and gunpowder strike fear into all corners of the land. Engineering has brought bicycles, waterwheels, and farming carts that have changed our lives. Good days are clearly ahead, so why must they have a male emperor?’

’They’ve barely had a few good days and already they’re itching for trouble? They just had to find a male emperor to stir things up?’

’Trying to oppose Her Majesty for some pheasant Prince? Their brains must be flooded!’