Chapter 57

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

——Barring exceptional circumstances, the emperor does not normally leave his palace. Inside the palace, even if Yang Chongyin, as the State Oracle, has certain privileges, it’s still quite inconvenient to commit certain acts.

Now that such a rare circumstance has presented itself, despite the lack of time for preparation, it would be a shame not to utilise it.

Under Yang Chongyin’s orders, the Residence of State Oracle starts working, as if to prepare fully for receiving His Majesty, which seems to be quite a satisfying development for the eunuch sent in to relay the decree orally. He seems convinced that despite the divine position the State Oracle takes, he is still respectful towards the emperor.

Two hours later, the emperor arrives as informed.

He came wearing simple clothing, and as he believes the Residence of State Oracle is quite safe, he only brought along the head of the eunuchs and four personal guards. When he sees Yang Chongyin who has been standing in wait for a long time in front of the Residence, he strikes up small talk with him briefly before immediately asking, “my beloved court officer, how was the trip? Was the artefact successfully recovered?”

Meanwhile his attention shifts behind Yang Chongyin, apparently trying to spot the artefact as he thinks it might be in the Residence right now. His excitement is obvious to all.

Yang Chongyin, while inviting the emperor inside and leading him to the study, says, “this court officer has had various encounters along the way, and it will be difficult to report in brief. I have planned to report this in detail to Your Majesty tomorrow, but it was an unexpected honour that Your Majesty deigned to visit personally… As this is a matter of great importance, if Your Majesty would excuse others and allow this court officer to report in private.”

The emperor doesn’t suspect anything, since when it comes to dealing with the realm outside of the mundane, it is quite common that the conversation should not be heard by others. And if it has to do with the nation itself, even if Yang Chongyin didn’t mind he would himself chase them away. He gestures for the four personal guards to stand by outside as he and Yang Chongyin enter the study.

Though when he enters, while he should have been walking closely behind Yang Chongyin, following his steps, he discovers that the distance between them is increasing. He can see Yang Chongyin nearby the reading table already, and he’s still almost half a room away from it. The emperor realises that something is off. He wants to grab Yang Chongyin when he finds that those few steps are as if thousands of miles off. He can’t close in at all. Trying to turn around and quickly go out instead doesn’t work either. He seems to be trapped in the middle of the room. No matter which direction he walks in, he is still clearly in the same place without budging an inch.

Recalling Yang Chongyin’s identity as State Oracle, the emperor of course knows that he has the ability to set up spell circles. In fact, he would be an expert in it. What’s unexpected is for him to use it on himself.

Without thinking, the emperor calls out for help, yet the four personal guards that heard him and tried to enter the room are immediately suppressed by the personal guards of the Residence.

True, these four guards are of course the best fighters, capable of perhaps fighting one-on-ten, or they wouldn’t have qualified to protect the emperor himself anyway, but of course Yang Chongyin’s personal guards are no mere fighters either. Thanks to their ancestors, even the basis of their martial training would be the same as these imperial guards, which means they would know how each others’ techniques worked. When many of them attack at once, the fight is decided.

The head of the eunuchs, without fighting ability, is of course already tied up and thrown to the side.

Seeing nobody coming to his rescue, the emperor’s heart sinks. He starts scolding Yang Chongyin for his transgression, but Yang Chongyin instead counters with a nonchalant question, “has Your Majesty not transgressed before?”

“What do you mean?” His expression changes, “since I am the Son of Heaven, I am already the noblest person in the entire realm. Surely you kid suggesting there is someone else above me.”

“Of course, but when Your Majesty was only the crown prince, you were above thousands but still under one person… Bai Yanze, the nineteenth prince, when the ex-emperor was lying in bed, sick, the things you did, have you already forgotten yourself?”

Bai Yanze seems stunned. Since his succession, his full name has never been called out like so, and he even feels slightly unfamiliar being referred to as such.

More important than that is what Yang Chongyin has just said.

“You were in quite the hurry in the period before the ex-emperor passed away. Since you heard the imperial physician conclude that his sickness might be acute or chronic, you were afraid it meant the emperor could potentially still stay sick for a long time without giving up his throne, therefore you made your move…”

“Shut up!”

Bai Yanze appears flustered. He thought besides himself nobody else knew in this world.

Yang Chongyin stops talking, choosing not to further agitate Bai Yanze.

Back then, this nineteenth prince was interested in facilitating the passing of the ex-emperor, but he wasn’t that reckless as to bribe the Imperial Physicians’ to drug the emperor, nor did he personally administer poison to the emperor. He only personally saw to the caretaking of the emperor in the name of filial piety, during which he decided to discreetly modify the number of ingredients he added when brewing the emperor’s medicine, or just deciding to drop one or two ingredients, not following the recipes to their letter and hoping to make the medicines fail. This way, even if the ex-emperor followed the advice to take the medicine as instructed, the treatment would still fail… He would even brew the medicine for a different length of time to the instructions hoping it would also cause adverse effects to his body.

These little acts are silly but malicious, and of course, it’s hard to directly state how responsible for the emperor’s death they were, and whether these acts were the main cause. Still, it would appear the ex-emperor’s favour ended up wasted being bestowed on him, and it’s true Bai Yanze feels guilty about it.

——Though these acts were quite fitting with his weak, ineffectual, dumb and myopic personality.

Bai Yanze tries to suppress his fear, and asks what Yang Chongyin wants with a calm tone.

If these things were made public, that would be… With such a stake being called out here, he must have something he wants.

Yang Chongyin says, “what I want is simple. Abdicate, Your Majesty.”

He wants to give Bai Lianhua as justified a reason to ascend as he could. With such context in mind, holding the emperor hostage as the dynasty is forcibly changed would be the worst-case scenario. While the best solution is to have Bai Yanze abdicate of his own volition so that his ascension proves legitimate and would fit with Bai Lianhua’s wishes that the chaos caused by this would be minimised.

Bai Yanze retorts, “dream on.”

“Then would Your Majesty like to die on the throne?”

——Yang Chongyin might still be calling him ‘Your Majesty,’ but to Bai Yanze, there is not a shred of respect in it, rather, he’s saying it as if it’s sarcasm.

“… A coup d’état?” Bai Yanze’s can’t help but hold his breath and try to back away, but then he recalls that his position is ‘fixed’ right now.

“It’s not me that’s going to kill you, it’s the throne… Does Your Majesty really not feel anything about your own body since your succession?”

“You have no disposition to be emperor, and it happens to be that the dynasty’s fortunes are declining. Hence the throne is stripping you of your life.”

Bai Yanze goes quiet. Yang Chongyin has hit the bullseye.

And he does certainly feel it. Since he succeeded the throne, his body seems to have worsened, weaker even than before… Especially in these two years, it seems to have accelerated.

Or he wouldn’t have had no sons or daughters several years after he has ascended and married… The imperial physician has told him after diagnosis that his constitution is quite weak and it will be hard for him to have kids.

Yet, he didn’t use to be like this, or the ex-emperor would have never let him be crown prince no matter how much he liked him. He would never have allowed a successor to him that is sickly and unable to produce offsprings.

He even suspected if he had perhaps fallen victim to someone’s scheme without him noticing before he succeeded and harmed his constitution.

Therefore, he often ordered the Imperial Physicians’ to concoct all sorts of medicine and pills in secret for him to improve his body, but none of that has worked. He can tell his body not only didn’t improve, but it was continuing to get worse. So this was the reason?

Despite Yang Chongyin’s treasonous actions thus far, but Bai Yanze can conclude that Yang Chongyin is telling the truth.

Since… He even knows about that secret that was that secretive he thought he would carry to his grave.

Bai Yanze asks for confirmation, “is the dynasty’s fortune really declining?”

Yang Chongyin nods, “if Your Majesty really has to ask that, I would suspect if Your Majesty had ever actually read those reports delivered to court these few years.”

“Whether this is a failing state that would or would not be a shame to let go of, Your Majesty should know best.”

Yang Chongyin pauses, and decides not to give him time to think, so he asks, “I’ve said all I needed to. Perhaps I can know Your Majesty’s answer now?”

He offers the first option with an indifferent tone, “is it to be killed here?”

——Though to make sure Bai Lianhua wouldn’t feel guilty, he would keep his life, but that’s not something Bai Yanze needs to know.

Bai Yanze, as expected, appears anxious when hearing that.

Yang Chongyin then says the second option with the same calm tone, “or to be publicly shamed by me revealing what you did for all to see, and thus forever be labelled as a treacherous kinslayer, disloyal, unfilial, dishonourable?”

Bai Yanze would be too scared to gamble this too. Yang Chongyin, the State Oracle, would be implicitly trusted on what he says… If he really does blow the lid on this, it’s hard to tell how many people there would remain that trusted him over Yang Chongyin.

Besides, what he did wasn’t a perfect crime either. For his convenience, he often had to dismiss the servants helping out next to him so that he could brew the medicine alone. If this were investigated, there’s a pattern to be found there… If so, then perhaps he would have to face a forced abdication after all.

Observing Bai Yanze’s changes in expression, Yang Chongyin offers him the last option, “or, Your Majesty abdicates of your own volition, saving your honour and yourself from suffering the life-draining pain of the throne.”

Bai Yanze starts to waver… The throne is important, sure, but that’s of course with the given that he still has his life to enjoy it. He did already enjoy several years on the throne, so it’s not that bad a deal.

And given the situation is worsening, it might not be a bad thing to pull out early… Why was he overjoyed when he heard Yang Chongyin report that an artefact is discovered, permitting him to leave the capital immediately and even immediately visiting him, unable to wait a moment longer after he returned?

Of course it was because he was also a bit anxious. Since his succession, for some reason, even if he didn’t do anything dramatic, just being luxurious at best, but now while the prosperity appeared to last, there’s already all sorts of signs appearing, as if it’s ready to collapse… He wanted to feel a sense of security from Yang Chongyin.

Then, it turned out, Yang Chongyin is the most insecure factor here.

“My life would be spared?”

“Spared, of course.”

“My quality of life?”

“You can be guaranteed treatment of that of a Prince, but you won’t be able to leave your residence easily… Which I doubt Your Majesty would mind, since in your imperial palace you couldn’t leave often either.”

——So, house arrest… If a certain level of standard in treatment is guaranteed, then it’s not unacceptable.

“Will you honour your words?”

“Of course… Your Majesty should also know that as the State Oracle, I can’t easily go back on my words.”

Bai Yanze is still somewhat unwilling, however, saying with a despising tone, “I may be unfilial; an unvirtuous emperor, but you’re not a good person yourself either.”

Or why would you not have said anything early? When the ex-emperor was still there… And don’t give me that crap about you only learning about it right now.

Yang Chongyin’s expression doesn’t change, and he doesn’t deny it.

Though these are outside of what Bai Lianhua should know, as he is unsure if Bai Lianhua would still feel any affection towards the ex-emperor… Given they’re blood relatives.

He might not be the one to do it, but he is still guilty of inaction.

Bai Yanze asks, “after I abdicate, who do you feel like pushing onto the throne?”

He wouldn’t believe it if Yang Chongyin had no one he wanted to… He might have only come to the Residence on a whim, so, that Yang Chongyin could take this opportunity so decisively must be because he already has someone he wishes to promote, and is already lying in wait.

“Would this person not have his longevity affected?”

Yang Chongyin appears confident, “of course not… You don’t have to worry about him; I would never harm him of all people.”

With the spell circle in place, Bai Yanze will remain restrained here. So Yang Chongyin leaves the room, ignoring the head of the eunuchs and the four imperial guards suppressed on the side, he heads for Bai Lianhua who’s staying in another room to bring him in to see Bai Yanze.

For Yang Chongyin, he probably expects Bai Lianhua not to know anything about his conversation with Bai Yanze… Though, while he is in another room, but through the system’s little projection, he’s been spectating along to the progression in the room, and is currently feeling complicated.

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