Faced with this desperate situation, Empress Murong Wan finally grew terrified. Her voice began to tremble. "You... What do you want? Gold, silver, and jewelry? Miracle Elixirs? Power and wealth? I can give you anything. The Treasure Vault of Kunning Palace is in the secret chamber. The key is under my pillow. Just go and take it..."
"What I want isn’t any of those things." Xia Wuyang walked to the side of her couch and looked down at her.
Their eyes met. Suddenly, Murong Wan felt that the eyes before her were somehow familiar.
Deep and ice-cold, they held a monstrous hatred in their depths, as if they wanted to swallow her whole, leaving nothing behind.
’Where have I seen eyes like that before?’
She searched her memory. Many years ago... ’That’s right! Luo Jin!’
The look that bitch gave her before she died was just like this, filled with hatred. Even the eyes themselves were quite similar. This was because Xia Wuyang had shed his disguise.
’But Luo Jin died decades ago. How could someone have eyes so much like hers?’ Suddenly, Murong Wan thought of someone.
"Who in the world are you?" she shrieked. She seemed to have guessed something, and her body began to tremble.
The man in green didn’t answer. He simply reached up and slowly peeled the Human Skin Mask from his face.
An old, wrinkled face appeared before Murong Wan’s eyes—so familiar, yet so utterly unbelievable.
White hair, wrinkles, cloudy pupils... But right now, those eyes that should have been cloudy were terrifyingly bright. A strange light swirled in their depths—the sign of a Celestial Human Perfection’s Cultivation naturally manifesting!
Even now, Xia Wuyang had not revealed his true trump card; he was still holding much in reserve.
Murong Wan’s mind went blank with a deafening ROAR. Guessing was one thing, but seeing it come true was another entirely.
Her mouth hung open and her eyes bulged. The color drained from her face at a visible rate until she was as pale as a sheet, and her body trembled more violently than ever.
She recognized this face. In fact, in the entire Imperial Palace, in all of Great Xia, there was hardly a soul who didn’t.
The senile, lecherous elder Crown Prince from Wenhua Hall. The invalid everyone was certain wouldn’t live past summer. The dying Xia Wuyang she had just been mocking. This was him.
’But how could it be him?’
Her lips trembled, and her voice was barely a whisper. "Impossible... This is impossible... You... you’re Xia Wuyang! No, no, you can’t be... How could that old waste be a Celestial Human at Super Grade Perfection? This is impossible! It’s completely impossible!"
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Or perhaps, she didn’t dare to.
"An old waste, am I?" Xia Wuyang laughed.
This time, he used his real voice. Not a rejuvenated, youthful one, but the voice he had before his recovery.
Though aged, his voice was resonant and powerful, carrying the unique, magnetic vibration of a Celestial Human at the Perfection stage. "That’s right. In your eyes, I am indeed an old waste with only a few days left to live. My Cultivation crippled, my future ruined, lost in debauchery day after day, just clinging to a miserable existence... How could such a worthless thing ever be worthy of the noble Empress’s attention?"
He leaned down, moving closer to Murong Wan until they were less than three feet apart.
Murong Wan could clearly see the bloodshot veins in his eyes and the story of hardship and hatred etched into every wrinkle on his face. The sight made her tremble from head to toe.
Xia Wuyang stared at her and continued, "And yet, it is I, this ’waste,’ who remembers with perfect clarity how in Luoyuan Commandery City, a Soul-Seeking Arrow from Prince Zhenxi’s Mansion pierced an old Nanny’s throat. She was my mother’s wet nurse, the person closest to her in the world."
Murong Wan shuddered, a violent tremor wracking her body.
Xia Wuyang continued, "I remember forty-one years ago, in the dungeons of the Ministry of Justice, someone bribed the guards to poison my food. If I hadn’t been lucky enough to avoid eating it, I would have died then and there."
"And forty years ago, during a banquet in the Imperial Palace, someone made an attempt on my Crown Prince Consort’s life in front of everyone. Fortunately, she was vigilant; otherwise, she would have been lost forever."
"But most important of all was my mother’s death. If you hadn’t been scheming behind the scenes, Xia Shengming would never have been so decisive. You can claim at least a third of the credit for her death."
...
He recounted the events one by one, his voice terrifyingly calm.
With every sentence he uttered, Murong Wan’s face grew another shade paler, and her trembling intensified.
’Some of these things, she had ordered herself. Others, she had her confidants carry out. Some were things she had merely mentioned offhand, and her subordinates, eager to please, had taken it upon themselves to act without her even bothering to check the results.’
’Over the decades, she had harmed so many people she couldn’t even remember all the details. She had been especially ruthless toward the staff of the Crown Prince’s Mansion and the followers of Empress Luo Jin.’
’But she had never imagined—not in her wildest dreams—that this seemingly senile elder Crown Prince remembered it all!’
’Not only did he remember, he had investigated every last detail, missing nothing.’
"You... you’ve been pretending all this time?" Murong Wan’s voice was distorted with terror, and she trembled uncontrollably. "All these years, it was all an act! You recovered your Cultivation Power long ago, but you kept pretending to be an invalid!"
"What else did you expect?" Xia Wuyang didn’t deny it. After all, reaching his current level in just a year would be too unbelievable.
He straightened up, clasping his hands behind his back. He no longer concealed the aura of a Celestial Human at the Perfection stage, and the very air in the hall seemed to tremble under his might. "Was I supposed to just wait for you, for Xia Shengming, for all of you to kill me?"
He walked to the window and gazed out at the swirling snow, his back to Murong Wan. "I endured for decades. I pretended for decades. I feigned sickness, feigned being an invalid, feigned lechery, feigned senility... I kept up the act until everyone believed it. Until even a viper like you dared to mock my mother to my face, without the slightest suspicion."
"Now, I am done pretending." He turned, his eyes blazing with light.
Murong Wan completely broke down, no longer able to control her emotions.
’She knew with absolute certainty that since Xia Wuyang dared to reveal himself and say all this to her face, he had no intention of letting her live. How could she not be terrified?’
’All of her defenses were gone. She was a lamb for the slaughter. How could she possibly be a match for Xia Wuyang?’
’She finally understood what she was facing tonight. Not a dying elder Crown Prince, but an avenger who had endured for decades before finally breaking through to Celestial Human Perfection!’
’A devil who possessed absolute Power and hated her to the bone. He had never even considered letting her go.’
"No... please..." she began to beg, tears smearing her exquisite makeup. Her beautiful face was now a mask of terror. "Wuyang... Crown Prince... back then... I was forced! It wasn’t my idea. It was His Majesty... Your Majesty was the one who hinted I should do it. I didn’t want to! He said Empress Luo’s influence overshadowed the throne, that the Luo Clan was too ambitious... I... I was just following orders! You can’t blame me for all of this."

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