Chapter 1105: Better to Kill by Mistake Than Let One Escape!

"Your Majesty, the Chancellor is here!" A eunuch rushed into the hall with the urgent report.

"Ah!" Xuan Chengtian, who had been pacing anxiously, went deathly pale, as though a thunderbolt had struck him from a clear sky.

Noble Consort Chang had told him that once he controlled the troops in the capital, his imperial elder sister would be powerless against him; once he controlled the troops in the capital, she would not be able to enter the imperial palace; once he controlled the military, even Wei's three great sects would throw their full support behind him.

The reasoning was sound. He had agreed with it completely, which was why he had made his decision.

But how had Imperial Elder Sister entered the palace?

Little did he know that the Noble Consort Chang he held in such regard had fled the moment she finished stirring up the trouble. Even Noble Consort Chang herself had never believed Xuan Wei could be controlled so easily.

Xuan Chengtian was still wondering where he could hide when a group of people strode in from outside. Xuan Wei was at their head.

A group of cultivators followed behind her: the cultivators from Wei's three great sects who guarded the imperial palace.

Xuan Wei strode into the hall. The sight of her covered in blood sent Xuan Chengtian retreating step by step. The force of her presence made him feel as though she meant to swallow him alive.

Hadn't troops already been sent to surround Tianwei Residence? How had Imperial Elder Sister gotten out?

Hadn't he ordered the palace gates shut and placed under strict guard? How had she gotten in?

Once he controlled the military, weren't the three great sects supposed to come over to his side? Why were they all following behind Imperial Elder Sister?

The picture in his imagination had been beautiful, everything seeming only natural. The reality before him was brutally different, and it terrified Xuan Chengtian to the core.

He backed into the wall. There was nowhere left to retreat.

Facing her younger brother, pressed to the wall with fear written all over his face, Xuan Wei asked in anguish, "Why did you do this?"

"Why?" Xuan Chengtian muttered. Then he suddenly gave a bitter laugh. "You forced me!"

Xuan Wei said, "I forced you? Forced you to do what? How did I force you?"

Xuan Chengtian abruptly straightened and flung both hands about wildly. "What kind of emperor am I? Who doesn't know that the entire civil administration and army of Wei are under your control? I'm nothing but a figurehead! I'm just the fig leaf you pushed forward to cover your ambitions!"

Xuan Wei shook her head in pain. "I have never thought that way. I have been handing power over to you. Can't you see that?"

"Handing over power? What power have you handed over? If I appoint an official and you don't like him, you can overturn the appointment whenever you please. That's what you call handing over power? If you truly wanted to relinquish authority, you should have withdrawn completely!" His voice was almost a roar.

Xuan Wei said painfully, "You have been frivolous and fond of play since childhood. If you suddenly take over the government, there will inevitably be matters you fail to consider properly. Affairs of state are not child's play. You cannot act willfully. I could only withdraw gradually, step by step."

"Excuses! They're all excuses!" Xuan Chengtian roared like an enraged beast. His emotions had completely run out of control as he thrashed and struggled wildly.

Two cultivators immediately stepped forward and restrained him.

Xuan Wei turned and barked at a eunuch, "Summon Jiang Shiji to see me at once."

She needed the Mist Bureau to understand what was happening.

But word soon came back that Jiang Shiji had already been killed.

Nor was it only Jiang Shiji. Xuan Wei tried to summon several generals so she could stabilize the situation in the capital as quickly as possible, only to discover that those generals had also been murdered.

They had been killed at almost exactly the same time. This had clearly been meticulously planned, every critical point timed just right. There was no chance Xuan Chengtian could have arranged something like this himself.

After Xuan Wei laid out her reasoning, the people from the three great sects also realized something was wrong and immediately began investigating who had arranged it all.

Xuan Chengtian knew that if he spoke, things would turn out exactly as Noble Consort Chang had warned him: Imperial Elder Sister would never spare the women.

To protect his women, he actually managed to act like a man for once and stubbornly refused to say a word.

With the cooperation of the three great sects, the guards who had killed Nan Renyu were quickly seized. Under interrogation, they confessed that Noble Consort Chang and Noble Consort Sang had ordered them to do it.

"No!" The instant Xuan Chengtian heard the guards confess, he panicked. He dropped to his knees with a thud and almost crawled to Xuan Wei's feet, clutching her leg. "Imperial Elder Sister, spare them! They're innocent. It was all my idea. They were only following my orders. They're my women. They're your sisters-in-law! Elder Sister, I'm begging you. I'm begging you to spare them!"

The elders of the three great sects went black in the face at the sight of their emperor. If it had been theirs to decide, they would have wanted to kill him on the spot.

It was not because they despised him for being spineless and utterly unlike an emperor. Rather, the investigation had uncovered other matters as well. This was not merely aimed at the capital. This dog of an emperor had actually sent similar imperial decrees throughout the entire State of Wei.

A decree by itself would accomplish nothing. Clearly, preparations like those in the capital had very likely already been made in secret elsewhere.

A purge affecting Wei's entire military was no small matter. Something catastrophic was bound to happen. The elders of the three great sects immediately understood how grave the situation was.

Never in their dreams had they imagined that, with an external enemy already threatening the state, any emperor would sabotage himself like this. For the sake of seizing power, he had smashed the very bowl he ate from!

It was something none of them had anticipated, and precisely because they had never imagined it, the enemy had found an opening.

Xuan Wei nearly fainted. She swayed on her feet, but her younger brother was still clinging to her leg.

Once she recovered slightly, Xuan Wei kicked him away and cried out in grief, "Get lost!"

Xuan Chengtian rolled across the floor, then scrambled back toward her, still trying to plead and grab hold of her, only to be stopped by the people from the three great sects.

An elder of Shouzheng Pavilion said gravely to Xuan Wei, "Chancellor, we still need you to step forward and stabilize the situation as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the consequences will be unthinkable!"

"This is a trap laid by someone with intent. They prepared long ago. By the time we send messages to recall the decrees, I'm afraid it will already be too late. What they're exploiting is precisely this gap in time." Xuan Wei shook her head bitterly. Even so, she had to try. She raised her voice. "Have the three great sects immediately send word to their cultivators attached to armies throughout the state. If anyone arrives bearing an imperial decree, do not obey it. Treat the decree bearer as a rebel and seize them immediately!"

"Go, quickly!" The elders of the three great sects urgently waved their subordinates into action.

Xuan Wei continued, "Send orders in my name to every garrison: someone is falsely transmitting imperial decrees. Do not obey them! Order the frontier armies to keep strict watch on the movements of enemy states and report any anomaly at once. Order local officials everywhere to tighten control and guard against anyone taking advantage of the chaos to make trouble..."

After issuing order after order, Xuan Wei abruptly turned toward her sobbing younger brother again and said heavily, "Have the cultivators of the three great sects cooperate with the Imperial Guard. Search the entire palace immediately and drag those two vile women out for me!"

"No, Imperial Elder Sister!" Xuan Chengtian cried out miserably.

Xuan Wei flung her sleeve and strode away.

Before leaving the hall, an elder of Dale Mountain pointed at Xuan Chengtian and told his disciples in a grim voice, "Do not let him take a single step outside. Keep a close watch on him!"

The palace gates opened. Ximen Qingkong entered, and the court officials entered with him.

In the court hall, it was not Xuan Chengtian who sat in audience. Xuan Wei, still covered in blood, stood in the center of the hall facing the assembled officials and rapidly issued one urgent arrangement after another.

The officials who received their orders almost all left at a run to carry them out.

Watching this, the elders of the three great sects sighed inwardly. It was fortunate this woman was here. Only because of her could everything be set in motion in an orderly fashion. Otherwise, who would have listened to whom? After a disaster like this, the whole place would have dissolved into chaos.

A massive search of the inner palace, and then the entire imperial palace, found no trace of Noble Consort Chang or Noble Consort Sang.

After receiving the report, Xuan Wei said coldly, "Investigate every palace gate, large and small. Any gate through which people have entered or left: arrest every guard who was on duty and interrogate them thoroughly!"

"Yes!" The commander of the Imperial Guard accepted the order and hurried away.

It did not take long to learn what had happened to Noble Consort Chang and Noble Consort Sang. The two women had already left through a minor palace gate. Where they had gone was unknown.

Both women had enjoyed the emperor's favor, so it had not been difficult for them to cultivate a few trusted people inside the palace. That was how they had managed to leave so smoothly.

The guards from the minor gate and the eunuchs implicated in the matter were all dragged over, whether they had actually taken part or not. One after another, they were forced to their knees below the steps outside the great hall.

They had already escaped. Xuan Wei's expression was ugly. This only further proved that an external enemy was creating disorder from inside Wei.

Standing high above the kneeling group below the steps, Xuan Wei said in an icy voice, "You allowed imperial consorts to leave the palace without authorization or decree. The crime deserves ten thousand deaths. Execute them all!"

"Chancellor, have mercy..."

A chorus of weeping and pleading immediately rose from below. Xuan Wei remained unmoved and let the Imperial Guard drag them away for execution.

"An external enemy has brought chaos into the inner palace. At a time like this, we cannot leave hidden dangers behind. Better to kill by mistake than let one escape! Every woman in the harem, no matter her origins or background, together with every palace maid and eunuch in the inner palace—leave not one alive. Put them all to death!"

Xuan Wei stood atop the steps with blood still staining her face and gave the order without expression. The wind whipped her skirts about, but could not dispel the deathly chill in her eyes. There was a ruthlessness in them that cut to the bone.

Ximen Qingkong abruptly turned to stare at her, shocked, as though he no longer recognized her.

The elders of the three great sects were also visibly shaken. They looked at one another, yet no one voiced any objection. No one tried to stop her.

It might be cruel, but they all understood that the center of Wei's government could not be allowed to suffer another incident now. No one knew how many accomplices Noble Consort Chang and Noble Consort Sang had, and it would be impossible to investigate them all in a short time. Checking them one by one might take Heaven knew how long.

Who had the energy for that now? Perhaps cutting the knot once and for all truly was the best solution.

Far from stopping her, the disciples of the three great sects gave their full cooperation.

Soon, squad after squad of Imperial Guards poured through the gates into the lanes of the inner palace. Then came the screams and terrified cries, one after another without end. The stench of blood began to fill the entire imperial palace...

The civil officials in Wei's capital had suffered relatively little damage. Most of those murdered were military officers. It was not that the enemy had no desire to strike at the civil officials as well, but an operation on that scale would have required more manpower than the enemy could control.

That was Xuan Wei's judgment. She also understood with painful clarity that this operation had been aimed at crippling Wei's military.

Yet the thing she feared most still happened. By the time messages from the capital reached the various regions, it was already too late.

Generals throughout the state had either been murdered or, if they had good relations with their guard cultivators, had resisted the decree desperately with the cultivators' help and narrowly saved their lives.

Those in the latter group had either fled for their lives or held their troops and made themselves independent.

Worse still, rumors spread claiming that Xuan Wei and Xuan Chengtian were fighting over military power and that each intended to purge the other's people.

Even those who had carried out Xuan Chengtian's decrees were thrown into panic.

Shao Pingbo had prepared several contingencies. Those who fled could be left alone. But whenever a commander held his troops and made himself independent, someone promptly stepped in to persuade him to defect: with so few men, how could he possibly resist the armies of the court? Sooner or later he would die. Some commanders were persuaded and openly issued proclamations declaring their rebellion and allegiance to the State of Jin.

And at last, Jin's long-prepared forces no longer bothered to conceal themselves. They began assembling at full speed and marching rapidly toward the State of Wei!

[End of Chapter 1105]