The Royal Capital.
The Imperial Palace.
The Imperial Study.
Tap, tap, tap-
Ji Minghao's gaze was somber as his fingers tapped lightly and incessantly against his desk.
Just then.
Creak-
The half-closed door was pushed open, and a woman in a long palace gown gracefully stepped over the threshold.
"Greetings, Your Majesty!" The woman dipped in a curtsy to Ji Minghao.
Ji Minghao raised his eyes to the woman before him, a faint smile touching his lips.
"No need for such formalities, Hui'er. You're pregnant now; you shouldn't exert yourself!"
"As the reigning Human Emperor, Your Majesty is still entitled to the proper courtesies from me." The woman smiled faintly.
As she spoke, she stroked her belly, her expression full of maternal affection.
"Did you come alone today? Where is Mother?" Ji Minghao asked.
"How could Aunt fail to answer Your Majesty's summons? She will arrive shortly!" the woman said.
Just then.
Tap, tap, tap-
Soft footsteps approached from afar.
"Aunt is here!" said the pregnant woman named Hui'er.
Only a moment later.
A woman who appeared to be in her twenties, dignified and radiantly beautiful, appeared before them.
"Greetings, Mother!" Ji Minghao rose from his chair, descended the steps before his desk, and bowed to the dignified woman.
"You are too courteous, Your Majesty!" the woman said. "What urgent matter prompted this sudden summons?"
"He has passed away in meditation!" Ji Minghao said.
"What?!" Shock swept across the face of the dignified woman who had just arrived, her pupils trembling slightly.
"Your Majesty, he only just acted yesterday, and he looked exactly as he did eight hundred years ago, still possessed of world-shaking might and brimming with life. How could he have passed away?" Hui'er asked beside them, doubt and surprise in her eyes.
"Yesterday was a bluff, the