Although Han Han panicked inside when his name was suddenly called, he didn't let it show on his face.
Because he knew that if he made even the slightest mistake, he would die.
Along with his younger sister.
But the person behind him might not.
Qin Wangchuan had told the Qin Clan's higher-ups long ago that he would be assassinated.
The earlier simulations had revealed that the person behind Han Han had also come to the banquet.
The moment his name was called, the Great Emperor of the Qin Clan carefully observed everyone's expressions. It would be easy to flush that person out.
And then follow the clues back to the source.
It was a calculated move, an open scheme that couldn't be avoided.
(Young Master, we found him.)
Hearing the message in his mind, Qin Wangchuan's lips curled as he looked at the youth before him.
"You seem surprised?"
Han Han tilted his head slightly and forced a stiff smile. "Of course I'm surprised. I never thought... His Highness the Young Master would know an insignificant nobody like me."
After speaking, he rubbed the fingers, damp with cold sweat, against the Black Nail hidden in his sleeve. Beneath the fabric, his muscles were taut.
His clear eyes stared straight at Qin Wangchuan, dark currents seeming to swirl deep in his pupils.
Han Han seemed to be considering something. He continued, "I wonder if the Young Master..."
"Spare me the pleasantries." Qin Wangchuan waved a hand and pointed to the formation beneath their feet. "Our conversation can't be heard by anyone at the banquet."
His gaze fixed sharply on Han Han. "Han Han, how about joining me?"
Han Han's body stiffened, and his pupils shrank to pinpricks.
His hand, hidden in his sleeve, clenched the Black Nail so tightly that his knuckles turned bluish white.
Is he recruiting me? He actually wants me to join him?
But my younger sister is still in their hands... If I betray them...
"The Young Master must be joking." Han Han's mouth twisted into a smile uglier than crying. His voice was as dry as sandpaper scraping against stone. "A lowly ant like me could never..."
"Your younger sister is already gone." Qin Wangchuan cut him off abruptly, his voice low, each word like a blade. "Han Xue died long ago, but the blood debt of the thirty-six members of the Han Clan remains unpaid."
"Even if you're the only one left, you should live on for their sake."
"So join me. I can help you."
Those words crashed into Han Han's heart like a heavy hammer.
He stumbled half a step back, his mind reeling.
She's dead... Just as I thought...
With that mysterious person's merciless nature, how could they ever truly let my sister and me reunite?
All those years, he hadn't been idle. He had tried desperately to gather news about his sister, and had naturally learned the truth.
But he couldn't bring himself to believe it.
Someone without power didn't even have the right to question the truth.
If that was the case...
Han Han looked at the man before him and suddenly chuckled. His laughter carried a hint of madness, though tears glimmered faintly in the corners of his eyes.
"Ha... Hahaha!"
"Help me?!"
"Isn't this all because of you great people? My family ended up like this because of you!"
Then he slowly raised his head, his gaze turning vicious, bloodshot veins spreading across his eyes.
"I'm just a nobody... I don't get to choose!"
Before his words had even faded, the Black Nail flashed coldly from his sleeve, trailing a black blur as it stabbed straight for Qin Wangchuan's throat!
Qin Wangchuan gazed at the youth's twisted expression, a complicated emotion flickering in his eyes.
He understood Han Han's life better than anyone. This seemingly frail youth had a purity of heart few could match.
He had decent talent and was an upright person.
Back then, at the foot of Xuantian Cliff, Han Han could have plucked every Nine-Leaf Dao Grass, but in the end, he took only six leaves—not a single one more.
He had a thousand reasons to sink into darkness, yet all you had to do was look into his eyes to see that his heart had stayed clean and untainted.
"What a pity." Qin Wangchuan sighed softly, Spiritual Power gathering into a blade in his palm as killing intent flashed in his eyes.
But in that split second, Han Han's form flickered strangely. Taixu Steps activated, leaving an afterimage in place as his real body appeared at Qin Wangchuan's side.
But he hadn't come to attack.
The vicious look from moments ago had vanished without a trace. He gripped Qin Wangchuan's arm tightly with one hand, desperation and urgency in his eyes.
"I know very little about him. All I know is that he's from an Imperial Clan." Han Han lowered his voice urgently, a trace of black blood at the corner of his mouth. "This Black Nail might help you..."
Before he could finish, he suddenly broke into violent coughing and spat out a mouthful of pitch-black blood. His face turned as pale as paper. Yet he still gathered every last bit of strength and pressed the Black Nail into Qin Wangchuan's hand.
After doing all this,
Han Han's body slowly slid down, drifting to the ground like a withered leaf.
His once-clear eyes remained open, but all their light had faded.
He was dead.
The restriction planted inside him had triggered, killing him instantly.
Perhaps the person behind him had grown suspicious, or perhaps not—but what difference did it make?
He was only a nobody.
Dead was dead.
Qin Wangchuan stood where he was, the Black Nail bearing a Seal Talisman lying in his palm.
When Han Han passed it to him, he had kept the pointed end facing outward, afraid it might prick him.
From the very beginning, Han Han had never intended to tear off the Talisman Paper or use the Black Nail.
What he wanted was a chance...
A chance for the Qin Clan's Young Master to learn the truth and avenge him.
"You really... didn't say one word too many." Qin Wangchuan looked down at the youth he had never known, yet somehow knew so well. "Just like when you plucked those leaves—you didn't take a single one more."
The Qin Clan's guards had already arrived. They lifted the body.
Qin Wangchuan crouched down and gently closed Han Han's eyes.
The youth's eyelashes trembled faintly against his palm, then fell still.
Silently, Qin Wangchuan placed the bloodstained Black Nail on the Brocade Cloth held by a guard at his side. The warmth lingering on his fingertips was soon swept away by the night wind.
"Why aren't you moving?!"
A low shout rang out like thunder.
In an instant, the Great Emperor of the Qin Clan struck. A flash of cold light passed, and the seven people previously marked as suspicious were subdued without putting up the slightest resistance.
Qin Wangchuan slowly rose. The wind stirred by his robes brushed across the youth's pale face, like a sigh no one could hear.
"I was naive."
"If you're a chess piece, how can you choose where you're placed?"
The instant those words fell, the aura around him changed abruptly.
His previously restrained Spiritual Power flared like lit gunpowder, exploding through his meridians. In his eyes, usually as calm as an abyss, blazed an inferno that could burn the heavens!
"If you love playing games so much, if you love playing chess, then you should know—"
"Once a move is made, there's no taking it back."
Qin Wangchuan's voice echoed between heaven and earth. "Today, not one of you is getting away!"
He suddenly raised his head and looked toward the firmament, a fierce glint blazing in his eyes. "How much longer are you going to watch?!"
In an instant, Taixu Steps activated, and Qin Wangchuan's figure shot skyward like a startled swan.
The moment the Guluan Sword left its sheath, the entire world darkened.
A brilliant Sword Light cleaved through the sky, accompanied by a sharp shout:
"Cut!"
Where the Sword Light passed, the clouds split apart.
A hidden Magic Treasure shattered when its concealment was broken, its fragments raining down like a shower.
High above, a gigantic golden eye was forced to appear, Dao Patterns flowing through its pupil and making one's heart tremble.
"That's... the Heavenly Eye?!"
"A Great Emperor is spying on us!"
"How could anyone spy on a Qin Clan banquet without being detected..."
The banquet guests erupted in an uproar. What shocked them even more was this: if even the Great Emperor of the Qin Clan hadn't noticed the watcher, how had Qin Wangchuan sensed him?
The golden eye slowly closed and vanished into the void.
The Black Nail, his trump card, and the people who had come with him had all fallen into the Qin Clan's hands. Naturally, the person behind them wouldn't let the matter rest.
They might well try to seize them by force.
But what happened after that was beyond Qin Wangchuan's control.
He drifted back to the ground and strode toward the banquet hall, his robes fluttering.
With every step, a ring of Spirit Patterns shimmered across the bluestone beneath his feet, and his aura grew stronger.
His Spiritual Power was surging beyond his control. He was about to break through...
But just then,
A tender-looking little girl in a red-and-gold jacket suddenly rose to her feet. The golden threads on her skirt shimmered like flames in the lamplight.
She pointed a slender finger at Qin Wangchuan, her voice carrying three parts anger and seven parts disbelief. "That sword strike just now was clearly the Li Clan Sword Seal! Where did you steal it from?!"
Qin Wangchuan didn't even spare her a sidelong glance. He strode past her, his presence as imposing and unshakable as a mountain.
His black robes billowed, and a sharp burst of force sent the girl staggering back. His cold voice came wrapped in pressure that brooked no defiance.
"Don't block the way."
His gaze swept over the crowd and locked straight onto the figure in black seated among the Ji Clan.
"Ji Wuchen." His voice wasn't loud, yet it made everyone's hearts jolt. Thunder seemed to churn beneath his eyes.
"How much longer are you going to sit there?"
Before you continue