A Despairing Figure Slumped on the Dragon Throne

"Rebellion?" Xu Chengjing's tone carried a hint of disdain. Clad in purple-gold soul tool armor, he strode toward the imperial dais, followed by the two great soul engineer legions known as the empire's protecting hands.

With every step he took, the hearts of everyone in the hall seemed to throb along with it. Looking at Xu Chengjin seated high upon the dragon throne, Xu Chengjing curled his lips into a smile and said:

"What rebellion? Imperial Brother, don't put it so harshly. I am merely..."

"Bullshit! You've already fought your way into the imperial palace hall. If this isn't rebellion, then what is? You treacherous rebel!"

Before Xu Chengjing could finish, a voice rang out from his left, directly interrupting him.

He turned toward the source and saw a middle-aged man in crimson robes standing there with his head held high. The man pointed at Xu Chengjing, his face filled with the arrogant pride of someone who believed he stood on the side of justice.

"Mm, I know you. You're Hou Anshen, Mingdu's famous kept man. If you hadn't hooked up with a Rank-8 Soul Engineer, Mingdu Soul Engineer Academy would have expelled you long ago. After graduating, you entered the imperial court."

"On the surface, you proclaim yourself fair and incorruptible, claiming that everything you have was earned through your own efforts. But behind the scenes, you repeatedly relied on your Rank-8 Soul Engineer wife to smuggle goods into the former Three Douluo Kingdoms, reaping enormous profits."

The instant Xu Chengjing finished speaking, veins bulged on Hou Anshen's face. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he panted like a bull. "You're talking nonsense! How dare you spout such nonsense in this great hall! Who doesn't know that I, Hou Anshen, am upright and incorruptible, untouched by wealth or lust? This is slander!"

"Heh, I can't be bothered to reason with you. You aren't worthy of hearing it!"

After saying that, Xu Chengjing turned to look at Xu Chengjin on the throne. The furious Hou Anshen at his side looked like nothing more than a clown jumping about.

"You..."

Seeing that Xu Chengjing had actually ignored him, Hou Anshen was about to speak up and denounce him, displaying his noble character. But the moment he uttered a single word, he suddenly felt the world spin—and then he saw a familiar body.

Hou Anshen felt that it seemed to be his own body. Then his consciousness sank into darkness.

Butler Zhao appeared from nowhere, standing beside Hou Anshen's corpse with a Rank-8 Soul Tool broadsword in hand.

The people in the hall were so frightened that none of them dared to speak. Xu Chengjin sat upon the throne, staring at Xu Chengjing, and said in a slightly trembling voice:

"Royal Brother, what exactly are you trying to do?"

"What am I trying to do? It seems Imperial Brother still hasn't understood the situation!"

Disdain colored Xu Chengjing's voice. As he spoke, he took a black-gold scroll from his soul tool ring and raised it above his head.

The entire scroll was black-gold, upon it painted a lifelike purple-gold giant dragon with clearly layered scales. Above the dragon's upturned head hung a blazing golden sun, its crimson-gold rays spreading outward. Beneath its lowered tail was a silver moon, cold as water, its moonlight flowing along the edges of the scroll.

The golden sun and silver moon echoed one another, forming an interweaving of light and shadow on either side of the dragon's body. As the light shifted, the dragon appeared all the more alive.

The dragon, golden sun, and silver moon on the scroll respectively represented the imperial family's three great inherited martial souls: the Purple Radiance Annihilating Heaven Dragon, the sun, and the moon.

This scroll also symbolized the empire's highest-secret imperial edict, an edict that normally only the emperor had the authority to issue.

"This is an edict that the late emperor secretly entrusted to me before his death. He said that if Imperial Brother failed to strive forward, fixated only on making peace with the former Three Douluo Kingdoms while forgetting the Sun Moon Empire's grand ambition of unifying the continent, then I could reveal this edict to the world and take his place."

"Nonsense! That edict is forged! Father could never have said such words!"

Xu Chengjin abruptly rose to his feet. Soul power surged around him, and a golden sun appeared above his head. Then seven Spirit Rings emerged around him—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black. With the release of his martial soul, the air around him warped slightly beneath the heat of his Sun Martial Soul.

Only now did he understand that Xu Chengjing had not merely come for his throne today. He intended to nail him to the pillar of shame in imperial history, giving himself a "legitimate" excuse that everything had been done for the empire because Xu Chengjin was weak and incompetent.

"Xu Chengjing, have I not treated you well? Is this how you repay me?"

"Treated me well? Hahaha, ridiculous! In this entire empire, the one who most wishes for my death is probably you, the Imperial Brother who supposedly treats me so well! If you treated me well, why did you place so many spies around me? Why did you openly and secretly suppress me? Wasn't it because you feared I would threaten the stability of your throne?

Fine! Today, I shall grant your wish. By the late emperor's decree, I ask Imperial Brother to abdicate!"

The smile on Xu Chengjing's face vanished in an instant, replaced by mockery and icy hostility toward Xu Chengjin.

"I did this for the stability of the empire. Your ideas are far too radical and would not benefit the people. If you were allowed to control the empire, you would sooner or later lead it into an abyss of eternal ruin."

"I would lead it into an abyss? What about you? Are you any better? It would have been one thing if you had merely ceded some land and resources, but you actually wanted to open our core technologies to the former Three Douluo Kingdoms and Shrek! You even prohibited Virtue Hall from researching large-scale, fixed-installation soul tool bombs!"

The more Xu Chengjing spoke, the more agitated he became, and his tone grew increasingly forceful.

"You are digging up the very foundation that has made the Sun Moon Empire strong until today! If they surpass us and the empire's grand ambition of unifying the continent is utterly reduced to nothing, you will become a sinner for all eternity! Even after you die, you will have no face to meet our ancestors!"

"Nonsense! I did this so that the Four Douluo Nations could coexist peacefully. This is great love! This is... Ah!"

Hearing Xu Chengjing's words, Xu Chengjin immediately retorted. But before he could finish, three heads fell from above and interrupted him. He stared at them, his eyes filled with panic.

The owners of those three heads were precisely the three Rank-9 Soul Engineers most loyal to Xu Chengjin. They could be said to have been his greatest reliance.

Ye Xishui also strode into the hall with unrestrained steps. Behind her followed three people in black robes, each carrying a corpse. They were clearly the bodies of those three Rank-9 Soul Engineers.

"I had originally planned to persuade them a little longer, but I never expected them to be so loyal to you, their emperor. Since that was the case, I had no choice but to send them down first to scout the way for their master."

Ye Xishui's voice traveled through the air and reached the ears of everyone in the hall, sending chills down the backs of the already frightened nobles and officials.

"Hmph, did you think I was so free that I had been standing here chatting nonsense with you all this time? I was waiting for my people to deal with your reinforcements. What exactly were you waiting for?"

"Oh, right. You needn't wait for reinforcements from the Evil Lord Soul Engineer Legion or the Royal Soul Engineer Legion either, because neither of them is coming."

Xu Chengjing's words reached Xu Chengjin's ears, causing him to collapse onto the dragon throne, his face filled with despair.