"Rebellion?" Xu Chengjing's tone was laced with contempt. Wearing purple-gold Soul Guidance armor, he strode toward the imperial dais, followed by the empire's two great Soul Engineer Legions, hailed as the hands that protected the nation.
With every step he took, the hearts of everyone in the hall seemed to tremble. He looked at Xu Chengjin, seated high upon the dragon throne, smiled faintly, and said:
"What rebellion? Imperial Brother, don't make it sound so ugly. I am merely..."
"Bullshit! You've already fought your way into the imperial hall! If this isn't rebellion, then what is? You traitorous scoundrel!"
Before Xu Chengjing could finish, a voice came from his left and cut him off.
He turned toward the speaker and saw a middle-aged man in crimson robes standing there, head held high and chest thrust out. The man pointed at Xu Chengjing, his face brimming with the pride of someone who believed he stood on the moral high ground.
"Mm, I know you. You're Hou Anshen, Mingdu's famous kept man. If you hadn't seduced a Rank-8 Soul Engineer, Mingdu Soul Engineer Academy would have expelled you long ago. After graduation, you entered the imperial court."
"On the surface, you claim to be upright and incorruptible, that everything you have was earned by your own efforts. But behind the scenes, you repeatedly used your Rank-8 Soul Engineer wife to smuggle goods into the former Three Douluo Kingdoms and reap enormous profits."
As soon as Xu Chengjing finished speaking, veins bulged across Hou Anshen's face. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he panted like a bull. "You're spouting nonsense! How dare you babble in the imperial hall! Who doesn't know that I, Hou Anshen, am upright and incorruptible, untouched by wealth or beauty? This is slander!"
"Heh. I can't be bothered reasoning with you. You aren't worthy of hearing it!"
After speaking, Xu Chengjing turned to Xu Chengjin on the throne. Hou Anshen, flying into a rage beside him, looked like nothing more than a clown leaping about on a stage.
"You..."
Seeing that Xu Chengjing had ignored him, Hou Anshen was about to speak again and proclaim his noble character. Yet just as he uttered a single word, the world suddenly spun around him, and he saw a familiar body.
Hou Anshen felt that it looked like his own body, and then his consciousness sank into darkness.
Butler Zhao appeared from nowhere, standing beside Hou Anshen's corpse with a large Rank-8 Soul Tool blade in hand.
The sight instantly frightened everyone in the hall into silence. Xu Chengjin sat upon the throne, staring at Xu Chengjing, his voice trembling slightly as he said:
"Royal Brother, what exactly are you trying to do?"
"What am I trying to do? It seems Imperial Brother still hasn't grasped the situation!"
Contempt filled Xu Chengjing's voice. As he spoke, he took a black-gold scroll from his Soul Guidance storage ring and raised it above his head.
The scroll was entirely black and gold, with a lifelike purple-gold dragon painted upon it. The dragon's scales were layered with striking clarity. Above its upturned head hung a blazing golden sun, its crimson-gold rays spreading outward. Beneath its lowered tail rested a silver moon, cold as water, its moonlight flowing along the edges of the scroll.
The golden sun and silver moon echoed one another, creating an interweaving of light and shadow along both sides of the dragon's body. Amid the shifting radiance, the dragon seemed even 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 was a secret edict Father Emperor handed to me before his death. He said that if Imperial Brother failed to strive forward, focused solely on making peace with the former three kingdoms, and forgot the grand ambition of our Sun Moon Empire to unify the continent, then I could produce this edict, announce it to the world, and replace you."
"Nonsense! This edict is forged! Father Emperor could never have said such a thing!"
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 his body—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black. As his Martial Soul was released, the air around him warped slightly under the influence of his Sun Martial Soul.
Only now did he understand that Xu Chengjing did not merely want his throne today. He wanted to nail him to the pillar of shame in imperial history, giving himself the "justified" excuse that he had acted only because Xu Chengjin was weak and incompetent, and for the sake of the empire.
"Xu Chengjing, I have not treated you poorly. Is this how you repay me?"
"Not treated me poorly? Hahaha, ridiculous! In this entire empire, the one who most wished for my death was probably you, the so-called Imperial Brother who 'did not treat me poorly'! If you truly had not treated me poorly, why did you place so many spies around me? Why did you suppress me openly and in secret? Wasn't it because you feared I would threaten the stability of your throne?
"Fine! Today, I will grant your wish. By Father Emperor's decree, I request that Imperial Brother abdicate!"
The smile on Xu Chengjing's face vanished in an instant, replaced by mockery and icy coldness toward Xu Chengjin.
"I did this for the empire's stability. Your ideas are far too radical and would harm the people. If you controlled the empire, you would sooner or later lead it into an abyss of irreversible ruin."
"I would lead it into an abyss? What about you? Are you any better? Letting go of some land and resources would have been one thing, but you actually wanted to open our core technologies to the former Three Douluo Kingdoms and Shrek! You even forbade Virtue Hall from researching large-scale, destructive Fixed-Mount Soul Guidance Bombs!"
The more Xu Chengjing spoke, the more agitated he became, and the fiercer his tone grew.
"You are digging up the very foundation that has made our Sun Moon Empire powerful to this day! If they surpass us and the empire's grand ambition of unifying the continent is completely reduced to nothing, then you will be a sinner for all eternity! After you die, you will be too ashamed to face our ancestors!"
"Nonsense! I did this so that the Four Douluo Nations could coexist peacefully. This is great love! This is... Ah!"
Xu Chengjin immediately retorted upon hearing Xu Chengjing's words. Before he could finish, however, three heads fell from above and interrupted him. He stared at them, his eyes filled with terror.
The owners of those three heads were the three Rank-9 Soul Engineers most loyal to Xu Chengjin. They could be said to have been his greatest support.
Ye Xishui also strode into the hall with uninhibited steps. Behind her followed three black-robed figures, each carrying a corpse. They were clearly the bodies of those three Rank-9 Soul Engineers.
"I had originally intended to persuade them a little longer, but I didn't expect them to be so loyal to you, their emperor. Well, there was no helping it. I could only 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 an icy chill down the backs of those already frightened nobles and officials.
"Hmph, did you think I was so idle that I had been standing here chatting nonsense with you? I was waiting for my people to deal with your reinforcements. What were you waiting for?"
"Oh, right. You don't need to wait for reinforcements from the Evil Lord Soul Engineer Legion or the Royal Soul Engineer Legion either, because neither of them will be coming."
Xu Chengjing's words reached Xu Chengjin's ears, causing him to slump directly onto the dragon throne, his face filled with despair.
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