The Past

The empress dowager's voice rose to a hysterical pitch.

At last, the black-clad figure on the floor raised his head.

His face was utterly ordinary, the kind one would forget the moment it vanished into a crowd.

Yet his eyes held the detachment of someone who had seen through the ways of the world.

"Your Majesty."

"You've become obsessed."

"Granny said she verified it herself."

The empress dowager stiffened. The frenzy in her eyes slowly froze.

"Verified... it?"

"She may have fooled the treasures of Demon Suppression Headquarters, but not Granny's Heaven's Eye Divine Art. There is no doubt: Jiang Yuechu is human, of pure human blood, without the slightest trace of demonic aura in her body."

"The rumors back then were no more than chasing shadows and snatching at the wind. Or perhaps there was... some other reason. We still don't know."

"But whatever the case, Jiang Yuechu is not the offspring of a Demon."

The empress dowager swayed and collapsed onto her couch.

"Human..."

"How could she be human..."

She murmured to herself, as though she had aged decades in an instant.

If Jiang Yuechu was human...

Then hadn't everything she had plotted for twenty years become a joke?

"The Liu Household is an Aristocratic Clan with a thousand years of history. Its fortunes rise and fall with the nation's."

The man in black rose, his figure gradually melting into the darkness.

"To the Liu Household, it does not matter who sits on that throne. What matters is that Great Tang must not descend into chaos, and the human race's fortune must not be severed."

"A prodigy like Jiang Yuechu is the future of the human race, and someone the Liu Household is willing to cultivate goodwill with."

"As for His Highness Prince Jing..."

His voice grew fainter