The alloy wall took the full force of a heavy body. A dull crash exploded through the Soul Engineering Laboratory, and metal flakes pattered from the wall.
Wang Shaojie sank into the dented alloy, the faint crack of dislocated bones carrying through the room.
Huo Yuhao stood several steps away, his white clothes spotless. His expression was as cold as the eternal ice of the Far North. He fixed his gaze on Wang Shaojie and spoke evenly, though anger pressed against its breaking point beneath his words. "You shouldn't have said that."
He could calmly endure other people's mockery, schemes, and exclusion when they were aimed at him.
He had seen too many cold stares and heard too many accusations on his journey. Praise or disgrace, none of it mattered to him. But his mother, Huo Yun'er, was the one forbidden scale in his heart that no one could touch.
Anyone who dared trample that long-suffering woman's dignity with filthy words crossed his final line.
Blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, Wang Shaojie struggled to prop himself up. The deliberate wariness he had held onto earlier was gone, replaced by a towering, frenzied hatred.
Every last reservation vanished from his eyes. He glared at Huo Yuhao and roared, "Brat, you're courting death!"
Wang Shaojie had harbored that wariness for some time.
Recently, storms had swept through the Sun Moon Empire's court. The system of imperial princes that had endured for centuries had, in all but name, crumbled.
The imperial bloodline still retained its titles, but its authority had been stripped away layer by layer. Princes who had once looked down on everyone now stood worse off than the children of great clans. Everyone at court knew it, yet no one dared speak of it openly.
The Third Prince