The crisp sound of breaking bones dragged Xue Lingjun back to reality as well. Seeing Dong Bingtai lying dead on the spot, still clutching his two sons' heads, she stared with her phoenix eyes wide in horror. Slowly, she turned toward the deathly pale Xue Shengjing and pointed at him. "It was him... he conspired with Li Chenzhou to murder my mother. Worthy Consort Dong killed herself out of guilt. He personally assassinated His Majesty, then pinned all the blame on my Second Imperial Brother..." Tears streamed down Xue Lingjun's face as she spoke. Even the night she least dared to remember had not left her feeling as humiliated and heartbroken as she did now. Her account mingled truth with lies. With her intelligence, how could she fail to understand what her second brother wanted her to say?
Xue Daohong had indeed died at Xue Daoming's hands. The palace coup in Benevolence Garden had ended with Xue Daohong slain and Xue Shengjing fleeing. As for the supposed final edict, Li Chenzhou had simply forged it. Xue Lingjun felt that her soul had already died. She only wanted all of this to end as soon as possible.
She seemed to hear Xue Shengjing cursing her as a bitch, then his unrestrained laughter of triumph.
After saying everything she was meant to say, Xue Lingjun's awareness drifted entirely away from the scene. She did not know what she should do, much less where she should go. Someone knelt first-she did not know who-and cried, "Long live His Majesty!" Then the civil and military officials knelt, one after another.
With the unanimous endorsement of the civil and military officials, Xue Shengjing, Prince of Yan, finally took his long-awaited dragon throne with a show of false reluctance. Corpses lay strewn throughout the Hall of