The Cold Palace held people who had offended the emperor but whose crimes did not warrant death.
It was also where imperial consorts ended up after losing the struggles within the harem. Put plainly, it was the palace's prison.
Its enclosing walls towered overhead. Mottled moss intertwined with trailing vines across their surfaces, as though recounting the vicissitudes this palace had weathered over the years.
Li Chen stepped across the bluestone paving and entered the grounds, a memory from the past surfacing in his mind.
Back then, Li Chen had still been a carefree, irreverent prince who spent every day holed up in the palace, tinkering with his pile of toys.
In truth, the most gifted of the princes had not been the Second Prince, Li Xian, but the Fifth Prince, Li Ran.
It was said that auspicious signs had appeared across heaven and earth when Li Ran was born. Word spread through the palace that he possessed the Innate Dao Embryo Sacred Body, making him a born cultivation prodigy.
Li Ran had shown extraordinary talent from childhood. At nine, his scholarly accomplishments already rivaled the crown prince's, his cultivation talent towered ten heads above the Second Prince's, and when the Previous Emperor tested their grasp of military strategy, he left the Third Prince streets behind.
He was a genius in every respect, possessing abilities far beyond ordinary people-a true chosen son of heaven.
The Previous Emperor had doted on Li Ran, taking him along to court every day.
When receiving foreign envoys, he made a point of introducing Li Ran and letting him show off before them.
He would even "seek" Li Ran's opinion on certain affairs of the Imperial Court, simply to test him.
Without a doubt, Li Ran had performed flawlessly every time. Anyone could see how much the Previous Emperor adored him.
Back then, Li Ran had enjoyed privileges even the crown prince lacked.
Many court officials had speculated that the Previous Emperor might be hinting at something.
Li Ran's mother had also descended from a hereditary noble family. Thanks to the Previous Emperor's affection for Li Ran, her influence had blazed like the midday sun, even showing faint signs of eclipsing the Empress Dowager.
Then, one day five years ago, someone secretly reported that Li Ran was having an affair with the Previous Emperor's favorite consort.
When His Majesty led the Imperial Guard to catch them, he did indeed find Li Ran and the consort naked together on a couch.
According to what Li Chen had heard from the gossiping women in the harem, the crown prince, the Second Prince, and the Third Prince had all been present when the door to that consort's bedchamber was kicked open. Besides those three, the Empress Dowager had been there as well.
There was no point asking why Li Chen had only heard about it. He had not gone to join the spectacle.
Actually, Li Chen could understand why the crown prince, the Second Prince, and the Empress Dowager had been there. All three were in the Imperial Capital, after all, and even inside the palace.
The Third Prince's presence was absurd, though. The man spent year after year at the border, yet on the one occasion he "happened" to return, he had stumbled upon something this momentous?
His Majesty had reportedly been beside himself with rage. He had killed the consort on the spot, then ordered Li Ran's eyes gouged out and the tendons in his wrists and ankles severed. He had also had him castrated before locking him in the Cold Palace.
That was how a peerless genius had fallen. Many people felt that, in the end, he had simply exposed too much of his sharp edge.
Li Chen thought it was neither that simple nor particularly complicated.
Given the influence Li Ran's mother had wielded at the time, she must have arranged plenty of protection for him.
Yet that protection had suddenly vanished for a certain stretch of time. Surely someone had seized the opportunity to tamper with things.
Those protecting him had either been threatened, bought off, or killed.
Li Ran's mother and the Empress Dowager had been fighting. Whoever lost would meet just such an end.
Even if the Previous Emperor had suspected Li Ran had been framed, too many people had been present. They were forcing him to make his stance clear.
Had there been fewer witnesses, he could easily have suppressed the news and investigated at his leisure.
Perhaps rage had overwhelmed him, or perhaps he had wanted to preserve his imperial dignity. Either way, the Previous Emperor had chosen this swift, ruthless solution.
The struggles within the harem really were that plain and unadorned.
According to later reports, Li Ran's mother had washed her face with tears every day and eventually died of grief.
Was that really how she had died?
Who knew?
At any rate, that was what the imperial physicians had reported.
Had this incident been why Li Chen chose to keep a low profile?
No. His mother had little influence, and her health had been poor.
From the start, Li Chen had never planned to draw attention to himself. He had only wanted to coast along and emerge once he reached max level.
This incident had only strengthened his resolve.
Li Ran's wings had yet to fully grow, but he had already offended so many people at once. His chances of surviving had been slim.
Li Chen might have offended people now-more of them, in fact-but not a damn thing had happened to him.
After walking some distance through the Cold Palace, he arrived outside a room.
He had barely reached it when a voice came from within.
"Who's there?" The voice was weak and breathless, with a somewhat feminine quality.
"It's me, Li Chen," Li Chen answered casually.
"Sixth Brother? Has His Majesty locked you up here too?"
"No, I was just passing by."
Perhaps Li Ran still did not know that the Previous Emperor had passed away and Li Chen was now emperor.
The eunuchs and palace maids who brought him his meals would not tell him such things, either.
Everyone in the palace knew that nothing good came of associating with people in the Cold Palace.
Just as Li Chen was about to probe whether Li Ran was the one practicing that sinister cultivation art, the voice sounded again from inside.
"Good, as long as you're just passing by. If I remember correctly, you must be getting on in years now. Hurry and ask His Majesty for a fief, then leave this palace, this breeding ground for trouble.
"No, wait. None of them seem hostile toward you. Just see who takes the throne and make sure you get on his good side. Find yourself a residence in the Imperial Capital and live as a prince. If anything happens, you can still ask them for help. That's safer than going off to a fief.
"Ah, why am I telling you all this? If you've survived this long, you must be smarter than I was. It's just been so long since I spoke to anyone that I started rambling. Once you leave, just don't mention seeing me here."
Li Ran had probably said more just now than he had over the past several years combined.
His words were steeped in bitterness and the weariness of years. That somewhat feminine tone made him sound all the more wretched.
"What if I want to become emperor?"
That single question from Li Chen left Li Ran completely at a loss.
So after all that, you're the one with the greatest ambition.
But at that moment, Li Ran was thinking that if Li Chen wanted to become emperor, it would benefit him enormously.
At the very least, Li Chen would help him leave this breeding ground for trouble. He might even help him take revenge.
His eyes had been gouged out, the tendons in his wrists and ankles severed, and he had been castrated. The only thing that had kept him alive until now was his obsession with revenge.
Normally, having those tendons severed meant losing the ability to cultivate.
But Li Ran's physical aptitude was extraordinarily high. By combining over a hundred cultivation methods, he had worked out a sinister art that allowed him to cultivate without relying on his meridians.
Although his cultivation had progressed very slowly at first, he had kept refining the method every day. To his astonishment, he discovered that the completed version he had developed actually yielded twice the results for half the effort without a dick.
In a sense, misfortune had turned into a blessing.
He had originally planned to cultivate for another few decades before emerging from seclusion. Who would have thought that Li Chen's question would tempt him?
With Li Chen's help, he might reach that legendary realm even sooner.
Just now, because his cultivation had already reached a certain level, he had accidentally leaked a trace of his power during a breakthrough, allowing Li Chen to detect it.
Even knowing that Li Chen was probing him, Li Ran still decided to take a gamble.
"Don't blame me for not warning you. Once you take this road, there's no turning back."
"Don't worry. If you're not afraid, what do I have to fear?"
With that, Li Chen pushed the door open and walked in.
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