The moment someone began following him, Xie Huizhou noticed.
"Oh? Someone actually dares to follow me? Let me guess who it is."
He soon discovered that it was the Eighth Prince, tiptoeing after him, his eyes practically overflowing with malice toward him.
Xie Huizhou thought, I've seen plenty of people send their subordinates to do the dirty work, but this is the first time I've seen someone so impatient that he came to do it himself. The Eighth Prince doesn't seem very bright.
Xie Huizhou wondered just how much people must hate him for him to be both poisoned and targeted for assassination.
After being confined for so long, the Eighth Prince still hadn't learned restraint and had chosen to keep going after him. This irritated Xie Huizhou and stirred his desire to kill him.
Siblings slaughtering one another had been a tradition throughout the dynasties. Only the last one alive was qualified to inherit the throne.
There was nothing wrong with killing one to protect himself.
Seeing no one around, Xie Huizhou knew that the Eighth Prince had secretly sent everyone nearby away and was preparing to strike.
He played along, deliberately heading toward the cold palace, where absolutely no one would discover them, luring him over step by step.
There was an abandoned lotus pond there. The withered lotus plants rotting in its waters could conceal secrets, and an underwater passage led outside the imperial palace, allowing the Shadow Guards to take the body away and destroy all traces.
The supposed prey transformed into the hunter, driving his prey into the trap he had laid.
Standing beside the lotus pond, Xie Huizhou suddenly turned and smiled at the Eighth Prince. His composure actually startled the Eighth Prince.
"Eighth Brother, you've been following me all this time. Surely you aren't trying to kill me?"
Xie Huizhou spoke with such familiarity that the two brothers might have been chatting about everyday matters, if his topic hadn't been murder.
His whereabouts exposed, the Eighth Prince, Xie Tingchun, felt somewhat deflated. After a pause, he stepped out anyway, holding a knife.
"So what if I am? Ninth Younger Brother, your very existence is a source of hatred for Father. He'll have to thank me for killing you."
The Eighth Prince thought the Shadow Guards were all useless. They had spent so long trying to kill Xie Huizhou without succeeding, so he was going to do it himself.
Xie Huizhou's expression shifted slightly. He suddenly felt that the poison in his body had a complicated origin. "What do you mean?"
Why had the emperor disregarded him since his birth, even repeatedly forbidding physicians from taking his pulse and treating him?
Was it to stop others from discovering that he had been poisoned?
The identity of the poisoner was almost glaringly obvious.
Xie Huizhou lamented the emperor's heartlessness, but he also wanted to find out exactly what could make an emperor poison his own son. He questioned the Eighth Prince several times without getting an answer.
"Who knows? Maybe you're a jinx who'll bring down the dynasty, and that's why Father despises you. Go to hell already!"
Seeing Xie Huizhou's sickly complexion and occasional coughs, looking as though anyone could bully him, the Eighth Prince thought his chance had come and shoved at him fiercely.
Xie Huizhou was a little disappointed. "Your plan is that simple?"
Even palace-intrigue novels no longer bothered with this sort of routine. What was wrong with this prince?
Xie Huizhou sidestepped and remained standing steadily beside the lotus pond, while the Eighth Prince splashed into the water and began struggling.
The Eighth Prince couldn't swim. The springtime pond water was icy, making him shiver and almost driving him to desperation.
He looked helplessly at Xie Huizhou.
"Help! Ninth Younger Brother, save me. I'm your older brother! You can't just watch me die!"
Because he had sent everyone nearby away beforehand, there was no one around. The only person before him who could save him was the Ninth Prince, Xie Huizhou.
To stay alive, the Eighth Prince instantly capitulated.
Xie Huizhou looked down at the Eighth Prince, Xie Tingchun, a smile curling his lips. "Brother, you've tried to take my life time and again. Why would I save you?"
Xie Huizhou's good temper with his friends didn't mean he was kindhearted. He was no saint, nor some bleeding heart who repaid malice with kindness. He simply stood beside the lotus pond and watched coldly as the prince struggled in the water.
The impossibly beautiful youth watched another person struggle with indifference, his smile cold and merciless.
The Eighth Prince tried to explain. "N-no, that's not it. I wasn't trying to kill you. As long as you save me, I'll let bygones be bygones."
Just then, a figure came looking for him.
"Your Highness, what are you doing? It's late. Be careful not to catch a chill."
The Imperial Preceptor came over carrying a fox-fur cloak and found Xie Huizhou. He also saw the Eighth Prince in the water.
"Ah, Eighth Highness. Are you bathing in the lotus pond? We've come at a bad time. Your Highness, we should leave."
The Eighth Prince said, "No! The Ninth Prince pushed me in! Imperial Preceptor, you can't serve this brother-murdering freak. Save me!"
Even at a time like this, the Eighth Prince didn't forget to take a swipe at Xie Huizhou.
Xie Huizhou said, "He tried to harm me and was just begging for mercy. I was thinking about what to do with him when you arrived."
Why not simply let the Imperial Preceptor handle it and test his attitude toward coming to assist me?
"You still haven't acted after all this time. Are you hesitating over whether to save him? Your Highness, that isn't what I taught you." Zhang Lanhe's expression shifted slightly, his Snake Pupils staring straight into Xie Huizhou's eyes. "Your Highness, haven't I taught you? You mustn't show mercy to your enemies. Not only must you make them die, but you must also make their deaths serve our purposes."
Zhang Lanhe seized every opening to brainwash Xie Huizhou, watching contentedly as he grew sharper and sharper, capable of wounding anyone.
Xie Huizhou looked at Zhang Lanhe. "Then please teach me how to handle this."
Listening to the two openly plot how to kill him, the Eighth Prince trembled uncontrollably. These two, as beautiful as immortals, seemed like demon kings reborn.
He had crossed a pair of freaks.
He regretted it. He should have become a monk the moment his confinement ended and stayed far away from these people who weren't right in the head.
Why fight for the throne? He couldn't beat a single one of them.
"Leave the rest to me. Your Highness, your clothes are wet. You'll fall ill if you don't change, so please go change first." Zhang Lanhe sighed and gazed at him dotingly. "It wouldn't do to let certain things sully Your Highness's eyes."
He heard the sounds of people approaching from afar in search of someone. Xie Huizhou couldn't remain here; it would easily bring trouble.
Nor did he want Xie Huizhou to see him looking hideous and ferocious.
Xie Huizhou understood Zhang Lanhe's meaning. Using the convenient excuse of looking for White Snake nearby, he left without hesitation and let the Imperial Preceptor handle things.
"Then, Imperial Preceptor, please give me another thorough lesson when you have the time."
After Xie Huizhou left, the Eighth Prince wanted to persuade the Imperial Preceptor to let him go and rescue him while he was at it.
Then he witnessed the most uncanny sight of his life.
The Eighth Prince saw scales appear on the Imperial Preceptor's body. He looked more and more like the white snake rumored to be in the Capital City, flicking his forked tongue like a demon.
A silver-haired beauty, a lovely snake, his Snake Pupils fixed on his prey.
His pupils contracted at the uncanny sight. He sensed something beneath the water pulling him under.
"Demon! Imperial Preceptor, you really are a demon! A demon has appeared in the world, and you're even together with a jinx like Ninth Son. The country will fall apart. You truly are a heaven-made pair of scourges!"
The Eighth Prince suddenly felt that the eminent monk's words all those years ago had been no lie. Before long, chaos would engulf the realm, and their empire would change hands.
"In troubled times, a demon like you should be slain as a sacrifice to Heaven!"
Zhang Lanhe was delighted to hear this. "Thank you for the compliment, Eighth Prince. Huizhou and I truly are a match made in heaven. It was fate that brought us two scourges together."
He was sick of hearing people call him a demon, but being told that he and Xie Huizhou were a match made in heaven was quite refreshing.
The Eighth Prince: "???"
Wait, what had he just heard on the verge of death?
Did the Imperial Preceptor actually harbor those kinds of feelings for Xie Huizhou?
No wonder he kept losing to Xie Huizhou!
"You only have that pretty skin to rely on, demon." The Eighth Prince thought that, now that he had seen the Imperial Preceptor's true face, he wouldn't be allowed to live anyway. He steeled himself and decided to vent his anger by cursing him viciously before he died. "Once your identity as a snake demon is exposed, Ninth Son will leave you! In his eyes, you're nothing but a demon!"
This stabbed deep into Zhang Lanhe's heart.
He recalled Xie Huizhou's frightened expression when faced with him as a snake demon, and felt apprehensive about this as well. His Snake Pupils fixed on the Eighth Prince as he spoke coldly.
"That is no concern of yours, Eighth Highness. Now, be on your way."
Before you continue