Li Fu’an swallowed and read the words aloud, one by one:
“Heaven’s way is clear; divine punishment has arrived.”
“Zhao Yuan is unjust, implicating the innocent. In the case of Prince An, wronged souls fill the land.”
“You are ordered, before sunset tomorrow, to open the Heavenly Prison and release the innocent. All family members implicated in this case are to be pardoned, their property returned, and they may go back to their hometowns.”
“If you refuse, thunderous punishment will descend again. When that time comes, it will not only be the palace—your entire imperial city will be reduced to scorched earth.”
He finished reading.
Li Fu’an felt his entire body go weak.
“How dare you!!”
A hysterical roar exploded from the dragon bed.
Zhao Yuan’s eyes were bloodshot. He braced his arms against the bed, trying to sit up, but the numbness of his lower body made him fall back down awkwardly.
“Divine punishment? Scorched earth? Good! What a divine punishment!”
He ground his teeth so hard that blood seeped from his gums.
“I am the True Dragon Son of Heaven! Mandated by Heaven itself! How can I tolerate some demon babbling nonsense here!”
“Zhou Wei!”
He suddenly turned toward the guard commander still kneeling on the ground.
“Summon the Divine Machine Battalion for me! Bring every single bed crossbow in the capital into the palace! I refuse to believe we cannot shoot down that cowardly beast hiding in the dark!”
“Your Majesty, calm your anger!” Li Fu’an crawled desperately to the bedside, hugging the emperor’s leg and wailing. “You must not, Your Majesty! Absolutely not! The Imperial Preceptor sacrificed himself to protect you and bought us this brief peace. If you anger that deity again, we… we will all be turned to dust!”
Zhou Wei trembled violently and knocked his head against the floor.
“Your Majesty, please reconsider! That creature comes and goes without a trace, faster than lightning. It is beyond human power!”
“Useless! All of you are useless!”
Zhao Yuan pounded his numb legs wildly, his eyes filled with desperate bloodshot veins.
“Must I simply let it slaughter me? Must I listen to some demon and pardon those traitorous criminals? Where would my dignity be? Where would the imperial authority be?!”
As he roared, a steady yet weak voice interrupted him.
“Your Majesty.”
It was Deqing.
Supported by Huairen, he leaned against the wall. His face was pale as paper, and the sleeve where his right arm had been blown off was soaked through with blood.
“Imperial Uncle…” Zhao Yuan’s fury stopped abruptly, his voice suddenly filled with reliance and grievance.
Deqing’s gaze fell upon the “divine decree” lying on the ground.
“Pick it up and give it to me,” he told Huairen.
Huairen carefully picked up the paper along with the strange metal block pressing its corner and presented them to his master.
Deqing did not read the contents first.
His fingers gently pinched the paper.
“This paper is thin yet tough. It is neither mulberry nor hemp. I have never heard of such a material.”
With his remaining left hand, he slowly rubbed the edge of the paper. The smooth and even cut made his brows knit slightly.
“Now look at the writing.”
His gaze finally settled on the printed characters.
“The shapes are identical, the size perfectly uniform, and the ink evenly distributed—yet there are no traces of brush strokes or ink spreading. This is absolutely not written by human hand. It resembles… the long-lost ‘printing technique’ rumored to have belonged to the Mohist school. Yet it surpasses that legendary craft by thousands of times.”
At that moment, hurried footsteps sounded outside the hall. Several shadow guard commanders responsible for pursuit rushed in and knelt together, their faces full of shame.
“Reporting to Your Majesty and the Imperial Preceptor—we… lost it.”
The leading commander’s voice was dry.
“That ‘iron bird’ was too fast and flew too high. Even with all our strength, we could only barely follow behind it. When it reached the southern part of the city… it suddenly vanished into thin air.”
Deqing slowly swept his gaze across everyone in the hall.
“Your Majesty, the case of Prince An has been settled. But is there perhaps some… unfinished matter remaining?”
Zhao Yuan’s breathing stopped for a moment.
He instantly understood what Deqing meant.
Prince An had committed suicide. His faction had been completely executed.
But in Prince An’s residence… there was still one person left.
Zhao Yuan’s face instantly turned livid. Through clenched teeth he forced out a few words:
“They… are trying to save Zhao Jingzhan?”
“Very likely,” Deqing replied with certainty.
“This ‘iron bird’ launched two attacks, and both were terrifyingly precise, targeting you directly, Your Majesty.”
“It did not deliver a killing blow. Instead, it dropped this letter. Its words appear fierce, claiming to seek justice for all those implicated. But the phrase ‘release the innocent’ is too broad, making it feel false. Its true focus must be hidden among those many ‘innocent people’—the one person of greatest importance, and the one you fear most.”
“Wishful thinking!”
Zhao Yuan trembled with rage.
“I will never release Zhao Jingzhan! Never! I will cut him into a thousand pieces as a warning to others!”
“Your Majesty, calm your anger.” Deqing’s voice remained steady, as if the agony of his severed arm did not affect him at all. “If you refuse, that ‘iron bird’ will return tonight. And when it does, it may not bring just a letter.”
“Then… what should I do?”
Zhao Yuan was completely lost. Like a helpless child, he looked toward the only person he could rely on.
“Imperial Uncle… what should I do?”
Deqing spoke slowly, his tone carrying the calm confidence of someone controlling the entire situation.
“Release him.”
“What?!”
“Not only release him—do it openly and with great fanfare.” A faint smile appeared on Deqing’s lips. “Since the other party wants him, we shall give him. But the way we ‘give’ him will be decided by us.”
Looking at the bewildered Zhao Yuan, he continued:
“Your Majesty may issue an imperial decree stating that, moved by Heaven’s warning, you are unwilling to shed more blood. Demote Prince Zhan to a commoner and exile him together with the other criminals, sending them three thousand miles away to the pestilential lands of the southern frontier.”
“Exile?” Zhao Yuan was confused.
“Yes, exile.” A sharp glint flashed in Deqing’s eyes.
“The capital is its territory. Here, we are passive everywhere. But once they are on the road, with the vast open world before them, those thousands of miles will become our hunting ground.”
“If the other party truly wants to rescue him, they will never watch Zhao Jingzhan be escorted all the way to the southern frontier. They will act somewhere along the journey.”
“When that happens—without palace walls, without civilians restricting us—whether they are human, ghost, immortal, or demon… they will have to reveal themselves.”
“This is called ‘luring the snake out of its hole—casting a long line to catch the big fish.’”
Zhao Yuan’s eyes slowly lit up.
Fear was replaced by a far more tempting plan.
He could already imagine that mysterious enemy being trapped within his inescapable net.
“Good! An excellent plan!”
He slapped the bed excitedly.
“We shall do exactly as Imperial Uncle suggests!”
“This matter must be handled quickly,” Deqing added. “To avoid further complications—and to appease that ‘deity’—all the exiled prisoners must be sent out of the capital before sunset tomorrow.”
“Li Fu’an!” Zhao Yuan immediately commanded.
“Your servant is here!”
“Draft the decree! Handle it tonight! By tomorrow morning, I want every single prisoner out of my capital!”
“As you command!”
Li Fu’an scrambled away to prepare.
Inside the hall, there was finally a faint chance to breathe after surviving the disaster.
Leaning against the wall, Deqing’s vision darkened from the pain, but he forced himself to stay conscious. In a low voice, he gave an order to Huairen beside him.
“Huairen.”
“Yes, Master.” Huairen’s eyes were red as he choked back tears.
“Tomorrow, change into ordinary clothes and mix into the exile convoy,” Deqing said quietly, so only the two of them could hear.
“Your task is not to capture anyone. Nor to kill anyone.”
“Your task is to watch Zhao Jingzhan.”
“Stay by his side at every moment. I want to know his every action and every word.”
“And even more importantly…”
“I want to see clearly exactly what kind of being comes to rescue him.”