Xiao Jingchuan: So Hungry
Yunxing Hall.
The court assembly proceeded as usual the next day, as if the scenes played on the Celestial Screen the previous night had never happened. Not a single civil or military official in the entire court mentioned them.
Even if someone had brought it up, it would have been useless. Who would abandon their immediate power and interests for some distant, abstract righteousness in Yanyun and Guanzhong?
Even if Chanyu Lie Ri were to attack, wasn’t there still Northern Qian? As for that traitor Qi Zhou, who sought to establish a new ruler—if he wanted to stand at the forefront, let him do so.
No one cared.
Thus, the court assembly at Yunxing Hall continued as always, no different from any other day. The Third Prince’s faction and the Crown Prince’s faction openly vied for power, and Jun He’s death was brushed aside like a speck of dust, scattered and forgotten.
Everything carried on.
After the assembly, Emperor Yunqi, Xiao Quan, massaged his temples in frustration.
Suddenly recalling something, he called out, “Xiao Si.”
Xiao Si instantly emerged from the shadows and knelt, his movements fluid and seamless.
“Ah, Xiao Si, what was it the imperial consort mentioned earlier? Who offended her again?”
Xiao Si thought: That was ages ago… Only remembering to ask now?
But he bowed his head and replied, “Your Majesty, it was the Sixth Prince.”
“Oh, him… A fool, died young. Good. Go check on him. If he’s still alive, release him.”
Xiao Si was taken aback: Wow, actually acting human for once?
Emperor Yunqi added, “If he couldn’t endure the harshness of prison and died, give him a proper burial and remove his name from the records. I’ll act as if I never had this son.”
Laughable—not a shred of humanity after all.
Xiao Si felt he must have been hallucinating earlier. His body had grown up alongside Emperor Yunqi, but three months had passed, and he hadn’t noticed that his Black-Clothed Guards had died once before, their souls replaced.
Xiao Si glanced down at the fabric over his chest. Beneath the black weave embroidered with silver was a scar that had startled him during a bath—a mark left when this body shielded Emperor Yunqi from an assassin in their youth.
Back then, Emperor Yunqi had wept desperately, pressing his hands against the wound, crying out, “Don’t die! If you die, I won’t live either!” He had seemed almost human then.
But in the end, the imperial family knows no sentiment.
How could someone like him ever pity a young prince trapped deep within the palace? That unfortunate prince was likely destined to become yet another political pawn.
Xiao Si took a deep breath and bid farewell to the lofty emperor.
**
Imperial Prison, Jinling City, capital of Nan Qian.
Through the dim iron-barred windows, which made even daylight seem like dusk, one could see a young man in a white round-collared robe lying on a straw-covered floor in one of the cells. His face was frighteningly pale.
His eyes were dull, and he was so weak that his breathing was nearly imperceptible. His lightly closed eyelids seemed as though they would never open again.
“Hurry up and deal with him! Is your knife ready?!”
“I’m pulling it out, I’m pulling it out! The sheath’s just stuck! But let’s be clear—you do the cutting, I’ll hold him down!”
Two jailers, reeking of alcohol, stood with their backs to the cell door, shoving each other nervously, completely unaware that the young man behind them had quietly opened his eyes.
The jailer struggling with the knife was sweating profusely. “Why should I take full responsibility?! If this gets out, it’s harming a royal heir—punishable by exterminating three generations of the family!”
The jailer leaning against the cell door, preparing to unlock it, sneered coldly: “The people around the Noble Consort have already given their orders. When working for the Noble Consort, how can right and wrong, merit and fault be judged by ordinary standards? The Noble Consort sought you out, while the Crown Prince’s side found me. This task must be carried out by the two of us—we’ve both been in the Imperial Prison for so long, watching as the salaries we receive can’t even feed our families. Your daughter came looking for you here just yesterday because she couldn’t bear the hunger anymore. Have you forgotten already?”
The jailer drawing his blade hesitated immediately.
The jailer leaning against the door pressed his advantage: “Besides, both of us were transferred from the palace. We know how much His Majesty despises this Sixth Prince. The prison is gloomy, and it’s only natural for a weak young man to lose his life here. Why are you so nervous?”
The jailer with the blade stammered, the sharp edge reflecting his face. He thought of his daughter, so small, yet he couldn’t even provide enough food for her to survive alone. Working as an official in the capital, yet still forcing his family to endure hunger.
“But it can’t be just my responsibility!”
The jailer cursed under his breath. He was already convinced. The blade had been freshly sharpened last night, as sharp as a divine weapon. Gritting his teeth, he was about to turn back when he heard a question that sounded like a ghostly whisper.
“Who are you all planning to kill?”
The voice was clear, crisp, like a summer breeze, carrying the unique bright tone of a youth.
The two jailers immediately paled. Just moments ago, they had confirmed that the Sixth Prince had fallen unconscious due to a high fever brought on by hunger and cold, unlikely to wake up.
But now…
The jailers turned around and saw the young man who had just been lying on the ground now smiling at them, his eyes like a cluster of frozen new snow.
That snow was cold, bone-chilling, absolutely not the kind of gaze a youth who had not yet come of age could possess.
The jailer with the blade cried out in alarm, while the one leaning against the door instantly changed expression, drawing his Divine Mechanism Blade. Instinctively, they swung their Divine Mechanism Blades, the massive gears beginning to rotate, emitting a terrifying roar. The sharp blades, reinforced by the divine mechanism’s construction, slashed toward Xiao Jingchuan. The sound of metal clashing echoed loudly. Seeing the young man before them, who hadn’t even blinked, let alone been injured, the color drained from both their faces.
What was that just now… a mirror?
The jailers stared in disbelief. How could it be a mirror?! How could the Sixth Prince block a Divine Mechanism Blade with just a mirror? Could the Sixth Prince be a martial artist?
But that’s impossible! The Sixth Prince… that fool was clearly just an ordinary person!
The jailer leaning against the door stammered: “You… aren’t… that fool… Who are you?!”
Standing there, completely unharmed, Xiao Jingchuan smiled: “You’re actually asking… who I am?”
The coldness in his eyes suddenly intensified, a terrifying pressure bearing down on everything around them with an undeniable weight. The two jailers even faintly heard the roar of a non-human beast.
The two jailers trembled like sieves. In an instant, they almost saw the eyes of the young man standing there suddenly turn into a beast-like gold… That was definitely not him, but Him!
That was not an aura a human could possess. Even Emperor Yunqi, who wielded the Sword of the Emperor, one of the Three World-protecting Swords, the heirloom of the Da Qian imperial family, could never achieve such a thing.
The two jailers screamed in terror. Unfortunately, to successfully carry out their noble patron’s order to kill the Sixth Prince, they had secretly diverted the patrolling guards earlier, leaving no one to help them now.
A flash of golden light passed through Xiao Jingchuan’s eyes, and the two jailers nearly lost their minds, scrambling out of the prison yard in a panic.
“Wow, they really ran fast.”
Xiao Jingchuan watched the jailers’ fleeing figures for a moment. As he moved, the Qin Emperor’s Bone-Reflecting Mirror slipped from his hand and fell onto the marble floor overgrown with weeds. He crouched down, a hint of delight flickering in his eyes.
It seemed the two jailers had just had their memories erased by his trusty partner, the Bone-Reflecting Mirror.
“You’ve been watching for so long, why not come out and show yourself? Isn’t it a bit rude to stay hidden?”
Xiao Jingchuan casually spoke while wiping the dust off the Bone-Reflecting Mirror.
Xiao Si just wanted to curse.
He was truly foolish, really. He knew that any task assigned to an unlucky college student like him couldn’t be good, but he never expected it would be a matter of life and death.
What was that just now? Is this the Da Qian from the unofficial histories that could build rockets? How terrifying! How could a person’s eyes turn golden?!
Is this even human?!
Steeling himself, Xiao Si bowed deeply. “Your Highness, the Sixth Prince, by His Majesty’s oral decree, you are free to leave this place.”
In short, he was just here to deliver the decree. He knew nothing and had seen nothing!
Besides, he served Emperor Yunqi, the formidable reigning emperor. Please don’t kill me, ahhhh!
Unfortunately, Xiao Jingchuan merely took a few steps forward.
“If the person before you were truly the Sixth Prince, he might show mercy, but I will not.”
Xiao Jingchuan smiled as he spoke terrifying words: “I invite you to meet your end.”
Xiao Si felt doomed. Crumbling, he began to mutter, “Goodbye, Mom, tonight I set sail again. I hope to wake up back in my world. I want to ban Han Xin and strengthen lawyers—”
In the next moment, Xiao Si, a royal shadow guard, didn’t even see how Xiao Jingchuan moved. He only felt a chill at his neck before collapsing limply to the ground.
Xiao Jingchuan sighed. “I was just teasing you. Did you really believe it?”
If he casually took lives, how would he be any different from the former Yan Emperor, whom he had rebelled against?
The ever-diligent Xiao Jingchuan even adjusted Xiao Si into a more comfortable position. “I originally wanted to trick some information out of him, but I ended up uncovering something even more interesting.”
His chancellor, Jun Youcheng, had also muttered inexplicable phrases like “strengthen the Deep Sea Hunters” in the middle of the night.
Unexpectedly, a chance action bore fruit. When he had time—at least after ascending the throne—he would definitely question this shadow guard about what those words truly meant.
After all…
Xiao Jingchuan recalled Jun Youcheng’s strange, hesitant attitude during the Three Kings’ Conflict in his previous life. He summoned the Qin Emperor’s Bone-Reflecting Mirror’s newly unlocked function in this lifetime—the Talent Card—and gazed at the only card he currently had permission to unlock: Jun Youcheng’s. Below it, the words [Special Identity: Transmigrator] stood out vividly, filling him with complex emotions.
What is a transmigrator?
Sooner or later, he would uncover what secrets his chancellor had been hiding from him.
Xiao Jingchuan smiled with mischief in his eyes. He picked up the Bone-Reflecting Mirror: “Now that I’m free, let’s see… checking the time, hmm, it’s lunchtime. Time to go find something to eat.”
Although this body was in the prime of youth, years of hunger and hardship had left it extremely weak. Since he had taken over this descendant’s body, his first priority had to be restoring his own health.
After all, only with a strong body could he contend with his enemies.
Xiao Jingchuan, who had only lived past thirty in his previous life, thought to himself.
Dying young is such a loss—a huge loss!