Chapter 61 Killing the Tyrant 10 (2/2)

Yin Jiuxiao leaned back on the dragon bed, his expression indifferent, even slowly turning a page of a memorial.

Zi Xi suddenly looked up: "You know?!"

"Um."

"I administered the poison myself; it will only make it look like I'm poisoned, and it won't harm my body."

Yin Jiuxiao closed the memorial, a cold smile curling at the corner of his lips. He hadn't expected the Zheng family to have such cowardly courage, waiting for more than a month before starting preparations, and only taking action at the end of this month.

He lightly flipped through the secret letter with his fingertips. The letter was found on Zheng Canglang's confidant and was written by the King of Xirong himself. It stipulated that he would launch an attack on the city in three days and coordinate an attack from within and without.

"Your Majesty, should we take down the Zheng family now?"

Yin asked in a low voice.

"No, let them attack. I will trap them like turtles in a jar and make sure they never return."

Yin Jiuxiao's eyes were deep and unfathomable. He raised his hand, poured a bottle of colorless and odorless medicinal powder into a teacup, and drank it all in one gulp.

*

Zi Xi's eyes widened: "So you've been seriously ill these past few days?"

It's truly an ancient version of life being like a play, where everything depends on acting skills.

These past few days, Yin Jiuxiao has looked truly like a sickly, handsome man, frail and delicate, and he often coughs up blood.

"It's an act."

"How could Zheng Canglang dare to rebel if he didn't see me cough up blood with his own eyes?"

Yin Jiuxiao lazily propped his chin up; he was so tired of spitting blood that those traitors finally dared to rebel.

"Your Majesty, Zheng Canglang has led his troops to besiege the imperial city, and the Western Rong cavalry have already reached the north gate."

Just as he finished speaking, hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the hall, and Yin Yi rushed in, covered in the blood of the enemy, to report.

Yin Jiuxiao chuckled and finally rose from the couch. His black dragon robe shone like outstretched wings in the candlelight: "Send the order to set off the signal fire."

"After closing the city gates, I want them to work together from the inside and outside, turning them into a trap."

"The Western Rong army outside never returned."

Even Zi Xi, standing to the side, couldn't help but feel her blood boil with excitement. To be directly involved in a palace coup—it's a rare sight indeed!

*

When Zheng Canglang stormed into the inner palace with his sword, the curtains on the dragon bed were lowered, and the emperor's weak figure could be vaguely seen.

"Yin Jiuxiao!"

He used the tip of his sword to pierce the gauze curtain, "Your empire is over..."

The words abruptly stopped, for the inner palace was empty, with only a note on the bed: "Thank you, General, for leading the wolf away for me. I love hunting and eating wolves."

The palace gates behind them slammed shut, and countless archers emerged from the beams.

Zheng Canglang turned around and saw Yin Jiuxiao sitting leisurely on the roof beam, toying with a Western Rong token between his fingers.

"General Zheng... I hereby... forgive your life-saving grace."

He chuckled and brought two fingers together, waving them in Zheng Canglang's direction.

In an instant, a barrage of arrows was unleashed.

*

Zheng Canglang's body was wrapped in a blood-stained straw mat and dragged out of the palace gate by two guards.

His head hung low, and there was a hole in his chest from an arrow; his death was gruesome.

Consort Zheng, dressed as a palace maid, stood in the shadows.

She removed her magnificent phoenix crown, and Bata was dressed as a head palace maid. She managed to escape by setting fire to the courtyard of the Cold Palace.

Consort Zheng's long, ink-black hair was disheveled by the cold wind. Her once charming and affectionate phoenix eyes were now bloodshot as she stared intently at her brother's corpse being thrown onto a cart and dragged toward the mass grave.

In her sleeve, her fingertips gently caressed a bronze box, its surface engraved with ancient Gu patterns, its cool touch making it seem as if it were alive and trembling slightly.

"……Why……"

"Brother...you saved his life, but he sent you to a mass grave, leaving you without a complete corpse...to become a wandering ghost..."

She murmured, her voice so soft it was almost carried away by the wind.

She slowly raised her wrist, and with a sharp slash of the gold hairpin, blood dripped like beads onto the bronze box.