Although the Huo family's influence in court had been eradicated, their presence within the palace was far more significant than Liu Bingyi had realised.
At dawn, he sat in the Xuan Shi Hall with his eyes slightly closed. His [Heavenly Eye] System 2.0 scanned the entire palace.
System Monitoring showed that there were 24 eunuchs in the hall.
Of these, 18 were distant relatives of the Huo family or had received favours from them; three were Empress Dowager Shangguan's agents; two were neutral; and one's loyalty was unknown.
Due to the Huo family's downfall, these 'eyes' had fallen silent, attempting to transmit palace intelligence to the remaining forces via garbage trucks.
"Bingyi, time for porridge." Xu Pingjun entered, carrying a ceramic bowl. Liu Bingyi keenly noticed that, the moment Xu Pingjun entered, the young eunuch sweeping in the corner inadvertently glanced at Xu Pingjun's sleeve, where fragments of the secret edict that Liu Bingyi had personally reviewed the previous night lay.
[Ding! Host detected under high surveillance. Forced purge will cause a disruption in the inner palace.'
[Triggering the Deception Mission: [Ultimate Tyrant]! Objective: Over the next seven days, completely shatter the 'diligent' image by displaying extreme emptiness and decadence resulting from the fulfilment of revenge. [Key Item: Divine Fighting Cock – Crimson Blood (system-generated, invincible and highly deceptive).
Reward: Imperial Palace Clean-up Voucher (After the mission, the system will automatically identify and remove all unrepentant spies).
From that day forward, the Han Dynasty court witnessed a change that left all officials dumbfounded. 'I'm not practising swordsmanship anymore; I want to fight cocks!' Liu Bingyi pushed aside the memorials before him in the Xuan Shi Hall, laughing wildly. He publicly picked up a fiery red rooster with sharp eyes and affectionately groomed its feathers in front of onlookers. 'Lei Zhen, go to the southern suburbs and find the fiercest rooster! I'm going to hold a Han Dynasty cockfighting competition. The winner will be rewarded with a marquessate!"
In less than half a day, news of the emperor's 'madness' spread throughout the palace. The eunuchs, who had been on edge, saw Liu Bingyi fighting and gesticulating wildly in the hall over two chickens, and their fear gradually turned into contempt. To make his performance more convincing, Liu Bingyi even went into 'all-night mode' in his palace.
Amidst the revelry and the stench of alcohol, Huo Chengjun was summoned to 'accompany' him. She whispered in his ear, 'Your Majesty, your acting is so convincing... Chengjun is almost taking it seriously.' Gulping down grape juice (which looked like strong liquor to outsiders), Liu Bingyi glanced sideways at the eunuch secretly recording his 'debauched behaviour' behind the screen and sneered, 'If I don't act convincingly, how can I make those fish at the bottom of the sea think that it has dried up?'
On the seventh night, in the Xuan Shi Hall, Liu Bingyi, who had been lying drunk on the soft couch, slowly opened his eyes in the flickering candlelight. His eyes instantly lost their cloudiness, replaced by a cold, all-encompassing control. He opened the 'Red Dot Map of the Imperial Palace' in his mind.
'Seven whole days have passed. All the spies in Chang'an who are still in contact with the remnants of the Huo family should have surfaced by now, right?'
[Ding! Marking complete. 142 nodes in total. Activate one-click clean-up?]
Liu Bingyi stroked the divine rooster named 'Crimson Blood' beside him. A cruel smile played on his lips. 'Kill them all. Leave no one alive. Tomorrow morning at court, I'll make Weiyang Palace redder than this rooster's comb."
The royal training ground outside the North Gate of Weiyang Palace was usually a solemn and sacred place, but now it had been transformed into a massive cockfighting arena. With his hair dishevelled, Liu Bingyi cradled the divine rooster named 'Crimson Blood' in his arms, looking extremely excited amidst the roaring cheers.
However, no one noticed that the nobles and eunuchs surrounding the pit had been marked with coloured dots by System 2.0.
"Bite it! Bite its neck!' Liu Bingyi roared like a gambler who had lost everything.
In the pit, Crimson Blood suddenly leapt up, its metallic claws precisely severing its opponent's throat. As blood splattered, Liu Bingyi issued the ultimate command to 'Crimson Blood' through his consciousness:
[Command]
1. Embroidered Uniform Guards, harvest according to 'Crimson Blood's' attack rhythm: one crow, one sentry killed; one pounce, one intelligence agent severed.
2. Every time 'Crimson Blood' flapped its wings in the pit, faint cracking sounds could be heard emanating from the bushes and roof beams outside the training ground. The remnants of the Huo family were dragged into the darkness amidst cheers.
'Rewards! Hahaha, I'm in a good mood today! For every victory Crimson Blood wins, he'll be rewarded with a gold token!' Liu Bingyi casually grabbed a handful of golden wooden strips and scattered them like flowers among the crowd. The eunuchs, who had been secretly monitoring the area, greedily scrambled for the tokens, while Gui Chen, who had already changed clothes, was responsible for delivering them.
Each person who received a 'gold token' had a colourless, odourless tracking trigger placed on their fingertip.
'Take it. This is your "life-saving money".' Liu Bingyi looked at the ecstatic spies, a cruel smile creeping across his face. The system had clearly pinpointed their secret contact points and the hidden passages beneath the well covers in Chang'an City through these triggers.
Supported by palace maids, Empress Dowager Shangguan watched from afar as the figure wreaked havoc in the training ground; her eyes were filled with heartache and confusion.
'Bingyi, have you finally been blinded by this splendour?' Suddenly, Xu Pingjun stepped forward, gently took the Empress Dowager's hand and whispered, 'Empress Dowager, if His Majesty hadn't gone mad, how could the demons and monsters in the palace think it was dawn and dare to come out in droves to bask in the sun?'
The Empress Dowager was startled. Looking at Liu Bingyi again, she noticed that, although he was smiling, his eyes, hidden beneath his dishevelled hair, were as cold as unmelting ice. The cockfight was at its most chaotic when a bearded merchant from the Western Regions strode into the arena, carrying a jet-black vulture.
'Emperor of the Great Han! I, Black Vulture, dare to challenge you, Crimson Blood! The stake is ten thousand taels of gold!' Liu Bingyi strode over, swirling his wine cup. As the merchant from the Western Regions bowed, he lowered his voice and spoke in an ancient, obscure dialect from beyond the Great Wall. 'The thirty-six divisions of the Wei family's iron cavalry have passed the Jade Gate Pass. The Sacred Flame Token has been issued and the entire army has returned to its positions.'
Liu Bingyi paused slightly, then burst into wild laughter and splashed wine onto the merchant's face. 'Fine! I'll take the bet! If you lose, everything from those 'thirty-six divisions' will belong to me!' As the sun set, the bustling cockfighting arena gradually quietened down.
Liu Bingyi dusted off his dragon robe. The 'Crimson Blood' divine rooster perched obediently on his shoulder. The eunuchs and generals who had seized the gold tokens were preparing for a grand showdown that night. However, they hadn't even left the training ground before they discovered that the air around them was filled with steel wires as thin as cicada wings.
'Your Majesty, of the 142 marked locations, 141 have been cleared.' Lei Zhen emerged from the shadows, carrying a bloodstained longsword. 'Is there one left?'
'The last advisor of the Grand General's Mansion. He took with him a backup plan concerning the truth of Crown Prince Wei's bloodline.'
Liu Bingyi gazed at the blood-red sunset in the west, a profound light flashing in his eyes. 'Go after him. Don't let him leave the city. That's the final surprise I have in store for the Han Dynasty.'
The bloodstains on the drill ground had been covered by yellow sand. The spies who had obtained the 'golden tokens' didn't even have time to scream before they were killed by the Imperial Guards, who had been marked by the system. However, Liu Bingyi didn't stop: 'Your Majesty, that advisor has moved.' In his mind, System 2.0 displayed a red streak of light.
The opponent was extremely cunning. Instead of using the city gates, he escaped through the underground passages operated by the Huo family for twenty years and reached the vicinity of Ba Bridge in the western suburbs of Chang'an. He carried false evidence proving that Liu Bingyi 'had a demonic nature lurking in his blood'. Once this false evidence reached the Western Regions, the Imperial Guards, who were originally loyal to the Wei family, might instantly betray him.
"Lei Zhen, there's no need to chase." Liu Bingyi mounted a jet-black steed, his armour gleaming coldly in the moonlight. 'I will personally resolve the consequences of my own actions.'
At the Ba Bridge, the advisor had just mounted his horse and was about to gallop away when he suddenly felt an overwhelming pressure behind him.
Liu Bingyi reined in his horse, not approaching, but slowly drawing his reforged iron sword. [Skill activated: Emperor's Sword Intent – Ten Thousand Swords Return to One (Pseudo)! Effect: Uses imperial might to agitate the air, compressing sword energy into a single point and ignoring wind resistance and terrain.
He flicked his fingertip across the blade and a thin golden line shot through the air, traversing nearly a thousand metres and precisely piercing the advisor's back. There was no explosion or blood mist. Still in a whip-wielding posture, the advisor was instantly annihilated by the sword energy, turning into a pile of mush.
The "false evidence" was incinerated in mid-air by the ensuing fire-attribute sword energy.
After overcoming the final obstacle, Liu Bingyi returned to the Xuanbing Chamber, which was located deep within the Weiyang Palace.
Having cleared the final obstacle, Liu Bingyi returned to the Xuanbing Chamber, which was located deep within the Weiyang Palace. Here, the clamour of battle had ceased, replaced only by wisps of white mist emanating from the Xuanbing, which was over a thousand years old. Chi Lian stood guard at the door, bowed deeply to Liu Bingyi and quietly left.
On the Xuanbing bed, Liu Bingyi's birth mother — the silver-haired Wang Wengxu — finally opened her eyes. But instead of displaying joy at the long-awaited reunion, her eyes held an unfamiliar terror: 'Bingyi... is that you?' Her voice was hoarse, as if it came from the depths of hell.
'Mother.' Liu Bingyi stepped forward, wanting to grasp her hand.
[Ding! Extremely high-frequency interference detected! System 2.0 enters defence mode forcibly! Warning: An ancient 'bloodline seal' lurks within the target, violently repelling the host's system!' The instant their hands touched, Liu Bingyi's mind exploded. Instead of a scene of maternal love and filial piety, he saw a blood-red mosaic. The witchcraft calamity of yesteryear wasn't due to a curse, but to the awakening of a 'supernatural ability' within the Wei family bloodline that was capable of overthrowing divine authority. Huo Guang was merely a hound sent by the gods to eliminate the threat.
"Run... Bingyi, they're still watching you!' His mother, pale as a sheet, pushed him away.
This system isn't helping you at all; it's raising a venomous insect! Liu Bingyi took three steps back and looked at his mother, who had fallen into a coma again due to agitation. He also looked at the 'system icon' flashing red wildly in his mind.
He stepped out of the secret chamber and stood on the highest point of Weiyang Palace, looking at his blood-stained hands. At that moment, dawn was breaking over Chang'an City. Golden sunlight shone on his dragon robe, but it could not penetrate his cold eyes. In his mind, the system's cold, mechanical notification sounded:
[System notification] Congratulations to the host for successfully clearing the inner court. You have been awarded 50,000 reputation points.
[Question] An abnormal heart rate has been detected in the host. Activate 'Emotional Erasure' mode?
'Eraser?' Liu Bingyi sneered and smashed the white marble railing beside him violently with a flick of his sleeve. 'I don't care if you're a god or a demon! This empire is mine, and I will change the rules!"