414: Chapter 414 A Chill Runs Through My Body

Xiao Shian could no longer remain calm; his face was filled with shock.

"Lin Xiao, how on earth do you know all this!?"

By saying this, he had essentially admitted everything.

Xiao Qingxuan staggered back two steps, her expression filled with sorrow.

She didn't hate Xiao Shian for having an affair with Consort De; after all, Xiao Shian already had many concubines.

The key was... if Xiao Shian really was the Leader of the Moon Worship Cult and the mastermind behind everything...

Then it meant that from her ascension as Empress to the fall of Western Shu, and her subsequent life as a wanderer...

It was all likely orchestrated by her own father from the shadows!!

And when the capital was breached, Xiao Shian had taken the Imperial Jade Seal amidst the chaos, without a single thought for his daughter's life!!

What did this signify?

Xiao Shian never intended for her to rule Western Shu; she was merely a sacrificial lamb he placed on the throne after he faked his death to "shed his skin like a golden cicada!"

Xiao Shian didn't care about her life or death at all!!

If she hadn't been born with heterochromia, which made the bandits afraid to touch her, she might have long since become a nameless pile of bones in the wilderness.

"This King said it already: you aren't worthy of knowing how I saw through all of this."

Lin Xiao sneered, "A person like you isn't even on the same level as me. All your actions, in my eyes, are nothing but self-righteousness."

Subjected to such blatant sarcasm, Xiao Shian's face turned the color of pig liver.

He prided himself on being exceptionally clever, playing the people of the world like pieces on a board.

Yet, ever since this Prince of Zhenbei appeared out of nowhere, all his arrangements had been thrown into disarray!

"What, are you angry?"

Lin Xiao smiled. "You should be angry. After all, after decades of deployment, you finally managed to let Prince Bai gain momentum, only for me to pluck the fruit of your labor."

"Oh right, you sent the people from the Ten Thousand Poison Cave to assassinate me. You weren't thinking that if I died, the Zhenbei Army would fall into my wife's hands, were you?"

"It's a good plan. My wife certainly wouldn't submit to the Imperial Dynasty's Li family. She would surely use her status as the Empress of Western Shu to rally her old subordinates and restore the Zheng Dynasty."

"Unfortunately, you aren't a Great Grandmaster, so you know absolutely nothing about my true strength."

Xiao Shian's face was as pale as paper. Despite the mockery and humiliation, he could not refute a word.

There were too many things he couldn't understand, but no matter how he tried to play dumb now, it was all in vain.

A sense of powerlessness against an insurmountable force left him mentally exhausted.

"Indeed, I calculated a thousand things, but... I failed to account for you, the Prince of Zhenbei, being so difficult to deal with."

Xiao Shian said bitterly, "To make you believe all this, I didn't hesitate to let that imposter take the Venerables of Wind and Earth to their deaths before you."

"I even had the Venerable of Water wait here for you to arrive, just to make you believe I was being imprisoned here..."

"But even so, I couldn't deceive you. I truly don't know what more I could have done to hide the truth from you."

Lin Xiao laughed. "In the end, you were too greedy. You wanted to gain my trust to use my power to help you reclaim your empire."

"In truth, if you had let go of your obsession with restoration, you wouldn't have come to this point."

"Let go? Hehe..."

Xiao Shian laughed hoarsely, "Do you know how the Moon Worship Cult came to be?"

"I'm all ears." Lin Xiao truly didn't know.

The Moon Worship Cult had existed for over fifty years, and Xiao Shian was only in his fifties; he clearly couldn't have been the founder.

"The creator of the Moon Worship Cult was my Imperial Father—Xuan'er's grandfather!"

As these words were spoken, the three listeners found it unexpected, yet it also made sense.

For the Western Shu Imperial Family, it was difficult to defeat the Great Gan, but starting an evil cult in the shadows was not hard.

It was a strategy of 'saving the nation through a curved path' when a direct confrontation was impossible.

"He understood back then that with Western Shu's limited land and people, it was impossible to subvert the Great Gan and restore the Great Zheng Dynasty."

"Therefore, he secretly established the Moon Worship Cult, accumulating power within the myriad mountains."

"To cultivate followers, he didn't hesitate to recruit all sorts of heinous criminals and kidnap the children of mountain villagers."

"A few years before he passed away, he had me inherit the position of Leader of the Moon Worship Cult. At the time, I was very resistant, believing that the cult's actions went against the heavenly way."

Xiao Qingxuan said indignantly, "If that's the case, why did you still inherit it!?"

"For Yalan..."

A flicker of guilt flashed in Xiao Shian's eyes as he spoke.

"When I was young, Yalan and I were already in love. But her royal brother, in order to win over Li Sihong, sent Yalan away for a political marriage."

"I realized then that while the Great Peacock Kingdom seemed to support us in Western Shu and support the descendants of the Great Zheng royalty..."

"In reality, they were just playing both sides, hedging their bets!"

"They suck up to whoever has the bigger fist. That fellow didn't respect me, the Crown Prince of Western Shu, at all!"

"Even when I promised that if Yalan bore a child, that child could inherit the throne, he still refused to marry Yalan to me!"

Xiao Shian gritted his teeth as he recalled the events of those years.

"So... the overthrow of King A-Lai of the Great Peacock Kingdom and the usurpation of his power was your revenge against the previous king, Consort De's brother?"

Lin Xiao suddenly understood. No wonder that A-Lai was so strangely pathetic; it turned out the seeds of his misfortune were sown by his father!

"Correct. Since he cared so much about his little kingdom's throne, I wanted to see his son ousted!"

Xiao Shian snorted coldly, "Unfortunately, A-Lai's whereabouts are unknown. I originally intended to have him executed by a thousand cuts before that man's grave."

"Father, you... how could you do such things for your own selfish desires!?"

Xiao Qingxuan couldn't believe that this ruthless man was the loving father she had in her mind.

"Why not? I am no longer the Emperor of Western Shu, but the Leader of the Moon Worship Cult!!"

Xiao Shian had completely let go now, saying arrogantly, "If it weren't for your 'good husband' suddenly interfering, I would have already seized the entire North using that fool Prince Bai!!"

"Tell me, which of the past Emperors of Western Shu could, like me, reclaim such a vast territory!?"

Xiao Qingxuan's face was pale. Looking at her nearly frenzied father, something deep inside her seemed to shatter...

"Using crooked methods and committing every evil deed, and you still want to unify the land and restore the Great Zheng Dynasty!?"

Leng Bingyan was fuming with rage. "Xiao Shian, has your conscience been eaten by dogs!? How do you even have the right to call yourself 'We'?!"

"How dare you!!"

Xiao Shian slammed the table. "What do you know! If the Li family hadn't used the crooked 'Drug-Man Art' back then, how could they have defeated my Xiao family's Great Zheng Empire!?"

"History is written by the victors. If you lose, everything you do is wrong! If you win, any sin will be wiped clean!!"

"I am merely following the will of heaven, making this crumbling Imperial Dynasty fall sooner to reclaim the empire that originally belonged to my Xiao family. What wrong have I done!?"

Xiao Qingxuan gave a mocking smile. "Do you think these sins can really be erased? Can the people of the world accept a cult leader as their Emperor?"

"Hmph..." Xiao Shian sneered. "Qingxuan, you still underestimate your father. I have naturally considered all of that."

"Consort De... Liu Qihai..."

A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Lin Xiao's mind, and a thought emerged: "First Prince Li Chengqi is still alive!?"

"That assassination was a fake death plot staged by you and Li Chengqi?!"

"That's why Liu Qihai, the 'witness' who accused the Crown Prince of killing his brother, was allowed to live!?"

Xiao Qingxuan and Leng Bingyan were also shaken to the core!

Lin Xiao had previously said that Liu Qihai was lying. Now, connecting the relationship between Consort De and Xiao Shian...

The conspiracy behind it all was enough to make one shudder with fear!