55: Decisive Battle at Xuanwu Gate

The messenger's hoarse cry, like a red-hot iron awl, fiercely pierced the extreme, suffocating silence in Taiji Hall.

"What?!"

"Jing Province... fifteen legions of soldiers?!"

"Twelve cities already taken yesterday?!"

With a hum, the entire hall erupted.

The Civil and Military Officials of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, who had just been gloating and preparing to watch how Your Highness would be deposed, instantly had all the color drain from their faces, their mouths agape enough to fit an egg, their eyes filled with pure terror.

That wasn't acting; they were truly scared!

Jing Province!

That was Your Highness's fiefdom!

The army was pointing directly at Chang'an!

What did this mean?

It meant that the butcher's knife was already hanging over all their necks!

Cheng Yaojin's ox-like eyes suddenly turned to Li Chengqian, filled with an unbelievable confusion.

Qin Qiong's hand, which had been resting on his shoulder, unconsciously loosened, his tiger's mouth trembling slightly.

Li Jing's tightly shut eyes suddenly opened, and a terrifying glint burst forth from his cloudy pupils; he stared fixedly at the messenger, as if trying to see through him.

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui exchanged glances, each seeing the turbulent waves in the other's eyes.

This, how was this possible!

The Great Tang had enjoyed peace for so long; where did fifteen legions of soldiers come from to rebel?

Hadn't Jing Province just been purged by Your Highness with thunderous means?

Hadn't all those powerful clans been slaughtered?

A terrifying thought, one almost too dreadful to contemplate, slithered like a venomous snake into everyone's hearts.

Jing Province... clans... not long ago, Your Highness Li Chengqian had just slaughtered ten legions of clans in Jing Province!

Could it be... In an instant, everyone's gaze, like iron filings drawn by a magnet, collectively converged on Li Chengqian.

There was shock, fear, doubt, and madness.

Li Shimin's body froze in place, and a storm was gathering in his deep, abyss-like eyes.

He slowly, inch by inch, turned around, the hem of his Dragon robe scraping against the ground with a teeth-grating sound.

His gaze was like two poisoned swords, fixed squarely on Li Chengqian's face, every word sounding as if it had been dredged from the Nine Heavens of icy cold.

"Li Chengqian, is it your soldiers, are your soldiers rebelling?!"

There was no questioning, no roaring, just a calmness, so extreme it chilled one's bones, a calmness squeezed to its limit by intense anger and betrayal.

The air in the entire hall seemed to solidify into iron.

Under the gaze of all, and the eyes of his father, which seemed to want to devour him, Li Chengqian showed no fear; instead, he slowly straightened his chest.

The spine that had been bent under heavy pressure was, at this moment, as straight as a spear!

He met Li Shimin's gaze, the mocking curve on his lips growing more intense, transforming into an arrogant disdain for all under Heaven.

"That's right!"

He spoke clearly and resonantly, his voice not loud, but every word distinct and impactful.

"They are my soldiers!"

The moment his words fell, time seemed to stand still.

Immediately following was a shock like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami raging!

He's mad!

Your Highness is mad!

He actually admitted it!

He actually admitted to treason so righteously!

Cheng Yaojin stumbled, almost falling to the ground.

On Qin Qiong's stern face, a crack-like astonishment appeared for the first time.

Yuchi Jingde's fingernails dug deep into his flesh, hidden in his sleeve.

This Your Highness Gu-bewitched their sons, rebelling... Amidst the shock of the entire court of Civil and Military Officials.

A bloody tableau had already unfolded in Chang'an.

Above the boundless wilderness.

A black torrent of iron cavalry was gathering.

"Great Snow Dragon Riders, assemble!"

Qin Huaiyu, clad in heavy armor, his voice like a great bell.

Thirty thousand iron cavalry, men and horses fully armored, stood silent as mountains, with only the occasional snort of a warhorse, exhaling white hot breath, to be heard.

The lances in their hands pointed diagonally at the sky, their blades still bearing the blood of the Tuyuhun, radiating a cold killing intent.

"Mo Dao Battalion, step forward!"

Xue Rengui held his Mo Dao, his gaze resolute.

Ten thousand Mo Dao soldiers marched in synchronized steps, each step making the earth tremble.

The Mo Dao on their shoulders, with broad blades and heavy backs, gleamed with a chilling light under the overcast sky, enough to make one's heart palpitate.

Moreover, there were one hundred thousand new soldiers from Jing Province; perhaps they lacked the elite training of the Great Snow Dragon Riders, but their eyes burned with the flames of revenge and fanaticism.

Their families, their clans, had all died at the hands of those high-and-mighty clans; it was Your Highness who had given them new life, who had given them the opportunity for revenge!

One hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, their banners like a forest, their swords and spears like a sea!

Their goal was but one—Chang'an!

Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin, Yuchi Jingde, and others, descendants of meritorious generals, had actually sold out their own fathers directly, following Your Highness's orders to counterattack Chang'an.

Inside Taiji Hall, Li Shimin's chest heaved violently; he looked at this son, both familiar and strange, and a surge of furious blood rushed to his head.

"Good! Good! What a 'they are my soldiers'!"

He laughed in extreme anger, pointing at Li Chengqian's nose, his voice becoming sharp with fury.

"Do you have no shame? How dare you speak of rebellion and treason as if it were so natural!"

"Shame?"

Li Chengqian softly repeated the three words, the smile on his face turning desolate and cold.

He took a step forward, the distance between him and Li Shimin no more than three feet.

Father and son, eyes locked, one ablaze with fury, the other calm as ice.

"Father,"

"When you launched the Xuanwu Gate Incident, brothers killing each other, forcing your way to the throne, wasn't that also... natural?"

Li Chengqian's voice suddenly became very soft, yet it was like a heavy hammer, striking fiercely at Li Shimin's heart.

"Imperial Father, you ask me about shame? I want to ask, was it I who imprisoned my father, murdered my brother, and slept with my sister-in-law?"

Boom!

These words, like a thunderclap from the Nine Heavens, exploded in Li Shimin's mind!

Xuanwu Gate!

Xuanwu Gate!

That was the greatest glory of his life, and also the deepest nightmare of his heart!

It was a scar he never wished to have mentioned!

Yet now, it was brutally ripped open by the son he valued most, in such a calm, such a natural tone, in front of the entire court of Civil and Military Officials!

The furious rage on Li Shimin's face instantly froze, turning to a deathly pale.

His lips moved, wanting to roar, wanting to refute, but he found his throat felt as if it were choked with a red-hot branding iron, unable to utter a single word.

Yes... back then, had he ever hesitated even a little?

Had he ever felt even a trace of shame?

For that Dragon throne, he had personally shot his elder brother, forced his younger brother to die, and held a knife to his father's neck.

At that time, didn't he also feel that all of it was natural?

In an instant, the Li Chengqian before him seemed to overlap with himself from more than twenty years ago, holding a dripping longsword.

The same youth, the same decisiveness, the same... naturalness.

Li Shimin stumbled back a step, his eyes unfocused, and the astonished faces of the Civil and Military Officials of the entire court blurred before him.

The entire Taiji Hall was dead silent.

Only the father and son remained, silently confronting each other across a chasm named "Imperial Power."

One, rendered speechless by the question.

The other, full of vigor, with a Qi that could swallow mountains and rivers... This is an extra chapter for the previous wave of gifts.

Ten gifts for an extra chapter, still four short.

Brothers, let's get some wild power generation going.

Going all night tonight.

Four more gifts for an extra chapter, I'll do as I say.