520: Doing it yourself can also save face.

His whole body trembled, and his face was pale with terror as he looked at Duan Zhengchun.

"Oh, how truly boring. This Prince originally thought that since you were so arrogant, you had some powerful trump card. Is this all?"

"Is this all? With such an existence that this Prince could crush with a single finger, where did you get the confidence? How did you dare to provoke this Prince time and time again?" Duan Zhengchun looked at the terrified Emperor Taian with a mocking expression.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. This is absolutely impossible."

"How could you be so powerful? It's impossible. Even the Eternal Life Li of back then wasn't this powerful. You—how could a young lad like you be so powerful?"

"It's fake, it must be fake. You are all lying to me. You are all liars, liars!"

"I am the Emperor! Who dares to kill me? Who dares to kill me?" Emperor Taian was incoherent with terror.

Looking at his appearance, his mental state was already somewhat abnormal.

He never dreamed that he would end up in such a state.

Looking at Emperor Taian's state, a mocking sneer appeared at the corner of Duan Zhengchun's mouth.

In his heart, he still somewhat admired this Old Geezer; to be able to sit on the throne for so many years, he was indeed not that simple.

His mind certainly turns quickly. It's just that while this trick of his might fool others, it couldn't fool him.

Trying to get away by playing the fool? Do you really think that if you go mad, this Prince will let you off?

"Prince, what's going on? Emperor Taian hasn't actually gone mad, has he?" Ye Xiaoying snapped back to his senses and found that he had broken out in a cold sweat.

The deep pit that had appeared before him, and the destroyed Hall of Supreme Harmony...

And that Sword Guardian who had already been blasted into dust—the mere thought of it made one's scalp tingle.

A Master of the Half-Step Shenyou Realm had been turned to dust by a single strike just like that.

If he hadn't been in the same camp as Duan Zhengchun, he would probably be the one scared into such a state right now.

"Mad? Do you think an existence like The true name would be so easily scared mad?"

"If he were really so easily scared mad, he would have died long ago. How could he have lived until now?" Duan Zhengchun looked at the still-faking Emperor Taian with a mocking face.

"What? You mean this old fellow is playing the fool?" Ye Xiaoying looked at Emperor Taian in shock.

"This Old Geezer is very shrewd, thinking he can escape this way."

"Since this Prince has come, I will not return empty-handed. I said he would die, so he shall not live," Duan Zhengchun said coldly.

Emperor Taian hadn't expected that even though he had 'gone mad,' the man still didn't intend to let him go.

It seemed this wouldn't end until he was driven to his death.

"Duan Zhengchun, do you really intend to drive me to a dead end? Are you not afraid of starting a war with Northern Li?"

"I admit that I was in the wrong regarding previous matters, and you have already killed the Sword Guardian."

"Let this matter be over. How about we each mind our own business from now on?" Emperor Taian stood up with a grim expression and looked at Duan Zhengchun.

"What? You know fear now? What were you doing before? This Prince warned you long ago not to provoke me."

"The consequences are more than you can bear. And what did you do? Did you think that just because you are the Emperor of Bei Li, you could be so arrogant as to look down on everyone?"

"You treated this Prince's warning as a fart? Who gave you the courage?"

"Now that this Prince has come to your door, you want to settle this matter with a single sentence?"

"Then let this Prince ask you, if the one who lost today were me, would you have let me go?" Duan Zhengchun looked at Emperor Taian with utter disdain.

"You... what exactly do you want? Do you really intend to kill me?"

"If you kill me, the entire Northern Li will fall into chaos. When that time comes, you will be the culprit. Countless people will die because of you, and you will become the sinner of Northern Li."

"At that time, the entire Kingdom will also become an enemy of Northern Li. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Emperor Taian hadn't expected that even though he was willing to apologize, this fellow still wasn't willing to let him go. He could only think of other ways.

He hoped that Duan Zhengchun truly cared about the lives of the Northern Li commoners; otherwise, he really didn't know what to do.

"Heh, what? Since the soft approach didn't work, you want to try moral kidnapping on this Prince?"

"I'm sorry, but this Prince has no morals, so you cannot kidnap them."

"What this Prince insists upon is that all grudges must be repaid, and vengeance shouldn't wait overnight. If I hadn't been delayed by other matters before, you would have been dead long ago."

"How could you have lived until now?"

"As for whether killing you will cause unnecessary trouble, you're overthinking it."

"As the saying goes, the throne is taken in turns; today it's my turn."

"After killing you, this Prince will just support another one. I believe there are plenty of people willing to be the Emperor, and they will do a better job than you."

"General Ye, tell me, is what this Prince said correct?" Duan Zhengchun said, looking at the nearby Ye Xiaoying.

"The true name, my Ye family considers that we have never done anything to wrong your Xiao Family imperial family. Yet just because of our contact with Prince Duan, you wanted to exterminate my Ye family without even asking for the reason."

"Do you really not fear retribution? Before, you thought that because you were the Emperor, you didn't need to fear any retribution at all."

"Now, do you regret your actions today?" Ye Xiaoying's eyes were fixed on Emperor Taian.

"Regret? Everything I did was to preserve the Xiao Family throne. What wrong have I done? I am not wrong, and I will not be wrong," Emperor Taian said coldly.

"Heh... ever since you became the Emperor, do you really think we don't know about the things you've done?"

"Back then, it was because you were wary of the Baili family's merit overshadowing the lord—that much is fine. But later, because Baili Dongjun became the disciple of Master Li,"

"In your eyes, that was a provocation of your imperial prestige. And back then, the Pillar of the State General Ye Yu was also killed because you forcibly framed him with the crime of rebellion for that very reason."

"And because General Ye's only son, Ye Dingzhi, became good brothers with Baili Dongjun, it gave you even more of an excuse to act against the Baili family."

"You were the one pushing everything from behind, pushing the conflict between Beyond the Heavens and Northern Li. When Beyond the Heavens attacked Northern Li, you, as the Emperor of Bei Li, were unwilling to deploy a single soldier."

"You allowed the people of the Jianghu to resist them, all for the sake of weakening the Jianghu forces."

"This is beyond reproach in principle, but do you really think nobody knows you did this?"

"Everyone understands it clearly. The reason they stepped forward to resist was simply that they didn't want the people of Beyond the Heavens to occupy Northern Li."

"Your filthy methods have long since lost you the hearts of the people."

"You know this yourself without me having to say it. Yet you refuse to repent and stubbornly persist in your ways."

"Now, falling into such a state is your retribution."

"The common people don't care at all about who is the Emperor; they care about whether that Emperor can bring them a life where they can live and work in peace."

"Clearly, you, Emperor Taian The true name, do not have that qualification." Ye Xiaoying spoke out all the ugly deeds The true name had committed over the years in one breath.

His words left Emperor Taian's face ashen and his lips trembling.

Once upon a time, how would the Ye family have dared to speak to him like this? Now, Ye Xiaoying actually dared to point fingers at him in this manner.

"Prince Duan, what will it take for you to stop?" Emperor Taian looked at Duan Zhengchun with a dark expression.

"Simple. Do it yourself, and I'll give you a dignified end. If this Prince has to do it, you won't even have an intact corpse left," Duan Zhengchun said coldly.