EFB Chapter 613: This is Goodbye
Chapter 613: This is Goodbye
Chapter 613: This is Goodbye
As the flowers faced the late evening, their brilliance drifted away.
In a decaying world, fate had become unbearable.
A woman in a palace dress sat quietly in the desolate hall. The once lively and luxurious empress's chambers were now devoid of maids, with not even a single candle lit. As the sky darkened, shadows shrouded the room.
The emperor stepped in slowly, each step heavy with burden. Though he had been at the seventh realm for years and even though he no longer had the time to focus on cultivation right now, he remained far stronger than that of an ordinary person. Yet, it was the first time he felt such physical exhaustion.
Within a day, he realized that the two women he loved the most each had ulterior motives. While his affection for the imperial consort was merely physical, he had genuinely considered the empress as his lifelong companion.
To think even she was an imposter.
At this moment, as he stood before her, he couldn't even recognize the person before him.
The empress had always been graceful and slightly plump, yet the woman before him bore sharp, thin features and her face devoid of warmth. Politely speaking, she was not very attractive.
Even as the emperor could not recognize the person before him, his thoughts churned.
He gazed at her white attire, which was what she would always wear, and her expression, which appeared icy and distant.
After a long silence, he finally spoke, "You have been with me since I was still a prince, back when I held no power. How did you know I would become the crown prince and ascend the throne? If I didn't, wouldn't you have sided with the wrong person?"
"The Celestial Master can see everyone's destiny." This most familiar stranger before him finally spoke, "You were destined to become emperor. I knew it even before you did."
Before the emperor's arrival, she had refused to utter even a single word.
"So, it turns out in the end that you are really a member of the Celestial Charm Sect." The emperor took a deep breath and held it for a long time.
When Li Chengfeng had mentioned it earlier, he had been unwilling to believe it.
This face was unfamiliar to him, but the senior officials of the Imperial Supervisory Bureau recognized it. The last time Xiao Wuyan had been personally apprehended by the Imperial Supervisory Commissioner, she had reverted to her original appearance after being captured—and it was identical to this one.
Earlier, Li Chengfeng had personally gone to the Celestial Northern Prison to check, confirming that Xiao Wuyan was still detained there. Even if the woman before him was not Xiao Wuyan, she was undoubtedly closely connected to her.
Yet, even so, the emperor held onto a sliver of hope.
Until she spoke the words herself.
If her origins were from elsewhere, he might still have hope of sparing her. But if she was a member of the Celestial Charm Sect, there would be no chance for redemption.
"Your Majesty, you need not hold onto any kindness toward me. You may claim that a member of the Celestial Charm Sect assassinated the empress, disguised herself as the empress, but was exposed and executed by you," she said, shaking her head. "Only Hai'er is innocent. Over the years, I have never revealed the truth to him. I hope you can treat him as usual. Even if you don't let him ascend the throne, please don't let my actions affect him..."
"Rest assured," the emperor interrupted her. "Regardless of who his mother is, he will always be my child."
The Hai'er she referred to was naturally the Second Prince.
After a pause, the woman finally said, "Thank you."
The emperor then asked, "What is your real name?"
"In recent days, I've helped them place many people in the palace. Although they didn't inform me, I learned from the palace consort that a major plan was to be launched during the Qinghong Banquet, and it included an assassination attempt on you."
"So, you killed her and dumped her body at Qinghong Aviary to stop the banquet?" the emperor asked.
At this point, the situation had become clear.
"Yes," Xiao Wuyin admitted. "I didn't dare explain it to you, so I used this method to stop the Qinghong Banquet and trigger a thorough investigation of the palace, giving me the chance to eliminate all the people the Celestial Charm Sect had planted."
"You were still trying to protect me?" The emperor's tone carried a hint of mockery.
"I can't tell anymore whether I wanted to protect you or myself," Xiao Wuyin sighed. "But such is life—when one does something, the reasons are not always clear."
"If your plan had succeeded, with the palace consort discovered before the Qinghong Banquet, the banquet was put to a pause, and the palace would be thoroughly investigated..." The emperor mused, "It wouldn't have been a bad outcome."
"Unfortunately..." Xiao Wuyin said, "there were still things I couldn't foresee."
She could never have predicted that the imperial guardian would bring his daughter to Qinghong Aviary that day to steal the Qinghong birds and stumble upon the corpse of the imperial consort... nor could she have foreseen that the Di Nufeng's disciple would piece the clues together and trace them back to her in just over two hours.
"If not for Chu Liang, this might have all passed unnoticed," the emperor said.
"He was another miscalculation in the Celestial Master's plan," Xiao Wuyin said. "In his predictions, the ones entering the palace at this time were supposed to be people from the Penglai Supreme Sect, and the person the Golden Dragon sought should have been Yang Shenlong."
"Isn't he supposed to see everyone's destiny?" The emperor sneered.
"Perhaps... not everyone and not at all times," Xiao Wuyin said with a self-deprecating laugh. "Take me, for instance—he didn't predict me correctly, did he?"
"If everything went as he predicted, the world would already be his, and they wouldn't have failed eighty years ago," the emperor said coldly.
"Perhaps," Xiao Wuyin said. "He prides himself on being able to predict the hearts of humans, but he could never truly understand the feelings experienced by humans."
What followed was a long silence.
The two sat silently—one on the chair, the other on the ground—until the sound of drums and music echoed from afar.
"The Qinghong Banquet is about to begin," the emperor said as he stood up. "Mei... heh, how should I address you?"
"Call me Xiao Wuyin," the woman said with a sorrowful smile. "We, the daughters of the Xiao Family, were voiceless and faceless from the moment we were born.[2]... We were destined to have nothing of our own, living under someone else's identity...
"Now that it's come to this, I wish to be myself."
"Very well," the emperor replied, nodding in agreement. Then he said, "Xiao Wuyin, I will have your words verified. If you are not lying, I will give you a chance to see your sister."
Xiao Wuyin stood up as well, stepped forward, and, as if it were a normal day, adjusted the emperor's dragon robe collar and sleeves.
In a soft voice, she said, "I am at the end of my road and can no longer accompany you. The future is fraught with storms; I only wish for Your Majesty's safety."
1. Xiao is the surname. And Wuyin means no voice or not having a voice of her own. ☜
2. Wuyin means no voice. Wuyan means no face. This means they do not have a face or voice of their own. ☜