Martial Cultivator

Tonight, in the Divine Capital, there would surely be many places where knocking sounds would be heard.

But it likely would not include the Second Prince's manor.

He was His Majesty the Emperor's son, of direct bloodline. Theoretically, he would not have any ties to the foreign lands and certainly not a threat to the Great Liang Dynasty.

The whole realm could very well be within his grasp, he had no need to take any action.

The Second Prince sat by the pond, lifting his hands from the water. They were damp, still dripping as he listened to the knocking. The Second Prince lifted his robe and carefully dried his hands.

Afterward, he began to scrutinize his hands closely. After a long time, he finally looked up toward the main gate.

“Your Highness...”

The steward of the prince's manor glanced hesitantly at the Second Prince.

The Second Prince remained silent for a long time before saying calmly, “Go kill him.”

His command was naturally not directed at the steward, but at the powerhouses maintained in the prince's manor. As one of the candidates for the Great Liang Dynasty's heir, it was only natural he would have countless powerhouses in his residence.

Several figures silently emerged from various places in the manor, and then climbed over the high walls to the outside.

Soon, sounds began to rise from outside - heavy objects crashing violently to the ground.

The noise was quite loud, echoing continuously.

The stewards of the prince's manor displayed expressions of fear as they listened to these sounds. Even though they were in the prince's manor and did not need to worry about many things, the chaos in the Divine Capital tonight was truly far too chaotic, and no one could predict what would happen.

In the eyes of ordinary people, these stewards were genuine big shots. But in the eyes of those true big shots, they were no different from ordinary people. Therefore, they were completely unaware of the events unfolding at the highest levels of the dynasty.

“Your Highness, should we...”

The stewards wanted to say something, but they realized to their dismay they had no idea what to say.

The Second Prince sat by the pool and did not speak. He just sneered coldly and said, “What's there to worry about? I'm a prince, a direct descendant of Imperial Father. Who in the world would dare to find trouble with me?”

The stewards lowered their heads in apology, but his words did little to reassure them. Instead, they felt even more panic.

After all, while they could not see the scene outside the door, everyone knew that people were definitely dying at that moment.

It was unknown how long had passed.

It felt like a long time, yet it also seemed to pass in an instant.

The sounds outside the door stopped.

At this moment, the prince's manor fell into an uncanny silence, as if no sounds remained. All the way until moments later, the splashes of startled fish in the pool finally broke the original tranquility.

There was no further knocking at the door, but a moment later, with a loud crash, the large gate suddenly fell down.

The vermilion gate shattered into several wooden planks.

“What audacity! How dare you trespass into the prince's residence? Aren't you scared of death?"

Seeing the young man in black who appeared at the gate, one of the stewards of the prince's manor mustered his courage to speak, his voice trembling.

"Kill him!"

Without waiting for that young man in black to speak, the Second Prince spoke again.

By this time, the powerhouses in the prince's manor had already suffered heavy losses, leaving only these stewards.

The stewards gritted their teeth and charged forward.

Before long, the ground was littered with corpses.

The young man who finally walked into the courtyard looked at the Second Prince sitting by the pool and said with vicissitudes of emotion, “I thought there would be quite a few Nepenthe powerhouses guarding your manor, but it seems there are none.”

The Second Prince looked at Chen Chao before him and replied calmly, “There were indeed some before you arrived, but if they still don't leave at this point, will Imperial Father allow them to see tomorrow's sun?”

Chen Chao nodded, deeply agreeing. “After doing so much and still achieving nothing, to stay after failing is to truly not wanting to live anymore.”

The Second Prince turned his head to glance at the fish in the water. “I always thought I was like the koi in this water, although I look magnificent, but I'm ultimately just a fish in Imperial Father's pond. Imperial Father is so powerful, like an insurmountable mountain, but I don't want to be trapped in this pond for the rest of my life.”

“So to jump out of the pond, you had to collude with the foreign lands. Have you never considered that they might use this to harm His Majesty?”

Chen Chao's gaze was somewhat complicated. The Second Prince before him was, after all, his cousin.

“What else can I do? I originally thought that if I were good enough, I could beat Eldest Brother and Third Brother, and that chair would eventually be mine. But then you showed up. Imperial Father has always been indifferent towards the three of us, yet he seems so concerned about you. At first, I thought it might be because of Imperial Mother's instructions, but the more I see, the more I feel that's not the case. He simply likes you, thinks you resemble him more. I have no doubt that in a few years, when he passes away, he will hand this world over to you.”

The Second Prince chuckled self-deprecatingly. “After expending so much effort to seize the world from your family, he ends up wanting to return it... Don't you think that's laughable?!”

"I never wanted this world."

Chen Chao shook his head.

"Is it important how you think? Besides, people can change. When that day truly comes, and Imperial Father hands the world over to you, how will you choose? I don't know, I just don't want to see that day.”

The Second Prince looked at Chen Chao seriously, “So you must die.”

“If you die, Imperial Father can only choose one of us three. Based on Eldest Brother's health, it doesn't look like he'll live much longer. As for Third Brother, he's just a child. How could such a temperament make a good emperor?!”

The Second Prince said in a cold voice, “As long as I kill you, the throne will naturally be mine.”

Chen Chao looked at the Second Prince before him and said, “Did you develop the intent to kill me the last time we met in the Imperial City before I left Divine Capital?”

“Since you can't be of use to me, you naturally must die.”

The Second Prince stood up, not hiding anything.

“This is truly a good setup. Starting from my identity, you orchestrated so much and influenced so many people, you were almost successful.”

“Indeed, I also thought I would succeed, but who would have imagined that in the end, what awaited was those three ridiculous words.”

When everything came to light, and everyone awaited His Majesty the Emperor's decision, he only said three words.

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These four words turned the Second Prince's entire plan into a joke.

“Have you ever thought about why you weren't the Crown Prince before I appeared?”

Chen Chao suddenly asked a question.

The Second Prince frowned. He had pondered this question many days and nights, coming up with many answers.

Perhaps it was because Eldest Brother had the Northern Frontier Great General backing him, so even if Imperial Father would not pass the throne to him, he would not make him the crown prince so quickly either.

Or maybe Imperial Father still wanted to see if he had the ability to shoulder this world.

But those thoughts, those answers, the Second Prince felt were not the true answers.

“You know?”

The Second Prince stared at Chen Chao, a strange emotion flickering deep within his eyes.

Chen Chao said, “Because you don't understand him.”

Neither Chen Chao nor the Second Prince knew that before the banquet had even begun, Li Heng had once looked up at the sky and expressed a sentiment: that the son did not understand the father.

In fact, what he meant by “the son does not understand the father” did not only refer to the Second Prince.

None of His Majesty the Emperor's children understood what he truly wanted.

“You all think of him as being like the emperors of past dynasties of Great Liang, and treated him just like those monarchs recorded in history. So you look at the stories from the annals of history and try to be the kind of son you think he would like, but you are wrong. His Majesty is unlike any emperor in the records.”

Chen Chao looked at the Second Prince and said calmly, “No emperor in history is like him, and perhaps there might never be such an emperor in the future again.”

The Second Prince listened to these words, falling into deep contemplation.

Suddenly, he lifted his head and glared at Chen Chao with resentment in his eyes. “So what?! Even if I'm not the kind of son he wants, if you didn't exist, this world will still end up in my hands!”

Chen Chao replied, “There's no problem with that statement, as long as you kill me, it can resolve the problem too."

Before the Second Prince could respond, Chen Chao continued, “But I'm still alive.”

“Do you really want to kill me? Can Imperial Father just stand by and watch you kill me?”

The Second Prince laughed maniacally. “No matter how much Imperial Father dislikes me, I'll always be his son. How can that ever change?!"

“Since His Majesty knows that you have done so much yet didn't do anything, don't you understand what that means?”

Chen Chao looked calmly at the Second Prince. The Great Liang Emperor was already aware of everything that had happened tonight, and naturally understood the role the Second Prince played in it.

But he still said nothing and did nothing.

The Second Prince looked at Chen Chao in despair, saying self-mockingly, “He's really ruthless, watching someone kill his own son without caring about it.”

“But what about you? Will you kill me? I'm your elder brother!”

Chen Chao looked into the Second Prince's eyes and said, “Tonight, I've already killed one older brother.”

The events from the banquet had only just concluded, surely no one could forget them so quickly.

“It seems you really are just like him. No wonder he likes you so much."

The Second Prince suddenly seemed to lose heart, muttering “So, I deserve to die, don't I?”

“But who would willingly die just like that?”

Suddenly, the Second Prince stood up, staring intently at Chen Chao.

He was a cultivator too, he had trained for many years and was considered to have a decent amount of talent.

Chen Chao slowly drew his saber, saying softly, “Since I came to kill you, you have no choice but to die.”