Volume 9, Chapter 634 – Clues About the Jiang Clan Descendants (Part 6)

A group of the court’s lackeys quickly left, and the courtyard was left with only a few corpses—some old, some young—broken and incomplete, pitifully miserable.

Of course, this was only what ordinary people could see!

From Mu Ruoyi’s eyes, she could clearly see several Life Souls drifting out of the corpses.

‘This is impossible! This place is not an extreme yin location. The souls of ordinary people should immediately return to the Heavenly Dao and be erased!’

Mu Ruoyi could not understand no matter how much she thought about it. She looked carefully, and only then did she discover that Chen Kai’s Life Soul was wrapped in resentment, continuously absorbing the surrounding yin energy. This indirectly sheltered the other souls as well.

“Why? Who can tell me why this happened? What did I do to deserve this? For no reason at all, I was slaughtered by soldiers!”

Chen Kai cried out in agony.

Madam Chen could not bear to see it, so she stepped forward, holding her son’s hand, and began to recount the entire story.

“You coward! You are the sinner of the Great Qi Kingdom! You deserve ten thousand deaths!”

Master Chen, furious beyond measure, rushed at the beggar.

“Daughter… oh, daughter… wu wu… Father has wronged you!”

But at that moment, the beggar suddenly went mad, lunging toward Jiang Fu’s soul, clutching the tiny figure in his arms and crying bitterly.

“Daughter?”

Hearing this, Master Chen froze mid-step.

Mu Ruoyi was also caught off guard, her mind going blank. She could not understand why the beggar would call the little princess of the fallen dynasty his daughter.

“Daughter… daughter… wu wu… Father has wronged you! You came to this world for only a few hundred days… you hadn’t even learned to speak before being killed by me… I don’t deserve to be your father… I’m worse than a beast!”

The beggar sobbed loudly as he hugged Jiang Fu.

Jiang Fu, still too young, understood nothing. She only cried foolishly.

“Why do you call her your daughter?”

Master Chen cautiously asked.

Rеαⅾ oո КаtRеadіnɡСafе

“Because… because she is my daughter… she is not the princess of the fallen dynasty!”

The beggar’s words shocked everyone.

“What? She’s your daughter? Then why did you use her to impersonate the princess?”

Master Chen asked, his expression filled with doubt.

“Master Chen, you are a clever man. Surely… surely you understand my intention? I was being hunted by the court’s lackeys, with nowhere to run. To protect the princess, I had to find a substitute. I couldn’t find any other baby girl, so I could only use my own daughter… wu wu…”

At this point, the beggar began sobbing again in deep pain.

Mu Ruoyi felt as though thunder had struck her, her body trembling violently. She could hardly believe that such loyalty could exist in this world, that someone would sacrifice his own daughter just to preserve the royal bloodline.

At the side, Cheng Hongling had lost too much blood. Her complexion was as pale as paper, and her once-elegant figure now swayed unsteadily.

“Let her stop now.”

Qi Huang quietly suggested again.

“No. If she stops, won’t all the blood I spilled have been wasted?”

Cheng Hongling still stubbornly shook her head.

Qi Huang had no choice but to reach out and support her.

“So everything before was all your acting? You deliberately made everyone believe you entrusted the little princess to our care. As long as the court’s lackeys came and killed your daughter, you could fool them all. Am I right? If I’m not mistaken, even being captured by those soldiers was something you did on purpose, so you could personally identify us?”

It took Master Chen a long while to recover from his shock.

“Yes. I had no other choice! But I wronged your family of three.”

The beggar said apologetically.

“Just one apology? That’s enough for you? What does your loyalty have to do with us? Why did you drag us into your game of chess? Did you ever ask our opinion?”

Chen Kai berated him again and again, his resentment growing denser, almost ready to transform into a malicious ghost.

Rеаd oո KαtRеαԁingCаfe

“I am sorry! But in the letter, I already warned you. If Master Chen feared implication, he could have taken my daughter away. Since he chose to keep her, surely he had already prepared for sacrifice, and should not resent me too much.”

The beggar tried to justify himself.

Chen Kai’s aura faltered. Since it had been his father’s decision, what more could he, as the son, say?

“So that’s what your last words truly meant.”

Master Chen suddenly understood. Then he declared: “To preserve the little princess, I can die without regret! But there is one thing I don’t understand. I clearly burned the letter. Why did the soldiers still find it?”

He voiced his deepest doubt.

“Because I left behind not one letter, but two. The other was hidden inside the seams of the basket, you could never have found it so easily.”

The beggar explained.

“Heh, you really did go to great pains to deliver us to death!”

Master Chen sneered through gritted teeth. Although he was willing to sacrifice himself for the royal family, it did not mean he was happy to be used like this.

“Have you heard the saying: even ants cling to life? At first, I did not intend this. As long as you raised my daughter as the princess, nothing would have happened. Who knew you would reveal her gender so quickly, attracting the attention of the soldiers? I had no choice but to take this desperate measure, at the very least, ensuring that your deaths were not meaningless.”

The beggar explained again. Back then, he had given his daughter to the Chen family not just to protect the princess, but so she might live and grow. But things had gone terribly wrong.

“Heh, to think! To think that I, Chen Kai, would die by my own hands. Truly, lust is a blade above the head.”

Chen Kai finally understood, and his resentment quickly dissipated. There was no chance of him becoming a ghost now.

Master Chen walked with heavy steps to stand before his wife and children, bowing deeply. “I have wronged you, my wife and son! Especially you, Chen Kai. When I made that decision, I never asked your opinion. I am unworthy of being your father!”

“Heh, but you are my father. My life was given by you. If you wish to take it back, so be it. Why would you need my permission?”

Chen Kai smiled bitterly.

Master Chen turned back to the beggar and asked, “One last question. Where is the real little princess? I do not want to die in vain!”

“Do not worry. On the second day of the New Year, I secretly sent her to Huangtian County, placing her at the doorstep of a household in Jinlin Village.”

The beggar reassured him.

Reαd оn ΚаtReαԁіnɡСαfе

“Why did you send her there? Is it safe?”

Master Chen asked anxiously.

“First, Huangtian County is remote, and Jinlin Village even more so. Even if someone found a baby girl, word would not spread far, so it is very safe. Second, that household also bears the surname Jiang, though unrelated to the royal family. So even if our restoration never comes, the princess can still legitimately keep her surname. At least that can bring some comfort to her ancestors’ spirits.”

The beggar explained further.

“That is good!”

Master Chen smiled with relief, then embraced his wife and children.

As time passed, under the suppression of the Heavenly Dao, the souls began to show expressions of pain. The little infant felt the torment, crying harder and harder, yet no one could save her.

Mu Ruoyi’s eyes filled with tears. She wanted to help but could do nothing, forced to watch helplessly as the souls dissipated into nothing.

Her spirit collapsed. Unable to endure any longer, she sobbed and fell to the ground.

Cheng Hongling, having lost too much blood, felt the world spinning as she fell flat on her back.

Qi Huang, quick to react, caught both women in each arm and set them on the bench nearby. The other two men wanted to help, but propriety between men and women held them back.

Although Jiang Feng was desperate to know the outcome, as the Crown Prince, he held himself with decorum and did not press immediately.

Mu Ruoyi covered her face and wept bitterly, crying until her strength was spent. She leaned against Qi Huang’s arms. If not for seeing it with her own eyes, she could never have imagined that such a heartbreaking tragedy could occur in the world.

Cheng Hongling, drained and weak, also leaned against Qi Huang’s shoulder.

Qi Huang held one woman on each side, but at that moment, no other thoughts crossed her mind.

Mu Ruoyi cried for half an hour before finally regaining some composure. She sat up with effort, wiping away her tears.

Only then did Qi Huang free her hands, producing a Blood-Replenishing Pill and feeding it to her main body.

“I am sorry… I lost control.”

Mu Ruoyi choked out.

Rеαԁ оո КаtReаdіոɡCαfе

“Holy Maiden, what exactly did you see?”

Jiang Feng could not restrain himself any longer.

Mu Ruoyi’s face showed hesitation. She truly did not wish to speak of such a sorrowful past, but she knew she could not hide it either. Taking a deep breath, she recounted everything she had seen with her spirit-sight.

The expressions of her companions gradually changed. In the end, everyone trembled, eyes brimming with tears.

Qi Huang was no exception. She could hardly believe such loyalty existed, nor could she imagine that such a tragedy could occur.

“These were all loyal subjects of my Great Qi Kingdom. The Jiang clan owes you too much. Yet there is no chance even to repay. How can I, the Crown Prince, face myself?”

Jiang Feng clenched his fists, letting blood and tears stream down his face, dripping together with the zombie blood in his palm.

Beside him, General Li closed his eyes in anguish, his body trembling violently.

Everyone’s mood was heavy, and a long time passed before they could breathe normally again.

“Your Highness, please do not grieve too much. I have made inquiries, this Princess Yingyue is your eldest daughter. After we were trapped at Pingshan Mass Burial Ground, not long later she was granted the title of princess by the late emperor. At least she survived.”

General Li comforted.

“Yes, little Yue did not fall victim to cruelty. That is truly the greatest blessing.”

Jiang Feng sighed in relief, then turned to ask Mu Ruoyi again: “Since that baby girl was a substitute, where is the real little princess?”

“The beggar said he carried the princess to the Jiang family of Jinlin Village in Huangtian County.”

Mu Ruoyi answered truthfully.

“How is she now? Is she still alive?”

Jiang Feng asked urgently.

“What? Where did you say?”

Cheng Hongling suddenly sat bolt upright, her beautiful eyes fixed on Mu Ruoyi.