"Bang!"
The heavy palace door was suddenly slammed open by a great force.
In an instant, thousands of figures poured in, surrounding Pei Zhaolin's Black Armored Army layer by layer.
They were not ordinary imperial guards. They all wore long horizontal swords of the same standard at their waists, and the sword hilts were wrapped with brocade ropes representing the identities of different noble families.
— They were all the personal guards of the noble families who had quickly assembled after hearing the signal of the palace coup!
The person leading them was actually the Grand Elder.
The Grand Elder knelt down in front of Qi Xuan and said earnestly, "I'm late, Your Majesty. Please punish me!"
"Good, very good!"
Qi Xuan suddenly roared, drew his long sword, and turned to point it at Pei Zhaolin.
There was hatred in his eyes. "By now, traitor, why don't you surrender quickly!"
Pei Zhaolin moved his wrist, and a long sword barely grazed Qi Xuan's face.
His tone was cold. "Without the Dongman people, do you think Your Majesty can defeat me with just them?"
Hearing this, Qi Xuan's face suddenly changed.
The five words "Where is the Royal Sword" were held back by him, and he didn't ask out loud.
There was no more redundant chattering. Pei Zhaolin threw away his oil-paper umbrella and walked carefully in front of Cui Jintang.
"Tangtang..." He opened his mouth, his voice extremely dry.
"The swords and swords have no eyes. Please leave here first, okay?"
Even the Grand Elder shouted repeatedly, "Lady of the main family! Come here quickly."
Qi Xuan seemed to be in great grief, but in fact, he was closely watching Cui Jintang all the time.
The people of the Xie family in Chenjun were rather cold.
They just glanced at Xie Rou, who died with her eyes wide open, shook their heads, and then withdrew their gazes.
Under the surprised or cold gazes of various forces, she suddenly raised her hand and touched Pei Zhaolin's face.
She gently wiped away the bloodstain on his face.
Cui Jintang's tone was gentle, and it sounded like a dream in Pei Zhaolin's ears.
She slowly asked, "Pei Zhaolin, I'll ask you one last time. Why did you stage a palace coup today, and why did you come to the Fengyi Palace?"
Being so close, Cui Jintang could see the struggle in his eyes.
But after a long while, Pei Zhaolin closed his eyes and shook his head at her.
His tone was heavy and sad. "I'm sorry."
Cui Jintang let out a self-mocking laugh.
Her empty gaze passed over him and slowly looked out.
Countless gazes all fell on her.
Suspicious, puzzled, worried.
Cui Jintang looked in the direction where the shouts of killing were deafening outside the palace, and her voice was very soft. "Pei Zhaolin, you said it wasn't you, and I gave you a chance to explain. But you still chose to hide it from me."
"I can only regard you as the murderer. But I suddenly found that I couldn't bring myself to do anything to you."
"Then I have to choose another way."
For some reason, Pei Zhaolin felt a desperate sense of panic.
"Wait a minute, Tangtang—"
Before he could finish his words, he saw a flash of cold light in front of him, and then blood splashed on his face.
The long sword precisely sliced across her slender neck.
That sword was so precise that it was almost cruel, leaving a thin red line on her fair neck.
Cui Jintang's gaze was calm. She took one last look at Pei Zhaolin, who was panicked and helpless, and then her body softly fell backward.
"No——!!!"
A heart-rending roar.
Pei Zhaolin's eyes were bloodshot, and the blood in his body seemed to flow backward instantly. The whole world collapsed in front of his eyes, leaving only that dazzling red.
He almost staggered and rushed over. Before her body touched the cold ground, he suddenly grabbed her into his arms.
"Tangtang... Tangtang!"
He called her tremblingly, his voice broken.
He tried to cover the wound on her neck from which warm blood was constantly gushing out with his hands, but the bright red blood crazily overflowed from between his fingers.
It dyed his hands, his robe, and also dyed his scarlet eyes.
"Imperial physician! Where is the imperial physician! Hurry up and call the imperial physician!"
Pei Zhaolin shouted desperately.
Intense regret, fear, and overwhelming despair were like countless hands tearing at his internal organs.
The deputy general stepped forward, took a look at Cui Jintang, who had closed her eyes, and said in a difficult tone, "My lord, Miss Cui, she—"
"Shut up!"
Pei Zhaolin only felt a sharp pain like a storm in his chest.
His eyes were scarlet, like a trapped and struggling ferocious beast.
Suddenly, he felt a sweet taste in his throat—
"Puff!"
A mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth without warning.
Under the impact of this extreme pain, it seemed that some kind of restraint in his mind was forcibly broken.
Countless chaotic memory fragments rushed into his mind like a flood breaking through a dam!
— It was her dirty little face looking up, her eyes shining brightly as she said, "Pei Zhaolin, I found a cat today! Our cat."
— After he entered the Metropolitan Procuratorate and was constantly suppressed and targeted, it was the lamp she left for him in the East Garden every day with her sleepy eyes.
— It was even earlier, in the place full of blooming mountain flowers, when she lovingly left a kiss on his lips and said, "I'll wait for you to come back."
— It was also he who personally pushed her away, telling heart-piercing lies, and watching the light in her eyes fade away bit by bit.
Those forgotten pasts were now as clear as yesterday.
He remembered everything!
What on earth... had he done?!
"Ah——!" Pei Zhaolin let out a roar of extreme pain.
He tightly hugged the rapidly cooling and stiff body in his arms, buried his face deeply in her bloodstained neck socket, and tears fell drop by drop.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm a jerk. I was self-righteous. I was blind. I let you down!"
Pei Zhaolin rambled incoherently, and every word was soaked with regret like blood and tears.
This belated truth was more painful to him than killing him.
All hopes were dashed.
Pei Zhaolin suddenly picked up the long sword with which she had committed suicide. The sword's edge reflected his crazy and painful face at this moment.
Without hesitation, he drew the sword across his own neck!
"Stop him!" Qi Xuan shouted sharply, but a complex and hard-to-understand light flashed in his eyes.
He was still thinking about the missing Royal Sword!
If Pei Zhaolin died, there would be no way to find out the whereabouts of the Royal Sword.
Those 30,000 fierce troops might completely get out of control, and the consequences would be endless!
Hearing this, a guard immediately stepped forward and hit Pei Zhaolin hard on the back of his neck with the hilt of his sword.
Pei Zhaolin's vision went black. Under the attack of anger and grief, he actually fell directly beside Cui Jintang.
The bloodstained long sword in his hand clattered to the ground.
Qi Xuan looked down at the two of them from above, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
For the sake of the Royal Sword that could command the Dongman army, Qi Xuan deeply endured the grief and anger from a moment ago.
The personal guards of the noble families had already controlled Pei Zhaolin's Black Armored Army.
Qi Xuan said coldly, "Arrest all the rebels today and throw them into the water prison. Those who disobey will be beheaded on the spot!"
"Yes!"
The Grand Elder slowly stepped forward, bowed with his hands clasped, and his tone was full of grief. "Your Majesty, may I ask if I can take the corpse of the lady of the main family away?"
Facing the Grand Elder, Qi Xuan showed an amiable smile on his face. "If it weren't for you all today, I'm afraid I would have died under the sword of this traitor!"
"As for Tangtang's corpse..."
Qi Xuan paused. "Naturally, it should be sent back to Qinghe."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
The Grand Elder's tone was full of gratitude.