Chapter 67: Unmatched Favor

He paused for a moment, then continued, "It has been a long time since I had such a thoroughly exhilarating fight! I shall take my leave for today, and we shall cross swords again another opportunity..."

As his voice trailed off, the two practitioners channeled their inner energy and leaped into the air, flying away side by side like a pair of inseparable birds.

Huo Yuchen watched their retreating figures, falling into deep contemplation.

"I never expected Prince Chang to have such formidable experts protecting him."

It seemed he had still underestimated Prince Chang's strength.

If he wanted to assassinate Prince Chang, he would first have to eliminate these two elders. Otherwise, with the two of them guarding Prince Chang at every step, they would never have a chance of succeeding.

He would need to plan much more carefully in the future.

Huo Yuchen pulled back his thoughts and turned to plunge right back into the ongoing slaughter.

Ever since a vast amount of toxins had been cleared from his body, his martial arts could finally be unleashed to their full potential. Among the younger generation, his skills were absolute top-tier. Few could ever hope to match him.

Huo Yuchen shifted and leaped agilely through the crowd, swiftly harvesting the lives of Prince Chang's guards. In barely half an hour, single-handedly, he claimed dozens of lives. Killing felt as effortless to him as chopping vegetables and slicing melons.

Another hour passed before the carnage finally came to an end.

Of the hundred-odd Black Cloud Guards that Huo Yuchen had brought, some twenty had sustained injuries, though none were severe. With proper medical treatment and rest in the days ahead, they would recover swiftly.

As for Prince Chang's force of over three hundred men, they were nearly slaughtered to the last. Corpses and blood littered the ground everywhere, a thick smell of iron hanging heavy in the air. Only a tiny fraction had managed to form a protective barrier around Prince Chang and Prince Duan, retreating with them back to the encampment.

While clearing the battlefield, Huo Yuchen uncovered yet another profound secret.

Among the slain men belonging to Prince Chang, more than twenty turned out to be Imperial Shadow Guards. Had it not been for their desperate, block-at-all-costs resistance, Prince Chang could never have escaped so smoothly.

This was a discovery of monumental proportions.

Staring at the fallen Imperial Shadow Guards, Huo Yuchen furrowed his brows deeply, his expression terribly grim.

"I never imagined that His Majesty would be so utterly devoted to Prince Chang!"

"To actually dispatch so many Imperial Shadow Guards to protect him."

"Imperial Grandfather laid down explicit regulations concerning the Imperial Shadow Guards, yet His Majesty chooses to ignore them in order to lavish such favoritism on Prince Chang."

"Imperial Grandfather decreed: an ordinary princess shall have three Imperial Shadow Guards for protection; a primary princess shall have six; an ordinary prince shall have six; a primary prince shall have ten; and the Crown Prince shall have twenty."

"Yet Prince Chang's Imperial Shadow Guards actually exceed the regulations designated for the Crown Prince! This is simply preposterous!"

With that, Huo Yuchen clenched his fists in fury, his eyes radiating a chilling, frightening coldness.

Baili Qingyun patted him on the shoulder and offered some words of persuasion, "You are well aware of Emperor Qinwu's fondness for Consort Li; it is an absolute, unparalleled true love!"

"When it comes to Consort Li's words, he obeys them without the slightest hesitation."

"Although Emperor Qinwu loves beauties and always has them surrounding him, not a single one of them has ever been able to surpass Consort Li."

"Given Emperor Qinwu's fickle and novelty-seeking nature, the fact that he has remained devoted to Consort Li for over twenty years as if it were still day one—that is a singular, unmatched exception!"

"Therefore, isn't it glaringly obvious that Emperor Qinwu extends his love for the mother to her two sons, trusting them more and favoring them more deeply?"

Huo Yuchen still found it difficult to let go. "I understood my father's partiality toward that mother and her two sons many years ago."

"It's just... I simply never expected him to be partial to such an extent."

"Father must have also seen through the wild, untamed ambitions of Prince Chang and his faction, yet he still granted him so many Imperial Shadow Guards. Did he never imagine who Prince Chang might use these men against?"

"That can only mean Father has never cared about me as the Crown Prince at all, that he doesn't care in the slightest..."

"Just this once, we slaughtered twenty or thirty Imperial Shadow Guards, and Prince Chang surely still has some left behind in reserve that he didn't bring out. Calculating it this way, Prince Chang might have at least fifty or sixty of them at his disposal—that is equivalent to ten times the stipulated limit."

"Father is truly generous indeed!"

The more Huo Yuchen spoke, the more desolate he felt.

"My mother once enjoyed Father's favor as well, but everything turned completely unrecognizable after Consort Li entered the picture."

"Thinking of all this fills one with boundless hatred. I truly want to destroy everything, to let Father experience the heart-wrenching, soul-tearing agony. That would surely be a most exquisite sensation!"

"I swear, everything Prince Chang possesses, I will snatch back piece by piece. Whatever cannot be snatched back, I shall utterly destroy!"

"I will make Father's ultimate end a total emptiness!"

Baili Qingyun deeply understood the injustice and cold treatment Huo Yuchen had suffered over the years, and he sympathized with his pain and unwillingness.

"Since you understood it all long ago, why bother keeping it in your heart?"

"No matter how many Imperial Shadow Guards Prince Chang has, there will eventually come a time when they are all killed. At worst, we will simply ambush them a few more times until they are completely wiped out."

"I refuse to believe your father will endlessly dispatch Imperial Shadow Guards to his side."

"Besides, Imperial Shadow Guards are exceptionally difficult to cultivate, and their numbers are strictly limited. What is there to fear?"

"I took a look just now; Prince Duan brought only about three or four Imperial Shadow Guards with him. It seems your father favors Prince Chang even more!"

"Perhaps even Prince Duan is completely unaware of this matter regarding the Imperial Shadow Guards."

"Emperor Qinwu and Prince Chang must have kept it strictly hidden from Prince Duan, which is why not even a whisper of it leaked out."

"We can find a way to leak this news to Prince Duan."

"Perhaps it will plant a seed of suspicion between the two brothers and yield unexpected results!"

"I firmly believe a rift will inevitably form between those two brothers."

"Once rifts accumulate, the gap between them will widen, and they will no longer be of one heart and mind."

"For us, it will be all the easier to break them apart one by one..."

"Is this not a splendid thing?"

Huo Yuchen nodded and chuckled softly, "To outsiders, Prince Duan and Prince Chang appear to have an exceptionally close bond, with Prince Chang even looking up to Prince Duan as his leader."

"Yet I always feel that with Prince Chang's eccentric and fiercely proud disposition, it is very difficult for him to willingly submit to someone else's shadow."

"On the surface, he appears to show the utmost respect for this elder brother, but how much falsehood is mixed within that display?"

Baili Qingyun pondered for a moment before speaking, "Perhaps there is indeed some! Let us observe a bit longer and drive a few more wedges between them; won't the truth become even clearer?"

"That is indeed a brilliant idea!"

Seemingly remembering something suddenly, Baili Qingyun hurriedly added, "We had better tidy up the battlefield quickly and head back to rest!"

"If we dawdle any longer, the sky will be growing light."

"I wounded Prince Duan quite severely. If my hidden weapon struck him, it was coated with poison."

"This time, it will certainly be enough for him to suffer a bitter cup."