Chapter 11650 — You Bastard

If nothing unexpected intervened, with his paltry level of comprehension, he would be ground out of existence in an instant.

Even if he survived by a stroke of luck, he would forever after be severed from the power of rules, becoming a broken man through and through.

The Prince of Qi, however, merely smiled. "The Three Ancestors need not worry. I know better than to act directly; that self-awareness I do have. But other methods are still worth trying."

Even as he said this, he casually picked up an ancestral tablet from beside him.

Under everyone's gaze, he tossed it straight into the field.

"You bastard! What are you doing!"

Seeing this, the Three Ancestors of the Prince of Qi's Estate flew into a fury.

An ancestral tablet was the sole token that the forebears of the Prince of Qi's Estate still had any presence in this world—supreme in honor, supreme in sanctity. On ordinary days, even the Prince of Qi himself could not touch one lightly, let alone cast it aside the way he had just done.

More importantly, the moment the tablet entered the field, it was caught in the surrounding vortex of energy and fell apart in an instant, without leaving even a trace of residue behind.

The Three Ancestors' eyes nearly split open with rage.

An invisible ancestral will then surged forth and poured into them, letting them barely recoup a little ground in their stalemate with Wei Zhao.

But it did nothing whatsoever to lift their spirits.

The tall old man roared, "How dare you desecrate an ancestral tablet like this! You deserve death by a thousand cuts!"

The Prince of Qi was unperturbed. "Yes, yes, I deserve a thousand cuts. But I'd advise you to win this bout first. If you yourselves are gone, how are you going to see that justice done?"

Even as he spoke, he casually tossed in another ancestral tablet.

The Three Ancestors of the Prince of Qi's Estate nearly choked on the spot.

They truly did not want to lose to Wei Zhao. But the problem was that the ancestral will borne by the tablets was the most precious inheritance the Prince of Qi's Estate possessed. Consuming it all at once like firewood was no different from digging the estate's own grave.

In the end, Wei Zhao was not an enemy with whom the Prince of Qi's Estate was locked in a struggle to the death; at the very least, the two sides had not yet reached that desperate point where they had to drain their last drop of blood.

By doing this now, the Prince of Qi had left both sides utterly defenseless before fate—with no retreat for anyone.

Watching the Prince toss ancestral tablet after ancestral tablet into the field, the Three Ancestors gnashed their teeth, ready to devour someone alive.

If they could stop things that very moment, they would absolutely skin the man alive and swallow him whole.

But they could not.

Not only that—they could only watch helplessly as the Prince hurled in more and more ancestral tablets. Every tablet thrown in twisted their hearts like a knife.

"Stop!"

Seeing that few ancestral tablets were left, someone finally arrived belatedly, flung himself at the Prince of Qi, knocked him down, and snatched the tablet from his hand.

Wei Zhao's eyelid twitched.

"Fourth Uncle Qi. It's been a long time."

The newcomer was none other than Qi Zhuiyun, whom rumor in the streets had already declared missing.

Qi Zhuiyun looked wretched now—his aura chaotic and withered, his body covered in wounds, bearing all the marks of someone who had just been tortured and interrogated.

The Prince of Qi rose to his feet again, his expression darkening at once. "So you managed to escape after all. It seems I miscalculated."

Qi Zhuiyun did not look at him. Instead he addressed the Three Ancestors of the Prince of Qi's Estate in a loud voice. "Elders, bear witness—he is not my elder brother, the Prince of Qi. He is an impostor!"

"What?!"

The Three Ancestors had already been battered senseless by the shocks; at these words their faces drained of color. "He is not the current Prince of Qi?!"

Seeing their stunned reaction, Wei Zhao said, puzzled, "You didn't know?"

"..."

The Three Ancestors stared at him in unison. "You knew?"

Wei Zhao nodded without a shred of tact. "I figured it out a moment ago. After all, I've never heard of the Prince of Qi being a woman."

The Three Ancestors grew only more bewildered. "She's a woman too?"

This chain of shocks was even harder for them to accept than watching the Prince of Qi desecrate the ancestral tablets with their own eyes.

They were the ancestors enshrined by the Prince of Qi's Estate—the Prince of Qi was their own blood descendant. They had dealt with the Prince at close quarters for so long, and yet none of them had noticed that the other party was a woman!

Was there anything more absurd in all the world?

If word of this got out, it would be the laughingstock of the age.

The Three Ancestors could not help but begin to doubt life itself. "How is that possible? How could a woman slip past the scrutiny of all the ancestral spirits?"

Qi Zhuiyun smiled bitterly. "Because she is no ordinary woman. She is my elder brother's woman—Li Hongshou."

The crowd grew even more dumbfounded.

At this, the Prince of Qi finally dropped the pretense. She removed her mask and revealed her true appearance.

It was a woman of striking elegance, every glance and smile brimming with charm—none other than the legendary Li Hongshou, the Prince of Qi's consort of unmatched beauty.

Only then did the Three Ancestors finally grasp what had happened.

As the Prince's consort, she was familiar with every affair of the estate, and knew the Prince himself inside and out in every particular. That she could impersonate him and pull off such a grand deception was not, in the end, entirely beyond belief.

But the very next moment, a chill ran down their spines.

"And the current Prince of Qi? Where is he?"

At this, Li Hongshou wore a mocking expression. "It seems you venerable ancestors really have gone senile in your old age. The Prince of Qi is of course dead and gone—otherwise how could I have possibly impersonated him?"

The three ancestors of the Prince of Qi's Estate turned cold. "You did it?"

The Prince of Qi's strength was no small matter. Even if she was his pillow companion of many years, given the gap in their power, killing the Prince of Qi would have been no easy feat.

Li Hongshou giggled. "Who else could it be but me?"

The tall old man shouted in a heavy voice, "Why would you do such a thing? The Prince of Qi's Estate treated you without the slightest stinginess—and this is how you repay kindness with enmity?"

Li Hongshou sneered. "True enough, your estate was never stingy toward me. But as for repaying kindness with enmity—there you are mistaken. There has always been a sea of blood between us. Seeking vengeance against you is only fitting."

"What sea of blood?"

The crowd was baffled.

Her selection as the Prince of Qi's wife had been handled with the utmost caution by everyone in the estate, high and low. Under normal circumstances, there could have been no possibility of inviting a wolf into the fold—of turning an enemy into the Prince of Qi's wife.

Li Hongshou said softly, "It's no wonder you don't know. The Prince of Qi kept this from everyone and did it quietly. Even I only discovered the truth by chance after living with him for decades."

"He killed my junior apprentice brother with his own hands, for no reason other than that we had grown up together and once held tender feelings for each other."

"Is it not entirely reasonable that I should avenge my junior apprentice brother?"

Everyone was dumbstruck.

The short old man burst out in fury on the spot. "What a wretch, turning the tables on her victim! The current Prince of Qi was always a cautious man. Unless he had found evidence that you were carrying on an affair, he would never have personally struck down your little paramour!"

The rest could not help but find the whole thing absurd.