Chapter 38: How foolish! Is he marching to his death?

As he spoke, Hou Junji suddenly went rigid. The despair in his eyes was so profound that the veins in his neck stood out like writhing snakes on the verge of death.

Hou Jiu, seeing that even the Duke had become so terrifyingly strange, no longer dared make the slightest sound. The entire secret chamber seemed to sink into absolute silence.

As though that utter silence had swallowed every other sound...

The broad-shouldered, thick-faced Hou Junji now resembled a clay statue that had abruptly lost all support, frozen in an incredulous posture.

After a very long while...

He began to breathe and struggle violently, like a fish on the verge of dying from thirst. Then he started muttering, as though the madness had suddenly ebbed into eerie calm...

“I painstakingly helped him, plotting in secret and contacting his former subordinates...”

“I exhausted every effort to pave the way for that crippled Crown Prince...”

“I told him that only by staking everything on one desperate gamble could he find a chance to live...”

“I even...”

“I even intended that, so long as he and I shared the same ambitions...”

“I would tell him about ‘that place’...”

“That secret passage, the one that leads straight into the heart of the Forbidden Palace...”

“That was a key capable of easily overturning the entire realm.”

“I even forcibly crushed my own ambitions of becoming a Huo Guang or a Wang Mang...”

“All I asked was to earn the merit of supporting a dragon to the throne. All I asked was that, once he smoothly became Emperor, he would show mercy and spare my entire clan a path to survive!”

At that, Hou Junji seemed to think of something. His eyes suddenly bulged with fury, and he roared again and again like thunder exploding in the darkness.

“But what about him?!”

“I exhausted every scheme to save my own life and put him on the throne! I was even prepared to throw away this old life of mine!”

Hou Junji abruptly rose and glared at Hou Jiu, who lay sprawled on the floor, not daring to move in the slightest. It was as though he were staring at Li Chengqian himself.

“But what did this Crown Prince do?”

“What did he do?!”

“He ignored the contingency plans I had prepared for him!”

“He disregarded the Imperial Guards he might have won over!”

“He threw away the chance for us to join forces and strike like thunder!”

“He... actually charged into the palace like a brainless brute, taking only a few dozen personal guards with him?!”

“Did he think the palace was the rear garden of the Eastern Palace?”

“Or did he think the Emperor was some merciful Bodhisattva?!”

“Bang!”

With a muffled thud, Hou Junji’s furious fist slammed into the cold stone wall beside him. Blood wound down the rough surface, yet he did not seem to notice.

The intense pain was like a ladle of boiling oil poured onto the flames of his already blazing rage.

“Stupid! Unbelievably stupid!”

“He’s a fool worse than a pig or a dog!”

Hou Junji trembled all over. As he cursed with abandon, a metallic sweetness surged into his throat, but he continued roaring without pause.

“He is forcing His Majesty to depose him immediately, without the slightest hesitation!”

“Perhaps even to kill him!”

“He has washed his own neck and delivered it straight beneath His Majesty’s blade!”

“And he has dragged me into an abyss ten thousand fathoms deep as well!!!”

An immense terror gnawed at Hou Junji’s heart like a cold, venomous snake.

The Crown Prince’s sudden, almost suicidal intrusion into the palace had completely disrupted all his plans. The contingency measures he had painstakingly prepared; the wavering factions he had secretly promised favors to and struggled to contact; the many escape routes he had reserved for himself and the Crown Prince, like a wily hare with three burrows...

The instant the Crown Prince led those few dozen guards toward the palace gates, all of it had turned to dust!

“Why didn’t he consult me?! Why?!” Hou Junji growled in anguish, his voice filled with the despair of betrayal and abandonment.

“Even if... even if he had given me the slightest warning!”

“If I had known he was planning to go mad, I could have made preparations. At the very least, I could have supported him from the outside!”

“Even if all I could do was find a way to preserve his life, I could still have preserved the last shred of hope for turning the situation around! But he... he didn’t even say a word!”

“Does this mean... does this mean he doesn’t trust me?”

“Or did the bastard think that a great general like me would only get in his way?!”

The more Hou Junji thought about it, the more horrified and desperate he became.

Regardless of the outcome, the Crown Prince’s reckless intrusion meant that the suspicion of secret collusion between Hou Junji and the Crown Prince would be exposed in broad daylight.

Once the Emperor flew into a rage, he would certainly order a thorough investigation.

How long could those supposedly secret contacts of his, and those forces not yet fully prepared, remain hidden beneath the iron hand of an enraged Emperor?

“It’s over... It’s all over...”

Hou Junji leaned against the cold stone wall once more, utterly dejected, as though all his strength had been drained from him. The blood vanished from his face, leaving behind only ash-gray despair.

The web he had painstakingly woven had been torn full of holes by the Crown Prince’s reckless collision. It could collapse completely at any moment, plunging this man who had already been desperately struggling to survive into an even deeper abyss of despair.

“My lord!”

Hou Qi and Hou Jiu stared in horror at their master, who seemed to have aged decades in the space of a few breaths after his bout of madness. Their voices trembled.

“What... what should we do now?”

Hearing this, Hou Junji closed his eyes and drew several deep breaths of the icy air, attempting to suppress the storm raging within his heart. But it did little good.

Still, he was, after all, a hardened veteran who had fought his way through the mountains of corpses and seas of blood of the late Sui turmoil.

After a few breaths, Hou Junji suddenly opened his eyes again. Deep within that despairing gaze, a trace of the ferocious light of a cornered beast had ignited.

“What should we do?”

His voice was hoarse, carrying the ruthless resolve of burning one’s boats.

“Hou Jiu, hear my command!”

“This subordinate is here!”

Hou Jiu instantly scrambled to his feet. As though reacting by instinct, he bowed and stood with his hands clasped.

“Please issue your orders, Marshal!”

Hou Junji seemed to have returned to the state he had possessed in the days when he campaigned across the battlefield. A wild, almost savage light flickered in his eyes as he ordered, “Have all our people lie low immediately. Cut off every unnecessary contact, and destroy everything... everything that might leave a trace!”

“And the residence!”

He abruptly turned toward Hou Qi. His gaze was as sharp as lightning, and his next command was utterly cold.

“From this moment onward, no one in the residence may leave. Anyone may enter, but no one may depart!”

“Set every guard and servant to work. String the bows and crossbows. Draw every blade!”

“Anyone who dares intrude without permission is to be killed without exception!”

At that moment, Hou Junji’s voice held not the slightest trace of warmth. He issued his orders in an orderly manner.

“As for my family, gather them all in the inner courtyard at once, and place the most reliable men on guard!”

“And tell them that if they hear anything happen outside... immediately...”

Only then did a slight flicker appear in Hou Junji’s ice-cold eyes. His Adam’s apple bobbed, but he did not finish the sentence. The ruthlessness that flashed across his gaze was enough to make Hou Qi, standing with clasped hands as he awaited orders, shudder with fear.

At the mention of his family, Hou Junji paused. In the end, his gaze locked onto Hou Qi’s face.

His eyes were as dark and sinister as leaden clouds before a blizzard.

“As for you, Hou Qi...”