Facing the grand hall steeped in history, Qin Yu felt waves of emotion surging inside, itching to accomplish great deeds.
However, the most urgent task before her was to deal with the coup that had just occurred.
“Martial law in the capital region, restrict all entry and exit from Yongan City!”
Qin Yu issued her first order.
In the event of a coup, Qin Yu’s first step was to mobilize the garrison stationed in the capital region, to safeguard the capital while apprehending the main culprits.
Next, it was time to summon all the officials.
“Summon all officials to court to discuss state affairs!” Qin Yu instructed the attendant minister.
“Understood!” The attendant minister received the order and hurriedly began drafting the edict to be distributed to the officials.
Watching as the attendant minister drafted the edict, Qin Yu breathed a slight sigh of relief and began considering the next steps.
“Come, sit over here!” Qin Yu patted the empty seat beside her, addressing Luo Shangyu who was still standing.
“No, that isn’t proper etiquette.” Luo Shangyu waved her hand in refusal.
“Come on, this is a special privilege I’m granting!”
“…” Luo Shangyu was helpless in the face of Qin Yu’s willfulness, and could only do as she said, sitting on the dragon throne.
The dragon throne was spacious, but Luo Shangyu only sat in one corner, keeping a clear distance from Qin Yu.
“Come a bit closer, won’t you?” Qin Yu hooked her arm around Luo Shangyu’s neck, drawing her closer.
“Stop that!” Luo Shangyu twisted uncomfortably.
“What? Last night, you were much more forward than this!” Qin Yu teased, glancing at Luo Shangyu.
“Last night, it was just the two of us. Now we’re in front of all the civil and military officials—it’s not right to be so intimate…”
“True…” Qin Yu nodded thoughtfully, letting go of Luo Shangyu, allowing her to curl up in the corner and keep a little distance.
***
Time ticked by.
After the coup that afternoon, the officials of Yongan City were filled with shock and curiosity about the details of what had happened.
Driven by curiosity, they quickly assembled in the court hall to pay respects to Qin Yu.
Qin Ling lay weakly on the sickbed beside the dragon throne in the hall.
When the officials had all gathered, Qin Ling struggled to sit up and said to them, “I am physically weak, so for now, the Crown Princess shall act as regent. All of you must listen to her as you would to me and carry out her orders accordingly!”
“Yes!” the officials responded in unison.
“May Your Majesty enjoy boundless longevity and a speedy recovery!”
Qin Ling nodded, signaling the eunuchs beside him to carry him back to the inner palace.
Qin Yu gazed at the assembled officials, standing in strict formation and filling the grand hall, each one holding a wooden tablet, ready to record important matters.
Qin Yu cleared her throat and began recounting the events of the afternoon’s coup.
Her words were concise and clear, supplemented by Luo Shangyu’s timely additions.
The entire process of the coup was laid out with great clarity.
The officials were instantly unsettled: an attempt to assassinate the Emperor within the Imperial City—this hadn’t happened in hundreds, no, thousands of years.
“Everyone, discuss and share your opinions.” Qin Yu waved her hand, inviting the officials to speak freely.
The hall erupted in heated discussion.
“To attempt such a blatant assassination in the capital, their backer must be formidable!”
“Who could it be? Old Li, you didn’t do this, did you?”
“Old Zhang, that’s not a joke you should make!”
“If the mastermind is caught, won’t their entire clan be executed?”
The court buzzed with debate, everyone speculating about the identity of the coup plotters.
Seeing that the discussion had run its course, Qin Yu gestured for silence.
The officials all fell quiet, waiting for her to speak.
“The enemy forces in this coup were too strong to have been organized in a short time. This means they had long been planning!” Qin Yu laid out her deduction.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“This time, our heavy losses were because the enemy had calculated that the Lingyan Pavilion’s members would not be present and our defenses would be weak. That’s how they managed to quickly capture Zhengyang Gate.”
“For someone to know that so many of the Lingyan Pavilion’s members would be away today, they must be one of our own. To commit such treason, they must harbor deep resentment toward the court.”
At this, Qin Yu paused, waiting for everyone’s reaction.
The officials stood in silence, some of them propping their chins in thought.
“In summary, I believe the mastermind behind this coup is Xu Feng’s Faction!” Qin Yu declared her judgment.
The officials were shocked.
Many thought her conclusion a bit hasty, but it did seem reasonable.
“Your Highness, your judgment lacks necessary evidence. To arrest people based on such conjecture seems inappropriate,” spoke Shangguan Rong, the Secretariat Left Minister and acting Prime Minister.
At only nineteen, Shangguan Rong had passed the imperial exams and entered government service.
Thanks to her family background, she became Secretariat Left Minister.
After Xu Feng’s dismissal, she was the highest-ranking official in the court.
“I have my own decision on this matter. Just bring them in.” Ignoring Shangguan Rong’s words, Qin Yu called for the attendant minister, who drafted an edict to the Imperial Guards to apprehend the suspects.
A long silence fell over the court as everyone waited for the Imperial Guards to return with Xu Feng in custody.
Luo Shangyu sat beside Qin Yu, feeling like she was sitting on pins and needles, acutely aware of the curious glances the officials occasionally threw her way.
She seemed a little embarrassed, her cheeks warm.
“Report!”
The doors to Weiyang Hall swung open.
Zhong Chang Gong entered, leading with the arrested Xu Feng, Guo Qing, and others.
“Xu Feng’s Faction just attempted to sneak out of Yongan City, but were apprehended on the spot!” Zhong Chang Gong reported.
Xu Feng and his men trying to flee the city—wasn’t that a sign of guilt?
The officials placed even more trust in Qin Yu’s judgment.
Zhong Chang Gong brought Xu Feng and his group before the officials.
They quickly knelt, pleading for mercy.
“Your Highness, please have mercy on us!”
“Then tell me, what crime have you committed that you are begging for mercy?” Qin Yu asked Xu Feng.
“Attempting to leave the city during a period of restriction,” Xu Feng replied calmly.
“Why did you want to leave the city?” Qin Yu pressed.
“Afraid of punishment.”
Xu Feng’s Faction had embezzled military funds, formed private cliques, and endangered the court—punishment was inevitable.
But this did not explain why they risked sneaking out during a period of restriction.
Why attempt to sneak out now?
There would still be time before Xu Feng’s Faction was put on trial—why choose this sensitive period?
Qin Yu leaned forward slightly, her eyes blazing as she stared at Xu Feng.
“Really? Leniency for confession, severity for resistance!”
“Your Highness, this is the truth.” Xu Feng remained expressionless.
From the look of things, Xu Feng was determined to resist to the end.
Xu Feng had been in the bureaucracy for many years—an old fox who had weathered many storms.
This level of interrogation did not faze him.
“Very well.” Qin Yu sighed, leaned back in her seat, and clapped her hands.
She addressed Grand Tutor Yin, “Grand Tutor Yin, fetch the Truth Serum.”
Xu Feng’s pupils contracted in shock.
Truth Serum was a rare magical potion, forcing its drinker to speak only the truth.
Of course, its effectiveness depended on the user’s strength of will.
The stronger the will, the more resistant they were to its effects.
For an ordinary person like Xu Feng, a single drop would force him to speak the truth for half an hour.
Soon, Grand Tutor Yin brought over the Truth Serum and handed it to Qin Yu.
Qin Yu took the serum—a bottle of clear liquid, contained in a small, round medicine bottle.
The liquid was as clear as a heart free of deception.
When the bottle was shaken, it gently tapped against the glass, producing a pleasant sound.
Yet to Xu Feng, this sound was like a death knell.
“Drink it yourself.” Qin Yu floated the Truth Serum in front of Xu Feng with magic.
“…”
Xu Feng took the bottle with trembling hands, the stopper sealed with wax.
Carefully, Xu Feng pulled out the stopper and pressed the bottle to his lips.
His hands shook so much that several drops spilled onto his clothes.
“Afraid now, are you?” Qin Yu looked at Xu Feng with a mocking expression.
Xu Feng didn’t answer, but after a few deep breaths, as if steeling himself for death, he drank the potion in one gulp.
“Was this coup plotted by you?” Qin Yu watched Xu Feng swallow the Truth Serum, then cut straight to the point.
“I planned it…” Under the effects of the serum, Xu Feng spoke the truth, though his expression was bitterly reluctant.
“Motive? The specific process?” Qin Yu questioned coldly.
“I was dismissed from office and held a grudge against you, so I planned a coup to assassinate the Emperor and you as revenge. I followed someone else’s instructions and had soldiers ready for the rebellion long in advance.”
“Originally, I intended to wait until preparations were complete before launching the coup, but things went wrong. I was arrested for forming private cliques, so to try to regain my position, I commanded these men and, out of desperation, launched the coup.”
At this, Xu Feng stiffly pointed to the group of Xu Feng’s faction kneeling beside him.
As he spoke, pain twisted Xu Feng’s face: being forced to confess the filth in his heart made him feel utterly disgusted, as if being forced to eat excrement.
The confession was brief, but it stunned the officials—Xu Feng had harbored ambitions of rebellion for a long time!
But what shocked everyone even more was that someone had secretly instructed Xu Feng to privately raise troops for the coup.
Who was this mysterious figure?
Qin Yu listened to Xu Feng’s words, her face full of anger.
“Xu Feng’s Faction—privately raising troops, assassinating the Emperor, launching a coup, attempting to overthrow the Chengji Empire royal family.”
“At the same time, Xu Feng’s Faction formed private cliques, embezzled and broke the law, corrupted the government of the Chengji Empire, and tarnished the Empire’s reputation. Such crimes warrant extermination of their clans!”
“Xu Feng, as the ringleader, is to have his nine clans executed; the rest, three clans. Do the officials have any objections?”
Qin Yu’s words were powerful and forceful, fiercely condemning Xu Feng’s crimes.
The officials could not help but applaud with satisfaction.
Seeing no opposition to her sentence, Qin Yu looked at Xu Feng.
Seated high on the dragon throne, Qin Yu looked down at Xu Feng, her gaze filled with hatred.
“Who ordered you to prepare the troops?”
“It was…” Under the effect of the Truth Serum, Xu Feng had been answering truthfully, but now he stammered, unable to say anything.
“It was… it was, it was…” Xu Feng tried desperately to speak a name, but he just couldn’t get the words out.
“This is the Spell of Confinement.” Luo Shangyu whispered in Qin Yu’s ear, “Under this spell, he can’t speak the name of that person.”
“What should we do…” Qin Yu pondered.
“It was…!” Xu Feng kept trying.
Suddenly, a sharp crack echoed out as Xu Feng’s body exploded right there in the hall, blood splattering three feet, dying on the spot.
“Seems he touched the limit of the Spell of Confinement.”
Luo Shangyu observed the gruesome scene and judged, “To have such a powerful spell in place, the one behind Xu Feng is definitely not someone simple…”