Chapter Forty-Nine: Royal Secrets (Part One)

The Seventh Prince was silent for a moment before speaking softly, “What I tell you now must never leave your lips. Do not tell a soul.”

Tao Ming thought for a moment and replied, “Should I swear an oath?” Wasn’t it said that oaths here were especially effective?

The Seventh Prince shook his head. “No need. I trust you.”

“You know me as the Seventh Prince, but in fact, I am the forty-third in line.”

Both of Tao Ming’s ears perked up in shock. Good heavens, the Celestial Emperor had over forty sons.

“Since I can remember, I have lived in a secluded courtyard of the Qin estate. My mother would visit me once every three months.”

“Mu Zhong was always by my side, and servants would deliver food to the gate of my courtyard, never allowing me to step outside.”

“Only my thirteenth uncle—your father—would sneak over the wall to talk with me and bring me strange, interesting things. Once, he was caught climbing the wall and was scolded by the family head at the time.”

“But he always came back in secret.”

Recalling Qin Siyu’s dashing figure scaling walls, the Seventh Prince’s lips curled in a smile.

By this point, Tao Ming could finally accept that her father had shared the secret of the ‘Star-Shift’ technique with the Seventh Prince. They were clearly the best of friends!

“My mother’s last visit, she was gaunt and frail, and she clung to me, weeping uncontrollably. Only later did I learn that all the elder brothers she’d borne before me had died.”

“Not long after, the Celestial Emperor brought me back to the palace and said, ‘From today, you are the Seventh Prince.’ I was very young then and could only tremble in fear before his imposing presence.”

“From then on, I lived in the Mirage Azure Hall and was given the name Qiao Kongqing. Every day, countless maids and servants attended me, and many learned scholars instructed me in all manner of knowledge and etiquette. But I never saw my mother again.”

“After some years, I gathered from the servants’ whispers that my mother had passed away. I knew that if I wanted to survive, I had to be obedient. So I trained twice as hard, striving to become stronger.”

“It wasn’t until I broke through to the Day Tier that I first stepped outside the Mirage Azure Hall and saw the Celestial Emperor again. From then on, every ten days, he would summon me to the Xuanling Hall to test me.”

“It was then that I learned there were other princes living in the palace. But the only one I saw regularly was the Sixth Prince, Qiao Kongjin. He was withdrawn and never spoke to me. I could only guess that, like me, he had been brought in from outside.”

Tao Ming couldn’t help but ask, “Then how did you know you were the forty-third?”

“That came after I left the palace to establish my own household. After my five-hundredth birthday, the Celestial Emperor built the Seventh Prince’s Residence outside the palace, and I moved in.”

Tao Ming asked again, “May I be so bold as to ask your age now?”

The Seventh Prince thought for a moment. “I’ve passed a thousand years, though I can’t recall the exact number.”

Tao Ming spat out her beer. They were all ancient monsters!

She pulled out a napkin to wipe her mouth. “I heard from the White Tiger that girls here in Weishui are married off at twelve. Haven’t you already fathered a bunch of children by now?”

The Seventh Prince laughed. “How can those who cultivate be compared to ordinary folk? Marrying at twelve is for commoners, whose lifespans barely exceed a century. If they don’t marry early, how can they carry on their line?”

Tao Ming remembered the letter her mother left behind and asked doubtfully, “But my mother said that when she was ten, my grandmother had already started looking for a husband for her.”

The Seventh Prince tilted his head in thought. “I know only a little of this. After giving birth to your mother, Qiluo’s clan suffered a grave disaster. She was gravely injured, so perhaps that’s why she sought a husband for your mother early.”

Tao Ming recalled her grandmother’s head of white hair, and understood why, when she’d asked Xia He why her grandmother looked so old, Xia He had reacted with panic.

Yes, whoever hurt her grandmother must go on her revenge list.

“Do you know who hurt her?” she asked.

The Seventh Prince shook his head. “I have no way of knowing.”

Tao Ming brought the conversation back. “So, how did you find out you were forty-third in line?”

But the Seventh Prince gave her a once-over and asked, “You look so young. How old are you?”

“Almost eight.” I’m a proud little girl, she thought.

The Seventh Prince sighed. “That’s much too young to have children.”

Tao Ming ignored him and pressed, “Let’s stay on topic.”

The Seventh Prince’s lips curled as he continued, “After moving into the Seventh Prince’s Residence, I gained much more freedom. Within days, I secretly climbed over the wall into the Qin estate.”

“But as soon as I landed, I saw my thirteenth uncle waiting below. He led me to the family head’s study. By then, the head had changed—it was your grandfather Qin Youchuan, who was also my maternal grandfather.”

“It was from him that I learned my mother was his sixth daughter, chosen by name to enter the palace. She bore the Emperor four sons in succession, and then me, the forty-third in line. The Celestial Emperor himself brought me to the Qin family to be raised in secret.”

“I asked my grandfather how my mother and brothers had died. He stayed silent for a long time and did not answer.”

A bold suspicion arose in Tao Ming’s heart, and she hesitated to voice it. If her guess was true, it was too shocking.

The Seventh Prince, unaware of her thoughts, continued his recollections. “Since Grandfather wouldn’t say, I stopped asking. From then on, I grew close to the Qin family, especially my thirteenth uncle, until he disappeared.”

“Later, I investigated on my own and found out that not only my mother, but every daughter from the Qin and Su families sent to the palace—and their sons—had all died. As for the surviving princesses, those who weren’t married off vanished without a trace.”

“After that, I dared not disobey the Celestial Emperor. Whatever he ordered, I did.”

“Because I was obedient, the Emperor trusted me more and more. The tasks he gave me became more important, and my subordinates grew stronger.”

“All these years, I never stopped searching for the cause of my mother and brothers’ deaths, but I found nothing. Until three hundred years ago, when, besides me and the Sixth Prince, all the other princes I’d once met died again.”

“I couldn’t let the opportunity slip by and sent people to investigate, but none ever returned.”

“The Celestial Emperor summoned me to Xuanling Hall, berated me fiercely, and even struck me down. I could tell he truly meant to kill me, but for some reason, he stopped himself. I was bedridden for half a year before I could walk again. After that, I became even more cautious, playing the role of the obedient son.”

Tao Ming stared at the Seventh Prince and asked, “After all that, you still haven’t said why you want to rebel!”

The Seventh Prince’s expression shifted, as if making a great decision. “What I’m about to tell you may be hard to believe. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

Tao Ming thought, What a pointless question. Of course I want to know why you’re rebelling—I can’t just go along with this blindly! If you’re doing this on a whim, the Celestial Emperor might not kill you, but he’ll definitely kill me!

Feeling annoyed, her tone was less than pleasant. “Say it if you want, or don’t. Doesn’t matter to me.”

The Seventh Prince gritted his teeth and said, “One day, the Celestial Emperor sent me out on an errand. On my way back to the capital, someone hid in my carriage. When I entered, I saw it was the Third Prince, who was supposed to be dead.”

“He was gravely wounded. When he saw me, he said, ‘The Celestial Emperor in the palace is an imposter.’”