"What did you just say!?"

A figure clothed in magnificent, golden robes suddenly stood up from where he had just been laying in bed. At his abrupt movement, all of his servants and guards immediately knelt on the floor in a panic. The doctor in front of him had also already hurriedly kowtowed as he tried to urge him to lay back down.

"Your Majesty! Please do not get up! After many hardships and trails, this humble doctor has finally been able to dilute most of the poison in your body. Your Majesty has only just awakened from a two-week coma! Please do not get so worked up yet!"

Long Yi ignored the doctor as he narrowed his furious gaze at all the people around him. Although his skin was still a sickly shade of yellow, Long Yi's eyes were blazing with anger. He was absolutely livid.

"What has happened while Zhen was unconscious! How did it manage to get to this state! Eunuch Li! Explain!"

Hearing his name called, the frightened Eunuch ran forward and dropped to his knees in front of Long Yi. He hastily bowed in fear several times on the ground so hard that his forehead was beginning to bleed.

"R-replying to Your Majesty!  We found that someone had poisoned the entire water supply in the palace with a lethal drug. The symptoms seemed like a simple poisoning at first, but after three hours, the condition of the patient would suddenly plummet at a frightening speed. Your Majesty along with other guests and servants all fell ill at the same time, but due to not having a current imperial doctor, we were unable to treat them all. Many guests and servants passed away during the banquet causing the general public to go into a panic. Some have even started calling Her Majesty, the Empress, as the reason for all this bad-luck."

"Then what about all the chaos in Zhen's court!? Explain that!"

Hearing the Emperor shout at him, the eunuch paled even more.

"T-two large factions of Your Majesty's court are currently fighting against each other. General Zhao and the Grand Chancellor have been hostile towards each other ever since Your Majesty fell unconscious two weeks ago."

"And why is that?"

"That is because..." The eunuch gulped. He didn't dare raise his head to glance at the Emperor. 

"The Zhao family found out about their daughter, Concubine Zhao, being used as a replacement for the real Empress. They caused a loud ruckus and all came to the palace to complain. Your Majesty knows that they have a quite powerful position in the army. If they wanted to, they might even be powerful enough to lead a revolt against the imperial family. Us servants were not able to keep the entire situation under control. And once the Grand Chancellor heard about General Zhao's intense anger, he began to openly act hostile towards their entire family."

Long Yi coldly closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples as another intense headache began. 

"Your Majesty, if this lowly eunuch is allowed to speculate..." The eunuch trailed off until he received Long Yi's icy look. Quickly, the eunuch rattled off the information that almost everyone in the palace knew by now.

"The Grand Chancellor's oldest and most brightest son is currently serving as a lieutenant general in the army. If the Zhao family ends up angering Your Majesty, they will all be exiled meaning that the Grand Chancellor's son will have room to take the role of General Zhao's position. That is why the Grand Chancellor is trying to provoke the Zhao family even more."

The eunuch hesitated making Long Yi angrily shout at him again.

"What else? Spit it out!" 

"Y-yes Your Majesty! As of three days ago, all twenty-two of the Imperial Concubines in the inner palace have passed away. We still have not been able to find out the cause. All of their respectable and influential families are furious saying that it was all because Your Majesty abruptly decided to make such a scheming woman as the Empress of the Wei Kingdom. Many of them have pulled their support away from Your Majesty."

At that exact moment, a guard in black suddenly appeared in front of Long Yi and bowed deeply. 

"Your Majesty."

Long Yi glared at the spy he had sent to watch over his secret army. "What else is there?"

The guard bowed even lower at the sound of Long Yi's displeased voice.

"There is a problem with the army."

He went up and whispered his news into the Emperor's ear. 

"Your Majesty's secret Wei-Du army is falling apart. The half with our Wei men are revolting against you saying that they no longer will follow such a traitorous ruler. The Du half is also wholeheartedly supporting them."

"What? Why now of all times? They were all hand-picked by Zhen because they were happy to follow Zhen's plan. Explain!"

The guard didn't get a chance to before the doors of Long Yi's chambers opened and a frantic servant rushed in.

"Your Majesty! There is bad news! A giant flooding has just occurred and has wiped out many villages outside of the main city! Rumors are spreading like wildfire that this is another ill-omen from the heavens!"

"Your Majesty!" Another wide-eyed servant hastily ran in and knelt. "There's a problem! Over half of the civilians in the city have been demanding for the emergency food storage to be opened, but the guards have refused. The civilians set fire to the building and threw rocks at the guards forcing the guards to subdue them all with force, but it is causing unrest and distrust among the general population. Because we did not let anyone know about Your Majesty being unconscious, the civilians are now all turning against you for not interfering--"

He was interrupted by yet again another servant. Long Yi instantly recognized the little maid with tears in her eyes as Concubine Zhao's personal serving girl.

"What is it!?" He roared as his anger finally exploded. Everyone dropped their heads even lower onto the ground in fright as the serving girl fell to the floor to deeply prostrate. 

"Y-your Majesty! This little maid has a confession to make! The Empress is the one behind the poisoning of the palace's water supply! She had forced me to poison a cup of water, but her poison she gave me was the same that was found in the main supply! This maid believes that it could be no one else but her!"

The entire room was thrown into shock at her words. Their newly-crowned Empress was the one who had personally poisoned half of the palace and His Majesty!?

"Hong'er! No, stop! I've already told you that isn't true! It wasn't me!" Concubine Zhao rushed in with her brilliant red robes flying all around. At this moment, she was supposed to be the Empress, but no one held any respect for the woman they all thought had harmed His Majesty.

"Your Majesty! I swear, it wasn't me! I was framed! I truly only poisoned that single cup, not the entire water supply!"

Long Yi's sharp expression held no warmth as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Zhen told you to never leave your room! You dare come out?"

A look of hurt flashed across Concubine Zhao's face before it morphed into an ugly expression with tears running down her face.

"Your Majesty doesn't even care about me! Only your precious Feng Yao! But look! She isn't even here when you've finally awoken from your coma. Only I am! I bet she doesn't even care about coming to see you!"

At the mention of Feng Yao, the rest of the room stopped breathing. Only Concubine Zhao was the one who hadn't yet realized that she'd just mistakenly stepped on a landmine.

Suddenly, Long Yi's hand wrapped tightly around her neck. Concubine Zhao's eyes widened.

"Your...Majesty--"

"Shut up! Because of you, she is dead!" 

A look of incredulity entered Concubine Zhao's eyes at hearing him wrongly blame her in his heated anger. But upon realizing that Feng Yao was dead, a glimmer of satisfaction appeared on her face. Immediately, Long Yi's grip tightened even more making the smug look disappear off of her face and become replaced with fright.

As she furtively struggled to pry his fingers away, Long Yi harshly whispered, "Before Zhen kills you, would you like to know why she was the only one worthy of even being near me?"

A cold laugh escaped his lips before a sneer appeared.

"She was the key to taking over the four countries. Zhen didn't allow for anyone else in this world to have her. But then, you killed her!"

His fury made his grip even tighter and Concubine Zhao finally passed out. Just before he broke her windpipe, he abruptly released his grip and threw her body to the floor in disgust. 

"Your Majesty..." The eunuch slowly began. He flinched when Long Yi turned his icy eyes on him.

Quickly, he bowed before spitting out the next news that almost burned in his mouth.

"The girl Your Majesty called Feng Yao has disappeared. When this lowly eunuch went in to check on her corpse the next day, her entire body was already gone without a trace! Hundreds of soldiers scoured the kingdom, but no one could find the person who had stolen her dead body..."

Long Yi froze at his words as understanding clicked in his mind. Suddenly, he let out a bright laugh. The abruptness and harshness of it made everyone flinch.

"Zhen knew that Zhen could count on his little strategist to not disappoint! As expected! She's the only one worthy enough to stand by Zhen's side!"

His words confused everyone, but they were too scared to ask.

At that exact moment, the window suddenly shattered as unknown men in black jumped inside with weapons in their hands. 

Everyone was thrown into chaos as the imperial guards rushed over to protect Long Yi.

"Protect His Majesty! Do not allow them to get near!"

At that moment, one of the intruders spoke coldly. 

"Where is the girl? My master instructed us to come find her. He says that his deal with General Yu is off. He will no longer pay the million gold coins that they agreed on since General Yu broke his promise when he died."

Long Yi narrowed his eyes. He knew exactly what deal they were talking about. General Yu had personally come to him for help on that deal a long time ago.

"You will never get her. Zhen will not allow Zhen's greatest weapon to fall into someone else's hand."

"Then die, Emperor of Wei."

The whole group of assassins rushed at the weakened Long Yi. All around him, Long Yi's guards fought back fiercely. But just as Long Yi tried to step forward away from his bed, another wave of dizziness washed over him. It was only because the doctor had hurriedly caught him that he hadn't fallen to the ground.

"Your Majesty, please! Your body isn't used to walking yet after two weeks! Stay here safely while the guards fight off the intruders!"

Long Yi struggled to say something but found that his eyes were already beginning to close from exhaustion.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

The entire palace was in total chaos. Almost as much as the chaos that was taking place outside of it. Everything was crashing down at an alarming pace and no one but a certain someone knew how.

It was as if that certain someone was personally molding the fate of the Wei Kingdom with the same ease that a bored child would have playing with a toy.

Feng Yao gave a tired sigh as she slumped against the rocky wall. A splash of dirty water splattered over her face, but she didn't care. She had already been here for two weeks in hiding. Another day wouldn't hurt.

Two weeks had already gone by since she finished delivering her letters. Every day since, the imperial guards had combed through the entire kingdom and all the villages out in the countryside. Yet, they still hadn't been able to find her.

Perhaps it was because the thought of her hiding spot hadn't even crossed their mind. To them, it wasn't a place they wanted to go near. But to Feng Yao, it had served her quite well for the past two weeks. 

And this place she was talking about?

Feng Yao looked down again at the murky water that came up to her thighs. It was so dark and full of waste that she couldn't even see her lower half that was hidden within it. 

Currently, she was in a small tunnel that connected the sewers of the upper city to the lower slums. It was just large enough for her petite figure to crouch in and hide. Luckily, no one wanted to come near her hiding spot. Not even the pitiful beggars were desperate enough to come towards her in search for food. Perhaps they thought that she was more pitiful than them.

Either way, Feng Yao was glad. Being alone had meant that she could at least close her eyes for a few minutes at times to get in the sleep she was lacking. But she never fully allowed herself to sleep. It was just too much of a risk.

So far, she had done pretty well over the past two weeks without food too. But water had been her biggest issue. The fact that all the water around her had already been contaminated with feces and urine made it hard for her to find any clean drinking water.

Perhaps the gods above had been looking out for her because a few days after she had fled, a large rain storm had occurred. Taking advantage of the chance, she had gathered as much rainwater as she could in a spare container that she had found in a dark alleyway. 

Now, two weeks later, her container of water was already completely depleted. At the moment, she was just waiting for the Emperor to wake up. She was sure that he'd be conscious soon. Once that happened, he'd most likely need all the guards he had to take care of the problems that had sprouted out all around the kingdom. That also meant that they'd no longer be patrolling the streets as tightly and she could leave.

Her lips slightly tipped upwards into a small smile. Although her eyes were dim from exhaustion, her smile was still the same as usual.

I wonder how much fun you'll have trying to put everything back into order, Long Yi. 

Suddenly at that moment, she heard a few shouts outside of her tunnel above her. The vibrations of guards running atop of her head echoed inside of her tunnel loudly. 

Feng Yao held her breath and sank a little bit lower into the dirty water as she listened to their conversation.

"Everyone, back to the palace! It's an order from the Emperor himself!"

Ah? So he's finally awake?

"Right away! Everyone, report back!

"Yes, sir!"

Their voices soon disappeared as they hurriedly left the area. Feng Yao counted to a hundred before finally deciding to poke her head out of the cramped tunnel.

Instantly, the bright sunlight burned her eyes. She flinched at the unfamiliar sensation. 

Maybe I was in that small dark tunnel for a bit too long...

Even though the skies were sunny, the wind still held a biting chill that made her shiver from the cold. Just as she tried to fully stand up and stretch her aching muscles, her legs suddenly lost all of their strength. 

Feng Yao's eyes widened as she reached out to grab at the wall next to her. It was only because of her quick reflexes that her entire head hadn't followed the rest of her body into the waste water.

The familiar pain of her leg wound suddenly shot up her body making her sharply hiss. Feng Yao didn't even want to look at what had become of her leg. She had tried to avoid infection, but living in that disgusting tunnel was almost like inviting disease into her wounds. 

For the majority of her time, Feng Yao had kept her wound as clean as possible and out of the water as best as she could. It was a good thing that the waste water didn't usually go higher than the very bottom of her thighs otherwise she feared that her leg would already be good as gone from infection.

The fact that she could still slightly walk on it let her know that she was still okay. At least, for now.

Lifting her head, she tried to make her eyes adjust to the light. It was still as bad as before, but Feng Yao gritted her teeth and forced herself to crawl slowly out of the waste river. 

Her weak body protested against each movement, but she didn't give up. Feng Yao pushed each crying muscle until she finally managed to collapse on dry land. With deep breaths, she tried to restore her darkening vision and regain control of herself. 

Before she had escaped, she had already anticipated being pretty weak. But she hadn't realized that it would be so great to this extent. Everything hurt, and it was almost impossible to stand up again.

Her lips were so dry and her stomach continuously growled in pain. But there was nothing she could do as the cold wind continuously attacked her.

Feng Yao pinched herself to keep her eyes awake and alert. There were already many bruises all over her arms and legs that she had caused in order to stay awake during her time hiding in the sewers. 

Come on Feng Yao...just a little bit more...

With one big push, she finally forced herself to sit up. The bright sun was almost mocking her, but she didn't pay it attention. 

Feng Yao tiredly glanced around her through her fuzzy vision. All the buildings were falling apart from decay and neglect while the roads were littered with waste and trash. Along the sides, she could make out a few beggars also watching her silently with interest, but none of them dared to approach her disgusting and smelly figure.

At least here, she could gain a bit of time to strengthen herself in peace. The slums weren't a place where many people willingly came to visit.

Noticing a patch of shadows underneath an unstable overhead, Feng Yao decided to take shelter there. Although it would be even colder in the shade than it was already, it was better than staying out in the light where anyone could see her.

At an agonizingly slow pace, she crawled on all fours until she finally reached the shade. Instantly, the chilly sensation of the dark pierced through her skin down into her bones.

Maybe I'll go to sleep here...

Her body was too weak to go any further. The pain from her leg had flared up to a full-blown attack on her senses making her mind automatically shut down.

But if I sleep, will I wake back up?

Her eyelids began to flutter shut. But just as she was about to completely submit to her exhaustion, she suddenly felt a finger poke softly at her cheek.

Who is the idiot that wants to disturb me?

Feng Yao cracked her eyes open slightly. Even that small movement had taken so much will-power.

As her blurry vision finally settled, she was momentarily blinded by a beautiful face that was completely out of place from the desolated slums around her.

Seeing her squint at him, Ru Qiang let out a deep sigh from where he was squatting down in front of her. 

His deep voice washed over her with a wave of familiarity. "What are you doing here?"

It took a moment for Feng Yao to blankly process the scene in front of her. Realizing who he was, she tiredly closed her eyes again.

"I should be asking you the same thing. Didn't you already leave the Wei Kingdom?" Her faint voice cracked from unuse, but Ru Qiang didn't comment on the rough sound of it. 

"En," he simply answered.   

Half-conscious, she felt something impossibly soft drape warmly over her body like a soothing blanket. Instantly, the cold chill that had been bombarding her for the past two weeks was blocked.

Sensing that he wasn't going to leave her alone, she let out a deep sigh. Feng Yao forced herself to open her