232 It’s Better to Take a Drastic Measure

With a bang, Xiao Wan’s body fell to the ground weakly. The pure gold dragon throne was stained with blood, and Lin Ran had only raised his hand halfway.

After three seconds of silence, Li Tianyi suddenly screamed and hurriedly went up to check. Then, he frowned and shook his head at Lin Ran.

Lin Ran’s expression instantly turned ugly. He didn’t have any feelings for Xiao Wan, but he couldn’t accept the fact that a living person had killed herself in front of him without warning.

The empress didn’t look too good either. She stared at Xiao Wan’s corpse in a daze for a moment before suddenly looking at the gloomy Lin Ran. “Lord Lin, can I ask you something?”

!!
“Shoot.”

“If you encounter such a situation one day…”

The empress paused for a moment, as if she was thinking about how to put it in the right way. “Will you die for me?”

Lin Ran frowned at the empress. “Are you testing me again? Am I that untrustworthy in your eyes?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

The empress waved her hand and said, “I just feel that in terms of benevolence and righteousness, I’m a hundred times better than Xuan Wushang. But why is there someone so loyal to him?”

Hearing the sadness in the empress’s tone, Lin Ran couldn’t help but sigh. “Compared to this, there’s another thing more worth thinking about.”

The empress looked puzzled. “What is it?”

“It’s…”

Just as Lin Ran was about to speak, he suddenly thought of something and looked at Li Tianyi. “Eunuch Li, get someone to clean up this place.”

Li Tianyi looked at Lin Ran suspiciously and then at the empress. In the end, he turned around and left.

After Li Tianyi left the throne room, Lin Ran looked at the empress and said softly with a serious expression, “If I’m not wrong, Xuan Wushang should already know your identity.”

The empress frowned in confusion. “I’m the Heavenly Saint Emperor. The entire world knows about this. What’s so strange about Xuan Wushang knowing it?”

“I’m not talking about this identity.”

Lin Ran shook his head and raised his hand to scratch his chest. “I mean this identity.”

The empress was stunned for a moment before she understood. Her originally sad face immediately turned red as she scolded in a low voice, “Lord Lin! Please be respectful.”

“Don’t give me that! I’m being serious!”

Lin Ran waved his hand and frowned at Xiao Wan’s corpse. “He probably didn’t find a girl to pretend to be you just because you two look alike. He’s using Xiao Wan to send you a message.”

Lin Ran pointed at Xiao Wan. “Even if she hasn’t been in the palace for long, if she wants to harm the Heavenly Saint Dynasty, she has a lot of chances to do it, such as granting amnesty to the prisoners or giving strange orders to destroy the image of the emperor. But she didn’t do anything.”

“In other words, Xuan Wushang just wants her to appear in front of you. He wants you to know that he already knows that you’re a woman!”

“That’s impossible!”

The empress immediately reported, “There are only a handful of people in the palace who know about it. How can Xuan Wushang know?”

Lin Ran shook his head. “I don’t know how he knows, but I’m confident that he does.”

The empress fell silent. Although she didn’t want to admit it, she knew that Lin Ran was right.

Seeing that the empress was silent, Lin Ran sighed and continued, “Previously, I asked Xiao Wan if Xuan Wushang had done anything bad to her because I thought he had ulterior motives towards you. But now it seems that I was overthinking.”

“You must be thinking too much!”

The empress replied awkwardly in a low voice. After a pause, she asked, “But even if you’re right, what plan can Xuan Wushang have? Could it be that he wants to threaten me to step down from the throne?”

“That won’t happen. Xuan Wushang is not that stupid.”

The atmosphere in the room became a little awkward. Fortunately, Li Tianyi brought people over at this moment. Other than the palace eunuchs in charge of cleaning, there was also Song Rentong and a few hundred guards.

“Please forgive me for failing to come in time to save you, Your Majesty!”

As soon as Song Rentong entered the throne room, he knelt on the ground with a thud, along with the hundreds of guards behind him.

The empress waved her hand. “Everyone, you were also deceived. Please rise.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

Song Rentong took the lead to thank the empress again before getting up from the ground. He cupped his hands with his head lowered, but from time to time, he would steal glances at the empress.

The empress knew that he was afraid of being deceived again, so she did not mind. She turned her body slightly to avoid the blood-stained dragon throne and walked down. She said loudly, “Since you’re here, I have a few things to announce.”

“Firstly, immediately revoke the arrest warrant on Lord Lin.”

“Secondly, draft an imperial edict to ask the northern garrison to retreat 300 miles of the border. In addition, hand over the West Willow Fort, Mount Peak Fort, Ten Forts, and another 12 cities to Great Yong!”

Hearing this, Lin Ran couldn’t help but think that the empress was too scheming.

She promised Xuan Wushang that she would get the northern garrison to retreat 300 miles and cede 15 cities.

Previously, Lin Ran was worried that Xuan Wushang had another motive for wanting these 15 cities, but the empress said that she knew what to do. He did not expect this to be her plan.

The 15 cities ceded were in the eastern, western, and southern borders of the Heavenly Saint Dynasty, but none of them were located in the north. This way, no matter what Xuan Wushang was planning, his plan was destined to fail.

However, the empress could not be blamed for being scheming. After all, Xuan Wushang didn’t specify his request clearly back then.

At the moment.

When Song Rentong heard that the empress was actually going to give fifteen cities to the Great Yong Dynasty, his expression could not help but become strange.

However, since this was an order from the empress, he could not question. He rolled his eyes and said, “Your Majesty, there’s something else urgent. I hope Your Majesty can make a decision as soon as possible.”

The empress looked puzzled. “What is it?”

“It’s Mount Sword.”

Song Rentong glanced at the crowd behind him and said vaguely, “Someone came to report this morning that a phenomenon appeared on Mount Sword’s main peak. No one knows if it’s a good sign or a bad sign…”