Ji Xiang knew he had said enough. Emperor Wanli then asked Ji Xiang to cease speaking for a moment and addressed Zhu Changluo, saying:
"I felt something was amiss just now, and now I understand. You have never been to the Western Six Palaces, so how did you know I was in this location?"
Zhu Changluo stood with his hands clasped, remaining silent. He knew he could no longer conceal the truth.
Emperor Wanli stared at his son. "Are you involved in this matter? Of course, without evidence, any baseless accusation would lead to the cabinet elders verbally attacking me.
"Back then, someone spread rumors about Eldest Brother, claiming you kept maids and engaged in lewd acts during the day. It was later proven false, and I was almost drowned in the spit of those ministers at the time!"
Zhu Changluo said nothing.
Emperor Wanli looked at Zhu Changluo and asked, "Huo Jun, she is also a woman and quite beautiful. Do you have a relationship with her? I recall Huo Jun saying during her fight with Ji Xiang that Wanli's heavenly mandate had ended, and that she would restore an eighteen-year-old appearance and reopen the heavens and the sun.
"You are fifteen this year, and the mourning period for the Ming Dynasty is three years. Huo Jun may not know the emperor's mourning period, as she seems to be from outside the city, not a resident of Shuntian. In her estimation, three years from now, you will be exactly eighteen.
"Was the maid who appeared in your palace Huo Jun?"
"Do you wish to kill me?"
Emperor Wanli's question caused Zhu Changluo to raise his head. The hatred in his eyes was no longer concealed. He looked at Emperor Wanli, then at Noble Consort Zheng, and cursed:
"The Ming Emperor, infatuated with beauty and neglecting his kingdom, is a sign of a foolish ruler. Favoring women and promoting the young over the old, Consort Zheng, a hen ruling the roost, why should she not be killed?"
Zhu Changluo pointed at Noble Consort Zheng, his pretense completely gone. His entire demeanor changed in an instant!
The fifteen-year-old youth transformed from a meek prince into someone radiating killing intent and resentment!
Noble Consort Zheng's face turned deathly pale, and she took a step back, but her expression quickly turned fierce:
"Eldest Brother! How can you be so disrespectful to this consort!"
Zhu Changluo's eyes turned blood red, and he sneered, "I wish I could kill you and eat your flesh. You and this foolish emperor have oppressed me and my mother for eleven years. My mother lives in seclusion in Jingyang Palace, suffering from a long illness with no one to care for her. You constantly seek to eliminate me, and your son wishes to replace me. How can I show you respect!"
"You look down on me, thinking my origins are humble, so you've always wanted to discard me. If I don't kill you, I fear I will be harmed by you one day."
With their relationship completely broken, he had no more reservations.
Emperor Wanli's expression became extremely grim. "You read so well, you even know 'hen ruling the roost'! I could read at five, but I'm not as learned as you!"
"Eldest Brother, you are indeed unworthy of being the Crown Prince, which is why I have never wanted to establish you. You are a stain on my reign!"
Emperor Wanli recalled his impulsive past. He had forced himself upon a palace maid, resulting in Zhu Changluo's birth. It was Empress Dowager Li who inquired, leading to that palace maid becoming a consort. Emperor Wanli didn't particularly favor that palace maid, considering her of low birth.
Wanli said to Zhu Changluo, "Your mother was merely a palace maid, and you are the child of a palace maid... You speak of deposing the elder and establishing the younger, how laughable. I haven't even established you as Crown Prince, so how can there be a matter of deposing the elder and establishing the younger? Can you bear the weight of the Ming Dynasty!"
Zhu Changluo's furious curse shocked the Forbidden City!
"Your mother was also just a palace maid by Emperor Longqing's side! You could ascend the throne, so why can't I!"
Emperor Wanli was struck as if by a thunderclap. The youth before his eyes, though his clothes were soaked with rain and he was covered in dirt and in a sorry state, his eyes held a sea of killing intent and hatred. This intense emotion, suppressed for eleven years of cautious living, erupted with ferocity, causing Emperor Wanli to experience a brief flashback. He swayed, almost losing his strength!
Zhu Changluo's angry outburst silenced Emperor Wanli, and Noble Consort Zheng's expression became a mixture of emotions. Empress Wang, however, trembled with anger and stepped forward to slap Zhu Changluo, scolding:
"Eldest Brother! The Empress Dowager has taken great care of your mother over the years. How can you insult her like this!"
After being slapped, Zhu Changluo sighed, "The Empress and the Empress Dowager have cared for my mother for many years. This son is deeply grateful, only regretting his own powerlessness to replace the foolish emperor. After today, there will be no more Zhu Changluo in the world."
He pointed at Noble Consort Zheng again, his curses unabated:
"A hen ruling the roost, the Ming Dynasty will surely perish at the hands of women!"
Noble Consort Zheng, pushed to her limit by the insults, retorted, "I am a woman, a hen ruling the roost, and that Huo Jun just now was also a woman. You colluded with her, your relationship unclear, and you even killed your father. Aren't you also a hen ruling the roost!"
"You say my father was infatuated with me, but I am at least human. Your paramour isn't even human, is she? A Ming prince actually colludes with and keeps company with an evil god!"
Zhu Changluo glared at her with blood-red eyes, and Noble Consort Zheng was once again terrified, despite her sharp tongue. Her hands were trembling.
Even Empress Wang showed a look of disappointment at Zhu Changluo: "Eldest Brother, I truly never expected you would turn out like this, being misled by an evil god."
"Where is this 'misleading'?"
Zhu Changluo chuckled, "My plan has failed today, it is because Wanli's heavenly mandate is not yet fulfilled! Heaven wants me to fail this move, and I must perish!"
He pointed at Ji Xiang, "If it weren't for you, everything would have succeeded today! Wudang Mountain, the sacrificial rites changed just two months ago, I thought it was someone incompetent... You hid yourself flawlessly."
"Did you truly... kill Huo Jun?"
Ji Xiang said coldly, "Indeed, I killed her. I struck her dead with the Great Majestic Divine Talisman, her flesh and blood scattering across the long street, and annihilated her with the Heavenly Law's 'Dividing Form' punishment!"
Zhu Changluo looked at the ground covered in blood and minced flesh, now a messy pulp in the wind and rain. In his memory, he had met Huo Jun only a few times, but she was the person who had changed him the most in the past two years.
Now that everything was over, he gave a bitter laugh. "I didn't expect even she was no match for you... Could it be that True Warrior protects Wanli, and the Ancestral Emperor protects him, not me!"
"The Ming Dynasty could have had eternal prosperity!"
Ji Xiang shook his head and retorted:
"For the Ming Dynasty to have a long-lasting reign, it is not simply by changing an emperor that it will be eternal."
"Ruling with divine intervention is actually the most incompetent form of governance. You think too simply of the hearts of the people, as does Huo Jun. Can a hodgepodge of doctrines truly save the world?"
"The ability of an emperor lies in civil and military achievements, in ensuring the people gain much, so that the nation may gain. Currently, the people gain nothing, gods and ghosts run amok, and there is smoke and fire everywhere. Even if ten emperors were to be replaced, it would be of no use."
"The fall of a great tree is not due to the ravages of wind and rain, nor the axe or lightning, but the rot of its roots, not the death of the tree itself! As long as the roots remain, are still alive, and possess vigorous vitality, then an old tree can sprout, and withered wood can be reborn."
Ji Xiang understood the gods best. All the gods in the world were merely tablets, developed from people's worship. Gods were powerful but also relied on the populace. When the populace perishes, the gods' power also weakens.
In the Great Fuli, Ji Xiang had seen many divine tablets that were no longer worshipped. They waited in silence because the people who remembered them had already passed away, and they had lost their vitality, as if dead.
Gods are not wish-granting machines.
"Your Highness... I will give you one more piece of advice today."
Zhu Changluo looked at Ji Xiang, who gave him his final counsel:
"The Book of the Later Han states: The achievements of heaven and earth cannot be rushed; arduous undertakings must be accumulated over days. Dreaming of changing the world overnight and becoming a wise ruler or a sage is merely a fantasy."