Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Late Emperor, I Am Falling Apart

The flames of jealousy raged within him, threatening to consume his very reason.

The atmosphere inside the Imperial Study was taut and suffocating, leaving everyone breathless. Just as the standoff reached its breaking point, a eunuch came scrambling in, tumbling and crawling, his face pale with terror and his voice cracking in panic.

"It... it is a disaster! Empress Dowager, Your Majesty, Your Highness! The Ancestral Hall... something has happened to the Ancestral Hall!"

The Empress Dowager’s expression shifted, and she barked sharply, "What is this shouting? Have you no decorum? What could possibly happen at the Ancestral Hall?"

The eunuch knelt on the floor, trembling like a leaf in the wind, and wailed, "The... the spirit tablet of the late Emperor... it has cracked!"

"What?"

This time, the Empress Dowager, Li Qingning, and Li Qingzhi all gasped in unison. The late Emperor’s spirit tablet was kept within the Ancestral Hall, guarded day and night by dedicated attendants and nourished by constant incense. How could it crack for no reason? In the Great Qi, this was an omen of the direst calamity.

"Prepare the carriage for the Ancestral Hall!" The Empress Dowager ignored Li Qingning, her face ashen with fury.

The group abandoned their dispute and hurried toward the Ancestral Hall, located deep within the palace. By the time they arrived, the eunuchs, palace maids, and officials from the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs were already kneeling inside and outside, their faces drained of color, silent as cicadas in winter.

Inside the hall, incense smoke curled through the air, creating a solemn and grave atmosphere. However, when everyone’s eyes turned toward the spirit tablet enshrined on the high altar, a collective gasp echoed through the room.

The tablet, crafted from the finest golden-thread nanmu wood and symbolizing the divine soul of the late Emperor, had split right down the center. A crack, the width of a thumb, ran through it, nearly cleaving the entire tablet in two. The fissure was shocking to behold, like a hideous scar threatening to tear the very fabric of the Great Qi apart.

Li Qingzhi, still young, had never witnessed such a scene. He turned deathly pale and instinctively reached out to grab Li Qingning’s sleeve. The Empress Dowager swayed, her complexion ghostly; had it not been for the matron beside her, she would have collapsed to the floor. Her lips trembled as she muttered to herself, "Heaven’s wrath... this is Heaven’s wrath..."

Only Li Qingning, after the initial shock, kept her beautiful eyes fixed on the crack, her gaze cold and piercing. For some reason, her first thought turned to the "Four Yin Desolate Household Formation" that had appeared in her residence earlier. Could it be that the enemy lurking in the shadows not only wanted her life but also intended to shake the very foundations of the imperial fortune?

She snapped her head around, her icy gaze sweeping over everyone present. This Ancestral Hall, she feared, was no longer clean.

Even the sandalwood incense, meant to calm the mind, now carried an eerie and sinister scent. Everyone’s gaze remained locked on the cracked tablet, their faces etched with horror and unease. All those present understood the implications: this was an omen from the ancestors, a sign of the nation’s impending instability.

"Investigate! I want a full investigation!"

The Empress Dowager was the first to recover from her shock. Her well-preserved face was now frosted with cold, her voice sharp and raspy. "Seize everyone on duty today! Interrogate them one by one. I want to see who has the audacity to stir up trouble in such a sacred place!"

Clearly, she attributed this event to human sabotage or negligence. However, the Minister of the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs, a venerable official with white hair and beard, trembled as he stepped forward, kneeling to kowtow. "Reporting to the Empress Dowager, the guards inside and outside the Ancestral Hall were exceptionally tight today; there is no possibility of an outsider infiltrating the grounds."

"Furthermore... the crack in the spirit tablet appears entirely natural, with no traces of axes, chisels, or blades. It looks as if... as if it were struck by celestial lightning, splitting from the inside out."

His words plunged the atmosphere in the hall to freezing temperatures. If it was not the work of man, it was the will of Heaven. And why would Heaven act this way?

The Empress Dowager’s gaze involuntarily fell upon Li Qingning, filled with scrutiny and suspicion. It hadn't cracked earlier, nor would it later—it had chosen this moment, when Qingning was defying both her and the late Emperor’s final wishes for the sake of an unworthy man. Could it be that the late Emperor’s spirit in the heavens was truly dissatisfied with his daughter’s choice and had sent this warning?

She looked at Li Qingning and said with a pained tone, "Qingning, do you see? This is the consequence of your stubbornness."

"Even the late Emperor’s spirit cannot bear to watch. If you continue to be so deluded, you will bring a cataclysmic disaster upon our Great Qi."

Before she could finish, Yuwen Yue, standing nearby, felt a flicker of hope reignite. From the start, he had felt as though Heaven was aiding him. If the Grand Princess were forced to abandon that Xie Ning under such pressure, he would still have a chance.

Yet, Li Qingning’s reaction was completely beyond their expectations. Faced with her mother’s accusations and the eerie "divine wrath," she did not show a shred of fear or retreat. Instead, she let out a sharp, cold laugh.

"Mother, do you truly believe this is a warning from Father?"

Her clear, cold voice echoed through the silent hall, carrying a sharpness that seemed to see through everything.

"I, on the other hand, believe this is Father reminding us."

She paused, her gaze like lightning as she swept over everyone in the hall, speaking each word with deliberate weight: "Reminding us that this Imperial Palace has long been infiltrated by base, wicked people. They do not only want my life; they want to shake the foundation of our Great Qi and overthrow the Li family’s dynasty!"

The room was stunned. The Empress Dowager froze. "You... what do you mean by that?"

Li Qingning did not answer directly but turned to look at her younger brother, who was pale with fright. "Zhi’er, do you remember how your sister returned from the gates of hell a few days ago?"

Li Qingzhi nodded with a grave expression. He had heard about the incident after it happened. Someone had set up a "Four Yin Desolate Household Formation" in the Grand Princess’s villa, using items of extreme darkness and evil to draw in malevolent energy, intending to drain her life force until she withered away unnoticed. Had Li Qingning not told him it was dealt with, he would have intervened already.

"Of course I remember."

Li Qingning’s face turned icy. "The methods used then are so similar to this spirit tablet cracking today!"

She stared at the fissure, her eyes growing colder. "This is not Heaven’s wrath; this is sorcery. Someone is using Feng Shui and occult arts to attack the dragon vein and the fortune of our Great Qi."

Feng Shui? Occult arts? The dragon vein and national fortune? These terms were far too ethereal for most of the people present. They revered spirits and gods, but they did not truly understand the mechanics behind such things.

Only the Empress Dowager’s pupils contracted sharply when she heard the words "Four Yin Desolate Household Formation." Deep and calculating, she knew secrets that ordinary people did not. She immediately realized that the gravity of the situation might far exceed her imagination.

"Who? Who has such heaven-defying power?" the Empress Dowager asked breathlessly.

"As for who, I do not know yet," Li Qingning replied, shaking her head. Then, her tone shifted. "However, I do know who can resolve this crisis."