Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

The first rays of dawn finally pierced through the thick blood-red clouds above Longmen Valley, casting golden light upon this land that had just experienced a catastrophe.

The shouts of battle ceased.

The bugle call stopped.

The whole world fell silent, with only the whistling of the wind blowing through the corpses and the heavy breathing of the survivors who had just escaped death.

Li Shimin, leaning on a broken sword, managed to stand up straight.

Looking at the carnage before him, a scene of carnage with corpses strewn everywhere and rivers of blood flowing, and at the Turkic corpses still impaled with arrows and their eyes wide open in death, he felt as if he had been transported to another world.

Won?

Did they really win?

Just half an hour ago, he was preparing to join Cheng Yaojin and others in facing national crisis and die a heroic death.

But now, the 300,000-strong army that had besieged them for two whole days... just like that, gone?

The army was routed and scattered in all directions, with many even killing each other in the struggle for escape routes.

"His Majesty!"

Yuchi Gong limped over. This towering man was covered in blood and his armor was shattered, but his dark face was filled with the ecstatic joy of surviving a calamity.

"Look! It's General Huo! It's General Huo sent by His Highness the Crown Prince!"

Li Shimin looked in the direction he was pointing.

In the distance, amidst the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, a young general clad in silver armor rode the familiar "Saluzi" horse, strolling leisurely towards them.

On the boy's saddle hung bloody human heads.

In his hand, he held a severed head, adorned with a golden crown of a wolf's head, its eyes wide open in death!

It's Jieli!

That's really Jieli!

The grassland warlord he both hated and feared was... dead.

To die so hastily, so...frustratingly?

"Okay...okay..."

Li Shimin muttered to himself, a surge of immense joy mixed with the exhaustion of surviving a calamity instantly overwhelming his tense nerves. His legs buckled, and he almost lost his balance, but fortunately, Qin Qiong behind him caught him.

"Da, da, da."

The crisp sound of horses' hooves approached from afar.

Li Chengqian rode the pure white Jade Lion, followed by Xu Xiao, and slowly "strolled" to Li Shimin.

He remained as lazy as ever, as if he hadn't come to rescue the emperor, but rather to go on a picnic and watch the excitement.

He even had the leisure to whistle at Li Shimin, who was covered in blood and in a sorry state.

"Oh, Father."

"Your style... is quite unique."

"They look like they just crawled out of a coal mine, with a kind of... weathered beauty."

Li Shimin: "..."

The emotion he had just felt over the reunion with his son vanished instantly with a single sentence from his unfilial son.

"roll!"

Li Shimin cursed irritably, but his voice trembled slightly, a tremor he himself was unaware of.

Huo Qubing also spurred his horse and arrived at this time.

He dismounted swiftly and decisively, tossing the still-dripping head in his hand at Li Shimin's feet like trash.

"Your Highness, I have not failed in my mission."

Huo Qu-

Bing clasped his hands in a fist salute to Li Chengqian, his voice booming, "The head of that old dog Jieli is here!"

Li Shimin looked down at the head that died with its eyes wide open, eyes that were filled with terror and resentment until death, and was overwhelmed with emotion.

He won.

The Tang Dynasty won.

But this emperor suffered a complete defeat.

"You...you all..."

Li Shimin raised his head, looked at the several "unknown" divine generals in front of him, and then at his innocent-looking son. His lips moved as if he wanted to ask something, but he didn't know where to begin.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, his expression changed, and he abruptly reached into his robes.

From the lining that was already soaked in blood, he pulled out a wrinkled, blood-stained piece of bright yellow silk.

That was... a will.

Last night, when he was in despair and thought he was doomed, he wrote the last imperial edict in his own blood.

"I...I..."

Li Shimin's face instantly turned a deep liver color.

He held the will, wanting to tear it up but feeling it inappropriate; he wanted to put it away but was afraid someone else would see it.

If people knew that he, the dignified General of the Heavenly Strategy, was so frightened that he even wrote his will, how would he ever be able to survive in the underworld again?

Just as Li Shimin was at a loss and so embarrassed that he wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into,

A small, fair hand reached out and snatched the imperial edict from his hand with lightning speed.

"Father, what is this? A love letter?"

Li Chengqian held the still-bloody "last will and testament" and unfolded it curiously.

Above, written in blood, was a line of large, crooked characters, yet conveying a sense of resolute determination:

"My death at Longmen Mountain is ordained by Heaven. However, the Tang Dynasty cannot be broken, and the empire cannot be without a ruler for even a day. Therefore, the throne shall be passed to Crown Prince Chengqian..."

Li Cheng-

Qian blinked and looked at his cheap father next to him, whose face was so red it was almost bleeding.

He laughed suddenly.

He laughed like a fox who had stolen a chicken.

"Oh, Father, you really think highly of me."

Li Chengqian waved the imperial edict in his hand, a mocking look on his face. "You think you can just dump this mess on me? Dream on."

"Give it back to me!"

Li Shimin was filled with shame and anger, and reached out to snatch it.

However, Li Chengqian did something that left everyone dumbfounded.

He did not return the will.

It wasn't torn off.

But...

Slowly and gracefully, he used the edict that read "the throne is passed to the Crown Prince," a document powerful enough to change the course of Tang Dynasty history, to wipe his slightly greasy fingers, which had just been handling roasted meat.

Once.

One more time.

He kept wiping the oil off his hands until the yellow silk was completely black.

"You...you..."

Li Shimin pointed at Li Chengqian, trembling with anger, unable to utter a single word.

What a waste!

This is my imperial edict written in my own blood!

You actually used it to wipe your hands?!

"Don't get agitated, Father."

Li Chengqian casually threw the wad of waste paper on the ground, crushed it under his foot, and completely buried it in the soil, thus destroying the evidence.

He looked up and saw his father's expression, which was about to explode with anger, and his face returned to that smug smile.

He leaned close to Li Shimin's ear and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"I already told you not to force yourself."

"Look."

"Isn't this... a complete waste of a good piece of paper?"