My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

"Left is superior! Right is inferior! If you step forward with your right foot first, you are disrespecting your ancestors! You are showing contempt for the court! You are disrespecting your father, the Emperor! Disrespecting your father, the Emperor, is tantamount to plotting rebellion!"

This reason is utterly absurd.

Anyone with a normal mind can tell that this is pure sophistry and nitpicking.

But Li Shimin didn't care; all he needed now was an excuse to take action.

"Snapped!"

The bright yellow belt swung through the air, leaving a fierce afterimage, and struck Li Zhi hard on the buttocks.

"ah--!"

A bloodcurdling scream, like a pig being slaughtered, instantly erupted in the Ganlu Palace.

Li Zhi jumped three feet high in pain, clutching his buttocks, tears and snot streaming down his face.

"Father! Your son knows he was wrong! Your son didn't know you couldn't step with your right foot!"

"Don't know? I'll teach you a lesson today!"

Li Shimin ignored all explanations and lashed out with his belt.

"I'll let you step on your right foot! I'll let you be weak and incompetent! I'll let you steal women by your sickbed! I'll let you hand over the throne!"

Li Shimin uttered these last few words in a low voice, squeezing them out between his teeth.

Li Zhi couldn't hear anything at all; he only felt the belt hitting his body like raindrops, causing a burning pain.

"Help! Mother, help me!"

The nine-year-old Prince Jin displayed an unprecedented will to survive. He scrambled to his feet and frantically fled around the red-lacquered pillars of the Ganlu Hall.

The Tang emperor followed closely behind, in hot pursuit.

"You little brat, you dare run away! Stop right there!"

"Slap! Slap!"

The belt snapped against the pillar with a sharp, piercing sound.

Outside the Ganlu Hall, a dozen eunuchs and palace maids kept their heads down, their eyes downcast and their minds blank.

Hearing the heart-wrenching cries coming from inside, everyone pretended to be deaf and dumb.

Wang De stood outside the door, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. He had served His Majesty for so many years and had never seen His Majesty so insane.

Just as the annual drama of "Father seeing his son was not dead, he drew out seven wolves" was unfolding in the Ganlu Hall.

A sudden change occurred.

The southern suburbs of Chang'an.

The backyard of the Prince of Qin's residence.

Li Chen was lying in bed, covering his ears with a pillow.

Old Li came running over in the middle of the night and went on a rampage, keeping him wide awake. The thought of the Ishimi Silver Mountain still hidden in his sleeve's spatial storage made him feel uneasy.

"It's just taking up space anyway, so it's better to throw it away sooner and have some peace and quiet."

Li Chen threw back the covers and walked to the window.

He opened the window and looked at the dark night sky to the south.

His divine sense instantly spread out, crossing the city walls of Chang'an and locking onto a desolate mountain range thirty miles south of the city.

There were only endless rows of withered trees and wild grass, not even a hunter's thatched hut.

"This is it."

Li Chen raised his right hand, and the wide sleeves of his bathrobe suddenly bulged.

A wisp of purplish-gold true essence flowed through his fingertips. He didn't use any earth-shattering magic; he simply pointed his sleeve towards the southern suburbs and gave it a light shake, as if taking out the trash.

"go."

A blinding silver streak burst forth from his sleeve.

The light streamed across the night sky as the wind swelled.

One zhang, a hundred zhang, a thousand zhang!

In the blink of an eye, the stream of light transformed into a massive silver mountain range that stretched for miles and weighed hundreds of millions of kilograms.

The massive mountain, carrying terrifying, suffocating wind pressure, plummeted straight down from the sky towards the barren mountains in the southern suburbs.

Boom! ...

A deafening roar, beyond description, exploded in the southern suburbs of Chang'an.

It felt as if a hundred meteorites from outer space had struck the earth at the same time.

The earth trembled violently in that instant. A terrifying seismic wave, centered on the southern suburbs, swept wildly in all directions.

The walls of Chang'an groaned under the weight of the burden.

Tiles fell from countless houses in the 108 wards of the city with a crackling sound. The people of Chang'an who had just fallen asleep were violently shaken out of their beds.

"The earth has turned over!"

A terrified scream instantly shattered the tranquility of the night.

Taiji Palace, Ganlu Hall.

The violent shaking caused Li Shimin to stumble, and the belt in his hand slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.

He grabbed the red-painted pillar beside him to keep from falling.

Li Zhi, who was running away in front with his head in his hands, fell face-first onto the gold bricks, ignoring the pain in his buttocks and clutching his head tightly.

"What happened?!"

Li Shimin's expression changed drastically, and he strode towards the palace gate.

He flung open the heavy palace doors, looked up, and gazed south.

As the darkness faded and the eastern sky began to lighten, Li Shimin's dragon eyes widened instantly in the dim morning light.

On the southern horizon of Chang'an City, there is a majestic mountain rising abruptly from the ground, shimmering with a silvery-white light in the morning glow.

Even from dozens of miles away, one could feel the aura of immense wealth emanating from that mountain.

Li Shimin's breathing stopped instantly.

In that instant, all thoughts of cuckoldry and usurping wicked women were mercilessly washed away by that gleaming white silver mountain.

"The Silver Mountain... that unfilial son really threw out the Silver Mountain!"

Li Shimin was so excited that he trembled all over, his old face turning red, as if he were experiencing a final burst of energy before death.

"Wang De! Convey my decree!"

Li Shimin kicked open the threshold and roared wildly in the early morning of Taiji Palace with his hoarse voice.

"Mobilize 100,000 troops from the Left and Right Imperial Guards! Seal off the entire southern suburbs within a radius of fifty li!"

"Immediately recruit all the laborers and artisans in the city. If 100,000 isn't enough, recruit 200,000! Send them all to the southern suburbs to mine the mountains! Even if you have to dig with your fingernails, move that mountain into the national treasury!"

The Tang emperor was completely engrossed in the frenzy of sudden wealth.

"My drops! My drops! It's all my drops!"

When the city of Chang'an was thrown into complete turmoil by this silver mountain that fell from the sky.

The backyard of the Prince of Qin's residence.

After washing up, Li Chen changed into a spotless blue robe.

He listened to the sound of the Imperial Guards galloping through the streets and the shocked discussions among the common people about the "silver mountain falling from the sky," and picked at his ears out of boredom.

"Old Deng probably won't have time to bother me for months now."

Li Chen stretched out a big yawn.

He turned his head and looked at Qin Wan'er, who was combing Xiao Sizi's hair in the courtyard, and then glanced at Princess Chang Le and Qin Huaidao, who had come over early to pay their respects.