My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

The two-week treatment course finally came to an end.

In the side hall at night, the candlelight flickered.

Li Chen withdrew his finger from the acupoint on Li Chengqian's right leg. A faint trace of wood-elemental true energy dissipated into the air along his fingertip.

Li Chengqian collapsed to the ground, covered in sweat.

He looked down at his right leg. The deep, piercing pain that had tormented him day and night had completely vanished without a trace.

He tentatively grabbed the table for support and stood up.

No cane was used.

Although he still walks with a limp and cannot walk as briskly as a normal person, he is no longer suffering from that excruciating pain.

Li Chengqian suddenly turned around, placed his hands on the ground, and slammed his knees heavily onto the blue bricks.

"I will never forget the great kindness of my sixteenth brother!"

He raised his head, his eyes burning with an intense longing and pleading. After spending the past two weeks together, he knew all too well the extraordinary abilities this handsome young man possessed.

"Sixteenth Brother, since you can even defy fate to change my leg..." Li Chengqian's voice trembled slightly, "Please, tell me! What will my future be like?"

He clenched his fists tightly.

"Father...who did he ultimately choose? Am I really going to die?"

Li Chen took a piece of tattered burlap and wiped the sweat from his hands.

He did not answer immediately.

That immense divine sense had long since covered an area of ​​a hundred feet around the side hall. Just outside the courtyard gate, separated by only a wall, two familiar breathing sounds were being suppressed to a minimum.

Li Shimin and Empress Zhangsun.

These two most powerful people in the Tang Dynasty stayed up late at night, eavesdropping outside the Cold Palace. Empress Zhangsun was clearly very concerned about the Crown Prince's future, while Li Shimin was still bothered by the scene he had witnessed in the water mirror in the Imperial Garden that day.

Li Chen's lips curled up slightly, revealing a sinister smirk.

To defy fate, alter the course of the dynasty's history, and obtain a massive amount of divine fortune in return.

What could be more intense than directly spoiling the plot of the rebellion in front of the current emperor, empress, and the future rebellious crown prince of the Tang Dynasty?

If the final outcome of the rebellion and the confrontation were shown exactly as they were, with a little illusion added to enhance the emotional impact, it would be strange if Li Shimin didn't get so angry he vomited blood.

"Alright."

Li Chen sighed, threw the burlap into the basin, turned around and sat down on the armchair.

"Since you insist on seeing it, I'll grant your wish."

Li Chen flipped his left hand, and a palm-sized array plate covered with intricate runes appeared in his palm.

This was a low-level illusion array plate he obtained by checking in within his soul space. For someone at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, modifying minor details of the array plate was easier than eating.

He only needs the same result. As for the process, he can embellish it slightly with a bit of subtle writing; who cares?

"Look carefully."

Li Chen forced out a drop of dark golden true essence from his fingertip and placed it directly on the center of the array plate.

"Buzz—"

The array plate instantly burst forth with a blinding white light.

The white light did not remain confined to the side hall; instead, it forcefully penetrated the wooden door and walls, enveloping Li Shimin and Empress Zhangsun, who were eavesdropping outside the courtyard gate.

The scene before my eyes was violently distorted, like ripples on water.

When Li Chengqian and the emperor and empress who had been forcibly drawn into the illusion outside the door came to their senses, they found that they were no longer in that dilapidated side hall.

They stood in a dark and oppressive hall.

The dragon pillars in the main hall were carved with menacing golden dragons, and the air was filled with a strong smell of blood and a suffocating silence.

Li Chen had somehow moved a reclining chair over and was sitting comfortably in a corner of the main hall.

He held a plate of osmanthus cakes he had taken out of his storage bag, stuffing them into his mouth while intently watching the show in the center of the main hall.

"Where...where is this?" Empress Zhangsun's voice trembled as she instinctively gripped Li Shimin's arm tightly.

Li Shimin stared intently ahead, his breath catching in his throat.

In the very center of that great hall.

A dignified and elegant man, dressed in a bright yellow dragon robe, was sitting on a large dragon throne.

His temples were slightly gray, his phoenix eyes were wide open, and his brows were tightly furrowed. The veins on his fists, clenched tightly on the armrests, bulged, and his whole body radiated a terrifying, world-destroying rage.

He is the future Li Shimin!

Before him knelt a disheveled, emaciated man covered in blood.

In the water mirror, the pitiful figure trembled slightly, and the hoarse voice seemed to pierce through the boundaries of time and space, directly striking Empress Zhangsun's heart.

"Chengqian!"

In the illusion, Li Shimin suddenly stood up and roared like a furious lion.

"Please address Your Majesty as Crown Prince!"

Li Chengqian, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly raised his head.

In those eyes, which were covered in blood, there was no fear, only a frenzied madness and despair that seemed ready to die.

Empress Zhangsun, who was observing from the sidelines, suddenly screamed. Her heart felt as if it had been gripped tightly by a barbed iron hand, and she collapsed into Li Shimin's arms in pain.

In reality, Li Chengqian also took two steps back, fell to the ground, and looked completely incredulous.

In the picture.

The future Li Shimin suppressed his raging anger and walked step by step to Li Chengqian, his voice almost squeezed out from between his teeth.

"I'm asking you why you want to rebel!"

rebellion?!

These two words were like thunderbolts from the heavens, exploding simultaneously above the heads of Li Shimin and Li Chengqian in reality.

Li Chengqian, reflected in the water mirror, suddenly let out a cold laugh. The laughter echoed in the empty hall, filled with desolation and endless mockery.

"Good question! Why would I rebel!"

"Rebellion is for self-preservation, but self-preservation inevitably offends the root cause!"

He suddenly raised his arm, his blood-stained fingertips pointing straight at Li Shimin's nose, and roared hoarsely.

"You want to make the Prince of Wei the crown prince!"

"You let him stay in the Martial Virtue Hall, and you know what that is!"

"You want him to be like Li Shimin nineteen years ago, but I don't want to be like Li Jiancheng nineteen years ago!"

Li Shimin, who was watching from the sidelines, felt as if he had been hit hard in the chest by an invisible hammer, and his face turned as white as paper in an instant.

Wude Hall.

That was the place where he lived and accumulated power before the Xuanwu Gate Incident!

Li Chengqian, reflected in the water mirror, showed no sign of stopping.

He was like a trapped beast driven to the brink of despair, pressing forward relentlessly, ruthlessly tearing open in public the deepest, most untouchable, bloody scar in the heart of the Tang emperor.

"You ask me why I rebelled!"

"In the ninth year of the Wude era, your late Emperor Gaozu asked you the same question!"

"His Majesty!!!"

In the illusion, Li Chengqian's eyes were wide with rage, and the veins on his neck bulged. At this point, he had completely abandoned all reverence and respect.

"Back when you were carrying the heads of your eldest and fourth uncles to force the emperor to abdicate, why didn't you ask yourself why you were plotting a rebellion!"