With a warehouse full of supplies, I stood alone as king in this chaotic world, gun in hand.

"Yes!" Two guards lifted a box and placed it in front of the Wan family.

Wei Yang opened the box, revealing a neatly folded dragon robe inside, with the forged jade seal placed on top.

At this moment, Wan Sheng was slowly awakened by Wan Wenting pinching his philtrum. When he saw the dragon robe and jade seal in the box, he was so frightened that he almost fainted again.

His sons and grandsons turned ashen-faced the moment they saw the imperial seal and the dragon robe.

Now that things have come to this, what is there left for them not to understand? The assassin who broke into the forbidden area that night and the thief who emptied the treasures from the underground palace was none other than Crown Prince Bei Chen Yan.

Ordinary thieves couldn't possibly have emptied their underground palace of so many treasures without anyone noticing. They immediately sealed off the city and searched that very night, but they couldn't find the thief no matter how hard they looked. It turned out that it was the Crown Prince who did it.

Only the Crown Prince has the ability to lead the inner court experts to steal their treasures and send them to the Eastern Palace. How could they possibly find them?

"It's you...it was you all along..." Wan Sheng pointed at Bei Chen Yan, "Our Wan family has raised a heartless wretch!"

Bei Chenyan stood up, walked slowly to Wan Sheng and his son, and looked down at them.

"Wan Sheng, Wan Wenting, why don't we go to the underground palace beneath your Wan family's forbidden area now and observe the mini-court that your Wan family has built?"

Wan Wenting's eyes flickered. "We don't know what you...are talking about?"

"You don't know, do you!" Bei Chenyan coldly ordered, "Guards! Wan Sheng and his son have illegally made dragon robes and forged the imperial seal. The evidence is irrefutable, and their crimes are unforgivable! Execute the entire Wan family and their nine generations of relatives on the spot!"

"Yes!" The Imperial Guards standing around immediately drew their swords with a "whoosh."

"Your Highness, do you really intend to wipe out the Wan family?" Wan Sheng stood up with Wan Wenting's help.

"Then hand over my mother!" Bei Chenyan's eyes were icy cold.

"What do you mean by handing over your mother? Hasn't your mother, Shuli, already been locked up in the cold palace by you?" Wan Sheng's eyes flickered.

"You're still pretending, aren't you!" Bei Chenyan pointed at Wan Sheng's sons. "Drag them all out and behead them!"

The Imperial Guards rushed forward and dragged out all five of Wan Sheng's sons.

"Your Highness, we are your own uncles. Aren't you afraid of retribution if you kill us?" Wan Sheng's second son shouted.

The sixth son shoved the imperial guards aside, rushed to Bei Chenyan, knelt down and kowtowed, "Your Highness, I am just a son of a concubine, and my mother is just a lowly maid who lives worse than a servant. What my father and brother did has nothing to do with me. Please forgive me!"

I said, "I know many of their secrets, and I'll tell you everything. I don't want to die, please spare me!"

"Alright, spare him for now!" Bei Chenyan glanced at his clothes; they were indeed worse than a servant's. He nodded and let him go for now. "Chop off the rest!"

The Imperial Guards dragged Wan Sheng's four sons out.

"Your Highness, spare my life!"

"Father, save me..."

"Bei Chenyan, they are all your uncles, your mother's blood brothers, and you actually want to kill them? You will be punished!" Wan Sheng trembled with anger.

"Blood brothers?" Bei Chenyan's eyes flashed with murderous intent.

"You secretly kidnapped my mother and let that vile woman impersonate her for nearly twenty years. Did you ever consider that she was also your daughter, your blood relative?"

"I'll tell you! Your Highness, I'll tell you everything I know," said Wan Sheng's sixth son.

Bei Chenyan frowned. "Then speak quickly. If there is even a hint of falsehood, those people from earlier will suffer the same fate as you."

"Wan Wenchen, you'd better think this through before you speak!" Wan Wenting warned him.

"What do I have to think about?" Wan Wenchen, the sixth son of the Wan family, pointed at Wan Sheng with his eyes full of resentment. "My mother was just a lowly maid who was raped by him while he was drunk before she gave birth to me."

From childhood to adulthood, I've lived a life worse than a servant. In the eyes of you legitimate sons, I don't even deserve to eat your leftovers. Now that you've committed treason against the court, why should I be implicated by you...

"Stop talking nonsense!" Wei Yang interrupted Wan Wenchen. "You'd better have something useful to say, or you'll lose your head too."

"Yes!" Wan Wenchen was so shocked that he knelt down again and told everything he knew. "Eighteen years ago, I was only ten years old. On that day, my aunt was beaten by Wan Shuhua again. Her whole body was covered with whip marks, and she developed a high fever in the middle of the night."

I wanted to go to my father and ask him to send the royal physician to treat my aunt, but on the way I saw a woman who looked exactly like the Empress.

I thought it was the Empress returning to the Wan family for a short stay, so I secretly followed her. I had heard that the Empress was a kind-hearted woman, and I thought that if I asked her, she would surely be able to find a physician for my aunt.

I followed her all the way to my father's study. I had no other choice but to secretly follow her outside the study, hoping to wait until the Empress and my father finished their conversation before asking them to invite the royal physician.

I was sitting behind a pillar by the window when I overheard a huge secret: the woman was not the Empress, but her twin sister.

Father said that the Empress is becoming increasingly disobedient, and in order to protect the interests of the Wan family, that woman must enter the palace tomorrow to replace the Empress.

I was terrified when I heard these words and ran back to my own yard. If my father found out I had eavesdropped, he would surely beat me to death…”

At this moment, Commander Deng returned and reported to Bei Chenyan, "Your Highness, those four people have been executed!"

Wan Sheng's face was filled with grief, but his eyes suddenly turned fierce. "Bei Chen Yan, since you know everything and dare to kill members of my Wan family, then don't even think about finding out where your mother is."

"Then continue killing for me. Leave Wan Sheng and Wan Wenting to the end. Give all the members of the Wan family and their clans poisoned wine." Bei Chenyan gave the order calmly.

"Yes." Commander Deng immediately went to find the poisoned wine.

Wan Wenchen's face turned pale. "Your Highness, this humble subject has something else to say."

"Then tell me everything you know." Bei Chenyan looked at Wan Wenchen, who might know the whereabouts of his mother.

"Ever since I learned that my father wanted to harm the Empress, I have been secretly keeping an eye on what was happening in the mansion. I thought that if I could save the Empress, my aunt and I would have a better time in the mansion."

The following evening, I waited at the side gate at the time they had told me. Just before midnight, a carriage arrived, and two men carried in a large sack.

I secretly followed the two people, and they actually entered the forbidden area in the backyard, where there were experts guarding it. I, a commoner, dared not follow them in!

"Your Highness, if the person in that sack is indeed Her Majesty the Empress, she is most likely being imprisoned in the forbidden area at the back."