The portly prison guard brought clean new clothes in the early morning and removed the shackles as if he was walking on thin ice.

“I know you’re very capable, but I hope you won’t make things difficult for a useless person like me who’s just collecting a government paycheck. Otherwise, I’ll be the one living in this single room tonight.”

Perhaps due to his nerves, he was more talkative than usual.

“Before I came down, I saw three teams of guards standing at the door. You wouldn’t even be able to escape if you had wings. This shows how determined the Prime Minister is to kill you.”

“Did you sleep well last night? You must not have. I didn’t sleep all night. When I think about the fact that I’ll be escorting you to the execution grounds, I feel like someone who will be condemned by history.”

“Are you ready yet? What’s taking so long?!”

A shout was heard just before a tall, thin prison guard appeared at the door. His hooked nose looked as if it had been curled with a curling iron.

“Ready, ready.”

The portly prison guard wiped his sweat and put the manacles back on Ling Yi, who had changed into his new clothes.

“Thank you, Hero. Sorry for offending you.”

“You talk so much nonsense all day long!”

The thin prison guard kicked him rudely and turned to drag Ling Yi away.

“Move quickly! Do you think you can avoid the death penalty by dragging your feet, you murderer?!”

Ling Yi preceded him in silence. He had no intention of pushing back against the thin prison guard’s various violent acts.

To the other prison guard, this was a sign of his numb resignation to his fate. All of a sudden, he felt very sad.

If he had let him escape last night regardless of the consequences, he might have become a hero to the common people. This might have been his only chance in this life to be heroic.

Just when he had begun to imagine how people would mourn for him, Ling Yi came to a stop in front of them.

“Who is that?” he asked.

The portly prison guard followed his gaze and saw a prisoner who was of a similar height and build as Ling Yi, wearing the exact same clothes and a black hood as he was escorted to a prison van.

“What?” the thin prison guard asked sarcastically. “Is there a law that only one death row inmate can be executed today?”

He pointed toward the escort vehicle and said to the portly prison guard: “You, follow that vehicle!”

“Ah? B-but I’m responsible for escorting this hero to the execution grounds in the northern outskirts today.”

“Our shifts were changed at the last minute. Didn’t you know?”

The other prison guard was confused: “No one notified me, ah.”

He wanted to confirm with his superior, but the thin prison guard shoved Ling Yi into another prison van first.

And the three teams of fully-armed guards he had seen that morning escorted the vehicle out the back gate with extreme vigilance.

“But that’s not the way to the northern outskirts, ah…..” he murmured.

“No, this isn’t right…..I need to find someone to stop that vehicle!”

Ling Yi sat in the fully-enclosed compartment. The men in prison guard uniforms to the left and right of him stood with straight backs and stern expressions, unlike the thin prison guard sitting opposite him, who had a rotten, moldy scent.

This person spent a lot of time in a dark, humid environment, and the musty smell seemed to have permeated his entire being.

“You’re just escorting a death row prisoner. Is it necessary for military personnel to go undercover?”

The thin prison guard slouched in his seat and didn’t deny it.

“You’re no ordinary death row inmate. This is the importance your superiors have placed on you. Shouldn’t you be proud?”

“Where are you taking me?”

“Either path leads to hell, so what does it matter which one you take?”

Ling Yi posed a third question: “Was that person my scapegoat?”

The thin prison guard smiled, revealing unpleasant yellow teeth.

“We received a tip that a certain person was going to cause trouble in the northern outskirts. Now the entirety of the execution grounds are surrounded by agents. If a criminal wants to take advantage of the chaos to do something, what do you think will happen?”

Ling Yi’s eyes immediately darkened. Before the fake prison guards beside him could react, the real prison guard opposite him let out a wail and slid from the seat to his knees.

The chain connecting the manacles was wrapped around his neck in a full circle.

“Turn the vehicle around,” Ling Yi said in a low voice.

In a panic, the thin prison guard clasped his hands together and desperately begged for mercy, but he seemed to be begging the wrong people.

“Don’t kill me, please, don’t kill me…..”

He pleaded desperately to the two fake prison guards.

A gun was aimed at his temple. Ling Yi had never seen anyone kill a person so cleanly and efficiently.

Scarlet liquid splashed all over his hands, the remaining part of the guard’s head still constricted by the iron chains.

Then the gun was pointed at Ling Yi.

“Our superiors informed us that you’re good at taking hostages, so we specifically chose a person whose death wouldn’t be a pity.”

“…..” Ling Yi let go of the corpse with disdain. “You have a good eye.”

“Don’t even think about holding any of us hostage. Our mission is to escort you to your destination alive, but not necessarily with all of your limbs intact.”

Ling Yi assessed the difference in combat power between him and the two armed professional soldiers, and sat down with an accurate understanding.

“Is what he just said true? That you got a tip that someone was going to cause trouble in the northern outskirts.”

“Don’t ask irrelevant questions,” the person who had fired the shot replied.

“Who sent you here? Let me guess, Lu Hulun?”

“Don’t ask irrelevant questions.”

He was like an emotionless robot.

The corpse was kicked into the corner, and the cabin filled with the musty smell of blood.

Ling Yi couldn’t see outside, and had no way of telling where they were.

About half an hour later, the vehicle stopped and the muzzle of the gun pointed toward the back door.

“Get out.”

Prime Minister Lu Hulun had pale hair and eyes as gloomy as a vulture’s.

There was a chair right behind him, but he declined to sit down, supporting his body with a cane as if his age didn’t show as long as he was standing.

“You don’t seem surprised at all.” His hoarse voice contained the arrogance of someone who had long held a position of power.

“I would be surprised if I was safely escorted to the execution grounds and executed according to the law.”

“I saw the body. The glands on the back of his neck were mutilated. The medical examiner said that he died in great pain.”

“Is that so,” Ling Yi said expressionlessly. “He really deserved it.”

“In that case, how can I allow you to die painlessly?”

Lu Hulun thumped his cane on the ground, and a man in doctor’s garb got out of another vehicle. His entire body was tightly covered, leaving only a slender pair of eyes exposed.

He approached Ling Yi with a medicine box in his hands and deliberately opened it in front of him.

Rather than medicine, the inside was filled with rows of gleaming silver scalpels.

“I hired the best surgeon for you. He will cut your glands slice by slice so that you survive as long as possible.”

“But before that, he will cut out your tongue, because I don’t want to hear you screaming for ten hours straight.”

Ling Yi smiled contemptuously: “Are you sure? An old man like you must already have bad hearing. If you don’t want to listen in this world, then go to hell and listen to the crying and howling of your poor tragic son.”

Lu Hulun’s face became increasingly gloomy: “Then it shall be as you wish. Keep your tongue for now. I’ll help you leave with your dignity.”

“A base commoner like me can’t understand the decency of nobles. But if you want to hear it, I don’t mind imitating the young master’s wailing and pleading for mercy before he died to make up for your absence in his last moments.”

Lu Hulun’s breathing suddenly grew rapid. He leaned forward and stared at Ling Yi with the eyes of an eagle.

But he was worthy of being called an iron-fisted politician who had been active in politics for many years, and quickly brought his emotions under control.

“You weren’t the only one there that day. After your demonstration, I can verify it again on your little brother.”

Lu Hulun saw the anger he wished to see in Ling Yi. He tried desperately to pounce on the prime minister, but was restrained tightly by the fake prison guards behind him.

“If you dare touch him, I won’t let you go even in death!”

This fish on the chopping board was so anxious that his eyes reddened, and the chains attached to his wrists clanked together.

For the first time after the death of his beloved son, Lu Hulun smiled.

“I always keep my word.”

Ling Yi’s chest heaved up and down. He wished he could skin the person in front of him a thousand times with his gaze.

“Some asshole said that only my death will fully arouse public outrage. I disagreed at first, but now I think his words make sense.”

“If this is the only warmth I have left in this world, then let this fire burn you to ashes.”

“I have been cursed all my life. It’s a pity that those who cursed me didn’t live long, but I’m still alive and well.”

“Begin,” Lu Hulun commanded.

A cool sensation touched the back of his neck. The gland was the inverse scale of every Alpha, and touching it was a provocation. Ling Yi struggled so violently that it took two more people to hold him down.

“Don’t be nervous, I’m just disinfecting it. I like to follow strict medical procedures.”

The doctor’s voice sounded behind his mask, as calm as if he was giving a classroom demonstration.

“There are a lot of nerves in this area. If you move around, it could lead to worse consequences.”

Ling Yi could already feel the sharp object pressing against the skin on the back of his neck, and the surrounding muscles shook uncontrollably.

“Your neckline is very beautiful. It is my honor to cut it open.”

Ling Yi clenched his teeth: “What a pity.”

“Hm? Are you talking about me?”

“You learned how to save lives, but you’re using your skills to kill.”

The doctor stopped what he was doing.

Ling Yi didn’t think his words had any effect, but he couldn’t turn around, and naturally didn’t see the gun pointed at the doctor’s head.

The doctor raised his hands obediently, and the scalpel clamped between his middle and ring fingers reflected a cold light.

Lu Hulun frowned: “…..Who is it?!”

In an instant, more than a dozen military vehicles skidded in with a roar, and hundreds of elite royal guards jumped out of them. The prime minister’s guards were completely surrounded.

The last vehicle slowly came to a stop in the middle of the venue. Tang De, the captain of the royal guard under the Crown Prince, jumped out of the passenger seat spiritedly and turned around to open the back door.

Everyone first saw the polished shoes, followed by slender legs, a perfectly-proportioned figure, and a unique, tailored royal uniform.

When he stepped out of the vehicle, his imposing gaze swept across everyone present. Lu Hulun’s guards subconsciously lowered their heads, not daring to look him in the face.

Oser casually shook out the cloak around his shoulders, his every move imbued with a self-confidence that surpassed that of ordinary people.

Only a person who had been superior to others since the day they were born could develop such a temperament. One day less, and they wouldn’t measure up.

When Lu Hulun saw his outstanding grandson, a look of abhorrence crossed his face.

“Your Highness Oser, what are you doing here?”

“I naturally came to see my grandpa, whom I haven’t seen in a long time. I heard you were so angry about Uncle’s death that you were bedridden, and I thought I was going to lose two relatives at once.”

Oser’s tone was frivolous, containing an element of sarcasm that Ling Yi was familiar with.

“But Grandpa is already so old, yet he still plays such childish tricks as using a substitute. It almost made me late.”

Lu Hulun’s expression was cold: “If His Highness Oser is here to supervise the execution, there was no need to bring so many people and make such a big scene. This looks less like supervising an execution, and more like stealing someone from the execution grounds.”

“Now that you’ve said it, I don’t need to explain myself.”

Oser walked up to Ling Yi as if there was no one else around, and the latter’s eyes filled with suspicion and vigilance.

The meaning of this look was very clear: Your grandfather kidnapped me and planned to torture and kill me, and you’re not a good person either.

Oser lowered his eyes to Ling Yi’s bloody hands: “Who hurt you like this?”

Ling Yi was on guard: “…..It’s not my blood.”

“Then it seems you were naughty again. Got it.”

The portly prison guard came from the rear, huffing and puffing, and undid the manacles much more skillfully than he had that morning.

He gave a low, foolish laugh: “Hehe, it’s fortunate that we made it in time. You’re saved now, Hero.”

There were two consecutive sounds of heavy objects falling to the ground, and dust rose underfoot.

Ling Yi moved his ligature-marked wrists, and twisted his shoulders to shake off the people holding him.

Lu Hulun said in a low voice: “What does Your Highness Oser mean by this? This man is a death row inmate.”

“Death row?” Oser sneered. “Does the death penalty allow you to privately execute people?”

Oser turned his head: “Hey, death row inmate over there. Some asshole wants to ask if you would prefer to stay and be tortured or leave with him.”

Ling Yi pursed his lips and answered unthinkingly: “I want to live.”

Oser snapped his fingers. Tang De trotted over and unrolled the pure white scroll in his hands, presenting the front of it to the old prime minister.

Lu Hulun’s pupils shrank, and the way his tone rose several degrees revealed how shocked he was:

“You’re going to do this for him?! For this person—”

Oser interrupted him haughtily.

“I, Fengdi Oser, 16th eldest son of the empire and heir to the Liushan bloodline, officially declare that I will use my power of pardon for the death row inmate Ling Yi.”

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Chapter 2 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 4