Chapter 374: Gain Jun Huang, Gain The World (2/2)
Jun Huang maintained a calm expression, but in her heart she felt cold. She had walked right into Ji Bo's web of manipulation so long ago without noticing.
She lowered her eyes and looked at Ji Bo's body. “What do we do with the House of Heavenly Fiends?”
Nan Xun shook his head. “The organization was led by Tianyu's royal family. As long as you and Jun Hao don't take over it, the organization will naturally come to its end.”
Jun Huang understood. An organization as old as the House of Heavenly Fiends should've disbanded as soon as Tianyu fell. It only persisted because of Ji Bo. It'd long started going downhill. They didn't need to do anything for it to fall apart.
Nan Jihan walked up to them and threw a brief glance at Nan Xun. Seeing him holding Jun Huang hurt, but he was in no place to say anything. “We're about done with this place. Should we break into Eastern Wu's imperial city now?”
“Exactly what I think.” Nan Xun let go of Jun Huang and ordered a shadowguard to take care of her. He went with Nan Jihan and personally led the final charge.
The two of them were unstoppable. It didn't take long for them to reach the outside of the palace. Those stationed at the imperial city had long grown dissatisfied with the imperial clan. Some even joined Nan Xun's troops. Nan Xun had ordered his men not to hurt any innocent people, especially not the local residents. Those who had been under the imperial clan's oppression came to see Northern Qi as a better ruler.
The Eastern Wu palace was in chaos. The puppet Ji Bo had put on the throne decided to abandon the city and flee. Right after he'd packed up, though, Nan Xun had surrounded the city with the troops. The emperor almost fainted.
He was reaping what he sowed. Since the royal clan had never shown him respect and even verbally attacked him when Ji Bo put him in power, he wasn't satisfied with simply putting them in prison. Once he lost contact with Ji Bo, he had the royal clan members killed and Ji Bo's men taken out.
Now that an army was coming for him, he didn't even have someone to talk to. Worse, his eunuch was a fool of a man who tried to flee in fear. He grabbed him.
“Where are you going when I'm still here?” the emperor said through gritted teeth. “If I die, you die with me.”
The eunuch couldn't argue with that. He was but the emperor's servant. He had no choice but to follow the man. The emperor let out a long breath and dropped his rucksack to the floor. He looked outside with his back straight.
His officials entered the palace one by one and knelt before him. “Eastern Wu is no more. We'll only die worthlessly if we resist. We should surrender, Your Majesty.”
“Seconded.”
“Seconded.”
The young emperor had always been an incompetent coward. What little courage he'd mustered fizzled out. The officials were right. He could surrender.
He drafted a letter and had it delivered to Nan Xun. In the end, he and the officials were all taken and captured.
The former emperor had been locked in the palace. He heard the commotion, but he didn't know it was the enemy troops. He made his way to the door in shackles.
“What's going on?” he asked, raising voice.
There was no response from the eunuch who should've been outside. He frowned and listened carefully. From the screams and the sound of blade clas.h.i.+ng, it didn't take a genius to figure out that the palace was under attack.
He didn't know how he should feel, and he didn't allow himself to think too much. He wanted to live. He wasn't going to die here. Looking around, his eyes settled on a vase. He used it to hit his iron shackles, but it didn't do anything.
Nan Xun had led his men into the palace. While his men went through everyone and everything inside, he took Jun Huang to find the man who had once been Eastern Wu's emperor.
After a while, they spotted a eunuch sneaking around with an armful of things. They exchanged a glance and went up to him.
The eunuch was caught by surprise and dropped his possessions. Jun Huang could tell that many of them belonged to the former emperor. Nan Xun demanded, “Where is he?”
The man had been tasked with keeping an eye on the emperor. When he heard that the enemy force was storming the palace, he hurriedly packed up the items the former emperor had given him in return for his service. The eunuch was scared when he ran into these two unfamiliar, important looking people. Fear made him lose his voice.
Nan Xun didn't have the patience to wait for the eunuch to speak up. He took out a dagger and threatened the eunuch. Scared witless, the eunuch fainted.