Outside Flame Emperor City, within a dilapidated abandoned house.
"Don't go, don't leave. I've searched for you my whole life. Are you going to abandon me again?"
Song Yanran jolted awake from a dream, her eyes immediately falling on Shen Zhao and Di Feijing, who were standing by the door, engaged in a hushed conversation.
"You're awake?" Shen Zhao greeted her calmly.
Di Feijing beside him offered Song Yanran an awkward smile.
Surveying her surroundings, Song Yanran asked cautiously, "Where are we?"
"At least we're safe for now," Shen Zhao replied. Di Feijing hurried to add more firewood to the nearly extinguished bonfire inside.
"Why... why did you come to save me?" Song Yanran's gaze drifted as she waited for Shen Zhao's answer.
"I was asked to."
Straining her weakened body, Song Yanran slid off the wooden bed.
"Your Majesty, please don't move. Your injuries haven't healed yet," Di Feijing warned urgently.
"Thank you for your concern," Song Yanran replied wearily, walking straight to Shen Zhao's side.
Without looking up from the piece of wood he was whittling, Shen Zhao casually asked, "What are your plans now?"
Song Yanran took a deep breath and shook her head. "I don't know what to do."
Her eyes were filled with uncertainty about the future.
"Aren't you going to reclaim the throne?"
"I've been poisoned by the Seven Star Begonia, and my life is nearing its end. What's the point of reclaiming the throne?"
Shen Zhao chuckled lightly. "Who said your life is nearing its end? The antidote to the Seven Star Begonia has been with you all along."
"What do you mean?"
"The Seven-Colored Cloud Gu is the most venomous Gu in the world, and the Seven Star Begonia is the most poisonous herb. Yet when combined, they neutralize each other's toxicity, becoming a life-saving antidote."
Song Yanran's expression shifted slightly. "You knew all along?"
Shen Zhao smiled. "The Empress Song Yanran and Ying Zhaoyun of the Wind and Rain Pavilion are one and the same, aren't they?"
Song Yanran's gaze sharpened. "Then are Chu Liuxiang and Shen Zhao also the same person?"
Shen Zhao chuckled without answering, a silent confirmation.
At that moment, Di Feijing spoke up. "And me... I'm not the Di Feijing you know. They forced me to approach Your Majesty. I beg for your forgiveness."
To his surprise, Song Yanran nodded as if she had already known. "Yes, I knew you weren't him long ago."
Di Feijing was startled, genuinely surprised.
"Actually, the moment I saw you, I knew you weren't the person I was looking for. The real Di Feijing would never be so self-effacing. In any adversity, he would exude an unshakable confidence."
"Besides, Di Feijing would never actively try to please a woman. Apart from your face, there's nothing about you that resembles him."
As she spoke, Song Yanran's gaze remained fixed on Shen Zhao's back.
"Then why doesn't Your Majesty simply expose me? Why treat me this way?"
"Because your face is so much like his. I just want to look at him a little longer, hoping to find a trace of him in you."
Hearing this, Di Feijing thought to himself, *So I'm just a damn substitute.*
Song Yanran turned to look at Shen Zhao again. "I never expected to meet the legendary War God Shen Zhao, and under such circumstances. Fate truly plays cruel tricks."
With these words, Shen Zhao realized Song Yanran had also been reborn. This made him begin to doubt the nature of his own rebirth.
*Too many... too many people have been reborn in this life.*
Yu Xiyan, Mu Qiuyao, Linghu Ming, Ji Bingyan, Lin Feng, and Su Yunying (whose rebirth remained uncertain)... the number of reborn individuals seemed excessive.
There must be some connection. Perhaps the system had altered the fundamental laws governing this world.
But to have everyone reborn would require an unimaginable amount of energy unless there was a suitable medium for transmission.
The question was: what could that medium be?
"Let's set that aside for now. How about we form an alliance?"
"What kind of cooperation do you have in mind?"
"I'll help you reclaim the throne. In return, you'll help me target the Nine Nether Springs. It's a mutually beneficial deal. What do you say?"
Song Yanran frowned. "You want to target the Nine Nether Springs again? Is it because of Yu Xiyan?"
"She has nothing to do with it. This has always been my personal vendetta against them, across lifetimes. So, will you help me or not?"
Song Yanran didn't immediately give a clear answer. Instead, she sat down beside Shen Zhao.
"To be honest, after thousands of years on the throne, I'm exhausted. This opportunity to retire is actually what I've always wanted."
Shen Zhao: "An Empress like you is just going to abandon your subjects to live a carefree life?"
"You saw it yourself today. The entire court, the seventy-two vassal states, even my closest loved ones, have betrayed me. What face do I have left to rule the Dragon Han Celestial Dynasty?"
Shen Zhao sighed softly and said slowly, "In the end, this is all your doing. If you had been more ruthless back then, you wouldn't have ended up in this situation."
Song Yanran remained silent.
Shen Zhao continued, "You ordered the extermination of the nine generations of rebels, yet out of pity, you transformed into Ying Zhaoyun and saved their orphaned children."
"You've nurtured them generation after generation, unaware that this act was planting the seeds of your downfall. As an emperor, you should have been decisive and ruthless, showing no mercy to your enemies. If you had eliminated every last orphan of those traitors back then, would you be facing this backlash today?"
Song Yanran disagreed. "But these orphans were innocent. Their ancestors rebelled, not them. I founded the Wind and Rain Pavilion solely to prevent their lines from dying out, to give them a place to shelter."
"The Wind and Rain Pavilion was inherently contradictory from its inception. Its core members were the orphans of the officials you slaughtered. Yet its stated purpose was to resist the Empress's tyranny, passing this ideology down through generations. Do you truly believe it wouldn't eventually explode? Did you ever consider how cruel your methods were? When they discover that the Pavilion Master who raised them to prominence is the very Empress who slaughtered their ancestors, how do you expect them to reconcile that? So, your second mistake in establishing the Wind and Rain Pavilion was failing to instill the proper values. Every member is indoctrinated to believe that overthrowing the Empress and her tyranny is their ultimate purpose. Aren't you just digging your own grave, cultivating a group of gravediggers?"
Song Yanran bit her lower lip, her gaze dropping as she fell silent.
Shen Zhao's words, sharp and piercing, had torn apart the last vestiges of her resolve.
"And..."
Shen Zhao glanced at Di Feijing.
"Since you knew he was from the northwest, why keep him around? Is he really that handsome?"
Hearing this, Song Yanran suddenly flushed, her eyes lingering on Shen Zhao with a hint of coquettish meaning.
The intensity of her gaze sent goosebumps prickling across Shen Zhao's skin.
After a long pause, she spoke slowly, "Yes, I was so foolish. I should have realized sooner, but it wasn't until you appeared at the wedding that it truly dawned on me."
"What did you realize?"
"If Shen Zhao could be Chu Liuxiang, why couldn't he also be Di Feijing?
When I think about it now, I felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with you from the moment Chu Liuxiang appeared.
Especially during our sparring matches—I should have connected the martial arts you used with Di Feijing.
Moreover, only someone with your decisive and swift style would match my impression of Di Feijing so perfectly."
Di Feijing, overhearing this from a distance, immediately put on a woeful expression and said to Shen Zhao, "Fine, after all this, you were the real deal all along. If you'd told me sooner, I'd have escaped this purgatory by now."
-----------------------
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(End of Chapter)