What was most frightening about the incident wasn't that the second prince's head had exploded, but rather that it might happen to any of the princes at any time.
The eighth prince's face turned pale, whereas the seventh prince, unable to hold it in any longer, vomited on the spot.
The king of the realm howled into the air—he was distraught at the fact that his son had died right before his eyes. He had never intended to kill the second prince; it was all an act to get the second prince to confess to his crimes and give up whatever information he possessed.
His aura exploded around him, overturning the golden tent and sending the air roiling. contemporary romance
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A huge crater spawned into existence by the princes' feet. Zhang Lie pushed the ninth prince behind him and dispelled the king of the realm's explosive aura.
The king of the realm was so enraged that the entire world seemed to shake. The skies turned blood-red, and cracks propagated through the heavens. A rain of blood began to fall.
"Your majesty, please remain calm!" Zhang Lie was undoubtedly the calmest person present. After all, he didn't much care that the second prince had died. He had infused a bit of his will into his words, which pricked the king of the realm into sudden consciousness.
He picked up a shard of purple crystal which had fallen to the ground amidst the explosion. "Beware the Jinghun clan."
The king of the realm calmed down almost instantly as Zhang Lie made his move. Quashing the anger and pain that threatened to overwhelm him, he gritted his teeth and asked, "The Jinghun clan, again? What's going on?"
Zhang Lie handed over the crystalline shard to the king of the realm. "As you can see, the second prince had a crystal shard lodged in his brain, just like the peak-grade lifeforms that were the vehicle for this invasion."
The king of the realm narrowed his eyes. "Do you claim that my son became one of those mindless beasts?"
The king of the realm refused to touch the crystal shard, so Zhang Lie stuffed it in the crown prince's palms instead.
"The parasitic shard wouldn't have impacted the second prince's thoughts. If that had happened, your majesty, you would have noticed immediately. With your protection, it would have been immensely difficult for the princes to be controlled by a third party. In addition, as I've claimed, the Jinghun aren't able to control intelligent species."
The king of the realm seemed a little disappointed. On one hand, he didn't want his children to be subject to mental compulsion; on the other, he hoped that the second prince hadn't done something so foolish of his own accord.
"The point of the crystal shard was to prevent the second prince from revealing what he knew." Zhang Lie mimed an explosion with his hand.
The princes turned pale as they recalled what had happened.
Zhang Lie added, "It's possible that the second prince might have been affected by the shard to some extent—perhaps not to the point of total control, but it could certainly have warped his thoughts and emotions. Its primary purpose, however, is to seal the second prince's mouth."
The crown prince clutched the shard of purple crystal in rage. "These aliens—how dare they perform such a vile act!"
Zhang Lie analyzed coldly, "As far as I can tell, this shard was implanted willingly."
"On what grounds?" the king of the realm asked.
"In order to guarantee that both parties would take their alliance seriously. As far as I know, the Jinghun aren't so strong that they'd be able to implant these shards without consent."
The king of the realm was so incensed that he was almost vibrating. "Oh, my foolish son! To think he was willing to stake his life on the line for this so-called cooperation..."
The crown prince frowned. "Who would go this far for the throne?"
"I think he was duped."
Everyone turned toward the ninth prince, who had just spoken.
"I don't think our second brother would be so easy to fool. He would surely be against the idea of leaving his life in another person's hands—I think there's a very strong chance that he was duped, or that he accepted the terms unknowingly, or—"
Zhang Lie shrugged. "It's impossible for him not to know—he's certainly strong enough to sense the shard lodged in his brain. However, it's certainly possible that the second prince didn't know about just how dangerous these crystal shards were."
The crown prince nodded. "Perhaps the Jinghun told him that this shard was only to prevent people from leaking details of the plan."
Zhang Lie nodded, and the crown prince continued, "But what the second prince didn't expect was that it would explode and kill him to prevent him from leaking any information about the Jinghun clan."
The king of the realm clenched his fist tightly. "For killing my son, the Jindao and Jinghun clans will pay. I hereby expel them from the realm—the Jinghun shall never get a foothold on this world!"
The king of the realm turned back to his second son's headless corpse, sighing as he glanced at it again. "We will host a grand funeral for my son. Don't speak of his betrayal. To the world at large, we'll announce that he was assassinated while protecting me with his body."
"Yes, your majesty!"
In the end, the king of the realm was still a father, and he couldn't bear for his son's name to be sullied given the circumstances of his death. He sighed again as though he had aged a decade in an instant. "I'm very tired, and I'd like to have a rest now. I'll award the prizes for the hunt subsequently."
Zhang Lie leaned back and replayed the second prince's words in his head. Was there another prince under the Jinghun clan's control? The Jinghun were a dangerous existence, one that had to be eradicated at any cost.
Which prince bore the most suspicion?
Zhang Lie turned around and surveyed all eight remaining princes. The crown and second princes were exempt, of course; the second prince was dead, and he had attempted to assassinate the crown prince before his death, and that assassination attempt would have succeeded if not for Zhang Lie's presence and the king of the realm's hidden strength.
The ninth prince was innocent as well; he had been with Zhang Lie all along. Zhang Lie was confident in his ability to judge one's character, and he was certain that the ninth prince had no connection with the Jinghun.
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