"Your Majesty..."

Gu Yunxi's waxy yellow and decadent face drooped slightly. She was led all the way by the Emperor with trepidation. She was thinking rapidly for a moment.

"What should I do? What can I do to save the master from danger?" Gu Yunxi thought.

Huanan Xin strode with a relaxed expression, holding a melodious tone and commanding the people behind him.

"Yue Xilou, the assassination case of Lady Yun should be handed over to the Eastern Depot for investigation. Be sure to find out the man who tricked Ninth Uncle into going up the mountain and ask him who was behind it!"

"Your Majesty, I will follow the order."

Yue Xilou walked and answered, bowing his hands and bending his back.

He cunningly stirred his eyes to peep at Gu Di, and he smiled darkly.

"When I get back to the Palace, I'll bother the Ninth Prince to go and recognize it in person when the Imperial Ceremony Office determines the suspect."

Gu Di murmured in response, then frowned, bowed his head, and gritted his teeth in chagrin.

When the crowd arrived at the square, the Honour Guards had set up firewood.

Master Huichan was dressed in a cassock and sat cross-legged in the middle of the firewood pile. His eyes drooped and he held a string of Buddha beads in his hand. While chanting words, he pinched round Buddha beads with the thumb of his right hand.

His expression was calm. His long silver eyebrows fluttered in the wind. He showed no fear in the face of the coming fire.

An Honour Guard held a torch, saluted the Emperor, walked to the field, and lit the dry firewood outside.

Suddenly, the fire started, and the fire took advantage of the wind. The red light puffed and rolled into the sky, burning half the sky.

The heat wave continued, surging towards the crowd hundreds of meters away.

The concubines of the imperial harem had never seen such a fierce battle. Some people screamed; some turned their heads to cover their faces; some fainted immediately. The scene was once chaotic.

It was not known who rang the bronze bell of the temple.

The bells rang loudly, and the slow and sad sound spread over the century-old ancient temple. The monks knelt down in unison when they heard the sound, and they joined their palms to recite the scriptures for rebirth.

Bell ringing, crying, sighing, and many noisy voices mixed into a turbid current that rampaged through Gu Yunxi's body and swallowed her bewildered and trembling heart.

Looking at the ferocious fire in the middle of the square, Gu Yunxi's face twitched violently. She turned and knelt at the feet of the Emperor, throwing away all her dignity and calmness. She begged with tears.

"Your Majesty, I beg you to pardon the master, or I will kneel long!"

There was a hint of sharpness on Huanan Xin's stern and indifferent face, and his icy black eyes looked directly at the blazing fire on the field, ignoring the woman's appeal.

Concubine Liang, Su Mao, was beside Noble Concubine Hui. Seeing the Emperor's attitude like this, she couldn't help but gloat over the misfortune and said with a smile.

"Sister Yun, you are not sensible. You can't be arrogant by relying on His Majesty's preference. How can you threaten His Majesty by kneeling long?"

Noble Concubine Hui smiled strangely and added.

"That's right. Doesn't His Majesty feel sorry for you when he did this? If he doesn't kill Huichan, how can he block the mouths of everyone? How can he make you and Ninth Uncle innocent?"

Gu Di suddenly got angry.

"Your Grace, what do you mean by this? Lady Yun and I are innocent. Why should we return our innocence? Why do we have to rely on murder to prove our innocence?"

"Your Majesty!"

Gu Yunxi cried out in pain and looked up at the Emperor's handsome face, which was covered by the cold fog.

"Your Majesty, you decided to kill Master Huichan. Is it because of your suspicion of me? Then what do you want me to do so that you are willing to believe me and Uncle?"

Huanan Xin finally lowered his stern eyes and glanced down at the woman's sad face.

Slowly squatting down, he stretched out two fingers and pinched her beautifully contoured chin. His other hand holding the handkerchief approached her gently, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

The Emperor put half of his cheeks close to her neck.

"Yunxi, you are so bold."

Only the two of them could hear the light and shallow voice clearly.

"How dare you take advantage of my love for you and play with me freely in your hands...?"

Gu Yunxi only felt her body soften, and she swayed, dumbfounded.

The Emperor leaned forward and separated a short distance from her. He put his hand on the woman's shoulder. His five fingers tightened slightly, and he motioned for the woman to continue to listen to him quietly.

"Yunxi, in any case, you and Ninth Uncle have committed a serious crime today for not dressing properly. It is a mercy that I did not kill you. However, Huichan, he must die!"

The Emperor's resolute voice was like a cold iron and a rock bursting into the air, causing Gu Yunxi's heart to panic.

She sneered tearfully.

"Okay, since you don't believe me, Your Majesty, I have no choice but to prove my innocence with my own death. Please, Your Majesty, kill me immediately in exchange for Master Huichan's life!"

She gritted her teeth, and she no longer avoided his cruel and ruthless gaze.

Without delay, in order to save people, she had to make a desperate bet.

The bet was Huanan Xin's love and reluctance for her.

The Emperor hooked his lips numbly. His eyes raised coldly, and he stared at the cloudless blue sky.

"You don't need to die. Since you like to kneel, kneel. If you kneel down and can turn this sunny day into pouring rain, you might be able to save the monk's life."

Gu Yunxi suddenly stared at him, and her heart seemed to fall into the void.

"Your Majesty, do you have to humiliate Her Grace like this?"

Gu Di was startled, looking at the mournful and trembling figure with pain in his eyes, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

This girl was too kind.

If she didn't care about the lives of others, how could she be controlled by others like she was now? How would she suffer humiliation in front of this d*g Emperor?

The Emperor calmly turned his sinister eyes to lock on the man and asked in a low voice.

"Does Ninth Uncle feel sorry for her?"

Noble Concubine Hui and Concubine Liang looked at each other and smiled.

Originally, they only thought that the Emperor was partial to Lady Yun, but now it seemed that although he was partial, as the Emperor of a country, he was not unreasonable.

Noble Concubine Hui covered the sun with her hands, repeatedly looked at the sunny sky with clear skies, and snorted.

"Sister Yun, your kneeling is inevitable! If you can really kneel until it rains in a while, it will prove the innocence of Ninth Uncle and you, ha-ha..."

Gu Yunxi's eyes shone brightly. She turned around resolutely and knelt straightly facing the firelight.

Her heart was bitten by countless insects and ants, and she reluctantly tasted a sense of desolation and powerlessness that she had never felt before.

The bottom of her eyes was hot and fuzzy, and she couldn't help crying out to the raging fire.

"Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva who saves the suffering, my husband Huanan He and I truly love each other but suffer from separation many times."

"If the grievances and sins of the two of us in the past lives are not resolved, I am willing to accept the punishment. I pray that the bodhisattva will take mercy as your heart, save the lives of innocent people, and help me and my husband escape the sea of suffering as soon as possible."

Gu Yunxi closed her eyes and prayed silently in her heart.

She suddenly remembered the miracle scene of the gilded body weeping when she first entered the temple and offered incense to the bodhisattva in the meditation room.

At that time, she firmly believed that the bodhisattva had a spirit in heaven and could comprehend the sufferings of the world.

After a while, the wind was blowing violently above the square.

Everyone exclaimed.

"Look! It's overcast!"

"Oh, what a dark cloud!"

"Is it really going to rain?"

Gu Yunxi hurriedly opened her eyes. When she looked up, she saw that the sky was already filled with black clouds.

A dazzling silver-white lightning bolt shot down.

After that, there was dull and deafening rolling thunder.

The bean-sized raindrops fell out of thin air, densely packed, and became more intense in the blink of an eye.

The crowd was chaotic.

Lady-in-waiting Zhang held the rain in her hands, and several palace concubines were pleasantly surprised and breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's raining. It's really raining! Your Grace, you are innocent!"

Zhiqi raised her hands in the pouring rain and cried aloud.

"Look! Look! It's raining. God testifies that Master Huichan shouldn't die, and Her Grace and the Ninth Prince shouldn't suffer!"

The girl crawled all the way, threw herself into Gu Yunxi's arms crying, and called her over and over again,

"Master… Master..."

Huanan Xin pushed away the Eunuch Superintendent Liang Zhen who was protecting him, raised his eyes in amazement, and let the heavy rain hit him in the face fiercely.

Gu Di was stunned in the rain for a long time, seeing that the fire in the empty field was extinguished. The old monk's big face blackened by thick smoke was revealed.

His feet suddenly became weak, and Gu Di knelt in the rain, imitated the monks, and folded his palms together.

Noble Concubine Hui was soaked all over. Her delicate makeup was smeared by the rain. She turned pale.

With a stunned expression, she trembled slightly, staggering and spinning in the torrential rain. She kept mumbling, asking herself.

"Why? Why? Why...?"

Huanan Xin walked towards Gu Yunxi step by step, and Liang Zhen followed him carefully, holding up a canopy to cover the rain for the Emperor.

The ups and downs of the coldness in his eyes all receded, and the Emperor bent down to support the woman and turned back hand in hand with her.

Across the dense rain curtain, his steady gaze slowly swept across the faces with different expressions.

Suddenly raising his voice, the Emperor said in a serious tone.

"Everybody, listen to my oral decree! Zheng is quiet and gentle. She follows etiquette and law. She has won my heart. From now on, she will be granted as Concubine Yun!"

Her mind was blank for a moment. When she returned to her senses, Gu Yunxi quickly restrained her fear and worry and thanked him with a face down.

Everyone on the field knelt down,

"Long live, Your Majesty!"

Across the overwhelming rain, Gu Yunxi and Noble Concubine Hui looked at each other.

Both pairs of eyes seemed to be covered with white frost. Their eyes were stern and cold...