Before the Emperor was known as a lustful man who only chased after beauty, he was lesser known as a genius that would propel the Tian Empire to greater heights, even on par with the most powerful Eastern powers. While his parents spoiled him to no ends, as a child he was quite intelligent. He would even attend court with his father and sit on his lap during important government meetings. At the time, many thought it was harmless. He was merely a child, what could he possibly understand? But many had underestimated the young prince. He had shown a sharp wit and intelligence that was uncommon of children his age. Fearing that his son would be targeted even before he reached maturity, the late Emperor ordered for his vassals and officials to remain silent, lest they desire the destruction of their families and a permanent demotion, but even so, one didn't fear the might of the Imperial power and leaked out the prince's ingenuity. The prince was targeted and almost died on his tenth birthday. From then on, the prince masked his intelligence and it remained buried. He crafted a new persona of a useless man who only knew to lust after beauty, and the prince of before vanished into thin air. But even this new persona could not prevent the death of his parents. In the Tian Empire, it was commonly known that the late Emperor and Empress had died of a mysterious sickness, but in reality, it wasn't so. It was the greed and selfishness of humanity that had ultimately led to his parent's untimely deaths.
The Emperor stared at the prince placidly, as if he hadn't heard the prince's question. He turned around and opened the door to his chambers. Unlike the rest of his palace, his room was somber and dull. For an Emperor who was supposedly vain and liked to display his power, this room was plain and dreary, almost in juxtaposition with the rest of his image. The Emperor had long shed his image of ignorance in front of the prince. He walked to the wall and he reached inside a hidden compartment. The prince was stunned, he had sensed that someone had casted high level magic on the wall. Only a few cultivators were capable of such magic. It concealed the true nature of the Emperor's room.
The Emperor pulled out a torn piece of cloth from the concealed compartment in the wall and held it up for the prince to see. The cloth was preserved with magic and was coated in what seemed to be freshly shed blood. But whose blood was it? The cloth was of a high quality silk; it was clearly the blood of a highly ranked person. The Emperor's eyes darkened. "It's a corner of the clothes of the person who killed my parents." The revelation had silenced the very air of the room; the look on the Emperor's face could only be described as chilling. Despite pretending to be a good for nothing prince, those people weren't satisfied. They still wanted to crush the Tian Empire's chance at becoming a world power. As rulers, the former Emperor and Empress of the Tian Empire were more than competent. It can be said that the Emperor's ingenuity was inherited from them. The culprits were afraid of the Tian Empire's rising power; they wanted to crush its growth, so they rid the world of the former Emperor and Empress and thrust the role of Emperor onto an inexperienced boy. In their minds, it would be a miracle if the boy was even able to preserve the Tian Empire's status and not fall under the weight of the rampant infighting.
The prince silently observed the Emperor's face and scoffed. "What does the Western Empire have to do with this conflict?" While the people of the Western Empire tend to be easygoing and simple, they were never one to shy away from fighting, especially if their allies were endangered. The prince had an inkling of what the Emperor wanted; he wanted to become an ally of the Western Empire and sheltered underneath its wings. While the prince was sympathetic to the Emperor, he couldn't help but resent the means the Emperor had utilized. Rather than winning the prince's favor, he had merely won the prince's ire. What was there to gain in this? It was tedious and meaningless. The Emperor stood a greater chance if he had employed the initial tactic of summoning dancers from the Heaven's Pagoda.
The Emperor sneered, he could read the irony of the look on the prince's face. "I do not wish for the protection of the Western Empire. I would merely like to inform the prince of a common enemy. They have lost focus towards my Empire, but their next target appears to be the West." The prince was taken aback and was quick to voice his confusion. "You cannot possibly be helping me. We are not allies; we are only connected through Yan Qiuyue. You merely want us to step in and do the dirty work for you." The room quieted. The Emperor leisurely took a seat on the edge of his bed; his sword-like eyebrows were furrowed in irritation as he adjusted his sleeves. The prince sighed and took a seat opposite to him on a plain wooden chair. The two men maintained eye contact; they were locked in a stalemate, neither was willing to give in.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Hurried footsteps came in the direction of the room and a servant quickly made her way through the Emperor's Palace until she was face to face with the door to the Emperor's chamber. Her clothes were unkempt and perspiration sat on the lid of her lips. Her breaths came out hurriedly and anxiety was prominent in her brows. Her hands clutched tightly onto the skirt of her dress, and her hair flowed out in waves. It seemed that at some point, her bun had come out. She knocked on the door and interrupted the staring contest of the two men. Both of their heads turned towards the door, and the Emperor stood. "Your Majesty! Consort Yan has gone into labor!"
The prince stood hastily, worry was etched on his face. He yearned to rush straight to his fiance's chambers, but in the eyes of the world, he was a foreign prince visiting the Tian Empire for diplomacy. It wasn't appropriate for him to visit a courtyard in the Inner Palaces. Universally, it was taboo for an unfamiliar man or woman to visit an influential person's inner chambers. The Emperor pulled on the prince's sleeve, and the prince came to an abrupt halt. His hands were clenched into fists. "I came here to gift the Flower of Fertility to Empress Shi."
Like its name suggested, it was capable of restoring a woman's fertility. Empress Shi had searched far and wide for this flower for nearly five years but to no avail. With this flower, Empress Shi would regain her ability to conceive and birth the heir of the Tian Empire. What use would the Empire have for the child of a blind woman? Once the Empress sired an heir, the differences in the children's positions would become especially glaring and the Empress certainly would have no use for a child unrelated to her. Above all, she valued blood relations. If it weren't due to certain circumstances, she would have never considered the prospects of raising a child that didn't have a single speck of her blood.
A woman clenched tightly onto the bed sheets. She was blindfolded and in a panic, she could feel the blood trickling from in between her legs. Yan Qiuyue had gone into labor shortly after arriving in her courtyard after the banquet. Feeling uneasy about her condition prior, she had summoned a maid. While she usually didn't have the privilege of summoning maids, the Emperor had granted her this after he had decreed that her child would be the Empress'. But Yan Qiuyue did not trust the Emperor or Empress; this naturally extended to the maids. Even before they had summoned a midwife, she had begun to push, but it had been far worse than she could have anticipated. Her body was already weak from years of mistreatment in her childhood. In addition, the condition of her courtyard was certainly shabby and unsanitary. She knew that it wasn't a suitable place to give birth. She lied on the low quality bed; it was uncomfortable and her back ached as she grit her teeth and frantically pushed. Blood flowed out in streams, visibly gushing out far more than initially. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Her breath came out in huffs and tears trickled down her face. She couldn't see, but she could feel that her situation was bad. She was all alone in the courtyard; it would take at least several minutes for the midwives and maids to arrive. Even if she could've held on for a while, her body still would have begun to go into labor long before help could come. She was in the most secluded and unguarded place in the Imperial Palaces.
Blood continued to come out and soaked her dress, but Yan Qiuyue was too preoccupied to care. Her face was pale and sweat poured down the edges of her face. She had to exert almost all of her strength, but it wasn't enough. She could feel her consciousness slipping. She knew that if she were to lose consciousness, her baby would die. In desperation, she harshly bit into her tongue. While it was enough to shock her back into complete awareness, it wouldn't last for long.
She mustered every bit of strength she had left and pushed for the final time. With difficulty, she sat up and held a baby covered in blood. With the little bit of magic she possessed, she cut off the umbilical cord and engraved a name on its soul. In the East, it was customary for the parents of a newborn child to engrave a name on its soul. If the child were to die, the world would know of its existence. Even the heavens couldn't deny a soul with a name. It was said that if a soul wasn't named, if the child were to die, it would be like they never existed, and their souls would wander around oblivion aimlessly, never granted the right to step into the gates of reincarnation.
"Wahh," The baby softly cried. The corners of its eyes were creased and closed tightly and its fists were loosely clenched. Yan Qiuyue quickly checked; it was a girl. She picked up a towel strewn to the side and gently wiped the baby's face; every second she grew increasingly weaker. She had just given birth and the blood continued to seep from in between her legs. She was only able to weakly bundle her newborn in cloth and place her family heirloom around its neck. Yan Qiuyue had been wearing it for as long as she could remember, it was a plain black necklace with no distinguishing features. All she knew was that her adoptive parents had found her in a basket near the creek with the necklace on. If anyone had tried to take it off, she would begin sobbing loudly, so they had just let it be. After removing it for the first time, Yan Qiuyue felt a loss; she had grown familiar with its presence. But it was her child after all. The necklace was the only thing of value to her. She held her baby tightly in her arms and sighed worriedly. Still no one was here and she was growing weaker with each passing second. Even the arms around her baby loosened gradually over time.
Before she lost consciousness completely, she felt a pair of arms taking her baby from her embrace. She tried to hold onto her baby, but no matter how hard she tried, her baby fell out of her grasp. "Amirah!" She weakly called, "don't take her from me. She's all I have." Her baby was forcefully taken out of her arms, never to be seen again. Tears formed in Yan Qiuyue's eyes and trailed down as she was drenched in a pool of her own blood. The rise and fall of her chest slowed down gradually and her eyes shut. Yan Qiuyue was in a deathlike state. She appeared to be dead.