They headed to the cold palace and noticed that the guards there were already killed. Yang Xian had already send soldiers to this place in order to make sure that the concubines and servants were not trying to escape. As they came closer, they could hear hysterical scream coming from inside.

"Don't come closer or I'll kill her!"

Prince Ji Sheng frowned and walked inside. His soldiers were standing in front of a residence, not daring to come any closer in case they would make the Imperial concubine hurt the woman in her arm. When he stood in front of the residence, he could see Imperial Concubine Xu was holding his mother, Concubine Ling, in her arm with a knife near the latter's neck.

Imperial Concubine Xu's eyes turned crazed when she saw Prince Ji Sheng. "YOU! Why didn't you die?!"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Imperial Concubine Xu, but I'm still alive," Prince Ji Sheng replied with indifferent tone. Even though his mother was in Imperial Concubine Xu's hand, there was not even any fear or disturbance in neither his expression nor tone. It was as if he never regarded his mother as his real mother in the very first place.

However, Imperial Concubine Xu was looking at Prince Ji Sheng with utter hatred. "You should have died! I'LL NEVER ALLOW YOU TO TAKE THE TRHONE!"

"I have no interest in the throne."

"Liar, you!"

"I'll be the one taking the throne."

When the sentence was uttered, Imperial Concubine Xu was dumbstruck. She looked at the entrance with her mouth wide open. At this time, Prince Ji Shao Yang walked to the front and looked at the imperial concubine with serene expression. He smiled brightly. "Do you miss me, Imperial Concubine Xu?"

"That's not possible… no! You… should have died…."

"In your son's hand? Unfortunately, Ji Shu is not smart enough to see that the one who died is my body double. He does have similarities with me since I managed to make him change his face, but it didn't change the fact that he's not me," Prince Ji Shao Yang revealed unhurriedly.

"That's not… that's not…"

Imperial Concubine Xu's body trembled in anger and fear. The dignified and pure front that she always wore had long disappeared. It was as if she was a completely different person.

In front of her, Concubine Ling didn't have any expression on her face. She looked as if she was bored with the performance and completely disregarded the knife that was pointed straight to her neck.

Due to trembling, the tip of the knife wounded a part of Concubine Ling's neck.

"Do you plan to kill me? If you do, you should do it after killing my son," Concubine Ling complained.

Prince Ji Shao Yang frowned when he heard what Concubine Ling said. It was as if she was provoking Imperial Concubine Xu to kill her own son that was standing in front of her.

"SHUT UP! YOU B*TCH, YOU SHOULD…"

Dzing! Dzing! Jleb! Clang!

The sound of two arrows slicing the air could be heard. Imperial Concubine Xu watched in fear as she noticed that the two arrows were hitting her backhand and the knife respectively. The knife was thrown to the side without harming Concubine Ling while her hand was bleeding as pain filled her body.

Concubine Ling seized the chance and twisted her body. Despite her small frame, she could move nimbly and pushed Imperial Concubine Xu away from her.

Thud!

Imperial Concubine Xu fell to the ground. It was then she realized that there were two people standing in different place with their bow and arrows ready. One was at the front while the one was at the side. They stood in front of the wall and thus, they could reach her. If only she was not agitated, she would surely able to see the two of them very clearly.

At this point, the one at the front shoot the arrow straight to her heart.

Jleb!

Prince Ji Sheng strode forward and looked at his mother worriedly. "Are you alright, Mother?"

The indifferent expression was completely wiped off from his face. Right now, he looked like a normal filial son who cared for his mother.

While Prince Ji Shao Yang and the soldiers thought that Concubine Ling would surely try to kill the third prince, they were dumbfounded when they saw what happened next.

"I'm fine. You can just leave me alone, silly child."

"I can't possibly leave you to die, Mother."

Concubine Ling merely smiled. "You will have a lot of explaining to do after this. Don't bother with me."

"It's fine. I can do it later," Prince Ji Sheng replied unhurriedly.

At the back, Prince Ji Shao Yang felt that the sun had just set on the east. He could never imagine that the mother and son duo, who had always been at odds with each other, would show this kind of performance in front of him.

Are they acting?

Or is this the real one?

Recalling the rumors of how much Concubine Ling wished to kill her son because she never wanted to be a concubine, Prince Ji Shao Yang felt that his entire world had crashed down. He had also seen for himself when he was a child when Concubine Ling tried to kill Prince Ji Sheng in front of the servants.

The miserable look of Prince Ji Sheng back then was still printed in his mind.

This…

The one in front of him… look so surreal.

He turned his head to look at Yang Xian, who had jumped off from the wall with incredulous expression. "Strategist Yang, this is…."

"Yes?"

"I mean, aren't their relationship…" very bad?

Prince Ji Shao Yang had seen for himself Concubine Ling attempting to kill her son in many occasions. And when there was family dinner, Concubine Ling would try to shame Ji Sheng at every chance she got. It was to the point that the Emperor no longer wished for them to have dinner together and separated the mother and son.

This… was clearly out of his expectation.

However, Yang Xian merely tilted his head. "Isn't this normal?"

Prince Ji Shao Yang: "…"