Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 256 - 176: You Will Regret It

Chapter 256: Chapter 176: You Will Regret It

After some exchange, Duan Mingyuan had figured out the situation of the Mechanical Star’s Royal Court.

The Chancellor had been bought by the Shanqi Commerce Association years ago, with the purpose of uncovering the secrets of the Mechanical Star’s treasure. Yet, although the empress trusted him, she never disclosed the treasure’s secrets to anyone.

The scepter, forged by the first great craftsman, possessed secrets only known to the successive heirs to the throne.

The Chancellor conspired with the doctor, plotting to seduce the ailing empress into a "Soul Swap" ritual to search her memories.

The doctor was an agent of the Chamber of Commerce, and the equipment was also provided by them.

This rebellion in the Royal Court was also masterminded by the Chancellor, plunging the entire Mechanical Star into civil unrest, so he could escape the planet with the secret treasure. The Shanqi Commerce Association promised him a carefree and enjoyable second half of life as long as he could secure the creations of the first great craftsman.

"What a mistake!"

Now aware of the truth, Duan Mingyuan’s heart trembled with shock, and he looked at the ornament in his hand filled with remorse.

In the end, the Chancellor did not await the arrival of the rebels to force the palace. It was because Duan Mingyuan, who had escaped from jail, encountered the rebels unexpectedly.

They were fully armed and turned their blades on him upon meeting, making him believe they were the Imperial Guard of the royal city, come to arrest him immediately upon learning of his jailbreak.

The result was that the entire Mechanical throne was left without any combat unit, and furthermore, the empress had passed away.

Jiuyue had brought chaos at a rate that far exceeded Duan Mingyuan’s expectations, in less than half an hour without seeing her, she had taken down both the empress and the Chancellor.

All this information was retrieved from the Chancellor’s memory.

Thus, weren’t they more firmly pinned with the name of plotting for power and usurpation?

"Mr. Mingyuan, don’t panic. I can now disguise myself as the empress of Mechanical Star. This way, we can rightfully move around in the Royal Court."

Jiuyue was very excited.

Overturning the throne, causing trouble, that’s precisely what a real trouble fox should do. Moreover, it was the people of Mechanical Star who made the first move against them, so all their actions fall under self-defense.

Even better, over ninety percent of the servants and maids in the Royal Court were biomechanical servants or machines, who only followed orders, sparing her the necessity of having to explain the "Soul Swap" ritual to everyone she met.

"But, Mr. Mingyuan, how did you recognize me at a glance? Didn’t I look like an empress just now?"

"Your Life Energy did not change."

Duan Mingyuan, after searching the throne, retrieved an hourglass from a hidden compartment.

It was hard to imagine that this delicate hourglass was the chief culprit behind the desertification of the entire planet’s surface. The empress’s subsequent health conditions were also the result of overusing the Strength of the hourglass.

Every empress was the top craftsman on Mechanical Star. This device, known as the "Golden Hourglass," was made by the empress in her early years, and of course, only she could harness the Strength within the hourglass.

The Chancellor had always coveted the "Golden Hourglass," secretly committing to memory the methods the empress used to store the hourglass.

Looking at the shambles around him, Duan Mingyuan sighed.

In the Chancellor’s memory, the empress was not only the finest craftsman on the planet but also the strongest person of the era. However, her attitude became erratic after a prolonged illness plagued her; she became paranoid and went mad. Because of this, the Chancellor defected to the Chamber of Commerce and voluntarily revealed the secrets of Mechanical Star.

And now, this strongest character of Mechanical Star, who could once stand alongside the Long Branch Guard, had died so easily in the Blood Pool of her bedchamber.

With an unidentifiable device on her head, she still believed until her last breath that the doctor summoned by the Chancellor could resurrect her.

"Take this."

Duan Mingyuan handed the hourglass to Jiuyue, for in the eyes of the people of Mechanical Star, the "Golden Hourglass" represented the empress. At least for the short term, it could be used to bluff their way through.

This was not his intention, but plans couldn’t keep up with changes. As the saying goes, since he was already here, he didn’t initially care much for the Mechanical Star’s great secret treasure, but everyone kept chattering in his ear. The Chamber of Commerce and the nobility of Mechanical Star all became like riddle-tellers.

He would feel like there was something stuck in his throat if he didn’t figure out what the first great craftsman’s legacy was actually for, it was like reading a story that suddenly had no ending.

After dealing with the scene, he summoned Ling Long, dismissed the maids, and began to search the empress’s bedchamber.

Having learned certain inside information, Duan Mingyuan started to question the version of the story provided by Ling Long’s parents.

If the treasure was the legacy of the first great craftsman, significant for the entire planet, and only the royal heirs knew its secret, how did they manage to steal the scepter from under the strongest empress?

The treasure had not been lost decades ago, the Chancellor had not yet defected to the Shanqi Commerce Association, and the empress had not been gravely ill.

To steal the legacy and take it out of the Royal Court, the person capable of such a deed must at least hold a status comparable to the Chancellor.

"Found it!"

After rummaging through a pile of miscellaneous items for a long time, Ling Long suddenly let out an excited cheer.

She had picked out an object that looked like a sample book. The book was sealed shut and appeared to be an empty shell, impossible to open from the outside. Its surface was covered with scratches, suggesting it had been frequently handled. It was buried among many objects, most of which were the empress’s daily necessities.

It was clear that the empress was messy in her daily life and did not have the habit of tidying her desk promptly.

At least not since she had become ill.

Noticing Duan Mingyuan and Jiuyue’s puzzled glances, Ling Long explained, "This is a ’Memory Fragment.’ The people of Mechanical Star will save some extremely important memories in this way, to prevent them from being forgotten... My parents told me this. They said if I ever came to the Royal Court of Mechanical Star and couldn’t find the treasure, I would be able to find clues within these Memory Fragments."

Duan Mingyuan pondered thoughtfully.

Ling Long’s parents seemed to understand the inside workings of the Mechanical Star’s Royal Court very well, and they also knew about the empress’s grave disease.

They seemed to have crafted a meticulous plan, but the baffling way they treated Ling Long was something he couldn’t comprehend.

If Ling Long’s parents were so familiar with the Royal Court of Mechanical Star, then they must also know the character of the empress. Were they not at all afraid that the empress would mercilessly kill Ling Long?

According to his observations, the empress in her later years seemed to need no reason to kill.

To them, Ling Long was more like a tool to get closer to the legacy of the great artisan.

"Do you know how to use this Memory Fragment?"

Jiuyue asked, as she had always been clumsy with such delicate gadgets.

"It seems like this..."

Ling Long placed her hand on the cover of the book and slowly closed her eyes.

From a young age, she had a talent for mechanisms beyond that of ordinary people. Even when faced with a mechanism she had never seen before, just by fiddling with it a bit, she could discern its secrets.

But her parents didn’t seem surprised by this, nor had they ever praised her for it. In their eyes, it was something to be taken for granted.

The Memory Fragment was no different.

She had only heard of the existence of Memory Fragments, and this was her first encounter with one. Yet, a sixth sense guided her, and when her palm lightly touched the cover of the Fragment, the flowing Energy within responded to her.

Ling Long heard arguing, a very fierce argument.

Someone flipped a table, causing a clamor of clattering noise.

The sealed pages turned, displaying images of this very palace, events that seemed to have occurred a long time ago, yet the structure of the palace had scarcely changed.

"Stop being so obstinate, don’t you understand the consequences of what you’re doing?"

It was a woman’s voice. Though it was Ling Long’s first time hearing it, it felt oddly familiar.

She always felt she had heard this voice somewhere before, maybe in a dream, or some other place.

"Even without harnessing its Energy, this planet will one day reach its end."

"Nonsense! Sister, you haven’t been right since those merchants came. What sort of spell did they cast on you?"

The images in the book were blurry, their specific features indistinct.

Ling Long was immersed, just as in the vague silhouettes glimpsed in Dreamland. The woman addressed as "sister" was the empress of Mechanical Star.

"They’ve brought us many things we never knew before. Running away won’t change anything—it’s our only choice to harness the Energy, to grasp its secrets, and hope that our efforts can change the fate of this planet."

The empress was trying to persuade the other party.

"It’s clearly those merchants’ conspiracy!"

"No, you’re blinded by prejudice."

"Sister, you will regret this!"

"Ling Long, I am the empress!"

Upon hearing that name, Ling Long froze in her place.

She couldn’t see the faces of the two people, only knew that conversation had ended in discord, and the woman named Ling Long left with a sweep of her sleeves. Moments later, the sound of a door slamming shut echoed.

Ling Long...

A name exactly like her own.

Subconsciously, she thought it was just a coincidental case of identical names, just like how there are three Li Meis in Yunlong City’s First Middle School. However, the next moment, she overruled that possibility in her heart.

Ling Long was the sister of the empress, a noble of the Royal Court. Each of their names was unique, with no possibility of duplication.

This can only mean her parents knew Ling Long and, for some reason, gave her the same name.

Besides, she also felt a complex emotion from this Memory Fragment.

It seemed she saw the scene where, a long time after the argument, the empress sat alone at the table, staring at the Memory Fragment, lost in thought.

The message in the Fragment ended there; all images vanished.

When Ling Long opened her eyes again, the emotions from the Fragment had infected her, casting her into a state of melancholy.

"What did you see?"

Jiuyue asked.

"Ling Long," Ling Long said hesitantly, "the empress’s sister, also called Ling Long."

"The same name as you?"

Jiuyue blurted out in surprise, and upon hearing this news, Duan Mingyuan’s confusion suddenly cleared.

He suddenly realized that this was probably the reason why Ling Long’s parents sent her to infiltrate the royal court and were utterly indifferent to her life or death.

It was a name that would remind the empress of many things.

Perhaps, it could also become a name that even the iron-fisted empress could not bring herself to kill.