I'm only one year old, what the heck is a Overturning System?!-Chapter 430 - 189: A Family with Two Marquises (Please Subscribe)

Chapter 430: Chapter 189: A Family with Two Marquises (Please Subscribe)

The spring breeze is silent, carrying with it a faint fragrance.

In the pavilion, the tension that was as taut as drawn swords and ready crossbows dissipated a great deal, echoing with Zhou Tiance’s aged voice, laden with resentment.

"You’re right, I indeed deserve death!"

"But those who deserve it even more are living even better!"

Chen Yuan quietly drank his wine, the blue robe on his body progressively straightened out, with only one end of a sash lifted by the spring breeze, as if filtering through Zhou Tiance’s words.

Chen Ke stood underneath the porch not far away, his figure concealed in the shadows.

With his hands crossed and tucked in his sleeves, he looked just like an ordinary old man, intently observing the two people in the pavilion.

Sunlight filtered through the willow branches of the wall and fell upon him, his eyes unfathomable like an ancient well only intermittently visible.

If the old master and Mr. Yuan came to blows, whom should he help?

Chen Ke didn’t know.

But his hands were prepared for everything, merely a matter of an extra move.

After a long while.

Chen Yuan didn’t raise his eyes or look at his opponent, his tone was indifferent as he said, "Continue."

Hearing this, Zhou Tiance squeezed out a smile on his face full of wrinkles, folds upon folds like ravines, leaving practically no flesh visible.

The long-standing illness had already depleted his body, but still, he stubbornly persevered, and for so long.

All for this moment!

"All of these matters started with the battle at Beixiong Pass thirty-eight years ago."

Zhou Tiance, sipping his wine from time to time and coughing, slowly narrated the catastrophic events that led to the downfall of the Zhou Family’s lineage for a thousand years.

"In that battle, my Zhou Family gave its all. Every branch, main and collateral, sent their sons to fight, along with the Wuliang Mountain Taoists summoned by Guan Wu, and families from Beizhi, almost all of whom perished at Beixiong Pass."

"It’s laughable to think about!"

"The battle lasted an entire month before Prince Zhenbei, Du Qing, finally arrived! It took him a whole month!"

"Even Marquis Chen and Marquis Wang took nearly twenty days to reach Beixiong Pass!"

"Had Old Man not led the family guards there first, Beixiong Pass would have already fallen to the Demon Court, and Beizhi would’ve been plunged into a living hell!"

"However, when we arrived, we were still a step too late."

"The entire Beixiong Pass had almost become a haunt of Ghost Demons; corpses of my Devoted Army were scattered on the pass, and demons swarmed all over the hills outside."

"Even Guan Wu... had already sustained severe injuries." Zhou Tiance said through gritted teeth, suppressing the hatred in his heart as his lips trembled:

"For three consecutive days, we repelled twelve demon attacks, but our losses were heavy."

"Your second uncle, third uncle died, your cousin Zhou Lin died, several of your uncles died, they all died!!"

"How can Old Man not harbor hatred?!"

At this point, the hatred in Zhou Tiance’s eyes and expression was indescribable, his face twisted with ferocity.

Chen Yuan watched him, his expression unchanging, as if he was not hearing about the death of several uncles, but rather some strangers.

To him, these were not reasons for Zhou Tiance to target him, his younger brother Chen Yi, or the Chen Family.

Even if they were, in his view, Zhou Tiance was out of his mind!

After a long pause for breath.

Zhou Tiance coughed violently a few times, shaking hands pouring a cup of wine to his mouth to calm his agitated emotions, his thin body’s heaving slightly subsiding.

He looked at Chen Yuan and managed a bitter smile, saying, "Yuan Er, you did not experience that battle, so grandfather doesn’t blame you for not understanding."

"But this is hatred, a deep-seated vendetta of a family’s ruin and loss, grandfather cannot help but hate!"

"Is scheming against the Chen Family also part of your revenge?" Chen Yuan asked calmly.

Zhou Tiance shook his head and sighed, "Grandfather has said, everything I’ve done is for you."

Without waiting for Chen Yuan to ask further, he continued:

"After the victory at Beixiong Pass, when I was still recovering from serious injuries, I began to investigate the hidden secrets behind that battle."

"Including Prince Zhenbei, Du Qing, Duke Wuan, Marquis Taishan, and others, I investigated them one by one, trying to understand why their support was delayed."

"Only later did I realize that it wasn’t one person who delayed Prince Zhenbei and others’ reinforcements, but the whole civil servant faction!"

"Because they feared Guan Wu’s identity as the Inheritor of Wuliang Mountain would enable the Marquis faction to grow in strength, they did everything possible to delay Prince Zhenbei in the Imperial Palace."

Zhou Tiance spoke with pain in his expression: "It was then I realized that the court already knew that the Demon Court would march south to the pass but chose to conceal it instead."

"After the war broke out, the entire faction of Civil Servants, calling upon the Chiefs of Staff, and several Undersecretaries from other ministries, jointly petitioned the Holy Emperor to fabricate charges against us."

"The most malicious accusation was slandering Guan Wu for colluding with the Demon Court, intending to bury all the soldiers of Zhenbei at Beixiong Pass."

"That is why Prince Zhenbei stayed inside the Imperial City awaiting the results of the investigation, which took a very long time."

At this point, Zhou Tiance’s face seemed numb, his body as if filled with hatred, no longer demonstrating even a trace of emotion.

He silently drank a cup of wine and looked at Chen Yuan, saying, "Actually, I should thank the Prince."

"If it wasn’t for his covert instructions to the Wuan Army and Taishan Army to set off during the investigation period, Beixiong Pass would have surely fallen."

"Yet I resent him. I resent why he didn’t issue the order earlier, or why not a little later... If Old Man had died at the pass, then none of the following matters would have occurred."

Conspiring together...

Chen Yuan had not expected the Zhou Family’s downfall to be a result of such, he had originally thought it was the overwhelming force of the Demon Court marching south, with the Zhou Family bearing the brunt of misfortune.

Who would have thought that it was actually due to court discord, and moreover, a collective action by the entire Civil Servant faction!

"What happened afterward?" Chen Yuan asked thoughtfully: "How did the Holy Emperor deal with this matter afterward?"

"Deal with it?" Zhou Tiance gave a cold laugh and shook his head:

"After all that my Zhou Family had done, suffering so many casualties, we ended up not only without any merit but also punished by the Holy Emperor, and the civil officials proclaimed it as ’failure in defense of battle’!"