Chapter 1100: Accept Reluctantly
After officially assuming the position of Chief Deputy Mansion Master, Qi Xuansu’s first priority was not to join Zhang Yuelu in investigating the case, but to deal with the Yu royal family.
In principle, the matter should have been handled by the Mansion Master, but Wang Jiaohe still hoped to lay low and get through this unscathed, so he deliberately avoided involving himself as a way to cut ties. Thus, the responsibility was handed to Qi Xuansu, and the justification was clear. Since Qi Xuansu had been in charge of this case from the start, it was most appropriate for him to conclude it.
Qi Xuansu did not decline. He adhered to one principle only, which was to punish the main culprits without implicating others.
After all, the times had changed. This was no longer the Confucian era, so the old practice of exterminating the entire clan was no longer acceptable in the Daoist era.
But two issues remained. The first was how to punish the main culprits. The second issue was who would take over the Yu royal household and fulfill the duties of a King.
The main culprits were Yang E, Chen Shuhua, and the Yu King. Yang E was already dead. Chen Shuhua was now a fugitive. The Golden Tower Council would dispatch a Great Sage to personally hunt her down, so she was no longer Qi Xuansu’s concern. That left him with the Yu King.
Qi Xuansu had risked his life and fought a vicious battle with True Lord Siming to capture the Yu King. Though the King was barely breathing, he was still alive and had fallen into Qi Xuansu’s hands.
He deliberated whether to execute the Yu King. Keeping him alive could serve as bait to lure Chen Shuhua, but the likelihood was slim. If she had truly cared for her brother, she would not have used him as a furnace. Thus, Qi Xuansu quickly dismissed this option.
If the King was to be executed, it had to be a public, formal punishment to serve as a warning to all, not a secret killing by poison or other discreet means.
At the end of the previous Wei Dynasty, the realm fell into chaos and devastation. The young emperor was still a child without the means to rule. So when the Daoists seized power, they did not harm him and merely forced him to abdicate. However, the Empress Dowager, who had truly governed the nation, was imprisoned for days before being publicly executed in the Imperial Capital.
The Daoists’ actions clearly dismantled the sanctity of the emperor, who was known as the Son of Heaven. This showed that the old Confucian rule of the law not applying to the nobles did not apply.
Thus, the Yu King had to be executed. The question was—should he be transported to the Jade Capital or be executed on the spot?