Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 436: Execution Ground Countdown

Chen Yuan roared silently in his heart. This was the one obsession he couldn't let go of at the end of his tyrant's road.

He could lose to the Emperor's schemes, he could lose to Xu Qing's calculations, but he couldn't accept losing to an unknown phantom.

But there was nothing.

The crowd was bustling with activity—fierce-faced brutes, weeping old women demanding blood for their dead, idle loafers watching the spectacle—but there was no sign of that shadow in the green robe and bamboo hat.

That person truly seemed to have been nothing more than a nightmare born of his despair. When he woke, there was nothing left.

The prison cart, with a creaking groan, came to a halt in the center of the execution ground.

The massive guillotine had been washed countless times with clear water, but the dark red bloodstains deeply seeped into the wood grain could never be scrubbed clean, emitting a nauseating smell of rust.

Beside the guillotine, five burly executioners, bare-chested and tied with red sashes around their waists, stood holding their ghost-headed broadswords, coldly watching the condemned being escorted off the cart.

Sunlight broke through the clouds, spilling onto the execution ground.

The blinding light shone on the freshly sharpened blade of the ghost-headed sword, reflecting a dazzling, deathly gleam."Scrape—scrape—"

An executioner picked up a rough whetstone and lazily ran a few final strokes along the blade that could split a bull's bones in two, producing a grating, teeth-grinding sound.

The Yongchang Marquis's death had officially entered its countdown.

Just as Chen Yuan was being roughly dragged out of the cart by two wolf-like Imperial Guards and shoved toward the steps of the guillotine—

His gaze suddenly froze.

On one side of the overseeing platform, instead of sitting in the Overseer's master's chair reserved for a third-rank official, was a young man in an ordinary gray cloth robe.

He wore no official uniform, standing quietly at the very front of the crowd, closest to the guillotine.

Just as he had done five years ago, outside the capital's Xizhi Gate, watching Su Ming being shackled and exiled to the Northern Frontier—he stood straight, he stood the closest.

It was Xu Qing.

Xu Qing's face was gaunt, his eyes calm without a single ripple. Unlike the fanatical crowd around him, he didn't shout curses or howl with rage. He just watched Chen Yuan, being escorted onto the platform, with a gaze that was utterly focused and profoundly deep.

The distance between them was no more than a few zhang.

front of Xu Qing, the Imperial Guards escorting

Chen Yuan stopped.

lifted his head, his face covered in blood and vegetable scraps, and stared straight into

seemed to be cut off by some

Yuan looked at Xu Qing, and then

carrying a piercing sharpness that

piercing his collarbones, and moved his lips, using a voice so hoarse that only the two of them could hear, to ask

"Xu Qing... you won."

power. With just you, you could

bloodshot eyes stared dead at Xu Qing, as if trying to

person... the one outside East Straight Gate who killed seventeen of my top-tier death-men with a single finger... who the hell

looked at

the man who had ruined half his life's work and driven away his only friend, now groveling like a dying stray dog, desperately

Qing's eyes betrayed not a trace of triumph, not a shred of

at Chen Yuan quietly, like looking at

gently shook

Not a

need to know the answer. And Su Ming's name should never again be exposed to the sunlight through the mouth of a mortal bureaucrat caught

final

Xu Qing shook his head, the light in Chen Yuan's eyes completely

hollowness more

"Move!"

back of the knee, shoving him

"Thump!"

Yuan's knees slammed heavily onto the blood-stained wooden

a puppet that had lost its soul, he let the executioner lock the shackle around his neck, letting the cold ghost-headed broadsword be raised high

then suddenly pulled out a command token

hour, three quarters, has

"Read the indictment!"

hereditary title, did not dedicate himself to loyal service

echoed above the overseeing platform, overpowering the clamor of

of military funds, substituting inferior goods, causing the Northern Frontier troops to have no clothes or food,

outburst of hysterical cheering erupted

Northern Barbarian, leaking military intelligence, causing the complete annihilation of three thousand troops at Wind Crossing

feed him to the dogs!" The citizens shook their fists, their eyes

death-men, conspiring with