Duke Edward Bennett went to the palace to meet the emperor seven years ago. After returning, he was suddenly struck by a severe illness and has been bedridden ever since, now barely alive, with no difference between living and dead. The person at the helm is ‘a mere figurehead’, and fierce infighting has broken out among the descendants of the family, leaving the The Bennett Family torn apart; Commander Fat Brooks died under mysterious circumstances, and the next two successors in a row were accused of corruption and implicated countless others. In the end, the court abolished the Changting Guard and established the ‘Wuyi Guard’ in its place.

The two great powers collapsed one after another—who else could be behind it, if not the Jingtai Emperor?

Prime Minister Foster shook his head and sighed inwardly. Indeed, appearance reflects the heart; this emperor’s blade is sharp as his brows, and the ruthlessness in his chest is truly formidable.

Of the four from back then—civil, military, immortal, and serpent—only two remain. After the military and the serpent, it would be him, the ‘civil’. In recent years, the court has vigorously promoted newcomers, and from the capital to the provinces, the The Foster Family’s protégés have been replaced layer by layer, with the emperor gradually reclaiming the prime minister’s power. Only the ‘immortal’ still sits firmly as the national preceptor, never having suffered any blow from the court.

How could Lord Foster not understand that if he kept dragging things out, he would end up like Tan and Xie? A desire to retire began to grow in his heart, and he started to slowly withdraw.

But after serving as prime minister for nearly twenty years, it was not something he could just walk away from at will. Besides the emperor’s blade before him, there were countless whirlpools behind him, big and small. They could not swallow the prime minister of Dayan while in office, but they were enough to tear Lord Foster to pieces after his resignation. At the very least, until these whirlpools were calmed, he could not resign and retire.

After Old Brooks died and his family moved out of the capital, it was as if they had vanished into thin air—no news at all, and no one dared to inquire. But the ‘daughter-in-law’ Old Brooks had sent over in those years had grown up in the The Foster Family. Every time he saw this girl, Lord Foster would think of his fourth son, who died at a hundred days old.

Three years ago, Brian Carter was twelve. According to the Dayan calendar, it was already the sixteenth year of Jingtai. The ‘demon star’ incident had long since passed, and everything was calm again. After all, blood is thicker than water. Lord Foster instructed his trusted aide to exhume the fourth son’s remains and secretly return them to the ancestral tomb, but he never expected the coffin to be empty.

When he received the secret report, Lord Foster’s hand trembled slightly. He nodded and said, “I understand. You may go.” Then he closed his eyes and said nothing more. It was not until an hour later that he opened his eyes, got up, and went to the garden of the prime minister’s residence to watch the birds.

Lord Foster liked to keep birds—this was well known throughout the court and the public. He even had a small aviary at home. But this time, he did more than just watch; he opened a cage, took out a pure white magpie, gently stroked its feathers, and then tossed it high into the sky. The white magpie spread its wings and disappeared from sight in an instant.

That night, Prime Minister Foster sat in his study, dismissed the servants, and did not even light a candle, sitting alone in the darkness... At the third watch, the study door was suddenly pushed open, a cool night breeze swept in, and an old man quietly appeared before Prime Minister Foster: “You were looking for me?” The old man was thin and small, his hands tucked into his sleeves, moving without a sound, as if he were just a shadow blown in by the wind.

Prime Minister Foster nodded. “Do you remember my fourth son?”

The old man tilted his head, thinking. “I recall—the one called the inauspicious demon star. You told me about him before.”

“Only today did I discover that there were no remains in his coffin. He might... still be alive.”

The old man showed no reaction, standing there quietly.

Prime Minister Foster continued, “This matter may be related to a former imperial physician named Henry Sullivan.” That ‘hundredth day banquet’ was more than ten years ago, but Lord Foster had the mind to reach the position of prime minister. In one afternoon, he recalled all the details from back then, and after much thought, his suspicions finally fell on Physician Sullivan.

“My people in the residence can’t do this, nor is it convenient for them. I’m entrusting this to you—find Henry Sullivan, and see if the fourth is still alive.”

“Just find? Just see?” The old man smiled. “You know how it is—this matter is not so simple.”

Lord Foster was silent for a moment, then said two words: “Kill him.”

Back then, at the emperor’s command, all babies born on the night of the seventh day of the fifth month in the fourth year of Jingtai were slaughtered. Only the fate of the The Foster Family’s fourth son remained unknown... As the old man said, ‘this matter is not so simple.’

A string of mishaps on the night of the hundredth day, and by a twist of fate, Brian Carter survived. But even if Prime Minister Foster figured out and explained every detail, no one would believe him. Anyone looking at this would come to only one conclusion: back then, Lord Foster deceived the emperor and found a way to save his own son.

Deceiving the emperor—treason.

Especially now, when the Jingtai Emperor had already begun to suppress the prime minister’s faction.

To be honest, Prime Minister Foster never believed that Fat Brooks had really killed all the ‘demon stars’ back then—how could not a single one be missed? But the other children had nothing to do with him, and he neither needed nor wanted to know whether any other demon stars survived. The only one he truly ‘cared’ about was Brian Carter.

The most urgent thing now was to make sure no outsider learned that the The Foster Family’s fourth son was still alive—otherwise, disaster would strike the family in an instant.