AHDIBCB Chapter 61

Yuan Yi had originally wanted to see how the people of Owanda viewed the current war situation. As a result, he discovered—to his surprise—that an official media outlet was actually claiming that Li Heng, leading the Heavenly Wolf fleet, had committed treason and harmed his fellow citizens.

“Former Heavenly Wolf Fleet Supreme Commander Li Heng, faked his death to deceive the emperor, defied imperial orders, privately hoarded strategic resources, colluded with Planet Mareidor¹ with intent to rebel, and harmed fellow citizens in order to rescue his spouse Yuan Yi.”

“Former Xingyan Army Marshal Jian Qingchuan, deceived the emperor and misled his superiors, abused his authority, and concealed the truth.”

“By decision of the Imperial Court Council, as of this day, the military ranks of both individuals are revoked, all their posts are terminated, they are expelled from the Owanda Empire military, and a warrant for their arrest is issued—effective immediately!”

“Ten-billion bounty—capture Li Heng, Jian Qingchuan, and all their relatives and friends!”

Yuan Yi saw the overwhelming wave of curses, because the announcement even came with photos—left behind from when the Brutai barbarian beastmen captured him not long ago.

At that time, other than Li Heng and himself, everyone in the aircraft were Second Prince’s men. Later, those beastmen boarded the aircraft and killed the Second Prince’s people. And now they were blaming Li Heng, claiming he had colluded with the beastmen to kill his own compatriots in order to rescue him?

This really was a textbook case of framing someone while sounding completely righteous!

But from the released footage, one of the guards in the aircraft did indeed escape—and that person was indeed Li Heng, in disguise.

Online public opinion instantly exploded!

Out of tricks but not out of malice: No matter how many military merits Li Heng has earned, if he harmed so many innocent people for his own selfish reasons, he deserves punishment!

Floating Gracefully: The lives of the general and his spouse are lives, but the lives of the guards aren’t? Support severe punishment!

Wanzhou: He’s no longer a general! Anyone who treats civilians’ lives lightly doesn’t deserve to sit in a high position!

…

The ones who died were the Second Prince’s people, but these ordinary citizens had no knowledge of the real situation. All they saw was that Li Heng, in order to rescue Yuan Yi, had conspired with beastmen to kill many of his fellow Alphas.

Many people initially didn’t believe it—after all, Li Heng had only recently led his troops to assist Mareidor in fighting the Brutai barbarians. They felt something was fishy about the current situation.

But someone actually went and muddied the waters, pulling out a pile of fabricated photos claiming that the battle back then wasn’t real. Many of the videos allegedly sent from the local area were also forgeries.

What was even more infuriating was that just as the Sirius ship confronted the Brutai barbarians in the starfield, the Brutai barbarians immediately turned tail and withdrew—didn’t even leave a spark behind. They fled so fast that even the Sirius troops were pissed.

These bastards were clearly doing it on purpose. But Fei Qian couldn’t really pursue them into Brutai territory, because if they fought inside Brutai space, the Sirius fleet would lose their advantage. Yet in the eyes of the citizens of Owanda, this was treason!

Yuan Yi saw some people trying to explain the situation, but they were instantly flamed—Sirius crew members were called cowardly rats, Li Heng was called a turtle hiding in his shell, a traitor. It seemed the Crown Prince was dead set on putting Li Heng in his place.

Li Mian angrily said, “What is the Crown Prince after? Doesn’t he understand that without Master’s help, he and the Second Prince are no longer evenly matched?”

Yuan Yi replied, “Even now, he’s still deluding himself, thinking your Master will bow his head to him.”

Li Mian asked, “Then what do we do? If this keeps up, Master’s reputation will be completely ruined by these people.”

Yuan Yi smiled and said, “Then let’s ruin their reputations too.”

Li Mian: “How?”

Yuan Yi thought for a moment—just laying out the facts wouldn’t be enough. To shift public attention, sometimes you needed something eye-catching. Mixing truth with falsehood made it easier to attract notice.

So that night, Yuan Yi even put down his books and focused on writing a few little essays, vividly crafting a moving and stirring love story.

Two days later.

Star City, the Imperial Court.

Fang Pu was stunned as he listened to his subordinate’s report. “What did you say?”

The servant bowed his head so low it could go no lower, not daring to say another word—because he knew the trusted aide of the regent had already understood.

The Crown Prince sat lazily on the throne and asked, “What are you talking about over there?”

Fang Pu hesitated for a moment and respectfully said, “Your Highness, we don’t know who, but someone has posted… some things online…”

“What things? Speak plainly.”

“…Perhaps it’s best if you take a look yourself, Your Highness.”

Fang Pu dared not continue. He was beginning to doubt whether he was dreaming.

The Crown Prince took the light-brain device, still holding a trace of mockery for his subordinate’s cowardice. But the moment he saw the contents, he shot up from his seat, and the smile instantly froze on his face!

Smack! He slammed the light-brain hard onto the floor—the brand-new device cracked on impact.

“Outrageous! Who posted this? Get it suppressed immediately!”

“If it could be suppressed, it wouldn’t have reached your eyes in the first place,” Fang Pu said. “What are your orders now?”

“What else can we do? Even if it can’t be suppressed, suppress it anyway! Damn it—this must be Li Heng’s doing! He’s behind this, no question!”

The Crown Prince glanced down at the cracked light-brain device still glowing faintly on the floor. On the screen was a photo of him and the Second Prince in an embrace.

He nearly fainted from rage on the spot.

They were saying he and the Second Prince were committing inc*st?!

Who in their right mind could come up with something like this?!

The story claimed that the two brothers had been madly in love since childhood, but were discovered by the Emperor. The Emperor had forcibly separated them, so they pretended to be at odds in public. But the Emperor still wouldn’t let it go and even pressured them to marry as soon as possible. With no other choice, they poisoned the Emperor into unconsciousness and locked up the Fourth Prince—who had discovered their scandalous affair!

Otherwise, who could possibly keep the Fourth Prince locked up? He hasn’t been seen for so long, has he?

Clearly, someone didn’t want him spilling the dirt on the Crown Prince and Second Prince’s little secret—so they made sure he couldn’t talk.

Online, the story went on: those soldiers who died on the aircraft hadn’t been killed by Li Heng at all. They had, in fact, witnessed a violent dispute between the Emperor and the Crown Prince and Second Prince. Acting on secret orders from the Emperor, they were escorting Yuan Yi to seek help—but were ambushed and killed by the Brutai barbarians on the route.

The truth was that it wasn’t Li Heng who killed the soldiers—it was the Crown Prince and Second Prince!

Apparently, the Second Prince feared the truth would be exposed and used the Brutai to stage a fake kidnapping of Yuan Yi while simultaneously silencing witnesses.

Right now, Li Heng was actually trying to save the Emperor. But the Crown Prince and Second Prince were blocking his return to the Imperial Court, terrified the truth would come out.

And the reason the Crown Prince had dispatched the Heavenly Wolf Fleet across the galaxy to fight the foreign tribes? It wasn’t about war—it was about cutting off Li Heng’s path back to the capital. After all, why would Li Heng give up his position as a general to start a rebellion unless he was being forced to?

He didn’t rebel to seize power—he rebelled because he was left with no choice. He was trying to survive.

But then came the kicker: was it really so wrong for the Crown Prince and Second Prince to do what they did? Weren’t they just a pair of tragic lovers, desperate to rule a nation so they could love each other in secret?

They were simply too deeply in love, that’s all.

The Crown Prince: “……”

Everyone—whether in the know or not—was dead silent.

When Li Heng heard about this, he was watching robots entering the repair depot. He asked, “Who wrote that? That line of reasoning is actually pretty solid. If their background checks out, see if we can bring them into our unit.”

Winter Wolf, barely holding in his laughter, said, “No need. That person’s already one of ours.”

Li Heng asked, “Who?”

Winter Wolf replied, “Your husband. He said, ‘Anyone who tries to smear you, I’ll drag them down to the deepest pit of infamy.’ People online keep trying to erase the posts, but I’ve got our people monitoring it 24/7, reposting everything. A lot of folks have already started to doubt the official story.”

Li Heng fiddled with a mechanical arm and couldn’t help but laugh. “Sometimes I really think I should just keep him by my side. He can be so proper when he wants to, but when it comes to coming up with devious ideas, he’s better than anyone. And you know what? I genuinely couldn’t have come up with this myself.”

Night Wolf added, “The Emperor still hasn’t woken up, and the Fourth Prince hasn’t been seen. We even released some photos of the Second Prince meeting with Brutai operatives. Fake, of course. But as your husband said—if they can use forgeries, why can’t we? Our tech is even better. Even the experts would have trouble spotting the edits. The internet thrives on that mix of truth and lies, and this strategy, though unorthodox, is definitely shifting some public attention.”

Winter Wolf added, “The best part is—it’s not even all fake. The Crown Prince really did poison the Emperor. And he really has locked up the Fourth Prince. But my favorite piece is this one.”

Winter Wolf handed over a light-brain screen to Li Heng.

It was open to a popular news platform. One of the latest dramatic think pieces claimed:

“The Crown Prince is a brilliant man—why would he antagonize Li Heng? If he and the Second Prince are truly competing for power, he should clearly see how valuable Li Heng and the Heavenly Wolf Fleet are as allies.

Yet, despite that, he still moved forward with the court’s decision to strip Li Heng of all his titles and brand him a traitor. Clearly, he must trust the Second Prince to protect his flank. Clearly, he believes the Second Prince would never stab him in the back.

Such deep faith—such touching affection.”

It was essentially calling him an idiot in the most eloquent way possible. Was the Crown Prince not about to blow a fuse?

Someone commented beneath the article:

“Well, can’t it just be brotherly love? They are siblings, after all.”

Then someone commented:

“If they’re all biological brothers, why not let the Fourth Prince speak too? Isn’t he family?”

Someone else replied:

“Didn’t they already say the Fourth Prince got locked up for disrespecting the Emperor? You think they’d release him that fast?”

Then a netizen with the username Laughing Until I Close Your Coffins stepped forward and posted:

“Oh, so disrespecting the Emperor means the man can’t even say a word now? The Crown Prince and the Second Prince are ‘real’ brothers, and the Fourth Prince is just some outsider, is that it? And if it was really just a little disobedience, why is the Emperor still unconscious? What, the royal medical team can’t even treat something so minor? Who are you trying to fool here? You think we netizens are all idiots? Also, has anyone ever explained what the Fourth Prince said to upset the Emperor so badly? Not once. Not even a whisper.”

The more people thought about it, the more it made sense.

The Fourth Prince had always been known for being blunt and straightforward—no hidden agendas. So why had he disappeared completely? Could it be they were afraid he’d blurt something out that shouldn’t be said?

And before long, speculation on the internet took a new turn:
If the Crown Prince and Second Prince are both alphas… then who’s the top and who’s the bottom?

A poll appeared.

Majority said the Crown Prince was the bottom.

When the Crown Prince saw that post, he nearly ground his teeth into dust.

“Didn’t I tell you all to suppress this?! How long has it been, and people are still seeing this garbage?!”

Fang Pu said respectfully, “Please calm down, Your Highness. We’re already handling it in real time, and we’ve issued an official statement prohibiting any further rumor-spreading, warning that violators will be severely punished. But these comments keep popping up. It’s not just one or two posts—every major influencer is getting involved. We can’t punish all of them. And they’re all claiming they didn’t post it themselves, that it just ‘automatically showed up.’ So, Your Highness, I suggest you start thinking of a real solution. Because now there’s a new rumor going around—people are saying you secretly executed the Fourth Prince, and that’s why he hasn’t appeared.”

The Crown Prince suddenly sat upright. “That’s right—Fourth Brother! How could I have forgotten him?”

Though that brother of his was locked up, he still had plenty of loyal followers outside. Could it be that these rumors had his fingerprints all over them? Or perhaps… they were tied to the Second Prince from the very beginning?

The Crown Prince asked in a sarcastic tone, “Why isn’t anyone asking me today whether I want to give Li Heng a way out?”

Fang Pu lowered his head and stayed silent for a moment before cautiously saying, “Your Highness, the situation has changed. The public opinion on Li Heng’s side has already been almost completely swayed. If we don’t find a way to wrap this up, we might lose the initiative. As for giving him a way out… right now it’s not him who needs one, it’s us who need to figure out how to keep the situation from going further out of control.”

The Crown Prince sneered, “Heh, so now I’ve become the one who needs a way out the most?”

His expression grew cold. “Second Prince sure can keep his composure — he’s made up his mind to let me take the blame for this alone.”

He suddenly stood up. “Bring Fourth over. I want to see whether he’s standing on my side, or getting ready to stab me.”

Fang Pu said, “Because even if you gave him one, it would be useless. The war has already started—he won’t turn back now.”

If it had been earlier, there might have been room to ease tensions, because Li Heng was good at war but not fond of it. Though a general, he had compassion. But now that the Zhenyuan Fleet has been deployed and his intentions are out in the open, there’s only one path left—to go all the way.

The Crown Prince thought of the news from Gallech—that Li Heng had secretly built a fleet even larger than the Sirius Fleet—and was filled with resentment. “So he won’t come back? Then let him be. Even if he did, he’d never be completely under my command. Look at what he’s done—building a private fleet, and not even notifying me. He clearly had rebellion in mind from the start.”

Fang Pu didn’t respond. He was the Crown Prince’s man, so he couldn’t speak in defense of Li Heng.

But he still felt that if the Crown Prince had treated Li Heng with courtesy from the beginning, things would never have escalated to this point.

At this moment, the Crown Prince said, “I heard that Yuan Yi has always had a close relationship with Prosecutor Ji’s youngest son. Have you gone to question the Ji family?”

Fang Pu said, “We did. But the Ji family said they don’t know anything. Lately, they’ve been busy with the child’s wedding.”

“Marriage? Whose child’s marriage?”

“The youngest son of Prosecutor Ji—Ji Lan. Some time ago, General Pei She underwent genetic matching, and Ji Lan turned out to be the highest match. Their family backgrounds are also comparable, so the arrangement was made.”

“Pei She… the captain of the Huamei Star Escort Fleet, eldest son of the Pei family. He’s indeed excellent. The Emperor has praised him many times before. But have you heard what his relationship with Li Heng is like?”

“I haven’t heard of any past connection between them.”

“Good. Then go tell him now—I want him to come see me. If Li Heng can’t be used, then we’ll switch to someone else. There’s no way Li Heng is the only one in all of Owanda capable of winning battles.”

“But Ji Lan is good friends with Yuan Yi. Might Pei She hesitate to act because of Ji Lan?”

“He’s just an omega—how could he possibly influence a genetically-enhanced alpha? Once he’s permanently marked, he’s merely an appendage. You’re a beta—you wouldn’t understand the psychology behind it. Besides, if I plan to use this man, I’ll naturally test him. Now go.”

That afternoon, Pei She entered the royal court. The Crown Prince saw that he was tall, handsome, and imposing—his aura in no way inferior to Li Heng’s—and suddenly felt he had found the right person.

So he entrusted Pei She with two tasks:

arrest several of the major media executives and influencers who had been spreading rumors, to serve as an example to others.
Arrest everyone related to Li Heng—except the Ji family. Especially He Yanwu—he must be found and brought back to the royal court.

This person is not only Li Heng’s close friend, but also served as a mentor to Yuan Yi. He’s very important.

Pei She acted swiftly. Within a few days, those who needed to be arrested were arrested, and those who needed warnings were warned. Most of them were influencers and media operators.

As for Li Heng’s relatives and friends, the important ones were no longer in Star Capital, and the unimportant ones were all temporarily detained.

The Crown Prince asked, “Has He Yanwu been found?”

Pei She said, “Confirmed to be on Aisdaya Star. But it’s far, so it will take some time.”

The Crown Prince nodded, then asked Fang Pu, “Have the rumors stopped?”

Fang Pu said, “Your Highness, the rumors had mostly stopped for the time being. But…”

The Crown Prince had grown most irritated lately with Fang Pu’s hesitations—whenever he paused like that, it was never good news. He looked at his trusted aide with displeasure. “But what? Speak plainly!”

Fang Pu said with difficulty, “The maternal relatives of the Fourth Prince have come forward… saying that Your Highness and the Second Prince do, in fact, have an improper relationship.”

Hello everyone. I’m glad that some of you have recommended novels for my next work. But I hope those novels are not translated yet or discontinued halfway. If it is currently translated by others, it’s not worth the effort, because If I have to translate, I have to start from the beginning. Thank you for your understanding!!! And if you like my work, support me by buying me Ko-fi. Thanks for reading!! Love you all!!! See ya!!