Chapter 75

The door outside was half-closed, and the clear winter day shone through the door crack into the bedchamber.

Jing Huan extended her scarlet tongue and licked her blood-stained lips, laughing contemptuously.

Viscount Jia lay collapsed on the ground, lowering his head in terror, watching wide-eyed as something jumped out of his chest.

It was a black heart the size of a fist, entwined with seven broken blood vessels.

As it burst out of the chest, it dragged out another bright red heart, the two hearts connected. With each pulse of the black heart, the color of the red heart dimmed a bit.

The two hearts completely broke out of the body, quickly merging into Jing Huan’s body.

Viscount Jia lowered his head belatedly, his chest cavity now completely empty. That red heart just now was clearly his own…

In the last moment of life, he widened his eyes in disbelief. He never dreamed he would die so easily.

Confused and unaware, when the elder sister left Kunning Palace that day, she had said: “Brother, there’s nothing wrong with being simple. If you obediently listen to mother, with the protection of the Jia family, you will surely find a suitable marriage and live happily for life.”

“But you’ve become greedy. The suffering one endures in this life is all due to the causes planted in the past. Elder sister knows you suffer, but how are others to blame? You want revenge, but you’re harming the common people.”

“In this world, no one will bear the burden of your mistakes. If you can’t understand this, you’ll face great hardship in the future.”

At the moment of death, he suddenly understood the meaning of his elder sister’s words. He thought he had gradually learned palace intrigue and scheming in the palace, and could take revenge with his own power. The reality was that his petty schemes were no match for Jing Huan.

In this life, he blamed heaven and earth, but never reflected on himself.

His eyes widened, and in the last moment of life, he saw the scene from his childhood: his father holding him, his elder sister climbing the persimmon tree to pick persimmons for him.

He had thrown away his happiness with his own hands…

As the heart entered her body, Jing Huan’s raging demon body finally calmed down. But it was merely calmed; all her mental energy could only focus on controlling the violent demon body.

If it weren’t for Viscount Jia sending that disgusting old woman to force him, he wouldn’t have played his final move, sacrificing his demon body to swallow dozens of vile human hearts, just to gain a brief moment of struggle.

Viscount Jia deserved to die…

Even with the nourishment of a living heart, her demon body was still severely damaged.

She was an emotion demon, born from the seven emotions and six desires of ten Tribulation Realm Patriarchs. Although her demon body was ultimately incomplete, as the last Tribulation Realm Patriarch Liu Cangyun wasn’t controlled by the Emotionless Dao and didn’t have her seven emotions and six desires extracted.

But her demon seed wouldn’t be extinguished, and the souls and seven emotions and six desires of the other nine Tribulation Realm Patriarchs still circulated within her.

The demon seed wasn’t extinguished, but the manifested demon body was greatly damaged, gradually dissipating.

She would have to wait for the next Emotionless Dao Patriarch to undergo tribulation before she could manifest again.

This would take thousands of years, tens of thousands of years, or even millions of years.

Jing Huan couldn’t wait. She wanted Pei Ziyuan dead, she wanted Liu Cangyun’s person, she was determined to have this demon body hidden within the flesh.

However, this world had no spiritual energy, no demon pool.

The only way to minimize damage to the demon body was to find a mortal body that was pure, good, and evil as the demon seed needed, implant the demon seed into their body, establish a connection with their heart, until the two didn’t reject each other, then use the living heart as nourishment.

Although the effect wasn’t great, it could roughly maintain for one lifetime.

She had to wait, wait for the star chart to change, for the Great Sumeru Nine Palace Immortal Array to separate from the star chart.

She could receive the power of the star chart, fuse the demon seed with the array, activate the great array, then she could turn the tables and return to the spirit realm.

As long as she could return, devour the demon seed of the first life, her power would still be able to recover to its peak.

—

In the tenth year of Yifeng, late February.

The west side courtyard of Kunning Palace caught fire again, the big fire burned continuously for half a day before it was extinguished by the guards who rushed over.

The second son of the Jia family, the second consort of Empress Mingxing, died in the fire at the west side courtyard of Kunning Palace.

People said that Kunning Palace was an extremely inauspicious place, where two consorts had perished in great fires, the fire evil overwhelming.

That day, no one saw a faint shadow slip out of the palace, disappearing without a trace.

Jing Huan, using her last bit of strength, silently slipped out of the imperial palace and went to the North.

The North was closest to the stars. In this life, Pei Ziyuan had won but also lost. Trading less than a hundred years of companionship for eternal separation.

But she had the chance for eternity.

—

In March, Long Diqing recovered from her injuries and returned to the court, assisting her one-year-old niece to inherit the throne. Diqing ruled from behind the curtain.

The King of Zhennan and many powerful ministers in the court launched a rebellion, implicating many. Nearly half of the civil and military officials in the court were involved in the rebellion. Long Diqing was furious, and all those involved were imprisoned in the Court of Judicial Review, their entire families executed.

Liu Cangyun, the Governor of Jiaozhou, rendered meritorious service in saving the emperor. In her two years in office, her political achievements were outstanding: eliminating corrupt merchants, punishing corrupt officials, managing flood control, and loving the people as her own children.

With a shortage of capable officials in the court, she was specially promoted to Prime Minister to assist in governing.

The rebellion was finally quelled.

In the court, the clean faction led by Liu Cangyun gradually ascended to the political stage.

Recently, almost everyone in Jinling City was talking about how Prime Minister Liu was disliked by Long Diqing, and the two were at odds in court, openly mocking and secretly ridiculing each other. After every argument, some powerful minister would inevitably suffer.

Recently, when attending court, all the old ministers were on tenterhooks, deeply afraid that during the two’s arguments, they would be caught in the crossfire.

In the Taihe Hall, because of the matter of building dikes in the south, Long Diqing once again clashed with Prime Minister Liu.

Pei Yuanshao suddenly stood up, his tall figure standing in the light in front of the civil and military officials. He raised his hand and threw the memorial at Liu Cangyun’s feet, angrily saying: “The flood problem in the south is serious, and building dikes is urgent. The Governor of Huainan Prefecture has submitted a memorial requesting funds from the court to build dikes. Prime Minister Liu has talked on and on about money coming and going, are the lives of the southern people not worth your stench of copper?”

He looked at her arrogantly, not knowing if it was out of anger, his peach blossom eyes curved upwards, exuding charm.

Turning sideways, the crescent-white waistband was tied extremely tight, revealing the perfect proportions of his body in Liu Daren’s line of sight without a trace. If it was just this, it would have been fine.

Long Diqing, with a face full of anger, very obscurely swayed her buttocks wrapped in a red robe.

Liu Changning’s eyes darkened two degrees, and she stepped forward inconspicuously, blocking the deliberate seduction of the mischievous young man in front of her. Her brows furrowed slightly, giving him a warning look.

With a cold face and displeased tone, she said: “Our dynasty has always had more than just Huainan suffering from floods. If we were to use imperial funds to build dikes everywhere, the national treasury would be depleted. How would we deal with other unexpected disasters?…”

“Hmph? You useless dog, what do you suggest we do then?” Long Diqing, dressed in red, snorted coldly.

The two faced each other with hostility, their eyes meeting, passion, no, sparks flying.

All the ministers lowered their heads, not daring to speak. On the day of the palace coup, Liu Daren had personally saved Long Diqing, yet the emperor showed no gratitude and instead picked fights daily. Truly, a man’s heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea.

The civil and military officials buried their heads, their eyes all sympathizing with the unfortunate Liu Cangyun.

“This minister believes that local governments should take from the people and use it for the people. Building dikes is mostly labor costs. If we adapt to local conditions and gather the people’s strength to build, firstly, it will reduce hiring expenses through official-civilian cooperation, and secondly, it will help understand the people’s hardships. It will also be the main force for local officials to understand the people’s conditions. Local governments can be completely self-sufficient.”

Pei Yuanshao played with a jade stone in his hand, the clear sound of jade colliding. He raised his eyes to scan the civil and military officials, and asked the crowd: “Minister Cui, I heard the Governor of Huainan Prefecture is your elder sister. Do you think Prime Minister Liu’s method is feasible?”

The mentioned Minister Cui was so frightened that his legs trembled repeatedly, and he directly fainted. How could he not faint? For building dikes, local officials providing funds was more than enough.

But in previous years, when local officials submitted memorials, the court would always allocate some funds, more or less. However, after layer upon layer of exploitation, there was almost nothing left for the common people.

Asking for money was false, corruption was true!

Fearing being labeled with such infamy, Minister Cui of the Ministry of Personnel rolled his eyes and fainted.

The civil and military officials were not surprised. After Long Diqing and Prime Minister Liu confronted each other, some minister would always faint. This was a common occurrence.

…

When court was dismissed, Pei Yuanshao walked beside Liu Changning. He secretly reached out and hooked her long robe. Liu Changning turned her head and looked at the officials who were avoiding them like the plague.

With a smile in her eyes, she moved closer, held his hand, their five fingers intertwined. Using the cover of their wide official robes, her fingers teased his slightly sweaty palm.

All along the way, all the officials who saw the two lowered their heads, completely unaware that the two powerful figures thought to be at odds were now intertwining their fingers inside their sleeves, almost twisted like a rope.

The Liu family carriage drove out from the palace.

The thick curtains of the carriage concealed the scene inside.

The cold and immortal-like Liu Daren pressed down on a man in red robes, her hand improperly lifting his outer garment. She gave a “pa” slap on the soft flesh of his buttocks. The man beneath her, cheeks flushed, leaned close to her ear and panted, letting out a muffled groan, his voice low and deep.

Liu Changning’s eyes darkened slightly. Although her body had already been entangled by him like an octopus, she remained unmoved and said seriously: “Will you still wear such a tight waistband next time?”

The man beneath her, his peach blossom eyes upturned, pulled her head down and cunningly kissed her lips pleadingly. But he didn’t agree.

Liu Changning narrowed her eyes and slapped down hard again. The crisp slapping sound made Pei Yuanshao’s ear tips turn red, his whole body trembling slightly, involuntarily arching his waist and rubbing against her.

Liu Changning’s disciplining hand froze in midair, feeling the heat between their clothes. The serious expression froze on her face.

She lifted his chin, her jade-white fingers caressing his crimson lips, slowly and methodically, not going deep.

She looked at him steadily and said in a low voice: “Do you still dare to twist your body in front of others? Hmm? If you don’t say, so be it. After all, Your Highness hasn’t married this humble official yet…”

She sighed deeply for show, her jade-white fingers about to withdraw, but were caught in midair by the man in front of her.

He narrowed his eyes, pouting with dissatisfaction and muttered softly: “It was all to seduce you, you blockhead. The novels say that female rulers like to see men’s figures. Fine… if I can’t wear it, I won’t. You’re so unromantic.”

Liu Changning, quick-eyed and quick-handed, reversed her grip on his hand, leaning over. With a hint of teasing smile in her eyes, she kissed his lips and corrected: “If Ziyuan wants to wear it, you can wear it for me alone. Why let others see your figure? Wouldn’t I be consumed with jealousy?”

The man beneath her, his ear tips twitching slightly, his round earlobes turning deep red, turned away his gaze and said coldly: “Hmph… so indecisive. It’s good that you know how popular I am, hurry up and serve me well.”