Faced with Yan Jiuge’s questioning, Dong Yujie sobbed uncontrollably. "Sister Yan, please forgive me. I... I was forced into this. I didn’t do it on purpose. Please, Sister Yan, spare me this once."
"You say you were forced, but I don’t see a single scratch on you." Yan Jiuge sneered. "Was this also because you were forced? When you spread those rumors, did you ever consider the Crown Prince’s dignity? When you were carrying on with Wang Xuan, did you ever consider the honor of the Eastern Palace? The Crown Prince only has a few months left to live. Couldn’t you have just endured it for a little longer? Did you have to drive him to his grave?"
As she spoke, a crimson flame erupted from her fingertip. Her Qi and Blood Power surged violently, transforming into a Fire Snake that coiled around Dong Yujie.
Dong Yujie screamed in agony, "I know I was wrong! Please, Sister Yan, spare my life!"
"This fire will burn away your disloyalty to the Crown Prince!"
The Fire Snake swept past, and Dong YJujie’s clothes turned to ash.
"This fire will burn away the shame you brought upon the Eastern Palace!"
With another flicker of flame, Dong Yujie’s beautiful hair was instantly scorched away.
"And this last fire... will burn away your treachery and ingratitude."
Yan Jiuge’s voice lowered as she burned Dong Yujie to cinders, leaving not a single trace behind.
When the flames dissipated, only a pile of ashes remained where Dong Yujie’s figure had been.
"Sigh..."
Sighing, Yan Jiuge headed toward the Eastern Palace.
’Wang Xuan hasn’t been found yet. When he is, I’ll deal with him personally. As the Crown Prince’s Consort, it’s my duty to clean house for him.’
’I’ll handle the things the Crown Prince can’t bring himself to do.’
’In any case, the Crown Prince should be able to live his last few months comfortably and with dignity.’
As she arrived at the Eastern Palace, Yan Jiuge had an unexpected encounter with Yun Liyue outside. They could both sense the lingering killing intent on each other.
The two stunningly beautiful women, each with a starkly different style, regarded each other in silence. In the other’s eyes, they saw a familiar sentiment, and a shared helplessness.
"You made your move. Is Wang Xuan dead?" Yan Jiuge was the first to break the silence.
Yun Liyue nodded slightly. "Wang Xuan is dead. What about Dong Yujie?"
"I burned her to ashes," Yan Jiuge replied. "She won’t be able to slander the Crown Prince in the slightest anymore."
Beneath the moonlight, these two peerless beauties stood side by side. One was as cool and distant as the moon, the other as blazing as fire. Even within the current Imperial Palace, they were counted among the most exceptional women.
"Let’s make the Crown Prince’s last days more comfortable. What do you say?"
"Fine. The two of us are Second Grade Grandmasters. We can’t let people look down on us."
The watery moonlight stretched their shadows long. Although they both held many grievances against Xia Wuyang, the elder Crown Prince, and had nearly come to blows with each other in the past...
...but now, in what they believed were Xia Wuyang’s "final" months, they ultimately couldn’t bear to see him so miserable. They decided to join forces to protect Xia Wuyang and help him live a little better.
Xia Wuyang himself didn’t know that his performance was so convincing—perhaps even a bit over the top—that it had spurred both Yun Liyue and Yan Jiuge into action. In addition to them, other concubines with lingering feelings for him were also secretly investigating the matter.
Nearby birds and sparrows had witnessed everything clearly and would soon report it all to Xia Wuyang.
「The next morning」
Just as the morning bells of the Imperial Palace rang out, a piece of news spread through every palace, attracting widespread attention.
"Have you all heard? The Seventh Prince suffered a Qigong Deviation during his cultivation and destroyed his manhood. He’s a eunuch now."
"Really? I heard the Seventh Prince was the one spreading the rumor that the elder Crown Prince was nothing but an ’embroidery needle.’ To think that before anything happened to the elder Crown Prince, the Seventh Prince would become a eunuch himself."
"Some say he was practicing the Evil Techniques of the True Yin Sect and suffered a backlash. Many people saw it with their own eyes—he has lost his Root of Right and Wrong."
"After this, the Seventh Prince probably has no chance of vying for the throne. How could the Crown Prince of our Great Xia be a eunuch?"
Discussions erupted in every palace, the tone mostly one of schadenfreude. The Fifth Prince, Xia Wushang, especially, felt a sudden sense of relief.
Over time, his own manhood had also gradually atrophied. Now, finding a companion in misery who seemed even worse off than him, how could he not feel some consolation?
The Seventh Prince, Xia Wunian, never had a good reputation in the palace. He had always been arrogant and domineering, earning the dislike of many. Now that he had met such a fate, few people felt any sympathy for him.
At the same time, another piece of news began to circulate quietly, eliciting a wave of sighs.
It was that the Crown Prince Consort, Yun Liyue, and Consort Yan Jiuge had separately taken action the previous night, executing Dong Yujie and her lover, Wang Xuan, to stop them from spreading any more rumors.
"The Crown Prince was so cruel to his two consorts in the past. He nearly caused the annihilation of the Fire Spirit Race, and Xuan Nu Palace even severed ties with Yun Liyue. To think that both consorts would still go to such lengths for the Crown Prince."
"If I were in their shoes, I would have divorced the elder Crown Prince long ago. There’s no way I’d stay in the Eastern Palace. For two Consorts of such peerless, nation-toppling beauty, it’s truly a waste."
"Once the elder Crown Prince dies, according to the customs of the Xia Dynasty, the two Consorts will have to live as widows in White Jade City, never allowed to leave for the rest of their lives. If the elder Crown Prince had even a shred of a conscience, he would issue them a Divorce Certificate and let them go."
"Since his downfall, the elder Crown Prince has grown increasingly crazed. Getting him to issue a Divorce Certificate? Not a chance. All we can do is pity those two Consorts."
In Wenhua Hall, Xia Wuyang fell silent upon hearing the news. Then, he once again threw himself at a group of Qiuci Dancers, indulging in wanton pleasure and daily revelry.
Although he had been coughing up blood repeatedly, with the help of the "Dragon and Tiger Elixir" and this good news, Xia Wuyang was once again "full of life and vigor"—at least on the surface.
When word got out that several new Palace Maids had been added to the Crown Prince’s Sleeping Palace, outsiders felt even more that the two Consorts were wasting their lives.
As Xia Wuyang enjoyed the company of the beauties, memories of his past with Yun Liyue and Yan Jiuge inexplicably kept surfacing in his mind.
’One, forever as cool as the moonlight. The other, as pure and stunning as a flame on a snowy mountain. I never imagined that after all I’d done to wrong them, they’d still be willing to protect me like this.’
’If the situation weren’t so unstable, with enemies all around me—some possibly even beyond the mortal realm—I would have revealed something to the concubines who genuinely care for me. But now is clearly not the time.’
’I’ll just have to endure for a while longer. At my current rate of improvement, it won’t be long before I can act openly. Then, I will apologize to the concubines I’ve hurt and do my best to make it up to them.’
’Not just Yun Liyue and Yan Jiuge, but also the departed Princess Xiang Yun and Lady Xingyan... as well as certain other concubines still in the Eastern Palace.’
’Old age may bring a failing memory, but it never forgets the heart’s longing.’

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