Nanny Qin sneered at Consort De, who was all bluster and no backbone. "Ever since you turned my sister into a Human Pig, I’ve had no family left. I came here for revenge, and I never planned on getting out of this alive. What do I care for threats of being cut into a thousand pieces or having my entire clan wiped out?"
"You... you..." Consort De finally broke, her face filled with terror as she backed away. "What happened back then wasn’t my fault! Your sister was the one who was wrong first. Was I not allowed to teach you sisters a lesson?"
"A lesson?" Nanny Qin suddenly laughed, a sound filled with bone-deep hatred. "It’s true my sister was at fault for breaking your Jade Ruyi. We sisters deserved to be punished. But not to the point of being turned into a Human Pig! In your eyes, are the lives of us Palace Attendants worth less than a dog’s?"
She advanced on Consort De step by step, pulling a rusty pair of scissors from her robes. "This is the very pair of scissors you used back then to brutally sever my sister’s four limbs. Now, I’m simply returning the favor."
Consort De finally panicked. She began to scream for help, but in this secret chamber, the sound couldn’t escape. No matter how hoarsely she yelled, no one could hear her cries.
"Help! A wretched servant is trying to kill me! Someone, save me!" Consort De staggered backward, knocking over a candelabrum. "I was wrong! I can give you gold, silver, and jewelry as compensation! You... you stay away from me!"
"I don’t want any of it!" Overwhelming hatred flashed in Nanny Qin’s eyes. "I only want you to taste the suffering my sister endured, and the suffering I have endured."
The rusty scissors plunged viciously into Consort De’s shoulder.
"Ah...!"
Consort De was completely unable to dodge. She let out a blood-curdling scream as blood instantly stained her plain clothes.
"This one is for the scar on my face!"
With another thrust, the scissors sank into Consort De’s arm.
"This one is for the vicious beating you gave me back then!"
Consort De writhed on the ground in agony, tears and snot streaming down her face. "Spare me! I know I was wrong! Please, I’m begging you, spare me!"
"Wrong?" Nanny Qin grabbed her by the hair, forcing her head up. "This has only just begun, and you already know you were wrong? My dead sister also said she was wrong, but did you ever show her the slightest bit of forgiveness?"
With that, she brought the scissors down hard, brutally severing one of Consort De’s arms. The pain was so intense that Consort De nearly fainted.
"Aaaargh...!" Consort De screamed incessantly. Her once ruinously beautiful face was now hideously contorted, and she was on the verge of a complete breakdown.
Fortunately, although her Cultivation had been sealed, her physical constitution was still quite good, so she didn’t pass out immediately.
SNIP! SNIP! SNIP...!
A few more snips of the scissors, and Consort De was made to resemble Nanny Qin’s sister. "This is for my dead sister. An eye for an eye. Lady De, did you ever imagine this day would come for you?"
"Aaaah...!" Consort De was in too much pain to speak, writhing on the ground, filled with regret. ’If only I’d known this would happen, I would have killed this wretched servant back then! To get rid of weeds, you must pull them out by the roots. The ancients were right!’
Even at this moment, Consort De felt no true repentance for her past actions.
Seeing Consort De’s agonized state, Nanny Qin smiled. She raised the scissors and aimed them at the consort’s pretty face. "It’s time you had a taste of disfigurement, too."
"No...!" Consort De let out a shrill wail, but she was completely powerless to resist.
The scissors scraped across her cheeks again and again. Her face, once as beautiful as a flower, quickly became a ghastly sight.
Consort De nearly fainted. What drove her into even greater despair was Nanny Qin’s next move. The nanny struck her Dantian and meridians viciously, completely crippling her Cultivation and leaving her with no hope of recovery.
"AAAAHHH...!" Consort De’s screams grew even more shrill.
Looking at Consort De, who was now suffering a fate worse than death, Nanny Qin’s face twisted into a ghostly smile. She felt an unprecedented sense of relief and satisfaction.
"Lady De, you never imagined it, did you? That this day would come for you."
"If there is a next life, I hope you learn to be a decent human being."
"From this day on, my sister can finally rest in peace. And I can go join her with a clear conscience."
As she spoke, Nanny Qin used Consort De’s blood to write out the whole story on the walls of the secret chamber. Then, with light footsteps, she walked out, ready to go to her sister’s grave to end her own life.
Xia Wuyang watched the entire scene unfold without interfering. He had initially thought he might need to do something, but Nanny Qin turned out to be far more capable than he had imagined.
She didn’t need his help at all; she had avenged herself against Consort De with her own two hands. Consort De’s current state was even more miserable than he had anticipated.
He slowly walked out of the Cold Palace. ’The next time I see her will probably be the day she dies,’ he thought. ’Before that, I should let her "enjoy" this for a while.’
’The suffering Nanny Qin and her sister endured, the suffering Pan Mo endured, and the suffering of so many other Palace Attendants she tormented... Consort De should have a nice long taste of it all.’
Not long after Xia Wuyang left, Palace Attendants discovered the disturbance. They immediately reported the matter to Emperor Xia and dispatched people to arrest Nanny Qin.
However, by the time they found Nanny Qin, she was already dead in front of her sister’s grave. The Palace Attendants now also knew her life story and couldn’t help but feel great sympathy, so they buried her body with her sister’s.
They then reported this to Emperor Xia, who was furious. He sent people to investigate. After several experts looked into it, they confirmed that no one else had interfered; it was all Nanny Qin’s doing.
This old nanny, who was only of the Lower Three Grades, had trained relentlessly in the Concealing Skill for decades, just for the chance to one day get her revenge. She had improved her Cultivation Power and familiarized herself with the palace’s inner workings.
She thought she would die without ever getting the chance, but unexpectedly, Consort De courted her own doom and gave her an opening.
Nanny Qin seized that opportunity without a moment’s hesitation and completed her lifelong quest for vengeance.
"She reaped what she sowed!"
After learning the whole story, Emperor Xia couldn’t help but curse. Even he had never imagined Consort De could be so vicious.
All because of a single Jade Ruyi, she had brutally turned one sister into a Human Pig and disfigured the other, planting the seeds of a hatred that would fester for decades and bring about these bitter consequences.
’A life for a life should be a simple matter. If you want someone dead, just kill them. Why was it necessary to torture them like that? She truly deserved this.’
When the news reached Evergreen Hall, the already terrified Fourth Prince, Xia Wulei, nearly collapsed. This was especially true because his Yang Meridian had almost completely withered, rendering him unable to perform as a man and even causing him to develop many characteristics of a eunuch.
It was said that Xia Wulei cried for a full day and night, nearly crying himself blind. Afterward, he hid in a secret chamber, locked the door from the inside, and began to imitate the elder Crown Prince, Xia Wuyang, terrified that people he had harmed in the past would come looking for revenge.
Meanwhile, Consort De was on the verge of madness. She would alternate between weeping and laughing, muttering the word "retribution" all day long.

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