Before tonight, Murong Wan was the Empress of the empire, the birth mother of the Twelfth Prince, the pride of Prince Zhenxi’s Mansion, and Emperor Xia’s treasure.
After tonight, she was nothing, and she could do nothing.
She was merely a breathing ornament in Kunning Palace.
Nothing more.
The snow fell harder and harder, gradually covering the glazed tiles, the white jade steps, and this Deep Palace that had devoured countless souls.
But the flames of vengeance had only just begun to burn. This was merely the beginning.
Not long after Murong Wan was crippled, her abnormal condition was discovered.
Without Xia Wuyang’s Soul Enchantment Technique, the Palace Attendants here quickly woke up.
Although he had killed many Palace Attendants, they were all ones who had harmed him and his mother in the past, or they were Murong Wan’s accomplices. He hadn’t harmed the majority of them.
Xia Wuyang was no homicidal maniac. He wouldn’t go on a killing spree just because these Palace Attendants belonged to Kunning Palace; that would be far too indiscriminate.
The Chief Nanny of Kunning Palace was the first to notice something was amiss. The Empress always rose to wash and dress at 5:45 AM, but today, it was already 7:00 AM, and Fengyi Hall was still silent, as if it were empty.
Mustering her courage, the Nanny pushed open the doors. The sight that greeted her made her collapse to the ground, on the verge of a complete breakdown.
The eighteen palace lanterns had long since gone out, leaving the hall dim and frigid.
On the Phoenix Couch, Empress Murong Wan, once the mother of the empire with a beauty that could topple cities, now lay as stiff as an exquisite doll, utterly motionless.
Her eyes were wide open yet vacant and lifeless. Tears had dried into two salty streaks on her cheeks, but they hardly marred her features. Instead, there was a strange, eerie beauty to the sight.
Her limbs were twisted at grotesque angles. Her nightgown hung open, revealing large patches of bruised, purple skin. This wasn’t from Xia Wuyang’s blows; it was the result of her blood vessels rupturing after her Qi Blood ran rampant.
Xia Wuyang wouldn’t have stooped to such bizarre acts. The most he did was leave her in a catatonic state.
Even more terrifying, a pungent, acrid stench emanated from her.
Unable to move or control her body for so long, she had lost control of her bowels and bladder. The waste had soaked the expensive snow-sable fur mattress beneath her, mingling with sweat and the scent of blood to create a nauseating reek.
"My... My Lady?" the Nanny called out, her voice trembling, hardly daring to believe her eyes.
Murong Wan remained motionless, unable to do a thing. Deep within her pupils flickered despair, pleading, and a towering hatred—everything but her former grace and majesty.
Even now, she seemed to feel no remorse.
She wanted to part her lips, but nothing happened. She could do nothing.
The Nanny took a closer look, then scrambled out of the hall, her screams shattering the tranquility of Kunning Palace.
"Someone! Help! Something has happened to the Empress!"
「7:30 AM, in Qianqing Palace.」
Emperor Xia was enjoying his breakfast. Thirty-six exquisite dishes covered the Eight Immortals table, ranging from Jiangnan’s crab roe soup dumplings to the Northern Desert’s roast lamb ribs—a spread that encompassed delicacies from dozens of regions across the Fallen Dragon Land.
But after only a few bites, he set down his ivory chopsticks. He clearly had no appetite.
Ever since the successive thefts from the Inner Treasury and the National Treasury, and the string of incidents befalling several Princes and Princesses, his appetite had dwindled day by day.
Just then, his Personal Eunuch cautiously reported, "Your Majesty, Lord Zheng, the Shadow Guard Chief, is seeking an audience. He says it’s... an urgent matter."
Emperor Xia frowned. "Let him in. What could be so urgent this early in the morning?"
Zheng Zhicang strode quickly into the hall, lifted his robes, and fell into a deep bow. His voice was heavy. "Your Majesty, there has been an incident at Kunning Palace. The Empress... she..."
After hearing the report, the teacup in Emperor Xia’s hand fell to the floor with a CRASH, shattering into a thousand pieces.
"What did you say?"
He shot to his feet, the sleeve of his Dragon Robe sweeping a bowl of porridge off the table and sending it spilling across the floor. "Murong Wan... is crippled? Her limbs shattered, her Cultivation destroyed, and she’s... she’s been left catatonic? Just like those Princesses?"
Zheng Zhicang kept his head bowed. "Yes. Dean Liu from the Imperial Medical Bureau has already rushed to examine her. His initial assessment... is that this was the work of a master at least at the Super Grade Realm, perhaps even the Supreme Grade Perfection Level. The assailant used pure Qi Blood to shatter the Empress’s Dantian, then used remote Finger Power to pulverize her joints. Finally... it seems they also employed some form of Spiritual Secret Technique to sever the connection between her Soul and body, leaving her catatonic. Even her Sea of Consciousness has been destroyed."
"Super Grade Perfection?" Emperor Xia’s face turned livid. "An expert of that caliber managed to infiltrate the Imperial Palace—Kunning Palace, of all places—and We were completely unaware? Could it be that same thief again?"
He was once again reminded of the recent thefts from the Inner Treasury and the National Treasury, the ransacking of Qianqing Palace... all those unsolved cases. The methods were just as clean and efficient, the culprit just as elusive. And just like those times, Kunning Palace had also been plundered.
"Could it be... the same people?" Emperor Xia muttered to himself, before roaring, "Prepare the Dragon Chariot for Kunning Palace! We will go see for Ourself whether it’s the same culprits!"
The Dragon Chariot sped through the palace, passing through gate after gate.
Along the route, eunuchs and Palace Maids dropped to their knees, prostrating on the ground. They didn’t dare to breathe too loudly, let alone make the slightest movement.
Everyone could feel that the atmosphere in the Imperial Palace today was grimmer than the dead of winter. News of the incident at Kunning Palace had already spread.
A crowd had already gathered outside Kunning Palace, leaving almost no empty space.
Imperial Physicians, Palace Maids, eunuchs, Guards... a dense sea of them knelt everywhere on the ground.
Upon seeing Emperor Xia’s arrival, the crowd hurriedly kowtowed, pressing their foreheads to the cold ground and trembling uncontrollably. The survivors from Kunning Palace, in particular, were fraught with terror.
Without sparing them a glance, Emperor Xia strode into Fengyi Hall.
The stench inside the hall made his brow furrow in displeasure, but what truly shocked him was the sight of the woman on the Phoenix Couch—the woman of peerless, bygone beauty who was also his Empress.
Murong Wan was still wearing her moon-white nightgown, though it was now disgustingly soiled. No one had yet cleaned her.
Her long hair was a mess upon the pillow, a few strands stuck to her cheeks with dried tears. The face that had once outshone all others in the palace was now ashen pale.
Her lips were chapped and bleeding. Only her eyes still held any light, but it was a dead, vacant gleam. Her once-beautiful eyes were now bereft of their former brilliance.
Emperor Xia walked to the bedside, leaned down, and looked at her. Their eyes met.
Murong Wan’s body and expression remained unchanged. Emperor Xia did not see the emotions swirling in the depths of her pupils.
’I want to speak. I want to beg His Majesty to avenge me. I want to tell him who did this...’ But she couldn’t make a sound. She couldn’t so much as move her lips or blink her eyes.
She could only watch as the man she had shared a bed with for decades stared down at her, his eyes a mixture of shock, disgust, and... a trace of relief. With that look, her heart sank into the abyss.
’Yes, relief.’ She hadn’t been mistaken. There was, indeed, a hint of relief in Emperor Xia’s gaze.

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