This year’s winter in the Imperial Capital was particularly bleak. Dense clouds brought no rain, heavy gloom brought no snow. The sky like the ash-gray bottom of a pot lid pressed heavily down on people’s heads—just one glance made one feel so oppressed they couldn’t breathe.

Early in the morning, a rider passed through the city gate, racing like lightning through the imperial city’s central Nine Ceremonies Avenue, heading straight for the palace district. The rider spurred his horse like a startling wind, a line of yellow dust rolling straight behind him, displaying exceptional horsemanship rarely seen in ordinary people. Pedestrians on both sides of the road looked up only to feel the wind cutting their faces like sharp blades. From the corner of their eyes they could only catch the golden lion emblem on the mounted knight’s belt, but strangely, the belt was white.

Looking at the direction that person galloped toward—it was precisely the Ministry of Rites located on the western side of the imperial city.

At the same time, another rider from a different city gate galloped swiftly toward Grand Secretary Wei’s residence.

Grand Secretary Wei was currently attending court. The arrival went directly into the residence, delivering a secret letter to Zong Chen.

Zong Chen had just opened it when his expression changed dramatically and he stood up abruptly.

“Is this… true?”

The arrival lowered his head.

Zong Chen stood stunned for a long while. This usually gentle person momentarily looked extremely unwell, nearly losing composure as he sat down heavily.

After a long while he closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

“Heaven does not protect us—we lose our hero!”

When he opened his eyes again, his expression had already regained composure. He said urgently: “Three matters.”

The Xue Futu subordinate stationed on the grasslands immediately bowed with lowered brow, carefully listening.

“First, immediately investigate the truth of Great King Helian’s ambush at Mayu Pass—who leaked the information, who was pursuing and killing him all along.”

“Yes!”

“Second, immediately sever all connections on that secret trade route from the grasslands to Xi Liang, and notify Xi Liang to prepare.”

“Yes!”

“Third,” Zong Chen suddenly paused, then said decisively, “starting today, all personnel distributed nationwide immediately enter alert combat readiness. Those disguised as businesses—tally and transfer shops. Those hidden as gangs—leave the gangs. Everyone must maintain freedom of movement, ready for orders at any time!”

“…” The subordinate finally raised his head in shock. “Commander, didn’t you say the time hasn’t come yet…”

“Heaven sometimes won’t allow you to slowly wait for the right moment.” Zong Chen smiled bitterly. “After this incident, who knows how the young lady will react. We must gather all forces we can mobilize, first preparing for every possible response.”

“But…”

Zong Chen waved his hand to stop his words, slowly walking to the window, hands behind his back gazing at the floating clouds on the horizon, thinking of that man with kaleidoscope gem eyes.

He was the Grassland King, yet his heart was broader than the grasslands themselves. He had gone to the towering snow mountains at heaven’s end, from now on leaving the young lady to face this mortal world’s endless desolation.

“You don’t understand the young lady…” After a long while he said, “She’s not a good person, but she greatly values family and friends. Helian Zheng holds an irreplaceable place in her heart as a close companion. I cannot imagine what she’ll be like after learning of this…”

He stopped speaking, his gaze directed toward the gloomy overcast sky, as if seeing above the clouds the Golden Lion King turning back with a smile, his kaleidoscope eyes enveloping the heavens, while behind him layered clouds rolled in fury, blood and fire setting the plains ablaze.

As Zong Chen issued three commands in the residence at the first opportunity, in a certain palace chamber within the palace, someone was slowly turning around.

“What?” The usually husky seductive voice became shrill from excessive surprise. “All dead?”

A palace attendant dressed as a nanny answered in low voice for a few sentences, carefully retreating to the side.

Consort Qing stood stunned in the hall, her head full of pearls and jade ornaments trembling without wind, beneath her wide robe sleeves faintly clenched into crisscrossing creases, her expression full of disbelief.

Several hundred of the organization’s most excellent elites, pursuing and killing across thousands of miles, exhausting every method, ultimately failed to keep Helian Zheng who didn’t even have a great army protecting him nearby? And were completely annihilated?

How was this possible?

“Pa.”

Unable to suppress her inner fury any longer, she heavily slapped her palm on the window lattice. The lattice silently turned to powder, dust scattering. Everyone endured it, not daring to cough.

“Master…” That nanny said haltingly, “Actually, it could be considered successful…”

“What do you understand!” Consort Qing turned abruptly in fury. “This is success? This is utter defeat! Helian Zheng’s death must implicate Wei Zhi to be useful! Now he died on the grasslands, all my people are dead—where can I still move against Wei Zhi!”

No one dared speak, all silently retreating further back.

“Died encountering betrayal and assassination by personal guards while patrolling the grassland border?” Consort Qing grabbed the secret report from the desk, veins bulging on her forehead. “Good! Good reason! Well done, Helian Zheng! Even dying without leaving a flaw! This lady underestimated you!”

“It’s your subordinates’ fault…” That nanny said. “Wanting to keep Helian Zheng alive to capture him, to better convict Wei Zhi in the future. If we’d killed him outright from the start, he might not have been able to run back to the grasslands…”

Consort Qing stood stunned for a long while, then waved her hand weakly, signaling everyone except that nanny to leave. After the room quieted, she spoke again, her tone already calmer: “…Forget it, I gave that order. You only executed it. It’s just a pity about all my ‘Meat Cushion Troupe’s’ most excellent elites trained for ten years… Just thinking about it, I…”

She suddenly turned around sorrowfully, grabbing that nanny’s hand: “Nanny Huang… wanting revenge, why is it so difficult…”

“Miss…” That nanny hesitated, finally lifting her hand as before to slowly stroke her hair, but it was a touch and release, saying softly, “Actually you needn’t torment yourself so much. The master, he might not necessarily…”

“There you go again.” Consort Qing raised her head abruptly, pushing her away with one motion, eyebrows raised: “Father was blindly loyal—he died willingly. But I won’t accept it! I won’t accept it!”

She stood up suddenly, outragedly spreading both arms, pacing rapidly back and forth in the room: ‘Xue Futu! Xue Futu! What he was proud of all his life, devoted himself to, died for—the Xue Futu! It took my father, harmed my mother, ruined my whole life—the Xue Futu!”

The nanny rushed over somewhat alarmed, shrinking back: “Miss, don’t, don’t, lower your voice, lower your voice…”

Consort Qing turned her face, her eyes crisscrossed completely with bloodshot veins. Her usual gloomy composure had all transformed into decadent madness after this moment’s major failure. Resentment accumulated in her heart for over ten years surged overwhelmingly, in an instant threatening to drown everything.

“Don’t, don’t…” She laughed viciously, her fingers tightly gripping the curtain beside her. “How many years now, I keep hearing this word—don’t!”

“Don’t disturb your father, he has a mission!”

“Don’t look for your father, he’s busy!”

“Don’t ask your father for money, he lent it to his brothers!”

“Don’t curse your father—it’s normal he wants to take a second wife. I only gave birth to you, a daughter. Your father wants a son…”

“You see.” Consort Qing smiled with curled lips. “My mother was such a woman who swallowed her anger and resentment. She was proud of my father’s identity as imperial secret guard, yet this secret guard gave everything only to Xue Futu. He valued his brothers above us mother and daughter, valued those damned missions over family and everything. In the end, he finally died for righteousness, gave his life for that damned dynasty’s damned last imperial heir, and after death his corpse was taken by his good brothers to bomb people—truly good brothers! Truly lived up to his Xue Futu!”

“The master was a loyal and righteous man…” That nanny mumbled.

“Loyalty and righteousness are useless!” Consort Qing angrily spat. “What did loyalty and righteousness bring back? My father died, Xue Futu scattered, but my mother was suddenly pregnant at that time. She was both heartbroken and joyful, determined to give birth to this posthumous child. The result? The result? She had difficult labor. We had no money, no medicine. I delivered the baby myself—two corpses!”

The nanny began sobbing: “Miss, don’t speak of it anymore…”

“That day I knelt before her bed, my hands full of blood, full of blood. My little brother came out halfway, suffocated to death…” Consort Qing’s voice lowered, saying blankly: “That blood was so hot, that blood was so cold. At that moment I thought—Xue Futu is also stained with my family of three’s blood!”

The nanny covered her face and retreated. Consort Qing looked at her sideways: “You remember too, don’t you? The house we were borrowing at the time—Mother and little brother died there. The family thought it inauspicious and drove us out. At that time, Tiansheng troops were everywhere hunting down Great Cheng remnants. We didn’t dare stay, begging all the way, secretly going to Xi Liang. Two women couldn’t survive in a foreign country either. If I hadn’t been selected by Xi Liang’s premier song and dance troupe to become a dancer, you and I would have long died on Xi Liang’s streets!”

“Miss…” The nanny said in a trembling voice, “…This old slave knows you’ve suffered, but…”

“I’m not seeking revenge for my father—he doesn’t deserve my revenge.” Consort Qing said coldly. “I only hate—hate Great Cheng, hate Xue Futu, hate that so-called imperial heir. What virtue and ability did he have that my father would risk life and death for him, leaving no intact corpse? That because of him I lost all relatives, drifting to foreign lands?” She gritted her fine teeth, pointing one finger toward the cloudy sky outside the palace, saying harshly: “It’s Xue Futu, is it? Then I’ll establish the Meat Cushion Troupe! The Great Cheng imperial heir needs to continue, does he? Then I won’t let you live well!”

“Miss, are you certain it’s really that…”

Consort Qing laughed coldly.

“That shameless bastard Ning Yi! Allied with me, promised to help me find the Great Cheng imperial heir, deceived me into serving him. In the end, the Great Cheng imperial heir was right before my eyes, yet he actually wanted to keep deceiving me to the end! Deceiving me! Deceiving me! Everyone’s deceiving me!”

“Since you know who it is, why not tell His Majesty directly?” The nanny asked carefully.

“Do you know what the most severe punishment for a person in this world is?” Consort Qing asked in return instead of answering.

The nanny shook her head blankly, after a long while testing: “Kill him?”

“Wrong.” Consort Qing shook her finger. “Killing is just a swift blade, instantly ending suffering—what’s interesting about that? To truly cast someone into hell, you should make them lose everything they care about, destroy all the dreams they worked hard for, tear apart all the bonds connected to their heart and lungs, then at the moment they think they’re about to reach success and victory, strike them down, push them to sink into hell.” Her eyes flowed with light as she smiled with devastating fragrance. “That’s what’s truly satisfying.”

The nanny shivered and closed her mouth without speaking.

“I like taking revenge personally—more interesting. Though this matter with Helian Zheng was still beyond my expectations… If I can’t punish like that, I’ll have to be more direct.” Consort Qing sighed leisurely, then said: “Now the time hasn’t come yet… Wait a bit longer…” She slowly extended five fingers, making a fierce grasping motion in the air.

“Your handle is in my grasp—don’t get too smug too soon. Wait for me!”

At the moment Consort Qing’s five fingers clawed at her imaginary enemy, in the palace the Minister of Rites with another person was requesting an audience with Prince Chu outside Hao Yun Pavilion.

Hao Yun Pavilion was currently holding a meeting discussing national affairs. Ning Yi sat in the central upper seat directly facing the door, with scholars seated on both sides.

At a glance he saw two people approaching from afar. Originally paying no attention, then the way the person behind walked drew his attention.

Then his gaze fell on the other party’s waist, and his eyes immediately froze.

Below, it happened to be Feng Zhiwei speaking, inquiring about this winter’s northern drought relief and famine aid matters. Suddenly seeing Ning Yi’s eyes freeze, she rarely saw him with this expression and immediately looked outside alertly. But Ning Yi had already stood up and walked out.

He stood before the steps, seeing clearly the attire of the person behind the Minister of Rites, seeing clearly that envoy’s white belt, taking a deep breath.

“Your Highness.” The Minister of Rites came forward, saying in low voice: “This is the envoy from Huzhuo tribe who came to announce a death. Shunyi…”

Ning Yi waved his hand to interrupt him. That envoy stepped forward to kowtow, just about to speak sorrowfully when Ning Yi extended his hand to support him, saying gently: “This Prince already knows. Envoy, you’ve traveled far and worked hard. Minister Wang, please arrange for the envoy to rest at the guest house. I will relay this matter to His Majesty. All proper mourning honors and commendations will be bestowed by imperial decree afterward.”

Without allowing debate, he took the mourning document, with one hand sending those two bewildered people away. The Minister of Rites looked at him strangely, not understanding why Prince Chu wouldn’t let the conversation continue, and could only hurriedly leave again with the envoy.

Ning Yi took the document, slowly walking back. All the scholars in the hall had noticed that scene outside. If it weren’t a major matter, the Minister of Rites couldn’t possibly come for an audience at this time. All gazed at him intently.

Feng Zhiwei had also stuck her head out to look earlier, but that envoy was blocked by Ning Yi and she couldn’t see clearly. Ning Yi stood outside the door speaking quietly with those two people—couldn’t hear what was said, but that fine low murmuring heard in her ears was muffled and blurred. Her heart began pounding without reason, as if a nightmare had suddenly descended, pressing heavily on her heart. Wanting to break it but unable to break it open, wanting to break it yet fearing that struggling free would meet a bloody outcome.

A Grand Secretary beside her suddenly leaned over, asking: “Grand Secretary Wei, what’s wrong with you?”

Only then did Feng Zhiwei realize that somehow her hands were trembling slightly. She hastily smiled to cover it: “Caught a chill, feeling a bit cold.” She picked up her teacup to warm her hands.

At this moment Ning Yi had already walked back. Facing the hall full of high officials’ questioning gazes, he nodded very calmly, while unfolding the document in his hand, while walking toward Feng Zhiwei’s direction, his body blocking in front of her, saying: “To inform all ministers, what was just received is mourning news from the Huzhuo tribe…”

“Crash—”

The teacup in Feng Zhiwei’s hand suddenly dropped. The teacup lid tilted slightly in mid-air, pouring out scalding hot tea.

Ning Yi had been guarding against her losing composure in public. He covered with the document and raised his palm, already catching the teacup. With a flick of his finger, the cup lid returned to position, then he imperceptibly placed the teacup on the table.

His series of actions was lightning-fast, and he had been leaning against the small table beside Feng Zhiwei blocking everyone’s line of sight. No one saw Feng Zhiwei drop the tea.

But Feng Zhiwei didn’t know what he had done.

She only raised her head abruptly, looking at the mourning document with white background and black border in Ning Yi’s hand.

In an instant her complexion turned snow white, her pupils endless black!