Zhan Luori appeared calm as ever. Having lived in the palace all these years, she was not unaware of how terrifying this charge was.

Yet her face showed not even the faintest shade of fear — only resolve.

Yes. In the face of the death that was about to come, this resolute.

“Your daughter now knows it was wrong. Your daughter should have poisoned the Empress directly, rather than displaced that ill will onto an innocent person. Imperial Father, your daughter acknowledges this wrongdoing — please mete out punishment!”

This was a Zhan Luori without exaggeration, without panic, without violence, without arrogance — tranquil and serene, cool and detached, composed and steady.

Compared to Emperor Qiwen, she possessed even more of the bearing befitting a ruler of a nation.

What a pity. A princess was ultimately only a princess. If the Seventh Princess had been the Seventh Prince instead, the nation would surely have gained another great pillar.

But as things stood now — had the Seventh Princess truly administered this poison?

In truth, what Zhan Luori said made a certain sense. The Empress had indeed been far too overbearing and tyrannical. It was not just the Seventh Princess — even these Imperial Guards standing here, which one of them could genuinely overlook the Empress’s conduct?

To be so brazen even before His Majesty — such an Empress was truly unprecedented, never to be seen again in any age before or after.

“Your Majesty, the Seventh Princess has shown gross disrespect toward this consort — that is a grave affront. And her collusion with Feng Jiu’er, along with the poisoning of the Crown Prince, is punishable by death.”

“Empress, are you hard of hearing or willfully blind? This princess stated that this princess herself administered the poison. How have you managed to interpret that as the involvement of another accomplice?”

Zhan Luori swept her with a glance. She had seen shameless people before — but never anyone shameless to this degree.

“You simply wish to deal with Feng Jiu’er, and yet you seem to forget that if not for Feng Jiu’er, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince might have long since succumbed to his illness.”

“Why you have targeted Feng Jiu’er, this princess does not know — but that you would, for the sake of personal vengeance, call a deer a horse and distort the truth — that is something every person here knows.”

When it came to the Empress, Zhan Luori did not even bother with the words “your daughter.”

Imperial Father may care about the military power in the Empress’s hands — but she did not!

“Zhan Luori, you truly do not take this consort seriously!”

The Empress’s fury in that moment was beyond all words. One after another, they either laid hands on her or humiliated her with their words! Every single one of these people was truly insufferable!

“You are not afraid of death, are you?” she sneered suddenly, and her gaze turned venomous. “Ha — I wonder whether Noble Consort Jing has been keeping well lately. It seems this consort has not gone to visit her in quite some time.”

“You dare touch a single hair of my mother consort’s head, and I will never let you go!”

“Very well. This consort will go and pay Noble Consort Jing a visit upon returning — invite her for tea and refreshments.”

“You——!” Zhan Luori shot to her feet, her fingers cracking as they clenched.

Imperial Father did nothing. As long as this wicked woman remained in the inner palace for one day, there could never be a single moment of peace there.

How could she have forgotten — if she were not here, her mother, under the control of this vicious woman, would certainly have no good days ahead.

“This consort intends to go and pay Noble Consort Jing a visit this very night. What do you plan to do about it?” The Empress truly and completely disregarded Emperor Qiwen, issuing this naked threat as though no one else were present!

Zhan Luori’s breathing grew increasingly rapid. She turned and glanced at her Imperial Father — who, though clearly furious, said not a single word.

Ha! With an Imperial Father like this, how could he ever protect her mother consort!

To protect her mother consort, there was only one viable path — better to die with honor than live in dishonor!

Suddenly, Zhan Luori channeled power into her palm — no less than seventy percent of her full strength — and delivered a strike at Nanmen Rong like a howling gale and torrential rain.

If she was going to die either way, then better to first rid the world of this vicious woman!

She was not without care for the safety of the nation — but whoever dared to use her mother consort’s life as a threat would die for it!

Leaving the Empress alive in this world meant her mother consort would be the one to die. She had endured this for so many years — but this time, it was absolutely, utterly beyond endurance!

No one had anticipated that the Seventh Princess would be this bold, not even Nanmen Rong herself. But with the true martial strength the Seventh Princess had kept hidden all these years, even had Nanmen Rong been on guard, it would have made no difference whatsoever.

With a thunderous crash, Nanmen Rong’s body was hurled backward like a leaf in the wind and slammed hard to the ground.

The guards surged forward at once and planted themselves before the Empress.

Zhan Luori’s eyes narrowed. Standing in the wind, she was so still and coldly absolute that no one dared meet her gaze directly.

How could a woman have a gaze this chillingly cold, cold enough to pierce straight to the bone?

She walked forward toward the line of guards, each step seeming to carry the weight of a thousand pounds, and with every step, her true energy surged outward — sand and stones flew in all directions around her!

The wind whipped her robes and her long hair aloft — she was terrifying as an asura!

“Seventh — Seventh Princess, do not act rashly, please do not act rashly!” The Head Eunuch finally recovered his wits. Looking at Zhan Luori’s cold and remote figure walking away, his heart was aflame with anxiety.

If the Seventh Princess killed the Empress right now, there would truly be no way back from this.

But with that single palm strike the Seventh Princess had delivered just now, the Empress’s heart meridian had likely already suffered severe damage. Even if the Seventh Princess stopped now, could things really still be turned back?

Still — could they really stand by and watch the Seventh Princess beat the Empress to death?

Why was there always that feeling — that these nearly a hundred Imperial Guards before him could not stop the Seventh Princess’s advance at all?

“Your — Your Majesty, please speak to the Seventh Princess!” The Head Eunuch’s words fell on deaf ears where Zhan Luori was concerned. He could only turn for help to His Majesty.

Emperor Qiwen fixed his eyes on Zhan Luori’s figure, his right palm clenching tighter and tighter.

There were times when he also very much wanted to let go, to even act on impulse — but he could not!

“We will guarantee your mother consort’s safety. Luori, stand down.”

Zhan Luori squeezed her eyes shut hard, and still stood before the guards — yet the smothering oppression in her chest gradually, slowly, began to ease.

She turned around and knelt before Emperor Qiwen. With calm detachment she said: “The matter of administering poison to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince — that was indeed done by your daughter alone. Imperial Father, please mete out punishment.”

Emperor Qiwen regarded her for a long moment, then said quietly: “Someone — take the Seventh Princess into custody in the imperial prison, to be tried at a later date.”

…

Leaving the execution ground and heading in the direction of the city outskirts, the two of them came to a halt at last, as though by unspoken agreement.

“I cannot simply walk away like this.” Looking at the man walking ahead of her, Feng Jiu’er’s gaze dimmed slightly, and a complex, indescribable feeling settled over her heart.

The imperial family had truly wronged the Long family, and wronged them deeply — yet among those in the imperial family, there were still those who had treated her with such kindness.

Having blocked the Imperial Guards like that, what would happen to the Seventh Princess now?

A princess of the realm — even before the Empress, she likely had little weight to wield.

The Empress could not only move against her, but also against her mother consort. If she simply walked away, what would become of the Seventh Princess? What would become of Noble Consort Jing, who had no martial strength whatsoever?

“Now you know to worry — yet a moment ago when you were dragging that silver needle across Nanmen Rong’s aging face, why didn’t you think to keep a cool head?”

The guard pulled the black cloth mask from his face, then stripped off a head covering no one knew where he had obtained. That full head of silver hair immediately billowed up in the wind — who else could it be but Mu Mu?

That girl had truly been magnificent a moment ago. And now, she understood she could not let herself be ruled by impulse?