Chapter 1: Spring has arrived, and with it, the season of succession.
In the second month, spring bloomed, and all life was renewed.
For the Hundred Clans, it was once again the season to seek partners and continue their bloodlines.
Within the Hall of Phoenix Harmony, Li Xuanyue, dressed in crimson robes, gazed down at the five consorts kneeling before her. Her eyes swirled with conflict and confusion, but above all, with the profound relief of a survivor reborn from the ashes.
Thatās right.
She had been reborn.
In her past life, on her wedding night, she had descended into a sudden madness and tortured three of her consorts to death. Before the sun even rose, the news had spread like wildfire throughout the Hundred Clans.
From that day forward, Li Xuanyue was branded a bloodthirsty, tyrannical monster.
It was this reputation that led the Hundred Clans to vehemently oppose her when the time came to choose a new ruler after the Phoenix Empress passed away. In the end, the throne was inherited by her younger half-sister, Li Qinghe.
And Li Qingheās first act as empress was to make an example of her.
The justification was that the great princess of the Phoenix Clan had brought no honor or benefit to her people since birth. On the contrary, she had caused the deaths of the princes and young lords sent by the other clans for marriage alliances, murdering them in the Hall of Phoenix Harmony. She was deemed incorrigible and bloodthirsty. While the former Empress had been alive, Li Qinghe hadn’t dared to touch her. But with the Empress gone for a month, allowing Xuanyue to live was an insult to the new ruler.
That night, Li Qinghe appeared in the Hall of Supreme Harmony with her personal attendants.
Dressed in the magnificent robes of the new empress, her face was a mask of serene beauty, her eyes holding a subtle, captivating smile. Every gesture was imbued with a noble, commanding grace.
She was a stark contrast to the disheveled and wretched Li Xuanyue, imprisoned and broken. One was in the heavens, the other in the dirt.
This was the very outcome Li Qinghe had craved for years.
Now that her dream was a reality, the satisfaction was intoxicating.
“Why?”
Li Xuanyue lifted her gaze to the sister who stood over her, looking down with contempt. She couldnāt understand why Qinghe would be so ruthless. When their mother was alive, she was certain she had never wronged or mistreated her younger half-sister.
How could she have plotted against her, time and time again?
“There is no why,” Li Qinghe said, her voice laced with ice. “I simply wanted to crush you beneath my feet. I wanted you to die.”
She crouched before Li Xuanyue, her hand shooting out to viciously grip her jaw. Her eyes were dark with malice.
“You pride yourself on being the great princess of the Phoenix Clan, don’t you? So noble, so revered that the Hundred Clans must bow to you. Did you know that for years, this ‘great princess’ has been drinking the mind-altering poison I prepared for you?”
Li Xuanyueās eyes widened. “What are you talking about?” she gasped, her breath coming in ragged bursts. “Are you saying my bouts of madness… they were because of you?!”
“Hmph.” Li Qinghe grunted, a flicker of a smile on her lips. It was a swift, gleeful admission. She then shoved Xuanyueās face away in disgust and rose to her feet.
“So what if you’re the great princess? So what if you were born into nobility? Did you think that because you were kind to me, I had to be grateful? That I had to follow you blindly?”
“On what grounds?” Qingheās question was casual, yet her condescending gaze burned with an endless, unspoken hatred for Li Xuanyue.
“We are both princesses,” she continued, her voice dropping to a low murmur. “Why were you born to a life of honor, while I was forced to endure so much suffering in the Cold Palace?”
The mere memory of the humiliation she and her Royal Father had suffered in the Hall of Supreme Harmony brought a bloodthirsty madness to her eyes.
“Was I meant to be your foil?” she whispered, speaking more to herself now. “Or was it because… because your father was the Prince Consort, and you were born of the Empress’s womb, while I was not? Was I destined to always be beneath you?”
“From the day I understood my place in this world, I swore an oath to myself. One day, I would drag you, the high and mighty princess, down into the mud and trample you.”
“And I’m so pleased,” she declared, savoring her victory, “that I have finally succeeded.”
Like a triumphant conqueror, Li Qinghe reveled in recounting her wicked deeds to the broken woman before her.
“And another thing. There was one thing your father told you that was absolutely right.” She paused, a cruel smile playing on her lips as she watched Xuanyueās devastated expression. She leaned in close, her voice a venomous whisper in her ear.
“I was never by your side with good intentions.”
“It’s a pity that you, in your arrogance, never took a single word your father said to heart. And because of that, he ended up just like youādead and disgraced.” A dark, unprecedented joy flickered in Li Qingheās eyes as she recalled the sight of Hua Shan’s miserable death in the Hall of Central Harmony.
“You!”
The truth crashed down on Li Xuanyue with such force that she didn’t even notice she had bitten her own lip until she tasted blood.
“But the most laughable part,” Qinghe went on, “is that in the end, you drove away the two consorts who survived. You banished them from the Phoenix Clan.”
“Did you know that leaving the clan meant certain death for them? When their people sent them to you, they never expected them to return. You thought you were doing them a favor, saving them from dying because of you. But you never imagined that in the end, you would still be the one to kill them!”
At this, Li Qinghe burst into a wild, maniacal laugh.
Li Xuanyue trembled uncontrollably, like sand slipping through an hourglass. Her face was ashen, her lips a deathly, bruised purpleāa clear sign of advanced poisoning.
“Li Qinghe… you will die a miserable death,” Li Xuanyue seethed, her eyes blazing with infinite regret and a madness of her own as she cursed her sister.
If she had another chance, she would never let Li Qinghe get away with any of this.
“You just wait. Even in death, I will return as a vengeful spirit to haunt you.”
“Your Highness, the Second Princess is here.”
Back in the Hall of Phoenix Harmony, Li Xuanyue was still lost in the memories of her past life, plotting how she would expose Li Qingheās true colors, when a maidservant rushed in from outside.
“Congratulations, dear sister!”
Li Qinghe’s voice preceded her, floating into the hall before she even stepped through the doors.
Known for always wearing white, Li Qinghe was, for once, dressed in a pale pink gown. Her features were as elegant as a painting, her expression cool and aloof, her waist slender. She was the very picture of a cold, untouchable beauty.
But from the moment she entered, her eyes kept darting towards the five consorts.
“What are you looking at, little sister?”
Li Xuanyue knew exactly what Qinghe was looking for.
She was checking to see if the five consorts had been drugged.
In her past life, the only reason they had been powerless against her, the reason she had been able to torture them to death, was because they had been poisoned beforehand with Ten Fragrances Soft Tendon Powder.
With their skills, they never would have lost their lives on their wedding night otherwise.
And the mastermind behind it all was the person standing before her now.
Li Qinghe.
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