Chapter 1: Soul Shattered

Dongling Kingdom, the 28th year of Tianshun, summer.

The Yingtian Emperor passed away. The Third Prince, Chu Yunyuan, ascended the throne with the reign title Yingqian.

The ascension of a new emperor should have been a time for national celebration and a general amnesty.

However, the day after the new emperor’s coronation, Marquis Jing’an, Xie Jingyuan, publicly denounced General Jiang Zhong in the imperial court, accusing him of colluding with Linyuan and plotting to overthrow the Dongling dynasty, claiming that concrete evidence was hidden within the Jiang estate.

General Jiang was Xie Jingyuan’s father-in-law, and his legitimate daughter, Jiang Muxue, was Xie Jingyuan’s first wife. Xie Jingyuan appeared heartbroken, claiming that with the nation’s righteousness at stake, he was forced to take this painful step of placing justice above family.

Once these words were spoken, the entire court was stunned.

General Jiang, a traitor? A joke!

In the capital of Shengjing, and indeed throughout all of Dongling, who did not know that the new emperor had only ascended the dragon throne thanks to General Jiang? Otherwise, what right would someone who was neither the eldest nor the legitimate heir have to sit in that position?

The new emperor was furious, vowing to clear the General’s name, and dispatched three thousand Imperial Guards to investigate.

To everyone’s surprise, the Imperial Guards not only found a stack of treasonous letters in the General’s estate but also a vast cache of gold, silver, jewelry, and weaponry.

The evidence was irrefutable, and the matter was grave. The new emperor had no choice but to painfully commit General Jiang and his descendants to the Zhao Prison, ordering the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, and the Censorate to conduct a thorough investigation.

In just over half a month, the three judicial offices concluded: General Jiang Zhong’s collusion with Linyuan was true, and he was the primary culprit; Xie Tingyu, the son of Xie Jingyuan and Jiang Muxue, had traveled to Linyuan to act as a go-between and pass messages, making him a primary culprit as well; the remaining Jiang descendants were all accomplices...

The verdict: Primary culprits Jiang Zhong and Xie Tingyu were to be executed by slow slicing; all other male members of the Jiang household were to be beheaded, with the execution set for three days later; all female members of the Jiang household were to be demoted to slave status...

On the day of the denunciation, Marquis Jing’an, Xie Jingyuan, had already sent a letter of divorce to return Jiang Muxue to the Jiang estate and had removed Xie Tingyu from the family genealogy, casting him out.

The current Empress, Xie Qingyao, was originally the eldest legitimate daughter of the Marquis Jing’an estate, born to Jiang Muxue. However, servants testified that when Jiang Muxue gave birth, the child had been stillborn. To secure her status and glory in the Marquis estate, Jiang Muxue had swapped the baby, stealing Empress Xie to raise as her own, causing the Empress to be separated from her true parents. Her heart was deemed vicious and deserving of death.

Empress Xie was beautiful, virtuous, and kind. The new emperor, believing she had been deceived by Jiang Muxue and had unknowingly called her enemy "mother" for nearly twenty years, felt pity for her; thus, the Jiang family’s treason did not implicate the Empress. The new emperor grew even more fond of her, and the harmony between the Emperor and Empress was hailed as a beautiful tale.

...

The Jiang estate had fallen; its former glory was no more.

The Imperial Guards, having confiscated the property, drove the women of the Jiang household forward. A sense of despair spread through the crowd as their impending fate loomed.

Among the group, Jiang Muxue wore simple white clothes and no makeup, yet her refined beauty could not be hidden.

Her husband, Xie Jingyuan, had betrayed her cruelly; her son, Xie Tingyu, was about to die a miserable death; the daughter she had raised for over a decade was indeed a fake; and her biological daughter’s fate was unknown. All of this left her heart as cold as ash, her spirit withered like dead wood.

A lecherous-looking minor officer of the Imperial Guards scanned the women with a lascivious gaze. When his eyes landed on Jiang Muxue’s face, they lit up.

He yanked Jiang Muxue out of the line and pinched her cheek hard. A red mark instantly appeared on her fair skin.

A rat-faced soldier nearby leered and said, "Our Head Officer Li truly has the best eye! Among this lot, this woman is the most alluring."

Head Officer Li smirked, "This is Jiang Zhong’s own flesh and blood, a proper Marchioness raised in the lap of luxury, so of course she’s top-tier. Though she’s a bit old, she makes up for it with that face and delicate skin. Once I’ve had my fill, I’ll let you boys have a taste." The surrounding soldiers roared with laughter, eager and restless.

Head Officer Li reached out to grab Jiang Muxue’s waist, but suddenly, a sharp pain struck. The arm he had extended was cleanly severed, blood spraying everywhere. The severed limb rolled twice on the ground before coming to a stop.

It was one of Jiang Muxue’s maids, a woman of great martial skill named Lu Li. Her movements were as swift as a ghost; no one saw how she had snatched a sword from a nearby soldier, nor how she had struck to sever Head Officer Li’s arm.

The scene went silent for a moment, followed by Head Officer Li’s heart-wrenching wails.

The Imperial Guards finally snapped to their senses, but these pampered soldiers of the capital had never seen such a bloody sight and fell into disarray.

The deputy commander of the Imperial Guards, who had rushed over to take charge, roared, "Audacious shrew! How dare you murder an imperial official? You’re courting death!"

The maid pointed her sword at Head Officer Li and gave a contemptuous smile. "Hah, an imperial official? This dog-like official? With a mouth full of filth, he is not fit to be human."

The rat-faced soldier couldn't help but curse, "Old Thief Jiang had wolfish ambitions; everyone wants him dead, and the Emperor has already passed judgment. You sinful women will soon be nothing more than whores in a brothel—just playthings. Do you still think you’re high-born ladies?"

The maid closed her eyes in despair. "When the rabbit is dead, the hound is cooked! The dog emperor frames the loyal and virtuous, and treacherous sycophants rule the day. They deserve to die—all of them deserve to die! Such a monarch, such a Dongling—it deserves to perish!"

With that, she lunged forward and decapitated the rat-faced soldier. She then engaged the surrounding Imperial Guards in combat.

Her movements were as agile as a swallow; amidst the shifting shadows, the blade flashed, and the Imperial Guards fell one by one.

But no matter how strong one person is, they cannot fight a thousand. Even the strongest will eventually tire and be overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies. The maid’s white dress was stained red, and it was impossible to tell if it was her blood or someone else’s.

The constant spraying of blood and the unending wails pulled Jiang Muxue, who had been in a daze, back to reality.

Watching the young girl, surrounded and fighting to the death despite multiple wounds, Jiang Muxue saw a god of slaughter—a person completely different from the obedient, affectionate girl she usually knew.

Jiang Muxue’s eyes grew moist. Yes, in a world that turned black into white, in a court that devoured people, what was the point of living? It would be better to go out in a blaze of glory.

Jiang Muxue picked up a sword from the ground and charged into the circle surrounding the maid. Seeing this, the other women of the Jiang household found weapons and joined the fray.

The sunset filled the sky, and corpses piled up. The Imperial Guards suffered countless casualties, and only seven or eight of the Jiang women with some martial training remained. The late-arriving archers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard surrounded them completely.

The blood-soaked maid gripped a notched blade, scanning the menacing archers. There were too many of the dog emperor’s lackeys; they could never kill them all!

She gave a mocking smile. She had wasted this second life heaven had granted her. She had thought that after working hard to learn martial arts, she had become strong, yet she had been too cowardly to acknowledge her mother, too afraid to take back what was hers, and too afraid to face her enemies.

If there were a next life, she would never be so cautious again; she would live as she pleased!

She looked at Jiang Muxue beside her with longing and said with relief, "Mother, I am your biological daughter, Xie Qingli. I was killed by Xie Qingyao and returned to life by borrowing this body, Lu Li. That I could not protect you in this life is my unfilial act. Let us be mother and daughter again in the next."

Hearing this, Jiang Muxue was shaken to her core. The daughter she had searched for in agony for twenty years had been by her side all along? Although Xie Qingli’s words were mystical, Jiang Muxue believed them to be true.

Just then, a rain of arrows descended. Xie Qingli forced herself to fly up and deflect the arrows aimed at Jiang Muxue, but more and more struck her own body until, in the blink of an eye, she looked like a hedgehog.

Jiang Muxue ignored everything else and desperately shielded Xie Qingli. Xie Qingli was at the end of her strength. Jiang Muxue turned and held her, heartbroken.

Xie Qingli whispered, "Mother, to be able to call you 'Mother' one last time... it’s wonderful." Jiang Muxue touched Xie Qingli’s cheek with love. Amidst the rain of arrows, both closed their eyes.

Xie Qingli’s soul slowly drifted out of Lu Li’s body. Seeing the souls of Jiang Muxue and the others drifting toward a rotating door, she hurriedly chased after them. But while the others passed through the door smoothly, she was blocked by an invisible barrier.

Watching Jiang Muxue drift further and further away, Xie Qingli called out for her mother in desperation. Jiang Muxue smiled, waved at her, took one last deep look, and turned to walk into the distance as the door slowly vanished.

Xie Qingli became a lonely ghost once more, drifting through the bustling yet empty capital of Shengjing. She had no senses, no touch, and could make no sound; she could only watch helplessly as the villains celebrated.

She saw the scumbag father, Xie Jingyuan, beaming with joy, rewarded for his denunciation with promotions and titles, hosting grand banquets, elevating his favorite concubine to the position of legal wife, and registering the concubine’s illegitimate children as legitimate.

She saw the wicked woman, Xie Qingyao, hearing the report that all the women of the Jiang household had been shot to death, saying with a sinister glint in her eyes, "It was too easy for those sluts, but cutting the weeds and pulling the roots is good. Reward them!"

She saw the dog emperor, Chu Yunyuan, stroking the dragon throne with a triumphant smile: "The Jiang estate has fallen. I didn't expect it to be so easy. From now on, the Dongling empire is truly in my hands. Hmph, I am the True Dragon Emperor; what does sitting on this throne have to do with that old thief Jiang?"

Until the day of the execution.

She saw the men of the Jiang household pushed onto the execution platform row by row. The executioner coldly severed head after head, not even sparing the young children.

She saw her grandfather and eldest brother being sliced to pieces and dismembered, yet they did not utter a single sound until they breathed their last.

In this bright world, justice should have prevailed, yet villains ruled, and right and wrong were inverted.

Xie Qingli wanted to kill madly; she wanted to destroy this world. The resentment and hatred in her chest expanded rapidly, swelling and swelling. Finally, her soul could no longer contain the surging hatred; it burst like a firework with a loud bang, turning into tiny specks of light and vanishing in an instant.

At that moment, Xie Qingli felt extreme pain! She thought, *This is the end of everything. There will be no Xie Qingli in the cycle of reincarnation!*

But she was a ghost, wasn't she? Why could she feel pain?

(End of chapter)