Chapter 1

Chapter 1

After I attended His Majesty in bed for several nights in a row, the Empress found me more and more intolerable.

During morning greetings today, she seized on some flimsy excuse, convicted me of disrespect, and sent me to the Buddhist hall for confinement.

“Consort Ling was once a cultivator. Spend the next few days in the Buddhist hall and pray properly for Bengong.”

Jiang Ruowei had always harbored a strange hostility toward me, suppressing me at every turn.

From the first moment she saw me, her face had gone deathly pale. That very night, she began suffering nightmares for several nights straight.

She had sensed it.

My arrival would not only divide the Emperor’s favor. It had also made her catch the faint scent of danger.

To dispel the doubts in her heart, she sent people several times to investigate my background in secret.

Without exception, they found nothing.

In truth, her ominous premonition was not wrong at all.

I had entered the palace

for the sole purpose of claiming her life.

I knelt in the Buddhist hall and added fragrant oil to the ever-burning lamp on the altar.

Silently, I recited a prayer.

For one fleeting instant, in a haze, I seemed to see an old face through the candlelight.

Sixteen years ago, the Shen Clan welcomed the birth of a pair of twin sisters.

Just as the household was preparing to celebrate, an eminent monk happened to pass by and left behind a prophecy.

He said I was the reincarnation of a fox spirit, and that one day I would surely become a Wicked Concubine who bewitched her sovereign.

A fox spirit, at best, would beguile hearts and become a beauty who brought disaster. At worst, she would bring down a nation, annihilate clans, and plunge the people into misery.

The news was sealed off at once.

With aching hearts, my parents hid my identity and sent me up the mountain to cultivate.

To the outside world, they announced that they had only one daughter: Shen Ciyue.

And so I grew up in Fahua Temple.

Though I could not openly return to my clan, my parents still loved me dearly. My elder sister and I were especially close, and she often came to visit under the pretext of praying and offering incense.

She would often hold me and wipe away tears.

“What reincarnation of a fox spirit? It’s utter nonsense. How could they make my little sister suffer here? Wuwu…”

“But Sister, I really am one.”

I looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then quietly perked up two furry ears.

White fox ears, their tips flushed faintly pink.

She threw a sack over my head and cried even harder.

“Hide them this instant! If anyone finds out, they’ll catch you and stew you!”

I promised my sister that I would be a good spirit. No, a good person.

I would never use a spirit’s powers to harm anyone.

The two of us sat side by side beneath the bodhi tree.

I closed my eyes and calmly recited an incantation.

Before long, birds came carrying a wreath woven from willow branches and flowers, placing it steadily atop her head.

I blinked.

“Sister, do I look like a good person now?”

She flung herself at me and hugged me tight.

“My little sister is the best little sister in the whole world!”

The two of us chased each other beneath the brilliant sunlight, laughing all the while.

Before sunset, I said goodbye to her.

“Sister, the next time you come, I’ll show you the Twin Beauties Conjoined Lotus!”