Chapter 5
Chapter 5
At the end of spring, the Old King fell gravely ill.
Everyone in the royal court knew that the time had come to appoint an heir.
Although Qi Chong was under house arrest, he still maintained his old subordinates. The Second Prince held thirty thousand cavalry at the Northern Border. The Third Prince’s maternal clan was powerful, and he controlled the Priest Court. Qi Yan, on the other hand, had nothing but a stack of account books, a group of death soldiers, and me-a woman despised by both kingdoms.
The Priest Court made the first move.
They spread a prophecy throughout the capital city of Wuxu, claiming that when a Southern Woman enters Wuxu, the royal star grows dim; if the Demon Queen is not sacrificed by fire, Northern Yan will fall.
The commoners were incited. Stones were hurled into the Princess Residence. People shouted outside the gates, demanding to burn the Nanliang princess to death.
Qingwu was so furious she wanted to rush out, but I stopped her.
“They don’t hate me,” I said. “They are simply suffering too much and need someone they can see to direct their hatred toward.”
That night, I changed into plain white clothes and accompanied Qi Yan to the Priest Court.
Inside the courtyard, the sacred fires burned high. The Third Prince knelt beneath the sacrificial altar, petitioning the Old King to order my execution by fire to appease the public’s grievances.
Qi Yan stood before the crowd and coughed twice.
“The priest says Northern Yan will fall,” he asked. “At whose hands?”
The High Priest raised his bone staff high. “At the hands of the Southern Woman.”
Qi Yan nodded. “Then why are there three thousand Southern Women kept as slaves under the Third Prince’s command?”
A sudden silence fell over the altar.
I unfurled the account books page by page.
Every page listed the names, ages, and sale prices of abducted women. Some names were marked with a black circle, indicating they were already dead.
A woman in the crowd screamed and lunged forward.
She had seen her daughter’s name in the ledger.
The scene spiraled into chaos instantly.
The Third Prince drew his blade to kill me, but Qi Yan stepped in front of me.
The blade sliced across his shoulder, yet he seized the weapon with a backhand strike and plunged it straight into the Third Prince’s chest.
Blood splattered onto the sacred fire of the altar, emitting a pungent, scorched smell.
The High Priest was shocked and enraged. “Qi Yan, you dare kill your own brother before the gods!”
Qi Yan staggered a step, yet his smile remained gentle.
“If the gods only protect beasts and not the people…”
He raised his hand and threw the blood-stained blade into the fire.
“…then we shall replace the gods as well.”
A torrential rain fell over Wuxu that night.
I supported Qi Yan as we returned to his residence. He leaned against my shoulder, his blood mixing with the rain, feeling startlingly cold.
He asked, “Are you afraid?”
I replied, “I am.”
“Of me?”
“Afraid that you’ll die.”
His footsteps faltered.
The sound of the rain was loud, yet he seemed to hear me clearly.
After a long silence, he said in a low voice, “Shen Zhaoxue, don’t be like this with me.”
I asked, “Like what?”
He didn’t answer.
He only tightened his grip on my hand in the rain.