Chapter 3

My father behaved himself for three years.

Then a man hired thugs to assault me and ruin my chastity.

He had not expected my martial arts to have advanced so far that even five hulking men were no match for me.

I tied them up instead and forced the truth from them.

When I found Zhao Shi’an, the Mandate appeared again.

【This is the son Father Zhao had with Su Qinrou back when they lived in the same village.】

【They were childhood sweethearts. If Xu Zhixi had not been the Duke Protector’s daughter and the dynasty’s only female general, he would never have risked his life over and over to win her hand. Once he had already fathered a child with Su Qinrou, he invented an excuse to bring her into the estate so they could enjoy wealth and honor together—only for Zhao Qiangyuan to have Su Qinrou killed.】

【Zhao Shi’an has already sat the imperial examinations and will soon place second. Once he enters officialdom, his career will soar. He will become chancellor, avenge his mother, and ensure that no one in the Xu family meets a good end.】

【Hiring men to violate Zhao Qiangyuan is merely his way of teaching the girl who killed his mother a tiny lesson.】

I looked at the man cowering before my dagger. He had already soiled himself in fear.

He truly was every bit as spineless as my father.

This was supposed to become a chancellor?

I slashed once and destroyed his manhood.

His scream tore through the alley.

“Throw him into the palace. His Majesty could use another servant.”

Let us see him enter officialdom after becoming a eunuch.

My attendants obeyed at once.

By the time I returned home, the story had spread through the capital.

My father was so furious he could barely stand.

He ordered me to the Zhao ancestral hall and commanded me to kneel before the tablets of our forebears.

So he could punish me without interference, he dismissed every servant and forbade anyone to approach the hall without his permission.

“Father, I did nothing wrong. Why should I kneel?”

His whole body shook with rage.

“You destroyed a man’s life in the street and still refuse to admit fault. Today I will discipline you under our family law and teach you how a human being ought to behave.”

He raised a whip and swung it at me.

The Mandate appeared once more.

【Father Zhao never releases his hatred. From this day forward, he devotes himself to his official career, climbing from prefect all the way to Grand Preceptor. He denounces the Duke Protector’s household for plotting rebellion. When the time comes, not one member of the Xu family escapes. They all die on the road into exile.】

I caught the whip in my bare hand and stared him down.

“Stop pretending, Father. That man was your bastard son. You hate me because I took away his ability to continue your bloodline. In your heart, a daughter does not count as a root of the Zhao family. Fine. Then I want no part of this family.”

I tore the whip from his grasp and swept every ancestral tablet to the floor.

Now that the pretense had shattered, my father stopped hiding his desire to kill me.

Every lash came with lethal force.

When he drew close, he looped the whip around my neck and tried to strangle me.

“If I had known you would destroy both mother and son, I would have strangled you the day you were born! How dare you hurt Shi’an? You ended the Zhao line. You deserve to die!”

I had held back because he was my father. He had no such mercy for me.

As I struggled, my hand knocked over an offering candle. The prayer mat on the floor caught fire.

I struck him with my palm. He staggered back, stepped on the fallen candle, slipped, and cracked his head against the corner of the altar.

He collapsed unconscious, and I could finally breathe again.

I walked out of the ancestral hall. Once the flames had reached him and there was no longer any hope of putting them out, I smeared ash over my face, ran outside, and screamed,

“Fire! The ancestral hall is on fire! Father is still inside—save him!”

Naturally, they failed to save him.

Mother took me back to the Duke Protector’s estate, and I changed my surname from Zhao to Xu.

From that day on, my reputation as a calamity and a rakshasa rang through the capital.

No one foolish enough to provoke me remained.

And the Mandate never appeared again.