Chapter 3

Chapter 3

At the time, I never would have imagined it.

To help Divine Lord Minhua through his mortal trial, I, the dignified Immortal Qingyue, would one day find myself in such a wretched state.

It ended with my very Immortal Bone being damaged.

All for that momentary flutter of the heart by the Pool of Reincarnation in the Nine Heavens.

Wei Huaiqi’s voice deepened.

“Queen, you have already been punished. Apologize to Hongli, and this matter shall end here.”

Often, when things reach a point of extreme sorrow, they instead become laughably absurd.

I pulled my lips into a self-deprecating smirk and stepped out from under Wei Huaiqi’s umbrella.

My fate was sealed; I had only three days left.

I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him.

Luxiao came running back, holding an umbrella in a hurry.

“Your Majesty, our Queen is injured!”

Only then did Wei Huaiqi notice my feet-

Beneath my cloak, the exposed hem of my robe was stained with a streak of blood.

His grip on the umbrella handle tightened instinctively, and he took two steps forward.

“Sister Queen, are you feeling unwell?”

Hongli rushed forward first, grabbing my arms with both hands while secretly channeling her magic.

I had just endured the Thunder Punishment that shattered my Immortal Bone.

Prodded by her magic, it felt as if my bones were being consumed by a raging fire. The pain was unbearable.

I violently flung her hands away.

“How dare you!”

Hongli deliberately let go, shielding her lower abdomen with her hands as she allowed herself to fall backward.

She looked at Wei Huaiqi in a panic, nearly hitting the ground.

But it was only ‘nearly.’

She fell right into Wei Huaiqi’s arms.

Wei Huaiqi held her, his face clouded with a thin veil of rage.

“She is pregnant and was merely concerned for you. How dare you lay a hand on her!”

I studied him closely.

The same face, the same voice, but he was not Minhua.

If Divine Lord Minhua were to return to the Nine Heavens one day and learn that his bloodline as an Upper God of ten thousand years had been deceived by a common carp he had raised-and that they even had offspring-he would likely be disgusted beyond measure.

But none of that concerned me anymore.

“Your Majesty, did you see clearly? She was the one who grabbed me first.”

Wei Huaiqi was struck dumb.

Hongli tugged at his sleeve and, right on cue, fainted.

Wei Huaiqi swept her up into his arms and departed in a hurry.

He placed me under house arrest within the palace.

Inside the Phoenix Sound Palace, the shadows of the bamboo were mournful, and the atmosphere was silent and desolate.

The palace servants had all been dismissed.

Wei Huaiqi had even cut my food and clothing allowances to almost nothing.

Only Luxiao remained by my side.

“Queen, why did you tell Lady Hongli that her pregnancy would bring about Heavenly Punishment?”

When I was an immortal, I was indifferent by nature.

Even after coming to the mortal realm and failing to win the King’s heart, I had never targeted Hongli.

I was merely giving a kind warning.

By taking advantage of Divine Lord Minhua’s mortal trial to bypass Siming’s Book of Fate and secretly conceive the bloodline of an Upper God, she was bound to face divine retribution.

I had pitied her for her obsessive love for Minhua and the mistake she had made.

But if she triggered the Heavenly Punishment, given her level of cultivation, she would not escape death. It wasn’t worth the cost.

Hongli had acted grateful in front of me, swearing up and down that she would terminate the pregnancy.

She had wept piteously, begging me to tell her when the Heavenly Punishment would strike.

I hadn’t expected that my momentary soft-heartedness would lead to this.

She turned around and framed me before Wei Huaiqi.

She made me bear those eighteen strikes of the Great Dao Heavenly Thunder in her place.

I sat under the veranda, watching the rain.

Seeing that Luxiao was more worried than I was, I took her hand and gave a faint smile.

“It’s alright. Just wait three days, and life will get better.”

In three days, the Queen of the Wei Palace, Yue Nu, would see her soul depart for the Nine Springs.

And in the Nine Heavens, that Immortal Qingyue would return to her rightful place.