Chapter 15: You're a crown prince, so why are you using such outdated biochemical weapons
The gale was like an invisible giant hand, savagely tearing at the treetops outside Zhaoyang Palace.
Its mournful howl threaded through the palace walls, like the shrieks of countless vengeful ghosts wailing in the dead of night.
Heavy clouds, black as undiluted ink, swallowed the moon’s wan light.
It was so dark that one could not see one’s own hand before one’s face. On the glazed tiles of Zhaoyang Palace, a shadow lay like a drop of ink melting into the night.
The carved agarwood window of Zhaoyang Palace was quietly unlatched from the outside.
The shadow slipped through the half-open window like a boneless venomous snake, gliding lightly into the Crown Princess’s bedchamber.
A cold wind carrying the stench of blood and decay poured into the warm, luxurious hall.
By the faint glow of the luminous pearl inside, the intruder’s true face gradually emerged from the darkness.
Beneath a mask resembling a blue-faced, fanged demon, a pair of narrow, upturned eyes gleamed without a trace of warmth.
Endless cruelty and savagery swirled within them.
He was Su Jin, the Eastern Palace’s master—the Crown Prince of Great Yuan, the current Crown Prince whose name struck fear into the hearts of the surrounding kingdoms.
According to legend, at the age of ten, he had volunteered to go to the borderlands, where corpses lay strewn across the battlefield.
At sixteen, he had single-handedly charged into the enemy formation and slaughtered his way through three cities of the opposing kingdom, piling the severed heads of its generals into a nauseating monument of skulls.
Throughout the court and countryside of Great Yuan, Su Jin’s name was synonymous with the Living Yama.
He was suspicious by nature, volatile, and twisted in mind.
His favorite pastime was to take anyone who displeased him and, with the finest knife, carefully flay them alive without damaging the skin.
Then he would personally turn their skins into lanterns, hanging them high beneath the eaves of the Eastern Palace so he could admire them swaying in the wind.
And tonight, the Living Yama had secretly returned to the capital.
He had not even gone to pay his respects to the emperor. The moment he entered the palace, he had headed straight for Zhaoyang Palace.
Because he had heard that his tyrant father had actually picked up a bastard from a filthy underground black market.
Not only had he acknowledged her as his biological daughter, he had even made her the Crown Princess!
For the sake of this bastard girl, he had confined Noble Consort Jing—the woman who governed the imperial harem—to her palace.
The thought filled Su Jin with immeasurable irritation.
It was the fury of someone whose territory had been invaded.
What he hated most was having someone share the power and attention that belonged to the imperial family of Great Yuan.
Even if that someone was his “younger sister.”
Su Jin stood by the window, reached back, and slammed it shut. Then he dropped the heavy ironwood bar into place.
Click. Click.
The sound of the lock was unnervingly clear in the silent hall.
He intended to seal the chamber completely, turning it into a place where one could cry out to Heaven and receive no answer, call upon the earth and find no help.
Su Jin turned around and strolled leisurely across the hall, stepping over gold and silver jewelry scattered across the floor as he made his way deeper inside.
Seeing the vulgar golden glare filling the room, the corners of his mouth curled beneath his mask in a contemptuous sneer.
What a vulgar, greedy, idiotic street urchin.
Did she really think that with the emperor’s favor and this pile of worthless trinkets, she could survive in the man-eating imperial palace?
Tonight, he would personally teach this ignorant little sister a proper lesson in the rules of the Great Yuan imperial family.
He would turn her into a new prey he could torment and kill at will.
Su Jin’s steps halted before the rosewood canopy bed.
Through the layers of gauzy curtains, he saw the small mound beneath the covers.
Su Yaoyao lay sprawled on her back atop a pile of banknotes, sleeping utterly defenseless.
She rolled over contentedly and smacked her lips.
At the sight of that innocent, guileless sleeping face, the savagery in Su Jin’s eyes burned even more fiercely.
What he loved most was watching fresh, hopeful lives slowly broken in his hands.
Watching them collapse in terror, begging for mercy with tears streaming down their faces.
The pleasure of controlling another person’s life and death was more addictive to him than any drug.
Clang.
A dangerous scrape of metal sounded beside the bed.
Su Jin raised his right hand.
From the wide black sleeve of his robe, he drew a strangely shaped dagger with a wavy blade.
The dagger had been soaked in poison for countless days and nights. Its edge reflected no light, and a ghastly blue vapor of venom coiled around it.
Su Jin bent down, bringing with him the heavy stench of blood, and moved closer to the sleeping Su Yaoyao.
With a hand pale as death, he hooked aside the edge of her quilt.
Then he pressed the cold, poison-coated dagger against the skin over her carotid artery.
The icy touch, carrying the chill of deadly venom, seeped through her skin and into her bloodstream.
All it would take was the slightest jerk of his wrist to slice open her fragile throat.
Once the poison took effect, her body would rot from the inside out, and she would die screaming in agony.
But Su Jin had no intention of ending the game so simply.
A prey that died too quickly was boring.
With his left hand, he produced a delicate white jade wine cup as if by magic.
It was filled with a thick, pitch-black liquid resembling ink.
Strange black bubbles continuously rose to the surface.
Glug... glug...
As the bubbles burst, they released a peculiar fragrance so sweet it was nauseating.
This was an unparalleled poison: Thousand-Gut Dissolver.
Anyone who drank it would suffer ruptured intestines and shattered organs. Every bone in their body would twist and break one inch at a time.
In the end, their entire body would curl head to toe into a ring, and they would wail in agony for three days and three nights before finally dying.
This was the greeting gift he had prepared for his new little sister.
Su Jin looked down at the little girl on the bed.
He imagined her reaction.
She would awaken to the cold blade at her throat.
She would see the demon-like mask.
She would smell the sweet, deathly fragrance of the poisoned wine.
Then those beautiful eyes would fly open in terror.
Her whole body would tremble. Tears would pour down her face, and she would scream and beg for mercy.
At the thought, a low laugh rose from Su Jin’s throat, chilling enough to make one’s blood run cold.
“Good little sister, wake up.”
Su Jin’s voice was cold as ice, like a chilling wind blowing from the deepest pits of the Netherworld. It held not the slightest trace of warmth.
He brought the cup of black, vaporous poison to Su Yaoyao’s lips.
The rim of the cup touched her soft mouth.
“Drink it.”
His tone was gentle, as though he were coaxing a baby to sleep, yet the murderous intent in his words was enough to freeze the air.
“Your brother promises you this cup will make your death completely painless.”
Silence.
A deathly stillness settled over the canopy bed.
Su Jin waited patiently.
He waited for the prey’s scream upon awakening, waited for the exquisite expression of despair and supplication.
Time seemed to freeze.
At last, the little girl on the bed moved.
Su Yaoyao’s eyelashes trembled twice.
Slowly, she opened her clear, peach-blossom eyes.
There was no scream, no trembling—not even a single tear of fear.
She simply lay there, calm and composed, glancing first at the dagger pressed against her throat.
Then she looked at Su Jin’s blue-faced, fanged mask.
Finally, her gaze fell upon the black poison at her lips.
Su Yaoyao frowned.
Her expression was complicated, as though she were looking at an incurable idiot, and she stared at Su Jin.
The sight left the murderous Eastern Palace’s Living Yama completely dumbfounded.
What kind of reaction was this?
Had she been frightened senseless?
Could she not even cry?
Just as Su Jin, filled with confusion, tightened his grip on the dagger and prepared to draw a little blood to clear Su Yaoyao’s head—
something unexpected happened.
Su Yaoyao, who had remained motionless until then, suddenly extended her small hand.
Her movement was astonishingly fast, swift as lightning.
Whoosh!
Su Yaoyao snatched the white jade wine cup from Su Jin’s hand!
The movement was so rough that a few drops of the poisoned wine sloshed out, splattering onto the expensive sable-fur blanket and burning several black holes into it.
Su Jin froze.
He had roamed the martial world, massacred cities, and killed countless people over the years, but he had never seen anyone willingly snatch poison away from him.
Had she realized that death was inevitable and was simply in a hurry to be on her way?
After taking the poisoned wine, Su Yaoyao did not gulp it down in despair, as Su Jin had expected.
Instead, she wrinkled her little nose in distaste and held the wine beneath it.
Then, as though she were inspecting a piece of trash, she gave it a forceful sniff.
A deafening voice, filled with boundless contempt, suddenly exploded in Su Jin’s mind!
【That’s it?!】
【You dare present this stuff as poison and use it to kill people?!】
【The purity is ridiculously low! It’s packed with impurities—one look is enough to tell it was crudely brewed using some primitive method. It’s nothing but inferior garbage!】
【You’re the Crown Prince, yet this is the outdated biochemical weapon you’re using?】
【There are at least a dozen kinds of incompletely reacted plant fibers and heavy-metal impurities mixed in.】
【Drink this rubbish, and forget about having your insides corroded—it’ll cause, at most, a gastrointestinal disorder and make you spend three days running to the latrine!】
【Sigh. The ancient study of poisons really is hopelessly backward. What a disappointment!】
Su Jin’s face, hidden beneath the mask of the fierce deity, stiffened like stone.
Beneath the mask, his pupils abruptly contracted upon hearing those thoughts...