Chapter 2: Is This My Mercurial Tyrant Dad

The icy blade of a Longquan sword pressed against Su Yaoyao’s fair, slender neck.

In the dim firelight of the underground hall, the sharp blade reflected a bone-chilling gleam.

The thick, still-wet blood clinging to its edge trickled down her delicate skin, a shocking sight to behold.

All it would take was another half inch.

That petite head would come tumbling to the floor.

It was an utterly hopeless fight between life and death.

Standing above her, Su Zhen looked down at the young woman with cold, bloodthirsty eyes, as though she were nothing more than a lifeless object.

As the ruler of the Dayuan Empire—an emperor whose ruthless decisiveness in war had made the entire world tremble—he had witnessed countless people struggling on the brink of death.

Those ministers who preached benevolence and morality in court every day, proudly presenting themselves as men of lofty integrity, would still wet themselves in terror, sob uncontrollably, and kowtow for mercy when a butcher’s knife was truly placed against their throats.

What hope was there for some rough black-market thug, no better than a sewer rat?

And yet Su Zhen’s brows drew together slightly.

Something seemed... off.

Very off.

The seemingly weak and helpless young woman before him was facing a blade close enough to take her life at any moment.

But not even her eyelashes trembled.

She remained firmly seated in the grand chair draped with an entire white tiger pelt.

Even her boldly crossed leg showed no sign of lowering!

Su Zhen was an emperor who had clawed his way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. He was extraordinarily sensitive to killing intent and fear.

Yet in the young woman’s clear, luminous peach-shaped eyes, he could not find the slightest trace of panic or dread.

On the contrary, her eyes were frighteningly bright.

He had seen that look only in one creature before.

A prairie wolf that had gone three days and three nights without food, suddenly laying eyes on a plump, juicy piece of meat.

And now, the mighty Tyrant of Dayuan seemed to be that succulent piece of meat in this girl’s eyes.

Absurd!

Su Yaoyao’s gaze indeed did not linger for long on Su Zhen’s handsome, icy face.

She had merely taken a brief moment to admire those breathtaking features, as though they had been carved by knives and axes.

Then her attention was drawn to his clothes.

Good heavens! This was a dragon robe embroidered by hand with pure gold thread!

The black fabric shimmered faintly beneath the torchlight.

It was clearly made of the legendary finest silkworm silk—impervious to blades and spears, untouched by fire or water.

Then there was the swimming-dragon jade pendant hanging from his waist.

It was carved from an entire piece of mutton-fat white jade, smooth and warm, without a single impurity.

And the purple-gold crown securing his hair was set with a flawless pearl the size of a pigeon’s egg!

She was rich!

She was really, truly rich!

Su Yaoyao swallowed greedily in her mind, while the beads of an abacus clattered furiously in her head.

If she could find an opportunity to strip all of those treasures off him, she would have more than enough to build a few Gatling guns.

She could even open a small military-industrial factory with ease!

A transmigrator from the interstellar age, she was a max-level poison doctor and mechanic.

She had been poor for far too long. Now, all she saw in her eyes were precious metals and jewels that could be converted into industrial materials and funds for weapons.

Just as Su Yaoyao’s eyes lit up and she was frantically plotting how to rob the robber and pull off the biggest score of her life, a sharp, grating voice—like fingernails scraping across a blackboard—shattered the silence in the hall.

“How dare you, you brazen criminal! You’re on the verge of death, yet you still dare to look directly at His Majesty’s holy countenance? That is treasonous!”

A eunuch wearing a tall hat and sporting a smooth, hairless face hurried forward from behind the hundreds of fully armed Imperial Guards, waving a horsetail whisk threaded with gold.

His name was Li Fu, the chief eunuch of the Dayuan imperial palace and a trusted favorite at the emperor’s side.

But very few people knew that he was, in fact, the deepest mole that the powerful court minister and great general Lin Zhenxiong had planted beside the emperor.

Li Fu’s forehead was covered in sweat, and unmistakable anxiety and panic showed in his eyes.

Every so often, he had been looking up through the ventilation shaft of the underground hall to check the sky outside, his heart as frantic as an ant on a hot pan.

Tonight was the night his master had spent three whole years preparing for—the night of the final strike!

The bowl of calming soup laced with the Western Regions’ most potent poison, the Soul-Severing Draught, was already being kept warm in a purple-clay brazier in the imperial kitchen.

All they had to do was wait for the emperor to return to the palace and drink it.

The poison would take effect immediately, twisting his intestines with agony before making him bleed from all seven orifices and die. Not even the gods could save him.

Once that happened, his master’s grand ambition would be achieved without a hitch!

Yet at this most critical juncture, the emperor had suddenly taken leave of his senses.

He had insisted on personally gathering troops and leaving the palace to wipe out this underground black market.

If this delayed them and caused them to miss the ideal moment to administer the poison, ruining his master’s carefully laid plans, then even ten heads would not be enough to satisfy his master’s wrath.

They had to finish this quickly and persuade the emperor to return to the palace at once!

With that thought, Li Fu steeled himself and stepped forward. Pointing at Su Yaoyao, who sat as steady as Mount Tai in the grand chair, he began fanning the flames with reckless abandon.

“Your Majesty, just look at this woman! She has shifty eyes and a wretched appearance. She clearly isn’t a good person!”

“Before Your Majesty’s mighty dragon aura, she remains seated instead of kneeling. She is openly scorning imperial authority. Her crime is unforgivable!”

As he maliciously shouted, he anxiously urged Su Zhen on.

“Someone as filthy as this sewer rat is unworthy of sullying Your Majesty’s eyes.”

“Please issue the order, Your Majesty. Have her executed on the spot, and then we can return to the palace and let you rest as soon as possible!”

“If we delay any longer and Your Majesty’s calming soup grows cold, even a thousand deaths would not be enough to atone for this servant’s crime!”

Li Fu’s words sounded lofty and righteous.

Seated in the chair, Su Yaoyao could not help rolling her eyes dramatically.

This damned eunuch was so noisy.

Not only was his voice grating enough to raise goosebumps, but his eager, servile eagerness to see someone dead was even more nauseating.

Did he really think that she, a max-level poison doctor from the interstellar age, could be frightened so easily?

A mere ancient cold weapon could not even break through her protective force field.

If she had not been waiting to haul away all the gold, silver, and jewels filling the room, she would have tossed out a high-explosive smoke bomb long ago and escaped in the confusion.

Su Zhen turned his head and cast Li Fu a cold glance.

That single look seemed to be infused with shards of ice that had frozen for ten thousand years.

Li Fu’s legs went weak. He shut his mouth and dropped heavily to his knees.

“This servant spoke out of turn! This servant deserves death! Please spare me, Your Majesty!”

Although Su Zhen found Li Fu’s voice irritating, he also felt that this tiresome farce had gone on long enough.

She was nothing more than a black-market leader who did not know when to stop. Killing her was no great loss. The Dayuan Empire would hardly miss one life.

His wrist sank slightly, and killing intent surged in his deep eyes.

The blade of the Longquan sword pressed downward.

Its cold, razor-sharp edge cut through the tender skin of Su Yaoyao’s neck.

A faint sting reached her.

Bright-red beads of blood welled up, like red plum blossoms blooming across a field of snow.

The sudden pain finally pulled Su Yaoyao’s greedy attention away from the dragon robe.

Frowning, she looked at the man before her, whose entire body radiated a murderous aura and who killed without batting an eye.

He had a handsome face, but why did he start drawing blood at the slightest disagreement?

What a violent brute. He clearly had no understanding of maintaining a proper doctor-patient relationship!

Su Zhen’s gaze remained unmoved, as though he were looking at a corpse.

He was just about to exert force and bring this absurd night to an end.

But at that very moment, with life and death hanging by a thread—

a clear, melodious female voice rang out, carrying a hint of excited teasing.

It was like a thunderclap exploding across a flat plain, roaring through his mind!

Su Zhen’s movements came to an abrupt halt.

He glanced around.

The imperial guards surrounding him stood with their long halberds in hand, quiet as cicadas in winter, not daring to make a sound.

The chief eunuch, Li Fu, was still kneeling on the ground, trembling all over.

Then where had that crystal-clear voice come from?

Just as he was filled with doubt and beginning to wonder whether he had imagined it, the voice rang out again.

It echoed thunderously inside his head!

【So this is my moody, unpredictable Tyrant Dad? He’s pretty handsome!】

Su Zhen’s eyes widened as he stared in disbelief at the little girl beneath his sword, whose lips had not moved at all.

The Tyrant?

Dad?!

The girl’s lips were clearly sealed shut. So why was her voice drilling into his mind?!

Could sorcery truly exist in this world? Or had he been possessed by some evil spirit?

But that absurd voice showed no sign of stopping.

【What a shame. With such a handsome face, it’s going to turn purplish-black tonight.】

【He’s going to be poisoned to death on the dragon bed by that damned chief eunuch beside him, using Qianji poison. How tragic.】

Su Zhen’s pupils shook as if struck by a magnitude-ten earthquake!

Qianji poison?!

Poisoned to death?!

He turned his head and fixed his gaze on Li Fu, who was kneeling nearby, his face slick with sweat.

Li Fu flinched at the terrifying look the emperor suddenly cast his way.

He lowered his head guiltily, cold sweat soaking through his heavy eunuch’s robes.

Why did he feel as though His Majesty were looking at him like a corpse that would soon begin to rot?

A tempest raged through Su Zhen’s heart, and his breathing stopped for a moment.

Qianji poison was an ultimate poison from the Western Regions. It was colorless and odorless, and even the chief physician of the Imperial Medical Academy would have great difficulty detecting it.

This was a closely guarded imperial secret. How could this girl possibly know about it?

Who exactly was she?!

Before Su Zhen could recover from the earth-shattering information, the crisp female voice in his mind immediately tossed out an even more hair-raising thought.

【Well, it wouldn’t matter much if the Tyrant Dad died, but what a waste of those clothes.】

【If I stripped off that dragon robe while it’s still warm, and added the Eastern Pearl on his head, I could probably sell the whole lot for at least a hundred thousand taels, right?】

Su Zhen’s hand trembled around the Longquan sword.