If she crawled out of the grave, she would frighten Mother.
Burn her. Turn her to ashes. Then she would certainly never come back to life.
Rongyao lifted the torch and, without hesitation, tossed it into the pile of firewood.
The flames quickly spread.
The heat was scorching, turning everyone’s faces red.
Bathed in the crimson glow, Rongyao smiled.
Seeing the fire grow larger and larger, she happily patted the dirt from her little hands. She really was clever. This way, no one would be able to hurt her or Mother anymore.
Nearby, Chu Mingyi and Hongyu both fought back laughter as they glanced at Her Highness the Grand Princess.
Seeing how calm and composed the Grand Princess was, the two of them felt both admiration and amazement.
Her Highness really was extraordinary. She was only seven years old, yet she didn’t even blink while burning a corpse.
When they had been seven, they had been scared senseless by even a dead rat.
The fire burned for a full hour.
During that time, Chu Mingyi and Hongyu added more firewood several times.
At last, the body had been burned clean.
Naturally, the bones remained.
Once the flames had completely died out, the two of them picked through the ashes and placed the bones back inside the coffin before closing the lid again.
They then filled the grave back in with soil.
At last, the grave looked exactly as it had before.
All three of them were exhausted.
Hongyu looked up at the sky. “Princess, we should return to the palace. If we’re too late, His Majesty and Her Highness the Noble Consort will probably send people out to look for us.”
Rongyao brushed the dirt from her clothes and stood up. She hopped twice on top of the grave. “All right! Let’s go back to the palace!”
Seeing the Princess like this, Chu Mingyi and Hongyu both chuckled. Each of them took one of the Princess’s hands, and together they led her away.
However, not long after they left…
A handsome, refined young man emerged from the forest. His face was dark and grim as he stared at the spot where they had disappeared. He waited until they were completely out of sight before walking to the freshly buried grave.
His cold eyes lingered on it for several breaths. Then he raised the tools he had prepared long ago and began digging.
His movements were neither hurried nor slow. Night soon fell, and the bright moon hung high overhead. Soil piled up around the grave, revealing the coffin.
His movements were smooth and practiced. Before long, he had pried open the coffin.
His gloomy eyes gazed indifferently at the jumbled bones inside.
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
He raised the shovel in his hand and brought it down viciously upon the heap of bones.
He worked with an expressionless face, unhurriedly crushing the bones bit by bit with the shovel. He did not stop until they had been ground into dust.
He silently stared at the pile of ashes inside the coffin, the corner of his mouth twitching once more. Then, with seeming indifference, he took out a fire starter and set the coffin alight.
The flames first consumed one section, then spread across the entire coffin. Blazing fire once again engulfed the ashes within, its glow illuminating the young man’s cold face.
The sparks trembled.
The more it burned, the smaller the fire became, until the coffin had been completely reduced to ash and the flames finally died out.
The young man glanced at the ashes, took out a sheet of bright yellow talisman paper, lit it, and tossed it into the pit.
The light from the burning talisman cast an eerie, terrifying pallor over his face. His eyes were as cold as ice spikes piercing to the bone.
When the talisman had burned away completely, he picked up the shovel again and filled in the pit. He walked to the head of the grave, stamped down the soil a few times, then turned and left, as though he had never been there.
Late at night, when all was still…
The grave remained a grave.
But the person inside it—or rather, the ashes—sent out a thought.
“System, I’m awake. Are you ready? Hurry and help me revive!”
[Sorry. The system cannot do that.]
“What do you mean? Weren’t we supposed to use the remaining energy to fake my death and then revive me?”
[It’s already too late.]
“What do you mean?”
[The host has already become a pile of corpses… No, the host is now a pile of ashes.]
“What! Why? Why did this happen? Where is my body? How did it come to this? Who did it? Who did this?!”
The wisp of consciousness screamed furiously, but unfortunately, the dust could not hear her voice. Neither could the mountains and forests, nor any living creature. Only the system could hear her.
[Early this morning, Princess Fuxi came to dig up your grave. She dug you out, placed your body on a pile of firewood, and burned it until nothing but bones remained. Then she buried you again.]
“Dantai Rongyao! Is she insane? She murdered me! This is murder! She’s a princess, and she’s so young—why wasn’t she afraid of a corpse? Why was she so cruel? She’s vicious and merciless! She didn’t even spare my corpse!”
“I was already dead, yet she still wouldn’t leave me alone! She’s a demon! A little lunatic!”
[That’s not all. After Princess Fuxi left, Gu Shen’an came as well. Just a moment ago, he dug up your grave again and crushed your bones.]
“What?! Why would he do that? Gu Shen’an? I had no grudge against him. Why would he do this to me? He even ground my bones to dust and scattered them! Has he gone mad? No wonder—no wonder I always felt that he disliked me when we were at Wenchang Academy. He was always watching me with that sinister look in his eyes. What exactly did I do to offend him?”
[The system doesn’t know either. But the system can say with certainty that he hates you even more than Princess Fuxi does. He even found a Soul-Dispelling Talisman with some remaining magical power and used it on the host.]
“A Soul-Dispelling Talisman? What’s that?”
[A Soul-Dispelling Talisman is a talisman capable of making a dead person’s soul scatter and vanish completely.]
