The caning beneath the plum tree had been a show of force—a warning.
Only, because Xie Shuishan had crossed over into this world, none of the uncontrollable physical reactions that the original Xie Shuishan would have displayed were able to surface.
Having someone beaten to death was certainly a gruesome spectacle, but to Xie Shuishan, it could hardly be called frightening.
She had seen people torn limb from limb by fighting dogs. She had witnessed the bloody aftermath of victims being dragged beneath wheels as they were crushed again and again. She had even seen games in which human beings were hunted and shot like prey. She had witnessed far too many wretched souls who could neither live nor die.
Compared with those things, beating one person to death hardly counted as particularly horrific.
In the modern world, once the people at the very top of the pyramid reached the peak of pleasure, ordinary people could scarcely imagine the means and methods they would employ to chase after a moment of stimulation.
The so-called laws and rules—even morality—were used to restrain and discipline ordinary people, those who would never be able to cross the barriers between social classes.
There would always be corners of this world untouched by sunlight, where appalling crimes bred at every hour of every day.
Of course, Xie Shuishan was by no means one of those people. Nor would the Xie enterprises under her control, or any member of the clan, ever be permitted to cross those red lines.
Xie Shuishan’s way of venting was through extreme sports with a certain degree of safety guaranteed. After her grandfather had failed to cure her psychological illness, this was the only form of self-destruction he had been able to grit his teeth and tolerate.
And the essence of extreme sports lay in the word “extreme.” With extremity placed first, one had to set life and death aside.
If a person could treat even her own life and death with indifference, then naturally, the life and death of others would be unlikely to move her either.
Thus, she remained utterly unmoved by the execution by caning that had been deliberately staged for her benefit.
Zhu Huan’s threatening, malicious interrogation was doomed to disappointment.
The eunuch in charge reported to Zhu Huan, “Your Majesty, he did not vomit, nor did he flinch. He showed no sign of panic whatsoever.”
The eunuch hesitated for a moment before choosing his words carefully. “The person sent by the Xie clan has likely seen blood and opened a blade before.”
Silence fell behind the gauze curtains once more. No one could tell whether the person behind them was surprised or displeased.
After a long while, that languid, unhurried voice finally spoke again.
“Have him come in.”
Xie Shuishan was led into the inner hall by a palace maid.
The furnishings here matched the style of the side hall, but the light was not nearly as bright. The lavish decorations clashed with the overly vast, lofty room, and although attendants stood or knelt everywhere, the place nonetheless gave off an inexplicable air of desolation and loneliness.
The incense was also heavier, mingled with the faint bitterness of medicine.
Xie Shuishan stepped into the inner hall and cast her eyes around. Apart from the silent palace servants, some standing and some kneeling, she saw no sign of anyone who appeared to be Zhu Huan, the main villain.
The eunuch in charge, who held a horsetail whisk, grew displeased when he saw that Xie Shuishan did not stop after entering the inner hall and even dared to look around so openly.
His stern face was furrowed with deep creases. To keep this reckless fool from offending His Majesty, he raised his whisk, pointed it once, and had no choice but to speak.
“Kneel there and answer.”
The spot indicated by his whisk was still ten yards from the bedside.
Xie Shuishan’s footsteps came to a halt. She looked toward the palace eunuch and saw where he was standing—beside the bed, not far away. Then, taking in the layers of curtains thrown up around it and the gauze curtain still hanging over the bed, she realized that Zhu Huan was in bed.
Through the gauze, beneath which a figure was barely discernible in the dim light, Xie Shuishan recalled the system’s description of the main villain, Zhu Huan: a mad dog so frail he could not even get out of bed, his internal organs failing as he clung to life.
In each of his first twenty-five attempts to destroy the world, he had seemed determined that if he could not live, then everyone else would be dragged down with him and offered as sacrifices.
Zhu Huan had been on the throne for seven years. Three years ago, he was gravely wounded in an assassination attempt, and his lower body had completely lost the ability to move on its own. The blade that injured him had been coated in a deadly poison. Despite searching the realm for the finest physicians over the years, they had only been able to keep him barely alive. His constitution had been damaged beyond repair, and he had only a few years left to live.
After realizing that he likely would not live long, he still refused to abdicate or surrender his power. Instead, three years ago, he had begun secretly gathering people throughout the realm who resembled him, bringing them into the palace to train their mannerisms and bearing. They served as substitute puppets, appearing in public in his place whenever he had no choice but to show himself.
The role Xie Shuishan had transmigrated into was one of those substitute puppets.
The only difference between her and the puppets Zhu Huan had gathered from unknown places was that Xie Shuishan had been secretly trained by the Dongzhou Xie clan and sent to Zhu Huan as a “pledge of allegiance.”
The palace eunuch stared at the standing Xie Shuishan, his eyes hard and threatening as he ordered her to kneel.
Xie Shuishan merely met his gaze with calm indifference. Her figure was as straight as bamboo or pine, and she showed not the slightest intention of bending her knees.
“How dare you! You stand before His Majesty and yet refuse to show respect or kneel!”
When the palace eunuch realized that Xie Shuishan truly had no intention of kneeling, his anger flared. He snapped his horsetail whisk through the air and shouted in his shrill voice, “Guards! Seize this insolent wretch!”
So what if she had been sent by the Dongzhou Xie clan?
In recent years, the Xie clan had been steadily eroded and squeezed by the other great families. According to secret reports, half of the iron mines in Qiangcheng, where the Xie clan had sunk its roots and established its stronghold, now lay abandoned.
Five years ago, the war with the Cangqi Kingdom had also claimed Xie Chi, the military governor who oversaw all affairs along the eastern frontier.
Xie Chi had been the clan head. He had died in battle in the desert, and his body had never been recovered.
Although after his death he had left behind three sons and a daughter, each of whom occupied positions in the two cities of Dongzhou—as deputy commissioner, military commissioner, military adjutant, and judge—the Xie clan would not fall so long as the Dongzhou border remained unbroken.
But the military governorship of Dongzhou had already passed into other hands. Ultimately, the Xie clan had declined.
Otherwise, why would it have set aside the dignity and interests of a great noble family and sent a “pledge of allegiance,” hoping to restore its former glory through His Majesty?
The palace eunuch was Zhu Huan’s hands, feet, mouth, and eyes. Whenever Zhu Huan found it inconvenient or beneath him to speak or act, the eunuch acted entirely on his behalf. He would never permit anyone to challenge Zhu Huan’s authority as sovereign.
The attendants standing in silence throughout the hall sprang into action at the palace eunuch’s command. They all moved toward Xie Shuishan.
They seized her by the shoulders and kicked the backs of her knees from behind, trying to force her to kneel and submit to punishment on the spot.
Xie Shuishan would not have found it difficult to break free from these people. She had no idea what the martial standards of this world were, or whether there existed anything as mysterious as inner force, but she had studied jujutsu, boxing, taekwondo, fencing, and traditional martial arts to varying degrees.
Judging by their posture and the sound of their footsteps, the palace attendants sent to restrain her were no match for her at all.
But Xie Shuishan did not fight back. She could take down this group easily enough, but there were certainly far more people in the imperial palace than just these.
If she ended up pinned to the ground by a whole crowd, it would be far too undignified—far too inelegant.
Xie Shuishan offered no resistance. A kick struck the bend of her knee, making her stagger forward two steps. She nearly fell to her knees, yet somehow managed to straighten up again.
With a deft sweep of her arm, she brushed aside those trying to seize her. Standing there, she did not look at the chief eunuch holding the horsetail whisk, but directly toward the indistinct figure behind the gauze curtains.
Her voice was neither loud nor soft as she said, “I am the sovereign. I kneel only to Heaven and Earth.”
For a moment, the attendants tugging at Xie Shuishan, along with the chief eunuch, were all stunned into silence.
It had been who knew how long since they had encountered such a brazen puppet. Worse still, this puppet dared to speak such outrageous words in His Majesty’s presence. She called herself *zhen*, claimed to be the sovereign—then who was His Majesty?
This was no longer simply courting death. She was trying to drag all of them down with her!
The current emperor had never been known for a gentle temperament. He was wantonly bloodthirsty, mercurial, and impossible to predict.
They had allowed such a madwoman to run wild before the throne and insult their ruler. They, too, would be unable to escape blame.
At once, the expressions of those silent attendants twisted with panic. They had lived in this palace for years, every day like riding a horse along the edge of a cliff. Within the Hall of Supreme Harmony, servants of every gender walked as soundlessly and eerily as ghosts, wishing they could melt into the beams and walls themselves rather than risk provoking their ruler’s displeasure.
This flock of “frightened birds,” long accustomed to living in misery and peril, had suddenly been struck by a bolt from the blue. In an instant, they scattered into a headless panic.
Several people rushed forward and seized Xie Shuishan again, while others, desperate to beg forgiveness, dropped to their knees with repeated thuds.
The chief eunuch finally came to his senses. All the color drained from his face at once. He even forgot to wave his whisk as he pointed at Xie Shuishan and cried, “Rebellious wretch! Take her away and beat her to death!”
Having said this, the chief eunuch turned and knelt toward the gauze curtains. He was just about to say, “The Xie clan sent such a treasonous criminal into the palace. Surely they did not come to pledge allegiance, but to assassinate Your Majesty—”
Yet before he could finish, Xie Shuishan’s clear, limpid voice rang out again. It was neither the soft sweetness of a woman’s voice nor the rough heaviness of a man’s, but crisp and resonant.
“May I ask Your Majesty: do you require a timid coward who bows and scrapes before everyone she meets, or a stand-in capable of appearing before others in Your Majesty’s place—one who, when Your Majesty recovers in the future, will not arouse anyone’s suspicion?”
Her tone remained calm and measured. Someone lunged at her again, making her stumble, and she was growing thoroughly annoyed.
So she added, “If all Your Majesty requires is a spineless mouse, then killing me would be the easiest thing in the world.”
“Specious nonsense!” The blood that had drained from the chief eunuch’s face surged back at once, leaving him flushed red. This madwoman was frightening him out of his wits.
The current emperor had been on the throne for seven years. Anyone who dared to be disrespectful in his presence—whether by cursing him or defying him—would not even have grass growing on their grave!
As he spoke, the Chief Eunuch strode toward Xie Shuishan, clearly intending to seize him personally.
Earlier, when he had seen this person remain unfazed before the executioner's rod, he had taken him for a steady and composed man and even held him in some regard. He had never imagined that he, too, could make such a grave misjudgment!
But just as the Chief Eunuch covered three steps in two, rushed up to Xie Shuishan, and swung his horsetail whisk, his hand closing around a mechanism on its white-jade handle, a pale, slender hand lifted one corner of the gauze curtain.
At last, the villainous tyrant seated behind the curtain spoke.
He called softly, “Jiang Yi.”
His voice was gentle, yet it sounded like the master of wolves and tigers finally tugging on their chains. The Chief Eunuch’s movement froze at once.
His expression was utterly stunned.
Zhu Huan added, “What are you making such a fuss about? Have you no decorum?”
Xie Shuishan’s brows lifted slightly.
Zhu Huan’s voice was far beyond anything he had expected.
A villain who had slaughtered his way through twenty-five lifetimes possessed a voice so soft it was almost cloyingly tender.
Jiang Yi, having been called by his full name, was rigid from head to toe with tension. At the same time, the “dog collar” around his neck had him so thoroughly restrained that his joints crackled.
He cast Xie Shuishan a look that defied description, then waved for the eunuchs restraining him to withdraw.
Afterward, he turned and knelt in the direction of the bed.
He pressed his lips into a straight line, the furrows at the corners of his mouth deep as ravines. With complete sincerity, he slammed his forehead against the floor with a resounding thud.
In the silent hall, Xie Shuishan wondered whether Jiang Yi had cracked his own skull.
Jiang Yi said, “This servant failed to keep watch. Your Majesty, please calm your anger. Give this servant some time, and I will certainly teach this person proper conduct.”
The hand lowered the gauze curtain again.
It seemed that Zhu Huan had tacitly approved Jiang Yi’s explanation.
In that instant, a hundred thoughts flashed through Jiang Yi’s mind. He had already come up with no fewer than a hundred ways to teach someone proper conduct.
Supporting himself with his arms, he began to rise, thinking that he still had to advise His Majesty.
The Dongzhou Xie clan had sent such a person to His Majesty’s side. Their intentions could not possibly be pure!
But before his terrified old bones could be pieced back together enough for him to stand, he felt a light breeze sweep past him.
A corner of a robe nearly smacked him in the face. Jiang Yi instinctively looked up, only to see that the audacious fool had taken advantage of the attendants kneeling throughout the hall to plead for forgiveness and was walking straight toward the bed!
He was moving quickly. In the blink of an eye, he was nearly at the bedside. At the critical moment, a hundred thoughts raced through Jiang Yi’s mind, and he cried hoarsely, “Protect His Majesty!”
Xie Shuishan had already stopped in front of the bed. He felt several faint rustles beside him as a number of black-clad figures dropped from above.
The next instant, cold, razor-sharp blades were pressed against his neck.
But Xie Shuishan made no attempt to dodge. The only thing he did was seize the moment the gleaming blade swept toward him and yank open the gauze curtain.
A thin line of blood trickled from his neck into his collar. If Xie Shuishan had possessed even the slightest weapon, or if there had been any sign of internal energy surging through him, his head would already have been severed from his body.
Xie Shuishan rested the back of one hand against the gauze curtain, ignoring the people and blades that had seemingly fallen from the sky around her. Looking down into the chamber from above, she met a pair of slightly widened eyes.
