Su Su couldn't be bothered to figure out why he was angry. With a hostage in hand, everything became much easier.
But she couldn't keep Tantai Jin immobilized forever—the Body Fixing Talisman's effect only lasted half an hour. Once the time was up, she and Xiao Lin would be doomed.
Su Su climbed off him and began rummaging through "Jia Chun's" belongings.
Though Tantai Jin couldn't move, his cold, piercing gaze never left her.
As expected, someone of "Jia Chun's" status possessed all sorts of sinister drugs. Su Su picked up a bottle of lethal poison and another of temporary power-suppressing medicine, forced Tantai Jin's mouth open, and made him swallow them.
"I'll keep the antidotes. You've seen what you just consumed. I'll release the Incantation shortly, and you'll lead us out of this dream," she snorted. "No tricks. If you want to live, stop engaging in self-destructive schemes."
Tantai Jin remained silent.
Su Su removed the Incantation. Having experienced his dreams before, she knew how fiercely he clung to life. This was someone who'd survived on dead rats as a child—he'd never accept dying trapped in a mere dream.
"Come on, let's find Xiao Lin," she prodded him.
Sure enough, Tantai Jin moved.
He truly had no desire to die. A momentary lapse had led to this disadvantageous situation, but since it was irreversible, he began calmly calculating alternative plans in his mind.
When Xiao Lin saw Su Su and Tantai Jin together, he was greatly surprised. "Third Miss? Are you alright?"
Su Su shook her head. "I'm fine."
"He..." Xiao Lin frowned at "Jia Chun."
Su Su explained, "This is Tantai Jin. There was some misunderstanding earlier—we didn't recognize each other. Now that it's cleared up, Tantai Jin has decided to cooperate with us to escape together. Right?"
She spouted nonsense while threateningly poking Tantai Jin.
Tantai Jin sneered, "Right."
Xiao Lin said, "So it's the Hostage Prince."
Xiao Lin hadn't expected both Su Su and Tantai Jin to be in the dream. He bore no ill will toward Tantai Jin—unlike Xiao Shen, Xiao Lin had occasionally lent help when he witnessed how difficult Tantai Jin's childhood in the palace had been.
"Your Highness, what's the current situation?" Su Su asked.
"Actually, I succeeded last night. During the assassination attempt, I deliberately failed and let Bingshang see the 'emperor's' token. She now knows I was sent by the emperor."
Upon hearing this, Su Su was taken aback.
If he'd succeeded, why was Ye Bingshang still unwilling to leave? Had they guessed wrong? Was her deepest obsession not Xiao Lin's love after all?
Xiao Lin said, "It seems this method won't work."
Remembering something, Su Su smiled and turned to Tantai Jin. "What about your method?"
Tantai Jin glanced at her sidelong and curled his lips into a smile. "Certainly more effective than yours."
Perhaps because he was using "Jia Chun's" body, Su Su found his grin utterly sinister no matter how she looked at it.
But with only a tiny portion of the white butterfly left unreddened—indicating dawn was approaching in the real world—there was no time to devise new plans. They had no choice but to trust Tantai Jin.
Tantai Jin strolled leisurely into the imperial garden.
A palace maid chased after a little boy, calling, "Your Highness the Crown Prince, slow down! Don't fall!"
The boy, about three or four years old, wore brocade robes and had a chubby, adorable face with bright eyes. He was chasing butterflies through the garden.
Xiao Lin stared at the child, momentarily lost in thought. After all, this was the son born to Ye Bingshang and "him" in the dream.The little boy was chasing a butterfly when he suddenly bumped into Tantai Jin's leg.
He fell to the ground, tears welling up in his eyes.
Tantai Jin glanced down, silently observing him.
Then, to everyone's horror, he lifted the little boy with one hand.
A palace maid, seeing Tantai Jin's action, knelt with a thud: "Lord Jia Chun, the Crown Prince didn't mean it. Please allow this servant to take him back."
The little boy kicked his legs in the air, sensing the hostility, and began wailing in fear.
Su Su finally understood what Tantai Jin intended to do: "Are you going to kill this child?"
Tantai Jin said coldly, "Didn't you all want to leave? Since he's fake anyway, what does it matter if we kill him?"
With that, he tossed the child into Xiao Lin's arms. Xiao Lin instinctively caught him, and the little Crown Prince trembled in his embrace, not daring to look at Tantai Jin.
"Since he's your spawn, you do it yourself."
Xiao Lin looked down at the little Crown Prince in his arms, who clung to him fearfully.
Xiao Lin instinctively said, "We cannot."
The little Crown Prince continued to sob, looking utterly pitiful.
Su Su also felt troubled and asked Tantai Jin, "Is there no other way?"
Tantai Jin leaned against the rockery, looking down at her. "This is the only way. What? Can't bring yourself to do it?"
Seeing that neither Su Su nor Xiao Lin moved, Tantai Jin said coldly, "Foolish compassion!"
In Tantai Jin's view, this was utterly ridiculous. How could anyone sacrifice their own life for the sake of others?
He walked over and grabbed the little Crown Prince by the neck.
Lifting the child into the air, Tantai Jin remained expressionless as he tightened his grip.
Xiao Lin frowned but knew Tantai Jin was right. The child was fake, even conjured from the nightmare demon's Demonic Energy. If they hesitated any longer, everyone would perish here.
With a final exertion of force, the child, whose face had turned bluish-purple, dissolved into black smoke and vanished into the air.
Su Su glanced at Tantai Jin. With Jia Chun's face, he appeared utterly indifferent.
After killing the little Crown Prince in the nightmare demon's dream, the group headed toward Ye Bingshang's palace.
Xiao Lin walked silently ahead, clearly weighed down by the disappearance of the dream's Crown Prince.
Su Su approached Tantai Jin, about to speak, but he spoke first coldly: "What? Going to blame me for being ruthless and heartless?"
Su Su was taken aback. She shook her head and whispered, "No, I just wanted to thank you."
If not for Tantai Jin, she and Xiao Lin might not have been able to resolve to break the dream.
Tantai Jin glanced at her and said, "In that case, give me the antidote. I won't do anything else; I'll definitely get you out."
Su Su thought for a moment, then took a bottle from her pocket and handed it to him.
Tantai Jin hadn't expected her to give it to him so easily. He thought, how foolish—once he took the antidote, he would definitely...
But as the antidote entered his mouth, he realized something was wrong.
A red candy bean melted on his tongue.
Su Su looked up with a smile and asked, "Is it sweet?"
"You tricked me?"
His lips were stained red by the candy, and his pale face twisted for a moment. Su Su couldn't hold back a laugh and shook her head. "I never said it was the antidote. Besides, once we leave the dream, the poison in your body will dissipate on its own. Since it doesn't hurt or itch, just bear with it for now."
Seeing Tantai Jin's cold gaze and the way he clenched his teeth on the candy, looking as if he wanted to kill someone, Su Su suppressed her laughter and said, "Don't spit it out. It'll ruin your image."He angrily raised his hand and threw the candy jar, but Su Su easily caught it.
She ran ahead cheerfully and said, "Your Highness, would you like some candy?"
Good things should be shared with everyone.
Xiao Lin chuckled softly. With his sharp hearing, he had naturally overheard the conversation between Su Su and Tantai Jin. Though he didn't know what had transpired between them earlier, this version of the Third Young Lady wasn't unpleasant at all—rather, she was quite endearing.
Even the oppressive feeling from being forced to kill the dreamworld's Crown Prince earlier had vanished.
"No need, thank you, Third Young Lady."
When they reached Ye Bingshang's palace, Tantai Jin thought for a moment, then took out a blank imperial edict and tossed it to Xiao Lin.
"Write it—an edict to depose the Empress."
Xiao Lin looked up and saw that it actually bore the Emperor's seal.
It seemed Tantai Jin had long planned to leave. Even without their company, he could have found Ye Bingshang and escaped the dream.
Xiao Lin felt a surge of wariness. Tantai Jin was a man of considerable intellect and talent, decisive in killing when necessary. If he ever managed to return to the Zhou Kingdom, he would become a formidable enemy of the Xia Kingdom.
Xiao Lin lowered his gaze and wrote out the edict to depose the Empress in his own handwriting.
Ye Bingshang was sewing a garment for the Crown Prince.
Gazing absently at the crabapple blossoms outside the window, she seemed lost in thought.
A maid beside her said indignantly, "Your Majesty, the Emperor spent the night in that wretched woman's palace again. You are the legitimate Empress, yet His Majesty treats you with increasing coldness. It pains us servants to see it."
The needle pricked her finger. Ye Bingshang put it in her mouth and lowered her eyes.
"Your Majesty!" the maid exclaimed in alarm.
"It's nothing," Ye Bingshang said with a pale, forced smile. "Remember, you must never speak of the Emperor that way again. The Emperor is the Son of Heaven. Whether he bestows favor or severity, it is all his grace."
Blood seeped into the silk from her finger. As the maid tended to her wound, she muttered, "Your Majesty, you are too kind and gentle. You don't even have a temper."
Ye Bingshang stared at the bloodstain without speaking.
She hadn't told anyone about the assassination attempt last night. The token from "Xiao Lin" still lay in her dressing case.
A faint smile on her lips, she continued sewing clothes for her son.
The maid said cheerfully, "When the Crown Prince grows up, he will surely understand your efforts and repay your kindness with double filial piety."
As soon as she finished speaking, a palace maid stumbled in frantically.
"Y-Your Majesty... the Crown Prince... he... has been killed!"
Ye Bingshang's face instantly paled. She dropped the clothes in her hands and asked in a daze, "What did you say?"
"This servant saw it with her own eyes... in the imperial garden..."
Ye Bingshang lifted her skirts and rushed out, only to come face to face with Tantai Jin and his group.
The maid trembled and said, "It... it was them..."
Tantai Jin glanced at Ye Bingshang and said curtly, "Read it."
A young eunuch unrolled the imperial edict and read aloud the decree deposing the Empress.
Ye Bingshang's legs weakened, her face ashen. Xiao Lin's foot twitched, but he restrained himself and did not offer comfort.
To be deposed as Empress, to have her husband's affection change, and to lose her son... for any woman, this would be a living nightmare.
Ye Bingshang closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembling uncontrollably. Su Su watched her closely, fearing she might be driven to suicide by despair. Yet Ye Bingshang proved far stronger than she had imagined.
She accepted the edict and said softly through tears, "This humble concubine... obeys the decree."
Su Su felt a strange unease.
When she had seen Fu Ya's body destroyed and her sect on the brink of collapse, she had nearly broken down, ready to transform into a mountain-protecting formation to defend her sect.
But Ye Bingshang, having suffered such devastating blows, could still calmly accept the decree.Like a woman of complete submission, no matter what the "emperor" did to her, she could accept it all.
Su Su had never encountered such a docile woman before. She thought to herself that if her own child were harmed, she would fight to the death to smash that person's head, let alone anything else.
A red butterfly flew before them, now only the tips of its wings remained unstained by red. Dawn was approaching.
Xiao Lin helped Ye Bingshang up, speaking gently, "Bingshang, wake up. This is all a dream, completely false."
Ye Bingshang pushed him away, shaking her head. "No, it's not a dream. It's real."
Xiao Lin frowned.
Su Su felt something was wrong. She turned around: "Where's Tantai Jin?"
Xiao Lin also noticed that Tantai Jin, who had been watching nearby, had disappeared at some point.
Unable to concern herself with Tantai Jin, Su Su rushed to Ye Bingshang: "Wake up! If you refuse to leave any longer, we'll all die here. Why would you want to remain in this false dream under such circumstances? Everything will get better once we leave! The Sixth Prince is waiting for you in reality!"
Ye Bingshang bit her lip in silence.
For six years, she had been the most beloved empress of Great Xia. How could this possibly be a dream?
Her husband loved her, and she had an adorable royal son. Although the young crown prince had met with misfortune... what if His Majesty changed his mind? They could still have more children.
As Ye Bingshang wavered indecisively, Su Su grew increasingly frantic.
Watching the last bit of white on the butterfly turn red, even Xiao Lin's expression turned grave, not to mention Su Su.
Were they all going to be trapped in this dream?
The next moment, a mass of black mist laughing wildly appeared behind Ye Bingshang.
Time was up. The nightmare demon had come to collect its final prize.
Just as its mist touched Ye Bingshang, a pale-skinned man materialized out of thin air behind the nightmare demon.
Tantai Jin's hand pierced through where the nightmare demon's heart should be, grasping a black Demon Core.
Su Su watched wide-eyed as, once the Demon Core left its body, the black energy from the nightmare demon surged frantically toward Tantai Jin.
He neither dodged nor avoided it, actually accepting it all.
Tantai Jin examined the newly acquired Demon Core, a slight curve forming on his lips.
Su Su: ...!
So he insisted on entering the dream not only for his beloved but also for this Demon Core. No wonder he had been so cooperative—he wanted to lure out the nightmare demon's true form.
The nightmare demon was no ordinary demonic creature. Its Demon Core was quite powerful, and what Tantai Jin sought was supreme power. Since childhood, he had been unable to practice martial arts and had been humiliated. He enjoyed the thrill of killing and bullying others, but his own strength was insufficient.
He had been a cultivation maniac since he was still merely mortal!
If someone told him, "Die once, and the seal will be broken," he would undoubtedly choose death without hesitation.
Su Su felt completely unsettled.
Reacting quickly, she lunged forward: "Give it to me!"
Tantai Jin looked at her coldly, this time prepared in advance. He stepped back several paces as the dream shattered.
Su Su's last glimpse was of him swallowing the Demon Core without the slightest hesitation.
She was so furious she wanted to punch the wall. He actually ate it! Ate it! Ate it!
Spit it out, damn it!
With the nightmare demon's death, black mist ran rampant. Unable to reach him, Su Su was ejected from the dream.
In the forest, daylight had broken.
Branches were split open by Su Su's Thunder Talisman from the previous night, the air filled with the smell of scorching.
Su Su got up from the ground and saw Tantai Jin unconscious on the other side.
She touched her back—having left "Hong Dou's" body, the wounds were gone, and she felt no pain at all.Su Su grabbed Tantai Jin's clothes, gritting her teeth as she said, "You bastard, wake up!"
The pale-faced youth beneath her slowly regained consciousness as she shook him.
His lashes were long and dark, misted with the morning dew, giving him a fragile and innocent appearance that bore no resemblance to the mad dog from the dream.
Su Su shook him again. "The Demon Core? Did you really eat it? Spit it out, you pervert!"
Tantai Jin touched the skin where she had made contact. It felt strange—the girl was too close, her cold fragrance wrapping around him, making him uncomfortable. That suffocating feeling returned.
He raised his hand. Yes... kill her. He should kill her. He had a premonition that if he didn't eliminate her now, she would surely ruin his plans in the future.
Thinking of the nightmare demon's power he had just acquired, his eyes turned cold as he lifted his hand, black mist gathering at his fingertips.
Yet the black mist condensed for only a moment before dissipating completely, never fully forming.
Su Su naturally witnessed this. "Huh?"
Tantai Jin's face stiffened.
How could this be? He had clearly swallowed the nightmare demon's power. Why was he still a useless waste?
Su Su was equally bewildered. Whether cultivating immortality or demonic arts, it was indeed possible to seize another's power and make it one's own.
Though this method allowed rapid progress, it was an unorthodox path rarely chosen, as it invited divine retribution during tribulations.
The cycle of cause and effect was endless. Only the mad demon cultivators, fearing neither consequences nor karma, would tread this path regardless of cost.
Su Su had initially feared that after swallowing the nightmare demon's Demon Core, he would become as unrestrained as in her dream. Yet the black mist in his hand had dissipated before even fully forming.
Looking down at the youth's gloomy eyes, Su Su suddenly felt like laughing.
This...
Though he possessed the Evil Bone, granting him innate supreme power, this force was sealed. An unawakened Demon God could neither cultivate nor practice martial arts, lacking even a Spiritual Root—appearing completely useless.
Tantai Jin had chosen the crooked path, unaware that his body already contained the world's most formidable Evil Bone.
He was, by nature, the most powerful existence in millennia. The nightmare demon's power flowing into him was like a drop of water merging with the ocean—unable to create even the slightest ripple.
As long as the Evil Bone remained unawakened, he could never become the terrifying Demon God. No matter how many Demon Cores he devoured, it would be futile.
A bright smile spread across Su Su's face as she pinched his cheek. "Your Highness, are you thinking of killing me?" Well, go ahead and try!"
He gripped her wrist, his rage palpable even through the morning mist.
She refused to let go, instead using her muddy little hands to vigorously rub his face.
While scrubbing, she complained, "Serves you right for forcing your way into the dream! For coveting another man's wife! For lusting after that wicked thing's Demon Core!"
Tantai Jin's gaze alone could have killed her.
The youth rasped, "Ye Xi Wu! Get off me!"
Su Su slapped a hand against his forehead. "Why should I listen to you? When I said not to enter the dream yesterday, you didn't listen. Do you have any idea we almost got wiped out in the nightmare demon's dream realm?"
He said coldly, "You chose to follow me. Even if I died, what would it matter to you?"
Su Su's face-rubbing motions halted.
She released him, her smile fading as she supported herself against a tree to stand. Without another word, she walked toward the forest's edge.
Tantai Jin watched her retreating figure, his lips pressed tightly together.Su Su wasn’t actually angry; she just suddenly felt that arguing over right and wrong with Tantai Jin was rather pointless. A person born without the ability to distinguish good from evil could hardly be expected to understand such things.
The morning was unusually chilly. Hugging her arms tightly, she could hear footsteps behind her, signaling that Tantai Jin was following.
Having been missing all night, she needed to return to the estate quickly.
Ye Bingshang and Xiao Lin were likely awake by now. This trip wasn’t entirely without gains—at least she had glimpsed a part of Tantai Jin’s past and learned that he couldn’t seize others’ powers.
Walking behind Su Su, Tantai Jin was in an awful mood. This useless body of his stirred an impulse to destroy everything.
As the sun rose, the young girl ahead wore a golden ruqun, its golden threads shimmering brilliantly in the sunlight.
She hugged her arms, seemingly a little cold. Her waist was slender, and a few blades of grass clung awkwardly to her dark hair.
He stared straight at her, but she never once glanced back at him.
For some reason, he raised his hand and touched his dirt-streaked face, his eyes dark and unreadable.
Once he found a few more Demon Cores or immortal pills, he would make sure she disappeared!
Before returning to the estate, Su Su spotted a familiar figure on the street.
A man in white robes walked with his head down, hurrying along.
Ye Chu Feng?
What was he doing outside?
Su Su suddenly recalled what the little beggar had said some time ago—
“The second young master goes out every morning and stays at a certain residence until dusk before leaving…”
And that familiar scent on him—what exactly was it?
After a moment’s thought, Su Su decided to follow him.
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