It seemed like only an instant had passed, yet it also felt like an eternity.
Tantai Jin could finally move, slowly embracing the cold corpse beneath the city wall. He held her tightly, a bloody tear from his left eye falling into her hair.
"I don’t believe it," he whispered, weeping and laughing like a child. "Why didn’t your Hidden Dragon Guards save you? Weren’t you… so powerful? You could have killed me. Why… why did you do this? This is a joke. It must be a joke."
"The Water Chestnut Bracelet—yes, as long as your soul remains, you won’t die."
As if clutching at his last hope, he frantically searched for the bracelet.
The golden Water Chestnut Bracelet lay shattered beside the girl, buried in the winter snow.
Thousands of soldiers watched as their emperor madly dug through the heavy snow for the broken fragments.
The shards of the bracelet sliced his hands until they bled, yet he gripped them tightly, not daring to lose a single piece.
"Look, I’ve found them," Tantai Jin said, his face streaked with blood flowing from his left eye, yet his gaze brimmed with desperate hope as he clumsily tried to piece the Water Chestnut Bracelet back together.
But the shattered bracelet would never be whole again. The girl’s corpse leaned against his leg, silent and still. Her hand slipped from his grasp.
His expression blank, he took her hand again and breathed a warm puff of air into her icy palm.
"It’s too cold outside. Let’s go home."
He lifted her mangled body and walked past Ye Chu Feng, who said sorrowfully, "Your Majesty."
The emperor in black robes ignored him, continuing to carry the girl.
Snow piled thickly on his shoulders.
Nian Muning couldn’t hold back either. "Your Majesty!"
He kept walking, and walking, not daring to stop. Behind him stretched a vast, mighty army; before him lay a monochrome expanse of snow—just like the year Tantai Jin first met Su Su, when the panicked girl had stumbled into his embrace.
Now, she no longer held even a trace of warmth.
Over seven hundred days and nights, those memories finally sharpened into clarity—
She had once fought against the crowd, slain the Crimson Flame Bee to find him, lifted him from the heavy snow, and stood against the Zhao King for him;
She had once found him by a village lake, gently cleansing the wound over his left eye;
Inside the Peach Blossom Cocoon, she had held him, surrounded by swirling petals. In endless nightmares, the warmth on his lips had been her kiss.
Together, they had witnessed the Xia Kingdom’s palace, the moon over a small town, the vastness of the river, and all the Chimei Wangliang of the world.
The infatuated fox demon, the ten-thousand-year Jiangshi, the pitiful Conch Princess, and the Prajna Floating Life they had shared for a lifetime…
Tantai Jin remembered it all. The things that had once been sealed away in his heart, unmoving, now surged into roaring waves.
He recalled how he had sewn hope into her bridal veil with his own hands, stitch by stitch, filled with delusion and joy.
Seeing her had made his heart leap with involuntary delight; he couldn’t help but watch her, follow her.
And now—
The Soul Devouring Banner was broken, the old Taoist inside it dead, and even the Water Chestnut Bracelet that had trapped her was shattered.
The long-delayed love thread took root and sprouted, like climbing vines running wild, entangling him. His heart ached, his whole body ached; even breathing felt like stabbing pain.
What could he do? Who could help him save her…
Nian Muning chased after him and saw the young man who dared not look back finally collapse to his knees in the snow.
His jet-black hair turned white strand by strand as he clutched the girl tightly in his arms, weeping helplessly.
It was the first time in Nian Muning’s life she had ever seen him cry like this.He wanted to plead, but didn't know to whom. He wanted to hate, yet didn't know who to hate. Tears washed away the bloodstains on his face until he could no longer hold on, vomiting a mouthful of fresh blood.
The winter of the first year of Jinghe was a catastrophe for Linwei City.
On the second day after the Eighth Prince's death, Tantai Jin personally chopped his body into minced meat and fed it to vicious dogs.
He led troops to massacre Linwei City.
The silver-haired emperor laughed hysterically, his face splattered with blood.
Drunk with killing, he finally lay down in the thick snow, covering his face with a mask as he stared blankly at the gloomy gray sky.
Tantai Jin couldn't remember how many people he had killed.
She loved all living beings—why hadn't she thought to remove his mask this time to stop him? Didn't she want him dead? Yet he still lived. How could she... leave so unburdened and detached?
Mortals' blood was warm, yet Tantai Jin felt cold everywhere.
Ye Chu Feng silently brought Tantai Jin back. He never imagined Third Sister would have such an unyielding nature. None of them had time to save her, and none could have saved her anyway.
The water chestnut bracelets on Su Su's wrist shattered, along with the matching one on Tantai Jin's wrist. Tantai Jin thought he would die sooner or later.
Yet against all odds, he didn't die. This body that was once frail and weak now felt like it had been infused with the purest, most resilient power in the world when he clenched his fist.
Clean, formidable power. Everything he had ever craved, she had given him entirely.
His heart felt hollow, yet he found no joy in it.
The six nails in his heart tormented him endlessly, making death impossible while life remained unbearable.
Everyone in the Zhou palace trembled with fear, not daring to approach the emperor's bedchamber half a step. The palace staff seemed trapped in a nightmare they couldn't wake from.
Wei Xi peeked inside trembling—in the vast, desolate palace, Tantai Jin had melted down Ruoshui weapons to make a bed for her.
The young girl lay upon it, a pitch-black Mingluo Pearl embedded in the crystal rabbit ornament hanging from the bed curtains.
When Tantai Jin brought back her body, it was already beyond recognition.
After returning from his killing spree, the young tyrant cried for a long time, his tears soaking his robes. When his tears dried, he smilingly stitched up her wounds.
He spent every day with the corpse—sometimes adorning her hair with freshly bloomed morning flowers, sometimes drawing her eyebrows and applying rouge, telling her stories from his childhood in the Zhou Kingdom's palace and the Xia Palace.
Those stories were distant, dull, and dark.
Like claws dragging one into darkness, though Tantai Jin didn't realize it—he thought everyone's childhood was like that.
Perhaps only someone like Xiao Lin was fortunate enough to have it different.
However, the Mingluo Pearl had limitations in preserving corpses—a cold, lifeless body couldn't be kept in the main hall indefinitely.
When Pian Ran once raised ancient corpses in the mountains, she expended a thousand years of cultivation to set up formations that absorbed spiritual energy from heaven and earth, truly unleashing the Mingluo Pearl's efficacy.
Where could one find a second nine-tailed fox now?
Before this winter ended, a faint odor of decay began to emanate from the young girl's body. Mortal essence was turbid, and the closer Tantai Jin got, the stronger the foul energy became.
The figure on the bed remained unaware, leaving him with only one living thing—in his left eye.
Tantai Jin no longer dared to touch her. He retreated in panic, covering his left eye in a daze, utterly at a loss: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't know... I didn't know... I won't touch you anymore, I won't..."Everything around her slowly vanished; she wanted to leave him nothing. Before Su Su chose to leave the Zhou Kingdom palace for Linwei City, she had already burned her old jade bracelet and clothes to ashes in a fire.
The old Taoist was gone, and he couldn’t even keep her body.
Wei Xi saw the little tyrant stumble out and sit for a long time before the palace doors. As the doors closed behind him, he wept pitifully, like a helpless child, and asked, “Wei Xi, what should I do?”
Wei Xi’s hand trembled, unable to hold the horsetail whisk steady as he knelt in terror. “Your Majesty, spare me! Your Majesty, spare me!”
Wei Xi still remembered the last time His Majesty had asked a court physician the same question—the next moment, he had killed the physician with a smile.
The little tyrant had long been a madman.
Tantai Jin glanced at him with disinterest. The snow in front of his palace was the thickest because he forbade anyone from disturbing his life with Su Su.
After crying for a while, he stood up from the ground and said cheerfully, “It’s time to make Xiwu happy today.”
Wei Xi trembled all over, watching Tantai Jin walk away. He felt as if all his strength had been drained, his legs weak and unsteady.
At first, Wei Xi didn’t understand what “the time to make Xiwu happy” meant. Only gradually did he realize something was wrong—the palace’s only consort seemed to have been missing for a long time.
No one in the palace dared to show curiosity about the little tyrant’s affairs.
After the death of the one in the cold palace, Linwei City was massacred. Even Lord Yang Ji, who had once been most trusted, had not dared to enter the palace recently.
Things had changed, and the Zhou Kingdom palace felt like a frigid Purgatory.
Nian Muning followed behind Tantai Jin.
Tantai Jin did not harm Nian Muning, perhaps because she had watched over Su Su the longest and could often recall details of Su Su’s life.
This had become his last hope.
In the dark dungeon, a woman lay barely breathing on a bed of straw.
Nian Muning watched Ye Bingshang with mixed emotions. Once a beauty renowned throughout the Xia Kingdom, she was now reduced to a mass of broken flesh.
Hearing footsteps, she screamed in agony, “Ah—please, kill me! Kill me!”
The young man in black robes sat cross-legged beside her.
The sound of dripping water echoed around them as countless small snakes slithered out of a bamboo basket nearby. Their cold, terrifying bodies coiled around Ye Bingshang, feeding on her flesh and blood.
She screamed hysterically, not a trace of her former gentleness remaining.
Tantai Jin sat with her in the snake pit.
The young snakes were hungry and lacked awareness, unable to distinguish their keeper. They bit Tantai Jin as well, but he remained expressionless and indifferent. Occasionally, when annoyed, he would pull them away.
Ye Bingshang was on the verge of madness. She feared snakes! She was terrified of them!
She would rather die than stay in this hellish place, but Tantai Jin refused to let her die. He even calculated how long the snakes would feed each day, ensuring they wouldn’t take her life but leaving her unable to commit suicide.
Like an Evil Ghost, his voice echoed softly in the dungeon, “You’re afraid? So this is how a person looks when facing their greatest fear.”
He chuckled softly, as if admiring a beautiful scene.
“My empress was so afraid. You must be the same now. She hasn’t been happy lately—she won’t let me near her or even see her. I want her to be happier. After all, it’s been a long time since she last smiled. Perhaps tomorrow, she’ll be willing to see me.”
Ye Bingshang writhed on the ground, unable to bear it any longer, and shouted, “You madman! She’s already dead! It’s not all my fault—you’re to blame too! You made all the decisions! You can’t pin it all on me!”She expected him to refute or get angry, but instead, Tantai Jin just smiled gently and said, "Yes, I deserve to die too."
Ye Bingshang: "Hahaha, you loved her, yet you killed her with your own hands. Tantai Jin, even if I die, you won't have it easy. How does it feel to kill the one you love with your own hands? You're a monster, a monster! Ah... get away, don't bite me!"
When the sky darkened completely, Tantai Jin walked out of the dungeon.
Nian Muning hesitated for a long time but finally decided to tell Tantai Jin the results of the interrogation: "Ye Bingshang was terrified and confessed. She said that when she was eight years old, she went to a villa and accidentally fell into a valley."
"The valley was in full bloom with flowers, and there was a woman who had just given birth and was dying. Seeing that she was just a young girl, the woman took her in for a few days. Afraid that she would get lost and face danger in the valley, the woman gave her a flying jade flute to lead her out."
It turned out that back then, as Ye Bingshang rode the enlarged jade flute on her way out of the valley, she happened to encounter a blood-soaked demon.
The demon was on the verge of death and, seeing the jade flute Ye Bingshang was riding, begged her to deliver a brocade pouch to the valley's owner.
The young girl nodded repeatedly and agreed.
When Ye Bingshang returned to the valley as promised, curiosity overwhelmed her, and she desperately wanted to know what was inside the brocade pouch. It was her first time encountering such a magical place—a valley where flowers bloomed in winter, a flying flute, a woman of unparalleled beauty, and even a demon.
So, what exactly was inside the pouch?
She opened it and found something pure white, as beautiful as ice silk.
She reached out and touched it, and as if an invisible hand had cleared away the fog of ignorance, her mind became instantly clear and sharp.
The little girl delightfully picked up the ice silk and turned her gaze to another object.
Glistening with a beautiful radiance—
The heart protecting scale.
It was the hardest scale shed by an ancient great demon. She held her breath, almost instantly captivated by its allure.
The scale cut her palm, and the little girl cried out, "Ouch!" The restless scale, sensing the aura of the jade flute beneath her, hesitated and then calmed down.
From the heart protecting scale, Ye Bingshang saw her own future fate.
The little girl bit her lip, clutching the white ice silk and the heart protecting scale tightly. She glanced back at the valley.
That beautiful woman was probably... already dead.
Even if she brought the items back, there would be no one to use them. But for her, her future was so pitiful—perhaps these things could save her.
Gritting her teeth, she fled the valley as if escaping.
That winter became Ye Bingshang's secret. Later, by coincidence, the heart protecting scale helped her fuse with the ice silk.
As she grew older, she gradually learned that it was a complete love thread. She did feel guilty, but what was done was done. She couldn't find that magical valley to return the items.
After discovering she had one more love thread than others, even the most stubborn men showed her favor. Making someone fall in love with her became effortless.
It turned out that one love thread allowed her to love, while two love threads made others love her. Her life became smooth and successful, and under such circumstances, she was willing to be a kind and good person.
She had almost forgotten everything from her childhood until Su Su appeared, and Xiao Lin's attitude gradually began to change.Ye Bingshang finally recalled her childhood encounter—she had stolen the love thread and heart protecting scale belonging to the peerless woman in the valley, and began living in constant fear of the outcome she had foreseen as a child.
No matter how meticulously she schemed, what rightfully belonged to her was slipping away bit by bit.
To this day, she still did not understand why Tantai Jin no longer cared for her. Shouldn't he, like Xiao Lin and Pang Yi Zhi, always hold a place for her in his heart?
The agony was unbearable—the pitch-black dungeon, the lewd whispers of filthy prisoners nearby, and the snakes that gnawed at her daily. Yet she could not die. Tantai Jin had done something unknown to her; the moment she entertained thoughts of suicide, her entire body would go limp.
Under such torment, she confessed every secret.
Tantai Jin returned to the palace but hesitated for a long time before pushing open the door. The young girl's body was not like Pian Ran's millennia-old Jiangshi; it had long been damaged beyond recognition.
He sat outside the palace, gazing at the desolate night.
All that Su Su had left him were the six Soul Extinguishing Nails embedded in his heart and a single eye that could shed tears.
Tantai Jin sat on the steps all night, snowflakes settling in his hair. The Soul Extinguishing Nails tortured him inch by inch; at first, the pain was unbearable, but gradually he grew numb.
Cold, endless cold. He hugged himself tightly, biting his lip until it bled.
The boundless loneliness made Tantai Jin begin to hate her.
He had not hated her this much even when she killed him.
As the first light of dawn broke, he pushed open the door behind him and stared coldly at the corpse on the bed.
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