Chapter 192: Withered

However, not long after, a woman calling herself Yan Qiu'er found her.

Yan Qiu'er told Ling Xue: "Don't think that no one knows what you did. There are gods three feet above your head, and our god is even more omniscient. Do you know what the punishment for a traitor is?"

Ling Xue harbored a fluke, wanting to sneak attack Yan Qiu'er, but was knocked to the ground by her with a backhand palm.

Yan Qiu'er stepped on Ling Xue's head and said contemptuously: "Traitors to the Heavenly God will be skinned and have their tendons pulled. After death, their souls will enter the Wujian reincarnation and suffer the punishment of being cooked and fried in flames!"

She exerted force under her feet, and Ling Xue felt as if her head was about to split open.

At the line between life and death, Ling Xue hurriedly said: "I am still useful, don't kill me! I am the Princess of Feng Kingdom, I can find ways to continue to expand the Guiyuan Sect! The Guiyuan Heavenly God must need me, right? I... I have a close relationship with the Crown Prince of Qi, if one day I can become the Empress of Qi, I can also bring the Guiyuan Sect to Qi to carry it forward!"

In the end, her words moved Yan Qiu'er.

Yan Qiu'er stayed by her side in the capacity of a maid.

On the surface, Ling Xue treated Yan Qiu'er with courtesy, but in reality, she hated the feeling of being monitored.

Thus, she said to Yan Qiu'er: "Feng Kingdom is currently in the limelight, not suitable for developing branch sects, and the Qi officialdom has not yet taken measures against our Guiyuan Sect. Why not find a way to take down Qi first, so that the people of Qi can also receive the gospel and education of the Guiyuan Sect!"

Yan Qiu'er was moved and came to Qi first, using the identity of Feng Ying's concubine as a disguise to start laying out plans in advance.

The Dream Tracing Technique ended here.

In the dream, Ling Xue was still murmuring: "No one can control me, no one can!"

She woke up suddenly, meeting Ling Zhen's eyes that were both pitying and hateful.

Ling Zhen smiled bitterly: "So all the care and pampering I gave you all these years, in your eyes, were all just utilization. A-Xue, in your heart, is there really no half-point of family affection left between us siblings?"

Things had come to this, and Ling Xue had nothing to hide, laughing foolishly:

"Family affection? Where does family affection come from in the royal family? Do you have it, Imperial Brother? Back then, if you hadn't seen the value in me, would you still have treated me as your sister?"

Ling Zhen was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to answer.

People in the royal family were used to intrigue and interest exchanges. His feelings for his sister Ling Xue were indeed not pure.

Ling Xue's tragic encounter in her childhood did indeed make him feel pity.

Later, he also thought that if this sister could become the future Empress of Qi, she could help him. That was why he was more attentive and pampered her.

But after so many years of being together, if one said there were no feelings at all, it didn't seem right.

How pure can a human heart be?

And how many feelings are entangled in the web of interests, making it hard to distinguish true from false?

Right and wrong, there was no clear distinction to begin with.

When leaving the Honglu Temple, Xie Shouzheng asked Dongfang Qi: "Your Highness, are we just letting Ling Xue, that mastermind, go? Isn't this letting a tiger return to the mountain?"

Dongfang Qi said: "Ling Xue is a Princess of Feng Kingdom, and both in emotion and law, she can only be handed over to them for disposal. It's not exactly letting a tiger return to the mountain. Ling Xue has committed a great mistake after all, almost causing a dispute between the two countries. This matter will be transmitted to the monarch of Feng Kingdom along with the state letter. Ling Zhen cannot hide it for her. Even if Feng Kingdom doesn't execute her, her end won't be good."

Lin Qingyue said: "I guess she won't be able to return to Feng Kingdom."

Xie Shouzheng scratched his head and asked suspiciously: "What do you mean by that?"

Lin Qingyue just sneered and rode away.

Dongfang Qi said: "Wait for me!"

Xie Shouzheng shouted from behind: "Why did you just leave? Hey, hey, finish talking before leaving! Speaking only half and not finishing, are you trying to make people anxious to death?"

Hong Yao chuckled: "Lord Xie, actually you can figure out why if you use your brain. That Princess Ling Xue has already been beaten into a cripple by Deputy Envoy Lin. You can imagine how miserable her end will be after returning to her country. If you were her, would you be willing to go back and suffer a living death?"

Xie Shouzheng suddenly realized: "So... sigh, it's really a pity, a perfectly good princess who went down the wrong path."

The twilight deepened, and the evening breeze entered the room, the pink and white bed curtains fluttering gently, their direction hard to determine. Just like human fate, even if one struggles, it is ultimately hard to rewrite.

Ling Xue lay on the bed, staring blankly at the bed curtains in a daze.

"A-Xue, it's time to eat."

The attendants in the room had all retreated, and Ling Zhen personally held a bowl of porridge, sitting by Ling Xue's bed.

Ling Xue looked up: "Things have come to this, are you still willing to take care of me?"

Ling Zhen stirred the porridge in the bowl gently, his voice carrying a faint melancholy: "Perhaps the royal family only values interests, but how can there not be half a point of true affection between us siblings?"

"At that time, when I broke your identity as a Guiyuan sect member, if you hadn't stepped in to stop it, Yan Qiu'er would have already killed me. You wanted to make me into a puppet, it was also a last resort, right?"

Ling Xue sneered: "Imperial Brother, you really are good at being self-indulgent. I just thought that making you into a puppet would be more useful to me than a dead person."

Her smile faded, and she looked at Ling Zhen, saying word by word: "There is no family affection in the royal family, and I only have utilization for you. So Imperial Brother, feel free to hate me and resent me, it's best if you kill me with one knife right now."

Ling Zhen pursed his lips and said: "I won't kill you. After returning to Feng Kingdom, Imperial Father... I will also try my best to plead for you."

"No need." She said coldly, "I know very well how cold-blooded our Imperial Father is. As a discarded chess piece, the final end can only be abandonment."

"I still have many regrets! All these years I have been trying hard to escape, trying to change, trying to subvert! But... I didn't achieve anything. I really am useless."

"A-Xue, things have come to this, why are you still obsessed and unrepentant!"

"Imperial Brother," Ling Xue suddenly smiled, "I suddenly miss the peony garden you planted for me in Feng Kingdom. I wonder if those peonies are blooming now?"

"They should be blooming." Ling Zhen lowered his eyes, lost in thought as he recalled the past.

"Imperial Brother, I saw a few peonies in the backyard of the Honglu Temple this morning, go pick a few for me."

"If you eat your meal obediently, Imperial Brother will pick them for you."

"No, I want them now, pick them now! Imperial Brother, just pamper A-Xue one more time, okay?"

The coquettish tone, the bright eyes, it was as if she were still the innocent and arrogant little princess from before, making one unable to refuse.

Ling Zhen put the bowl aside and stood up: "Okay, Imperial Brother will go pick peonies for you. Once the flowers are picked, you must eat your meal properly."

Ling Xue watched his departing back, a smile gradually emerging on her lips: "Actually, I didn't lose too miserably, at least I gained a few points of sincerity. Imperial Brother, you... take care."

When Ling Zhen returned with the flowers, he saw Ling Xue lying quietly on the bed.

A golden hairpin had pierced through her neck, and bright red blood spread from the wound, winding and flowing on that plain white dress.

"A-Xue!"

The pink and white flowers fell from Ling Zhen's hand, withering in the pool of blood. ===== CHAPTER 193 =====