Chapter 642: Betrayal! Living Is Worse Than Death, Suffering Punishment!

Sha Yi and Sha Si stepped forward, while Nan Gongdi, who had been silently following, moved quickly this time and directly stood behind Anuoer.

Although Anuoer was not very willing, Sha Yi and Sha Si would not bore themselves.

Sha Yi and Sha Si followed behind Li Qingluo; then, with a push of their feet, the three of them leapt, and all five together flew over the wall.

Anuoer had forgotten that Central Plains martial artists all know a bit of lightness skill.

Back then, wasn't I captivated by Nan Gongdi's flying back and forth, his superb lightness skill and handsome bearing?

And Li Qingluo's guards were all martial arts masters; knowing lightness skill was hardly surprising.

The courtyard was full of mad women.

Anuoer dodged their hands disdainfully; anyone daring to cling to her was sharply struck with a whip, driving them away.

Soon, she found an old acquaintance.

It seemed she had often come here before.

Li Qingluo was tightly guarded behind by Sha Yi and Sha Si, waiting for Anuoer to call them before the three went over.

Anuoer kicked an old woman to the ground with one foot.

"Do you still remember this palace, you wretch?"

Anuoer grabbed the old woman's hair and scolded her fiercely.

The old woman lifted her wrinkled face, her head full of silver-white hair, her whole person disheveled and filthy, looking extremely pitiable.

But Anuoer felt no pity for her at all.

She raised her hand and gave her a hard slap.

"Over these years, you've been living quite comfortably here, haven't you?"

"How is it that you're still alive while my mother died so early!?"

"Back then you deceived this palace terribly!"

Having said that, Anuoer raised her whip and lashed out, making the old woman scream in anguish repeatedly.

She kept shouting, "Spare my life… spare my life… please spare me…"

"I know I was wrong, I really know I was wrong…"

"It would be better if you killed me; please, kill me."

The old woman was soon covered in whip marks, her body bloody.

The other mad women, seeing this, were all frightened and huddled into another corner of the courtyard, daring not to come out.

Anuoer, tired from striking, then rested with her hands on her hips, catching her breath.

She looked at Li Qingluo and said, "Don't you think she's pitiful?"

"Clearly we're both confined in this cold palace, yet I still have to bully her like this."

Li Qingluo: "A pitiful person must have something hateful about them."

"She must have committed some unforgivable sin in the past; otherwise you wouldn't still be unable to let go after all these years."

Anuoer greatly appreciated Li Qingluo's lack of excessive kindness.

She nodded and said, "Back then she was the chief confidante by my mother's side, also a top-ranking maidservant beside my mother."

"She grew up alongside my mother from childhood, and my mother treated her like a sister."

"Her food, clothing, and even her jewelry were sometimes more precious than those of the father king's other consorts."

"To say she was more noble than the daughters of influential families in Hala City is no exaggeration."

"Even my mother found her a good marriage prospect—a young, handsome, promising junior general!"

"But she was still not satisfied!"

"If it weren't for her betraying my mother, passing the news that my mother planned to let me go to the father king, the father king would not have sensed it and enacted his chain of schemes to force me, and even killed my mother!"

"Afterward she easily climbed into the father king's bed and became a woman of his harem."

"And what about my mother?"

"She bore children for the father king, added fragrance to his sleeves, and accompanied him for twenty years."

"Just to force me to marry into Wusun, he treated my mother like livestock or a slave and killed her!"

"My mother was originally a little princess… if not for the father king abducting her to Hala City, why would she have to live such a short life as a concubine?"

"And this wretch clearly knew what my mother suffered, yet she still betrayed her! But even if she became a consort in the imperial harem, what could she do?"

"While the father king was alive, I only needed a little scheming to send her to the cold palace; let alone now, the whole Hala City besides me has no one who remembers her, that treacherous wretch who abandoned her lord."

"In this cold palace, she must stay alive to suffer punishment, to experience what it means that life is worse than death!"

Looking at Anuoer before her, Li Qingluo finally understood that she had never let go of her hatred.

Even letting this palace maid live was because of her hatred.

It seemed only hatred could make her feel a bit better.

And the ultimate cause of all this, how could it not be Nan Gongdi's abandoning everything and running away back then?

If he had stayed back then to face things with Anuoer instead of irresponsibly running away, perhaps things would not have become so terrible.

At least he could have taken Anuoer away from this sea of fire.

Over these years, Anuoer has clearly come to hate, even unwilling to let herself go.

Li Qingluo couldn't help but look at her master Nan Gongdi; Nan Gongdi was also deeply moved, clearly he too understood Anuoer's current situation.

He wanted to say something, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to say it, only turning his face away, full of pain.

Li Qingluo sighed in her heart.

Li Qingluo reminded Anuoer, "Senior, don't forget why we came today."

Anuoer covered her face, finally regaining a bit of clarity.

"You're right, that wretch isn't important; I can't afford to lose Kuerte again!"

Lowly wretch, I'll give you a chance—tell me, has anything major happened in the imperial court recently?

A'na'er grabbed the old woman's collar and pressed her for answers, frightening her so much that she closed her eyes and trembled all over, unable to answer anything at all.

Li Qingluo stepped forward and took A'na'er's hand.

Senior, if you don't mind, let me, the junior, ask how?

A'na'er snorted, flung the old woman away, and turned her back.

The old woman fell to the ground, wailing "wu-wu-wu" as she cried bitterly.

Li Qingluo crouched down and leaned in.

Perhaps her exceedingly delicate and beautiful face finally eased the old woman's guard a little; her sobbing subsided and she was no longer as terrified as before.

"Please, I really don't know anything..."

Li Qingluo: "Do you want to die?"

The old woman froze.

"You, you what did you say?"

Li Qingluo: "Actually, if you could die swiftly, that would be the best outcome for you."

"Because I'm going to feed you a kind of worm."

"This worm will burrow into your stomach and daily gnaw at your five viscera and six bowels to survive."

"You won't die right away."

"You'll only suffer day after day the excruciating pain of wishing you were dead."

"Moreover, your body will emit a scent similar to meat being roasted."

"You say when this scent reaches their noses, do you think they, who have been starving for who knows how many years, can resist not treating you as an irresistible delicacy?"

Saying this, Li Qingluo glanced at the mad women in the corner.

The old woman had already been scared witless, her face filled with horror.

"No, no..."

Li Qingluo ignored her fearful expression and truly slowly took a small container from her waist.

Tilting it, she poured out its contents.

A blood-red little worm fell onto the ground.

Li Qingluo pinched it with her fingernail, watching its plump body writhe wildly, as if eager to burrow into something.

Li Qingluo waved it before the old woman's face; the old woman immediately shrieked in fright, flung herself down, and lay prone on the ground.

"Please, please spare me."

Only then did she realize that this woman, who looked as gentle and benevolent as a deity, was actually the most vicious.

Li Qingluo: "If you answer honestly, I can give you a quick death."

"Either way you die, you might as well atone for your former master; when you go to hell and meet her, you can say a few words, claiming you did at least one conscientious thing before you died."

"Otherwise, you'll suffer being eaten alive, wanting to die but unable to—a living torment."

"Choose."

Yet the old woman still hesitated.

Li Qingluo grew impatient.

She shouted: "Kill Four, pinch her mouth shut for me!"

Kill Four immediately stepped forward, making a move to pinch the old woman's face.

The old woman, terrified out of her wits, immediately yelled: "Speak, I'll speak! I know everything, I'll say it all..."

The old woman wept: "But recently the imperial court really hasn't had any major events..."

Those mad women in the cold palace, a few of whom are lucid, daily idle away their time sitting by the door, pressing their ears to the cracks to eavesdrop on outside noises.

Over the years, one can't say they know everything.

But the movements within the palace, indeed basically nothing can escape notice from this courtyard.

They treat it as pastime.

Unbeknownst to them, it is actually their death‑sealing charm.

The old woman regretted deeply: "I committed an unforgivable sin in my youth; these years the Almighty Allah has already punished me."

"Yet I still don't know what I ought to do..."

Li Qingluo: "Enough! Stop playing the pitiful here; your misfortune is of your own making."

"Letting you die is to release you; don't be ungrateful, refusing a toast and drinking a penalty instead."

"I'll give you one last chance: answer incorrectly, and you'll eat the worm."

"Speak, in the past half‑year has any important person died in the imperial court?"

After a pause, Li Qingluo added: "Collateral lines count too."

Leaving the courtyard, A'na'er wore a vexed expression.

Li Qingluo carefully put away the worm‑holding container; A'na'er asked her: "Is this worm really that formidable?"

"I've heard that the Great Chu state has a MiaoJiang region, whose people excel at the Witchcraft Technique. Last time your subordinate said you have a MiaoJiang background..."

Li Qingluo: "Just nonsense, meant to scare her."

"Where in this world is there such a formidable worm?"

"Although this worm was indeed given to me by my senior sister, it's merely a little pet used to frighten people."

"Senior, the result of my questioning just now is that in the past half‑year at least ten people have died in the imperial court. Do you have any leads on this?"

A'na'er glanced at a passing group not far off, lowered her voice: "We'll talk more when we return tonight."

"I just seemed to see Ku'erte's personal attendant. Come, follow me to check it out!"

Several people followed silently, and ended up outside Ashi's palace.

A'na'er was puzzled, and then saw Ku'erte storming out of Ashi's palace.

A'na'er's eyes widened instantly.

Waiting for Ku'erte to walk this way, she hurriedly brought Li Qingluo and the group to hide around the corner, and only after they had completely left did she slowly come out again.

Li Qingluo understood from her gaze.

"That is your son, the king of Wusun—Ku'erte?"

A'na'er glanced at Nan Gongdi without a trace, then nodded: "I also don't know what he is now, or if he's still himself."

After all, they all understood that only an empty shell remained, and the soul of his internal energy had long been replaced.

Nan Gongdi immediately stepped forward two steps upon hearing that.

That is his son?