160: Chapter 160 How Much Suffering Have You Endured

Just as she was startled and her killing intent surged, nearly driving her to act recklessly...

...she heard a low sigh from above.

"Your hand... why is it so thin and cold?"

"You must have suffered a lot in the past..."

Su Chen's voice rang in her ear, somewhat slurred, as if filled with heartache.

He gently pried open her hand that held the "Red Beauty's Bane," and the pill slipped out quietly, "accidentally" kicked away by Su Chen.

Then, he carefully wrapped her icy fingers, one by one, into his warm and broad palm.

Finally, he pressed it tightly against his own exposed, powerfully beating chest.

Su Daji's slender body stiffened.

The assassination opportunity that was already in her hand was gone, yet she didn't feel it was a pity.

A single sentence from Su Chen had stirred her memories.

Heh...

Indeed.

Losing her parents at a young age, being forced to join the Hehuan Sect, lonely and helpless, even facing bullying from fellow female disciples...

If her Master hadn't doted on her, valued her, and provided her with a vast amount of resources...

She probably wouldn't even know where she would have died by now.

But soon, the complexity in her eyes was replaced by ruthlessness.

How could she stay her hand?

Wasn't her tragedy caused by the tyrant before her?

Back then, when he had just ascended the throne as a youth, a casual order resulted in her losing her parents while she was still in swaddling clothes.

This was also why, when her Master told her she needed to go undercover by Su Chen's side to kill this tyrant, contributing her part to the fall of the Yin Dynasty and following the "Heavenly Dao"...

...she had agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Through the thin sleeping robe, Su Daji could clearly feel the steady and vigorous pulse of life coming from beneath his skin.

He seemed truly drunk.

As long as her fingernails sliced open his chest, this peerlessly handsome yet tyrannical and lawless enemy would sleep forever.

But once again, at just the right moment...

Su Chen happened to lower his head, resting his chin on the crown of her head, and spoke a sentence that sounded like a sleep-talk.

"Daji... are you afraid?"

"Don't be afraid, I am here."

Su Daji froze completely.

Her wrist was still being held, pressed against the man's chest.

The temperature coming from there was so hot it made her fingertips numb, a numbness that reached all the way to her heart.

That steady and powerful heartbeat struck her palm, beat by beat.

This was simply too coincidental.

Or perhaps, it wasn't a coincidence at all.

Every time she wanted to move against him, he always managed to give some reaction at exactly the right moment.

More importantly, it was his completely defenseless attitude and the... sweet words he said to her.

For a moment, Su Daji didn't know if she didn't know how to strike... or if she truly couldn't bring herself to do it.

Why?

Why did he...?

Was it an act?

Was it a more sophisticated test?

Or...

She didn't know.

She only felt that her other hand, which hid a poisoned hairpin in her sleeve, felt weak for the first time.

As a cultivator, she could see clearly.

The heart in Su Chen's hand during the day was clearly a pig's heart.

This man, who had pressed her icy hand to his heart and said "don't be afraid" during her "assassination" attempt...

Was he truly the tyrant from the legends who cut out hearts and livers, and indulged in wine pools and meat forests?

Su Chen seemed truly drunk, just holding her like that, burying his face in her hair, his breathing gradually becoming even and long.

It actually seemed like... he had fallen asleep?

The red candles burned quietly, and the tassels swayed silently.

That night, Su Chen "slept soundly" until dawn.

While Su Daji, in his arms, stayed awake until dawn.

...

The next day.

Deep within the Zhaoge Heavenly Prison.

The faint morning light shone into the lowest level of the prison, illuminating Bi Gan.

The man's collarbones were pierced by thick black iron chains, and he was suspended in the center of the cell.

His head hung low, his gray hair was disheveled, and the fine robes symbolizing his status as Royal Uncle were already tattered and stained with blood.

Hearing the heavy sound of the prison door opening, he struggled to lift his head.

Su Chen walked in alone.

He wasn't wearing his ceremonial robes, only a simple black robe.

His long hair was casually tied up with an ebony hairpin, and his handsome face bore no expression.

Only those bottomless black eyes, in the dim light, were so quiet they made one's heart turn cold.

He waved his hand to dismiss the jailers who wanted to follow, and the heavy iron door slowly closed behind him, isolating the inside from the outside.

Although he had no cultivation in this round of investment, with the experience and skills brought from the previous two rounds, he wasn't afraid of this Bi Gan.

"Traitor... Traitorous monarch!"

"You have unlawfully imprisoned your Royal Uncle and harmed loyal officials; you will surely face divine retribution..."

"Royal Uncle?"

Su Chen gave a cold laugh, interrupting his unfinished words.

"Royal Uncle Bi Gan, I remember you were the one who took care of me since I was a child, right?"

"Then may I ask, is that black mole on my butt on the left cheek or the right cheek?"

"The left..."

Before Bi Gan could finish, Su Chen interrupted him, his voice flat and calm.

He slowly paced forward and stopped in front of the other man.

"I don't have a black mole on my butt at all."

"Royal Uncle."

The fake Bi Gan's pupils shrank violently as he stared intently at Su Chen.

Strange rasping sounds came from his throat, but he could no longer speak a complete sentence.

Clearly, with his shallow understanding of Su Chen, how could he have guessed?

This tyrant, who appeared fatuous and lawless on the surface, would actually use such a method to trick him.

"I know you won't answer no matter what I ask, so I've chosen to see for myself."

Su Chen spoke no more and suddenly raised his right hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together, his fingertips glowing with a faint light.

This was not the martial arts or immortal techniques of this world.

It was a "Soul Searching" technique he could now use proficiently, having comprehended it from the depths of his soul through the application of mental energy over two rounds of investment.

Although it appeared somewhat crude without the support of cultivation...

...it was more than enough to deal with a prisoner whose cultivation was sealed and whose mind was in disarray.

"You... what do you want to do?!"

Su Chen's finger gently tapped the center of his brow.

"Agh—!!!"

An inhuman scream instantly filled the cell.

The fake Bi Gan twitched violently as fragmented images, like a flood breaking through a dam, poured into Su Chen's sea of consciousness through his finger.

He saw a deep forest at night; the real Bi Gan was held from behind by a dark figure, forced to swallow a lethal poison, and in an instant, his face turned black and he died.

The dark figure skillfully peeled off Bi Gan's face and placed it over his own; with the sound of bones cracking, his form shifted, and in the blink of an eye, he was identical to the deceased Bi Gan.

He saw "Bi Gan" secretly meeting with several messengers wearing Ji Clan attire.

The location was a deserted Mountain God Temple outside Zhaoge City.

A messenger handed over a jade slip containing records of policies he needed to promote or oppose in the court recently.

Those policies seemed beneficial to the country and the people, but in reality, they either wasted resources and intensified conflicts or contained hidden traps to destroy the nation's foundations.

One of them was to reduce the number of garrison troops at several key northern passes under the guise of "saving expenses and showing consideration for the people's strength."

And that was precisely the direction from which the Quanrong were most likely to invade southward.

(Speechless, in two days my reminders to update were cut by 60%, daily income shrunk by three-quarters and is still falling, Fanqie is really something.)