Chapter 7 — The Demon Queen’s Ten-Lifetime Pact

Ngoc Nhien possessed an uncanny talent for softening a man's heart. Within a mere three months, she had ensnared Qi Yuan, compelling him to betray his duty and assist her in cheating the cycle of reincarnation. Defying the Great Emperor and overstepping his divine authority, Qi Yuan forced the King of Hell to open a path for her rebirth. At that time, I remained blissfully ignorant of how profoundly his heart had shifted. It was only on the day of her departure that the truth began to surface. I accompanied Qi Yuan to see her off, and in those final moments before she stepped through the threshold of reincarnation, Qi Yuan could no longer restrain himself. He pleaded with sudden urgency, "Nhiem Nhiem, the mortal realm is in chaos and hearts are fickle. Would it not be better if you simply stayed?"

Ngoc Nhien refused. She insisted that she wished to experience mortal life one more time. After she departed, Qi Yuan locked himself away for three months, refusing all food and drink. Fearing he had fallen ill, I prepared to break down the door, only for him to emerge on his own. The first words he uttered were, "A-Ninh, let us be wed." He even confessed his infatuation with Ngoc Nhien with agonizing honesty. Yet, I forgave him. I chose to believe that his obsession was merely a fleeting madness, convinced that with time, his heart would eventually return to mine. How tragic that the eventual reunion between Qi Yuan and Ngoc Nhien shattered the final remnants of hope I harbored. What they later inflicted upon me was no longer merely a betrayal of love; it was pure, unadulterated cruelty.

Thus, upon my deathbed, I knelt before the Great Emperor, begging for a single chance—a chance to replace him as the Ghost Emperor and exact my vengeance. The Great Emperor, however, sought to leave a path for redemption, striking a bargain: I was granted ten lifetimes to see if Qi Yuan would repent and find his own way back to morality. If, in any of those ten lives, he showed a single spark of remorse, I would have forgiven him. But he did not. Instead, he chose to murder me—over and over—for ten consecutive lifetimes.

The memories abruptly halted as Qi Yuan interrupted, his composure shattered. Desperate and trembling, he stammered, "Huyen Ninh, what could we have possibly done to make you suffer through ten lifetimes of torment and still demand such vengeance?" Even after thousands of years, the mere recollection made my entire body shudder. I gritted my teeth, forcing back a tidal wave of fury. "What you did then... compared to these ten lifetimes, was a thousand times more wicked!"

I poured the raw memories directly into his consciousness. This time, the full horror returned to him. When Ngoc Nhien returned, she discovered I had married Qi Yuan and held the noble title of Ghost Queen. Two failed mortal lives had warped her soul, turning her bitter. She no longer wished to be a mere concubine, and she knew full well that as long as I lived, she could never truly replace me. She began to whisper into Qi Yuan's ear daily, manipulating him into becoming the instrument of my destruction. She would self-inflict wounds and frame me for the violence. Enraptured by his obsession, Qi Yuan lost all sense of right and wrong. Obeying her whims, he plucked out my eyes, severed my ears and nose, cut out my tongue, shattered my limbs, and flayed my scalp. He even tore out my womb, ensuring I would never bear children. Yet, a fragment of his old affection remained; he refused to end my life, wanting to see me suffer longer.

Ngoc Nhien then devised a plan to shatter my spirit. She claimed to suffer from nightmares, convincing Qi Yuan that the lingering souls of my parents were haunting her. Consequently, Qi Yuan desecrated my parents' graves, casting a formation that imprisoned their spirits until they were utterly obliterated. Not stopping there, Ngoc Nhien fabricated a lie that my parents' loyal soldiers had attempted to assault her, inciting Qi Yuan to slaughter every single man who had faithfully served my family. The day those thousands of souls were extinguished, Qi Yuan and Ngoc Nhien toasted to their "victory," dancing and singing through the night. Upon hearing the news, just as Ngoc Nhien intended, I coughed up blood and died of pure, unrelenting grief. My final, shattered soul drifted to the city of Fengdu to seek the Great Emperor.

The memory ended, and Qi Yuan’s face turned the color of ash. The gruesome scenes replayed in his mind, and he whispered in disbelief, "No... I could not have been that cruel. It must be you—you have fabricated these memories!"

A wind stirred, and the voice of the Great Emperor resonated from the void: "Yuan, everything A-Ninh speaks is the truth. Because I raised you myself and admired your brilliance, I could not bear to punish you. I struggled long and hard to convince A-Ninh to grant you those ten lifetimes of grace. It is a pity that you never felt a shred of remorse. The throne of the Ghost Emperor must be surrendered. As for your fate... I leave the judgment to A-Ninh."

The celestial command left Qi Yuan with no choice but to accept reality. He collapsed to the ground, no longer possessing the courage to even glance in my direction. With no desire to waste further words, I turned to the ghost messengers standing by and commanded coldly, "Throw Ngoc Nhien into the Abyss of Vicious Ghosts. Do not let her die without my order."

In that dark pit, the starving, ravenous spirits would have no mercy for the half-human, half-ghost wreck that Ngoc Nhien had become.