Chapter 9 — The True Heiress Reads Fates

I pierced my fingertip, quickly tracing a protective talisman within my palm. Yet, this formation proved far more sinister than I had anticipated. The weeping of A Dan echoed from behind the wall, each cry growing sharper and more piercing. Following the sound, my gaze landed on a small earthenware jar hidden beneath the altar of the sanctuary. The mouth of the jar was plastered with yellow paper talismans, and dark, malevolent mist seeped steadily through the cracks. That jar contained the remains of A Dan. The Empress had not only murdered her, but had also trapped her soul within those confines for sixteen years. The faint chill in my chest instantly flared into a blazing fury. The Empress let out a cold, mocking laugh.

"Cease your futile struggling. To prolong the life of the heir apparent is your ultimate honor and destiny."

Raising my head, I looked straight into her eyes.

"Does Your Ladyship know which kind of people we street fortune-tellers despise the most?"

The Empress knitted her brows in disdain. A grim smile touched my lips.

"We despise those who refuse to pay their debts yet still demand to alter their fate."

Without another word, I slammed my blood-stained palm against the floor. Instead of following the trajectory of her malevolent formation, I traced the lines in reverse. My master had once taught me that all formations in this world fear only two kinds of people: those who do not fear death, and those who have not yet collected their payment and therefore refuse to die. The bloody rune abruptly froze mid-pulse. The Empress's expression shifted slightly, a flicker of unease crossing her features.

"What are you doing?"

Gritting my teeth, I answered.

"You used my life as the anchor of your formation, so I shall use my own blood to reverse it. Your Ladyship, isn't it ironic? My master taught me many things, but he neglected to teach me how to walk obediently to my death."

The grand array began to violently reverse. Crimson light crawled outward from beneath my feet in every direction, and the oppressive nether energy that had been crushing down upon me was sucked backward into the very core of the formation. Panic finally broke through the Empress's composure.

"Guards!"

Silence answered her. The exterior of the hall was eerily, deathly still. I offered a cold smile.

"Has Your Ladyship forgotten? Although the Third Prince is on the brink of death, he is not yet dead. He has never been a forgiving man; since you sought to take my life, he will certainly remember this debt."

The Empress whirled around in shock. The heavy palace doors were kicked open with a thunderous crash. Xie Linnyuan stood on the threshold, his complexion deathly pale, his gaze chillingly murderous. Behind him stood the imperial guards, followed closely by the Emperor himself. The color drained entirely from the Empress's face.

"Your Majesty?"

Xie Linnyuan stepped slowly into the hall, holding a soul-guiding thread in his hand. The other end of the cord was tied securely around my little finger. He looked down at me, his voice slightly hoarse.

"Shen Guiyi, didn't you say that with you here, I would not be allowed to die?"

I forced my head upward, mustering whatever strength I had left.

"Your Highness, had you arrived even a moment later, I would have had to charge you an extra fee for this."

Xie Linnyuan let out a faint, breathless chuckle. In the next instant, he drew his sword and slashed cleanly through the anchor of the formation. The bloody runes exploded instantly, and the earthenware jar beneath the altar shattered into a thousand pieces with a deafening crash as a violent ghostly gale swept through the hall. A Dan rose slowly from the swirling black mist, her empty eye sockets no longer looking at me, but fixing instead upon the Empress, the woman who had imprisoned her for sixteen long years. She did not cry. She merely cradled her old, dim offering lantern and walked forward, step by deliberate step. Wherever the pale light fell, the Empress's bloody runes crumbled instantly into ash. The harrowing, agonized screams of the Empress echoed endlessly through the sacred hall. The outer courtyard was in complete turmoil as the Crown Prince, leading the Eastern Palace guards, forced his way into the main hall, only to collide directly with the surrounding imperial guards. Far from foolish, he immediately dropped to his knees and launched a preemptive counterattack.

"Father Emperor! The Third Younger Brother has mobilized the imperial guards without authorization, colluding with a demonic sorceress and using wicked arts to frame the Empress Mother. I am the crown prince; today he dares to surround the Eastern Palace, and tomorrow he will surely dare to stage a coup!"

The Emperor's expression darkened heavily, remaining silent. Xie Linnyuan's hand tightened around the hilt of his sword. Seeing this, the Crown Prince's smile widened with confidence.

"Would Father Emperor truly rather place your trust in a vagrant street fortune-teller than in your own son?"

Before his voice had even faded, Shen Mingdao emerged from behind the crowd. Her garments were still damp, and her face remained starkly pale, yet she knelt with an unyielding posture.

"Your Majesty, this humble subject can bear witness. Her Majesty the Empress once sent people to take this subject's blood, claiming it was to test marital compatibility, but in truth, it was to test whether this subject could serve as a human shield to deflect a fatal destiny away from the Crown Prince. Today in the imperial garden, someone also pushed this subject into the water, attempting to transfer a curse of dark fate onto my body."

The Crown Prince's face darkened menacingly.

"Shen Mingdao, how dare you frame the heir apparent?"

Shen Mingdao trembled slightly, but she refused to back down.

"This subject dares not frame the crown prince. This subject merely fears death, and fears even more that others might be forced to die in Your Highness's stead."

My master was also supported into the hall by attendants, holding an old, weathered wooden box in his arms.

"Your Majesty, within this box lies the blood-written testament left behind by Liu Fuyi years ago. Before her death, she came to seek out this humble commoner, stating that the Crown Prince's destiny was flawed, and someone had used the flesh and blood of her own womb to sacrifice to a dark formation. Even then, she knew she could not survive three more days, and fearing she would never pass the palace gates, she concealed this blood letter beneath my divination stall. She instructed that if she died, I must wait for the return of one who could see ghosts."

The color vanished entirely from the Crown Prince's face.

"Absurd lies!"

My master let out a harsh, cold laugh.

"This old man may be blind of sight, but not of heart. Upon that blood letter rests the personal seal of the Eastern Palace, alongside the crest of the Duke of Cheng'en's estate. Whether it is genuine or forged, Your Majesty may verify it with a single glance."

At that exact moment, the vengeful spirit of A Dan crushed the fragments of the jar further, revealing a blackened destiny tablet rolling out from the bottom. Carved clearly onto the back of the tablet was the ancestral crest of the Duke of Cheng'en. The Crown Prince finally lost his last vestige of composure. With her hair disheveled and wild, the Empress collapsed heavily onto the floor, her lips moving to repeat the same frantic phrase over and over.

"Impossible... her soul should have been scattered into oblivion long ago..."

The Emperor closed his eyes. After a long, agonizing silence, he finally opened them again, his gaze aged and terrifyingly cold.