Chapter 242: A Different Soul
The cold wind suddenly stilled, and the night pearls blazed brightly. The Holy Maiden Empress appeared before her, glanced at the two iron chains around her ankles, and said, "The tea is good. What about the person?"
The young girl stared at her warily, saying nothing.
The Holy Maiden Empress looked at her and said, "You were willing to sacrifice the True Dragon Blood between your brows to help Chen Changsheng. Did you truly think you could hide your intentions from anyone?"
The young girl set down her teacup, her expression indifferent. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The Holy Maiden Empress said calmly, "Whether you want him to retrieve something for you, deliver a message back to the Dragon Clan, or find a way to break the King's Strategy's imprisonment array—none of it is possible. He is too young. To fulfill your demands, you would need to wait at least another two hundred years."
Only then did the young girl realize that all her plans were under this terrifying woman's control. Her expression grew even colder. "So what?"
"Chen Changsheng has said many things in front of you. Since you've heard them, you should know he will struggle to live past twenty. Therefore, your plan has virtually zero chance of success."
The Holy Maiden Empress said, "If you do something for me, I will release you in ten years."
The young girl's vertical pupils contracted, making her appear even more eerie. "What thing?"
The Holy Maiden Empress clasped her hands behind her back and looked up at the dim, barely visible light above. After a moment of silence, she said, "Find out for me what kind of person Chen Changsheng truly is."
The young girl was stunned, unable to comprehend what she had just heard.
Chen Changsheng was just Chen Changsheng. What else could he be?
"I want to know exactly how old he is, what's wrong with the illness in his body, why the Daoist Priest adopted him, and how much of what the Pope said to him in the Li Palace is true or false."
The Holy Maiden Empress withdrew her gaze and stared quietly at the young girl. An indescribably terrifying pressure instantly filled the vast underground space, and the frost on the ground began to turn to powder.
The young girl's voice trembled slightly. "How could I possibly know all that?"
"Because he trusts you. That is very important," the Holy Maiden Empress said, looking at her.
The young girl seemed eager to explain, speaking urgently, "I don't even know why he trusts me!"
The Holy Maiden Empress said calmly, "Perhaps it's because when he first met you, he had already said too much. Now he doesn't mind telling you everything."
The young girl was silent for a moment. "That makes no sense."
The Holy Maiden Empress gazed at her steadily. "There is another most important reason."
The young girl was puzzled. "What reason?"
The Holy Maiden Empress said lightly, "You are not human."
The young girl frowned, displeased.
"If... the Demon Lord and the Pope stood before me, whose words do you think I would believe?"
The Holy Maiden Empress asked her, her expression a mix of amusement and seriousness.
The young girl was deeply confused.
The greatest enemy and the most reliable ally—was there even a need to consider it?
The Holy Maiden Empress gave her no time to think. "What do you say?"
The young girl looked at the chicken bones wrapped in oil paper and the remnants of tea in the cup, blinked, and said, "Fine. I agree. Release me, and I will follow him, reporting all his movements to you."
She reached behind her, pulled out the iron chains, and looked at the Holy Maiden Empress seriously. "You'll have to break this thing for me first. Thank you."
The Holy Maiden Empress looked at her calmly. "Why go through all that trouble?"
With that, she walked up to the young girl, raised her right hand, and reached toward her brow, as if to gently touch that blood-red line.
The young girl's vertical pupils shrank sharply, sensing immense danger.
The fleeting cunning in her eyes from moments ago had vanished, replaced by nothing but fear and unease.
Her black hair rose into the air, crackling softly.
Her lips parted slightly, ready to roar in fury.
But there was nothing she could do—not even evade the Holy Maiden Empress's hand.
The Holy Maiden Empress's right hand descended as if casually, yet it was like the heavens and earth closing together, impossible to avoid.
A soft snap.
Her right hand landed on the young girl's brow, covering the blood-red line.
The young girl's body trembled violently. Her face turned pale, her vertical pupils began to blur, and she appeared to be in extreme agony.
After a moment, the Holy Maiden Empress slowly withdrew her hand.
With her movement, a black dragon shadow was pulled out from the blood-red line between the young girl's brows!
The black dragon shadow was about half a foot long and as thick as a finger. It struggled desperately but could not escape the Holy Maiden Empress's grasp, inch by inch leaving the young girl's brow!
This black dragon shadow was both solid and ethereal, as if alive, yet clearly not a living creature.
It was not a miniature black dragon—it was a dragon soul!
The Holy Maiden Empress had forcibly ripped the dragon soul from the black dragon's body!
In the end, the black dragon soul was completely extracted.
The blood-red line between the young girl's brows grew even redder, and a full blood bead gradually formed on its surface, as if it had truly become a cinnabar mole.
With the dragon shadow removed, the young girl became extraordinarily weary, collapsing weakly to the ground.
The Holy Maiden Empress took a jade ruyi from her waist.
Everyone in the world knew that the Holy Maiden Empress had two ornaments she never removed.
In her hair was an ebony hairpin, its tip a touch of crimson as if it had drunk its fill of blood, the tail end chipped and worn, yet never replaced—for it was the third-ranked item on the Hundred Artifacts List, the One More Hairpin!
The other ornament was the ruyi she always wore at her waist. No one had ever known its wondrous use, that it could rival the ebony hairpin.
In the next moment, the Holy Maiden Empress poured the black dragon's soul into the ruyi. This seemingly simple act, like something a street magician might do, was in truth the most supreme divine technique in the world!
The jade ruyi instantly came to life, transforming into a small black dragon.
The small black dragon lay quietly in the Holy Maiden Empress's palm, appearing very weak, but its eyes burned with intense, endless venom as it stared into hers.
"You are of the Dragon Clan, your bloodline naturally condensed. Soul separation and soul seizure, as long as it doesn't last long, will do you no harm. Besides, if you hadn't willingly given up your True Dragon Blood, even I couldn't have taken one of your three dragon souls. So if you want to resent anyone, you should resent yourself first."
The Holy Maiden Empress looked at the small black dragon in her palm and said calmly, "A separated soul cannot return. You know well what a cruel fate awaits you. So, on this journey to the Zhou Garden, take care of yourself."
...
...
The spring night was as bright as day. Beneath the starlight, the green trees seemed even more vibrant. The Holy Maiden Empress left the well's edge and strolled idly through the thick spring air near Beixin Bridge, her demeanor relaxed.
Not far away was a carriage. As she approached, the black rhinoceros pulling it knelt humbly—or more accurately, in awe—and with it knelt a pale-faced middle-aged man.
The river of history still flowed. Some people had not yet died, their names not yet vanished, but they were already destined to become the most unforgettable landmarks in that river. Zhou Tong, for instance, could already be confirmed as the most infamous torturer and treacherous minister in tens of thousands of years. Whether judged by the cruelty of his torture methods or the number of ministers he framed to death, he undoubtedly ranked first.
In the eyes of officials and common folk, Zhou Tong was a very mysterious man. Except for important occasions like the Grand Examination, he generally stayed in the quiet, gloomy Qingli Department office in the southern city. On the rare occasions he went out, he was always accompanied by numerous powerful guards, rarely meeting people. Even when meeting colleagues at court or interrogating prisoners, he habitually wore a black veil.
Generally, only women—especially beautiful women—wore black veils. Zhou Tong's peculiar habit earned him much ridicule. Many thought this torturer's methods were too vicious, his actions too shameless, that he had no face to show his hometown elders or the heavens and earth, so he kept his face covered year-round. Of course, such ridicule or curses only circulated in private, never reaching his ears.
People probably never imagined that Zhou Tong was just an ordinary-looking middle-aged man. It was only because he spent years in the great prison and always wore that black veil that his face was so pale.
"Your Majesty, I don't know how to handle Chen Changsheng."
Zhou Tong said in a low voice. "Considering the relationship with the Li Palace, torture cannot be used."
The Holy Maiden Empress smiled and said nothing.
The entire continent knew that Lord Zhou Tong was the Holy Maiden Empress's most loyal and most rabid dog. Many assumed he must be an extremely obedient dog.
But that was not the case, because Zhou Tong understood dogs well.
If the master told the dog not to bark and it didn't, that wasn't obedience. On the contrary, if the master told the dog not to bark, but it still barked wildly at noises outside the door, the master might scold you in front of guests and pretend to hit you, but inwardly he would still be pleased, thinking you were good.
This kind of disobedience was true obedience.
Zhou Tong knew exactly when to bark, when to stay silent, when to lunge forward and bite fiercely, and when to sink his teeth directly into the throat of the sovereign's enemy.
The Holy Maiden Empress had always been satisfied with him. Even though he had committed so many evil deeds and become an indelible stain on the Great Zhou Dynasty's golden age, she had never thought of throwing this dog into a pot to boil and letting those he had harmed eat him. She was satisfied that this loyal hound, unlike Xu Shiji, would never be tamed. And since she didn't even care about the judgment of history, why would she mind the gossip of the world?
"Do you think I am very eager to learn something from Chen Changsheng?"
The Holy Maiden Empress asked calmly.
Strangely enough, even after she assumed the regency, she rarely referred to herself as "I, the Emperor." She only did so in front of Zhou Tong. The ministers were accustomed to calling her Her Holiness the Empress, but Zhou Tong insisted on calling her Your Majesty.
Zhou Tong said, "Since Your Majesty has let him live this long, it must be because you want him to say something."
In this world, only the dead never speak.
The Holy Maiden Empress was silent for a moment before saying, "I do want to know some things."
Zhou Tong said in a low voice, "Torture cannot be used... perhaps... death?"
The Holy Maiden Empress burst into laughter at this, her voice clear and loud. "I once asked Mo Yu a question. Now I can ask you the same."
Zhou Tong said, "Please instruct me, Your Holiness."
The Holy Maiden Empress said, "Do you believe there are truly people in this world who are not afraid of death?"
Zhou Tong thought very seriously for a long time. "No."
The Holy Maiden Empress smiled. "I used to not believe it either, but later I found that some people truly are not afraid of death."
Before Zhou Tong could speak, she continued, "If a person does not fear death, how can you threaten them with it?"
Zhou Tong pondered deeply but could not understand. "Why is Chen Changsheng not afraid of death?"
"Because he is a true person, a sincere person, a person of true nature and true feelings."
The Holy Maiden Empress clasped her hands behind her back and looked toward the National Academy. There was another reason she did not state—that young man had always been accompanied by death. She thought silently, with such true feelings, true nature, and fearlessness of death, if Chen Changsheng could live past twenty, would he truly become the second Zhou Dufu?