The Female Emperor Goes Completely Crazy

The next day.

Just as the sky was turning a hazy gray.

Wu Lingxiao woke up. Looking at Zhou Xubai, who was still fast asleep beside her, covered in marks, an intense wave of nausea and panic instantly surged in her heart.

What had she done?

"Damn it..."

Wu Lingxiao got up in a wretched state, fleeing Weiyang Palace as if escaping.

She didn't dare to go to Ganlu Hall; she didn't even dare to think of Ye Xuan's face.

She locked herself in the Imperial Study, using the mountain of memorials to numb herself.

Meanwhile.

The sun was high in the sky.

Zhou Xubai woke up.

He touched the empty space beside him. Feeling the afterglow of last night's madness, a triumphant cold sneer curled the corners of his lips.

"Ye Xuan..."

"It's time for you to wake up from your dream."

Zhou Xubai got up, bathed, and dressed. He specifically chose the most magnificent phoenix robe, deliberately exposing the hickeys Her Majesty had left on his neck last night.

Then, leading a grand and imposing retinue, he headed straight for Ganlu Hall.

Inside Ganlu Hall.

Ye Xuan was still waiting.

He had reheated the cold osmanthus cakes over and over again, his eyes constantly fixed on the main doors.

Finally, the doors opened.

But the person who walked in was not the older sister dressed in coarse cloth.

Instead, it was the Empress, Zhou Xubai, dressed in luxurious clothes and glowing with a radiant complexion.

The light in Ye Xuan's eyes instantly dimmed.

He frowned, offering no salute, and just said coldly, "What are you doing here? You are not welcome here."

"I am here to offer my congratulations."

Zhou Xubai dismissed his attendants, leaving only himself.

He walked up to Ye Xuan, sizing him up with a gaze reserved for a pathetic worm.

"Congratulations?" Ye Xuan looked at him warily.

"Yes." Zhou Xubai covered his mouth and chuckled softly. He deliberately pulled at his collar, revealing that piercingly bright red hickey on his neck:

"Last night, Her Majesty stayed at Weiyang Palace and showed me great affection. Her Majesty said she had never been as satisfied as she was last night."

Ye Xuan only felt that the hickey was somewhat glaring, but he didn't care about what the Female Emperor did.

He said indifferently:

"So what? That is your business, it has nothing to do with me. I just need to live my own life."

"Your life?"

As if he had heard a joke, Zhou Xubai stepped closer to Ye Xuan:

"Your so-called life is just waiting for that lowly Embroidery Maid to bring you food?"

Ye Xuan's expression changed: "You are not allowed to insult her!"

"Insult?"

Zhou Xubai shook his head in pity:

"Ye Xuan, you are truly too pathetic. So pathetic that even I almost can't bear it."

"Do you really think there are such coincidences in this world? That an Embroidery Maid from the laundry house could freely enter and exit a forbidden area? That she could treat Body Integration realm imperial guards as if they were nothing? That she could casually take out Heaven-tier cultivation techniques?"

Ye Xuan's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought of these suspicious points. He just hadn't dared to think deeply about them.

"You... what exactly are you trying to say?" Ye Xuan's voice began to tremble.

Zhou Xubai leaned close to his ear and, in the gentlest of voices, spoke the cruellest truth:

"I want to tell you that there is no such thing as an Embroidery Maid in this world."

"That older sister who accompanies you every day, who made vows of eternal love with you, who you treat as your most precious treasure..."

"Is the Female Emperor of Great Xia, Wu Lingxiao."

Boom!

Ye Xuan felt as if a clap of thunder had exploded in his mind.

In that instant, his world collapsed.

"No... impossible..." Ye Xuan stumbled backward, his face as pale as paper: "You're lying to me! You lunatic! You want to drive a wedge between us!"

"Drive a wedge?"

Zhou Xubai burst into laughter, laughing brazenly:

"Ye Xuan, look in the mirror and see how stupid you look! Her Majesty is just playing you for a fool!"

"She told me herself that this was all her setup. She felt that killing you directly was boring. She wanted to make you fall in love with her, make you dead set on that fictional Embroidery Maid, and then tell you the truth just to see you break down!"

"No! I don't believe it! Sister loves me! We made a vow! One lifetime, one couple!" Ye Xuan roared hoarsely, tears bursting from his eyes.

"One lifetime, one couple?"

Zhou Xubai looked as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

Pointing at the hickey on his neck, his eyes were incredibly vicious:

"Open your eyes wide and look carefully! What is this?"

"This is what your so-called 'good sister', your wife who swore to remain faithful to you, left on my body last night!"

"While she was moaning in pleasure beneath me, she was even mocking you!"

Zhou Xubai vividly imitated Wu Lingxiao's tone:

"She said: 'That fool really thinks I would keep myself pure just for him? I was only coaxing him for fun. I am the Emperor, I sleep with whoever I want to sleep with. Does he even deserve it?'"

"Furthermore..."

Zhou Xubai's gaze fell on the duck belt around Ye Xuan's waist, which he treasured so much, and mocked him to the utmost:

"That belt is also just some trash she carelessly ruined while embroidering. She originally wanted to throw it away, but then felt it was a perfect match for a piece of trash like you. To think you actually wear it like it's a treasure."

"Ye Xuan, look at how pathetic and cheap you are."

Every word condemned his heart.

Every sentence drew blood.

Ye Xuan stood there blankly.

It was as if his soul had been forcefully ripped out, leaving only an empty shell.

Countless scenes flashed through his mind.

Sister's domineering tone, the majesty she occasionally revealed, the past she never mentioned...

And that question she had asked—

[What if in the future... I have no choice?]

So that was it.

There was no 'having no choice'.

It was all a scam.

All a cruel joke.

It was all... dirty.

"Ah..."

Ye Xuan opened his mouth, wanting to scream, but no sound came out.

He lowered his head, looking at the duck belt around his waist, looking at everything he had treated as a treasure for the past three years.

Dirty.

So dirty.

"Haha..."

Ye Xuan suddenly laughed.

He laughed through his tears, his smile ten thousand times uglier than crying.

"So... it's like this."

"I understand. I understand it all now."

Looking at the completely broken Ye Xuan, the twisted sense of pleasure in Zhou Xubai's heart was immensely satisfied.

"Enjoy it slowly, Ye Xuan."

Zhou Xubai patted Ye Xuan's shoulder and swaggered off with a loud laugh.

On this day, Ye Xuan did not move.

He just stood there in place, from when the sun was high in the sky until it set behind the western mountains.

Until night fell.

A familiar aura appeared outside Ganlu Hall once again.

Wu Lingxiao had arrived.

She had struggled in the Imperial Study for an entire day, but ultimately couldn't resist her longing for Ye Xuan.

She harbored a fluke mentality, thinking that as long as she didn't say anything, no one would know about what happened last night.

She deliberately changed into freshly washed coarse hemp garments, wore a gentle smile on her face, and carried Ye Xuan's favorite roast chicken as she pushed open the hall doors.

"Little Ye, Sister is here."

"I'm sorry, there was some business at home yesterday, so I couldn't come to accompany you..."

Wu Lingxiao said as she walked into the hall.

However.

What greeted her was not that warm embrace.

But a piercing, mournful gleam of cold steel!

Squelch!

The completely defenseless Wu Lingxiao was stabbed right in the chest by a sword.

Although she was in the Tribulation Transcendence realm and an ordinary fine steel sword couldn't possibly harm her physical body.

But this sword strike felt as if it had pierced right through her soul.

Clang!

The food box in her hands fell to the ground, and the roast chicken rolled out, becoming covered in dust.

Wu Lingxiao stared blankly at Ye Xuan in front of her.

At this moment, where was there even the slightest trace of Ye Xuan's usual gentleness?

His hair was disheveled, his eyes bloodshot, and the muscles on his face twisted in extreme agony and hatred.

His gaze looked as if he were staring at a devil with whom he shared a sea of blood and bitter vengeance.

"You..."

Wu Lingxiao opened her mouth, just about to ask why.

Ye Xuan spoke.

His voice was hoarse and torn, carrying a despair that wept blood:

"Should I call you Embroidery Maid..."

"Or should I call you... Your Majesty!"

Wu Lingxiao's pupils suddenly contracted.

The blood in her entire body froze in that instant.

He knew.

He knew everything.

"Little Ye... you... listen to me explain..."

Wu Lingxiao panicked, completely panicked. She reached out, wanting to grab Ye Xuan's hand. "It's not what you think... I am truly..."

"Don't touch me!"

Ye Xuan let out a shrill scream, avoiding her hand as if avoiding a plague.

"You are so dirty..."

Ye Xuan looked at her, tears of blood flowing from his eyes:

"Your hands have touched someone else."

"Your mouth has kissed someone else."

"Your body... was under someone else just yesterday..."

"Wu Lingxiao! How could you be so disgusting? How could you bow to heaven and earth and swear vows with me, while simultaneously sleeping with another man? How could you tear my heart out and throw it on the ground to trample on it again and again?!"

"What sins did I, Ye Xuan, commit in my past life to encounter a devil like you?"

Each of his interrogations was like a blade of death by a thousand cuts, slicing Wu Lingxiao until she was mangled and torn.

"No... it's not... I..."

Wu Lingxiao wanted to defend herself, but found she had nothing to say.

Because it was the truth.

"Didn't you want to play?"

Ye Xuan suddenly quieted down.

He looked at the sword in his hand, the sword he had prepared for three years to "commit suicide."

"Have you seen enough of this three-year play?"

"If you haven't seen enough, then I will perform the final act for you."

Ye Xuan looked at Wu Lingxiao, a smile of relief curling at the corner of his lips:

"Wu Lingxiao, congratulations. You win."

"You have truly destroyed me!"

Before his voice faded.

Ye Xuan flipped his wrist, reversing the sword's edge.

Without the slightest hesitation.

Without the slightest attachment.

"Squelch!"

The longsword pierced through his heart.

Fresh blood spurted out, splashing all over Wu Lingxiao's face.

At this moment.

Wu Lingxiao's world went black.

"No!"

The Ganlu Palace once again descended into utter chaos.

Countless panaceas and spirit pills, countless transfers of true essence.

Because there was a precedent, Wu Lingxiao reacted extremely fast this time, forcibly saving Ye Xuan whose heart had been shattered.

To prevent him from committing suicide again, she directly used the strongest restriction to seal his divine sense, knocking him unconscious.

Looking at the man on the bed with a face as pale as paper, whose brows were tightly furrowed and shedding tears even in his coma.

Wu Lingxiao's heart shattered into powder.

She knelt by the bed, holding that already cold hand, crying like a helpless child.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

"I was wrong... I was really wrong..."

But apologies were useless now.

Right at this moment.

Wu Lingxiao abruptly raised her head.

In her eyes, the sorrow faded, replaced by monstrous killing intent and madness.

Zhou Xubai!

Other than him, no one knew the truth. Other than him, no one could force Ye Xuan to his death in such a short time.

"Boom!"

Wu Lingxiao transformed into a streak of flowing light, smashing through the palace doors, rushing straight toward the Empress's bedchamber.

Inside the Empress's bedchamber.

Zhou Xubai was sitting in front of the mirror.

He looked at himself in the mirror, his appearance unchanged but his heart dead as ashes, softly humming an unknown tune.

"Bang!"

The heavy doors were violently blasted open.

Wu Lingxiao charged in like an Asura from hell, grabbing Zhou Xubai by the neck and slamming him viciously against the wall.

"What did you say to him?"

Wu Lingxiao roared, her eyes bleeding:

"Why did you do this?! Why did you ruin him?"

Zhou Xubai's face turned purple from the choking, his breathing difficult.

But he did not struggle.

He looked at the furious Wu Lingxiao, revealing a tragic yet vindicated smile on his face.

"Cough, cough..."

Zhou Xubai struggled to squeeze out a voice:

"Your Majesty... didn't you say... you were just playing?"

"Your servant... merely helped Your Majesty... speed up the process of the game... Why... why is Your Majesty blaming your servant now?"

Wu Lingxiao was stunned.

The hand choking Zhou Xubai involuntarily loosened a little.

Yes.

Those were the words she had said herself.

That was the lie she had spun herself for the sake of her ridiculous pride.

So, the one who truly ruined Ye Xuan was not Zhou Xubai.

It was herself.

It was her arrogance, her vanity, her dishonesty.

"Hahahaha..."

Zhou Xubai slid to the floor, gasping heavily for air, yet laughing with incomparable desolation:

"As your wedded spouse... I have finally seen it clearly."

He raised his head, looking at the soul-crushed Wu Lingxiao, his eyes carrying the last trace of attachment and despair:

"Wu Lingxiao, you're finished."

"You have truly... fallen in love with that Ye Xuan."

"You fell in love with someone you personally forced to death. In this lifetime, don't ever think about getting his heart back."

Hearing these words.

Wu Lingxiao's gaze instantly turned bone-piercingly cold.

She slowly lowered her head, looking at Zhou Xubai, her voice no longer holding any warmth:

"So what if I did?"

"I love him. Therefore, anyone who hurts him must die."

"Including you."

Zhou Xubai froze for a moment, then closed his eyes, two streams of clear tears rolling down:

"Then... kill me."

"Dying by your hands is still better than watching you love someone else."

Wu Lingxiao raised her hand.

But at the moment it was about to fall, she stopped.

Kill Zhou Xubai? That would be letting him off too easily.

"Pass down my decree."

Wu Lingxiao turned around, her voice as indifferent as ten-thousand-year profound ice:

"Abolish Zhou Xubai's position as Empress."

"Banish him... to the Northern Frontier."

"Since you like to fight so much, then go fight for your life against the people of the Heavenly Wolf Divine Dynasty."

Zhou Xubai abruptly opened his eyes, looking at that heartless back in disbelief.

The Northern Frontier?

That was a meat grinder. Being banished there was sending him to his death.

"Wu Lingxiao..."

Zhou Xubai shouted tremblingly:

"Hundreds of years of affection as husband and wife... do you truly not care about it at all?"

Wu Lingxiao did not stop her footsteps, not even turning her head:

"The moment you told Ye Xuan those words, we were already enemies."

Three days later.

Northern Frontier, Sunset Pass.

Yellow sand filled the sky, corpses littered the plains.

Zhou Xubai, wearing a battered suit of armor, stood amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. He was completely exhausted.

For these three days, he charged at the very frontlines like a madman. He didn't want to live anymore; he only wanted to use death to end this tragedy, to use death to carve a scar into the heart of that Empress.

"The deposed Empress of the Great Xia?"

From the sky, a thunderous sneer echoed.

A Tribulation Transcendence stage mighty figure of the Heavenly Wolf Divine Dynasty hovered in midair, playfully looking down at that teetering silhouette.

"I heard you were divorced by the Empress for the sake of a male favorite? How truly pathetic."

"Go to hell!"

The mighty figure casually struck out a palm.

A terrifying palm print blotted out the sky and the sun, descending with an aura of destruction.

Zhou Xubai did not dodge.

He slowly raised his head, looking in the direction of the capital.

The wind and sand blurred his eyes.

In a trance, he saw once again the high-spirited young girl Wu Lingxiao from back then, riding a white horse and smiling as she reached out to him: "Xubai, in the future, I shall share this empire with you."

"Lingxiao..."

A gentle smile tugged at the corners of Zhou Xubai's mouth as two lines of clear tears rolled down his cheeks.

"If there is a next life... I do not wish to enter the imperial family again."

The palm print descended.

The earth shattered.

This Empress of Great Xia, who had once been the mother of the world and possessed peerless elegance, did not even leave a corpse behind, turning into a speck of dust amidst the wind and sand of the Northern Frontier.

The news traveled back to the imperial capital.

Inside the Sweet Dew Palace.

Wu Lingxiao sat by the bed, looking at the still unconscious Ye Xuan.

Listening to the eunuch's report, her face remained expressionless, not even batting an eyelid.

"He's dead?"

"Yes."

"Understood. Step down."

After the eunuch withdrew.

Wu Lingxiao lowered her head, gently stroking Ye Xuan's pale cheek, her fingers trembling.

Zhou Xubai was dead.

The person who had witnessed all her lies was dead.

However, Ye Xuan's heart was also dead.

"Little Ye..."

Wu Lingxiao leaned over Ye Xuan's body, her tears silently soaking the bedding.

"Sister has chased the bad guy away..."

"Wake up, please?"

"As long as you wake up, I will give you the throne, I will give you my life... I beg you, please don't abandon me..."

Outside the window, it was another year of heavy snow.

Only this time.

There would no longer be anyone who would embroider a crooked pair of mandarin ducks in the snow for her.

Ye Xuan woke up.

But he did not truly wake up.

He was like an exquisite puppet drained of its soul, sitting by the window every day, staring at the square patch of sky for an entire day at a time.

He did not speak, did not cultivate, and did not even blink.

No matter what Wu Lingxiao said or did, he turned a blind eye to it all.

At first, Wu Lingxiao still maintained the arrogance of a female emperor.

"Ye Xuan, We have already avenged you."

Wearing her most magnificent dragon robe, Wu Lingxiao stood before him, attempting to use her power and status to awaken his attention.

"That bitch Zhou Xubai, We banished him to the Northern Frontier and left him without an intact corpse. He was the one who sowed discord; he was the one who harmed us. Now that he is dead, the greatest obstacle in this inner palace is gone."

"We have already drafted an edict to crown you as the Empress of Great Xia. From now on, you will be the master of this inner palace, and We shall share the empire with you!"

She genuinely believed this was a bestowal of grace.

The position of Empress, the pinnacle that countless men dreamed of.

However, Ye Xuan only slowly turned his head and gave her a glance with those murky, dead eyes.

There was no pleasant surprise in his gaze, no being moved, not even hatred.

There was only the kind of indifference one would have when looking at a stone by the roadside.

As if saying: So what?

This disregard thoroughly enraged Wu Lingxiao.

"Speak!"

She grabbed Ye Xuan's chin, forcing him to look at her, her voice shrill.

"We are speaking to you! We crowned you as Empress, why do you not thank Us for Our grace?"

"What are you still being so pretentious for? We have already killed Our first spouse for you; We have already humbled Ourselves so much! You are nothing but an ant at the Qi Condensation realm, what right do you have to give Us attitude?"

Ye Xuan still did not speak.

He merely looked calmly at the furious female emperor, and then slowly closed his eyes.

"Good... Good!"

Trembling all over with anger, Wu Lingxiao violently swept all the food on the table onto the floor.

"You want to play dumb, do you? We will grant your wish!"

"Men! Pry his mouth open! If he won't eat, force it down his throat!"

Those were nightmarish days.

When Ye Xuan went on a hunger strike, she had the eunuchs forcefully feed him.

When Ye Xuan refused to sleep, she used spiritual energy to force him into a slumber.

She used the most brutal methods to maintain the vital signs of his physical shell.

She thought that as long as the person was alive, his heart would eventually return.

But every time after being force-fed, Ye Xuan would vomit violently. He vomited until bile came out, until his face was covered in tears, yet he still did not utter a single word.

Her fury gradually wore away amidst the day-after-day silence.

Wu Lingxiao finally realized that her power and her cultivation base were completely useless in front of this person who was dead set on dying.

She began to panic.

She was afraid that Ye Xuan would truly wither away silently just like this.

Thus, the imperious female emperor began to learn how to bow her head.

She no longer referred to herself as We, and started calling him Little Ye, attempting to call back the warmth of the Embroidery Maid era from back then.

"Little Ye, look, this is your favorite osmanthus cake, We... I made it with my own hands."

"Little Ye, it's snowing, let's go build a snowman, okay?"

"Little Ye, say a word to me... even if it's scolding me, that's fine too..."

Inside the Sweet Dew Palace.

Wu Lingxiao squatted by Ye Xuan's knees, holding his freezing hands, looking up with red-rimmed eyes, her voice humbled into the dust.

"I beg you, please don't torture me like this anymore."

"I know I was wrong, I really know I was wrong. I shouldn't have lied to you, shouldn't have treated you like that."

"Pay some attention to me, okay?"

Finally.

In the deep winter of this year.

Ye Xuan, who had been like a mute all along, finally opened his mouth.

His voice was incomparably hoarse from not speaking for too long:

"Your Majesty."

Hearing these two words, Wu Lingxiao was wild with joy, tears instantly bursting from her eyes: "I'm here! I'm here! Tell me, whatever you want, I will give it to you!"

Ye Xuan turned his head, watching a sparrow flying past outside the window, his voice as light as smoke:

"Either you kill me."

"Or... let me leave the palace."

The smile on Wu Lingxiao's face instantly froze.

It was this sentence again.

It had been three years; after going around in circles, he still wanted to leave.

At this moment, the panic and despair in Wu Lingxiao's heart instantly transformed into extreme sickliness and madness.

"Leave the palace?"

She slowly stood up, her head lowered, shadows obscuring her face, making it impossible to see her expression.

One could only hear a bloodcurdling laugh squeezed out from between her teeth:

"Hehe... Let you leave the palace?"

"Let you out to do what? To go find that Dao companion who can accompany you for a lifetime as a couple?"

"I won't allow it!"

Wu Lingxiao abruptly raised her head, her eyes as crimson as blood. Like a demon crazed, she lunged forward and hugged Ye Xuan tightly:

"You are mine! You are mine for this entire lifetime!"

"You want to fly away and be with another woman? In your dreams!"

"We would rather lock you to death on this bed than ever let you leave Us by even half a step!"

Clank!

It was the sound of clashing metal.

Wu Lingxiao had truly gone mad.

She had personally forged a pair of chains made from ten-thousand-year profound iron and refined gold.

The golden chains were locked to the golden pillar of the dragon bed on one end, and on the other end, they were locked around Ye Xuan's thin and deathly pale ankle.

"Look."

Wu Lingxiao stroked the icy chains, wearing a sick and satisfied smile on her face:

"This way, you won't be able to go anywhere."

"We... will be together forever."

Ye Xuan looked down at the chains on his foot.

He did not struggle, nor did he show any anger.

Only the light in his eyes completely extinguished.