Yandere Empress

"Insolent!"

The head eunuch standing to the side was frightened out of his wits by Ye Xuan kicking the door open. Subconsciously, he prepared to scold him in his shrill, duck-like voice.

"All of you, get out!"

Wu Lingxiao didn't even spare the eunuch a glance. Her phoenix eyes, usually majestic and cold, were now glued to Ye Xuan. Deep within her gaze, a chilling fanaticism surged at a visible rate.

"Yes! Yes!" The grand councilors and the eunuch looked as though they had been granted amnesty. Their faces pale, they stumbled and crawled out of the imperial study, thoughtfully and tremblingly closing the broken, precarious door behind them.

The massive imperial study instantly fell dead silent, leaving only the two of them.

Wu Lingxiao's breathing grew heavy. She stared fixedly at Ye Xuan, her chest heaving violently, a sickly flush actually appearing on her cheeks.

She walked down the white jade steps one by one, the clicking of her heels on the floor making her look exactly like a hunter approaching her beloved prey. Arriving in front of Ye Xuan, she slowly reached out her hand, wanting to caress the face she had yearned for day and night.

Her fingertips trembled violently in mid-air. It was definitely not out of anger, but from an extreme, suppressed excitement that was about to erupt.

Her pupils dilated slightly, and a twisted, obsessed smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"Disgusting?"

"How could it be disgusting?"

She acted like a young girl lost in an illusion, her voice sickeningly sweet, even carrying a hint of a coquettish whine at the end.

"Little Ye, didn't you used to love it most when I wore this outfit? You said the dragon embroidered on it was so beautiful, much better than that crooked-necked duck I embroidered..."

Smack!

A crisp slap rang out. Unconcealed disgust flashed through Ye Xuan's eyes as he suddenly raised his hand, fiercely slapping away her outstretched fingers.

"Don't call me Little Ye!"

Ye Xuan's voice was bone-chillingly cold, like ten-thousand-year-old ice, and his eyes were filled with condescending mockery.

"That Little Ye who was completely fooled by you died eight hundred years ago."

"The one standing before you now is Ye Xuan."

"The Ye Xuan you forcibly abducted, imprisoned, and humiliated!"

Wu Lingxiao's hand was swatted away heavily, freezing in mid-air. A red welt appeared on the back of her hand, but she seemed completely numb to the pain. Instead, she slightly curled her fingers, as if savoring the warmth of Ye Xuan's palm.

She stared blankly at the absolute resolve and disgust in Ye Xuan's eyes. The infatuated smile on her face gradually melted away like wax, her muscles beginning to twitch uncontrollably. In its place came a suffocating gloom, like that of an evil spirit from the abyss.

"Eight hundred years ago?"

Wu Lingxiao tilted her head at a bizarre angle, her neck bones letting out a soft crack.

Terrifying bloodshot lines surfaced in the whites of her eyes as she seemed to chew on the words.

"Yes, it has been eight hundred years."

"Ever since you fled the palace, ever since you died in my arms, I have searched for you for eight hundred whole years!"

Suddenly, Wu Lingxiao lunged forward like a maddened lioness, her hands clamping down on Ye Xuan's shoulders like iron tongs!

Her long, sharp nail guards dug deeply into Ye Xuan's flesh, blood instantly dyeing his clothes red. Yet she remained completely oblivious to it, pressing her face close to his, her voice turning shrill and hysterical.

"Do you know how I have lived these past eight hundred years?"

"Every day, every night, I thought of you. I thought of you until I went mad, until I wanted to destroy this entire world!"

Large drops of tears rolled down from her bloodshot eyes, but her cracked lips formed a smile of hair-raising ecstasy.

"Now, I've finally found you, finally captured you back into the palm of my hand..."

"And you actually tell me I'm disgusting?"

Ye Xuan stood there quietly, letting her nails pierce his flesh. He endured the agonizing pain in his shoulders without so much as a frown.

He looked directly into Wu Lingxiao's utterly deranged eyes, which were a mix of tears and wild joy, his tone remaining flat.

"Wu Lingxiao, what exactly do you want to do?"

"Since you've captured me, whether you want to kill me, torture me, or keep me as your plaything, just give it to me straight."

Hearing this, Wu Lingxiao gasped sharply. As if electrocuted, she quickly released her grip on Ye Xuan. Staring at the blood on his shoulders, a flash of sickly panic crossed her eyes.

Forcibly suppressing the tyrannical urge to tear everything apart in her heart, she stumbled back a step.

Taking a deep breath, she reached out her trembling hands and nervously straightened her slightly messy imperial crown and collar.

When she raised her head again, an extremely gentle, yet scalp-numbing smile had somehow reappeared on her face.

"I don't want to kill you, nor do I want to torture you."

"What I want has always been very simple."

Wu Lingxiao stared unblinkingly at Ye Xuan, a near-paranoid, incurably stubborn light flickering in her eyes.

"I want to be with you, just the two of us, for the rest of our lives."

Hearing these words.

Ye Xuan froze for a moment.

Then, in this oppressive imperial study, as if he had heard the most absurd and comical joke in the world, he finally couldn't hold back and burst into unbridled laughter.

"Hahahaha!"

"Just the two of us for the rest of our lives?"

Pointing at Wu Lingxiao, Ye Xuan laughed so hard he bent over backward, tears even forming at the corners of his eyes. His laughter was filled with the ultimate mockery.

"Wu Lingxiao, is your brain broken?"

"It was one thing when you used those words to trick that fool eight hundred years ago, but you're actually bringing them up now?"

"Look at your harem, three thousand beauties, countless male concubines. And you're talking to me about being a devoted couple?"

"That was in the past!"

Wu Lingxiao eagerly interrupted him. She lunged forward like a believer terrified of being abandoned, an incredibly humble plea in her eyes.

"That was when I was ignorant, when I made mistakes."

"But over these past eight hundred years, I have changed!"

She forcefully tore open her bright yellow collar, revealing her pale neck, desperately wanting to prove her innocence.

"Ever since you left, I have kept myself pure for eight hundred whole years! I have never favored another man since!"

"Ye Xuan, I am clean now, I belong only to you!"

"As long as you are willing, this Great Xia Empire, these thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, and I myself, are all yours!"

Wu Lingxiao opened her arms, reaching out to embrace Ye Xuan once more. She looked up, her face covered in tears, her eyes filled with fanatical expectation.

She waited for Ye Xuan's response. She stubbornly believed that as long as she fulfilled her original promise, as long as she proved her loyalty, this man whose heart she had utterly broken would change his mind and take her into his arms again.

However.

Ye Xuan was not moved.

He merely looked at Wu Lingxiao quietly, as if looking at a hopeless monster who had gone completely mad for love.

In his eyes, there was not a single spark of love, only deep alienation and coldness.

"It's too late."

Ye Xuan's thin lips parted slightly, mercilessly spitting out these words.

Wu Lingxiao's leaning body suddenly stiffened, her expression changing drastically. "What did you say?"

Ye Xuan turned around, mercilessly turning his back to her.

Standing with his hands behind his back, he gazed at the majestic "Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" painting hanging on the wall of the grand hall. His voice was calm yet cruel to the extreme:

"Wu Lingxiao, when it comes to feelings, just because you look back doesn't mean I will always be waiting for you in the exact same place."

"Eight hundred years is too long."

"So long that I have already forgotten you, so long that... I have already fallen in love with someone else."

Wu Lingxiao froze, swaying unsteadily like a marionette that had lost its strings.

"You fell in love with... someone else?"

Her voice trembled violently. Like a wild beast chewing shattered bones in its throat, the words were forced out through her clenched teeth:

"Who is it?"

"Who!"

The terrifying aura of a Mahayana realm, half-step True Immortal erupted instantly like a volcano! In a split second, the priceless red sandalwood furniture and precious ancient tomes inside the imperial study were crushed into a cloud of fine dust by this raging fire of jealousy!

Ye Xuan stood at the absolute center of the storm, his robes snapping loudly in the shockwaves, yet he remained as immovable as a solitary peak rooted in the core of the earth.

He slowly turned back, looking directly at the Empress, whose features were twisted with jealousy and who was driven mad by fury.

Since things had come to this, there was nothing left to hide.

"I already have someone."

Looking at Wu Lingxiao, a trace of extreme tenderness miraculously flashed through Ye Xuan's deep eyes.

It was a light he would never show when facing Wu Lingxiao, a light that only revealed itself when he mentioned that woman:

"It is Bai Qianqiu."

"Bai... Qian... qiu..."

Wu Lingxiao bit down hard on those three syllables.

In her mind, the name she had seen earlier on the Emperor's Ark instantly surfaced, along with the image from the recording stone obtained through soul-searching—a woman in white, as aloof and cold as high mountain snow, yet who showed a trace of breathtakingly beautiful shyness only to Ye Xuan.

"It really is her!"

Wu Lingxiao's facial features instantly collapsed and twisted. Her originally peerless and majestic face, worthy of ruling the world, was now bulging with veins, becoming as hideous as a jealous evil spirit crawling out of hell:

"The Holy Maiden of the Sword God Palace... Bai Qianqiu!"

"Good! Very good!"

She clapped her hands madly, letting out a shrill, piercing laugh:

"So, she is the... fated heroine you have been looking for?"

Watching her crazed demeanor, Ye Xuan nodded without any evasion, not showing the slightest hesitation.

Wu Lingxiao's face darkened. Her meticulously styled imperial hairpiece, a symbol of supreme royal power, completely unraveled under the rampage of her spiritual energy.

A few stray strands of black hair hung over her forehead, covering half of her bloodshot eye. It made her look nothing like an Empress who ruled over tens of thousands of miles, but rather a madwoman consumed by love turned to hate and towering resentment.

"Bai, Qian, qiu..."

She repeated the name sinisterly once more, the corners of her mouth slowly and stiffly curling up bit by bit to reveal her stark white teeth. The smile was bizarre and terrifying to the extreme:

"A good name. Lasting through the ages, uniting the martial world? Does she want to be the mistress of this world?"

"No."

Ye Xuan looked at her, his eyes clear and resolute:

"She is not like you. She does not love empires, nor does she love power. She is just a sword, a pure and clean sword. In my eyes, she is ten thousand times more precious than this throne and this world."

"Shut up!!"

Hearing the words 'pure' and 'clean', the most inferior and hated reverse scale in the depths of Wu Lingxiao's heart was viciously ripped open. She suddenly let out an inhuman shriek and forcefully swung her wide sleeves.

A golden streak of spiritual energy whipped fiercely against the ground beside Ye Xuan like a venomous snake.

The hard, top-grade golden floor tiles instantly shattered. A sharp piece of flying rubble shot up, directly slashing across Ye Xuan's handsome cheek, oozing a glaring trail of blood.

But Ye Xuan did not even blink, merely staring at her coldly.

Wu Lingxiao looked at the dark red wound on Ye Xuan's cheek, and the tyranny and killing intent in her eyes froze instantly as if turned to ice. It was replaced by an extremely sickly, even somewhat neurotic, panic and heartache.

She gasped, instinctively wanting to rush over and wipe it away regardless of everything else.

But Ye Xuan's cold, disgusted, and guarded gaze acted like an invisible wall, forcing her to abruptly halt her steps.

"You... why must you provoke me?"

Wu Lingxiao gripped her own hair tightly, her voice trembling violently. It carried a tone of extreme, aggrieved sobbing mixed with a chilling ruthlessness, blending into a highly bizarre pitch:

"You clearly know I cannot bear to hear this! You clearly know it will drive me mad! Do you want to die?"

"No, I will not let you die."

Suddenly thinking of something, Wu Lingxiao lowered the hands gripping her hair, her eyes instantly becoming incredibly sinister and cruel.

She slowly raised her hand. A bright bloody light flared in her palm, revealing a blood-colored jade slip that emitted a terrifying aura akin to a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood—it was the Great Xia Dynasty's supreme military tally, the 'Blood Dragon Tally', used to mobilize the nation-guarding iron cavalry.

"Ye Xuan, you love her, don't you?"

"You think she is clean, pure, that she is your white moonlight, don't you?"

She muttered to herself like a deranged lunatic, her eyes gradually turning vacant before quickly being filled with a darker, even more hair-raising excitement.

"Since you love her so much..."

"Since you will marry no one but her..."

Wu Lingxiao suddenly raised her head, roughly wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes with the back of her dusty hand. A smile of extreme cruelty, full of a desire for destruction, appeared on her pale face:

"Then it's simple."

"I will grant your deep love."

"I have already joined forces with Demon Venerable Ziyao."

"That bitch Ziyao might want to snatch you too, but she wants to see the Sword God Palace destroyed even more. We have reached an agreement. From this moment on, the allied forces of Great Xia and the Heavenly Demon Sect will march together to the extreme north."

"We are going to trample the Sword God Palace flat."

"We are going to drag out that woman named Bai Qianqiu, and no matter what... we will kill her!"

Ye Xuan's pupils contracted sharply, his heart sinking heavily.

The worst-case scenario had happened after all.

"You dare!"

Ye Xuan took a fierce step forward. For the first time, substantial killing intent erupted in his eyes, as cold as a blade:

"Wu Lingxiao, this is between us. Must you drag the innocent into this?"

"Must you have her die?"

Seeing Ye Xuan finally show emotional fluctuations for another woman, Wu Lingxiao felt no fear; instead, she felt a twisted sense of satisfaction.

"Innocent?"

Wu Lingxiao sneered, vicious light flashing in her eyes as she approached Ye Xuan step by step, bringing her face close to his:

"A woman who stole my man is considered innocent?"

"She deserves to die! Suffering a death by a thousand cuts would hardly relieve the hatred in my heart!"

"Moreover..."

Wu Lingxiao morbidly licked her cracked lips, a malicious light flickering in her eyes that longed to destroy all beautiful things:

"Killing her directly would be letting her off too easily."

"Since she is your fated heroine, since she is your pure and flawless jade."

"Then I will drag her back, cripple her cultivation, and sever the tendons in her limbs."

"After that, I will find a hundred of the filthiest, most depraved beggars."

"I will have them serve her day and night, right in front of your eyes!"

"I will make you watch as your beloved woman is reduced to a worthless whore for anyone to use! I will make you see just how pure her body truly is!"

"Shut up!"

Ye Xuan was completely consumed by rage.

Even though his cultivation had been completely sealed, the murderous aura forged from countless battles deep within his bones erupted without reservation. It was so overwhelming that it actually forced Wu Lingxiao, despite being a Half-Step True Immortal, to instinctively freeze for a moment.

"Wu Lingxiao, if you dare touch a single hair on her head, I will make you regret it for all eternity!"

Recovering her composure, Wu Lingxiao showed no fear whatsoever. Instead, she let out a soft, delighted chuckle.

She stared in infatuation at Ye Xuan's face, now vividly animated by his fury. She thoroughly enjoyed the sensation of provoking him and manipulating his emotions—because at the very least, in this moment, his eyes were entirely focused on her, even if all they held was hatred!