The Bloody Truth

Taiji Palace.

This was the supreme center of power in the Great Xia Imperial Palace.

When Ye Xuan stepped into the great hall, Wu Lingxiao was sitting upright on the Nine-Dragon Golden Nanmu Throne, the very symbol of absolute power, reviewing memorials.

She wore a bright yellow five-clawed golden dragon robe and a flat-topped imperial crown. The twelve strings of beads dangling from it veiled her peerless, kingdom-toppling beauty.

Wu Lingxiao was an extremely intelligent woman. She was well-versed in the art of politics and knew even better how to use her own body.

Back then, her betrayal of Ye Xuan had nothing to do with the Great Dao of Immortality or cultivation resources. She had simply been blinded by lust. She coveted the strong physique of Holy Son Yeyou and the ultimate thrill of an immoral, illicit affair.

Hearing footsteps, Wu Lingxiao put down her vermilion brush and looked up.

"Husband, you are here."

Wu Lingxiao stood up. The majesty on her face instantly melted away, replaced by a dignified yet charming smile.

She walked down from the throne, her steps as graceful as blooming lotuses, and came before Ye Xuan, giving a slight curtsy.

At this moment, however, Ye Xuan was like a drowning man desperately needing to grasp the last piece of driftwood.

He stared fixedly at Wu Lingxiao.

"Lingxiao."

Ye Xuan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the trembling in his heart. His voice was somewhat hoarse from extreme tension. "I am going to ask you a question. You must answer me truthfully."

Wu Lingxiao sharply sensed that something was wrong with Ye Xuan's mood. Her long, narrow phoenix eyes flickered slightly, instantly entering a state of extreme vigilance, but on the surface, she remained as gentle as water. "Please ask, Husband. Lingxiao will hide nothing."

Ye Xuan stared dead into her eyes, pressing her word by word:

"When you went behind my back and got together with Holy Son Yeyou, was there some unseen force controlling you?"

"Did someone send you?"

"As long as you admit it, I will forgive you."

Silence.

The Taiji Palace fell into a brief, deathly silence.

Ye Xuan held his breath, every muscle in his body tensed to the limit. He stared intently at Wu Lingxiao's face, waiting for something.

However.

In the next second.

Wu Lingxiao's breathtakingly beautiful phoenix eyes suddenly widened.

Immediately after, Ye Xuan clearly caught a flash of wild ecstasy deep in her eyes!

There was absolutely no resistance on Wu Lingxiao's face, nor any stiffness.

Almost unable to wait, she grabbed Ye Xuan's hands, her expression instantly transforming into one of extreme grievance and excitement.

"Husband! You finally understand!"

With tears in her eyes and her voice trembling slightly from excitement, Wu Lingxiao did not hesitate to loudly play along with Ye Xuan's words:

"Yes, there indeed was an unseen force controlling me!"

"I am the Empress of Great Xia! How could I possibly fall for that useless, flashy trash, Holy Son Yeyou? My infidelity was entirely against my will!"

"Every time I got close to that man, I felt like my body wasn't my own, and my will was completely suppressed! Someone was harming me in secret, trying to sow discord in our marriage, Husband."

While tearfully accusing this "fabricated controller," Wu Lingxiao opened her arms in an extremely natural and agitated manner, pulling Ye Xuan into a tight embrace.

She buried her head in Ye Xuan's chest, greedily breathing in his scent. Her voice carried the wild ecstasy and coquettishness of someone who had finally cleared their name. "Husband... you are finally willing to forgive me? We will never be apart again, right?"

Held tightly in Wu Lingxiao's embrace, Ye Xuan did not hug her back.

His hands hung stiffly in mid-air.

His entire being was completely stunned.

Ye Xuan's eyes slowly, slowly widened. His pupils reflected the dazzling luminous pearls on the dome of the Taiji Palace, but the light in the depths of his eyes revealed an unprecedented, extreme bewilderment.

There was no anger. No bitterness. No despair.

Only pure, mind-numbing bewilderment.

"What... what is actually going on?"

Ye Xuan looked down at Wu Lingxiao in his arms, who was still feigning sobs while the corners of her mouth had already curled up in a smug arc.

He had seen it clearly—that trace of calculation flashing through Wu Lingxiao's eyes just moments ago.

This was the instinctive reaction of an incredibly smart woman lying and playing along the moment she realized her husband had handed her a perfect way out.

She was never controlled at all! She was just lying!

But...

But if even a smart person like Wu Lingxiao could, for the sake of self-interest, unhesitatingly insist there was a controller...

Then why...

Why did Xia Lengyue, amidst the hellish, agonizing torture of having her bones and marrow extracted, prefer to suffer death by a thousand cuts every day rather than tell this lie?

Why did Ziyao, in the face of absolute forgiveness, prefer to curse herself as a selfish beast rather than take the out he offered her?

Ye Xuan's breathing became incredibly rapid, his chest heaving violently as large drops of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

If there really was a mastermind behind the scenes, why did they place a gag order on Xia Lengyue and Ziyao, but leave out Wu Lingxiao?

If there was no mastermind at all and everything was just his own blind guessing, then Wu Lingxiao's playing along was a normal reaction. But what on earth was the deal with Xia Lengyue and Ziyao's almost pathological, genuinely sincere confessions that even defied their survival instincts?!

"You... what are you all..."

Like he had been electrocuted, Ye Xuan violently shoved Wu Lingxiao away from his embrace.

Wu Lingxiao staggered from the push, nearly falling over. She looked up in astonishment. "Husband? What's wrong?"

Ye Xuan did not look at her.

He stared fixedly into the void, clutching his head with both hands, his ten fingers digging deeply into his hair, his pupils trembling violently.

"Something is wrong... everything is wrong..."

Ye Xuan muttered to himself, his voice filled with extreme fear and bewilderment toward the unknown.

The night wind cut like a knife, blowing wildly into Ye Xuan's robes.

He did not know how he managed to flee the Taiji Palace.

Along the way, palace maids and eunuchs knelt on the ground, not even daring to breathe loudly.

They only saw the usually unfathomable Consort Xuan now looking like a wandering ghost drained of its soul, stumbling along with bloodshot eyes, a chilling neuroticism permeating his gaze.

"Bang!"

Ye Xuan forcefully pushed open the doors to his own sleeping quarters.

There were not many candles lit inside, and the dim light cast shadows on the walls like ghosts baring fangs and brandishing claws.

The maidservant Ying'er was kneeling by the small table, carefully using silver scissors to trim the soothing incense in the gilded Boshan censer.

Hearing the rough sound of the door opening, she shuddered in fright and turned her head like a startled rabbit.

"M-Master?"

Ying'er's face paled. She quickly put down the silver scissors and approached on her knees to greet him.

When she clearly saw Ye Xuan's face, twisted from extreme confusion, she was so frightened that tears welled up in her eyes. "Master, what's wrong? Why do you look so pale? Are you feeling unwell? This servant will go call..."

"Don't go!"

Ye Xuan lunged forward and grabbed Ying'er's thin shoulders.

His strength was astonishingly great, almost enough to crush her bones.

He stared intently at Ying'er, his pitch-black eyes now bloodshot and looking utterly ferocious.

"Ying'er, let me ask you something." Ye Xuan's breathing was heavy, every word squeezed through his teeth, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression. "Answer me honestly, look me in the eyes!"

Ying'er gasped in pain but forced herself to hold back any cries.

Looking into Ye Xuan's vicious eyes, she trembled like a leaf in the wind. "M-Master, please ask... Ying'er would absolutely not dare to hide a single word!"

"Have you... ever cheated on me?" Ye Xuan clenched his jaw, asking this utterly absurd question.

Ying'er was completely stunned.

Her clear almond eyes filled with pure astonishment and bewilderment. She shook her head frantically like a rattle drum, tears streaming down her face. "Master! What are you talking about! This servant is absolutely loyal to you. My body and soul are yours. I don't even dare to cast a second glance at another man's face, how could I... how could I possibly do something so shameless!"

Seeing Ying'er's terrified but normal reaction, the madness in Ye Xuan's eyes did not fade; instead, it grew even more intense.

He suddenly leaned close to Ying'er, the distance between them so short that he could clearly feel her rapid breathing.

"What if!"

Ye Xuan sharply raised his voice, a hysterical paranoia seeping into his tone. "I'm saying what if! What if one day, you betrayed me, you cheated on me!"

"Why would that happen? Would it be because some unseen force was manipulating you?! Would it be because someone forced you to do it?"

Ye Xuan's eyes were filled with a chilling sense of anticipation. He gripped Ying'er tightly, his nails even digging into her flesh. "Tell me! Is it?!"

Ying'er was thoroughly brought to tears by his deranged appearance.

She sobbed, her body uncontrollably shrinking back, but under the pressure of Ye Xuan's blade-like gaze, she still trembled and thought about it with extreme seriousness.

Then, with a face full of tears, Ying'er shook her head.

"Master... if... if that day really ever comes..."

Ying'er's voice trembled with fear, but her tone was earnest. "No one could force me. If I really did such a thing... it could only mean that I willingly degraded myself, that I was greedy for vanity, that I was shameless."

"If that day ever comes, then I would deserve to die by a thousand cuts, and it would have nothing to do with anyone else."

Ye Xuan's hands suddenly froze.

He slowly released Ying'er's shoulders, losing all his strength in an instant, and slumped down onto the cold jade floor.

"Deserve it... willingly degraded..."

Ye Xuan muttered to himself, staring blankly at his empty hands. The madness in his eyes gradually settled, turning into a bottomless, deathly stillness and bewilderment.

It was too similar.

Ying'er's answer, in terms of logic, was exactly the same as Xia Lengyue's and Zi Yao's answers.

They had all taken all the blame, all the baseness, entirely upon themselves.

But... the feeling was completely different!

Ying'er's answer carried grievance, fear, and a resistance to the very hypothesis. It was the instinctive reaction of a normal person under extreme fright.

But what about Xia Lengyue? And Zi Yao?

When they answered that question, the mechanical and deathly stillness on their faces, which defied all biological survival instincts...

They were just like puppets!

"Heh... hahahaha!"

Ye Xuan suddenly covered his face, letting out a spine-chilling low laugh in the spacious, gloomy bedchamber.

He finally understood.

"Could it be..."

"Only Zi Yao and Xia Lengyue... were sent by that entity high above?"

"And Wu Lingxiao..."

At the mention of this name, a cold smile of extreme mockery and disgust curled the corners of Ye Xuan's mouth.

"She is not a chess piece. She is not being manipulated by anyone."

"She cheated purely because her nature is lustful and her desires are insatiable."

Everything made sense now.

The truth was just this absurd, cruel, and nauseating.

"Master..."

Ying'er looked at Ye Xuan, who was sometimes laughing wildly and sometimes twisting his face in agony. Terrified, she shrank into a corner, shivering. "What is wrong with you? Please don't scare Ying'er..."

Ye Xuan slowly stood up from the floor.

He straightened his somewhat messy robes. The madness on his face had completely withdrawn, replaced by an unprecedented, extreme calmness.

"Go pack your things."

"It is time for us to leave."

Ying'er widened her eyes, her face full of disbelief and deep helplessness.

Even though she was just a maidservant, she saw things more clearly than anyone else in this deep palace.

"Master... you cannot leave."

Ying'er's eyes grew red as she shook her head in despair. "Do you still not understand? They... they will absolutely never let you leave."

Ye Xuan sneered, "Rest assured. I will soon commit unforgivable acts against them, and they will definitely let me go."