Chapter 191 The Nightmare of Cining Palace

Chapter 191 The Nightmare of Cining Palace

Inside the Cining Palace, the doors and windows were tightly shut, and the sun never shone.

The air was filled with a strong, nauseating smell of bitter medicine, mixed with stale incense, creating a strange odor reminiscent of rotting corpses.

"Splash—"

A medicine bowl was violently swept to the ground, and the dark brown medicine splattered all over the screen embroidered with phoenixes.

"Get out! All of you, get out of here! This medicine is completely useless! My face still hurts! It's still itchy!"

The Empress Dowager sat in front of her dressing table, roaring hysterically.

The gauze on her face had been torn off.

That once well-maintained, elegant face is now completely ruined.

Although the deep, bone-revealing scratches had scabbed over, the resulting scars resembled grotesque, twisted, purplish-red centipedes, crawling haphazardly across her cheeks and even causing her eyes and mouth to droop slightly.

With such a face, she could scare a child to tears, let alone be considered an empress.

"Your Majesty, please calm your anger... Your Majesty, please calm your anger..."

The palace maids trembled with fear and knelt on the ground, but none of them dared to look up at the ghostly face.

Just then, a series of hurried and frantic footsteps broke the deathly silence of Cining Palace.

"Empress Dowager! Your Majesty! Something terrible has happened!"

A trusted eunuch stumbled in, his face deathly pale, as if he had just seen a ghost.

"News has come from the North... from the North!"

The young emperor Zhao Yuan, who had been sitting silently to the side, suddenly raised his head and asked in a trembling voice, "How is the battle going? Is it...is it that my uncle has been defeated?"

He prayed basely in his heart.

He prayed that the man who weighed heavily on him like a mountain would die under the swords of the Northern Rong people.

However, the eunuch's next words shattered his illusions completely.

"Defeat? No... it's a great victory! An unprecedented victory!"

The eunuch knelt on the ground, his face contorted in grief, his voice filled with despair:

"The scouts report that the Regent has led his army straight to the heart of the enemy, setting fire to their camps! The Northern Rong... the Northern Rong have been destroyed!"

"What?!" The Empress Dowager and the Emperor exclaimed in surprise at the same time.

"Not only that..."

The eunuch swallowed hard, his whole body trembling.

"The Northern Rong wolf lord Tuoba Xiao was captured alive by the prince. The prince didn't kill him, but instead tied him to a pillar, summoning a sky full of vultures..."

"I heard... I heard that Tuoba Xiao was pecked alive until he was reduced to bones! His death was extremely gruesome! He wasn't even left with a complete corpse!"

"For example... right now, the Prince is leading an army of 100,000 back to the capital, and is less than a hundred miles away!"

Clang—

A crisp sound.

The jade seal in the young emperor's hand—

The square seal, which he usually loved to play with and which symbolized supreme power, slipped from his hand like a hot potato and crashed heavily onto the gold brick floor, chipping off a corner.

"Destroy the country... feed it to the vultures..."

Zhao Yuan slumped in the chair, his pupils dilated, his teeth chattering.

"He even dared to feed the wolf king to birds... He's even capable of destroying a country..."

"Mother! My uncle is not human! He's a devil!"

Zhao Yuan suddenly broke down in tears, threw himself at the Empress Dowager's knees, and clutched her skirt tightly:

"He'll definitely kill me when he comes back! He must know I helped you deal with that woman! Mother, save me! I don't want to die!"

The Empress Dowager looked at her son, who was crying his eyes out, and a hint of disgust flashed in her eyes, but more so, a desperate madness.

"What are you crying for! You spineless coward!"

The Empress Dowager slapped the Emperor across the face, stunning him.

She turned around and looked again at her unrecognizable self in the mirror.

The centipede-like scars looked particularly grotesque in the dim light, as if mocking her defeat.

Pei Yunjing is coming back.

That madman has returned with the power to destroy a nation.

Just as the emperor said, Pei Yunjing will show no mercy this time he returns.

He will settle everything, including the account of that poisoned wine.

"What's there to be afraid of?"

The Empress Dowager stretched out her withered fingers and stroked the terrifying face in the mirror, a chilling smile slowly curving her lips:

"I... have one last card."

"What card?" The little emperor covered his face, staring blankly at his mother.

The Empress Dowager turned around, her sinister eyes flashing with a desperate, mad light:

"My son, do you still remember what that dead spy shouted at the Changsheng Bridge?"

The young emperor paused for a moment, then recalled, "It seems to have been said... that my aunt is... a rat demon?"

"That's right."

The Empress Dowager laughed sinisterly:

"Rumors are spreading throughout the capital now, saying that Pei Yunjing won this time because he married a sorceress who knows magic. The common people are ignorant and are most afraid of such strange and supernatural things."

"Since Pei Yunjing is coming back to celebrate..."

The Empress Dowager abruptly stood up, her eyes flashing with murderous intent:

"Then I will present him with a grand gift at this victory celebration banquet!"

She beckoned to her trusted eunuch, her voice chillingly cold:

"Go to the back mountain of Huguo Temple and invite 'Master Xuanji' to come out of the mountain!"

"We say that there is a strong demonic aura in the palace. Please, Master, you must hold a ritual in the Hall of Supreme Harmony on the day the Regent returns to the capital to exorcise the demon and protect the righteous path!"

"Mother, what are you going to do..." The young emperor stared wide-eyed in horror.

"I will make that vile woman a demon in front of the whole world!"

The Empress Dowager's face was contorted with excitement, resembling that of a demon.

"When the time comes, the master will perform a ritual to expose that demoness. I will then use the 'ancestral family law' as an excuse to burn that vile woman to death on the spot!"

"The moment that woman dies, Pei Yunjing will go mad."

"A regent who goes mad in public and tries to kill the king for the sake of a vixen—everyone has the right to kill him!"

The Empress Dowager clenched her fists, her nails digging deep into her flesh:

"At that time, my five hundred axemen, whom I have already laid in ambush, will be able to rightfully kill this madman!"