Three days later, outside the black-iron prison gate of the Ice Prison, Li Yunjing looked at the figure curled up behind the bars, his brows slightly furrowed.
Princess Yuehua wore a dusty gray prison uniform. A layer of frost seemed to cover the face that should have been breathtakingly beautiful, and only her eyes shone with startling brilliance, like stars quenched in ice.
"Vice Sect Leader Li, what brings you here? Have you come to send me on my way?"
The woman's voice was as hoarse as rust, yet carried a stubborn pride that refused to bend.
Li Yunjing waved away the disciples from the Law Enforcement Hall and lightly tapped the runes on the prison gate with his fingertip. "Liu Ruyan said you once saved her."
"So it was her."
Princess Yuehua abruptly raised her head. A flash of surprise crossed her eyes, followed by a cold laugh. "I saved her back then only because I thought she had good Root Bone and wanted to recruit her as a subordinate. Unfortunately, she ran off."
"At least you're honest."
Li Yunjing took a dossier from his sleeve. "According to the Ledger of Merits and Demerits, you didn't directly commit evil, but you can't escape responsibility for the imperial family's blood slaves."
The dossier recorded the secret that the Ghost Moon Kingdom's imperial family had refined Blood Pills from living people. Dark-red bloodstains marked the ink.
"I... am a cultivator of the Ghost Moon Kingdom. Almost all of us cultivate demonic arts."
The woman suddenly laughed, her laughter echoing through the empty cell. "If I hadn't kept them, they would have refined me into a puppet when I was twelve."
She suddenly rose and grabbed Li Yunjing's wrist through the bars. Her palm was even colder than the stone walls of