Newcomer Contribution Award (Bonus Chapter for 1,000 Monthly Votes!)

The Imperial Capital.

Inside a palace in the mountain outskirts.

A great black bed floated in midair like a cloud.

Someone was crying on the bed.

"Big Sister Qing."

He was sobbing his heart out.

"I train desperately every day, from morning till night, without a moment's rest. I haven't eaten a bite of food in three months. I've lived on Grain-Repelling Pills."

"—Why do people still question me?"

A woman's voice answered, comforting him gently, with even a hint of ingratiation.

But his voice grew angrier:

"Big Sister Qing, I've worked so hard. I've handled every matter so well that no one could find fault."

"My cultivation keeps rising, too."

"But what happened?"

His voice suddenly rose. "I still can't beat the Crown Prince!"

"It isn't your fault. No one in this world could have done better than you, First Highness." The woman hurried to soothe him, her voice thick with stifled gasps and pain.

It was as though she had poured oil on the fire—

"Big Sister Qing."

"He actually dug up something from ten years ago and sent people looking for clues, hoping to find something wrong with me!"

"Fine, I'm not as good as the Crown Prince. But—that was ten years ago! What did I do wrong?"

"Is he even human?!"

The young man roared.

A series of faint cracks followed as bones broke.

Dead silence.

A long while passed.

A naked woman's corpse fell from the cloud and hit the floor.

Her body lay in a strange shape. One glance was enough to tell that her arms and legs had been broken, and her torso twisted into an inhuman position.

Though life had left her, her eyes remained wide open, beautiful as amber. Her face was one no one would forget.

Yet her status was