Xiong Shaoqing clapped his hands and strolled over to the two deep pits.
He raised a foot and planted it on Dai Weisi's face, then turned toward Zhu Zhuqing, who had remained standing where she was, her face pale. His tone became exceptionally gentle.
"Zhu Zhuqing, come here."
Zhu Zhuqing's delicate body trembled slightly, but under the man's encouraging, unwavering gaze, she bit her red lip and walked over, step by step.
"Shaoqing..."
"For more than twenty years, the Star Luo Empire's damned rules of imperial competition have been like a blade hanging over your head. They hunted you for so long and drove you through one brush with death after another."
Xiong Shaoqing reached out and placed a gleaming dagger in her hand, his deep eyes looking straight into hers.
"Today, I'm putting that blade in your hands. Your nightmares, your past-you'll sever them yourself."
She looked at the cold dagger in her hand, then at her elder sister, clinging to life like a heap of mud on the ground.
Zhu Zhuqing's hand shook uncontrollably around the dagger.
This was her own elder sister, bound to her by blood thicker than water.
Even knowing how little familial affection existed in the Star Luo Imperial Family, even knowing that the other woman had tried to take her life countless times, when the moment came to kill her own flesh and blood with her own hands, the last shred of compassion in Zhu Zhuqing's heart still made her hesitate.
"Zhu Zhuqing... my dear little sister... don't kill me!"
Seemingly noticing Zhu Zhuqing's hesitation, Zhu Zhuyun clutched at it like her last lifeline. She lay on the ground, frantically kowtowing and crying herself hoarse. "I'm your own elder sister!"
"I was forced to hunt you before. It was the family's rules... please,