Title: Reborn as the Poison Duchess: The System Crowned Me Empress
Epilogue: The Phoenix Ascends
Three days later. The Meridian Gate.
It was raining again, a heavy, freezing autumn downpour that turned the execution grounds into a swamp of brown mud.
But this time, I was not kneeling in the dirt, waiting for the executioner's blade. I was the one standing on the high, sheltered imperial platform under an immense, golden silk umbrella held by my servants. I wore the dark, magnificent, heavy robes of the Crown Princess—soon to be Empress, as the terrified, sickly old Emperor had formally announced his immediate abdication in favor of Li Jin.
Kneeling in the freezing mud below me were Shen Ze and Lu Yao.
They wore the filthy, lice-ridden white rags of death row prisoners. Their hands and feet were bound in heavy iron chains. Behind them stood the towering executioners, casually pouring cheap wine over their massive, heavy broadswords.
"Wan'er! Wan'er, I beg you!" Shen Ze wailed, crawling toward the wooden stairs of the platform, the mud caking his hollow, sunken cheeks. "We were husband and wife! We shared a bed for ten years! I loved you! I swear I loved you! It was her! Lu Yao bewitched me with witchcraft! Please, just let me live! I will be your dog! I will sweep your floors!"
Lu Yao, her face entirely ruined by the burn scars and her hair falling out in massive clumps from the terror of the dungeon, shrieked at him like a harpy.
"You liar!" she spat, coughing up blood. "You said you only used her for her family's money! You said she was an ugly, masculine shrew! Sister! Sister, spare me! We share the same father! The same blood runs in our veins! I was just a pawn!"
I looked down at them from the pinnacle of the world.
The phantom memory of the Crane Red poison burning my throat, the memory of my brothers' severed heads—it finally, truly faded away into the mist. I felt no pity. I felt no anger. I felt nothing but a cold, incredibly satisfying emptiness.
"The Lu family has no bastard daughters," I said softly, my voice carrying over the sound of the rain. I raised my hand and let it drop. "Execute them."
I didn't wait to watch the heavy blades fall. I didn't need to hear the sickening crunch of steel through bone. I turned my back, my golden hairpins chiming their final, victorious song, and walked toward the grand, twelve-horse imperial carriage waiting for me.
As I stepped inside the opulent, incense-filled cabin, two incredibly strong arms reached out and pulled me into a warm, possessive embrace.
Li Jin, wearing the blindingly brilliant golden dragon robes of the Emperor, pulled me onto his lap. He buried his handsome face into the crook of my neck, breathing in the scent of my jasmine perfume, his arms locking around my waist with the strength of a man who would burn the world before letting me go.
"Is it done, my Empress?" he murmured, his breath hot against my ear.
"It's done," I whispered, leaning back against his broad, indestructible chest, listening to the steady, powerful beating of his heart.
[Ding! Ultimate Quest Complete: Ascend to the Pinnacle of Power.] [Host has successfully altered destiny. Vengeance achieved. The 'Empress Maker System' has completed its primary directive.] [System Shutting Down... May the Empress reign for a thousand years.]
The translucent blue screen in my vision shattered into a million glittering shards of light and vanished forever.
Outside, the heavy thud of two heads hitting the mud signaled the end of my nightmares.
I smiled, looking out the carriage window as we began our slow, majestic ascent toward the Forbidden City. In my past life, I was a foolish, loyal, broken wife who died in a cold, forgotten palace.
In this life, I am the poison that cured a dying dynasty.
And no one in this world will ever dare look down on me again.
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