Chapter 11: Deal with the Devil
"If I had a death wish, Your Highness, I would have stayed engaged to your idiot nephew," I replied, meeting his terrifying, soul-piercing gaze head-on without blinking.
Ye Wuchen’s eyes narrowed. A flicker of genuine amusement danced in the ice. "Bold. But foolish. I have killed Imperial Physicians, Grandmasters, and Alchemists for offering me false hope. What makes you think a sixteen-year-old girl, known only for her petty tantrums, can cure a poison that has baffled the realm for five years?"
"Because I am not an Imperial Physician," I said.
I stepped forward, entirely ignoring the four shadow guards who tensed around me, their hands on their hilts. I reached into my sleeve and pulled out a small jade cup. Inside was pure, undiluted Spring of Life water, mixed with the crushed petal of a Heaven-Burning Lotus I had hastily grown in my pocket dimension on the carriage ride over.
I placed the cup on the stone table before him. The liquid boiled silently, radiating an intense, fiery spiritual energy that visibly warped the cold air.
Ye Wuchen stared at the cup. The ambient, freezing temperature in the pavilion immediately began to recede, pushed back by the sheer heat of the elixir. His breath hitched.
"Drink it," I commanded.
"You dare order the Regent?!" a guard barked, drawing his blade with a metallic scrape.
Ye Wuchen raised a single, trembling hand. The guard instantly froze. The Regent looked at me, assessing my soul, searching for deception. He saw no fear, only absolute, unshakable confidence.
With pale fingers, he took the jade cup and downed it in one fluid gulp.
For a terrifying three seconds, nothing happened.
Then, Ye Wuchen groaned. He gripped the armrests of his wooden wheelchair so hard the thick timber splintered and cracked. Dark, frost-bitten veins bulged hideously on his neck. Black ice began to seep rapidly from his pores, melting instantly into foul-smelling, hissing steam as the fiery spiritual energy of the Heaven-Burning Lotus raged through his deadened meridians.
"Protect His Highness!" the guards yelled, rushing me.
"Stand down!" Ye Wuchen roared.
His voice vibrated with a tyrannical power he hadn't possessed in years. He closed his eyes, his chest heaving with ragged, heavy breaths. Slowly, miraculously, the deathly pale color left his face, replaced by a vital, healthy flush.
He opened his eyes, and the shattered ice within them was completely replaced by a roaring, golden inferno.
He placed his hands on the shattered armrests. And slowly, deliberately, for the first time in five agonizing years, Ye Wuchen stood up.
He towered over me, his massive shadow swallowing me whole. He looked down at his own legs, flexing his muscles, feeling the spiritual energy flow unhindered. He was whole. He was cured.
He looked at me, his gaze entirely changed. It was hungry. Predatory.
"What do you want, Shen Luoyan?" he asked, his voice low and incredibly dangerous. "Wealth? Supreme martial power? The head of my nephew on a silver platter?"
I smiled. "I want a backer. In three days, the Imperial Palace will host the Grand Spring Banquet. The Crown Prince will attempt to humiliate me before the Emperor, and Lin Wan will try to present a fake cure to gain the title of Holy Maiden and regain her footing. I want you to walk into that banquet by my side, and help me crush them into the dirt."
Ye Wuchen stared at me for a long moment. Then, he threw his head back and laughed. It was a dark, echoing, terrifying sound that made the bamboo forest tremble.
"Deal," he whispered, stepping close enough that I could feel the intense, intoxicating heat radiating from his chest. "I look forward to the show, my vicious little villainess."
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