Title: Transmigrated as the Foolish Maid: My System Feeds the Empire
Chapter 6: The Wrath of the Dragon Princess
The golden light illuminated the darkened canyon. The remaining assassins, highly trained killers who feared nothing, instinctively took a step back, trembling under the suppressive aura of the Dragon Qi.
Madam Ye stared at me, her eyes rolling back into her head. "She... she is the lost Princess? The one we were accused of hiding?! We... we treated the Empress like a dog..." She promptly fainted into the dirt.
Captain Zhao was openly weeping. "I ordered a Princess to lick my boots. I am a dead man. My whole bloodline is dead!"
"Formation!" the leader of the assassins barked, fighting through the sheer terror my aura produced. "She just awakened! Her power is unstable! Attack together!"
Thirty assassins rushed me simultaneously from all directions, a web of deadly steel descending upon me.
I didn't flinch. I felt the pulse of the earth beneath me. It was starved, dry, and dying, but as my golden Qi seeped into the ground, the earth sang in response to its true master.
"Rise," I commanded softly.
RUUUUMBLE!
The entire canyon shook as if hit by a massive earthquake. From the cracked, dead earth, giant pillars of solid bedrock and crystallized water shot upwards.
Squelch. Crack. Squelch.
In an instant, twenty of the assassins were impaled mid-air by massive stalagmites of jagged stone and razor-sharp ice. They didn't even have time to scream. Their bodies hung suspended like twisted ragdolls, their dark blood raining down onto the parched earth.
The leader landed a few feet away, his scimitar shaking violently in his hands. He looked up at the grotesque forest of stone and corpses I had just created in a single breath.
"Monster..." he whispered, his mask falling off to reveal a face pale with absolute dread.
I slowly floated down, my bare feet touching the earth. Where I stepped, a ripple of green life spread outwards. Tiny blades of grass, dormant for three years, violently sprouted through the dust, blooming into vibrant crimson flowers.
"You call me a monster," I said, walking slowly toward him. "Yet your Emperor starves millions of children to secure his stolen throne. Tell me, dog of the usurper... what happens when a monster decides to be a savior?"
He let out a battle cry of pure desperation and swung his blade at my head.
I didn't dodge. I simply raised a single finger.
A vine, thick as a python and glowing with golden fire, burst from the ground, wrapping around his throat and lifting him ten feet into the air. He choked, dropping his sword, his legs kicking wildly.
"Go back to your false Emperor," I commanded, staring into his bulging eyes. "Tell him the famine is over. Tell him the Dragon has returned. And tell him to keep his neck clean, because I am coming for his head."
I flicked my wrist. The vine whipped sideways, throwing the leader hundreds of feet down the canyon. He would survive, but just barely. I needed a messenger, after all.
[DING! Total Annihilation of the Enemy! Maximum Awe Achieved! +20,000 Shock Points!] [System Upgraded to Level 2. World Map Unlocked. Famine Relief Mode Unlocked.]
I took a deep breath, the golden light slowly fading from my skin, though the regal dress and the profound sense of power remained. The canyon was dead silent, save for the wind rustling through the newly grown patch of grass at my feet.
I turned back to my camp.
Captain Zhao and his surviving guards were kneeling so hard their foreheads were bleeding into the dirt. They were chanting prayers, treating me like a literal deity.
Ye Wan was sobbing hysterically over her unconscious mother.
And then there was Ye Chen.
The sickly young master was staring at me, his eyes shining with unshed tears. He tried to drag his crippled body forward, intending to bow. "Your... Your Imperial Highness. The Ye family... we failed to protect you. I deserve death for letting you suffer."
I walked over to him, kneeling gracefully on the dirt, completely ignoring the aristocratic rules of the era. I reached out, placing my glowing, warm hands over his twisted, broken legs.
"You took a whip for a fool, Ye Chen," I said softly.
I channeled my Wood-Element vitality directly into his meridians. The sound of bones cracking and snapping back into place echoed. Ye Chen gasped in shock, his face flushing as three years of agonizing nerve damage and shattered bone healed in mere seconds.
"In my empire," I continued, looking into his bewildered, beautiful eyes, "loyalty is rewarded with life. Stand up, Young Master."
Ye Chen trembled. He placed his hands on the ground, pushed, and for the first time in three years, he stood on his own two feet. He looked down at his legs, then up at me, falling to one knee in a posture of absolute devotion.
"My life is yours, Princess."
I smiled, standing up and looking out toward the horizon, in the direction of the Imperial Capital. I had infinite food in my system. I had the magic of the earth in my veins. The Emperor thought he could starve the world to keep his throne.
He was about to learn that whoever controls the food, controls the empire.
"Come, Ye Chen," I said, my voice ringing with cold, exhilarating anticipation. "Let's go feed the world. And let's go steal a throne."
[DING! Main Quest Initiated: Overthrow the Usurper and End the Famine.] [Reward: Absolute Supremacy.]
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