Chapter 388

Chapter 388: No More Pretense

Only after Yu Zhi Yi walked a long way did the calm on her face fade. She turned back toward the Imperial Palace, frowning. At the palace gates, she had felt a powerful sense of danger-as if something inside was beyond her ability to handle.

[No wonder.] Before, the Empress Dowager had been angry with her for not healing Prince Xiao Yao, but she didn’t dare offend Yu Zhi Yi completely. Now, though, they had torn the mask off. It seemed the Empress Dowager had found someone stronger. Maybe that person already knew how to heal Prince Xiao Yao.

Yu Zhi Yi never doubted there were other capable people in this world. She respected those stronger than herself. But if the other side held real hostility toward her, that was a different story. [I hope this is only the Empress Dowager’s one-sided “payback.” If another great expert is involved…]

“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” Returning to the Peach Garden, Yu Zhi Yi was surprised to find Xiao Qing Xuan and Jiang Liu Yun still sitting in the main room.

“We were waiting to eat with you,” Xiao Qing Xuan said with a smile. Worry flickered between her brows, but she didn’t bring it up. “You must be hungry. I told the kitchen to keep the food warm. Eat and then rest well.” She added, “Miss Han has already eaten, so don’t worry.”

Han Lian Qiao was the physician Yu Zhi Yi had invited for Yiluan Charity. She had agreed to come to the capital with Yu Zhi Yi, so she came along this time too. But she was a guest. Xiao Qing Xuan could let her own silly child go a little hungry, but she couldn’t make Miss Han wait till midnight. Even though Han Lian Qiao said more than once that she didn’t mind, Xiao Qing Xuan still sent her to rest.

Yu Zhi Yi pressed her lips together. She had brought her mother here hoping life would be easier and more peaceful-but on the very first day in the capital, she’d let her mother go hungry.

Jiang Liu Yun yawned. Unlike Xiao Qing Xuan, he spoke his mind: “Sis, did the old Emperor give you a hard time?”

“Don’t talk about the Emperor like that, even in private,” Yu Zhi Yi corrected him at once. She could trust those close to her, but not everyone outside. Jiang Liu Yun quickly made an “X” over his mouth with his fingers.

Seeing he looked a little spooked, Yu Zhi Yi laughed and said: “You don’t have to be that nervous inside the manor. I mean when you leave the house, you must speak carefully or trouble will find you.” Then she explained, “Also, I didn’t see His Majesty today.”

Xiao Qing Xuan and Jiang Liu Yun exchanged a look; each saw confusion in the other’s eyes. “If you didn’t see the Emperor, why are you back so late? Did something happen?”

Yu Zhi Yi said: “I offended the Empress Dowager before. Today she wanted to give me a show of force. I think she has found someone stronger from the Mystic Sect, so when you go out, bring all the Defensive Magical Artifacts and Talismans I gave you.”

She felt a pang of guilt. Noticing her daughter’s look, Xiao Qing Xuan guessed what she was thinking and took her hand: “Silly girl, I’m happy just to be with you.” She added gently, “Parents are supposed to hold up the sky for their children and keep the wind and rain off them. I missed your first seventeen years and didn’t protect you then. For the decades to come, no matter how rough it gets, I want to face it with you.” She sighed: “I only worry I’ll become your weakness.”

The warmth of her mother’s hand was steady and kind. Yu Zhi Yi suddenly remembered the days in the Yu Clan, when Yu Chun Yue hadn’t yet been promoted to minister and the Minister of Revenue was his direct superior. Once, at the old minister’s birthday, she was brought along to the banquet. The old minister’s nephew tried to bully her, and she fought back. Afterward, Yu Chun Yue forced her to apologize without caring who was right or wrong. She argued her case, but he fawned over his boss and twisted her words into “excuses,” scolding her for being brainless and impulsive, then forcing her to kneel and apologize to the old minister and his nephew. Back at the Yu Manor, still unsatisfied, he locked her up for three days with no food or water. When it ended, she fainted from hunger. Facing powerful enemies, there really is a difference between those who truly care for you and “family” who only care about themselves.

“Jin’er, don’t worry,” Xiao Qing Xuan said softly. “I’ll keep an eye on your brother. We won’t go out for now. When the trouble passes, we’ll go out again.”

“No need,” Yu Zhi Yi replied at once. She had trained hard for years. If she couldn’t even protect her family’s freedom, she’d rather scatter her Cultivation Base and return to the Martial Alliance as a pampered miss who needed others to protect her. “Just carry your Talismans and artifacts and go about life as usual. As long as you don’t bully others or start trouble, even if the sky falls, I can push it back up.”

After a late-night meal together, they each went to rest. Yu Zhi Yi didn’t live in the manor granted by the Emperor; she preferred this courtyard she had gotten without spending money. The scenery was lovely and quiet, and before she left last time she had set up a spirit-gathering array. Even those who couldn’t cultivate could live here in good health.

That night, Yu Zhi Yi sat cross-legged in meditation. Ever since her recent epiphany, her speed at refining the golden light of merit had increased. After breaking through to mid Foundation Establishment Realm, she could refine four strands of merit light in one night; now, after the epiphany, she could refine eight.

When she finished refining the last strand, Yu Zhi Yi opened her eyes-late Foundation Establishment Realm! The sky was still dark. There wasn’t enough time to refine another strand, and she wasn’t sleepy, so she took out a Formation Manual. She had looted it from the body of a Demonic Cultivator she killed earlier.

The array was called Hundred-Flower Slaughter. The name sounded pretty, but the formation itself was vicious. It was a chain of illusions: after you broke one, the next immediately appeared, each one more real than the last. Many people couldn’t even pass the second, because most assumed an illusion only had one layer-once you got out, that was it. No one expected that the “real world” after leaving the array was actually an even more realistic illusion. And the truly poisonous part didn’t stop there. Those who died inside couldn’t free their souls; a heavy, dense yin energy formed.

Before, Yu Zhi Yi had ferried the souls of dozens of female ghosts trapped inside this formation. They had gone on to reincarnate, but the resentment sealed for hundreds of years couldn’t be cleared. All that yin energy had gathered in the Formation Core used to build the Hundred-Flower Slaughter. As long as you activated the array with the same Formation Core, that yin energy would spread out again on its own. She couldn’t help but smile and think: “I didn’t expect this murderous little thing to become something useful for tempering my strength.”