Chapter 418: Tearing the Marriage Contract
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation
Nan Zhi Yi’s expression shifted slightly.
Impossible. The Su Family specialized in soul captivity—every soul they claimed lingered until it dissipated entirely.
Madam Xu saw her disbelief and simply raised both hands, clasping them respectfully toward the empty air.
“I summon the former village chief of Peach Source Village!”
The Empress’s face turned pale with fear. Before her eyes, the village chief of Peach Source Village materialized, clad in black.
Gasps of shock echoed from the high platform where officials were seated.
“A… a ghost?” A court official muttered in disbelief.
“His garments… they look familiar,” others whispered.
The village chief first nodded toward Lu Chao Chao as a sign of respect before bowing to the Old Emperor.
“I am but a humble villager of Peach Source Village and a patrol officer of the Eighteen Levels of the Underworld. Today, I have come to testify for myself.”
“That year, Lord Su led a night raid on Peach Source Village, carrying out a massacre under the direct command of the Empress.”
“Here, I present Her Majesty’s token.”
A luminous white jade pendant appeared in his hand.
The Empress’s face turned ashen, her body trembling. The Old Emperor’s expression flickered, his fists clenching and unclenching repeatedly.
How could he not know the crimes the Empress had committed against Peach Source Village?
Yet, for the sake of power, Peach Source Village had been insignificant.
Now, however, it was laid bare before the court, before the world. There was no escaping it.
A trembling eunuch approached, taking the token with both hands, presenting it before the Emperor and Empress.
The Old Emperor took a single glance and instantly recognized it as the Empress’s.
The Empress rose abruptly and shook her head subtly at Nan Zhi Yi before lifting her skirt and kneeling before the Old Emperor.
“Your Majesty, I am guilty.”
“You were missing for a year, having fallen off a cliff and lost your memory. I searched tirelessly, nearly weeping my eyes blind, yet I dared not wallow in despair. I had to search for you while also holding up the Southern Kingdom.”
“Later, I found you in a small town. Someone claimed you had become the son-in-law of Peach Source Village.”
“I lost my composure in a moment of desperation, believing they had hidden you from me…”
“It was all my fault. I acted recklessly out of love and caused Peach Source Village’s demise.”
“Please, punish me.”
Her temples were streaked with gray, and her submission was lowly. Having been his wife since their youth, even the Old Emperor found himself wavering.
[Hmph. Reckless out of love?]
[More like she learned the Old Emperor had married among the commoners and had a wife who was with child, so she struck first.]
Lu Chao Chao scoffed inwardly but remained silent, opting to observe the drama unfold.
The Old Emperor and Grandma Ning had followed the proper marriage rites, with three letters and six gifts. A severance was inevitable.
Nan Zhi Yi clenched her teeth and knelt beside her mother before the Old Emperor.
“Mother acted out of urgency and should be punished, but she is old now. Allow me to take her place in punishment,” Nan Feng Yu declared firmly.
“No, Mother and Grandmother are too frail for punishment. I will bear it instead. Please, Grandfather, pass judgment upon me.”
“How can I ascend to immortality in peace if they suffer punishment? I beg Grandmother to assign the penalty to me. Consider it my repayment for the grace of birth and upbringing. That way, I will owe the Southern Kingdom nothing in the future.”
Nan Zhi Yi’s words deepened the wrinkles on the Old Emperor’s brow.
He raised his hand, pressing it against his temples.
“The Peach Source Village massacre happened forty years ago. No punishment can undo it.”
“The Empress was wrong, indeed. But she has labored for the Southern Kingdom for years, rendering countless services. It would not be right to dampen her spirit.”
“Henceforth, the Empress shall reflect in solitude. Without my command, she is not to step outside.”
Madam Xu’s gaze turned icy.
Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.
Hundreds of innocent lives, exchanged merely for a period of reflection?
She wanted to protest, but the Emperor’s sharp gaze silenced her.
“So, the Empress exterminated an entire village and merely has to reflect?”
“Then I, Chao Chao, shall also return home tomorrow to reflect. Thank you, Grandfather, for your leniency…” Lu Chao Chao took advantage of the moment, immediately offering thanks.
The court officials felt a lump in their throats.
She had truly found a loophole!
“How can Peach Source Village compare to the Su Family?” Nan Feng Yu’s eyes burned red with rage.
Lu Chao Chao smiled sweetly. “Why not? Is the Su Family nobler than commoners?”
“Are all lives not equal? Do the lives of the Su Family matter, while those of Peach Source Village do not?”
Before the watchful eyes of countless citizens, Nan Feng Yu gritted her teeth, unable to refute without stirring greater unrest.
Her chest ached with anger.
The village chief smiled. “Indeed, there is no difference. The Su Family committed countless atrocities and are now paying for their sins in the Eighteen Levels of the Underworld.”
“Oh, and yesterday, I personally dropped Lord Su into the oil cauldron.”
“Fried to a golden crisp. And he’ll continue frying every day.”
“Until his sins are cleansed. He still has three hundred years of oil boiling and two hundred years of blade mountains ahead of him.”
The village chief’s tone was calm, but his words sent shivers through everyone.
“The villagers of Peach Source Village are waiting in the Underworld.” With that, he vanished before their eyes.
Even the Old Emperor paled at the revelation.
Peach Source Village had risen to power in the Underworld?
Those ants he had once deemed insignificant were now officials in the afterlife?
As an emperor, he had always looked down upon others. Never had he imagined that one day, he might be at the mercy of the common folk.
Nan Zhi Yi chuckled. “What’s there to fear? Once I ascend, I will settle everything with a mere command.”
The Old Emperor’s expression lightened slightly.
Nan Zhi Yi’s eyes gleamed with lethal intent as she smirked.
“Grandfather, you and Grandmother have been husband and wife for many years, facing joys and sorrows together. Back then, Madam Ning took advantage of your memory loss to bind you with a marriage contract. Now, she has repeatedly put you in difficult positions. I know you wish to repay your debt of gratitude.”
“But you cannot let Madam Ning stand above you.”
“She uses the marriage contract to blackmail you. How is she any different from a schemer?”
Nan Zhi Yi’s words struck deep. She knew the Emperor sought the Elf Tribe but would never allow Madam Ning to wield such leverage.
Now was the perfect opportunity to destroy the contract.
The Old Emperor pondered briefly. Thoughts of the Elf Tribe darkened his gaze.
Would Ning’er understand?
“When I lost my memory and married Madam Ning, I was but a wandering commoner. But I am an emperor, and the Southern Kingdom already has an Empress. This marriage contract…”
The Old Emperor hesitated, then pressed his lips together.
“Is nullified from this day forth.”
“Shi Yun, bring me the contract!”
Madam Xu looked at him and laughed bitterly.
What a heartless man.
“Very well.” She bowed her head, hiding the tears in her eyes, mourning for her mother.
Xu Shi Yun had kept her mother’s marriage contract close to her chest. Now, she stepped forward mechanically and handed it over.
The Old Emperor held it, rubbing it between his fingers for a long time.
With a sharp tear, the contract was split in half.
“Shi Yun, though the contract is gone, I acknowledge the debt I owe your mother.”
“You will always be my daughter.”
The moment he spoke, a searing pain tore through his chest. His complexion turned deathly pale.
Before he could react, he collapsed backward.
Nan Mu Bai lunged forward, barely managing to catch him.
The Old Emperor gasped for air, clutching his chest as an excruciating pain engulfed him.
It felt as though something deeply rooted was being torn from him.
What was it?
What was leaving him?
A terrifying dread gripped his soul.
I think there’s a part missing at the beginning?