Chapter 156

Chapter 156

The wind howled, whipping up sand and dust that pattered against their robes.

Blade in hand, Han Xu leaped down from the rooftop and landed before the ranks of Imperial Guards.

Every member of the Shadow Guard had arrived.

The Yulin Guard formed an impenetrable wall of bodies, their black shields gleaming with an arcane light. It was a barrier of iron that could not be breached.

The carriage was completely surrounded, only a single step away from the city gate.

But the gate had already been sealed.

For Wei Yi, capturing one person was all too easy. He could anticipate her methods and make preparations in advance, and his authority alone was enough to seal the city gates.

The city was filled with Imperial Guards and ghostlike members of the Shadow Guard.

As long as she remained in Great Wei, she would never escape his control.

Hoofbeats approached one measured step at a time, each one heavy with menace, until they stopped directly before the carriage.

“Are you still not coming out?”

Even through the curtain, his voice, steeped in icy killing intent, reached her with perfect clarity.

Sheng Zhaoning’s hands and feet were cold, and her mind had gone numb.

She raised her frozen fingers and slowly drew the curtain aside, inch by inch, with nowhere left to flee as she met Wei Yi’s dark, terrifying gaze.

Suffocating despair bore down on her until she could barely breathe.

“Why? Why must you drive me to my death…?” Sheng Zhaoning looked up at him, her eyes so red they seemed ready to bleed. Her voice trembled with every anguished question. “Wei Yi, what do I owe you?”

She truly did not understand. She could not understand.

She had repaid everything she owed him, down to the last debt. Why did he still refuse to let her go?

Wei Yi suppressed the wild madness churning in his eyes, his hands clenched tightly at his sides.

He did not answer. Closing his eyes, he drew a deep breath and ordered through gritted teeth, “Take her back!”

At his command, the Imperial Guards advanced with cold expressions.

Zhou Lingsheng sprang down to stop them, but how could he possibly withstand hundreds of Imperial Guards on his own? The Shadow Guard did not even need to intervene before he was subdued.

Wei Yi dismounted and strode forward to seize her himself.

Sheng Zhaoning had collapsed inside the carriage. He dragged her out, his grip on her arm so crushingly tight that it felt as though he meant to grind her bones to dust.

The Imperial Guards parted to make way. Wei Yi practically dragged Sheng Zhaoning along behind him. She struggled desperately, shoving and striking him, but nothing she did could move him in the slightest.

At last, she broke down and screamed, “Wei Yi, how much longer are you going to torment me?”

Sheng Zhaoning dropped heavily to her knees and clutched the hem of his robe. She raised her eyes to him, humbling herself into the dust as she begged, “Please… I’m begging you. Let me go. Please, just let me go.”

“I have nothing left. Just let me leave…”

Wei Yi stared at the woman kneeling at his feet, slamming her forehead against the ground again and again. The scene before him gradually overlapped with his memories of the Palace Coup.

That day, she had knelt just as humbly beneath his horse and begged him to spare Wei Heng.

Sheng Zhaoning had once been so proud, her spirit unyielding. Even if every bone in her body were shattered, she would never have bowed.

Yet now, for someone else and for the sake of escaping him, she fell to her knees time and again. She bashed her forehead against the ground until it split and bled, clutching his robe as she begged him in a broken voice.

Pain like death by a thousand cuts tore through his heart.

Wei Yi could not understand. He had tried everything, so why was it still impossible to make her stay?

Sheng Zhaoning truly knew how to hurt him in the cruelest way possible.

Whenever he believed he had finally gained everything and allowed himself to sink into the tender trap she had woven for him, she would always drive a blade straight through his heart without the slightest mercy.

He slowly crouched down, gripped her shoulders, and steadied her upright. Meeting Sheng Zhaoning’s yearning, expectant gaze, he pulled her into his arms and said, word by word, in the gentlest of voices, “Never think you can escape me.”

The woman in his arms trembled in terror.

Wei Yi pressed a hand against her back, his voice laced with deranged obsession. “In life, you will remain by my side. In death, you will lie beside me in my grave.”

“In this life, the next, and every life to come, I will never let you go.”

“So give up.”

“You cannot escape.”

He alone possessed the key to the shackles binding her.

But he would never set her free.

Not in life. Not even in death.

At last, Sheng Zhaoning fell completely into an abyss where no light could reach.

She was imprisoned in Changhua Hall once more, where a frenzied reprisal awaited her, along with torment even crueler than before.

Wei Yi took from her without end, his brutal force seeming intent on crushing her to pieces.

Sheng Zhaoning lost consciousness countless times, only to be forced awake again.

The tenderness they had shared not long ago had vanished entirely, as though it had never existed.

After yet another bout, Wei Yi left without a trace of warmth in his eyes.

Unable to endure any longer, Sheng Zhaoning slipped into unconsciousness once more.

In her stupor, she vaguely sensed maids lifting her and cleaning her ravaged body.

She had no idea how much time had passed. When Sheng Zhaoning woke again, there was no one around.

Every bone in her body felt as though it had been crushed. The slightest movement of her limbs sent searing pain shooting through her nerves. Drenched in cold sweat, Sheng Zhaoning endured the agony until her entire body stopped trembling enough for her to inch one arm toward the medicine she had hidden in a crevice in the bed frame.

Even now, one thought remained fixed in her mind.

She could not become pregnant with Wei Yi’s child.

But the medicine was gone.

She felt around inside the crevice again and again, but found only empty space.

Sheng Zhaoning’s heart plummeted.

Behind her, that familiar voice rang out, steeped in sinister coldness.

“What are you looking for?”

Cold sweat instantly broke out across Sheng Zhaoning’s body. She turned around, her eyes wide and trembling with fear.

Beneath the cold moonlight, Wei Yi’s backlit face was hidden in darkness, his features impossible to make out. Only his sinister eyes were visible, fixed intently on her as a bloody storm gathered within them.

The medicine she had been searching for so desperately was pinched between his fingers.

Sheng Zhaoning could no longer speak.

Wei Yi slowly ran his fingers over the porcelain bottle. He had already asked an Imperial Physician to examine it. He now knew exactly what the medicine was for, how potent it was, and what price she would pay for taking it.

No wonder there had never been any result, despite how many times their bodies had come together.

The medicine in the bottle was so potent and damaging, yet she had still been willing to risk her life to take it.

He thought of himself, longing so desperately for a child and clinging to that hope day after day. In Sheng Zhaoning’s eyes, he must have looked utterly absurd and laughable.

Wei Yi’s gaze darkened inch by inch, turning a terrifying shade of deep red.

He crushed the porcelain bottle in his hand. Shards pierced his palm, and blood dripped down.

“Haven’t I treated you well these past few days?” he asked sincerely, leaning close to her face.

For her sake, he had silenced the calls for punishment at court. He had learned to respect her, to love her, and had returned her freedom little by little. Yet she had still schemed relentlessly to escape him.

She had secretly taken the medicine, choosing to suffer a high fever rather than bear their child.

She was utterly determined never to love him again.