Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Sheng Zhaoning stared at her coldly.

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

The woman in purple withdrew her fingertip, gave a cold snort, and turned her head away. Bracing both hands on the railing, she gazed down idly, her eyes bright with amusement as she admired the grand slaughter about to begin.

She did not answer right away. Instead, she shot a look at the person beside her and said, “Begin.”

The man nodded, took a short whistle from his waist, and blew hard.

“Whoo-”

As the whistle rang out, the slaughter in the arena officially began.

A dozen or so weapons were thrown down from above. The children with the quickest reflexes seized them first and launched into the killing one step ahead of the others.

The thick stench of blood burst through the air in an instant. Fresh blood dyed the stone walls red, and screams rose one after another without end.

The gamblers in the stands had already shouted themselves hoarse. The timid ones had collapsed to the ground by now, a yellow, foul-smelling puddle spreading beneath their trousers.

The number of people in the arena kept dwindling. Soon, fewer than twenty remained.

Even so, the killing continued.

“Look at them. Don’t they look like us back then?” the woman in purple suddenly said.

Sheng Zhaoning’s still, unreadable gaze slowly settled on the scene below.

Inside the stone pit, corpses and blood had piled into a mountain.

The bodies sprawled everywhere belonged to children of about ten years old.

The ten who had won their way out of the slaughter had cold eyes and vicious expressions, like evil ghosts that had crawled out of hell.

Yet even after surviving this victory bought with their lives, they still had not earned the right to live.

Because at this very moment, the same scene was being played out in who knew how many other places.

The children who survived the first massacre would be sent together to Liangzhou, where they would undergo an even more frenzied slaughter.

Only the final ten survivors would be gathered together for years of inhuman tempering. Reborn in blood, they would ultimately become tools of absolute loyalty, knowing nothing but killing.

Sheng Zhaoning’s eyes darkened. Her heart, long silent, finally stirred with a faint, icy chill.

“Why are they still selecting people?”

The woman in purple curled a lock of hair around her finger. The Mian bells on her wrist jingled crisply with the motion.

“Naturally, it is His Highness’s order.”

Hearing that form of address again, Sheng Zhaoning was calmer than she had imagined she would be.

The years in Liangzhou felt like another lifetime.

Whenever she thought of them, there was only endless darkness.

The waters of Luochuan Lake had been cold enough to bite into the bone. Her body had kept sinking, the lake water forcing its way into her nose. A crushing sense of suffocation had swept over her, her body heat rapidly draining away, while agony like her lungs and organs were being torn apart spread through her entire body.

The people and events she had deliberately avoided would become painfully clear in her dreams.

Sheng Zhaoning had tried every method she could to numb herself.

Candle lamps burned through the night. Obscure, difficult books were spread across her desk. Words in dried black ink were forced into her mind, and at last, she had no time left to think of anything from Liangzhou.

Yet she had grown ever more lonely, an alienation seeping out from her very bones.

The world shifted and turned, and she had no heart to ask after it.

Lowering her eyes, Sheng Zhaoning said, “What, has Liangzhou run out of people to use?”

The woman in purple heard the chill in her voice but did not care in the slightest. “Now that you have been ‘exiled’ here, Shadow Two and Shadow Five died on the battlefield, Shadow Eight has been sent to the enemy state, and Shadow Five vanished while carrying out a mission. Naturally, a new batch of Shadow Guard must be selected.”

Sheng Zhaoning looked straight at her and asked, “And you? What is your purpose in coming here?”

Surely she had not made this trip simply to choose a few children.

Shadow Seven looked at her with a smile that was not quite a smile. “To convey an oral order from His Highness. And, while I was at it, to see what kind of place could possibly keep you here.”

The members of the Shadow Pavilion had no idea what had happened aboard the painted pleasure boat. All they knew was that Sheng Zhaoning had suddenly vanished, her life or death unknown, her whereabouts a mystery. Many people’s memories of her still ended with her being secretly executed after killing Liu Qi.

Aside from Shadow Seven, no one in the Shadow Pavilion knew where she had gone.

And what Shadow Seven found interesting was that, over the course of two full years, Sheng Zhaoning had never once shown herself. She had not even sent back a single letter.

If it had been anyone else, Shadow Seven would not have found it strange.

But this was Sheng Zhaoning-the Sheng Zhaoning who could hardly bear to leave Wei Yi’s side for even half a step. Yet this time, she had been so resolute that she truly had not asked after him at all.

How could Shadow Seven not be curious?

So when Prince Zhenbei needed a message delivered to Xuzhou, she volunteered to come in person. While she was at it, she also took on the Shadow Pavilion’s matter of selecting new Shadow Guards and sought Sheng Zhaoning out at the first opportunity.

“If you have something to say, say it,” Sheng Zhaoning said.

Below the viewing platform, the child in the beast-fighting arena was led away.

Several flying needles shot out. The gamblers pinned to the ground felt their breath go cold. Bloody holes appeared between their brows, and they died with their eyes wide open.

Shadow Seven withdrew her hand and looked at Sheng Zhaoning with a faint, ambiguous smile, trying to find a crack in her expression, trying to dig out the real reason she had left Liangzhou this time.

She refused to believe that Sheng Zhaoning could willingly leave Wei Yi merely because of the prince’s order.

“Next March, the Northern Border will do everything it can to crush the enemy army. When that happens, someone in court will propose opening a Grace Examination. This is your best chance to enter the imperial court as soon as possible.”

Shadow Seven looked away, turned, and sat down at the tea table behind her.

Sheng Zhaoning looked back at her. “The problem with provisions has been solved?”

Bored, Shadow Seven ran a finger around the rim of her cup and propped her chin on her hand. “The emperor has always suspected the prince, so he refused to release the grain. He let the enemy state keep making repeated incursions, tying the prince down so he had no time to spare. He truly shows not the slightest concern for his own realm or his people.”

At this point, she laughed, her tone edged with sarcasm. “Fortunately, there is a benevolent, people-loving Crown Prince in court. Unable to bear seeing the soldiers short on clothing and food, and unwilling to see the common people suffer from the chaos of war, he pleaded with the emperor to release the grain and military funds.”

“With these supplies, a great victory at the border is only a matter of time.”

Sheng Zhaoning’s brows drew together slightly.

The Crown Prince…

She thought back on the man.

Liangzhou was thousands of miles from the Capital City, yet even there, one could still hear of his virtuous reputation.

Everyone at court and beyond knew that the emperor valued this son highly. Though he was neither the son of the empress nor the eldest, the emperor had still disregarded the objections of his ministers, overruled all dissent, and established him as heir apparent early on.

Not only had the emperor kept him by his side and personally taught him since childhood, he had also secured the support of many elder ministers for him in court, clearing every obstacle from his path to succession.

Anyone who attempted to covet the Crown Prince’s position was, at best, confined; at worst, exiled.

It could be said that as long as the emperor remained firmly seated on the throne, no one could shake the Crown Prince’s position.

“So what does the prince want me to do?” Sheng Zhaoning did not care about other people’s affairs.

No matter how virtuous or benevolent that Crown Prince might be, what did it have to do with her?

Shadow Seven glanced at Sheng Zhaoning and relayed Wei Chengjun’s words in full. “After entering the Capital City, find a way into the Court of Judicial Review. Keep watch at all times for whether the Court of Judicial Review has any evidence unfavorable to the prince.”

“In addition, keep an eye on one person. If necessary, kill him.”

“Who?”

Shadow Seven looked into her eyes and slowly spoke the words.

“The Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, Tao Song.”