The soft-skinned, tender-fleshed Noble Lady Zhou was lashed with the whip. Her thin garments were torn, blood oozed from her wounds, and her body twitched slightly. Her face had become blue and ashen, and the veins on her forehead protruded. She groaned.

  “Are you going to speak or not?” Zhao Xu pinched Noble Lady Zhou’s chin.

  The pained Noble Lady Zhou’s expression was dazed.

  “Whip her again.” Zhao Xu released her chin. “My country wouldn’t tolerate demons and ghosts.”


  “I’ll speak…” Noble Lady Zhou’s breath was weak. “I have a system called the favored concubine system…”


  “What’s that?” Zhao Xu asked as he approached Noble Lady Zhou.

  “My wounds healed so quickly because of the system’s abilities. I…” Noble Lady Zhou hadn’t finished speaking when her expression suddenly changed. “You mustn’t abandon me! You mustn’t!”


  “Ah…” Noble Lady Zhou cried out as she collapsed. Instantly, her skin changed. It blackened and yellowed as her entire being lost its luster.

  Her resin-like skin was gone. Her breath of orchids vanished. Her perfect body was reverted. All the things the system had given her disappeared.

  Noble Lady Zhou changed from a bright and colorful fragrant flower to a nearly rotten, yellowing vegetable leaf in a single breath.

  Zhao Xu was alarmed at the abrupt onset of huge changes in her body. That beauty had suddenly turned hideous. It was quite a jarring shift.

  Noble Lady Zhou wasn’t truly ugly. How could someone enter the palace as a concubine while being ugly? However, the previous Noble Lady Zhou’s perfection made her true appearance seem hideous by contrast.

  She turned her head to look at her hands bound on the wooden frame. Her skin was dull and rough. It was an exact match for her appearance when she first crossed over.

  Noble Lady Zhou felt like she had been stripped naked. She was unable to show her face, feeling resentful and ashamed.

  “You can’t abandon me after achieving your goal like this! You can’t abandon me and just go! You can’t…” Noble Lady Zhou stomped her feet and wept.

  “If you abandon me, I’ll reveal your secret,” the enraged Noble Lady Zhou said through gritted teeth.

  “Worthless.”


  The emotionless voice of the system sounded in her mind, followed by an explosion. The pain in her skull was incomparable. She felt her soul about to dissipate.

  There was something like a whirlpool absorbing her soul into its center. Endless fear bubbled up inside her.

  Her very essence was in the process of slowly dissipating, about to disappear from this world.

  Was she going to die? To disappear?

  Was the favored concubine system consuming her soul?

  “What did you say? What can’t abandon you?” Zhao Xu asked hastily. “What do you mean? Raise your voice!”


  But Noble Lady Zhou’s consciousness was in the middle of dissipating. Her eyes rolled back as she fainted.

  The imperial bodyguard hurriedly searched for a breath and a pulse. He cupped his hands to Zhao Xu. “Your Majesty, she’s not breathing.”


  “Dead?” Zhao Xu frowned. She couldn’t endure this little of a beating? Could one whipping kill someone?

  In this critical moment, she died.

  This was purposeful silencing.

  What was the favored concubine system?

  Zhao Xu looked around the torture chamber, as though searching for an invisible object.

  “Daoist Priest, let us check if there are more such evildoers in the inner palace. They said that when the country is about to perish, evildoers will certainly appear. Our nation stands firm. We will not tolerate these demons and ghosts rampaging about.”


  Translator: Kiara