345: A day of national humiliation! Celestial messengers from the celestial realm have arrived, and the executioner's blade hangs over the capital!

When Ji Hongxue's fingertip gently touched the crooked word "Husband" on the mirror's surface, a strange burning sensation instantly surged through her entire body from her fingertip.

It wasn't an electric current, but something more overbearing and scalding.

It was life force.

A crimson flush rapidly spread across her pale cheeks, as beautiful as March peach blossoms, yet as scorching as the midsummer sun.

This rogue!

This bastard!

Even at a time like this, he was still teasing her and taking advantage of her in this way!

Her gaze uncontrollably swept over the even cruder threat from before—"I'll spank your butt raw!"

Ji Hongxue's delicate body stiffened slightly.

A surge of heat, mixed with embarrassment and a strange warmth, rushed straight to her head.

For the first time in her life, someone dared to use such vulgar, ruffian-like language to threaten her, the supreme sovereign.

Yet, within this crude threat was an undeniable sense of doting and reassurance.

The hardest corner of her heart uncontrollably welled up with a trace of numbing sweetness.

Shame, anger, sweetness, grievance... various emotions intertwined, causing her to slump back into her chair weakly.

The woman in the mirror was still breathtakingly beautiful, but those lifeless phoenix eyes had been completely lit up.

In that light was the coldness of an emperor, the flames of revenge, and even more, a brilliance she had never possessed before... the feeling of being firmly protected behind a man's back.

She stared blankly at that line of words, one moment biting her red lips in shame and anger, the next unable to stop herself from laughing out loud, even as her tears continued to fall.

Like a complete fool.

But all the pressure and despair in her heart were completely washed away by this silly laughter and those tears.

Indeed, what was she afraid of?

Why should she die?

Her man had come.

The most lawless man in the world, the one most capable of creating miracles, had arrived.

Although the way he arrived... could be described as shocking.

But so what?

He was here, and that was enough.

What she needed to do wasn't to die a cowardly death, but rather... to dress up, apply makeup, and ascend the highest city tower to watch a play.

A peerless play directed by her man for her alone, titled "Taming the Dog"!

At this thought, Ji Hongxue's lifeless imperial heart suddenly ignited with towering flames!

She stood up abruptly and wiped away her tears with her dragon sleeve; in those phoenix eyes, only the cold killing intent belonging to the Great Xia Empress remained!

"Lin Yu..."

"Xuantian Immortal Sect..."

She slowly spat out those two names, her voice carrying extreme hatred and a hint of... condescending pity.

"Don't you want to see a joke out of me?"

"Don't you want the whole world to witness the shame of my Great Xia?"

"Good, very good!"

"Then I shall give you that opportunity!"

She strode toward the wardrobe and pulled the door open with a bang.

Inside were majestic Imperial Robes embroidered with golden Dragons and fire Phoenixes.

She took out the most magnificent and solemn one—the Nine-Phoenix Bathing in Fire Red-Gold Emperor Robe, woven from Ten-thousand-year fire silkworm silk, which was only worn during the Heaven-Worship Ceremony!

"Attendants!"

Her cold voice, filled with endless confidence and fury, exploded within Fengming Hall.

The palace maids, who had been as anxious as ants on a hot pan outside the door, rushed in upon hearing her voice, stumbling over themselves.

When they saw that their Majesty, though tears stained her eyes, had a gaze as bright as two cold stars and an aura like a divine sword descending to the mortal realm, they were all stunned.

"Your Majesty..."

"Pass down my decree!"

Ji Hongxue's voice held not a hint of hesitation.

"Summon all the inner attendants in the palace to dress and make me up!"

"I shall welcome tomorrow's 'ceremony' in the most noble posture of the Great Xia Divine Dynasty!"

The corner of her mouth curled into an arc tempered with ice, as if making a promise to that invisible person.

"Fine, Su Chen, I will wait for you..."

"Wait for you to come and collect that 'dog'!"

...The next day, early morning.

Before dawn, the entire Heavenly Capital had already awakened.

However, this awakened giant city did not make the slightest sound; it was so deathly silent that it made one's heart palpitate.

On the long streets, ten thousand households kept their doors shut.

In a tavern, a one-armed veteran wiped his rusty war blade over and over, the blade reflecting his only remaining eye, which was as red as blood.

Inside a private school, a white-haired old teacher wrote the final character "Shuang" on Xuan paper; the four large characters "Peerless Scholar" were written with such force they penetrated the paper, yet he sighed deeply and threw his brush to the ground.

Hundreds of millions of citizens were peering through the cracks of their doors and windows, looking toward the imperial palace with gazes burning with humiliation and grief.

Today was their National Day of Shame.

In the massive square in front of the imperial palace, the civil and military officials, the imperial kin, and the great noble families knelt, filling the ground in a dense, dark mass.

Dressed in their most solemn court robes, they were like a group of clay statues that had lost their Souls, silently awaiting the judgment of fate.

Despair spread through the air like a plague.

At that very moment.

"Boom—!"

The sky wasn't torn open, but rather shattered like a piece of fine porcelain, smashed by an invisible giant hand!

From a massive spatial rift, a golden warship cast entirely from immortal gold crushed the Void Realm and slowly sailed out!

The warship was so colossal that the shadow it cast enveloped the entire Imperial City Square, and its majestic pressure caused all Cultivators below the Saint Realm to feel their knees buckle, their bones letting out groans of being overburdened!

At the bow of the warship, a handsome young man dressed in a flashy bright red robe leaned back on a white jade immortal chair.

He was none other than the Divine Envoy of the Xuantian Immortal Sect, Lin Yu!

Behind him, Great Emperor Zhao Wuji stood bowed like the most submissive old dog, his face full of flattery.

Lin Yu's gaze swept over the ant-like crowd below, his lips curling into a morbid, enjoying smile.

He loved this feeling, the feeling of trampling a divine dynasty's dignity into the dust.

He cleared his throat, and his feminine voice, though not loud, clearly pierced into everyone's ears, as if countless steel needles were stabbing their Divine Souls.

"The hour has arrived."

He lazily folded his folding fan depicting beautiful ladies and lightly tapped the armrest, his gaze suddenly turning cold.

"And what of Ji Hongxue? Does she want this Immortal Envoy to personally invite her out?"

"Or perhaps..."

He paused, a cruel smile appearing on his face.

"She wants this Immortal Envoy to first slaughter all the lowly commoners in this city and use their fresh flesh and blood to lay a festive red carpet for this ceremony?"