158: Yandere Empress

The night was as dark as ink, but the lights in the Prime Ministers Residence's Embroidery Building flickered all night long.

The air was filled with an extremely complex scent, containing both the bitter medicinal smell that hadn't dissipated for years and the thick, sweet musk of male hormones and female fragrance deeply intermingled after a violent collision.

On the white jade couch, Clear Profound Ji's cloud-like long hair was scattered across the pillows. Her originally paper-white cheeks now showed a flush like sunset reflecting on snow. That was the physiological flush brought about after the cold poison accumulated over many years was forcibly shattered and fused by the hot, overbearing Human Sovereign Qi and Blood within Lin Chen's body.

"No... no more..." Clear Profound Ji's voice was extremely hoarse, carrying a tremor of near-collapse.

She had spent her entire life calculating, accustomed to strategizing within a command tent and winning battles a thousand miles away. But on this night, the intellect she took pride in was completely reduced to powder before Lin Chen's storm-like conquest. For the first time, she discovered that when a man's power is strong enough to ignore worldly laws and even life and death, a woman's authority is but a laughable decoration.

Lin Chen did not stop. His broad palm pressed against Clear Profound Ji's thin back, and a vast, dragon-like Pure Yang Qi surged through her spinal acupoints, frantically washing through her long-withered and shriveled Meridians in her lower limbs.

"Clear Profound Ji, look at me." Lin Chen's voice was deep and magnetic, sounding like a divine oracle in the quiet inner chamber.

Clear Profound Ji forced her blurred eyes open, meeting Lin Chen's eyes that were as deep as the starry sky. At that moment, she felt an unprecedented warmth rise from her tailbone, quickly sweeping through her entire body. Her originally cold and lifeless legs actually felt a faint numbness after a burst of stinging pain.

That wasn't pain; that was vitality!

"Mmm—!" Clear Profound Ji's delicate body trembled violently, her nails digging deep into Lin Chen's firm shoulders as she let out a scream from the depths of her Soul... The next morning, a faint ray of dawn passed through the window lattice and fell by the bedside.

Lin Chen had already put on his blue robe and was unhurriedly washing his hands. Meanwhile, Clear Profound Ji lay quietly on the couch, her eyes filled with an unprecedented blankness.

She tentatively and gently moved her toes.

At that moment, the world seemed to stand still.

This movement, which was perfectly natural for an ordinary person, was no different from a miracle descending for her, who had been disabled since childhood and judged incurable by medicine. Trembling, she slowly pulled back the messy thin quilt, revealing a pair of ivory-white jade legs that appeared exceptionally frail due to a long-term lack of exercise.

"I... I can move?" Clear Profound Ji's voice trembled uncontrollably.

Supporting herself against the edge of the bed, she laboriously propped up her body. Lin Chen did not step forward to help; he just stood by the window with a playful smile, quietly appreciating the most disheveled yet genuine moment of the Great Qian's number one strategist.

Clear Profound Ji took a deep breath and used all her strength to step her feet onto the slightly cool rosewood floor.

Although her knees were still shaking and every step felt like walking on clouds, she had truly stood up.

She walked three steps tremulously, each step feeling like it was reshaping her worldview. When she finally reached Lin Chen's back, the pride that originally belonged to a top-tier strategist completely collapsed, replaced by an extreme, almost distorted, morbid adoration.

She suddenly hugged Lin Chen from behind, pressing her hot cheek against his back and wrapping her arms tightly around his waist, as if the miracle would disappear if she let go for even a second.

"Lin Lang... you are my medicine... you are Qingxuan's only salvation."

Her voice was trembling, but her tone carried a hair-raising madness.

"Before, I sought power and calculated against the world. But now, I only want you. Whoever dares to steal my medicine, I will kill them. Even if it's the Empress sitting on the Golden Throne... I will make sure she dies without a place to be buried."

Lin Chen turned around, pinched her pointed chin, and looked into her bloodshot yet amazingly bright eyes, smiling softly. "In that case, will this Prime Ministers Residence be my back garden from now on?"

"As long as you wish, every inch of land in this Imperial Capital will become your playground." Clear Profound Ji kissed Lin Chen's fingertips with a dazed look in her eyes.

At this moment, Lin Chen was feeling secretly delighted.

Red Makeup Ye controlled the Red Blood Army on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital, Yan Ruyu controlled the verbal attacks of the world's scholars, and now, this Clear Profound Ji, who controlled the Empire's most secret intelligence network and possessed a mind as deep as an abyss, had also completely become his private possession.

The military, the Academy, and the Prime Ministers Residence—the three pillars of the Imperial Capital—had already formed a dark web in his hands, sufficient to ensnare the world.

However, at the highest point of this world, there are always those who become alert to the destruction of such balance... Deep within the Weiyang Palace of the Great Qian Imperial Palace.

Dressed in a black dragon robe, the Empress leaned lazily against the dragon throne, her slender fingers lightly tapping the memorials on the desk. On her peerless face, which was enough to make all living beings bow, a faint haze now loomed.

"Have you not found out yet?" The Empress's voice was calm, yet it carried a tremendous heavenly majesty.

Below the steps, a Shadow Guard knelt on the ground, his voice trembling. "Reporting to Your Majesty, the situation in the Imperial Capital has been treacherous lately. General Ye has been frequently entering and leaving a private residence called Heavenly Physician Hall; Grand Libationer Yan has not stepped out of the Library Tower since she began her seclusion during the day; and last night... Lin Chen entered the Prime Ministers Residence and has not come out yet."

The Empress slowly opened her phoenix eyes, a rare flash of strange light passing through them.

"A mere male physician could actually make three of My pillars of state lose their composure?" She stood up, her perfectly shaped jade legs faintly visible beneath the dragon robe. "My Empire's destiny is actually faintly converging toward that small medical hall... Interesting."

She snorted coldly, and a powerful imperial pressure instantly swept through the palace.

"Pass on My decree: summon that Lin Chen to the palace for an audience."

"I want to see for myself just how many heads this man who can make withered wood sprout in spring has, and just how many... astonishing skills he is hiding."