270: New Year's Banquet

Shi Suiyan, originally named Huo Jie, was the legitimate daughter of the Prime Ministers Residence of Great Qian.

Such a masculine name appearing on a female, and in a place like the Prime Ministers Residence, would strike anyone as odd, yet it was indeed the case.

The reason was simple: Prime Minister Huo had never cared for the mother and daughter.

During the pregnancy and after Shi Suiyan's birth, Prime Minister Huo never once came to see her.

Even the name had been chosen in advance, and he did not bother to pick another just because Shi Suiyan was a girl.

Prime Minister Huo and Shi Suiyan's mother were joined in a political marriage; her maternal clan increased his influence in court, while the Huo Family funneled resources to them.

However, just as Shi Suiyan's mother became pregnant with her, the power of her maternal clan collapsed.

The main branch of her mother's Family became embroiled in a prince's rebellion.

In an ordinary world, a prince's rebellion would already shake the court and the commoners, let alone in this Xuanhuan world.

Since a prince dared to rebel, he naturally possessed formidable power and numerous methods.

The incident erupted with extreme speed, and the prince committed regicide on the spot.

But as luck would have it, the previous Emperor of Qian had been in secluded cultivation and originally had no hope of a Breakthrough.

He had only intended to accumulate more foundation for Great Qian before his life ended, but he happened to successfully break through to the Void Refining stage just before the rebellion occurred; he only hadn't appeared because he was still consolidating his Realm.

But the killing of his direct Bloodline startled this newly ascended Retired Emperor.

Overnight, all the rebel forces were completely wiped out by the enraged Void Refining Retired Emperor, utilizing the empire's full foundation.

That night, two Void Refining experts alone perished.

Because the foundations of Great Qian and Great Yu differed, the foundation consumed and the negative impact caused by the Emperor of Qian that night was equivalent to Song Yan of Great Yu going out and digging up several of his ancestors' graves.

This caused Great Qian, which could have surpassed Great Yu's national destiny in one fell swoop, to instead become even more miserable for a time than Great Yu, which had lost two emperors.

The old Emperor of Qian was forced to retake the throne and launched a near-suicidal purge, thoroughly clearing out all associated factions, but it also left Great Qian riddled with holes.

This was also why, in the era Zhou Yan lived in, the Demonic Sects of Great Qian were so rampant that they even managed to deceive the Emperor of Qian for a time.

The consequence of all this was that Shi Suiyan's mother lost most of her maternal clan, and the remaining Family members, to show their loyalty, completely severed ties with the original Family.

Had Shi Suiyan's mother not truly been uninvolved, and had the Emperor of Qian not already killed so many, she too would have been unable to escape being implicated.

Although her mother did not affect her father's career, since she had lost her value and he needed to avoid suspicion, the lives of the mother and daughter in the manor grew increasingly wretched.

This was the reason why a girl was ultimately named Huo Jie.

When Shi Suiyan was a bit older, Prime Minister Huo married another woman as an equal wife.

Because her mother's status had already become lowly after that incident, she was bullied even more after the equal wife entered the house, and eventually committed suicide in despair.

That was also the first time Shi Suiyan saw her father.

Prime Minister Huo only gave the corpse a cold glance before ordering the servants to handle it. Ultimately, the mother was buried in the ancestral tomb, and Shi Suiyan received several properties as compensation.

Prime Minister Huo was like a cold political machine, showing not a hint of unnecessary emotion.

This dealt a massive blow to the young Shi Suiyan.

Originally, although the mother and daughter lived somewhat frugally, there was still a trace of warmth.

The Prime Ministers Residence had never lacked for their food or clothing; they simply often faced cold shoulders and many inconveniences in small matters.

But after her mother died, Shi Suiyan's life actually improved. Yet with every bit of improvement, her guilt deepened; she knew that all of this was bought with her mother's life.

Having such an extreme original Family, the original Shi Suiyan might very well have grown into a spoiled and willful Young Miss. After all, she had money, property, no supervision, and was not valued.

But she did not become like that.

It wasn't because her character was noble, but because reality was even more cruel.

She was told the truth by her younger half-brother.

It turned out that when her mother married into the Huo Family, she had brought a significant amount of property.

Because Great Qian disliked officials engaging in business, officials often married into merchant families.

This was exactly why, after her maternal clan fell, the mother and daughter could still maintain their dignity.

And her mother's death was not suicide; it was orchestrated by her stepmother, both to prevent Shi Suiyan from taking more Family property in the future and out of a desire to seize the estate of a Family without heirs.

Prime Minister Huo actually saw the clues, but for the sake of the big picture, he did not issue any punishment.

After all, the dead no longer had value, and there was no need to stir up more trouble. Thus, he allocated most of her mother's properties to Shi Suiyan and buried her mother in the ancestral tomb as compensation.

The younger brother had overheard these things by chance, and he came to tell Shi Suiyan so that she would flee quickly.

Prime Minister Huo was exceptionally capable in political affairs, but a complete mess in Family matters.

He never expected that his act of compensation would incite jealousy, and that jealousy intertwined with greed would actually drive the Second Madam, who came from a great clan, to strike at a little girl.

Thus, before her stepmother could act, Shi Suiyan followed her brother's warning and fled the Family overnight.

Although this played right into the stepmother's hands, it at least saved her life.

But Prime Minister Huo immediately realized the severity of the problem; if the news of the legitimate daughter fleeing due to internal Family strife spread, it would surely damage his prestige.

So, he covered up the truth of Shi Suiyan's flight from the outside world, claiming she had stolen a heavy treasure from the manor and fled.

It wasn't a search for a person, but a direct bounty for a fugitive.

In this way, a more eye-catching topic suppressed the Family scandal. Even if the news that the legitimate daughter fled due to internal strife occasionally leaked, the overall impact was greatly reduced.

As for whether she was sent back by others for the reward or killed and robbed for the heavy treasure, it was no longer important to Prime Minister Huo.

All he needed to do was suppress public opinion as quickly as possible and bribe various parties to prevent this matter from becoming a handle for political enemies to attack him.

Meanwhile, the fleeing Shi Suiyan had already been targeted by multiple forces.

All of this was actually her stepmother's scheme, including letting her own son 'accidentally' learn the truth.

She did come from a great Family, after all; her actions wouldn't be so full of holes. She was merely using her son's sympathy to force Shi Suiyan out of the Prime Ministers Residence.

This way, it fulfilled her son's persona of being kind-hearted, and her goal could be achieved more easily.

In any case, she was already not seen as a kind person in the eyes of others; sacrificing some reputation for more profit was a net gain for her.

Thus, under the secret 'escort' of the people she sent, Shi Suiyan fled all the way out of the capital.

Just as the outside world thought she had completely disappeared, the Second Madam's people prepared to strike.

What she hadn't expected was that what Prime Minister Huo said was actually true: Shi Suiyan indeed carried a heavy treasure left by her mother.

That treasure suddenly showed its power when she was cornered, counter-killing all those who surrounded her.

And from those people's mouths, she further learned of the conspiracy behind it all.

The story should have ended there, with Shi Suiyan becoming a powerful female protagonist, walking the path of a heroine who undergoes hardships and eventually returns for revenge.

But this world never listens to reason.

The fluctuations of the Magic Treasure happened to alert foreign Cultivators who had come to fish in troubled waters during Great Qian's turmoil.

Shi Suiyan was thus abducted and taken all the way to the Myriad Law Domain in the West River.

The Myriad Law Domain was vast, with numerous lineages and complex forces, practically a slightly more orderly version of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains; one look was enough to tell it wasn't a good place.

The reason she was captured was also because she had absorbed the power of that Magic Treasure; her potential far exceeded her peers, and she had awakened a time-type Divine Ability, allowing her to briefly borrow power from a certain period in the future or past.

Therefore, she was selected as an elite subject and sent into an extremely horrifying experiment within the West River.

That plan, spearheaded by the Truth Cult, presided over by the remnants of the Time Controllers, and involving multiple forces, was named 'Sui Feast.'