Zhao Ming smirked for no apparent reason as he yelled, "You are just pretending to be a princess, I can clearly sense your extraordinary cultivation level."
Xuan Cheng ignored his obnoxious behavior as she formally introduced herself as Princess Cheng, waiting for his response. As for Zhao Ming, as soon as he heard the name "Princess Cheng," his heart sank and he got goosebumps.
His mouth gaped open, and his eyes widened in utter shock. But after he regained consciousness, he laughed aloud, saying, "You can pretend to be the emperor, and I would have believed you. But Princess Cheng? Do you even know who she is?"
While Xuan Cheng scowled, he spoke of her as though he was a close friend. Since it was not funny to her, she was unable to laugh. She observed his fits of laughter as he continued, and when he was finished, he turned to her and said, "You chose the wrong person to disguise as; she has never visited the Capital City, and you dared to enter the imperial palace impersonating as her?"
After rolling her eyes and taking a deep breath, Xuan Cheng waited for him to finish laughing before saying, "I can heal your mother," and adding, "And I need to hurry..."
"What?" Say that again? Zhao Ming asked, unable to believe what he had just heard was accurate. He stood up as she appeared to be serious with her claim.
"I made it so she could sleep without suffering, but when she wakes up, she will suffer even more if I do not come back to her. In an effort to gain his comprehension, Xuan Cheng said, "I can heal her, but it will take me a day and a night of uninterrupted silence."
"If the Evil Lord does not have an antidote for this poison, how can his minion-" Zhao Ming approached her and looked her in the eyes. "How dare you! Stay away from me! I am Princess Cheng, granddaughter of Heavenly Jade Princess and Grand Prince Consort Xuan, and you have the audacity to bully and approach me inappropriately!" She yelled and moved away from him, closing her eyes.
"Are you...really her?" "Tell me what painting Princess Cheng gifted Eunuch Su?" Zhao Ming asked, his face flushed. He questioned her to check if she was speaking the truth.
"Head Eunuch Su?" Xuan Cheng remembered the eunuch who brought the life changing decree, clearing her grandmother's name, "Painting of my garden," she answered. Taking another look at him, she wondered, "Is he the one who unknowingly helped me with the decree?"
Zhao Ming snapped his finger, and the chains burst into black and gray fumes, astounded Xuan Cheng, who had never felt such strong demonic energy before. Evil and demon cultivators may sound similar, but they are very different. Everyone with Qi has the potential to be an evil cultivator; it is the method and motivation for cultivation that make them evil.
Demonic Cultivators, on the other hand, have a different type of Qi and are not always cruel, unlike evil cultivators, who will go to any length for their gain. In the entire world, only 1% of active cultivators are known to have demonic qi. With this, one can guess, how rare Zhao Ming's aura is.
Xuan Cheng rubbed her wrists and then pulled out a miniature casket, opening it to reveal a golden pill in front of her eyes, which she reluctantly swallowed. Within seconds, golden granules began to float around her bruises and head injury, eventually healing her.
Zhao Ming seemed impressed as he gazed at her in awe. "You are the poison master," he said, mesmerized by her. "Keep it secr-" Xuan Cheng grew frightened and asked.
"Do not worry," he assured her. "After I am done with her treatment, we shall have no further interactions, and we shall be as stranger as we have been so far today," Xuan Cheng said while nodding and raising her eyebrows.
"I will help you in any way I can," Zhao Ming nodded in agreement, his vengeful eyes turning grateful. "First, Huan, bring me my maid." She demanded it with a resentful tone.
"She is outside; let us go to my mother; you said she will be in a lot of pain when she wakes up," Zhao Ming remembered and asked. Xuan Cheng nodded and smiled inside. The ferocious tiger became a wet cat before her.
"Princess Cheng…" Huan moaned as another maid from Zhao Ming's palace untied her from the pillar. Xuan Cheng glared at Zhao Ming once again. The way she is, she would never treat his mother, and on top of that, she would surely avenge herself.
However, indirectly, she was indebted to the empress and her son, she had no choice but to let it slide for that moment, but her changing pupils did make a record of Zhao Ming's unfriendly and unwelcoming attitude.
"They pushed me…." Huan dragged herself, and fainted in Xuan Cheng's feet. Zhao Ming had seen countless acts, he furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Stop overreacting." Xuan Cheng looked at him with a dead glare.
"Huan, stand up, we need to work now," she said, shifting her gaze from resentment to compassion as she helped her maid, who had clearly not fainted for real. "All right, if Your Highness says so," she said shamelessly, scanning her surroundings.
The tiny storeroom that had suffocated her for hours became her trauma, and before she could feel sick, she rushed to leave, grabbing the medicine boxes. "Your maid is like a monkey," Zhao Ming commented, as he cast a look at Xuan Cheng.
Her gaze met his once more, and fear coursed through her veins; it was clear that Xuan Cheng had the upper hand in the situation, and Zhao Ming was supposed to be at her mercy, but instead, she was terrified of him. Indescribable fear had made a home in her heart.
….
Xuan Cheng and Huan exchanged puzzled glances in front of a strange door. When Zhao Ming noticed the confusion in their eyes, which had been constantly questioning him without making a sound, he stopped them from leaving the main door and led them to a secret quarter.
The door slid open when he placed his palm on its surface, revealing a hidden passage. "This way shall take us straight to my mother's inner chamber," he said with a proud grin. Xuan Cheng was overjoyed because she wanted to complete the task in silence without raising suspicions.
The scary humans in the palace make one assume that the hidden cultivators will be even scarier. Consort Xin, the person who appeared to have hypnotized the Grand Empress Dowager, was a person she had good reason to doubt. Preventing her from getting any help or backing.
As Zhao Ming led the way, Huan was unable to hold back and ended up whispering her concerns to Xuan. "Why does he have a passage straight to the empress's inner chambers?" she asked.
Although she was told to keep quiet by Xuan Cheng with a quick glance, she knew in her heart why he would have such a secret passage.
Walking behind me in a dimly lit passage, Xuan Cheng remembered her grandmother. The way she saw Zhao Ming anxious and nervous, her eyes welled up with tears. Because she could very well understand his concerns and worries.
If she had been in his position, she would have followed suit so she could keep an eye on things covertly and run to her grandmother in case of an emergency. She surmised that Zhao Ming visited the location fairly frequently based on the appearance.
The empress was clearly visible in the mirror that materialized before them as the passage came to an end, sleeping peacefully. Zhao Ming was shocked to see her mother sleeping so contentedly again after a long absence. His eyes began to well up with tears as he recalled hearing his mother sobbing at night.
He would be forced to keep himself from disintegrating as he helplessly watched her. Zhao Ming usually visits his mother while she is sleeping and makes his way back as quickly as he can because he was aware that he had demonic qi and that it would harm his mother if he got too close to her.
Zhao Ming did something that caused the empress's maids to pass out. dropping to the ground like berries and mangoes. He said, "Come," and held out his hand to assist Xuan Cheng in descending, but she dodged him and dove into the chamber.
"I need the room to be empty, Huan, drag these maids out," Xuan Cheng ordered immediately after checking the empress' pulse. Zhao Ming said, "I can do that," and with a snap of his fingers, the maids vanished. Because of Xuan Cheng, Huan had seen many paranormal occurrences, but she had never witnessed a person vanish into thin air.
Huan pondered this as she quickly started to gather the necessary supplies in accordance with the directions Xuan Cheng had written down in her palace. "Perhaps he is also a cultivator," she wondered.