The leading Divine Attendant knocked respectfully at the gate. Only after Sang Ruo gave the word did she lead her party in to report the results.
Mei Si stared fixedly at Sang Ruo, her eyes filled with a lethal intensity.
The moment Helian Yun saw Mei Si, he tried to retreat inconspicuously into the corner, hoping she wouldn’t notice him. Sang Ruo caught the movement. With her right hand behind her back, she quietly flicked a wisp of black energy.
Helian Yun stumbled forward with a cry: “Ugh—”
Mei Si turned her head toward him, arching an eyebrow. “Heh, aren’t you the one…? You are so stupid, yet you actually chose the right master.”
Helian Yun’s heart sank. He inwardly cursed the nonexistent pebble on the ground and forced himself to act: “Wh-what master?”
Sang Ruo ignored him. She leaned down slightly and said to Mei Si, “It seems you two are acquainted?”
With a cloth stuffed into his mouth, the Bamboo Section attendants bound the muffled, struggling Helian Yun and dragged him away.
“Does it make you happy to lose an accomplice?” Sang Ruo lightly patted Mei Si’s withered, gaunt cheek.
Mei Si’s face still looked incredibly harsh and mean, but she forced her spine to remain straight. “Tell the High Priest to come speak with me.”
Before her voice had even faded, Rong Ji approached on her own. Sang Ruo took a soft step back and gave a slight nod, signaling that she was handing full authority over the matter to her.
“Do you have any final words for me?” Rong Ji asked tonelessly.
Mei Si pressed her hands against the ground, trembling as if trying to stand. Sang Ruo placed a hand on her shoulder and slowly pressed her back down.
Rong Ji said, “Just say it like this. It won’t be more than a few sentences anyway.”
Mei Si’s face twitched as she took a deep breath. Her cloudy, sharp eyes bored into Rong Ji. “Remember when you were little…”
Rong Ji interrupted her, her expression as cold as if covered in a thin layer of ice. “There is no need for such small talk. Do you truly still believe that playing such a clumsy emotional card will work?”
Her light-colored pupils shifted slightly, staring at the fallen leaves nearby. “Yes, I am deeply grateful for the care you showed me in my youth. But the current lack of order and the collapse of ethics in this city are the results of your management. To change this, you must die.”
Mei Si looked at her with an expression of pure absurdity. “What are you talking about? Ridiculous. Might I ask what I have done that is so unforgivable?”
“Your indifference and your help in covering things up are your greatest crimes,” Rong Ji said coldly. “The others in the city will be liquidated one by one; you need not worry about that.”
Rong Ji turned to Sang Ruo. “Please lend me your blade.”
Sang Ruo condensed black energy into a sword. Bowing slightly, she handed it to Rong Ji.
Only then did Mei Si believe it. The child she had watched grow up—the one she thought was pathetically naive and indecisive—was now truly determined to kill her. Where did it go wrong?
Rong Ji raised the long blade, stepping forward one pace at a time. “Since you have nothing to say, please begin your journey.”
Mei Si hung her head, her messy hair hiding her expression. As Rong Ji reached her, she suddenly gave a raspy laugh. “I truly never imagined that after a lifetime of dominance, I would fall at the hands of you two juniors.”
Sang Ruo interjected suddenly, “I am not a junior. I am older than you.”
Mei Si choked on her words.
A moment later, Mei Si regained her composure and sneered, “You didn’t think I actually cared for you, did you? Remember those pastries? They were brought from home by your attendant. she begged me with a thousand entreaties to give them to you. I saw her pleading was truly pitiful, so I gave them to you.”
Rong Ji’s movements froze. Her hand tightened around the hilt.
Mei Si continued, “Praying for your blessings was actually because I was afraid you’d die. I hadn’t yet used the High Priest’s name to squeeze enough benefits from the nobles of the inner city; how could I let you die?”
“There was a ten-year gap between the last High Priest and your birth. Do you know what I went through? Anyone could trample on the Divine Court!”
“I finally reclaimed power these past few years. Why should I give it back to a green girl like you!” Mei Si laughed manically. “Now do you understand? No one truly loves you! You have nothing! You don’t think that person beside you is sincerely helping you, do you? She is a monster, she—”
Her voice cut off abruptly.
The dark blade reflected the sky as it slashed down, sending a clean arc of blood onto the bluestone bricks.
Sang Ruo frowned as she looked at her. Rong Ji’s expression was indifferent. She said quietly, “The sinner has been executed.”
In the silence, the leading Bamboo Section attendant was the first to snap back. She blew a whistle. From outside the courtyard, the other attendants approached and stood in formation.
Sang Ruo sighed softly. She knelt on one knee, performing a formal salute of the Divine Court. It was an act of submission, an offering of loyalty. Behind her, the other attendants followed suit, kneeling in a line that stretched out the gate.
The authority that had been displaced for nearly thirty years finally returned to the hands of the rightful High Priest.
Rong Ji wore no mask now, and she was dressed in simple white common clothes. Yet, after the transformation of personally executing her ‘mentor,’ she seemed to have evolved. Even without the solemn sacrificial robes, she carried a natural, daunting majesty.
The dust had settled. Rong Ji spoke a few official words as the High Priest and dismissed the crowd. After this coup, there were many messes left to clean up in the Divine Court.
Per Sang Ruo’s request, Helian Yun was imprisoned, to be executed in three days.
When the System heard Sang Ruo tell Rong Ji this, it nearly screamed: 【Host! The male lead cannot die! He is…】
Sang Ruo said suddenly, “Can the male lead truly not die? Because of ‘rules’? The rules of my world wouldn’t care about such things.”
The System froze, stammering: 【Of… of course. Why would I lie to you? Every world’s rules have different temperaments.】
“I see.”
But in the end, she did not tell Rong Ji to retract the order. No matter how much the System pleaded, Sang Ruo did not waver. The System was frantic, but as a party to the contract, it had its own constraints and could not interfere with the Host’s behavior.
Late at night, Rong Ji finally finished processing all the affairs. She sat in the pavilion in the center of the lake, staring blankly at the lotus leaves filling the pond.
Tap, tap. Footsteps sounded behind her. She did not turn around.
Her shoulders felt a slight weight as a cloak steeped in agarwood scent was draped over her. The scent was unique; Rong Ji had only smelled it on Sang Ruo—a thick, dark fragrance with a hint of coolness that was hard to describe with anything else in the world. If she had to describe it, it was like a very, very deep abyss.
“Why haven’t you gone back?” The woman’s voice was soft, carrying a trace of tenderness.
After a long moment, Rong Ji slowly shook her head. “My heart is not at peace. I wanted to sit for a while.”
Sang Ruo stood by her side. “Troubled by Mei Si’s words from earlier?”
“She said them to provoke me. I know that.” Rong Ji’s straight back relaxed slightly, as if she were only now stepping out of her previous role. “I just… for a moment…” she struggled to find the words, “I cannot adjust yet.”
And there was a bit of hesitation. Toward Sang Ruo.
Now that the Divine Court was reclaimed, half of what she set out to do was complete. Next, she only needed to deal with the City Lord’s Manor and pressure the various forces in the city. But after that?
She did not doubt Sang Ruo’s intentions toward her, but just as she didn’t know why Sang Ruo had come, she didn’t know when Sang Ruo would leave. Was it dependence? She seemed more and more unable to leave this person.
Unaware of these hidden worries, Sang Ruo offered a clumsy comfort: “It will get better in time.”
Rong Ji tilted her head to look at her. The words ‘Will you stay with me?’ reached her lips but were swallowed back down. She forced a small smile, then suddenly opened her arms and slowly embraced Sang Ruo, pressing her cheek against her.
Sang Ruo’s body stiffened slightly, but she did not push her away.
“Let me hold you for a moment,” Rong Ji said in a low voice.
Sang Ruo raised her hand, and after a long pause, rested her fingertips on Rong Ji’s shoulder. Rong Ji’s cheek was pressed against her midsection. As a demon, her body temperature was cool—lower than a normal person’s—yet at this moment, she felt as if the place where their skin met through the fabric was on fire.
After returning, Rong Ji tossed and turned on her bed for a long time before falling into a muddled sleep.
In her dream, she saw a familiar back. Long black hair fell loosely. The figure was kneeling on the bed. In the places where the black hair didn’t cover, there was only a thin layer of gauze—yet it was more provocative than if she were wearing nothing at all.
Rong Ji knew she should look away, that it was improper to watch, yet her body was out of her control. she walked slowly toward the figure, her steps light, as if afraid to disturb her.
The figure slowly turned around. Her hair slid down, and the thin gauze hid nothing. Rong Ji felt as if she had been burned; her gaze snapped upward.
It was that familiar, cold face she knew so well. In those slightly upturned black phoenix eyes, her own reflection was mirrored perfectly.
It was a demonic enchantment.
Rong Ji felt her heart beating violently and uncontrollably. She leaned forward. The other’s red lips curved, and pale fingertips lifted the thin gauze. She spoke a few words, her breath warm.
“A-Ji…”
Rong Ji snapped her eyes open. It was broad daylight.
Her heart was pounding wildly. She frowned and closed her eyes in self-loathing. She had deliberately ignored those hidden emotions before, but now, after this dream, she could no longer deceive herself.
She had violated the prohibition of every High Priest. Yet, she was powerless to resist.