Sheng Muxue has never truly had a shred of affection for him.
After the exchange of nuptial wine, the hair-binding ceremony followed.
The ancients attached great importance to this ritual, believing that by binding their hair together, a couple would remain of one heart and grow old together. Furthermore, only a first marriage is referred to as the couple of the bound hair.
To perform this, both parties clip a small lock of their own hair, tie them together with a red cord, and place them into a silk pouch.
Yun Zheng was the first to pull off a small lock of his hair.
With the wedding already reaching this stage, Sheng Muxue no longer felt much resistance.
Although he also pulled out a few of his own fox hairs, what he was really thinking about was why the poison had not taken effect yet.
Could it be that it was completely useless?
What happened to the most lethal poison in the world?
Sheng Muxue always felt that he had been tricked by the system again, so he shot a resentful glance at the system floating far away.
The system suddenly felt a chill down its spine and let out a loud sneeze.
But when Sheng Muxue looked back at Yun Zheng, he noticed his expression had changed.
The hand that was about to knot the two locks of hair was now clutching his chest, his breathing becoming ragged and pained.
The hair that had yet to be knotted fell to the floor.
Gold and black strands intertwined and scattered across the ground.
Sheng Muxue had originally thought this poison would not cause Yun Zheng too much pain.
Yet, he saw Yun Zheng’s chest quickly covered in blood, the crimson stains soaking through a large area of his clothes.
Well, this was the first time he had seen a poison that came with a bleeding buff.
At this moment, the system finally deigned to float over, reminding Sheng Muxue, who was still standing motionless: “Brother, what are you stunned for? Run!”
Sheng Muxue had originally wanted to ask what exactly was wrong with Yun Zheng, but given that the desire to escape took precedence, he ended up ignoring everything else, lifting his long, cumbersome wedding robes, and running toward the gate of the great hall.
However, just as he reached the entrance, hundreds of attendants from the Cloud Palace surrounded him completely.
Sheng Muxue could only take a half-step back, then leap up, intending to jump over the heads of the crowd.
While suspended directly above the crowd, he threw a red agate stone, a luminous pearl he had pried off his clothing, and a diamond from his belt at the back of each person’s neck.
In short, no matter how numerous these attendants were, they were no match for the opulence of his wedding attire.
The attendants who were struck immediately collapsed to the ground.
Sheng Muxue landed steadily amidst the sound of everyone falling.
He had thought about this last night: if the poisoning plan succeeded, these attendants would certainly block him according to Yun Zheng’s will.
But since they were puppets and not living people, while they were obedient, their weakness was also obvious.
That was the back of their necks, which was much like a snake’s seven-inch vital point; strike it, and they would surely fall.
Upon landing, Sheng Muxue dared not linger, running out of the Cloud Palace without looking back.
Although he did not know the way, he trusted his sense of smell implicitly.
Originally, when he thought about poisoning the guards and escaping last night, he had worried about how to get out of the Cloud Palace quickly after poisoning them.
After all, the Cloud Palace was so large, and there were many identical halls.
No matter how bad one’s sense of direction was, it was hard to distinguish north, south, east, and west.
Who would have thought that a great unlucky fool would deliver himself to his doorstep?
That was why he had deliberately touched Si Chen with a hand stained by his own saliva.
As a result, Si Chen was left with his scent.
Even if he cleaned off the stains, he could not clear away the scent.
Therefore, he only needed to follow that scent, and he would definitely be able to find a way out.
Long after Sheng Muxue had left, Yun Zheng still stood frozen on the spot, clutching his bleeding chest.
Just a moment ago, his blood had only soaked his chest, but now, large drops of blood were cascading down his clothes like broken pearls.
They landed on the unknotted hair scattered on the floor, dyeing both their locks the color of blood.
The sharp pain suddenly gripped his heart, and Yun Zheng staggered, bending over until he eventually knelt halfway to the ground.
Cold sweat seeped out more profusely than the blood, soaking his back instantly.
The poison Sheng Muxue had used was very difficult to deal with.
It was the world’s deadliest poison, the Dragon Seal Poison.
Although this poison did not count for much to him under normal circumstances, he had been injured last night; the place where he had cut out his heart to take his blood had been frostbitten by the extreme cold of the Snow Soul Crystal, and that frostbite had yet to heal.
The encounter between the extreme cold of the frostbite and this poison created a ghostly synergy, causing the toxicity to increase a hundredfold in an instant.
This was because the Dragon Seal Poison was a cold-based toxin, which was most compatible with the Snow Soul Crystal.
Once the two fused, both the frostbite and the toxicity became more than a hundred times worse than they had been individually.
If it had been just the frostbite or just the poison, neither would have had a major impact on his body.
But together, it was devastating.
He had still underestimated Sheng Muxue.
He had thought that when he captured him, he had already searched him thoroughly, assuming he had nothing on him. With the Nine Heavens Yuan Formation in place, even if he wanted to run, he should have been unable to fly away.
He had not expected him to be able to deceive his eyes and secretly harbor poison.
Where on earth had he hidden such a lethal poison so that he had not noticed a single thing?
Even inside his mouth, he had deliberately pried it open to check under the pretext of punishment yesterday.
Moreover, because the poison was so potent, people generally did not hide it against their skin.
Yun Zheng recalled how obediently and uncharacteristically Sheng Muxue had behaved after he left yesterday.
Could it be that after that, someone had brought him the poison?
Yesterday, only Si Chen had come to the Cloud Palace.
But Yun Zheng did not rashly suspect Si Chen; not only did the timing not align, but Si Chen did not have the guts to do it.
His spiritual meridians, eroded by the toxicity, sent waves of constant, excruciating pain, yet the pain brought with it a numbness that prevented Yun Zheng from rising to his feet.
He remained kneeling on the spot for several hours, dragging on until he finally recovered a sliver of strength, which allowed him to stand up with great difficulty.
But the pain remained intense.
If it were anyone else in this world subjected to such torture, they would have died long ago; they would have died in agony, as if sliced apart by a thousand cuts.
Sheng Muxue has never truly had a shred of affection for him.
And so it was. What kind of affection could that devil have for him?
If he had any, how could he have heaped every kind of unsightly torture, abuse, insult, and pain upon him?
Yet he had been naive enough to think that, perhaps in this lifetime, he might have…
Heh.
After standing up, Yun Zheng staggered back to the Nine Heavens Palace.
The light and shadow falling from above in the open-air hall carved his blood-stained face into fragments of light and dark.
He dragged his broken body up the stairs.
With every step, he imprinted a clear, mottled bloodstain onto the snow-white jade steps.
It took him an unusually long time to traverse the high platform that he could normally cross in an instant.
Finally, pale-faced, he sat back down on the gilded throne. He rested his hand against the side of his head, pressed his fingers against his temple, and closed his eyes.
A narrow crack suddenly opened in the golden marking on his forehead, from which golden light flowed.
The golden light enveloped him, healing the wound on his chest.
Although the wound no longer bled, a piercing pain like an ice pick continued to spread along his meridians.
It was as if a knife intended for gouging bones and digging out hearts was sawing back and forth through his bone marrow.
The toxicity had not been suppressed.
At this moment, Yun Zheng’s entire garment had been completely dyed blood-red.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes, his glass-like pupils filled with murderous intent.
“Sheng Muxue, I originally intended to clear the slate of our past grievances with you.”
The bloody shadows in the depths of his eyes turned that unfinished sentence into shards of ice. “But since you insist otherwise, do not blame me.”