"Your Highness!" Yun Zhao said urgently to the crowd, "This painting is not right! Please step back at once and stop gathering here!"
"Miss Yun, why do you keep humiliating me?" Jiang Wanxin's eyes reddened, her voice already choked with tears as she spoke. "It's one thing that you've been making things difficult for me all along, but now you even want to destroy the birthday gift I've presented to His Highness?"
Jiang Wanning, the daughter of the second branch of the family, chimed in with her own complaint: "Your Highness doesn't know—my elder sister worked herself to the bone to paint this. She could barely eat or sleep, and pushed herself for over two months straight. She's grown so thin…"
Jiang Wanxin's eyes glistened with tears. "Say no more."
Jiang Heng, seated among the male guests and unable to approach, was already burning with anxiety. Only by exercising the greatest restraint did he manage not to lose composure before the assembly.
"Nonsense." The Princess Royal's face was twisted with fury, her gaze at Yun Zhao dripping with loathing. "Guards! Drag her out!"
The guards stepped forward in response.
"Your Highness—!" Yun Zhao ignored the approaching guards, her voice as cold and sharp as a blade of ice, cutting through the clamor of the hall. "At first glance, this painting is pleasing to the eye, but with prolonged exposure, one's mind will gradually be corrupted by the Evil Qi within it, slowly reduced to a puppet…"
"What puppet? What is she babbling about?"
"She looks all ethereal and refined, yet she's so vicious! Knowing full well that His Highness holds County Princess Jiale dear, she still dares to destroy the painting in public."
"Isn't she just relying on Prince Qin's recommendation…"
The moment those words slipped out, the speaker realized his mistake. He looked up to find Prince Qin's gaze as cold as ice, staring at him as though he were a dead man.
The man's legs gave way, and he fell to his knees with a thud.
Yun Zhao, however, paid no heed to her surroundings. Her gaze locked onto the wisp of crimson malevolence steadily accumulating between the Princess Royal's brows, and her heart sank.
This painting was clearly a trap, designed specifically for the Princess Royal! And whoever was behind it had done something to accelerate its effect—it was working faster than she had anticipated!
"Your Highness!"
Seeing the two guards charging toward her, Yun Zhao flicked her wrist. Her silver whip shot out like a serpent leaving its den, deftly coiling around both men's arms. With a subtle shift of force, she sent them flying—
The two burly, strapping guards were cast off like kites with snapped strings, stumbling several steps before they could regain their footing.
Everyone present was stunned by Yun Zhao's display of whip work!
The Crown Prince furrowed his brow, casting a disapproving look at Xiao Qi.
To his surprise, Xiao Qi's thin lips curved slightly upward, his eyes clearly gleaming with admiration.
Crown Prince: "…"
The Princess Royal trembled with rage down to her fingertips. "Rebellion! This is outright rebellion! What kind of demon star has Yuan'er brought into my presence!"
She immediately ordered more guards forward to seize Yun Zhao.
But Yun Zhao seized this opening to grab Nanny Zhou's wrist and, without a word of explanation, pressed the woman's hand firmly onto the smeared ink.
No one had expected such a move from her—for a moment, everyone was dumbstruck.
Yun Zhao moved swiftly. In the blink of an eye, she took Nanny Zhou's ink-stained hand and plunged it into the basin of clean water set on the nearby table for washing hands!
"Hah! Hah!" Nanny Zhou suddenly turned red-faced and wild-eyed, flailing about. Tears streamed down her cheeks, yet her mouth said, "Your Highness, this old servant—this old servant doesn't mean to cry, but I simply can't control myself…"
The entire hall fell into horrified silence.
The maidservant beside Jiang Wanxin gave a subtle flick of her sleeve. Seeing this, Yun Zhao called out loudly, "Guards! Hold the painting up high—don't let anyone else touch it!"
The military official's daughter who had offered the ginseng earlier reacted with lightning speed, stretching her arm out and raising the rolled-up painting high above everyone else: "Little Medical Immortal! I've got it!"
Yun Zhao then looked toward the Princess Royal: "Your Highness surely has imperial physicians you are acquainted with. If you do not believe what I say, summon one—a single examination will confirm it."
The problems with this painting, of course, went far beyond this. But for ordinary people without Xuan Arts, having them test for poison was the most straightforward approach.
At this moment, Yun Zhao could only feel grateful that the one who had set this trap possessed meager skill in Xuan Arts yet harbored grand ambitions—which was why, in addition to casting the curse, they had also mixed a potent aphrodisiac into the pigments.
With this thought, Yun Zhao looked once more toward the Princess Royal.
What was most urgent now, besides convincing the Princess Royal of her words, was the curse upon her person…
Just then, Yun Zhao suddenly "heard" a faint yet extraordinarily clear ringing emanate from the feathered hairpin in the Princess Royal's hair—like the gentle strike of a jade chime!
The longest indigo bird feather at the tip of the hairpin abruptly detached from the pin itself, transforming into a streak of deep blue light so swift it was nearly imperceptible to the naked eye!
Faster than lightning, carrying a pure and piercing aura of Evil-Banishing, it flew with unerring precision toward the painting on Jiang Wanxin's table!
"Shhh—!"
A soft sound, like a hot coal dropped into snow, and the feather of light struck dead center into the blurred mass of the peony!
The instant the feather's tip touched the paper, the alluring, intoxicatingly beautiful radiance that had shimmered over the painting's surface burst apart like a popped bubble!
All these strange phenomena unfolded before their very eyes—the crowd stood frozen in shock or fear!
But Yun Zhao clearly "saw" a young girl in a pale yellow jacket and skirt materialize, eyes blazing with fury, wrapping her arms tightly around the Princess Royal's waist in a protective embrace.
It was the very same Remnant Soul Yun Zhao had glimpsed earlier on the little white jade pig pendant at Xiao Qi's waist!
The Princess Royal suddenly clutched her forehead and staggered, a faint, garbled murmur escaping her lips: "Mother's pearl…"
Then her eyelashes trembled once, and she fainted dead away!
"Your Highness—!"
"Protect the Princess! Summon the imperial physician at once!"
The Crown Prince, seated at the table, rose abruptly—but was no match in speed for Prince Qin, who had already flown forward to shield the Princess Royal!
Shouts of alarm, the shattering of cups and plates, the clatter of overturned tables and chairs… In an instant, the waterside pavilion erupted into chaos.
Yun Zhao swiftly withdrew the last golden needle, and several drops of thick, blackened blood seeped from the tips of Nanny Zhou's thumb and index finger.
The flush on Nanny Zhou's face receded rapidly. Though her eyes still held a trace of daze, clarity had returned to them.
Like a mother hen protecting her chicks, she lunged forward and threw herself before the unconscious Princess Royal, spreading her arms wide in fierce defense:
"Old servant is here! Whoever dares touch Her Highness must first step over my corpse!"
"It was her—!"
Jiang Wanxin screamed with all her might, her entire body trembling uncontrollably as if terrified beyond measure,
"Her Highness's precious hairpin—she was the one who tampered with it!"
Jiang Heng pushed through the crowd and rushed forward: "Guards! This woman harbors malicious intent and plots against Her Highness! Seize her at once!"
He grabbed Yun Zhao's hand in a death grip, staring at her with eyes nearly split at the corners, and hissed in a lowered voice,
"Blame your own luck and audacity for daring to chase all the way to the capital!
Do you know how many people in this city want you dead? Today, whether you want to die or not—you will die!"