Volume 1 Chapter 1: Kicking Off the Regent’s Coffin Lid
“Prepare the body! Seal the coffin!”
“If anyone dares to block it again, this Empress Dowager orders them killed without mercy!”
Between dreaming and waking, Hua Xieyi felt her forehead, where a bullet had struck, throbbing as if it were about to explode.
The surrounding noise was clamorous. A woman was giving orders in an overbearing and arrogant manner, making it impossible for her not to open her eyes.
Darkness was everywhere.
Hua Xieyi struggled to lift her hand and feel around, and what she felt made her nearly leap out of her skin.
She was actually lying in a square coffin, and beside her lay a cold, stiff corpse!
Her own second uncle was far too despicable! Not only had he stolen her position as the Master of Ghost Doctor Hall, but he also wanted her to be buried alive with someone else!
Above her, “thud thud,” coffin nails were being driven in. That woman was still anxiously urging and issuing commands.
So damn shameless!
“Motherf*cker!”
Accompanied by this grand national curse, with a “bang,” wood splinters flew everywhere. The coffin lid, which hadn’t been fully nailed down, was actually kicked to pieces by an indignant Hua Xieyi.
“A walking corpse!!”
Screams of terror erupted all around.
Hua Xieyi clung to the edge of the coffin and poked out a pale, livid face.
Her eyebrows were like bean-worms, her lips were blood-red, and two exaggerated patches of rouge on her cheeks made her look exactly like a paper effigy from a funeral shop.
The craftsmen driving the nails fled in all directions.
A gust of chilly wind blew past. Hua Xieyi stared blankly at the crowd of guests dressed in ancient costumes, who stared back in stunned silence. The atmosphere instantly turned deathly quiet.
Empress Dowager Xie Lingyu, who was in a hurry to have the two buried, saw the sudden change and forced herself to remain calm. “Men! The Regent Princess’s corpse has come back to life! Seal the coffin immediately!”
“Wait, don’t!” Hua Xieyi clung to the coffin edge. “I’m still breathing.”
Steward He of the Prince’s Mansion, who had been harboring anger but dared not speak, immediately seized the opportunity. “A walking corpse cannot speak. Your Imperial Majesty, our Princess is truly not dead. She cannot be buried!”
The Empress Dowager narrowed her phoenix eyes, unable to hide her chilling killing intent.
“So what if she’s not dead? She brought bad luck and killed Western Liang’s Prince Regent on their wedding day. Now she has destroyed the coffin and disturbed the Prince’s spirit. These are capital offenses! Men, perform the Golden Buddha Face-Plastering!”
As soon as the imperial decree was issued, the palace attendants stepped forward, reaching out to grab Hua Xieyi’s wrists. They intended to plaster layers of wet yellow paper onto her face until she suffocated to death.
They’re playing for real?
Only now did Hua Xieyi have to believe that she had transmigrated—transmigrated into a miserable princess consort destined for sacrificial burial, accused of killing the Prince Regent, and now hanging by a thread.
What was even more tragic was that she had no memory of the original host’s past.
The Prince’s Mansion guards didn’t dare defy the decree, but Hua Xieyi certainly couldn’t just wait for death. With a forceful surge of energy, cries of alarm rang out. The palace attendants pinning her wrists and shoulders were all blasted back simultaneously, and the yellow paper in their hands fluttered everywhere.
One sheet, by some coincidence, landed right on the face of the Prince Regent, Gong Jinxing, inside the coffin.
Hua Xieyi felt a surging, continuous energy throughout her body. It even startled her, let alone everyone else.
The Empress Dowager’s expression also changed drastically. Her eyes flickered strangely as she looked at Hua Xieyi.
“Refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit! Where are the archers? Kill her on the spot without mercy!”
Upon her command, the Imperial Guards outside the mourning hall pushed through the guests and swarmed in. They surrounded the coffin, nocking arrows to their strings and immediately firing them like rain.
Trapped in this small space with nowhere to run, Hua Xieyi had no choice but to scramble back into the coffin in the moment of crisis. Driven by desperation, she decided to use the “jinxed” Prince in the coffin as a human shield—let’s see who dares to be so disrespectful!
The noble Lord Regent had a piece of yellow paper on his face, not moving at all…
Wait!
Hua Xieyi’s heart skipped a beat. She leaned in to take a closer look and found that the thin yellow paper near the Regent’s nostrils was actually wet! Wet!
This meant he was still breathing! He wasn’t fully dead yet!
She ripped off the yellow paper. The man in the coffin wore a python robe and a jade belt, his hair bound in a golden crown. His eyes were tightly shut, his sword-like eyebrows extended to his temples, and his skin was pale to the point of being translucent. He was cold and lifeless, yet it couldn’t hide the refined elegance of his features, which were as beautiful as hibiscus flowers.
What a pity.
You’re in luck, though, meeting me today—Hua Xieyi, the 19th generation successor of the Ghost Doctor Hall!
If the King of Hell wants you dead at the third watch, I can keep you alive until the fifth.
Hua Xieyi shouted out in surprise: “Stop! Your Prince Regent is still alive!”
This roar was like a clap of thunder on a clear day, shocking everyone.
The rain of arrows above her stopped abruptly.
Empress Dowager Xie Lingyu’s face instantly darkened, and the killing intent in her eyes grew even stronger. She knew full well that Gong Jinxing hadn’t breathed his last, which made it all the more urgent. She barked angrily, “Nonsense! Why are you still standing there? Kill her!”
Hua Xieyi was fuming: “The Prince really is still alive! He’s just temporarily congested with blood around his heart. I guarantee he’ll wake up after two slaps. Why are you so insistent on killing him?”
Her tone was firm and confident. Steward He of the Prince’s Mansion dropped his former submissiveness and stepped forward excitedly.
“The Prince is indeed still alive! Hear my command: Protect the Prince and Princess!”
The guards of the Prince’s Mansion surged in, swords drawn, pushing back the Imperial Guards and forming a wall of iron around the coffin.
The surrounding guests were also in an uproar, shouting their protests in a confused clamor.