Hongyue gently eased herself up in a sitting position. Her eyes nonchalantly shifting to focus her attention onto her arms.

Hmph.

Don't jest with her.

From the memories she was given, she recalled the new scars were indirectly caused by her father's concubine. Did that mistress have nothing to do? Then that little mistress will have to prepared to be played around with. Getting up to her feet, she limped her way to a bowl of soggy cold porridge that was set near the dresser. Hongyue confidently waved her hand as her eyes glowed an aqua hue.

<Come>

The porridge in the bowl swiftly dried up as the water got pulled out from each grain of rice. The accumulated amount of liquid hovered steadily in the air. After each drop of the remaining liquid left the bowl and combined with the floating volume of water in the air, Hongyue smirked arrogantly. The sphere of water floated over to her beckoning and covered her skin as it slowly erased any mark of ever being tortured. With her brand new, pale, beautiful skin, her wounds were the thing of the past.

She ran her fingers on her newly repaired skin before shortly pausing.

Hongyue was formerly a siren in her past life. With the body of a mermaid and the lineage of a mystic enchanter, the essence of her powers differed significantly from any spiritual sea being in her world. Her mother came from an ancient bloodline directly from the God of the Sea, which meant any liquid form was all hers to control. She had also been able to cultivate a decent amount of control over air itself within the time she was alive.

Her father could also be considered a powerhouse on par with her mother. The man himself had a unique power over words: a rare ability to use common words as enchantment instead of using long verses to cast a spell. So with all the capabilities inherited from her parents, a single word from Hongyue could easily override any spell cast in this world.

Regretfully, her soul was severely injured in her previous battles with the delusional hunters who desired her blood, believing it could be exchanged for immortality.

While there'll be a current limit to her spells, Hongyue believed after some time of cultivating in this world, it would be enough to heal her shattered soul.

Until then—she'll have to survive on in order to know.

Hongyue sighed deeply and spun her pointer finger, the usual tingling sensation began to expand out on the tips of her fingers. The body of water was enticed back out of her skin to form a transparent sphere. With another wave, the water surrounded her head and gently descended upon her hair. The liquid distributed into droplets while rushing into the roots of her hair and flooded into her pores. Any dirt or oil the droplets encountered would be forced inside its tiny body of water. Minutes passed before the water left just as gently as it came, all while carrying all the sweat, blood, and dirt that was on her body away.

Hongyue frowned slightly, it felt like there was still some type of significant amount of damage inside this body somewhere.

How strange.

She snapped her fingers, and the body of water evaporated into the air. Humming softly, Hongyue sauntered over to the dresser. There stood a mirror along with a small box of blush, a tidy stack of lip-staining paper, and a small jar of perfume. She carelessly opened one of the wooden drawers and found a dull hair stick made of silver that matched the memory she received. Biting her fingertip, she watched her blood dripped upon the metal. A slight hissing sound could be heard as the silver hair stick violently reacted with her blood. The section of the hair ornament turned black, while a foul smell entered her nose.

Poison.

Ah, what a pain.

If it was the old Hongyue, then there will be nothing she could do about it. However, to a water-user, it wouldn't be impossible to remove it.

Poisons such as in these cases are more than just deadly. While Hongyue didn't know what type of poison it was, she could roughly guess that it would affect both the mind and the body, which could reduce the appearance and the natural intelligence of a human being.

It was too bad in this case, she wasn't a complete human; otherwise, it would have been game over for her from the start.

Still, to imagine that such a large amount of poison, which could be assumed to be quite expensive and quite precious, was continuously used on her body. Hongyue shook her head, she'll have to thank the other person for spending such a considerable amount of time and money in order just to kill her. In a typical General's Manor, there's bound to be many wives with numerous children, so it wouldn't be unnatural to have deaths within the home as the competition for favor grew.

However, the main wife is always held up on a pedestal. So just to think that her only child was abused as such is considered cruel.

Hongyue still didn't understand. If she was useless as they say and if she were a 'normal', there would be no need for a significant amount of poison to be spent on her. Was the other person unsure if she was even going to die?

It didn't fit, the schemer must be afraid something she wasn't sure about.

There is indeed more than what meets the eyes.

If she was right, poisons like these first attack the brain reducing the person to a childlike state. From this, it could be said that the other person doesn't want to directly kill her right away, perhaps to humiliate her or possibly to force her to lose favor.

It's common sense that a great general from a high-class family will look down upon a child of his that lack both power and intelligence. Others around the general will probably urge him to despise her even more by continuously laughing and ridiculing him. Thus, even as her father, the general would deem her as a type of useless trash.

It seems like more than one hand inside this household is getting itchy having too much free time on their side.

Just truly strange, Hongyue continued to tap her chin as she thought, her father still cared for her and continuously doted on her.

Actually, he doted on her even more as she got sicker from the poison. One would think this tactic wasn't working and give up, yet the culprit proceeded. This amount of poison was surely covering something else.

Was it all given all at once or given over time? Or—was it both.

in_awe

*getting itchy hands sort of means like you're looking for trouble*