Cold Palace of the Heavenly Si Royal Palace, Wangxiu:-

Ximing woke up to yet another rising sun.

Her life hadn’t improved one bit over the year. In fact, it had deteriorated instead.

And it had deteriorated quite a lot in comparison to just a year back.

If her situation had remained the same, she might have reached the middle of the Mortal realm in cultivation.

After all, back then, she had something of savings that she kept hidden. She could use those for help in cultivation if needed.

But now, all that was pretty much dried out.

For the duo’s luck seemed to have run out and they had been shifted over to the Cold Palace.

This was a much smaller palace-like building near the back of the actual Si Royal palace. However, the difference in the conditions of the two was like Heaven and Hell.

Not “Heaven and Earth” but “Heaven and Hell”!

This place was barely maintained. Half the room had had their roofs collapse a long time ago, rendering them useless for anything.

Yet, not a single person bothered to fix the place even though members of the royalty were now living there.

That’s because this was like a prison of sorts for the royalty and the concubines.

Unless the crime committed was too much, any members of the royalty or the king’s harem (along with their children sometimes) were exiled to the cold palace instead of the regular prison.

Because even though the person might have done a crime, they were still royals. And some amount of respect had to be shown to them.

Throwing them in the prison with all sorts of commoner criminals might result in quite a lot of problems. That’s why the Cold Palace or a similar location was a must in all noble estates.

This area was usually maintained the least. It was pretty normal for it to not even have any furniture.

Thankfully for Ximing and her mother, their residence did happen to have some furniture that they could manage to salvage.

But unfortunately, since they were ordered by the king to shift to the Cold Palace, their already low social standings nosedived into the negative zone.

Much less getting proper food and other supplies, they were barely given the bare minimum for survival.

Even their trips to the outside had been banned. So they couldn’t even earn money or buy things for themselves.

Guards had been placed outside to ensure that any unauthorised attempts at escaping the area could not be made.

As for who went in or what happened on the inside, no one really cared.

The only thing in their favour was the fact that no one was allowed to kill them or let them die.

That’s why their food supply was still going on. If they starved, it would be an instant death sentence for anyone involved with them.

Be it the guards, the maids or the cooks. Everyone would be executed if they starved to death.

The same went for if they were poisoned or any assassination attempts were made at them.

But even after that, Ximing had to save her mother a few times from assassins until they were apprehended by the guards outside.

And with how slowly the cultivators used to do things, getting a few attacks within just a few months was like having an automatic rifle’s entire magazine being emptied on them at once.

It felt as if the entire harem had decided to single them out once they were chucked away to their current place of residence.

Ximing was just lamenting about her past as a voice rang out.

“Your Highness, the fifth prince would like you to give him an audience and has asked you to visit him in his chambers.”, said one of the guards standing outside.

One of the benefits of cultivation. One could easily deliver messages over long distances without much effort.

The gate was pretty far from the main building. There was no real way of communicating to the outside if one didn’t use qi to help the voice travel further.

“But I can’t waste my precious qi such a little task. I barely have any to begin with.”, Ximing said to herself as she rushed outside.

With how little qi she had, Ximing had begun trying to find ways to do things without using her qi.

Because, unlike the other places, the Cold Palace didn’t have anyone or anything to manage the environmental qi. So, unlike the qi present in the main palace, the qi here was both pretty impure and pretty low.

This is why she couldn’t make any progress with her cultivation.

The time it took for a person to cultivate in the royal palace was tripled for her in the Cold Palace.

She had to not only spend more effort to collect qi from her surroundings, but she also had to then purify it before she could absorb any.

If she ended up absorbing any impurities, it just might end up causing major harm to her body and cultivation.

By the time she arrived, gasping for air since she ran, the guard already had a displeased look on his face.

Being surrounded by cultivators, it was normal for such things to be done a little faster by making use of qi.

Cultivators used to improve their body stats like speed or even used to fly using qi.

But Ximing just ran all the way without doing any of that.

Coupled with their already bad image with everyone, the guards showed their displeasure to such a thing twice as quickly when things came to Ximing and her mother.

 

“Y-yea-hh, s-sorry about the delay.

I’ll just be going to the prince.”, said Ximing as she caught her breath.

After some time of walking, she finally managed to reach her destination.

Inside was the prince, sitting on a comfy chaise longue as he ate a bright red apple.

“Ah, Si Ximing! You’re here!”, said the prince.

“Yes, brother Jintian. I’m here.”, replied Ximing.

This was something of a daily routine for her.

Almost every day, the fifth prince used to call her over.

But not because he was a nice guy.

“Why can’t you just agree to work as one of my maids?

The pay is good, you can even stay in the servant quarters with that mother of yours. That place has better living conditions than your current crib.

And since you do have a pretty face despite your bad cultivation, the offer to stay in my chamber still stands if you can please me on the bed…”

He was another one of those useless Fuerdai young lords. Never really thinking about others aside from throwing money at them or trying to get them in bed.

{A/N: “Fuerdai” or “Fù’érdài” is the derogatory term used for the “Second Generation Rich” in China. Aka, the children of the Noveau Riche, which is the derogatory term used for people who have newly become rich in their own generation.}

“But brother, as I have reminded you every time you have offered me this position, I and my mother are currently under exile to the Cold Palace on father’s orders.

It is a violation of the king’s orders if we were to shift out of the Cold Palace!

That’s why even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t possibly dare to do such a thing!

I have no choice but to humbly decline your offer yet again.”

“Father’s orders this, father’s orders that!

Is that the only reason you have for everything!?

I’m here, trying to do you a favour by giving you a job and you’re just acting so high-headed!

It seems that this world has no place for nice people!”

Now started Si Jintian’s regular routine of Makjang melodrama.

“It’s not that, brother!

Even if I want to, my hands are tied due to father’s orders!

If not for that, I’d have come looking for you myself!

But I’m just too afraid of incurring father’s wrath!”, said Ximing as she joined into her brother’s melodrama to add fuel to the fire.

It was best if she could use her brother as a weapon against the rest of her family.

And using little lies and manipulations here and there was completely fine in her books.

After all, she wasn’t a good cultivator. She had to use just her wits to survive.

Si Jintian flung away his half-eaten apple in anger.

“Ugh!

Whenever I want to do something, my father or my siblings come in as obstacles!

Just wait till I defeat all of them to become the ruler! No one will be able to stop me!”

Thankfully for her, her fifth brother was somewhat easy to manipulate.

If it were her other siblings, she would easily be caught and punished.

That’s why she focussed her efforts on this guy only.

Si Jintian looked at his sister.

“You know what, just leave.

I was in a nice mood today and wanted to meet you. Maybe even get you on the bed if my luck was good.

But now my perfect mood has been ruined thanks to my father’s rules and orders!

So, just go back to that shack of a palace of yours before my mood worsens!”

Hearing this, Ximing quickly took her leave and stepped out.

She didn’t want to stay anywhere near a person who’d want to try making moves on their own sister.

Even if she was Si Jintian’s half-sister only, it still didn’t become any less disgusting in her eyes.

As she walked away, Ximing heard the clanging of plates falling on the floor. Her brother must be pretty mad.

It seemed that her plan was going well…

‘...is what she must be thinking!

Who is she to try to manipulate me?

If a trash cultivator like her could manipulate someone like me, the world would have ended long ago!’, thought Si Jintian as he saw his sister step out of his courtyard.

Si Jintian was a dumb Fuerdai in the eyes of the public.

This was the image that he had worked hard to create.

But it did allow others to frequently underestimate him, often leading to their demise.

They thought of him as cannon fodder as he slowly moulded them into the real cannon fodder.

“That b*tch thought that she could try to manipulate me every day and I would never notice!

It’s laughable!

I think I’m going to reward her efforts though.

Let’s play along with her little game for now. Let her think that she’s got me under her palm.

Once she thinks that everything is going perfectly and her goals are nearly complete, I shall rise and turn the tables on her!”, said Si Jintian with a glint of psychopathic insanity in his eyes.

The servants nearby could only try to appear unreactive to their master’s actions.

If anyone did anything at this moment, who knew what would happen to them?

Plus, with the sort of vibes coming off their master, the only thing that they could think of doing was collapsing with fear.

They could only blame those in the heavens who had written their fates for making them work for such a master.

Meanwhile, yet another person had a smile on their face.

“My siblings never fail to hide things, do they?

And they never stop in their plans and plots either!

This is why I spent so much on trying to develop these artefacts.”, said Ximing while sitting in her room as she removed what looked like something of an earring.

That’s right!

This is what she had spent her savings on.

She had been using the money to buy spirit stones whenever she could.

And she had managed to invent little bits of qi-based technology that could be used to bug people and listen in on their secret conversations.

She had spent most of her savings on this only.

She was even in the process of creating a video feed based on similar technology. But then they had been chucked into the Cold Palace.

These devices had very tiny spirit stones that powered them.

And they had been disguised as accessories that her targets had.

It was quite common for cultivators to wear accessories with spirit stones that could do little pretty-looking tricks. Stuff like lighting up in certain situations or shooting little fireworks.

The thing with spirit stones was that they kept absorbing qi from the environment and could last forever unless broken or completely dried of qi very quickly.

Ximing had managed to make fake versions of several accessories worn by her main targets, namely the mothers and her siblings that targetted her and her father.

And these would use a very negligible part of the total qi consumption to send her the data.

Since the consumption was so little, there was no real way for anyone to know. Since spirit stones naturally released bits of qi in random directions.

So, as long as someone didn’t decide to study the bugged accessories, no one would realise that there is a very systematic release of qi hidden amongst all those random releases.

The only issue was that she didn’t have any real way of storing these recordings.

And she couldn’t even tell others about it.

Because once someone else figured out the manufacturing procedure, it would take them very little time to proclaim themselves as the inventor and have Ximing imprisoned for trying to copy the idea.

Even if she went and registered it before anyone else could, it would only lead to people finding out about it and all her plans would go down the drain.

After all, this artefact was quite revolutionary with how little energy is used. And how it could be used by even the weakest people.

And once this news reached the Royal Palace, it wouldn’t take much time for everyone to find out exactly what all has been bugged.

So, revealing it was a big no-no!

In the meantime, she did make full use of it to listen in on all plannings going on around the palace.

Also, she did have something of a storage method.

It involved putting the recordings in jade slips that she had managed to swipe from some of her siblings.

But these were very limited.

So, she could only store a day of conversations on one slip before she needed to wipe it clean.

That’s why she preferred to listen live. It saved a lot of space.

Plus, excessive use of the jade slips might end up damaging them and prevent any future use.

With her almost null finances, she just couldn’t afford to do such things!

But it did help her avoid some of the troubles aimed her way.

Like the time when her second sister had spiked her tea for a tea ceremony that Ximing was invited to a few months ago.

When she found out, Ximing had simply flicked a stone at the maid who was bringing the tea, causing her to fall and spill all the tea on the ground.

Since the herbal concoction used by her was very expensive, that was the only serving containing the drug, thus saving Ximing’s life.

She used her transmitters and the jade slips similar to how people on Earth would use their car dashcams. To record everything the entire day and review the recordings whenever possible.

But she did try to save space anywhere she could and try to listen to as many live conversations as possible.

The only major issue she had with her gear was that she couldn’t get anything if the conversation wasn’t done out loud.

If it was a telepathic one or even if it was done by simply writing on something, she would have zero ideas about what was happening.

Her gear only activated when people were speaking out loud and transferred those conversations to her.

If someone were to write something down while talking, she’d never know about it.

Even so, she was quite proud of her invention.

It was quite a feat to be able to make something this complicated work off of so little qi.

This was something that couldn’t be achieved in the time she had.

It felt like the gods had been planting the ideas in her mind to help her out.

Because when she was building and researching this, she seemed to find the necessary resources much more easily than she anticipated and even the most difficult issues had their solutions hit her out of the blue.

Heck, she had even had one major one appear in her dream!

Thanking the heavens once again for blessing her so much, Ximing picked up one of the nearby jade slips that she had connected to another receiver.

After doing some hand movements and injecting a bit of her own qi, she put the receiver, still connected to the slip, to her ear.

“Master, the job has been done.”, said a voice in a hushed tone.

“Are you sure you did it properly?

I do not want anyone to find out about this. If I hear that someone witness your actions and has come forward as a witness, you also know how bad life will get for you…”

This was the receiver she had placed on the first prince. So, naturally, he was the other voice.

“Do not worry, Your Highness.

I had my men on the lookout for any changes or motion in the surroundings.

If anyone tried spying on us, they wouldn’t be able to get away with their lives intact.”

“If that is so, when can I presume that I’ll be receiving the official announcement?”

“That should be in a few hours, Your Highness.

We ensured that the seventh princess could be easily found. But only after the effects of our poison had been removed.”

‘So, it seems that I have lost yet another sibling…

I wonder if he’ll accept a surrender from any of us.

On second thought, he might. But the person would probably end up dead anyway.

Even I’m not foolish enough to leave any loose ends.

And elder brother Wusheng is definitely one of the most ruthless of my siblings. There’s no way he’d let any of his competition walk away unscathed.’

So far, Ximing’s three siblings had kicked the bucket.

First, her own brother, Kalong, had ended up dead from some freak qi-deviation sort of “accident”.

Then, her ninth sister, Ruoshen, ended up committing ”suicide” allegedly due to her low standing in the palace.

And now, her seventh brother, Jinren, had ended up in the same way. But she still didn’t know what official reasoning and causes would be given for his death.

The first murder had been done by queen Meng.

The second was just a tad bit more complicated.

It was done by his second brother, Zhaoli, with the organisation of the entire act being done by him only.

Even a thorough investigation would show the same result. It was her second brother.

But…

What people would fail to realise is that even though he wanted to do it, in reality, the entire scheme was orchestrated by her fifth brother from behind the shadows.

Yes! It was that fifth brother, aka Si Jintian, who kept annoying her regularly.

He had left some very little things to help nudge the Zhaoli along in the right direction.

Just some mere coincidences or bits of information or resources that allowed Zhaoli to enact the ordeal without too many issues.

That was also the time when she found out about the true nature of her fifth brother.

And this was only because she managed to get her hands on the transmitted voice of Jintian talking about his deeds with some assassin he had hired in case things went South.

And as the recording said, around evening, a huge commotion had been created outside.

The body had been found.

Everyone was shocked to hear the news of the death of yet another royalty.

It was obvious that one of the other royals was the one behind this murder. But without any solid evidence, no one was willing to claim anything.

Unfortunately, all the so-called “solid” evidence had been cleaned off.

And if anyone tried anything funny right now, it would probably end with them getting crippled for life at best.

The worst case would naturally mean their heads rolling or something.

So, everyone didn’t do anything but look shocked by the revelation.

Even Wusheng did a fantastic job of pretending to be shocked.

He knew of the incident early in the morning.

She found out about it a few hours later.

So, Ximing had to follow suit and look just as shocked.

Jinren’s mother had her eyes turn into seven-seas-powered waterfalls.

But, jokes aside, she felt like her heart had been smashed to dust with the death of her only child.

Ximing knew that the lady was never one to interfere with politics.

She knew that her son never stood a chance at the throne and even her son always worked to secure a living once his brother (or sister) became the ruler and they were told to shift from the palace.

The mother-son duo never tried to mess around or scheme to take the throne.

‘I mean, they could just be really good at hiding it so I never got wind of any of their schemes.’, Ximing joked to herself in her head.

Now, the only major thing next on the itinerary was the announcement about the cause of death…

Which came the next morning only.

It was declared that the prince had been fighting assassins who had attempted to end his life.

He did defeat them but ended up getting poisoned and couldn’t make it.

From her earpiece, Ximing found that the assassins had actually made a mistake and ended up losing a few of their members to her brother.

They had revealed this later and were forced by the first prince to go and plant some poison residues in the corpse before someone found it.

It felt somewhat comical to her.

They had boasted so much in the part of the recording she heard initially. And yet, they couldn’t even handle it half as well in reality.

Ximing returned from yet another visit to her fifth brother in the morning.

Now was the time for her to listen in on the various conversations going on around the royal palace’s complex.

It naturally had to start with her fifth brother since it would be live and would save her space on the jade slips.

Others were already connected to the slips and were being recorded. Those could be easily visited at a later time also. She still had until the end of the day when she needed to wipe the slips’ storage.

And just as she put on the earpiece linked to her fifth brother’s voice transmitter, her brother’s voice came into her ear.

Unfortunately, this time, the words that entered her ears were pretty different from usual.

In fact, they were something that she never thought she’d hear even in her nightmares.

 “Well, well, well.

It seems you turned out to be quite the hidden genius, no?

How about I pay you a visit to your humble, sh*thole of a house, my dearest sister Si Ximing…?”