Hua Yanyun flipped between losing her mind and returning to normal faster than turning a page.
He Shu had heard rumors about Hua Yanyun’s capricious nature long ago, yet she still felt a flicker of fear.
She did not know what the future held, but she knew it would not be pleasant.
Hua Yanyun clapped her hands.
Two female officials pushed open the wooden doors of the bedchamber and walked in.
“You two, escort Consort He back to the rear palace. She cannot walk, so be careful.”
Hua Yanyun had already arranged He Shu’s future residence.
After giving the order, she left the bedchamber to attend to her own affairs.
“Miss He Wanyi, His Majesty has prepared your quarters. Please follow me.”
The purple-haired female official spoke in a gentle tone.
The black-haired female official remained silent, shooting He Shu a disdainful glance.
The purple-haired official carried He Shu in her arms while the black-haired one led the way.
Along the corridor, many female officials moved about, all staring at the trio with curious eyes.
The three walked in silence for a long time.
The purple-haired official felt the atmosphere growing awkward and spoke to He Shu in her arms.
“Miss He, His Majesty mentioned you cannot walk. Is there something wrong with your legs…”
The words left her mouth and she immediately regretted them.
She felt she had asked a stupid question, yet she was genuinely curious about the answer.
If He Wanyi really was disabled, the news that Hua Yanyun had taken in a beautiful crippled girl as her new favored consort would cause an uproar in the imperial city. All kinds of speculation and rumors would surely follow.
While the purple-haired official was lost in wild thoughts, He Shu’s voice interrupted her.
“My legs can move.”
He Shu felt a little embarrassed by the question.
She could hardly say she was too sensitive and would collapse from simply walking.
“Uh… cough, cough.”
The purple-haired official coughed twice to hide her awkwardness and quickly changed the subject.
“Miss He Wanyi, His Majesty treats you with exceptional importance. He has given you an entire standalone pavilion, and he even named it himself—Wanyi Tower. This is a privilege that none of His Majesty’s previous favored consorts ever received.”
He Shu felt surprised at the purple-haired official’s words.
“Hua Yanyun gave me an entire standalone pavilion?”
She sensed something off—very off.
A weasel paying New Year’s respects to a chicken. Hua Yanyun definitely had no good intentions.
The pavilion Hua Yanyun arranged for He Shu was extremely grand.
It stood six stories tall, with a sizable artificial lake built beside it.
He Shu’s room was on the top floor.
She was carried around the entire pavilion for a full tour.
Along the way, He Shu truly could not find any faults.
But the moment the black-haired official pushed open the door to her future residence, He Shu froze.
The room was quite spacious and the basic furniture was all present.
Yet the most important item was missing—a bed.
In its place stood a two-meter-tall golden birdcage right in the center of the room.
The bottom of the cage was lined with a layer of fluffy soft padding.
Inside the cage there were only two pillows and nothing else.
Both He Shu and the purple-haired official were stunned.
The black-haired official, who had remained silent the entire time, stayed perfectly calm, as if she had known all along.
She finally spoke.
“Miss He Wanyi, this is the residence His Majesty arranged for you. Please go inside.”
She stepped forward, unlocked the cage door, and made a welcoming gesture.
The purple-haired official was still somewhat dazed.
She asked the black-haired official, “An Liao, you were the one who arranged the room. You didn’t make a mistake, did you? Did His Majesty really instruct you to set it up like this?”
The black-haired official, addressed as An Liao, answered, “I arranged the room exactly as His Majesty ordered. His Majesty probably wants to keep a little pet.”
“Stop wasting time and toss the person in your arms inside. Neither of us can bear the consequences of defying His Majesty’s command.”
He Shu flailed her limbs desperately in the purple-haired official’s embrace, but it was useless.
The impatient black-haired official snatched her away and threw her straight into the cage.
He Shu crashed hard against the solid bars.
Pain shot through her body and made her tremble.
The cage door was locked with a click.
The two officials turned and left, closing the door behind them.
Before leaving, the purple-haired official gave He Shu a complicated look.
The physical pain was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.
She had been locked inside a cage by Hua Yanyun like some stray cat or dog.
An overwhelming sense of humiliation wrapped around He Shu’s heart.
She sat up, grabbed the iron bars with both hands, and pulled with all her strength.
The bars did not budge.
She shook them violently instead.
The bars still refused to move.
“These bars are made of Jade-Smooth Profound Steel coated with gold paint. The entire cage is fixed to the floor. I’ve lost my cultivation. Although my body still retains some residual foundation from the Nascent Soul stage, escaping on my own is impossible.”
This was a heaven-grade material used by Soul Transformation cultivators.
It felt warm and smooth like jade yet was incredibly hard—hence the name Jade-Smooth Profound Steel.
Even when He Shu had still been the Nascent Soul cultivator He Wanyi, dealing with a cage made of Profound Steel would have required considerable effort.
Now that she had lost her cultivation, it was even more hopeless.
He Shu could not help feeling dejected.
Hua Yanyun had placed her alone inside a standalone pavilion, clearly intending to make her life miserable.
She was on the sixth floor, dozens of meters above ground and right beside the lake.
The room windows were wide open.
At night the cold wind would pour in without any obstruction.
Trapped inside the cage, she had no way to close the windows.
“Damn Hua Yanyun.”
He Shu raged helplessly in her heart.
She curled up on her side on the soft padding, hugging a pillow to her chest and closing her eyes.
She recalled everything that had happened these past two days, then thought about her short life and the dark future ahead.
Bitterness, anger, and finally a deep sorrow washed over her.
She did not know how long it took, but He Shu eventually fell into a deep sleep.
Time rewound to seventeen years ago.
That year, He Shu was twelve years old.
She was the second daughter of He Xiu, the monarch of the Southwind Immortal Kingdom, yet she received none of her mother’s favor.
Her residence sat in a remote corner of the imperial city.
It was small, containing only two rooms and a courtyard.
That day she had just finished buying basic daily necessities and exchanged the remainder for mid-grade spirit stones.
“Last month I used every spirit stone I had saved for four years to auction off a Foundation Establishment Pill in order to break through. Now I am finally at the first layer of Foundation Establishment.”
He Shu clenched her small, fair fist.
She spread out all the remaining spirit stones on the table.
“I still have eighty-five mid-grade spirit stones on hand. This month’s cultivation is estimated to require sixty mid-grade spirit stones. That’s several times more consumption than during the Qi Refinement stage. So I’ll only have around twenty mid-grade spirit stones left.”
Feeling more and more that her funds were stretched thin, He Shu could not help thinking of her elder sister He Cen and her younger sister He Ying.
One was the eldest princess of the immortal kingdom, the other the second princess.
They could have as many spirit stones and cultivation resources as they wanted.
Yet she received only a monthly allowance of ten high-grade spirit stones—given solely because she carried the He clan bloodline.
Ten high-grade spirit stones equaled a thousand low-grade spirit stones.
To ordinary low-level cultivators that was a considerable fortune, but for the He Imperial Clan it was downright shabby—especially in the ridiculously expensive capital of Southwind, Huangling Immortal City.
He Shu could not say she felt no envy toward He Cen and He Ying’s situations.
She too wanted comfortable conditions.
With a single word from her mother He Xiu she could live without worry like her sisters.
But He Xiu had never been willing to do so.
She had rarely seen her mother since childhood and did not understand why her mother made her live under such tight constraints.
Still, she firmly believed there was a reason behind it all.
She seemed to hold an unusually strong trust in He Xiu, even though she herself did not know why.
“Now that I have successfully established my foundation, if Mother learns of my breakthrough, will she praise me?”
While He Shu was lost in daydreams, a knock sounded at the door.
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