Lin Feng left Fengyi Palace with an expression that remained completely calm.

Making Su Wanqing realize her place was just the first step in his plan for today.

Next, he was going to meet someone else.

One of my old friends who could perfectly embody the word "betrayal".

"Prepare the carriage for the Heavenly Prison," he calmly ordered Long Te beside him.

Longte's body trembled almost imperceptibly, but he immediately accepted the order respectfully: "Yes."

The Heavenly Prison, located deep beneath the royal palace, is the most sinister and terrifying place in the entire kingdom.

Those imprisoned here are all heinous criminals or serious offenders who have posed a direct threat to Lin Feng.

Lin Feng's vehicle did not stop at the entrance of the prison, but drove directly into the deep, dark passageway.

Torches soaked in special grease burned on the walls on both sides of the passageway, crackling and casting long, ghostly shadows. The air was filled with a damp, rotten smell mixed with a faint stench of blood.

The deeper you go, the lower the temperature and the dimmer the light.

Finally, the vehicle stopped at the very bottom of the prison, in front of a gate made of heavy alloy and covered with rune-like restrictions.

Longte stepped forward, personally verified his identity, and opened the gate.

"Your Majesty, we have arrived."

Lin Feng got out of the car, and Long Te followed closely behind.

Behind the gate was a long, narrow corridor, with rows of completely enclosed cells made of the same material on both sides.

This is the "Absolute Number" ward in the Heavenly Prison. Every prisoner imprisoned here carries sins that would warrant their death ten thousand times over.

Lin Feng's footsteps were unhurried, and the sound of his leather boots on the stone slabs echoed clearly in the deathly silent corridor.

He finally stopped at the end of the corridor in front of the only cell that was still dimly lit.

Longte waved his hand, and a jailer immediately stepped forward and opened the door.

The scene inside the cell was clearly presented to Lin Feng.

It was an extremely small space. Apart from a simple stone bed and a hole for excretion, there was nothing else.

On that stone bed, a person was curled up.

A person who can hardly be called a "person" anymore.

She was so thin that she was just skin and bones, as if a gust of wind could blow her away.

The prison uniform, its original color long since unrecognizable, hung loosely on her body, like a skeleton being draped over it.

Her hair was dry, yellow, and brittle, like weeds, tangled and messy, and even stained with some filth.

Her cheeks were deeply sunken, her cheekbones were high and prominent, her eye sockets were sunken, and her skin was covered with a sickly sallow and bluish-purple color.

If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of her chest, proving she was still alive, anyone would have thought it was a mummified corpse that had been carelessly discarded here.

Lin Feng watched this scene quietly, his eyes devoid of any pity, only displaying a cold indifference as if appreciating a work of art.

He knew how young and beautiful this woman had once been.

He also knew how shrewd this woman had been, how well she knew how to use her beauty to get everything she wanted.

Her name is Li Man.

She was Lin Feng's ex-girlfriend on Earth before he traveled to this world.

Indeed, he was the first person to have the word "betrayal" etched into Lin Feng's very bones.

It seemed to sense that someone was watching from outside.

The skeletal body on the stone bed moved slowly.

She struggled to lift her head.

On that inhuman face, a pair of cloudy, dull eyes, almost devoid of any spirit, stared numbly toward the wall.

However, the moment her gaze met Lin Feng's eyes...

Her body suddenly froze.

Immediately afterwards, her pupils contracted violently, and her lifeless eyes instantly erupted with an emotion that was a mixture of extreme shock, fear, and disbelief.

It's him!

It's him!

Although his appearance was countless times more handsome and dignified than I remembered.

Although his temperament has long since been transformed from a naive young man struggling in the city into a supreme monarch who rules over billions of living beings.

But those eyes, those eyes that once gazed at him with such affection, eyes that were also filled with pain and despair because of his betrayal…

She will never admit her mistake!

"Lin...Feng..."

A dry, hoarse sound, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together, was squeezed out with difficulty from her cracked, bloodless lips.

She struggled to get out of bed. But years of imprisonment and malnutrition had already destroyed her body.

She struggled a few times, then collapsed weakly off the bed and onto the cold floor.

But she didn't give up. Using her claw-like arms to support herself on the ground, she slowly crawled toward the wall.

Two streams of murky tears flowed from her eyes.

She didn't know why she was crying.

Was it because of endless regret? Or because, in the abyss of despair, he saw that face that was both familiar and strange?

Looking at her humble, miserable, and writhing like a maggot, Lin Feng's lips curled up again.

He stood in the center of the cell, looking down at the woman who had crawled to his feet.

“You…you…” Li Man raised her head and looked up at the man in front of her, who exuded endless majesty like a god. She made a “hoho” sound in her throat, too excited to say a word.

"Long time no see, Li Man." Lin Feng's voice was soft and gentle, as if he were greeting an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time.

But this tenderness, to Li Man's ears, was more terrifying than the devil's whispers.

"You don't seem to be doing very well," Lin Feng said, his gaze sweeping over her dilapidated body.

Li Man's body trembled violently. She finally regained a semblance of the ability to speak from the immense shock.

"Why...why would you..." She didn't understand what was going on.

That silly boy who was once manipulated by her, who worked tirelessly delivering food to support her education and buy her designer bags, even resorting to high-interest loans.

How could he have become the king of this world?

How could she, a once-proud and privileged woman, have fallen to a place worse than hell?

What exactly happened in this world?

Lin Feng seemed to see through her thoughts, chuckled softly, and slowly squatted down.

He reached out and pinched Li Man's dirty chin with two fingers, forcing her to raise her head and look him in the eye.

"Surprised?" His voice was full of mockery. "Do you think this world is absurd?"

He moved closer to her, a cruel smile on his face.

Do you regret it?

He asked softly.

"If you hadn't betrayed me back then, if you hadn't run off with all my money when I was in my most difficult time, leaving me with 400,000 yuan in debt."

"If only you had been there for me during that most difficult time."

His voice was like a gentle knife, slowly and painstakingly torturing Li Man's soul.

"After the Great Transfer, you will be the Queen of this Empire. And, undisputedly, the only Queen."

"You will live in a palace a hundred times more magnificent than the Phoenix Palace. You will wear robes woven from cloud silk and starlight feathers. You will enjoy delicacies from all over the world. You will possess endless wealth, supreme power, and the envy and admiration of all women."

"And all my love."

When he said the last three words, his tone was so light, like a breeze.

But to Li Man, it sounded no less than ten thousand thunderbolts exploding at the same time!

Do you regret it?

When those three words, along with the magnificent painting that Lin Feng had depicted—a painting that should have belonged to her—rushed into her mind.

Li Man's eyes instantly went blank.

She seemed to see another version of herself in another time and space.

She wore magnificent palace attire, nestled beside the man, receiving the adoration of the people.

Su Wanqing, Qin Lan, those high and mighty women, all had to humbly lower their heads in front of her.

She possessed everything she had ever dreamed of, and more than she could have imagined—a thousand times, ten thousand times more!

And she, with her own hands, destroyed all of that.

It was all because of that little bit of ridiculous vanity back then.

Because, at the time, she thought he was just a deliveryman with no money or power.

"Ah... Ahhhhhhh!"

An indescribable regret, more painful than death, like the most potent poison, instantly devoured her reason!

She let out a piercing scream that sounded inhuman!

She reached out her withered hand, trying to grab Lin Feng, but Lin Feng pushed her away with disgust.

"If only I had known this would happen... I wouldn't have done it in the first place..."

She lay on the ground, frantically banging her head against the earth while uttering desperate and sorrowful murmurs.

Blood streamed down her forehead, mingling with her tears and grime, making her look even more pathetic and ridiculous.

Lin Feng stood up, coldly looking at the woman at his feet who had completely collapsed.

There was no trace of pleasure in his eyes.

There was only one place, deathly silent and cold.

He thought that seeing this woman living in a hell of remorse would give him a sense of vengeful pleasure.

But no.

When he actually stood there and saw her like this, all that remained in his heart was emptiness.

It turns out that the so-called hatred had long been diluted and disappeared without a trace in the endless flow of power and time.

He is not here for revenge.

It was simply to put a period to my past.

"I will never forgive you."

He left behind his last words.

Then, he turned around and walked out of the cell filled with despair and regret.

The door slammed shut behind him.

Isolated, Li Man's mournful cries gradually faded.

Three days later.

A decree personally signed by the king spread throughout the entire capital city of Chengtian.

"The sinful woman Li Man is cold-hearted and treacherous. In a time of crisis, she deceived the emperor and betrayed her master. Her crime deserves death! To serve as a warning to others and to uphold the law of the land, she will be burned at the stake in the central square at noon, as a public announcement to the world!"

The imperial edict caused an uproar throughout the city.

People were buzzing with speculation, wondering who this Li Man was, that she could commit such a heinous crime as "treason and deceit," and that His Majesty would personally order her execution by burning at the stake, the oldest and cruelest form of punishment.

Meanwhile, the kingdom's upper-class nobles, through their own channels, vaguely gleaned some fragments of information about this woman.

They knew that this woman had known His Majesty since their early days.

I also know that she has deeply hurt His Majesty.

That's enough.

On this day, the central square of Chengtian City was packed with people, yet utterly silent.

Millions of citizens were ordered to come and witness this unprecedented public execution.

In the center of the square, a tall stake, made of firewood soaked in grease, had already been erected.

On the north side of the square, on a temporary viewing platform tens of meters high, Lin Feng, dressed in a majestic black dragon robe, sat on a golden throne, expressionless, looking down at everything below.

Behind him, Su Wanqing, Qin Lan, Meng Yao, Qian Xiaoxiao, and other concubines of the harem were all present as ordered.

They all paled, their faces turning deathly white. They couldn't understand why His Majesty had made them witness such a bloody scene.

It's noon, three-quarters past noon.

The heavy bell tolled.

Li Man was dragged onto the square under the escort of two teams of fully armed internal security soldiers.

She had been tortured to the point of numbness, allowing the soldiers to tie her to the center of the stake.

The executioner ascended the platform and loudly read out her charges.

The stories of betrayal, deception, and how she burdened the young Lin Feng with 400,000 yuan in debt were revealed to the public, word by word.

Angry shouts erupted from the crowd.

They finally understood what unforgivable sin this woman had committed.

Their king, before he even rose to power, had suffered such humiliation and betrayal!

In an instant, all the sympathy turned into endless anger.

Burn her!

Burn this wicked woman alive!

From the crowd, roars began to erupt in waves.

Li Man listened numbly to everything. Her gaze pierced through the surging crowd, fixed intently on the high, aloof figure on the viewing platform.

She neither begged for mercy nor cried out.

Because she knew that everything was already destined.

The moment the executioner throws the burning torch onto the pile of firewood.

A raging fire shot skyward!

The flames instantly engulfed her thin, pitiful body.

"ah!"

The intense, unimaginable pain caused her to let out her last, piercing scream.

In the raging flames, her long-withered life burst forth in a final burst of light.

She remembered so many things.

I remembered that boy with a clean smile, riding his bicycle on the university campus.

She remembered the image of him awkwardly cooking for her in the rented room.

She remembered the satisfied smile on his face when he used all the money he earned from his first food delivery job to buy her the designer dress she had longed for.

It turns out that she once had the most sincere love.

However, she herself lost it.

"In the next life..."

In her final moments, before her consciousness was swallowed by darkness, she used her last ounce of strength to utter a desperate cry:

"I... will never be a gold digger!"

"Wholeheartedly devoted...to only one person!"

Her voice abruptly stopped.

Her body, curled up and charred in the flames, eventually turned into a handful of ashes that drifted away in the wind.

On the viewing platform, all the concubines were terrified, their faces pale and their bodies trembling uncontrollably.

Qian Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, collapsed to the ground.

They finally understood, deeply, the man's ruthlessness and cruelty.

He finally understood what the word "betrayal" meant to him.

Lin Feng slowly rose from the throne.

His gaze swept across the millions of silent subjects below.

She also glanced behind her, at the beautiful faces filled with fear.

He knew that from this day forward, no one would dare to question his authority.

No one will ever dare to betray him again!

A satisfied, cold smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

He turned and walked down from the platform, leaving behind only a silhouette that made the whole world tremble.