Three years later, the emperor died, and Yin Jiuxiao led the Northern Cang army straight to Huanglong and ascended the throne as emperor.

After ascending the throne, Yin Jiuxiao quickly stabilized the court with iron-fisted methods. He worked diligently to reform the bureaucracy, and the Northern Cang Dynasty grew stronger under his rule.

At the same time, rumors also began to spread that the new emperor was cruel and had murdered his own mother and brothers.

It is said that a minister had his eyes gouged out for a single mistake in his memorial, a palace maid had her hands chopped off and thrown into a mass grave for accidentally breaking a teacup, and a general returned in triumph, only to have his entire family murdered that very night for contradicting the emperor in court.

The rumors are half true and half false, but one thing is certain: Yin Jiuxiao doesn't trust anyone, and because of the side effects of poisoning when he was a child, his headaches have become more and more severe as he gets older.

This is also the biggest reason why he loses his temper easily and kills people at the slightest disagreement.

Zi Xi's identity is also very simple: a royal assassin. But the original owner's wish was very silly and naive: to speak out and stop the emperor from continuing to kill innocent people and to guide Yin Jiuxiao onto the right path.

Recalling that only a few seconds had passed in the scene, Zi Xi looked directly into those bloodshot eyes that could stop a child from crying at night, and said with difficulty, "Your Majesty... I was only thinking of you... Don't you like... hearing the truth?"

Yin Jiuxiao suddenly burst into laughter, the sound of which echoed throughout the hall, sending chills down everyone's spine.

"Why don't you attack me? You had the chance to kill me, didn't you?"

He suddenly grabbed Zixi's slender neck, lifted her up, and pressed her against the wall.

"Your Majesty...please...retract...the...decree..."

Zi Xi's face turned red from lack of oxygen, but she did not struggle.

A drop of warm liquid landed on the back of Yin Jiuxiao's hand. He paused for a moment, then let go of his hand and, as if possessed, licked away the tears on the back of his hand.

How could it be sweet?

Zi Xi fell to the ground, coughing violently, with five bluish-purple finger marks clearly visible on her neck.

She quickly adjusted her breathing and knelt down again, as if the near-death experience Yin Jiuxiao had just given her was just an illusion.

Yin Jiuxiao stared at the back of his hand, which he had already licked clean, and a strange sense of irritation welled up in his heart.

"Get out of here. Tell Yin Yi to lock up the assassin and interrogate him thoroughly."

"Ha, I suddenly really want to see... how they were tortured before they died."

He turned his back and waved for her to leave, letting her go so easily.

Zi Xi silently withdrew and returned to her post. When she touched the bruise on her neck, a barely perceptible look of speechlessness flashed in her eyes.

The male protagonist in this world is really violent.

*

The dark dungeon, my whole body ached, and the smell of blood lingered in my nostrils.

Su Ruodan suddenly opened her eyes and found herself curled up in a cold, damp corner of the dungeon.

The iron chains on her wrists left bloody marks, and the arrow wound on her left shoulder was still bleeding. She was breathing heavily, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"This is impossible..."

She touched her face with trembling hands, feeling the smooth, youthful skin instead of the grotesque scar that ran from her brow bone to her chin that she remembered.

A suppressed scream came from the next cell, a sound that made Su Ruodan's blood freeze.

She scrambled to the iron bars and, through the narrow gaps, saw a thin boy bound to the rack next door—it was her younger brother, Su Ruofan!

The boy's bare upper body was covered in whip marks, and a man in black was using a whip to torture him.