"We can't use poison on the emperor as it will probably arise new rumors against us. I still care about my image and reputation so we must be careful." The grand empress dowager said that dragged the empress dowager back to reality.
She got her mind flooded with the memories of the past that she did not notice that she's already spacing out. Many years have passed but her anger and resentment never faded. The empress dowager believes that everything comes with a price regardless of whoever the person is in question. May that person be as low as Eunuch Ye, or as high as the Grand Empress Dowager. However, she can't let her feelings get in her way towards her sweet revenge. She must be patient, endure it a little more, and suppress it a little longer. She feels that the justice she's been waiting for is now coming after all.
The grand empress dowager looks down at the unconscious empress on the floor indifferently. She looks at her like she's some disposable tool that can't be used anymore. With disappointment evident in her tone, she speaks as she looks at the empress dowager. "Also, since we can't cast a curse on him, we got no other choice but to use our greatest weapon."
"Weapon, huh?" The empress dowager said in the back of her mind. She sees everyone around her as her tool. As soon as she can't find a reason to use it, she will dispose of the 'tool'.
She, on the other hand, doesn't see the walking corpse of her beloved teacher and friend as a tool to seize power. She hates to see how his body got used like this and got disturbed from a good long rest. But she can't let herself get affected by this, or else she won't be able to make the grand empress dowager pay. She's not playing pretend for so long just to waste a rare opportunity like this and suffer the backfire of her plans.
She casually looks at the empress. She thought, "Poor Ah-Chi. You messed up too early. There's no way I can save you now."
Although they are not actually related by blood, she still somehow pity her for being used by this old woman. And besides, she's been looking after her since she stepped inside the imperial palace. She was innocent but let her 'bad fate' take all the blame.
"What are your plans, your highness?" The empress dowager asks the elder. It is essential to know how would the grand empress dowager want to carry out the plan against the emperor. The empress dowager's plans will also depend on the actions that she will make.
The grand empress dowager thinks for a while. "The fact that those three grew up in the cultivation world makes it difficult for us. A cultivator would be already hard for us to deal with, and we actually have three to take care of!"
It is truly a pain in the ass for them to carry out the plan. The grand empress dowager wants to take down at least Yin Wenyan and Yin Renshu to officially announce that they need to crown a new emperor. An emperor that will not go against her. However, if they left the first princess be, will she silently continue to live inside the palace? That's most probably never going to happen. She will get back to them instead. Having the imperial army under her commands, she would definitely cause a big commotion.
The grand empress dowager gritted her teeth. She thought those three are like their mother who was too innocent to believe and never suspected them of harming her that eventually caused her death.
She even strategized to hide the identity of the main tactician, Yin Wenyan, the real deserving of the throne, to protect him from unexpected events. Yin Renshu is more like a human shield here. His only task is to show the world that he is the emperor so that the ill-intended enemies will only go after him and not his brother. Even if Yin Renshu dies, the reign of the dynasty controlled by the grand empress dowager will go on since Yin Wenyan is still alive by then. But who would have thought that a mere puppet will cut the strings that connected him to the puppeteer? Very ironic.
"We will end the three of them." She looks at the empress dowager with a serious gaze. With an emphasis on her every word, she continues, "One by one."
"Very well." The empress dowager replied then averted her eyes towards Eunuch Xu who's standing silently, waiting for the next command.
If Ye Feng knows what she's been doing all these times, will he come to hate him? If he learns that she's one of the people who used his corpse, will he still welcome her in her arms? When the day comes that they'll be able to meet in the land of the dead, will he still talk to her like the old times?
She's secretly wishing that the old times will come back but deep inside, she knows that it never will.
"You can control Number 43, right?" The grand empress dowager asks for assurance.
"I may not have the same level of prowess as the combined prowess of her highness and the empress, however, I can assure you that I can control him." She replied.
"Good. Now go." She commanded.
The empress dowager bows her head. "Yes, your highness."
She made several hand seals, concentrating her spiritual energy in her palms. When she concentrated enough energy in her hands, she passes it to Ye Feng. As the spiritual energy flows into him his eyes get a red glint and his bloodless veins bulge. He's now under her command.
The empress dowager puts her cloak back on. "Ye Feng, let's go."
The two left the secret room and jumps out of the grand empress dowager's hall through the large circular window.
The empress dowager, with Ye Feng following her closely, leaps to the eves of the roof. They swiftly run on the clay tiles without producing any sound to prevent the attraction of any attention. They are heading towards then Lotus Hall.
Her indifferent face was immediately filled with wickedness. Her wide grin on her lips is enough to make one shiver. She's smiling like a madman as she said to herself, "Now, the Yin siblings, later, the grand empress dowager."
One of the three siblings, especially Yin Wenyan or Yin Renshu, usually sleeps in the said hall. If ever the three is present in the area, isn't it better? She would just control Ye Feng to kill them immediately before they could even react. If ever only one of them is present at the moment, then she would just look for the other two.
There's always someone who sleeps in the emperor hall so it would be easy to find either Prince Yin Wenyan or Emperor Yin Renshu. However, it's not as easy as  Princess Yin Xiulan's case. She often sleeps in her hall, sometimes in her quarters in the Department of War and Defense, and in some cases, in her room inside the Department of Justice. But it's not that it matters, she and Ye Feng have the entire night to slaughter them after all.
She stops her movements, and so is Eunuch Ye. They're only one structure away from the Lotus Hall. She looks back to Ye Feng. He looks more fearsome than he was before she passed her spiritual energy to him. However, in her eyes, he still looks as he was when he's still alive.
She smiles sweetly as she extends her hand to caress his cheek. Meanwhile, the eunuch remained emotionless.
She speaks, almost whispering, "Ye Feng, please don't hate me for this. Don't worry, I'll avenge your death." She slowly withdraws her hand and turns her back to him. She added, "For now, I want you to kill whoever the person is inside that hall."
Without wasting any second, the eunuch hops from eves to eves until he sets his feet in the Lotus Hall's roof. His landing is too forceful that he managed to break in.
Meanwhile, inside the Lotus Hall, Prince Yin Wenyan, Princess Yin Xiulan, and Eunuch Xu were peacefully... well, silently staring at each other only to be surprised by Eunuch Ye's grand entrance.
The two former cultivators immediately stood up with their weapon in their hands like it's their involuntary response. Prince Yin Wenyan is in his fighting stance with his sword withdrawn from its scabbard, and Princess Yin Xiulan has her fan open, ready to strike a blow.
Eunuch Xu's reflexes, on the other hand, commands him to hide below the table and subconsciously exclaimed, "What the fuck was that?"
The thick dust made it difficult for the three of them to see what exactly is that thing that falls down from the roof. They aren't sure if it's a threat to them or not. But base on how it forcefully made its way in, it's probably an enemy.
As the cloud of dust settles down, the hideous appearance of a corpse is what they saw. It's the first time that the prince and princess saw Eunuch Ye but it's not the case for Xu Zhengming. He saw it when the emperor brought him along to conduct his investigation in the town square about the origin of that bloodthirsty creatures. How could he forget this monster? This corpse chased him as he desperately ran for his life!
Xu Zhengming yells, "It's the dickless Eunuch!"
Prince Yin Wenyan thought he did not hear him right. He turns his head to Mingming's direction with his eyebrows raised. "The what?"
Now that Xu Zhengming mentioned it, Princess Yin Xiulan noticed that the creature indeed wears a uniform the same as Eunuch Xu is wearing, a eunuch's uniform! Is this the Eunuch who caused the havoc in the town square and its neighboring places?
But what bothers her the most is the way Xu Zhengming called him.
"All eunuchs had theirs removed. Of course, he is!" She commented and then added a rhetorical question. "Don't tell me you still have yours?"
"..."
It's a long silence. Though it is a rhetorical question, he should react to it, right? Then the long silence becomes awkward.
"..."
The princess looks at him with an evident imputation filling her entire face. She thought, "Did he not..."
Seeing how the princess stares at him, Xu Zhengming looks at Prince Yin Wenyan and silently asks him for help. Little did he know, the one who is present isn't the emperor who took him back in the palace and spared his unborn descendants. Meanwhile, Prince Yin Wenyan didn't know and never thought about it. How would he know?
The prince looks back at Xu Zhengming but with surprise and disbelief.
"Why do you look so surprised? Aren't you the one who spared me?!" Eunuch Xu tries to defend himself by trying to put the blame on others.
He once kneeled before the raging Princess General and witnessed how scary of a woman she is. He doesn't want to have a second time around!
"Ah? I did?" Still, Prince Yin Wenyan can't believe it.
Xu Zhengming can't believe it too. He can't believe how short his memory is! He's not only temperamental, but he's also forgetful. Is he suffering from Alzheimer's disease or what?
Feeling betrayed, Mingming yells. "You did!"
Of course, Eunuch Ye won't wait until they finish their conversation leisurely. His monstrous instinct made him charge an attack towards the three.
"Here he comes!" Princess Yin Xiulan alerted the other two.
Actually, he's not aiming for them all at once. Because of his beastly instincts, he locked his target at the weakest among the other party, he's going after Xu Zhengming!
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Not again?!"
Xu Zhengming, the greatest Casanova in town. Because of his good looks, a lot of women chased after him as he ran away from them. Maybe it's all thanks to that, running whenever there's someone chasing after him became a part of his reflexes.
Unfortunately for him, the pouch that the empress gave him which helped him slow down the changes of his body, and at the same time, protected him from the bloodthirsty creatures is now reduced to ashes, all thanks to Emperor Yin Renshu.