TSFLIP Chapter 710

In the beginning, before Pangu split heaven and earth, the Three Realms were shrouded in a force called Devouring Qi. It was everywhere. Anyone harboring selfish desires could easily be provoked by it, bringing out the darkness in their hearts and driving them to extremes.

Later, when Pangu created the world, the ancient gods worked together to seal away the Devouring Qi. Above the seal, they built the Celestial Realm, using its power to suppress it.

But over the endless passage of time, the Devouring Qi slowly developed a consciousness of its own. Its true form remained bound beneath the Celestial Realm, yet it found a way to split off a fragment of its awareness. That fragment became Zhongran.

The mortal world was fascinating—so many people, so much darkness. Nowhere was it richer than in the imperial palace: women’s resentment, men’s ambition—it was endlessly entertaining. So Zhongran entered the palace, took on the role of Imperial Advisor, and watched victim after victim fall under the weight of power.

To be fair, Jian An was a capable and shrewd emperor. But precisely because he was an emperor, his ambition outstripped ordinary men’s. He dreamed of unifying the warring states. That single ambition was enough to make him easy to exploit.

And the empress? The woman hailed as the most exalted under heaven? In the end, wasn’t she just another sacrifice to power? Zhongran had wondered how she would react upon realizing her husband’s heart belonged to another woman. The answer: she didn’t. She showed no reaction at all.

Instead, all her passion poured out toward him.

Zhongran had seen plenty of women intrigued by him before, but never one quite so shameless.

He remembered the first time he saw Feng Guang. She was dressed in bright red palace robes, standing tall and regal as she received her investiture from the empress. She carried herself with poise and dignity, every inch the noble consort. But by the dead of night, she had no problem discarding that lofty status to sneak into his quarters, claiming she wanted to play chess.

Her chess skills were abysmal, and worse, she would sit there staring at him with lovestruck eyes the whole time. Every time he left the imperial study, she would just so happen to “run into” him. She’d look at him with that How can anyone be this handsome? expression and then go ahead and say it out loud:

“Master Imperial Advisor, you really are so good-looking.”

Is it really just my face you’re obsessed with?

The more she said things like that, the more complicated Zhongran’s feelings became. Their “coincidental” encounters kept happening, and every single time she acted nothing like the refined, virtuous woman everyone else saw.

Zhongran always thought Jian An was a fool. Yes, a complete fool. The emperor was willing to throw away his kingdom, his throne, his entire world for a woman named Liuli. To Zhongran, it seemed maybe it was time to replace him with an emperor whose ambition ran deeper. That would make the game far more interesting. But until then, Jian An still had his uses.

What Zhongran hated to admit was that he, too, had become the kind of fool he despised. Because he found himself intrigued by Feng Guang. He had tried prodding at her darkness, telling her that her husband loved another woman—that her position as empress was at risk, her dignity on the line.

And what had Feng Guang said to that?

“None of that matters… as long as you and I start a secret affair.”

A secret affair?

The words amused him. And so, with a smile, Zhongran agreed.