I risked my life, using the butterfly effect to shatter the immortal realm.

boom--!

The loud noise didn't come from beside my ears, but exploded directly inside my skull.

The battering ram, weighing several thousand kilograms, smashed the foundation of the execution platform, and the rubble, along with dust and smoke, instantly engulfed Caishikou.

confusion.

Utter chaos.

The screams of prisoners, the cries of jailers, and the battle cries of Qingzhou assassins surged forth in the narrow execution ground, a frenzied battle. This was the cheapest, yet most deadly, weapon in the hands of the mortal Yu Liang.

The shockwave overturned the execution platform.

Yu Liang was tossed into the air like a kite with a broken string, a flying stone grazing his forehead. Warm, scarlet. Blood blurred one eye, and excruciating pain shot through him.

He grinned in mid-air and laughed silently.

Pain is good. Pain means you're still alive.

Beneath the wide sleeves of his prison uniform, his left hand was undergoing a horrifying transformation. The flesh and blood seemed to be erased bit by bit by an invisible eraser, becoming as translucent as ice crystals, and the pale finger bones beneath could even be clearly seen.

Causal fraud.

Every time that string is plucked, the world takes away a part of his "existence".

He was risking his life for another.

Landing. Tumbling.

Instead of running around like a headless fly, Yu Liang used the recoil from the blast wave to roll like a madman toward the darkest corner where the smoke and dust were thickest—the huge gap left by the collapse of the imperial prison.

That place was a battlefield meat grinder, but also the only way out.

"Pfft!"

A steel blade slashed three inches to his side. The Qingzhou soldier, his eyes bloodshot with rage, was about to deliver the final blow when a stray arrow pierced his throat from behind.

Yu Liang didn't even glance at it, and like a rat in a ditch, he crawled on his hands and feet to the body of the prison guard who had just died.

To strip. To change clothes.

The movements were so fast that only afterimages remained.

Five breaths later, Yu Liang, the death row inmate awaiting execution, "disappeared." In his place stood a novice jailer, his face covered in blood and utterly terrified.

He grabbed a chipped steel knife from the ground and slashed his thigh.

Fresh blood gushed out.

"Help! It's a prison break!"

He screamed and mingled with the fleeing prison guards, haphazardly parrying with his knife while using the momentum of his retreat to inching his way into the shadows deep within the imperial prison.

It's dark under the lamp.

The most dangerous battlefields often conceal the safest escape routes.

……

Fifteen minutes later.

The ruins of the imperial prison, broken walls and rubble.

The smoke of battle had not yet cleared, and that glaringly bright ice-blue official robe stood at the highest point. Ling Qingxuan's face was deathly pale; his once spotless flying fish robe was now covered in ash, like a clay sculpture whose golden body had been shattered.

"Seal off the entire area! Not even a fly is allowed to get out!"

His voice was hoarse, devoid of his usual haughtiness, only filled with barely suppressed rage.

There was no sign of Yu Liang's body in the ruins beneath her feet. Not even a trace of the three copper coins could be found.

In the midst of this deathly silence, a sudden, unexplained sharp pain shot through the depths of Ling Qingxuan's brow.

It wasn't physical pain, but a mysterious, elusive stirring. It was as if an invisible thread had gently brushed against her soul in the void.

In a daze, the ruins in front of her seemed to distort for a moment.

She was only at the Foundation Establishment stage and had no way of touching the laws, but at this moment, the intuition from the depths of her soul was terrifyingly clear—she sensed the "trajectory".

The trajectory of fate that should have been straight forward was forcibly bent here.

"My lord..." A captain knelt in the rubble, his teeth chattering, "All the bodies have been examined, but... he's not there."

Ling Qingxuan suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils shrinking sharply.

That sudden, eerie spiritual resonance was like a lightning bolt piercing the fog in her mind. Those seemingly absurd and ridiculous fragments, which had been scattered all over the place, were forcibly linked together in that instant into a suffocating chain!

That bowl of wontons with too much pepper caused the prime minister to choke to death.

The captain who startled a bird by flipping a copper coin, causing the imperial physician's carriage to overturn and making rescue impossible.

That blind mouse that was deliberately fed and had the strength to gnaw through the key points of the beam.

And that absurd dying wish—to live just a quarter of an hour longer, just in time for the main force of the city's defenses to be transferred away.

There was absolutely no coincidence.

There was absolutely no sense of humility at the moment of death.

That mortal man, in full view of everyone, exploited everyone's greed, arrogance, and fear.

They even took advantage of Ling Qingxuan's meager compassion to weave a massive web of deception!

He treated the King of Qingzhou as a knife, the Xuanjing Division as a shield, and the entire court of civil and military officials as a theatrical troupe seeing him off!

Ling Qingxuan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and the air mixed with the smell of blood made his lungs ache.

She remembered the man's last look on his face at the execution ground.

Three parts pity, seven parts mockery.

"Sir, was the play enjoyable?"

Snapped.

This slap, though silent, was louder than any tangible blow.

"dig."

When Ling Qingxuan opened his eyes again, the confusion he had felt due to his perception of fate had vanished, replaced by a deathly stillness.

"Seal off the nine gates and dig three feet into the ground."

"Even if he turns to ashes, sweep those ashes back to me!"

……

The headquarters of the Suspended Mirror Bureau, a secret room.

The atmosphere was as cold as ice.

"Dereliction of duty. He shall be dismissed from his post and imprisoned in the imperial prison."

The official's voice was devoid of emotion; every word felt like a mountain pressing down on Ling Qingxuan's shoulders.

She didn't argue, but simply raised her head, her eyes blazing with a stubbornness that disregarded the cost.

"What the adults are more curious about is not why I failed in my duty."

Her voice was soft, yet it caused the imposing aura of that person to falter.

"But how that mortal bypassed the inescapable net of the Suspended Mirror Bureau and turned the entire capital into his chessboard."

A long, deathly silence.

The officer finally spoke, his voice tinged with weariness.

"He will be fined three years' salary and confined to his home to reflect on his actions."

"You are to continue investigating this matter and make amends for your past mistakes."

This decision was both a sword and a sheath. It saved Ling Qingxuan, but also gave her a sword powerful enough to cut through all the fog.

……

The study of the Prince of Qingzhou's residence.

"Bang!"

The fine rosewood table was shattered into pieces.

"Damn it! They're all useless!"

King Qingzhou was furious, clutching the newly arrived battle report tightly in his hand, his veins bulging.

"A feint attack turned into a main attack? They blew up the imperial prison? Now that they've breached it, why not seize the opportunity to storm the palace? The assassins are all dead, yet the emperor's main force remains unscathed?!"

He was like a gambler who had placed a huge bet, only to discover upon opening the dice that the dealer had already changed them.

The aroma of tea wafts through the air.

Master Huanglong held the teacup between two fingers, his gaze frighteningly deep.

"Your Highness, please calm down."

"This is not an accident at all."

The old Taoist priest put down his teacup, and with a light tap of his fingertip in the air, the tea rippled and reflected a blurry hexagram.

"Just now, I sensed the fortune of the capital. That vast ocean of fortune, which should have been as stable as a rock, was sharply pricked by an invisible needle."

"That needle is in the imperial prison."

The King of Qingzhou froze, his eyes bloodshot: "Does the Master mean... that Yu Liang?"

"more than."

Master Huanglong stood up, his tone filled with unprecedented admiration, and even... fear.

"He predicted that we would break into the prison, that the imperial court would mobilize troops, that the time of the explosion would be right, and even that I would make a mistake in my decision."

"We thought he was part of the game, a pawn to be sacrificed."

Little did they know…

The master sighed deeply and gently waved his whisk.

"The entire court is but a pawn in his game. The elite guards we've painstakingly trained over ten years are nothing more than firecrackers he uses to blow up the prison."

The study was deathly silent.

The King of Qingzhou slumped in his chair, his chest heaving violently. After a long while, the anger of being mocked in his eyes gradually subsided, replaced by a fanatical greed.

"A mere mortal... who doesn't cultivate spiritual power, yet can manipulate two major forces at will?"

"This is a prodigy! A genius beyond compare!"

The King of Qingzhou suddenly looked up, his voice hoarse yet excited.

"Pass down the order! Activate all hidden traps!"

"We must find Yu Liang before the Suspended Mirror Bureau, at all costs!"

"I want him alive! I want him to become the true 'Dragon Raises Its Head' of Qingzhou!"

……

Imperial Palace of Daye, Imperial Study.

It was magnificent and resplendent, yet as cold as an ice cellar.

The Emperor of Daye sat on his dragon throne, toying with a smooth, white jade chess piece in his hand. After hearing the secret report, his face remained completely expressionless.

But those eyes were unfathomable.

"interesting."

"That's really interesting."

The emperor chuckled and casually tossed the white jade chess piece onto the chessboard.

pat.

A good game of chess has been ruined.

"I'm not curious about what that good-for-nothing brother of mine has done."

He turned around, his gaze landing squarely on Ling Qingxuan, who was kneeling at the foot of the steps. There was no thunderous rage, only a scrutiny colder than a blade.

"What I'm curious about is how that ant, which I should have crushed with one hand, managed to convince my inspector to willingly open the cage for him?"

Ling Qingxuan lay prone on the ground, his forehead pressed against the cold floor tiles, his back soaked with cold sweat.

"Your Majesty, I deserve to die."

"Dying is easy."

The emperor walked up to her, looking down at her, his voice so soft it sent chills down her spine.

"But I don't want to kill anyone right now; I want to watch a show."

He pulled a file about Yu Liang from the desk and threw it in front of Ling Qingxuan. It contained only a few words: a street swindler, parents unknown.

"A mortal with no spiritual energy fluctuations can manipulate the secrets of heaven and play tricks on all living beings."

"I like this 'ghost' very much."

The emperor leaned down, staring into Ling Qingxuan's trembling pupils, a cruel smile curving his lips.

"One month."

"Bring him back. I want to skin him alive and see if his heart also has seven orifices."

Ling Qingxuan looked up abruptly and saw only those emperor eyes that seemed capable of devouring everything.

"This is your only way to survive."