Everyone in the living room widened their eyes in shock.
With a tight, bitter expression, Zhan said,
"I already knew this."
The woman's body shook as she continued revealing everything.
Behind them, Mah, who was trying to calm Wuxia, suddenly moved to call Grandfa. Earlier, when they arrived, her phone had been returned to her, and Babiy was using his own. Wuxia quickly grabbed her arm, refusing to let her go alone. They ended up moving together.
Zhan turned and looked at the servants who were carrying the food he had ordered to be brought along.
He pointed at them and said calmly to his trusted aide:
"Give them the food. Let them eat it."
From Banou to her co-worker, they both burst into tears. They knew exactly what they had seen inside that food.
They couldn't even look at Zhan. He stood over them, his face terrifying.
They began to eat while crying, begging him for forgiveness.
At that moment, Dowager Ruyan and her group, who had been called urgently, entered with tense expressions.
They had just managed to force Dowager Taihou into a fragile sleep after intensive care, and now they were here.
They stood in silence, only watching Zhan and Banou.
Chuchu had already moved behind Momma, clinging tightly to her.
Even Daneen looked different.....her eyes had hardened, turning sharp and alert.
Zhan pushed the food away from in front of them and roughly shoved Banou toward Dowager Ruyan.
"Go. Release her feets!"
Dowager Ruyan stared in shock at both Banou and Zhan.
But when Zhan shouted again, his voice so terrifying that even Dowager Ruyan heart clenched painfully, Banou started crying harder.
With shaking hands, Banou grabbed Dowager Ruyan's feet.
A strange, swollen that had lived inside those feet for years suddenly began to surface.
After almost two minutes, Zhan ordered Banou to stand up.
She did....her whole body trembling.
Despite her large height and strong build, she now felt like a mouse in front of Zhan.
The one who had always seemed small before her now felt like a monster.
Zhan spoke calmly:
"You have four minutes. Bring the pot you hid among the flowers."
"Your command is my duty," Banou said, bowing again.
The room stayed completely silent as she left.
Moments later, Banou returned carrying the pot.
She dropped to her knees in front of Zhan and opened it.
Inside were things that looked like bound pieces of flesh, tightly wrapped.
She began untying them and releasing them.
They flew out with sharp flapping sounds like birds.
Some could barely rise....she had tortured them for too long.
Turning to the other servants, Zhan commanded:
"Bring to me everyone in this palace who is sick. Bring them to the center of the royal grounds.....immediately. I want two guards here."
Within moments, the guards he requested arrived.
They grabbed Banou and her co-worker roughly by the arms.
From the moment the servant Zhan had beaten in his wing was dragged out, the rumors began spreading through the palace.
By the time Zhan walked out with Dowager Ruyan and rest following behind him, the entire royal grounds were already full.
People poured in from every wing as if summoned by a horn.
Within a very short time, every sick person in the palace grounds was brought out....even those Banou had never touched.
Banou, crying and hiding her face, was made to walk among them, and within a minutes... They all stand well and healthy again.
After they finished, Zhan ordered that she be tied together with the first victim.
Just then, Grandfa, Babiy and the others arrived at the royal grounds.
At the same time, King Yibo, already unsettled, received an urgent call from Dowager Ruyan telling him that something was terribly wrong in the palace and that he needed to come immediately.
He had already been preparing to leave....his trusted aide had rushed in earlier in panic.
Even Prince Aoying had called him in distress.
The entire place fell into a heavy, unnatural silence the moment King Yibo stepped out.
No one had expected it.
Everyone lowered their heads.....even Zhan.
He stood there in all his striking presence....his beautiful face calm but carved from stone.
There was no softness in his expression.
His aide set down an elegant folding chair and opened a large umbrella above him, even though the sun was already fading toward evening and the heat wasn't strong.
To everyone's surprise, he did not sit.
He simply stared at Zhan for nearly two full minutes.
Then, slowly, he said:
"What is happening?"
Filled with deep respect that showed clearly who his King was, Zhan dropped to his knees before him.
He began with a formal greeting, then carefully explained everything that had happened.
King Yibo slowly closed his eyes and opened them again.
For a moment, it looked like he would say nothing. Then he gestured for Zhan to stand and said calmly:
"It is a mistake. You are the royal consort, RUILAN. You do not kneel on the ground in front of the people of this nation, under any circumstances."
Those words made everyone understand just how firm and sincere Zhan's pregnancy was.... because King Yibo himself had called him RUILAN.
(Ruilan means the opposite of queen....one who stands in the position of empress, the mother of the heir.)
At that moment, Prince Aoying stepped aside and Grandfa came forward, still smiling faintly.
He first offered his greetings to the King, then looked at Zhan. Just as he had explained everything to King Yibo, he now explained everything to Grandfa as well.
Grandfa only nodded.
He removed a small bag from his hand and set it aside.
He asked for water, and within moments it was brought to him.
He pulled out several medicines and poured them into the water, mixing them carefully.
Banou and the others began screaming and begging for mercy.
He did not even glance at them. He simply scooped up the medicated water and began flinging it at them.
They let out real, raw screams, shaking violently and thrashing.
After he had thoroughly drenched them, he ordered them to speak only with their mouths....no tricks, no deceptions.
Both of them confessed they were not human.....they had transformed forms.
They admitted that just that day they had entered the palace on the orders of Cao, whom Zhan had injured earlier.
Banou, however, was human....but she carried something dark within her, a witch.
It ran in her bloodline, passed through almost their entire lineage.
She was part of Cao's family line.
Weak and broken, Banou began to speak of her past.
"I have been here for nineteen years, since the day Cao was driven out of this palace.
I am one of her descendants who were expelled many years ago.
Long ago, this palace land was the home of our ancestors.
But when the palace was built, they were forced out and pushed elsewhere.
Their anger was beyond words. They had grown up there. Their parents and grandparents had lived and died there.
That land was the only home they knew.
Everything they valued....their history, their symbols....were destroyed so this palace could be built.
There were many other empty lands, but still, they chose ours.
That bitterness made them refuse to live in the place they were given.
They migrated deep into the forest instead.
That became our new life....harsh, unfamiliar, and filled with hatred.
Every child born into our bloodline was raised on this story.
We were taught to hate this palace.
All of us grew up dreaming of revenge.
We had already been harming you quietly....moving among you, casting shadows over your lives.
Even when the great flood happened across the country, it was our bloodline that damaged part of the river that flowed around you.
We never helped you.
We only sought to destroy you.
Our parents and grandparents died with that hatred in their hearts.
Cao became the most dangerous among us....far more influential and skilled than the rest.
Because of her persistence and her power, she became our leader.
She was the one we believed would reclaim this palace and return it to us.
But then everything changed because of that old woman…"
(She pointed at Dowager Ruyan.)
"She kept interfering, destroying our work whenever we were close to success.
We kept trying to harm her....but we always failed.
Then one day, in the middle of broad daylight, we found Cao abandoned and brutally injured because of that man and his father."
(She pointed at Grandfa.)
"That shattered us. Cao was close to death.
We gathered every bit of strength we had to save her.
But the inherited power she carried.... and the power she had built for herself....were damaged by that man.
Some of us were ordered to return to the palace, despite the risk.
I was one of them.
And I was the one who killed King Tengshan…
While wearing the form of a snake.... because my power was stronger than anyone else from our bloodline."
After his death, I continued to follow the life of Dowager Ruyan, but I could never completely defeat her because of the protections around her.
I did manage to cripple her legs by secretly mixing harmful substances into her food, but everything started to fall apart for me from the day I met the royal consort.
He possesses very strong powers. He blocked me in many ways. He also placed a binding on me so that I could not leave this palace, even though I wanted to from the very first day I met him. Cao also tried her best to get me out, but she failed.
All you could hear were deep, shocked breaths.
These revelations sounded like something out of a dark legend.
Banou....the woman everyone knew as the most loyal and trusted attendant of Dowager Ruyan, the one whose cooking was preferred above everyone else's except Daneen's... suddenly became someone no one could trust anymore.
Now, nobody in the palace felt safe. Not even the servants.
Grandfa threw a question at Banou:
"How many people have you harmed during all these years?"
"I don't know the exact number," she replied. "But I have killed many.
Some were tasks given to me by Cao and another powerful figure living in this palace.
And some… I did on my own.
There were also unborn children I destroyed.
The last one I destroyed was Jasrah's, on the very day the royal consort fell ill…"
Chaos spread through the courtyard as people shouted and cursed Banou.
With great respect, Grandfa turned to the King, who looked frozen in shock, as if his whole world had stopped.
"Our leader has shown enough justice. In my opinion, keeping these people alive is useless. Stones should be gathered and this medicine poured over them, then they should be killed here and now. These people possess dangerous spiritual powers. Even imprisoning them won't solve the problem. I hope I have not overstepped my place."
King Yibo remained silent.
For almost three minutes, he said nothing. Then he glanced toward Prince Aoying and slowly walked toward Zhan.
"We are safe, my Ruilan. Lower your guard."
That was all he said.
Immediately, Zhan yawned as his body suddenly relaxed. A deep exhaustion washed over him, the kind of fatigue that felt like he had been fighting on a battlefield for a whole week. He pout and layed his head on Yibo's shoulder still yawning.
King Yibo pulled him into his arms and embraced him.
At once, everyone around lowered their heads and looked away. Without hesitation, the King lifted Zhan completely off the ground and walked away, as if he had forgotten everyone else existed.
Just as Grandfa had suggested, servants quickly filled the area with stones. Grandfa sprinkled them with the prepared liquid.
Almost on command, people began throwing the stones at Banou and the others.
Their screams were piercing.
But no one showed them mercy....not even to the last breath.
Some of those killed had been parents, some husbands, some wives. Many of the victims had once been servants. That was why nobody pitied them.
When it was finally over, Grandfa ordered that their bodies be left there for their own people to come and collect....as a warning message to their clan.
That was exactly what happened.
But some young men and women in the palace recorded everything on their phones and uploaded it to social media.
Within hours, the event spread everywhere.
Human rights groups began openly criticizing what had happened through the media.
In a very short time, the video traveled across the world and became one of the most watched clips online.
Meanwhile…
The other two arrived back in their forest settlement.
The suffering of their people shook everyone in that bloodline. They gathered in silence, waiting to hear what had happened.
Cao sat on her ritual throne. The wound Zhan had inflicted on her nose made her face even more frightening. The other injuries she carried had swollen badly, twisting her features even further.
Kneeling in fear, one of her followers spoke:
"Leader… this mission was beyond our power. It wasn't meant for us.
They killed Rudde, Zambo, and Banou… They destroyed them completely."
Her chest rose and fell violently as rage consumed her.
With a harsh, terrifying voice, she pointed at them with claw-like fingers.
"So I, Cao, send you on a task, and you return saying you were overpowered? If you escaped death there, you will find it here. Bind them. Send Angulu to go and retrieve their bodies!"
"Your command is our duty, Cao, successor of the Mother," the man called Ahamanu replied with deep respect.
Within less than an hour, Angulu returned with the bodies.
Cao stood staring at the three corpses, covered in wounds from stones.
The entire group....children, women and men....stood in silence around her.
She began a low ritual chant, and the others followed, their hearts heavy with grief.
Later, she ordered Banou's body to be taken to the shrine room.
As for the others, who were not humans, she sprinkled a strange liquid over them.
Slowly, their bodies began to dissolve… until they vanished completely.
"The time to prepare for the direct confrontation arrived, only Jajjal still endured our order and has not yet returned. I know he is naturally strong-willed and stubborn in everything. And every child in our bloodline who reaches full destructive power should be like him.
Men, go! Go and prepare for war!
We will completely break the people of Beiping.
We will restore to them a history far worse than what they have known before.
Go! Go!"
A furious roar burst from them in unison. Their bodies swayed as if drums were being beaten around them.
Everyone rushed to their bamboo chambers, shouting the names of their ancient idols as they prepared for war. It wasn't knives or guns they prepared.....it was their forbidden arts that they sharpened again and again.
The preparations were brutal.
Men and women alike took part, while the children were forcefully given strange substances…
No one came outside again until nightfall.
That was when Banou's body was brought out....her corpse skewered on a massive spear and displayed in the center of the gathering.
Some parts of her body, claimed as Cao's right, were cut away.
The rest of them climbed onto the corpse, tearing at her flesh, eating it while screaming like wild beasts.
Ewwww.....🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
They shouted the names of their forest idols and monsters, their voices so loud the ground itself seemed to tremble.
The next morning
The Palace woke up in absolute chaos.
More than fifty servants, guards, and security personnel were found brutally slaughtered during the night.
Meanwhile, Zhan had been sleeping non-stop.
He only woke up when it was time for him to drink milk, barely forcing himself up to sip it before collapsing back into bed like someone under the influence of something heavy, with no interest in food at all.
King Yibo tried everything, but Zhan refused to wake up unless it was time for his milk.
The night before, King Yibo had gone to check on Dowager Taihou, who had been shouting restlessly all night, completely unable to sleep. Her body had become unstable again, and no one around her had slept either.
By morning, Dowager Taihou woke up covered in large, painful boils that burned and itched intensely.
She cried endlessly, begging for them to be removed.
She kept listing the names of the deceased royal consorts one by one, claiming they had come to kill her, that they had come for revenge.
No one fully understood what she was saying.
But anyone who saw her felt a deep, instinctive fear.
Almost at the same time, their eldest brother and Grandfa....who had been urgently summoned.....arrived at the palace.
They first gathered over the bodies of those who had been lost, including the palace matters handled by King Yibo.
Afterward, their attention turned fully to Dowager Taihou, whose boils had now filled with fluid.
Anyone who tried to scratch them for her only caused her more unbearable pain.
Grandfa remained silent, simply watching her.
Relatives filled the room, crying loudly.
The eldest brother turned to Grandfa with deep respect and said:
"Elder, this is clearly dark magic. But why would such forces attach themselves to Taihou, especially when I've already been told about the conflicts within this palace?"
Grandfa took a slow breath, as if he did not want to speak.
Then he said quietly:
"This is the kind of matter that should be heard from her own mouth. Because there is no smoke without fire.
Calling out the names of the dead and claiming they have come to kill her… that in itself raises the most serious questions."
No one in the room disagreed with Grandfa's words, but what he said left them deeply unsettled.
Just as he was bringing out a strange medicine, King Yibo entered the chamber, holding Zhan's hand. Zhan had just woken up and startled awake suddenly.
King Yibo held onto him, but Zhan quietly begged him to let him go to the mother's wing. King Yibo hadn't been gone long when Grandfa and the others arrived.
King Yibo helped Zhan sit down and sat beside him. Everyone greeted Zhan, but he did not answer anyone.
Grandfa and the eldest brother of Dowager Taihou greeted the King again, even though they had already exchanged formal greetings upon arriving at the palace.
Then Grandfa gave out the medicine he had brought and instructed them to let Dowager Taihou inhale the smoke from it.
Quickly, it was poured into a burner and placed over live fire, as the boils covering Dowager Taihou's body gave off a terrible stench, like decayed flesh unearthed from the ground.
She began to thrash violently as the smoke spread.
The sharp scream made King Yibo shut his eyes tightly, his expression filled with discomfort. Zhan stared at him, wishing he could take him away from the palace that very day. He hated witnessing such scenes in front of him.
But he could not leave....a kingdom in crisis could not be handled without its ruler present.
Dowager Taihou continued to struggle, unable to be touched because even her own touch caused her pain. Eventually, her movements slowed, and her body fell still.
Everyone feared she had died.
In panic, Jasrah called out her name in tears, until Grandfa told her to calm down....she was still alive, and the smoke would greatly reduce the pain of the boils.
Just then, Dowager Taihou opened her eyes.
She slowly looked around the room, studying everyone's faces, while some people whispered over her under their breath, as her brother had instructed earlier.
Painful tears began to stream down her face when her eyes landed on King Yibo and Zhan.
She stared at them for a long time, and then broke down crying again.
Her brother interrupted her gently:
"Be strong, Taihou. Crying will not solve anything. Tell us what is happening so we can understand how to help you. When did these dark forces begin surrounding you?
What do you and the Royal Consort know that the rest of us don't?
What have you been hiding from us and from Jasrah, that made you and your son in law exchanging hurtful words two days ago?"
King Yibo's eyes widened in shock. He turned sharply toward Zhan, his gaze intense and troubled.
But Zhan did not look back at him. His face was stiff and unreadable.
Dowager Taihou burst into fresh tears.
Slowly, she moved her lips and finally said:
"I did this to myself… Gege.
I chose this path myself.
Everything that happened… happened because of birth."
She took a shaky breath.
"My desperate desire to give birth… my obsession with it.
The longing, the craving to bear an heir… that was the beginning of everything.
That obsession is the story of my life in this palace, and of everything I did for almost forty years....and today, I am harvesting what I planted long ago…"
Zhanxianyibo💚❤️💛