Grace smiled and gave Rona Zhu the antidote to the Red Truth Pill.
Rona gradually came to her senses, her face ashen. "I know I'm done for! Just kill me!" she said.
If Grace didn't kill her, Sophie Shang would find out that Rona was fed the Red Truth Pill and would kill her anyway.
She'd rather die at Grace's hands.
"Why would I want to kill you?" Grace replied. "I'm not going to kill you, my dear little sister."
"Then what do you want?" Rona looked at her.
"We're leaving now. We won't disturb your cultivation any longer!" Grace and Henry Tuoba turned and headed out.
Once they were out of the barrier, Grace still called for Ray to restore it, and the barrier returned to its original state.
Rona chased after them, standing inside the barrier and watching. "You're just leaving like that?" she asked, confused.
"What, do you want to treat us to a meal or something?" Grace raised an eyebrow.
"Why aren't you killing me?"
Grace smiled. "If I killed you, wouldn't that be the same as telling Sophie Shang I know what she's done?"
"Aren't you afraid I'll tell her?"
"You're not that stupid, are you? You wouldn't go telling her what happened here, right? Otherwise, who knows if she'd kill you in a fit of rage or do something even worse?"
Rona took a deep breath and said nothing.
"And I swear I won't tell her, either," Grace said. "Relax. When you get to the Blighted Wilds, I wish you all the best! May you find your own place there."
With that, she and Henry Tuoba flew away together.
Rona watched them with a complicated look, frozen for a long time.
......
After they returned, Grace was silent the whole way.
Henry Tuoba asked, "What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about my past life," Grace replied. "After you left, I spent a month as the Imperial Noble Consort in the Blue Moon Kingdom. Back then, I could tell Colin Gu didn't intend to kill me."
"So what happened after that?"
"It was Sophie Shang," Grace said. "The two years before the fall of Yanjing, she was the one keeping in touch with me. I trusted her a lot, so she had the chance to collect all sorts of fake and half-true evidence for Colin Gu. He got furious and killed me and Ray."
"So she persecuted you in your last life too?"
"The reason I trusted her was because she'd helped me before," Grace added.
"When did she help you?"
"When I was in the Blue Moon Palace, I was pregnant with Ray. There was one time I ate something bad and had terrible stomach pain.
I was scared out of my mind, and then she showed up."
She gave me a pill, and just like that, the pain was gone.
I've always been grateful to her for that."
"You suspect there was something wrong with the pill she gave you?"
"Yeah. Suddenly I realized—even though I'm a level thirteen spirit alchemist now, I still have no idea what that pill was..."
Henry Tuoba frowned. "So, what do you plan to do next?"
Grace said, "Right now, I need to find Evan Xiao and talk to him about this."
She took out the Dragon Pendant and bit down hard.
She wanted to explain everything while Henry Tuoba was here.
But Evan didn't show up.
No matter how many times she bit, he never appeared again.
Seeing Grace's disappointed face, Henry Tuoba asked, "What's wrong?"
Grace shook her head. "It's nothing. Your Majesty, when we get back, you have to protect yourself. We promised, remember? This time around, we're going to live well!"
Henry Tuoba smiled. "Alright."
......
Drake Abyss.
Leon Zane nervously nudged Yinzhu's arm. "Hey, what do you think is up with His Highness? He's giving off such a gloomy vibe—it's honestly terrifying!"