A thunderous roar exploded from inside Serenity Hall—Cao Wan’er had gone full rage mode! Maids and guards outside, totally clueless, just about jumped out of their skins. They snapped to attention, standing so stiff you’d think they were auditioning for a statue contest.
"Who was that? Did you catch them yet?" Cao Wan’er snapped at Aunt Silver, her voice so sharp you could slice tofu with it. Seriously, who was that daredevil trying to rebel right under her nose?
Aunt Silver shot a nervous glance at Cao Wan’er’s stormy face, still kneeling and babbling apologies: "Please forgive me, Your Majesty! By the time I got there, the man in black had already ditched Ruiland City. I followed the route the locals pointed out, but then I heard something major went down in Draken City, so I..." She trailed off, totally chickening out under Cao Wan’er’s deepening death-glare.
"Useless!" Sure enough, Cao Wan’er spat out the word with enough venom to kill a small lizard. Just thinking about that black-clad jerk’s trash talk made her so mad, she could’ve chewed iron nails for breakfast.
"Please forgive me, Your Majesty!" Aunt Silver piped up again, basically groveling for her life.
"Your Majesty, don’t be mad! Your health is the MVP here! That guy’s asking for a death wish—Aunt Silver will totally nab him, right Aunt Silver?" Luna scrambled to kneel at Cao Wan’er’s side, frantically trying to defuse the ticking Empress-bomb.
Aunt Silver shot back, "Yes! I swear on my hairpins, I’ll hunt down that black-clad menace and wring his neck for Your Majesty!"
"See, Your Majesty? Aunt Silver’s got this! No need to blow a gasket. The Crown Prince is counting on you, so your health is basically a national treasure!" Luna, who’d grown up alongside Cao Wan’er, was a pro at Empress-calming hacks.
Sure enough, as Luna spoke, you could practically see the storm clouds clearing from Cao Wan’er’s face. The Empress was still grumpy, but at least she wasn’t about to throw teacups.
"Get up," Cao Wan’er finally huffed. Her tone was chill, but her face said, 'I’m still not happy, so don’t push your luck.'
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Aunt Silver shot up like a spring, Luna popping up right after, waving her fan so hard you’d think she was trying to launch Cao Wan’er into orbit.
"He’s all yours. I want him brought here alive!" Cao Wan’er smirked, practically rubbing her hands together—she was dying to see just how gutsy this guy was to act up in her territory.
"On it! Aunt Silver will give it her all—no slacking, promise!" she replied, puffing herself up like a peacock but still sweating bullets.
Cao Wan’er picked up her tea and took a dramatic sip, finally cooling her temper a little. She set the cup down and fixed Aunt Silver with a look: "Right now, top priority is getting Jude back to his usual snappy self."
"Wait, what happened to the Crown Prince?" Aunt Silver blurted, her voice going up an octave. She’d barely left for a few days—how had things gone off the rails so fast?
"Aunt Silver, Your Majesty told you to off that demonic girl, but you didn’t—and now poof, she’s gone! The Crown Prince is all mopey, hasn’t eaten right for days, and looks like he’s been through a spin cycle!" Luna rattled off, hands flailing for emphasis.
"What? No food for days? What’s his status now?" Aunt Silver fired off questions like a panicked mother hen, her face scrunched with worry. She’d barely been gone—how did Jude end up like this?
"Enough! What’s the use of panicking now? I knew from the start this was all that demonic girl’s plot," Cao Wan’er grumbled, puffing her cheeks. She’d spent years out-scheming everyone—now she’d gotten played herself? Talk about a taste of her own medicine!
"So what now, Your Majesty?" Aunt Silver asked, still clutching her imaginary pearls.
"What now? We get Jude’s mojo back, obviously! If that demonic girl wants to break him, we’ll just crank up the drama!" Cao Wan’er’s eyes lit up—she’d just cooked up a devious plan and couldn’t help but cackle.
Watching Cao Wan’er flash that sly grin, Aunt Silver was totally lost—her brain was doing cartwheels trying to guess what the Empress was scheming.
"Can’t figure it out?" Cao Wan’er smirked, eyeing Aunt Silver’s blank stare like she’d just seen a chicken try to do algebra.
Aunt Silver blurted, "I’m hopelessly clueless!"
Cao Wan’er grinned, taking her sweet time: "Since this whole circus started because of her, let’s use her as the bait! Jude’s totally obsessed, so we’ll keep feeding him juicy ‘news’ about her. I’ll play the worried Empress—‘Oh, my benefactor! She’s missing! I must find her!’—and every clue we drop, plus some about that black-clad mystery man, will get Jude fired up. He’ll chase after her like a lovesick puppy, and when he finds out it’s all fake, he’ll be so mad he’ll stomp those little countries flat. Step by step, he’ll conquer them all for me!" She finished with a mischievous cackle.
Only now did Aunt Silver finally get it: the Empress wanted to feed the Crown Prince bogus tips about the mystery man, so Jude would go chasing shadows. When he figured out he’d been played, he’d go full rage-mode and squash those tiny nations like bugs. Before you know it, he’d be top dog—no Dragon‑Phoenix Jade Seal required.
"You get it now?" Cao Wan’er watched Aunt Silver’s face cycle through frowns and eureka moments, like she was speed-running an emotional rollercoaster.
Suddenly Aunt Silver looked up, eyes sparkling. "Your Majesty, you’re a total mastermind! I could bash my head against a wall for days and never come up with something this epic. Once the Crown Prince starts steamrolling the realm, even without the Dragon‑Phoenix Jade Seal, nobody’ll dare mess with him!"
Cao Wan’er nodded, all smug. "At least you’re not completely hopeless."
Aunt Silver bowed, face red. "Compared to Your Majesty’s galaxy-brain, I’m not even a decimal point!" Suddenly, she gasped, "There’s only a bit more than half a month left—should we start rounding up the chosen ones for the Dragon‑Phoenix Jade Seal?"
"More than half a month left—no rush! Let’s fix Jude first, then we can talk Jade Seal business." Right now, with most enemies out of the picture, nothing was more important to Cao Wan’er than her precious son.
Aunt Silver nodded so hard her neck nearly popped off—she was in full 'I’ll do whatever you say, boss!' mode.
"Oh, right—Wang Gui said Jude’s monthly transformation is getting more obvious? The kung fu you taught does help, but how long till Jude can finally kick the pain for good?" Cao Wan’er asked, her voice just a little snippy.
Aunt Silver snapped to attention: "Your Majesty, every month the pain at the Crown Prince’s leg stumps builds up and explodes, but he can handle it. I figure if he drains a few more virgins, the wounds’ll patch up soon enough."
See, the moment he was born, fate stamped him with a double amputation ticket. When they hacked off both legs, he bled out so bad he went from baby to grandpa in two seconds flat. Took half a month of emergency TLC just to get some color back.
And ever since, it’s been like a curse—every fifteenth, on the anniversary of his leg-chop, the pain hits so hard he sometimes blacks out. His face and hair shrivel up like old lettuce, zero life left in him.
After each episode, Aunt Silver has to keep pumping power into him for ten whole days. And during those ten days? No one’s allowed a single peek—top secret, maximum privacy!
Then came the plot twist: when Jude was thirteen, right before another attack, a palace maid seduced him. They did the deed, and bam—she looked totally sucked dry, like a raisin, while Jude bounced back to normal in record time.
That’s when Aunt Silver realized all her years of power-channeling had turned Jude into a human vacuum. During sex, his body went full energy-sponge and drained the poor girl, but for Jude it was instant bliss.
Turns out, virgin Yin energy is like miracle juice for the Crown Prince—eases the pain and turbo-charges his recovery. Ever since, every fifteenth, Cao Wan’er sends in two palace maids for Jude to ‘enjoy’—like clockwork.
And that’s how it’s been, month after month, year after year. The palace maid supply? Basically infinite.
"Then just toss a few more virgins in on the fifteenth. The palace is crawling with them," Cao Wan’er shrugged, totally chill—as long as it helped her son, she’d throw in a whole busload if needed.
"No worries, Your Majesty! I’ve already cooked up a better plan—soon the Crown Prince won’t need to drain virgins, and he’ll stop morphing into a grumpy old man." Aunt Silver was all fired up: combine new power with the old, and boom, problem solved.
"Really?" Cao Wan’er perked up, actually looking excited for once. Sure, the palace had more virgins than it had teacups, but if her son could live a normal life, that’d be the real win.
"Yep! Next month on the fifteenth, I’ll start the new treatment. Trust me, Your Majesty—the Crown Prince will finally be free of this curse!" Aunt Silver had obsessed over this for years, so now she was ready to go full mad scientist.
"Excellent! Looks like all the good luck is rolling our way." Cao Wan’er stood up, flashed a wicked grin, and declared, "The counterplot starts now! Demonic girl, let’s see who’s boss—you or me!" Her cold laugh echoed through the hall, officially kicking off the next round of palace shenanigans.