The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

Chu Qiao looked down at the broken copper coin at his waist.

The copper coin was very old, its edges were worn shiny, and a corner was missing in the middle.

The jagged corner of the crack gleamed with a warm and lasting light, a luster that comes from being rubbed countless times by fingers.

It is as warm and smooth as jade, yet more precious than any other jade.

He recalled the time when he fled famine as a child.

He was still young then, and as thin as a stick.

Starving to the bone, he huddled in a haystack by the roadside, waiting to die.

There was no one around him; even stray dogs wouldn't bother to look at him.

Because there wasn't a single piece of flesh left on his body.

He thought he would die there, on that roadside whose name he didn't even know, becoming a pile of bones that no one would collect.

Then a girl walked by.

"Huh? There's someone here."

She stopped and glanced at him.

There was no pity, no disgust in that glance.

She treated him as a person, not as a pile of trash that could be ignored.

"You will survive, cheer up!"

She gave him a bowl of porridge.

The porridge was very thin, and you could count the grains of rice, but in his hands it felt as heavy as a piece of gold.

That was the most delicious thing he had ever eaten in his life.

The warmth of the porridge seeped through the bowl into his hands.

At that moment, he felt that he was still alive and deserved to be treated gently by the world.

"This is all the money I have left on me this time. Be careful to hide it well."

She also gave him a bag of copper coins.

That bag of copper coins was eventually stolen.

Those men pinned him to the ground and took the copper coins from his pocket.

He struggled desperately, his fingernails scratching ten bloody marks on the ground.

The howling startled all the crows in the tree into flight.

He fought desperately to snatch back the last piece, but broke a corner in the struggle.

That crisp sound still echoes in his ears.

He clutched the broken coin in his hand until the edge of the coin cut the skin on his palm.

From that moment on, he never let go.

Tang Xixue doesn't remember the little beggar she once casually helped.

She has helped too many people and saved too many lives; it's impossible for her to remember them all.

Those she pulled back from the brink of despair were merely blurry figures in the long course of her life.

She couldn't even remember their faces.

But he remembered her.

The temperature of that bowl of porridge, the weight of that bag of copper coins, the figure disappearing into the crowd.

He remembers it perfectly clearly.

Every detail is etched into his bones.

Like a mark burned on with a hot iron, it can never be erased.

Therefore, he disobeyed the orders of the Palace Master of Guixu and decided to give them directions.

He chose the temperature of the porridge, rather than the coldness of the Heavenly Contract.

"I'm not willing."

He said.

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unshakeable certainty.

Like the hardest piece of ice deep in this icy abyss, it remains unmoved despite the wind and frost that have ravaged it for centuries.

There was no passionate fervor for dying a heroic death, nor any grief or indignation at being forced to submit.

There was absolutely no intention of seeking credit from anyone.

He was just unwilling.

"Here, I am the king. This is my territory, and my rules are my rules."

The ice scales trembled again.

The voice remained silent for a long time.

The chill from the icy abyss condensed into frost on Chu Qiao's eyelashes, turning them white one by one.

So long that he thought it had left.

Then the voice rang out again, still flat, cold, and devoid of any emotion.

It was like a cold knife, slowly piercing his chest and then circling around the softest part of his heart.

"Chu Qiao, you're a complete madman. Do you know the consequences of betraying the Heavenly Contract?"

You know that once that scale starts growing, it will never stop.

"So what? Who are you to judge me?"

Chu Qiao's hand, which was pressed against his chest, tightened suddenly, and the tearing sensation deep in his chest became more and more obvious.

It felt like something was growing inch by inch inside him.

It emerged from his bone marrow, splitting his flesh and bones, and cutting off his breath.

A sheet of ice scales.

It grew from his own palm, its edges embedded in the flesh, still connected by blood vessels.

Like a seed that took root in his flesh and blood, sprouted, and finally broke through the soil.

Those jagged edges dug into his skin, causing excruciating pain with every movement.

The scales were completely transparent, gleaming with a ghostly blue light, just like those on the ice corpses from last night.

That is the price for betraying the covenant with Heaven.

The moment the scales cover his entire body, he will become just another ordinary ice corpse in this icy burial ground.

"Oh."

He looked down at the ice scale in his palm and suddenly chuckled.

The laughter was soft and hoarse, as if it were mocking something.

But the broken copper coin is still there.

It hung quietly at his waist, gleaming with a warm and lasting light.

Just like the light of the golden talisman from last night, it had shone on him.

"elder sister……"

He said in a low voice.

"Don't fall next time."

Then he looked down at his hand, which was being covered in ice scales.

First piece, second piece, third piece.

They emerge from the palm, squeeze out from between the fingers, and spread upwards along the fingers.

He smiled, his eyes crinkling with a faint yet persistent light.

"After all, I won't be able to give you directions next time."

He turned around and walked into the depths of the icy abyss.

The footprints from when we came are still on the snow, step by step, stretching from the entrance of the underground river towards the small wooden house.

He walked slowly, each step leaving a deep imprint on the snow, with a few drops of dark red blood mixed in with it.

Spreading on the pristine white snow, it resembles plum blossoms blooming in the cold winter.

Behind me was an icy abyss, and in front of me was also an icy abyss.

The world was vast and silent, with only a solitary figure walking further and further away across the boundless ice plain.

The murmuring of the underground river seemed like a farewell left unspoken.

"My body is a monument to suppress ten thousand souls, and my bones burn away three feet of ice."

"The common people are not pitied by Heaven, and their remaining blood boils in the cold abyss."