Dance Of The Dragons
Chapter 286 : Xie Jianshen’s Ruthlessness (1)

Chapter 286: Chapter 286 : Xie Jianshen’s Ruthlessness (1)

Xie Jianyu’s return to Fuxi Palace was met with overflowing tears. Zhang Fengxi, one of the villains, was tactful enough to leave in order to grant Xie Jianyu’s palace staff freedom of speech and action.

Head Servant Zhou threw himself in front of Xie Jianyu and slapped himself repeatedly.

"This servant is useless!" he shouted. "Your Majesty, please punish me! I am not worthy of serving you!"

At Xie Jianyu’s command, three other servants were required to restrain Head Servant Zhou before he slapped himself bloody.

"You did your best," Xie Jianyu said with a sigh. "I left the palace out of selfish reason. It has been difficult for you."

Head Servant Zhou wailed loudly.

Mingyu too wailed loudly.

Qingyun was brought in front of Xie Jianyu afterward, but she had no more tears to shed.

"Your Majesty..." She kept saying with a trembling voice. "Your Majesty, you are finally back..."

Xie Jianyu gently led Qingyun to a cushioned pillow and urged her to sit down. The maid, once a cheerful and vibrant soul, now bore the haunting shadows of fear in her eyes.

Her shoulders tensed and her eyes darted around nervously, as if she was constantly on the lookout for danger. When the slightest disturbance broke the silence, she would flinch and jump, her heart pounding in her chest. As a coping mechanism, she had developed the habit of hugging herself tightly whenever she felt unsafe.

Xie Jianyu’s heart ached at the sight of her. He couldn’t bear to see the fear and trauma in her eyes, knowing that he was partly responsible for it. He had failed to protect her, and now she was paying the price.

"Qingyun, what happened to you at Shuiran Palace?"

Qingyun shook her head fervently.

"N-nothing. Really n-nothing."

"Tell me the truth."

Qingyun began to sob uncontrollably.

"M-master, there was nothing. Really nothing."

Xie Jianyu clenched his teeth. Must his elder brother go this far?

There was no use forcing Qingyun to talk when she did not want to, so Xie Jianyu dismissed her.

"Rest now, I will call you when I need you."

Qingyun bowed her head like a little frightened bird before she left.

And then, Mingyu was summoned to his chamber.

"Mingyu, check for bruises and wounds on Qingyun’s body and report back to me," the Fuxi Palace Master ordered her.

Mingyu swallowed hard.

"Master, I checked."

"... And?"

"There is none."

"... What do you mean there is none? Obviously, she was tortured at Shuiran Palace."

Helplessness etched itself into Mingyu’s face. She was not sure how to say what she wanted to say.

To be honest, there were a lot of things that one could tell about Xie Jianshen once they knew him well enough.

Xie Jianshen was a cruel man, capable of inflicting unimaginable pain and suffering without a flicker of remorse. He flinched from neither cutting open a person nor flaying a person when he was still alive.

And yet, there were worse things than physical torment. There was the slow, agonizing death of hope, the relentless erosion of the spirit.

"Master, I understand that you love us all deeply. But have you heard about the incident when Lord Xie was still living in Fuxi Palace back then? The one involving the death of a guard...?"

Within the towering walls of Fuxi Palace, a dark secret whispered through the corridors, its echoes echoing in the hearts of those who heard it, including Xie Jianyu.

It was the story of the traitorous guard, who had dared to sell insider secrets to outsiders for greed. His punishment was death, but the manner of his demise was so gruesome that it became a cautionary tale, whispered in hushed tones by those who feared the wrath of Xie Jianshen.

The guard was sent to the Execution Tower, where he was forced to witness the horrific deaths of countless prisoners before his own turn came.

The traitorous guard was assigned the grim task of cleaning the execution ground after each execution.

Every day, he was forced to scrub the blood and gore from the cold stone slabs, his hands trembling with revulsion and despair. The task was relentless, and it took its toll on the guard’s sanity. Within a week, he was a shadow of his former self, his eyes haunted by the images of death and destruction he had witnessed.

He begged Xie Jianshen for a merciful death, but his liege lord refused to grant him said request.

And so, the guard continued to toil away, his soul slowly dying with each execution he witnessed.

By the time the guard’s death sentence finally arrived, he was nothing more than a lifeless husk. The horrors he had witnessed had eaten away at his sanity and his spirit.

Xie Jianyu did not want to hear about his elder brother’s atrocities, so he decided to work on the solution instead.

"Find out what I can do to ease Qingyun’s sufferings," Xie Jianyu said. "Do not force her to talk. Just accompany her and tell me what she needs."

"Yes, Master."

Xie Jianyu pressed both hands against his stomach anxiously.

Xie Jianshen was his blood brother. The only full sibling he had. His brother loved him, and he loved his brother. But sometimes, Xie Jianshen’s cold personality and vicious methods scared him.

There was nothing that Xie Jianshen would not do, once he set his mind on it.

Mingyu returned a lot faster than Xie Jianyu expected. The maid pushed open the door and poked her head through the slit.

"Uhh, Master."

Xie Jianyu furrowed his brows at his maid.

"What happened? Did Qingyun say something?"

Mingyu turned as pale as a white sheet of paper.

Before the maid could utter a word in reply, a hand slid the door open with glacial slowness. The figure on the other side slowly made his appearance.

"Whatever you need to ask Qingyun, you can ask me directly."

Xie Jianyu’s gaze collided with that of his brother, whom he had not seen in two long weeks.

"Little Yu, it is good to see you again," Xie Jianshen said with a soft voice.