“The Demon Emperor’s newly appointed empress was thrown into the Cold Palace less than two months later. From then on, they never saw each other again.”

“Hahaha, that’s ridiculous. We’re talking about the Demon Emperor—the Demon Emperor who can pull strings anywhere!”

“In this chaotic world, following the Demon Emperor means endless wealth and glory. Who’d be stupid enough to turn that down? What a fool—hahaha…”

“That’s right. I’m the fool.”

As memories came flooding back, a brief silence followed…

In a vast, austere palace, a woman with a melancholy face—and beauty that was impossible to hide—curiously studied her reflection in the mirror.

She couldn’t help muttering to herself, “Is this for real? I just flashed a teammate in a game, and now I’ve been flashed into another world?”

Her beautiful phoenix eyes stayed fixed on the beauty reflected in the mirror. She still looked a little dazed.

“Not only did I end up in another world, I ended up in a woman’s body?”

Her slender fingers pinched her cheek hard. The pain made it clear: this wasn’t a dream. This was reality.

From the little information she had, it seemed she’d been transported into a boring, clichéd power fantasy about Long Aotian.

“Mu Nanyan…” A name slowly surfaced in my mind. “So her name is Nanyan…”

As she gazed at the beauty in the mirror, Mu Nanyan hadn’t even had a moment to mourn her lost manhood or her former life as a chubby shut-in. What came rushing onto the scene instead was overwhelming fear and pressure.

Mu Nanyan was a terrible name to have!

If she remembered correctly, that name belonged to an ultimate plot device who was mentioned only in the first three chapters of a clichéd Long Aotian power fantasy.

Her tragic backstory had made the name Mu Nanyan stick in her mind.

Her character was pretty clichéd, but then, this was a clichéd Long Aotian novel. You could scribble in a few lines about some random extra and call it a day.

The author had written her as the daughter of an ordinary farming family, but she possessed unmatched beauty. The male lead of the story—Long Aotian himself—had taken notice of her.

In this chaotic age of warring factions, Long Aotian was a newcomer who wanted to rise to the top in one leap. To do that, he had to find an unconventional path.

So Long Aotian set his sights on both Mu Nanyan, whose beauty was like that of a celestial maiden, and the current ruler of the Demon Clan: the Demon Emperor.

An ordinary commoner and the ruler of the Demon Clan—they were worlds apart, with nothing in common.

But Long Aotian was Long Aotian. His ideas were always unconventional, and his approach was as sly as it was clever. Otherwise, how could he be Long Aotian?

The current ruler of the Demon Clan wasn’t a man, but a woman—and a powerful one at that. Even in this chaotic age, she held an exalted position.

She was cool and aloof, keeping people at a distance. Rumor had it that countless warlords who ruled their own territories had pursued her, but every one of them had failed.

But Long Aotian was no ordinary person. With help from his system, he learned that the Demon Emperor wasn’t interested in men. She liked beautiful women.

And so, following the usual formula of a Long Aotian novel, he used that as his opening and picked out his plot device: Mu Nanyan.

She was a farmer’s daughter with little knowledge of the world. Long Aotian sweet-talked and deceived her, threatened her, and thoroughly manipulated her.

He fed her some bizarre sense of duty: Mu Nanyan had to help Long Aotian defeat the Demon Emperor.

Long Aotian told her that life for the Human Race was hard—that crops weren’t growing and there was no harvest—all because the Demon Clan was behind it.

If they killed the Demon Emperor, the weather would be kind and the harvest plentiful. Mu Nanyan’s parents and younger sister wouldn’t have to worry about having enough to eat, either.

“And that’s why I say this is a clichéd Long Aotian novel.”

Mu Nanyan recalled all the things Long Aotian had said to manipulate her. Maybe those words sounded perfectly reasonable to the original Mu Nanyan, a commoner.

But to Mu Nanyan the transmigrator, they were downright disgusting.

And having read the original story, Mu Nanyan knew exactly what Long Aotian was up to. The guy wasn’t interested in her at all. No matter how stunning she was, she was still just a commoner.

With his system backing him and his mind fixed on bigger things, Long Aotian had no interest in her.

After all, this was a chaotic age. A commoner with nothing but beauty—no status, strength, or wealth—would only be a burden.

So Long Aotian used Mu Nanyan’s beauty to get her close to the Demon Emperor by any means necessary. Once the Demon Emperor took the bait, he’d secretly arrange for Mu Nanyan to assassinate her.

The method was unusual, too. He had Mu Nanyan smear poison on her lips. On her wedding night with the Demon Emperor, they were bound to share some intimate moments.

Then the Demon Emperor would taste not only the beauty’s sweet lips, but also a deadly poison. But Long Aotian wouldn’t let her die. The system had given him the poison, and only he had the antidote.

When the Demon Emperor was on the brink of death and the entire Demon Clan was in a panic, he’d step in to save the beauty—and pin the blame on Mu Nanyan.

With the system’s help, everything after that would fall neatly into place.

But that was where the problem lay!

Everyone was focused on Long Aotian and the Demon Emperor, but no one cared about poor Mu Nanyan. Long Aotian used her like a dog, then never mentioned her again once she’d served her purpose.

She only appeared in the first three chapters. Whether she died or something else happened to her… the author never explained, not even by the end.

And now, I’d probably have to find the answer for myself.

The worst part was, Long Aotian wouldn’t stop tormenting Mu Nanyan. Once her story disappeared from the page, he set his sights on her younger sister.

Although he’d won the Demon Emperor over, Long Aotian never got to enjoy Mu Nanyan’s body, which he’d been coveting for so long. She was a pawn he needed to get close to the Demon Emperor, so he’d forced himself to keep his hands off her.

But after he won the Demon Emperor, that desire began to burn stronger and stronger.

So Long Aotian turned his attention to Mu Nanyan’s younger sister…

“!”

At the thought, Mu Nanyan instinctively took a deep breath, pulling herself back to reality.

Her heart pounded in her chest. Even her breathing was unsteady.

“Now that I’ve been reborn here, how could I possibly let that guy’s plan succeed?”

Mu Nanyan clenched her fists slightly. She knew she couldn’t just sit here and wait to die. Knowing what was coming, she couldn’t stand by and watch Long Aotian get his way.

And she couldn’t accept dying with her name in disgrace.

Mu Nanyan calmly assessed the situation, weighing her strengths against Long Aotian’s. She set their respective abilities on the scales.

But no matter how she weighed them, the scales tipped in Long Aotian’s favor.

Her only advantage was knowing what was coming. But how much could that really help against Long Aotian’s system? Could the system even detect her existence?

What’s more, she really had tried to assassinate the Demon Emperor. The fact that the Demon Emperor hadn’t killed her outright, and had instead sent her to this Cold Palace and spared her life, was already something to be grateful for.

You could hardly ask for a worse start.

“What should I do? Should I run?”

Mu Nanyan stood up nervously and looked out the window. The Cold Palace… Though it was called a palace, it was really just an inconspicuous little courtyard in the Demon Clan’s palace.

A wall surrounded the courtyard, and with Mu Nanyan’s build, climbing over it to escape was impossible. Besides, even if she got over the wall, this was the Demon Clan’s palace—the very heart of their territory.

She wouldn’t get far before the Demon Clan’s guards caught her and dragged her back.

Running was out of the question. From what she remembered, the Demon Emperor would be on the brink of death in about three days. That was when Long Aotian, who’d been hiding behind the scenes all along, would appear.

“Three days… In three days, it’ll all be over.”

Mu Nanyan lightly tapped her slender fingers on the tabletop and murmured to herself.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Mu Nanyan’s head.

“If there’s no other way, I’ll just have to try something different. If fighting Long Aotian head-on means I’m doomed either way, then I’ll take another route. I’ll become him and walk his path. Fight magic with magic!”

Mu Nanyan rummaged around for a moment, then found paper and a brush in a drawer and began sketching from memory.

Her pale hand gently held the brush. Without thinking, her left hand tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, revealing her jade-white neck.

It was her first time experiencing what it felt like to sit at a desk and write. The soft sensation against her chest left her a little dazed.

Knock, knock, knock.

Just as Mu Nanyan was about to finish writing, an untimely knock sounded at the door.

At the sound, Mu Nanyan’s hair stood on end. It was the middle of the night. Who could be knocking at this hour?

With a knot of unease in her stomach, Mu Nanyan tucked the unfinished draft into her sleeve, stood up, and opened the door.

A strikingly dressed girl stood outside. Her slender figure was framed by a billowing black-and-white skirt, and her rare, snow-white hair brought out her bright, lively air.

Most striking of all were her blood-red eyes—the hallmark of the Blood Clan.

Mu Nanyan knew the girl standing before her. Her name was Liya, and she was the Demon Emperor’s daughter.

That’s right, the Demon Emperor had a daughter. Though none of them were her biological children; they were orphans she’d taken in.

She called them her daughters, but the Demon Emperor didn’t just pick up every orphan she came across. She wasn’t some great philanthropist.

Every one of the daughters the Demon Emperor had taken in possessed an extraordinary talent.

Take Liya, the half-Blood Clan, half-Human girl standing before her. Though she was only a teenager, she’d already shown astonishing talent.

She could pick up magic that others couldn’t learn, and handle things others couldn’t manage. She was a genius—a one-in-a-million genius.

These daughters were part of the Demon Emperor’s strength. They were also one reason Mu Nanyan had given up on trying to escape.

These little devils weren’t nearly as cute as they looked.

“Miss Liya, what brings you here so late?”

The little girl standing outside looked tired… but when she looked at Mu Nanyan, her expression held far more hatred and hostility.

She didn’t say a word. She simply held out her little hand toward Mu Nanyan and coldly spat out two words:

“Hand it over!”