The Evil Dragon Empress Keeps Her Beautiful Prisoner Beneath the Dragon Palace - Chapter 1:

Chapter 1: Dragon Shadow Over the Moon

Before Xuan Sugui even stepped into the dungeon, the white lotus on Qi Cheran’s lower abdomen began to burn.

Heat spread from the heart of the flower, climbing upward along his waist and stomach.

Qi Cheran’s fingertips tightened, and the iron chain around his wrist lightly struck the stone wall.

He lowered his head. Beneath his torn lapels, the lotus mark was still snow-white.

In this world, every man was born with a white lotus mark on his lower abdomen. Before losing his chastity, it remained as white as snow. Once he lost it, the white lotus would be stained into a red lotus and would never fade for the rest of his life.

The soldiers who escorted him into Qin had once leaned against the prison carriage and laughed, saying that once Chu’s greatest beauty fell into that mad dragon’s hands, this white lotus probably would not last many days.

At least for now, it was still white.

Qi Cheran pulled his lapels tighter and leaned back against the cold stone wall, forcing his breathing to steady.

Soon, footsteps came from the depths of the corridor. They were neither hurried nor slow, each one landing with chilling steadiness.

The scent of dragon ambergris crossed the iron gate and pressed into the prison cell. The sweet, bloody scent left after burning sulfur instantly overwhelmed the rusty smell of blood in the dungeon.

The white lotus on his lower abdomen suddenly tightened.

A strange tingling numbness spread through Qi Cheran’s waist, and the breath he had just steadied faltered again.

The torches on the wall all bent low.

A massive black shadow covered the prison cell first. Its wings spread open, almost swallowing the entire stone wall.

A dragon’s head lowered from above. Its golden vertical pupils locked onto the person in the corner through the darkness.

The iron gate opened with a crash.

The dragon shadow scattered with a flicker of firelight.

Xuan Sugui stepped in through the cold white moonlight outside the door.

Her black-and-gold dragon robe swept past filthy water and blood ash. Her black hair was tied high, and her face was dazzlingly beautiful. The corners of her eyes tilted slightly upward, a look that should have been alluring, yet those golden vertical pupils pressed that beauty into something so fierce that no one dared look for long.

She stopped in front of Qi Cheran. Her gaze swept over his disheveled silver hair and bloodstained lapels before finally settling on the faint cut on the side of his face.

So many people had died in Yun City, and she had not even bothered to blink.

Yet because there was one more wound on his face, she looked for a long time.

Qi Cheran braced himself against the stone wall and sat upright. His silver hair spilled over his bloodstained lapels. His face was pale, but his brows and eyes remained cold and clean. The filth of the dungeon could not suppress that clear, breathtaking beauty. Instead, it made him even more painfully striking.

Qi Cheran looked at her coldly. “The Emperor of Qin came to the dungeon in person. Surely you are not just here to see whether I am dead.”

The corner of Xuan Sugui’s lips lifted slightly. “Kneel.”

Qi Cheran replied, “The Qi family kneels only to heaven, earth, ruler, parents, and teacher.”

Xuan Sugui’s voice was calm. “Now that you are in Dragon Abyss City, I am your heaven.”

She took a step forward and placed her palm on his shoulder.

The pressure of the black dragon crashed down.

Qi Cheran’s knees slammed heavily onto the stone tiles, and his kneecaps went numb from the impact. He gripped the chains and forced his spine straight again, his head never lowering.

Xuan Sugui seized his chin and lifted that pale, beautiful face. “Such hard bones. They will be interesting to break. No wonder I like you.”

A trace of interest rose in her eyes instead.

Qi Cheran turned his head to avoid her, but her five fingers immediately tightened and forced his face back.

Scorching dragon breath brushed past the corner of his lips. The white lotus on his lower abdomen suddenly burned, and heat shot from his waist up his spine.

Qi Cheran’s shoulders and back went taut, but a faint tremor still escaped from his waist.

Xuan Sugui’s gaze followed it downward.

Qi Cheran raised a hand to pull his lapels shut, but the moment his wrist moved, she caught it.

Xuan Sugui narrowed her eyes. “What are you hiding?”

Qi Cheran snapped, “Let go!”

Xuan Sugui pressed his hand aside and used her other hand to lift the fabric at his waist.

Cold white skin was exposed beneath the firelight. That white lotus bloomed fully, untouched by any stain.

Her bright red nail guard stopped above the lotus petals. Before it even touched him, her domineering dragon breath had already seeped into his skin.

Qi Cheran’s waist and abdomen instantly tightened.

Xuan Sugui looked down at him. “I have not even touched you yet, and it is already this hot.”

Qi Cheran forced out, “Get lost.”

“Your mouth is very stubborn.” Her fingertip traced along the edge of the lotus petals without truly touching them. “Keep it well.”

Xuan Sugui pulled his lapels back into place for him, her voice lowering slightly. “I will stain it red with my own hands.”

Killing intent surged in Qi Cheran’s eyes.

Yet she seemed pleased by it. Her thumb wiped across the blood he had bitten from the corner of his lips. “That look. I love seeing it.”

Qi Cheran stared at her. “You attacked Yun City and abducted me into Qin just for such filthy thoughts?”

Xuan Sugui replied lightly, “Yun City has always been a place Qin and Chu must fight over. As for you, I wanted you, so naturally I brought you back.”

The coldness in Qi Cheran’s eyes deepened. “I am a person, not an object you can take away just because you want it.”

Xuan Sugui wondered, “Is there a difference?”

She looked at him and continued, “Who you keep in your heart, whose side you want to return to, none of it affects the fact that I want you. Whether you are willing or not only affects how you will live in the dragon nest from now on.”

Qi Cheran’s voice was cold. “It is not up to you whether I stay.”

“You are dreaming!”

Xuan Sugui pinched his chin, and the curve of her lips returned. “But if I did not crush your city beneath my feet, if I did not kill those who stood in front of you, how would a little phoenix raised in Chu’s palms ever obediently fall into my dragon nest?”

She leaned closer, and her scorching dragon breath pressed against the corner of his lips. “I want you to belong to me completely. No one can take you away. And you had better not think of escaping.”

“Yun City is already gone. Your identity, your support, and your path of retreat, I will sever them for you one by one. When you turn back, the only thing left behind you will be my dragon nest.”

She tightened her grip on Qi Cheran’s chin, forcing him to lift his face. “When that time comes, where else can you go?”

Qi Cheran gritted out, “I would rather die!”

Xuan Sugui’s fingertip stroked along his jaw, her tone almost cheerful. “Then you must die in my hands.”

She looked at him steadily. “What I lack least is time. Three years ago, at the forty-seventh Nine Nations Alliance Conference, you wore moon-white ceremonial robes and sat among Chu’s delegation, playing Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank.”

“The entire hall was watching you, but you did not look at anyone. When the music ended, however, you smiled at Yan Qingge.”

That day surfaced in Qi Cheran’s mind.

Ah Yan had sat among the military officials, a blue-green sword tassel hanging at her waist. Behind the etiquette officer’s back, she had raised her brows at him.

He had disliked her lack of decorum, but in the end, he still smiled.

Just once.

Perhaps even Yan Qingge herself would not have remembered it for this long, yet Xuan Sugui had remembered until today.

Qi Cheran raised his eyes and met those golden pupils. “So from that alliance conference onward, you were already watching me?”

He stressed each word. “I already have an engagement with Ah Yan. In this lifetime, I will never belong to you.”

The faint smile at Xuan Sugui’s lips suddenly faded. Even the firelight in the prison seemed to sink with it.

Xuan Sugui slowly repeated the name. “Ah Yan… How intimate.”

Qi Cheran replied, “She is my fiancée.”

“Ah Yan.” The golden vertical pupils abruptly narrowed.

Xuan Sugui went silent for a few breaths. Then the corner of her lips lifted again. That smile was more radiant than before, and far more dangerous.

“Very good. You had better keep protecting her like this. I would like to see whether you can still say those two words when she kneels in front of you.”

She lowered her gaze to him and continued, “Before I came in, you were thinking about her too. After you fell asleep last night, you called her 3 times. And that old woman who taught you how to count your breaths.”

Qi Cheran’s eyes sharpened. “You were watching me?!”

Xuan Sugui replied as if it were only natural, “Why should I not know everything about you? How many mouthfuls of food you ate, how many times you woke in the night, whose name you cried out in your dreams.”

She bent closer, her dragon breath falling beside his ear. “Good little bird, is there anything on you that I am not allowed to see?”

Only then did Qi Cheran understand. Throughout the journey into Qin, there had always been someone watching him for Xuan Sugui.

Qi Cheran’s voice trembled with anger. “Granny Su is already dead!”

“That is why it is troublesome.” Xuan Sugui’s tone was cold. “When living people get in the way, killing them makes things clean. But dead people stay in your heart, and they cannot be driven away.”

Qi Cheran’s fingers slowly clenched. “What did you do?”

Xuan Sugui replied, “I dug up her grave.”

Then she added, “Her skull was sent to the Royal Workshop and ground into a wine vessel.”

Qi Cheran’s chest sank violently.

In winter, Granny Su had always warmed his hands first before allowing him to touch the zither.

She was already buried, yet this mad dragon could not even tolerate a dead person’s bones.

Qi Cheran stared at her, his eyes red. “Xuan Sugui, you even have to fight with the dead?”

“Fight?” Xuan Sugui looked at him. “I am merely clearing things away.”

Her voice was quiet, almost tender in its cruelty. “Chu, the Qi family, Yan Qingge, and those dead people you still remember. I will clear them all away, one by one.”

“In the future, when you are awake, you will look at me. When you are asleep, even in your dreams, you can only call my name.”

Qi Cheran’s reddened eyes were reflected in her golden vertical pupils. He met her gaze head-on.

“Xuan Sugui!”

“You will die a miserable death!”

Xuan Sugui’s fingertip rubbed hard over the dampness at the corner of his eye. “Good. Hate me just like this.”

She bent down, her lips stopping extremely close to his. “It is still better than you thinking of someone else.”

Qi Cheran’s stomach churned.

This lunatic even wanted to steal his hatred.

At that moment, footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.

A palace servant crawled in on his knees, holding a bloodstained brocade box in both hands.

Xuan Sugui took it and casually set it before her knees. “Were you not just thinking about your Ah Yan?”

Click.

The lid of the box opened a crack.

A length of blue-green sword tassel soaked in blood slid out.

The color drained from Qi Cheran’s face in an instant.

That was the sword tassel he had woven for Yan Qingge with his own hands. It had been with her for 6 years, and she had never changed it.

Qi Cheran murmured, “Ah Yan…”

He lunged forward.

The chains snapped taut at once and yanked him ruthlessly back to the wall.

He forced himself up again and still reached forward. The iron rings bit tight around his wrists. His fingertips were only about 1 centimeter away from that bloodstained sword tassel.

Xuan Sugui lowered her eyes and glanced at the chains stretched to their limit, then slowly moved the brocade box in front of her own legs.

“Do you want to know whether she is still alive?”

Qi Cheran abruptly looked up.

Xuan Sugui crooked a finger at him. “Come here.”

The chains had already reached their limit. Qi Cheran could not reach her at all.

Xuan Sugui glanced at his knees pressed against the stone tiles. “You do not know how?”

She leaned back slightly and placed the bloodstained brocade box steadily in front of her knees.

“I will teach you.”

“Crawl over.”