The deposed empress returns, poisoning the world!
She is the empress who was stripped of her title, and the most dangerous woman to return under cover of night!
A sudden edict deposing her and a snowbound-night assassination attempt send Su Xuening tumbling from her lofty perch into the cold dirt. Everyone thinks she is doomed, unaware that behind her weak and harmless facade, she wields the uncanny art of medicinal poisons that can kill without a trace. Hidden behind her is also a secret guard unit harder to catch than ghosts!
On the run, she is accidentally swept into a bloody struggle over the forbidden schemes linking Prince Zhenhai’s manor and the capital. She also comes into possession of a mysterious jade pendant and a wooden chest concealing a world-shaking secret. **Dragon-vein formations? Forbidden arts of immortality? Mind control?** As the layers of fog are torn away, she realizes with a shock that she is nothing but a carefully placed “pawn”!
If they want to use her as a pawn, then she’ll flip the whole board!
Watch her play the pig to eat the tiger when cornered, relying on poison, intelligence, and her loyal hidden guards to fight poison with poison and turn others’ strength to her advantage. She’ll fight her way from the imperial palace to the prince’s manor, from the surface down into the underworld, and throw the entire realm into chaos!
Here you’ll find a sharp-witted, scheming, quirky deposed empress with plenty of inner drama; loyal and dependable hidden guards and death warriors; powerful, ruthless villains; and two complex, fascinating male leads: a suspicious, inscrutable emperor versus a gentle, protective royal uncle. Which one will be her doom, and which her salvation? There’s also a fast-paced plot you won’t be able to put down, layer upon layer of power struggles and twists, and the love-hate spectacle of... two male leads fighting over her!
When the deposed empress, armed with forbidden arts, emerges from the abyss drenched in blood, can Prince Zhenhai’s manor keep its secrets safe? And how will the capital’s conspiracy end?
The realm will tremble at her return!
