The Merchant’s Daughter Plots for Power, and the Entire Court Falls at Her Feet

Alluring heroine + scheming woman + green-tea white-lotus heroine + court intrigue + no goody-two-shoes “Miss, using your beauty to gain power could tarnish your good name…” “My good name?” In the bronze mirror, my fingertips traced my peerless features. The corner of my lips curled into a venomous smile. “That thing turned to ashes long ago.” In this chaotic age, beauty is a blade, and people’s hearts are pieces on a chessboard. What I seek is the supreme power to decide who lives and who dies! Later: A great scholar tore up his treatises, begging madly to be my lapdog! The God of War shattered his imperial jade seal and offered me his vast lands to share! The Wolf King scrapped the rules and, clad in bloodstained robes, begged to nestle against his phoenix! The holy monk’s prayer beads shattered as he hoarsely begged to renounce the mortal world! The emperor snapped his imperial brush, willing to give up the whole realm for her beauty! Red candlelight flickered. My pale fingertips idly toyed with the jade seal steeped in power. “Upend the court? Bewitch their hearts?” Hah. This was merely the first piece, just placed. Those men, so high and mighty, each thought he held the world in his hands. Little did they know… Beside that towering dragon throne, even the Son of Heaven was no more than a carefully chosen piece on my board: a bloodied blade, honed to kill. When the blade grows dull? Then it’s time to let someone else take the board.