Denied a Share of Merits, the Princess Consort Draws a Talisman in Fury

Lu Zhaoling made two mistakes. First, she borrowed five hundred years' worth of merit from Prince Jin, Zhou Shiyue, to save her mother. Second, she believed Zhou Shiyue's lies and spent three years, as his princess consort, collecting debts of merit on his behalf. She drove an old scholar to his death while he was trying to pay for his daughter's treatment, falsified records of merit, and stained her hands with the blood of innocents. At the Grand Merit Ceremony, Zhou Shiyue tore up their marriage contract in front of everyone, then turned around and demanded all her merit in repayment. Only then did she notice the tiny writing in their blood contract: if the borrower falls short in virtue, the lender may claim all of the borrower's merit assets. Every dirty deed Zhou Shiyue had made her do over the past three years had been carefully calculated to make her “fall short in virtue.” She hadn't just failed to repay her debt. She owed even more. Lu Zhaoling bit her finger on the spot and used what little merit she had left to draw a talisman and turn its power back on him. The moment it was complete, Zhou Shiyue coughed up blood, and her merit fell to zero. She went from being a Judge of Merit to a “person without virtue.” In Great Zhou, the virtueless are lower than the dead. Having lost everything, Lu Zhaoling discovers that Zhou Shiyue's “merit lending” is a scam spanning the entire realm. Every “debtor” she personally pursued over the past three years was an innocent soul Zhou Shiyue had tricked into borrowing, then framed for default. What she owed was not merit, but blood. She begins drawing talismans, spending no merit, only the power of people's wishes. She takes on the wrongful cases that the Merit Bureau cannot handle, trading each talisman for a wish and clawing her way back up from the mire. But when she finally stands before Zhou Shiyue, the backlash from his merit is making him forget everyone, one by one. The last person he will forget is her.