[A mind-reading tyrant × a snarky, adorable pet]
In her previous life, Shen Zhiyao was an orphan with no one to rely on. She died of illness on her twentieth birthday. When she opened her eyes again, she had become a newborn qilin cub, just hatched and already declared dead.
Her mother pressed against her "lifeless" body and wailed atop Mount Kunlun for ten days straight, as wind and rain raged without pause. The Imperial Observatory took this as an omen of the dynasty's fall, throwing the entire court into turmoil and leaving everyone in fear.
Her mother exhausted her spiritual power trying to save her and died. At last, at dawn on the eleventh day, Shen Zhiyao woke up.
When she finally opened her eyes, she found herself gazing into a pair of deep, frigid dragon eyes. Their owner was the young emperor of the Great Yin dynasty, the most feared man in the land: a ruthless tyrant with a heart of ice.
What Shen Zhiyao didn't know was that he could hear her thoughts! And so the tyrant adopted her.
Once she was fed and comfortable, another thing awakened with her: the Auspicious Beast Raising Ledger, which could turn the people's faith into merit. By interacting with humans, she could gain popularity and convert it into "the faith that gathers the nation's fortune." The stronger her following, the more powerful her abilities and the faster she grew.
From then on, life in the palace became one big record of raising a cub: the tyrant handled the feeding, the entire court of officials watched, and she, a frail little qilin, became the treasured darling of the whole Great Xia empire.
