“Your Highness, what did you just say?!”
The moment Xia Li spoke those words, a courtier in a luxurious purple robe immediately asked in shock.
However, in the next second, this person saw the pitch-black sword blade pointing at himself.
That was a blackness deeper than absolute nothingness, as if it could absorb all light.
Of course, what it could absorb also included the light of life.
“Life and Death Bound!”
With Xia Li’s sharp shout, a surging mass of blackness roared out from the pitch-black blade of “Weeping of the Shadow” and lunged at the courtier blocking the way.
In the span of a single heartbeat, this mass of blackness enveloped the target, then began frantically tearing at him like a swarm of possessing vengeful ghosts.
“Eek—aah—guaaaaaah—”
The courtier let out a scream of agony that seemed not to belong to a human, then collapsed to the ground and began twitching in his death throes.
Those black mists seemed to possess life of their own, continuously seeping into every pore of his body.
Soon, this person’s skin became yellowed and shriveled like a dried mummy, completely losing all color of blood.
“Your Highness! This is the grand hall, please put down your weapon!”
Two other courtiers grew alert.
Although they did not understand the situation, they still drew the pistols at their waists and pointed them at Xia Li.
However, that was their final action—in the next instant, the two suddenly noticed that the ground was approaching them at an astonishing speed!
Because their heads had already been severed from their bodies in a sudden flash of black sword light.
“Ah, my dearest mother. From this day forward, you need no longer bear the weight of the crown, nor toil for the future of millions. I have already made arrangements for everything…” Xia Li said with a cold laugh, uttering these words full of villainous flair, while making a gesture toward the personal guards following behind her.
These people immediately raised their weapons and charged at the guards inside the grand hall.
“Now, I shall inherit your imperial enterprise.”
“Ara ara, I never expected Our obedient little cotton jacket to be so considerate of Us…” From behind the magnificent imperial curtain, that soft, sweet voice like toffee spoke, sounding completely without fear.
However, the fact that the emperor herself was not anxious did not mean Xia Li was not anxious.
Although becoming the princess with the first right of succession was certainly wonderful, the problem was that what she was doing right now was nine if not ten points like treason!
Moreover, her intuition told her that this treason would likely end in a very tragic result…
…Otherwise, the number for “Emergency Evasion Action Progress” would not keep continuously popping up before Xia Li’s eyes.
Even if she did not fully understand the causes and consequences, just the words “emergency evasion” already explained everything.
Unfortunately, at this very moment, its value was merely 80%.
Although it was no longer low, what still controlled this body was the bizarre power from that black sword “Weeping of the Shadow.”
“What a pity. Although We really do not want to disappoint Our good daughter, We want even less to exit the stage with three bows right now.” After lightly tapping the armrest of the throne, a squad of guards in golden heavy armor appeared on the steps in front of the throne.
These people all gripped exaggeratedly styled war halberds and two-handed longswords, and rapid-fire ion guns were integrated into the shafts of the halberds and the hilts of the swords.
Their faces were hidden behind expressionless masks.
In the next instant, dozens of high-energy plasma missiles shot toward Xia Li and her subordinates… but the latter merely revealed a cold smile.
After the missiles hit their targets, they caused violent explosions and large-scale smoke screens.
However, when the smoke cleared, these guards only saw a few corpses of Second Legion soldiers.
And when they began frantically searching for Xia Li’s figure, everything was already too late.
Death swiftly embraced them.
In fact, not to mention those guards, even the current Xia Li herself could not clearly see the moves just now: the black sword in her hand seemed to possess its own will, directly manipulating her hands and feet… no, more accurately, it was the power armor on her body that was moving.
Black sword light crisscrossed in all directions, easily piercing through the guards’ golden heavy armor.
Within the time of five breaths, seven people fell dead to the ground—and this was only the beginning.
When more guards charged in from every corner of the grand hall, Xia Li felt a strong impulse coming from within the black sword.
“Weeping of the Shadow is hungry!”
Swept up by this impulse, Xia Li raised the black sword high overhead, and a mass of absolute darkness rolled above her head.
“Death is not the end! Tremble before the true terror of the final end! Sorrowful Night City’s Thousand Cherry Blossoms!”
“What is this?!”
“Damn it! Could it be… the effect of ‘Extra-Rational Power’?!”
“Did Her Highness the Crown Princess actually use that despicable power?!”
After the fluctuations of that mass of darkness spread outward like ripples on a water surface, the previously killed courtiers, guards, and even the Second Legion soldiers Xia Li had brought all began moving their limbs in eerie ways, struggling one after another to stand up, and charged at the soldiers who were still alive.
Then, after casually tossing out two masses of twisted darkness that swallowed the last two gold-armored guards blocking the way, Xia Li strode up the steps of the throne and cleaved open the magnificent imperial curtain with one sword stroke.
On the throne, a young girl was lazily reclining against the armrest, waiting for her.
Disney princess—this was the first phrase that popped into Xia Li’s mind upon seeing the other party.
Yes, if you took all the “princesses” ever released by the Mickey Mouse gang, added them together, and calculated the arithmetic mean, what you got would pretty much be the appearance of the young girl sitting in front of her.
It was only a pity that although the young girl had indeed once held the title of “princess” in the past, as early as seventy years ago, that title and the name she was born with had both disappeared, replaced by her new name as monarch: Emperor Guangjing.
However, thanks to the technological legacy left behind by the ancient Golden Age, at least on the surface, this overaged expired loli showed not the slightest sign of aging.
And right now she was staring at Xia Li with a gaze full of interest.
“Ah, the situation of Our dear little cake does not look too good,” after sizing Xia Li up for a short while, the emperor lightly shrugged her shoulders, “Is it that the little toy in your hand has unexpectedly brought you a bit of small trouble?”
Ehh ehh ehh? Your Majesty, you are so right! In her heart, Xia Li practically wanted to cry out loud—unfortunately, her will still could not influence this body at present.
The value of “Emergency Evasion Action Progress” was currently 93%.
And before it became 100%, “Xia Li” temporarily could not completely become “Xia Li.”
“It’s fine. Scribe, record this,” the emperor lazily waved a hand toward a white-robed young girl standing upright beside the throne, “Our soft and cute little body pillow… ah no, Her Highness Xia Li today encountered a bit of force majeure, leading to a tiny accident. We now declare in advance with the power of the empire’s head of state that no matter what evil consequences her actions today may cause, they cannot be treated as treason.”
“As you command.” Although the aggressive Xia Li had already charged up the steps, the scribe still began taking rapid notes with emotional stability, “swish swish.”
Then, a mass of surging blackness was thrown in the direction of Emperor Guangjing.
“Life and Death Bound!”
“Interesting, but useless.” Emperor Guangjing raised a small hand, and the surging blackness immediately dispersed like waves crashing against a cliff face, “No matter. If Our estimate is correct, the will of this world should already have begun correcting the little bug you encountered. We only need to… casually play with Our intimate little darling for a while.”
“This dynasty will be destroyed! From the ashes a new order will be born!”
Unlike the composed, smiling emperor, Xia Li… no, it should be said that “that existence” controlling Xia Li clearly had not the slightest intention of joking.
Perhaps because the “Emergency Evasion Action Progress” before Xia Li’s eyes had already soared to 96%, this guy began shouting nonsense that would make even severe chuuni patients die of shame, while raising the sword and chopping over.
However… it was fucking useless.
Although the force and momentum of this sword strike were absolutely not inferior to the level of a certain idiot who once painfully smashed a giant ice block, the black blade was still deflected less than an inch in front of the overaged loli.
Some invisible shield had blocked the fatal strike for Emperor Guangjing.
And what made Xia Li feel more relieved was that the number before her eyes was also continuously climbing.
97%…
…98%…
…99%…
The increasingly impatient “that existence” began frantically driving Xia Li’s body, swinging Weeping of the Shadow and madly chopping at the invisible shield in front.
However, what terrified Xia Li was that the moment the number became 99%, she heard the crack of something splitting.
The invisible shield created by Emperor Guangjing had actually been chopped to pieces!
In the instant of sensing the shield’s destruction, although the smile on Emperor Guangjing’s face remained, a trace of solemn atmosphere flashed through her eyes.
Then, a flickering blade of light appeared in her hand, and this overaged old loli finally had no choice but to take the offensive.
It was also in this instant that the number of “Emergency Evasion Action Progress” became 100%.
Xia Li was finally no longer that “lonely wandering ghost” Xia Li trapped in this body, but truly took control of this body—yet unfortunately, the current point in time was really quite extremely unfavorable: right now she was raising Weeping of the Shadow to meet her own biological mother.
The combat experience from the original body let her know that the energy blade in the opponent’s hand was not something a physical weapon could block, and there was already no time to dodge.
Her only chance was to pierce the opponent with one sword strike first.
Otherwise there would only be a dead end.
But after a split-second of thought, Xia Li still did not do so.
This was not based on calculations of benefit and harm, nor based on moral considerations—in fact, she had no time to think that much.
What made her choose to throw away Weeping of the Shadow after an instant was a burst of instinctive impulse.
In short, she simply could not bring herself to kill a cute little loli—even if she was severely overaged and expired.
“Very good.”
In the instant the black sword was thrown away, Emperor Guangjing’s energy blade stopped at a position mere inches from Xia Li.
A gratified smile appeared on the face of the overaged old loli.
“We just knew that Our sweet cotton candy would absolutely not be controlled by this kind of little trick, now—uh—”
Just as she was about to finish speaking, a length of black sword edge suddenly pierced through her chest: the Weeping of the Shadow that Xia Li had just thrown away had actually flown up on its own, and stabbed the emperor straight through from behind!
“No!”
“Don’t worry… didn’t you just say it? Death is not the end.” The overaged expired loli looked at the sword edge protruding from her chest and pushed Xia Li away, “Afterwards… there is still a good show.”
Then, her body turned into countless scattering particles of light and disappeared in a burst of shining explosion.
Left on the throne were only a few traces of blood, as well as… that ominous black sword.
Xia Li, former delayed-graduation old doctoral candidate, current princess of the Elysia Federal Empire, successfully unlocked the achievement “Mom Explodes.”
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