Chapter Three: The Scapegoat Princess Is Sentenced to Death (3)

Arsenic trioxide, commonly known as "crane’s crown red," is actually not pure arsenic.

Of course, even if it’s not pure, a slightly larger dose can still be fatal. However, it doesn’t cause instantaneous death by blood loss to the throat—it results in a rather painful demise. It is precisely this agonizing death that filled the original owner’s spirit with overwhelming resentment and boiling hatred, which was then absorbed by Ding Shui.

The core mission of Ding Shui’s “Injustice Redress and Resentment Relief Studio” is embedded in its name: to redress grievances and dispel hatred. Their aim is to alleviate the deep-seated resentments of individuals across various planes of existence, thereby reducing the negative energy within the countless worlds of the multiverse.

This serves to delay the onset of cataclysmic disasters known as “calamities.”

When negative energy exceeds certain limits, worlds spawn calamities to purge these harmful energies. If the negative energy surpasses even what calamities can resolve, an immeasurable catastrophe erupts. To date, no world has survived such an event, leading to the general belief that the emergence of an immeasurable catastrophe signals the destruction of that world.

This principle applies equally to worlds, planes, universes, the multiverse, and the countless heavenly realms.

Naturally, what one individual like Ding Shui can achieve is quite limited. Even with consistent success, the amount of negative energy she can dissipate is but a drop in the ocean, a mere pittance.

Yet, higher authorities take this matter seriously.

Substantial support and subsidies are granted.

Moreover, there are millions upon millions of others engaged in similar work.

Compared to Ding Shui’s rather modest Injustice Redress and Resentment Relief Studio, official organizations conduct far larger-scale operations—teams like the Salvation Group and the Sky Mending Squad carry out grand missions focused on rescuing the world from apocalyptic doom and dispelling calamities.

However, Ding Shui’s abilities, education, and experience are limited. She cannot join these official endeavors and must work alone for now.

This is, in fact, her very first assignment.

Combining descriptions from related educational materials with the original owner’s memories, Ding Shui quickly extracted the mission details:

“Revenge is an absolute priority. The targets for vengeance are concentrated on her beastly husband, Duke Lu Zhu Qin, and the current emperor, Emperor Tianwu. As for her father and sister, though there are grievances and even faint resentment, the original owner understood their helplessness.

She also wished for revenge, but revenge must not implicate her entire clan.”

“The Duke Lu Mansion is steeped in heavy resentment. Killing Duke Lu will dissipate much of the resentment there, so his death is inevitable. The emperor, however, is harder to deal with. Duke Lu’s death has little overall impact, and since he deserves his fate, his death won’t generate much new resentment. But Emperor Tianwu is a different matter.

The realm has only recently known peace. If he dies and plunges the world into chaos, the resentment dispelled may well be exceeded by the negative energy newly created.

Careful planning is essential. No rush.”

Eliminating resentment and avenging grievances cannot be done by simply killing someone. Their fundamental rule is to avoid generating new resentment while dispelling existing hatred. Otherwise, it would be counterproductive.

Compared to Duke Lu, whose death barely affects the realm’s balance, exacting revenge on Emperor Tianwu, the sovereign of the entire nation, is a far more complex challenge.

Too many variables demand consideration.

For the moment, Ding Shui has no better idea but to focus on Duke Lu first and defer dealing with Emperor Tianwu.

Meanwhile, she faces a more pressing question: she herself is nailed shut inside a coffin—how should she bring herself back to life? Or perhaps, should she even come back at all?

For those with strong spiritual power, lacking a physical body can make revenge more covert and convenient.

Her spiritual power is undoubtedly formidable. Seizing a host or possession would be effortless.

Entering the corpse to purge toxins.

Reviving her life energy is not too difficult.

Before making such a crucial decision, Ding Shui abides by the principle that having a golden key is better than none—even a flawed golden key is still a golden key.

She randomly selected a sealing orb from a batch of nearly obsolete golden keys she bought at a low price, opened it, and immediately bound it.

She intended to see what kind of golden key she had obtained before deciding whether or not to reclaim her physical form.

[Super Synthesis System has been bound!!!]

[Beep! Warning! System core severely damaged! Energy reserves critically low! Advanced function modules damaged! Intermediate function modules damaged! Original synthesis database corrupted! New synthesis database corrupted! Synthesis storage space 90% damaged! System severely impaired!]

[Beep! System self-check in progress!]

“?”

Facing a barrage of glaring red warnings and damage reports, Ding Shui felt an overwhelming sense of being scammed.

They said it was only near expiry but still usable?

According to evaluation standards, decommissioned spaceships and such, even after being discarded for over a decade or two, can still be patched up to function normally. How is this considered “near expiry”?

[Beep! Self-check complete. Only the basic synthesis module remains intact. Due to missing synthesis data and blueprints, synthesis of foreign objects is uncertain.

Synthesis of homologous items is possible but limited in quality change.

System energy reserves at 2%. Backup energy at 10%. Please replenish energy promptly. Should total energy fall below 1%, system will crash.]

Alright, Ding Shui understood clearly.

This system only retains rudimentary synthesis functions.

“Synthesis of homologous items” means combining two apples, which has a high success rate and predictable outcome: either a bigger apple or a better quality apple.

“Limited quality change” means no matter how many apples you combine, the resulting apple’s quality won’t improve drastically; it certainly won’t transform into a spirit fruit—at best, it tastes a little better.

“Uncertain foreign object synthesis” means, due to the missing original and new synthesis databases, the specific direction of synthesizing different objects cannot be determined.

For example, combining an apple and a small pig could yield an apple-flavored pig, a pig-flavored apple, a pig-shaped apple, or an apple-headed pig—there are countless possibilities.

However, if Ding Shui likes an apple-flavored pig and successfully synthesizes one, she can stabilize this result and create a new synthesis blueprint, enabling her to synthesize apple-flavored pigs at will in the future.

As for the remaining energy, it’s not too bad.

As long as she doesn’t synthesize frequently, it should last for a while, although it seems somewhat useless.

If the original synthesis database were intact, Ding Shui might have taken the easy route—using the system to fuse herself with her corpse, then merging a few strands of hair or fingernails to purge all toxins from the body, easily revitalizing it.

But now, with the direction of foreign object synthesis uncertain, she dared not attempt this.

Moreover, considering the potential complications after resurrection—simply escaping the triple-layered nailed coffin is a formidable task, not to mention sneaking into the imperial palace to target Emperor Guangwu—after some thought, Ding Shui resolutely decided to abandon the physical body.