True Heir of Chaos: From Villainess to Empress

Shi Ci stood respectfully before Miao Yanli, reporting everything that had happened with Jian Dan. Once he finished, he stayed silent, waiting for her response.

"I understand. You may go. From now on, you are under Mó Yuè Jūnshàng's command. Do not come here again unless summoned. If there's anything important, send a message."

"Yes."

No one noticed the tiny insect crouched atop Shi Ci's silver hair ornament. This time, the silver-armored bug had taken on a metallic sheen to match, and it had already relayed the conversation back to Jian Dan. Just before Shi Ci left, the little insect even added a bit of flair—silently detaching and hiding itself inside Miao Yanli's cave, waiting in ambush.

Receiving the transmission, Jian Dan let out a cold chuckle. "So, she wants to monitor me. Looks like the hostility is confirmed. And yet, we've only just met with no public disputes. That meant the cause had to be tied to either Mó Mèi Zhūnzhǔ or Mo Su."

After Shi Ci departed, Miao Yanli's expression twisted for just a moment. A woman who came out of nowhere had grown so close to Mo Su—and was even publicly acknowledged by a Zhenzūn. The whole thing gnawed at her.

She had indeed been too hasty. The woman was clearly cautious, and judging from her behavior, she was no ordinary cultivator. A Loose Cultivator who had clawed her way up through the brutal world of cultivation—Miao Yanli had underestimated her.

Now, she only needed to keep a close eye on Miao Yunrong.

She took out a communication talisman and sent a message.

Not long after, a reply came back.

"All is well. To avoid the Palace Lord, the Young Palace Mistress is currently in seclusion. Nothing unusual."

Miao Yanli nodded in satisfaction. She got up to pay a visit to her elder brother, Mo Lie. She still had sect matters to help him with.

But when she arrived, she was met with a closed door.

A black-robed guard politely but firmly stopped her at the hall's entrance and conveyed the Palace Lord's words: she should focus on her cultivation for now. In due time, an important assignment would be entrusted to her.

Miao Yanli was skeptical. No matter how she pressed, the guards wouldn't say more. Staring at the tightly shut gates, she had no choice but to leave.

A few nights later, just past midnight, Miao Yunrong appeared once again outside Jian Dan's cave—dressed in black.

Jian Dan sighed in her heart. "Is she going to cling to me forever? Am I really that easy to approach?"

She considered turning her away, but something was off. Miao Yunrong's spiritual aura was unstable, and her emotions were clearly in disarray. This time, she directly knocked on the barrier.

With a wave of Jian Dan's hand, the barrier opened. Miao Yunrong stumbled inside without delay. From the outside, nothing changed—no fluctuations in the restriction formation.

"Jūnshàng, I... it hurts." As soon as she stepped in, Miao Yunrong collapsed to the ground, flushed red like a boiled shrimp. Waves of heat pulsed from her body. It was a miracle she made it this far.

Jian Dan extended her spiritual sense and quickly confirmed that this wasn't an act. Miao Yunrong's body felt like it was burning from the inside out, yet it didn't seem like qi deviation. Her Nascent Soul was stable, but even that tiny figure within her dantian looked visibly strained, its small face scrunched up in pain.

Jian Dan didn't act rashly. She quietly transferred Miao Yunrong to the cold jade bed. As the frosty energy spread out, the heat began to subside. The relief showed on Miao Yunrong's face as her red-rimmed eyes looked toward Jian Dan.

"Don't circulate your cultivation technique. First, focus on absorbing the cold energy from the bed to stabilize the heat within you."

"Alright." For once, she didn't argue. She shakily sat upright and crossed her legs to begin drawing in the cold.

Three days passed before the heat in her body finally subsided. When Miao Yunrong opened her eyes, she saw Jian Dan across from her, calmly playing a game of Go against herself with black stones.

"Feeling better?"

"Yes. Thank you, Jūnshàng."

"I didn't do anything. Just lent you my cold jade bed."

"I'll replace it with a new one."

"Good. I want one made from ten-thousand-year-old cold jade."

Miao Yunrong's mouth twitched. She should have known—Jian Dan never took a loss. She quickly changed the subject.

"I thought I'd been poisoned. That's why I came to you."

Jian Dan gave a faint nod. Perhaps because of the incident at Huanlecheng's Jun Pavilion, where Miao Yunrong was drugged and Jian Dan remained unaffected, she had come to see Jian Dan as someone well-versed in poison and medicine.

"And now?"

"It wasn't poison. Or a medicinal reaction."

"Better to figure that out late than never."

"I panicked. My body felt wrong, and no technique could suppress it."

"You suspected someone close to you and came here instead."

"Yes."

She admitted it readily. For all her arrogance, Miao Yunrong still knew who to trust.

"Why not ask your father?"

"I was afraid... I'd drag him into this."

Jian Dan's gaze lingered. "You don't turn to the Palace Lord, your own father?"

"Something isn't adding up."

"In my Dream of Forming a Yuányīng... I died. Father was imprisoned in the Nine Nether Inferno. Senior Brother Mo Su was gravely injured trying to save him and ended up under house arrest. And the one behind it all—was my aunt, Miao Yanli."

Jian Dan paused, the Go stone between her fingers held still. "That was a lot of information."

"You could tell your father."

"If I said it was anyone else, he'd believe me. But if it's her—my aunt—he won't."

"You fool. You're still his daughter. Even if he doesn't fully believe it, the seed of doubt will be planted. As a Void Refinement stage Zūnzhǔ and the master of the palace, he's bound to investigate."

"I... I didn't think that far."

"Clearly. They've almost raised you into a fool."

"Jūnshàng...!"

"Enough. You came to me for a solution. Then I'll give you one. The most direct way to deal with the problem is to remove the root cause."

Miao Yunrong looked stunned. She hesitated.

"I want to, but... she's still my aunt. My mother passed when I was little. She's the one who raised me."

"So you're planning to take the long way around. And I'm the first step of that detour?"

"I wouldn't dare. You helped me survive the lightning tribulation and the heart demon trial during my Nascent Soul advancement. That dream you gave me—that's why I trust you."

"Then I thank the Young Palace Mistress for her faith. Do you have a plan?"

"I'll visit Father and tell him everything I saw in the dream. Then I'll find an excuse to enter seclusion in the back mountain's blessed land. But before that, I have to deal with the condition in my body. I suspect Aunt did something to me."

"Not too sharp, but not hopeless."

Jian Dan finally placed the black stone. Her eyes flicked toward Miao Yunrong.

Miao Yunrong looked at her, waiting for guidance.

"You'd best go to your father tomorrow. Make him believe you, even if only a little. As for those around you—decide for yourself who's loyal and who was sent to watch you."

"Understood."

"As for your condition, I checked just now. Your body has been artificially cultivated into a 'Blazing Sun Body'."

"Blazing Sun Body? Isn't that a rare constitution that only male cultivators can have?"

"Yes. Which means someone deliberately raised you into it. And because you're female, your innate yin constitution now clashes violently with the Yang energy. Once you advanced to Nascent Soul, without proper medicinal suppression, that conflict erupted, hence the burning pain."

"What does she want?"

"My guess? Once the Blazing Sun Body matures—she plans to extract it from you."

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炙阳之体 (Zhì yáng zhī tǐ)= The Blazing Sun Body. High Yang align constitution. If in Su Min story, this physique is high tier 2 constitution. The first physique she awaken as the sub constitution of her Five Elements Holy Body. But it seems in this novel Blazing Sun Body is the top Yang align Physique. While in Su Min story it was Taiyang (tier 1 in her story).

Let's dig it deeper:

太 (Tài) – "Great," "Supreme," or "Extreme."

阳 (Yáng) – "Yang," the active, bright, hot, and masculine force.

炙 (Zhì) – "Scorching," "Blazing," or "Roasting" (from 炙烤, meaning intense heat).

Combined 炙阳 means "Supreme Yang" – The highest, most exalted form of Yang energy, often associated with the sun (e.g., 太阳星君, the Sun Deity in Taoism). This is the reason why I call Taiyang as Solar Sovereign

Symbolism: The sun – life-giving, radiant, and noble.

Combined 炙阳 means "Scorching Yang" – A more violent, burning form of Yang, implying destructive heat rather than divine brilliance.

Symbolism: Volcanic fire / Blazing fury – destructive but powerful.