"What! Empress Dowager? This guy is the Empress?"
Before the person in black could answer, Chu Chen's heart churned like a stormy sea.
It was hard to believe, why would it really be the Empress? When he married her, the Empress had shown no abnormalities. If she truly wanted to kill him, there would have been plenty of opportunities and time. Why choose this moment?
Moreover, if he wasn't mistaken, the Empress's method of approach was not by walking. She floated like a ghost, her feet a distance from the ground, about five or six centimeters high, drifting closer.
This was why there was no sound. The exquisite control of spiritual energy and the swift, accurate, and decisive strike indicated that the Empress's cultivation was definitely stronger than his!
He was already in the Qi Transformation realm. How terrifying must the Empress's cultivation be if she could silently kill him?
The Qingzhou Continent world had nine realms: Body Refining, Foundation Establishment, Qi Transformation, Core Formation, Spiritual Platform, Fusion, Mahayana, Martial Immortal, and Divine Realm.
Could it be that the Empress's cultivation was at least Core Formation realm? Or even stronger, Spiritual Platform realm?
Facing Princess Xin Yue's questioning, just as Chu Chen thought the Empress might go mad and kill her own daughter as well, his vision suddenly went black.
When he could see clearly again, he found himself back in the Qiankun Hall of the Imperial Palace.
However, this time, he seemed to have no physical body. He was like a camera, observing the scene unfolding before him from a 360-degree, no-dead-angle perspective, akin to watching a movie or someone else's life from a third-person view.
Before his eyes, what was happening was exactly what he had personally experienced before: his future self was arriving at the Qiankun Hall with the wedding procession. After the eunuch announced his arrival, he was summoned.
"This is? Back to the previous timeline? Did I miss something in my first-person perspective?"
Chu Chen frowned, watching the scene intently, his eyes wide open, trying not to miss any expression on the Empress's face.
But what puzzled him was that the Empress, whether facing his future self's arrival or departure, showed no flaws.
It wasn't until his future self received Princess Xin Yue, and the two performed the three kowtows and knelt in obeisance, that Chu Chen noticed a hint of crimson in the Empress's almost imperceptible pupils.
"This hint of crimson in the Empress's pupils is not normal. What is going on?"
Chu Chen frowned deeply, unable to understand what this was.
Control? Demonic possession? A puppet? It couldn't just be simple envy, or conjunctivitis, could it?
After his future self left with Princess Xin Yue, whose face was covered by a red veil, the vision did not end.
The Empress gazed outside, her thoughts unknown, and said indifferently, "You all may leave."
"Yes!"
Dismissing the surrounding palace maids and eunuchs, the Empress waved her hand towards the door, which closed with a soft sound.
When no one else was around, the Empress's expression changed drastically. Gone was her previous composed demeanor. She gasped for air, beads of sweat trickling down her forehead.
"What's wrong with the Empress?" Chu Chen looked at her in surprise, his heart filled with doubt.
After a long while, when the Empress raised her head again, her condition had improved slightly, but the crimson area in her pupils had grown larger.
If it was just a barely perceptible red mark in the center of her pupils, now her entire pupils had turned scarlet.
With her ominous scarlet eyes looking outside, she sent a chill down Chu Chen's spine.
"This family is indeed not right! They are so peculiar, so unbelievably peculiar!"
"I almost couldn't suppress the power within me! I almost ruined everything!"
The Empress, with a cold expression, gently wiped the sweat from her forehead and muttered to herself, "This Heavenly Demon Profound Body Divine Skill is only one step away from completion. It must not fail at this crucial moment. I still need to endure for a while longer. Then I can achieve complete Fusion and directly glimpse Mahayana!"
With that, the Empress closed her eyes slightly, seemingly circulating her cultivation technique to suppress her inner instincts.
"Heavenly Demon Profound Body Divine Skill? Heavenly Demon? Good heavens! Demonic cultivation?!"
Chu Chen was dumbfounded. The events of today had shocked him repeatedly. Not only did he confirm that the Empress possessed cultivation, but it was far superior to his, two realms higher, at the Spiritual Platform realm.
However, if the Empress was at the Spiritual Platform realm, how could she have been defeated by the former Prime Minister in the life simulation, leading to her defeat and suicide? Or was she killed?
And why would she practice this demonic cultivation and want to kill him, her son-in-law?
"There must be something fishy going on!"
As Chu Chen was deep in thought, he suddenly felt another wave of dizziness.
When he came to his senses, he found himself back in the bedroom of the Prime Minister's mansion, and he could move his body again.
"This is? I'm back? Or did the effect of my innate skill end?"
[Ding! System notification: The legendary innate skill "Playback Death" has ended its usage effect and entered a 30-day cooldown period. Welcome to experience it again next time, host.]
"As expected, everything that just happened was indeed just the effect of this legendary innate skill, 'Playback Death.' The effect of this skill is truly heaven-defying, like being transported to the future to experience it firsthand. It truly lives up to its legendary status, too powerful!"
Chu Chen's face was filled with joy. With such a powerful innate skill, although it could only be used once a month, if used wisely, in every life simulation where fate changed drastically, using this skill would allow him to uncover the truth of his demise and preemptively plan to avoid his future self's death.
"It is indeed a legendary innate skill involving time, space, and causality. It's just that there's a 30-day time limit. If there wasn't this 30-day limit, that would be great. But in that case, this skill would probably not be legendary, but divine?"
Chu Chen stroked his chin, continuing to recall the content he had seen during "Playback Death."
The Empress had Spiritual Platform realm cultivation. For some unknown reason, with such cultivation, she was killed or forced to commit suicide by the former Prime Minister in the life simulation. For some unknown reason, she practiced demonic cultivation like the Heavenly Demon Profound Body Divine Skill.
"I can't quite figure out why the Empress wants to kill me, her son-in-law. It brings her no benefit. Unless killing me would bring her immense benefits? But isn't she still planning to retire as a Supreme Emperor? And support that girl Xin Yue to become Empress?"
After thinking for a long time, Chu Chen still had no clue. He felt his line of thought was wrong and should use the principle of benefit to verify first.
"Then, let's assume, if my death would bring the Empress immense benefits?"