Chapter 39: The Scapegoat Princess Is Sentenced to Death (39)

Meanwhile, Ding Shui had arrived at the Imperial Kitchen. She casually selected a live pig—one destined for the slaughter—to synthesize with the soul of Prince Lu, Zhu Qin, which was currently held within her synthetic storage space. Ding Shui was truly soft-hearted; she couldn't bear to experiment with the souls of innocent people to see what outcomes might arise, but when it came to her own husband, she had no such qualms.

They were family, after all; why draw such sharp distinctions?

To obtain more synthesis recipes, one had to show a little spirit of sacrifice.

And so, the remaining fragments of Prince Lu Zhu Qin’s soul were repeatedly fused with the pigs destined for the butcher’s block in the Imperial Kitchen. The palace kitchen slaughtered an enormous number of pigs every day. After all, thousands of people ate in the palace daily; those of low status might receive only a few ounces of pork a month, but those of high status could claim several pounds, or even tens of pounds, in their daily rations.

Slaughtering a hundred pigs a day was quite standard.

Regrettably, for all intents and purposes, Prince Lu Zhu Qin did not suffer much. Even after being fused into pigs and slaughtered over a hundred times, he endured little agony because the butchers in the Imperial Kitchen were true masters of their craft, almost always ending a life with a single strike.

Those pigs passed on without much pain, and naturally, Prince Lu Zhu Qin did not suffer either.

It was likely that generations of accumulated slaughtering experience had taught them that a pig must pass without distress to ensure the quality of the meat. If a pig died in a state of extreme fear or agony, the texture and appearance of the meat would be ruined. Short-term stress leads to the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles, affecting the pH balance. This results in pale, exudative pork, or meat that is dry, tough, and dark in color. Long-term stress further depletes glycogen, causing even greater degradation to the quality of the meat.

Although the butchers did not understand the deep scientific reasons, their experience told them that the pigs should not be frightened or suffer; it was best to end them before they even realized what was happening.

In this way, Prince Lu was spared much of the misery.

After more than a hundred syntheses, Ding Shui successfully acquired two new recipes: one for fusing a human soul with a pig’s body, and another for fusing a human soul with a pig’s soul. The price, however, was that Prince Lu Zhu Qin’s soul began to undergo a distortion, becoming neither entirely human nor entirely porcine.

Fusing a human soul with a pig’s body had little effect on the soul; it retained its human appearance. But with the soul-to-soul fusion, while the first few attempts had little effect—the pig’s soul being far too weak compared to a human’s—the consequences grew as the number of fusions increased.

His soul began to change.

First, it grew bloated. Once it reached a certain level of corpulence, the nose and ears gradually morphed into those of a pig, and coarse bristles began to sprout on his exterior. By the end, he looked much like the legendary Zhu Ganglie, and his cognitive faculties had begun to grow vaguely chaotic.

Ding Shui was, in truth, not satisfied with this result. She still wanted to see the man subjected to the punishment of slow slicing.

"Wait, my brain—why am I looking for pigs in the Imperial Kitchen to torture him? I should just go to the Imperial Jail. How many officials does Emperor Tianwu execute every year? Skinning, stuffing with straw, and slow slicing are hardly rare occurrences. Let me think... yes, the magistrate of Jianchang County was sliced to death for taking four hundred strings of cash in bribes. The assistant magistrate of De'an County was sliced for resisting arrest. The assistant magistrate of Laiyang County was sliced for taking a hundred strings of cash in bribes. Goodness, my brain has been so inflexible. Zhu Qin is going to be so lucky! He won't have to worry about missing out on his father’s 'care' at all!"

Ding Shui had pondered in the Imperial Kitchen for nearly half an incense stick’s time before realizing she had been trapped in a dead end. Why did she have to involve pigs?

It was her thrifty nature that had caused the problem. Once she had stored a pig in her synthetic space, she felt compelled to use it all up, unable to let a perfectly good pig go to waste. But now that she had stopped overthinking, a sudden clarity washed over her, and the world seemed to open up.

It was a joke to even worry—Emperor Tianwu executed dozens or hundreds of officials every year. If a major case occurred, it wasn't unheard of for tens of thousands to be executed over a few years. While most were beheaded, there were plenty of cases of skinning, stuffing, and slow slicing. Having Prince Lu Zhu Qin endure a session of slow slicing once a day might be too much, but once a month would be more than enough.

With a plan in mind and feeling refreshed by the brilliance of her idea, Ding Shui took the now-distorted soul of Prince Lu Zhu Qin and headed for the Imperial Jail. She was incredibly lucky; she arrived just in time to find a corrupt official who was scheduled to be sliced in an hour. Naturally, she proceeded to operate.

She extracted the corrupt official’s soul and then selected the soul of Prince Lu Zhu Qin to fuse with the newly vacated body.

She took the trouble of adding this extra step mainly out of concern that leaving the official’s soul in his own body might lead to a clash of souls. If the two fused, Zhu Qin’s soul might not be a match for the official’s, and she didn't want him to be swallowed up.

Furthermore, a corrupt official’s soul held many memories, which was different from a pig. Even with a single fusion, Ding Shui couldn't be sure whether the official’s memories or Prince Lu’s would prevail. If Prince Lu’s own memories were erased or replaced by those of another, what would be the point of the torture?

Thus, it was necessary to extract the official’s soul before merging the two. As for the official’s soul, she simply released it. The man had been a corrupt official for three years and had taken a thousand taels of silver—he was certainly no saint—but compared to Prince Lu, he was a living Bodhisattva. It was only right to let his soul go free.

Everything went smoothly after that. Prince Lu Zhu Qin’s soul successfully merged with the official’s body, and Ding Shui floated to the side, quietly preparing to watch the show.

Less than an incense stick later, Prince Lu Zhu Qin awakened in his new body. At first, he was panic-stricken and bewildered, but he soon realized he could speak and that his hands had returned to normal—though they seemed much older than he remembered. He was also tightly bound in shackles.

However, he clearly had no time to ponder these details. After glancing around, he began to shout loudly: "Where is this? Someone, come here! Quickly, release this Prince! I must see the Emperor!!!"

These words immediately drew sneers from the other prisoners, who mocked him for being insane and spouting nonsense. Those who knew the prisoner whose body he now occupied whispered to him:

"Old Li, have you lost your mind? You’re about to die; keep talking like that and you’ll bring about the destruction of your entire clan."

"Still want to play the part of a Prince before you die?"

"Stop spouting nonsense and don't drag us down with you."