The Half Blood Luna

In the humble courtyard of the Peace Duke Manor, a woman dressed in a green robe was dragged through the snow. The pristine white snow was marred by a trail of blood, as vivid and red as a silk ribbon.

The woman was thrown beside a fire hastily constructed in the snow, barely conscious, her knees and forehead seeping blood. Her eyes were horrifically damaged, one of them impaled with an iron nail, the blood seeping out in a nightmarish display. Her body was a canvas of whip marks, her clothes torn to reveal lacerated flesh, each cut a gruesome testament to the brutality she had endured.

Moreover, her belly was swollen with a pregnancy of seven or eight months, a stark contrast to the violence that had befallen her.

With her hands clawing at the snow, she used her remaining strength to lift her head and stare at the man in the white brocade robe standing before the colonnade. Her voice, strained and weak, demanded, “Eight years of marriage, and this is how you repay me?”

Carson Li, the Duke of Peace, stared coldly at her. “Zoe Xie, blame your own cursed fate. You’ve already killed your father. If I don’t kill you, Tracy will die too,” he said, referring to his concubine, the woman he cherished above all others. Tracy had fallen ill during her pregnancy, and a fortune teller had claimed it was because of Zoe’s malevolent influence. If she wasn’t killed, the child in her womb would become a disaster.

“You, a high official, actually believe those sorcerers?” Zoe was filled with rage, pounding her fist into the ground and kicking up a cloud of snow.

“Carson, don’t be charmed by her again. Cut her open and take out the child to burn it,” a cold voice interjected. It belonged to Linda Lin, the widow of the previous Duke of Peace, now the mother-in-law of the current duke. Dressed in black silk embroidered with a pattern of a hundred children and a thousand grandchildren, she was as ruthless as she was influential.

Zoe, accused of being a martial woman unfit for a ducal house, was despised by Linda. If not for a fortuitous rescue of the old duke by Zoe, there would have been no marriage.

“This is all Tracy Sun’s conspiracy; she bribed the sorcerer!” Zoe protectively covered her stomach, her heart filled with resentment. Both Tracy and she were pregnant, but why did her child have to die?

“Are you still trying to frame Tracy?” Carson’s anger was palpable as he strode forward and slapped Zoe across the face, his rage causing her blood to spray across his visage.

“If it weren’t for you, would I have suffered a crushing defeat in the Southeast?” He would never admit to his own defeat. He had fought many battles, and the only one without her had resulted in a catastrophic loss. It must have been her curse.

Zoe let out a cold, mocking laugh, her face contorted with pain and anger, creating bloody folds around her mouth. “It’s your own greed and ambition that led to your defeat. How dare you blame me?”

“Silence!” Carson’s face was a mask of fury as he kicked her to the ground. The sharp knife in his hand cut through her clothes, revealing her pregnant belly.

Zoe looked at him with despair, her body shaking in pain as she pleaded, “Please, let me give birth to this child. Then, if you want to kill or mutilate me, it will be up to you.”

“Never!” He snarled, his teeth clenched as he raised the knife.

“Mother, mother,” Zoe desperately turned to Linda, her voice strained. “I’m carrying your grandchild. I beg you, have mercy on me for the sake of my obedience. Let me give birth to this child, I beg you.”

Crawling like an animal, she kowtowed to Linda, her forehead swelling and bleeding, her pleas becoming increasingly desperate.

Linda’s eyes were cold and unyielding, unmoved by the scene before her. “Do not call me mother. You do not have that right. If not for the old duke’s insistence, you would never have become a part of the Li family. It was a dream for you to think so!”

Knowing her pleas were futile, Zoe stared at Carson with her one remaining eye, her voice filled with sorrow and rage. “Carson Li, I have supported you for five years in the Li family. Every military achievement you have is due to my efforts. Now you kill your own children and your wife to宠妾灭妻. You will not go unpunished!”

Carson’s rage was incited by her words, and he kicked her under the chin, sending her flying and nearly knocking her unconscious.

In her fading consciousness, she heard Linda urgently say, “Carson, quickly take out the. Your sister and Tracy both said that it must be taken out while she is still alive and burned to eliminate the evil aura.”

The cold blade pressed against her abdomen, and with her last breath, Zoe arched her back, desperately trying to protect her unborn child.

Through her bloodied vision, she saw Tracy Sun’s triumphant and satisfied eyes peering from behind a pillar in the corridor.

Her so-called cousin, after learning of her engagement to Carson, claimed to be carrying his child and, together with him, had come to the national duke’s mansion, pressuring her to let Tracy enter as a co-wife.

How could she have been so foolish back then?

Her eyes filled with anger and despair, she glared at Carson.

As he looked into her bloodshot eyes and raised the knife, even he trembled – the great general who had always had Zoe behind him.

Linda’s eyes gleamed with a sinister light as she looked at Carson, her voice as cold as if from the depths of hell. “Kill her, and you can report to the emperor that Zoe Xie conspired with the enemy, betraying military secrets, causing the great defeat in the Southeast. Otherwise, you will bear the guilt of this battle alone. She was always a demon reincarnated, destined to bring misfortune to her husband’s family. It is fitting that she should die for your sins.”

So it was. The claims of the sorcerer were just a pretext; he intended to use her as a scapegoat. This coward, this!

“Carson Li, you are unfit to be a general, you are !” she cursed him with her dying breath.

Enraged by her words, Carson struck her with a slap. “Bitch, I will kill you!”

He raised the cold knife...

A sharp pain radiated from her abdomen. Zoe had endured many knife and sword wounds in her life, even an arrow that had pierced her heart, but none had hurt as much as this. The pain was heart-wrenching, stealing her breath away.

She saw Carson’s twisted face as he cut into her abdomen, the dull pain of each cut piercing her lungs. She roared, struggling, her hands clawing at his face, drawing blood.

Linda watched the scene with indifference, relieved that they had drugged her first; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to subdue her.

The Li family could not bear the guilt of defeat. Everyone knew that Carson would bring Zoe into battle, and by pinning the blame on her, they could preserve the prestige and reputation of the Peace Duke Manor.

Zoe’s life force gradually ebbed away, and she seemed to see a light splitting open above her head.

She struggled to open her eyes and saw that the light was just the flames from the fire. She watched as her child, freshly extracted from her womb, was thrown into the raging fire.

“No... No!” Zoe’s heart shattered as she crawled towards the fire with a strength she didn’t know she possessed. “My child, my child!”

The fire consumed her hair and clothes, but she felt no pain, holding the burning infant and wailing in grief.

Her cries mingled with a vicious curse, “Carson Li, even as a vengeful spirit, I will bring blood and destruction upon your house.”

The crackling of the fire