By the time the White Jade Rouge Python set the chest before Wen Xian, she could barely contain her excitement.
She rushed forward and opened it.
Then her hopes collapsed.
The enormous chest contained only one ring. Worse still, it was a plain wooden ring decorated with a red stone smaller than a soybean.
“What is this? Such a huge chest, and all it held was one rotten ring! I got excited for nothing!”
Wen Xian’s face fell. She looked heartbroken, as though she had suffered a terrible loss.
Where had her enormous treasure gone?
“What a frog at the bottom of a well. What remote village produced an ignorant fool like you?”
The mocking voice reached Wen Xian while she mourned the loss of her treasure. She spun around and saw the demoness watching her in disbelief, making no effort to hide the contempt on her face.
“You don’t understand my pain! I wouldn’t expect an ungrateful, cruel woman like you to understand!”
Wen Xian shouted without thinking. Her disappointment was so great that she forgot her fear of Feng Lingruan.
She was already miserable, yet this hateful demoness still mocked her. There was only so much a person could endure. Wen Xian had tolerated her for far too long!
Feng Lingruan seemed accustomed to Wen Xian’s repeated offenses. She answered calmly.
“That red stone is a dimensional spirit stone. It connects this world to a separate space. To put it in words even you can understand, that object is a storage ring—and one of the finest storage treasures in existence.”
“Dimensional spirit stones come in green, blue, purple, and several other grades. The higher the grade, the larger the space it can reach. Red is the highest grade. According to legend, the separate space connected to a red stone is as large as an island and can hold almost anything.”
Wen Xian’s eyes began to shine.
Did that mean the ring was an incredible treasure after all?
Wait. Something was wrong.
Wen Xian suddenly broke free of her excitement. The demoness was behaving far too strangely.
Until now, Feng Lingruan had hardly been willing to look directly at her, much less begin a conversation. Yet she had suddenly explained so much. Wen Xian felt… a terrible sense of danger.
Only a few breaths later, her warning proved correct.
Feng Lingruan, who had been unable to move, slowly rose to her feet.
Wen Xian’s eyes widened as far as they could go. Every hair on her body stood on end.
A mighty presence spread from Feng Lingruan. Wen Xian felt as though it had stolen all the air from the cavern. Breathing became difficult, and her heart slowed beneath the crushing pressure, as if it might stop in the next instant.
“This lord must admit that your luck is extraordinary. It is good enough to make even me jealous…”
Feng Lingruan looked at Wen Xian. Her deep-purple pupils narrowed into vertical slits and gave off a faint violet glow.
“You truly are ignorant, insect. This lord is a spirit beast, and our kind heals quickly. You left me sitting there and paid no attention to me. I cannot decide whether you are merely ignorant or hopelessly stupid.”
The pressure made it almost impossible for Wen Xian to breathe, let alone answer. Her body was forced toward the ground. She planted her hands against the stone and struggled to resist the overwhelming force.
She had been too naive.
She had actually believed that saving the demoness would stop her from killing Wen Xian. This woman had slaughtered so many people without blinking. Why would she care about one small favor?
Wen Xian had been unbelievably foolish.
Feng Lingruan truly deserved to be the strongest villain in this world. She was still badly injured, yet the presence of a Nascent Soul expert alone produced such terrifying pressure.
Wen Xian could not move at all. The difference between their cultivation was too vast. Feng Lingruan had merely released her presence, and that alone was enough to crush her.
Everything Wen Xian had done earlier truly had been an attempt to die.
Her weak body could not withstand the pressure. She spat out a mouthful of blood, and bright-red drops landed on the wooden ring. The dimensional spirit stone instantly absorbed them.
A red light flashed too quickly for even Feng Lingruan to notice.
When she saw Wen Xian cough up blood, Feng Lingruan drew back some of her presence. This insect was terribly weak. Feng Lingruan had released only a small part of her power, yet Wen Xian was already unable to endure it.
Allowing her to die so easily would be far too merciful. Feng Lingruan would take her back to the Demon Palace and make her pay a terrible price for every offense.
The weight pressing down on Wen Xian eased. At least she could breathe again. She raised her head with great difficulty and forced out one word at a time.
“You… truly do… repay kindness… with cruelty!”
Feng Lingruan looked amused. Seeing the woman who had repeatedly offended her in such a miserable state suddenly lifted her mood. She walked closer, eager to enjoy Wen Xian’s expression from a better position.
The footsteps approached.
Cold sweat poured from Wen Xian as fear spread through her heart. She wanted to stand, but her legs had become too weak to support her.
Fortune’s wheel had turned. Feng Lingruan had been unable to move a short while ago. Now Wen Xian was the helpless one.
The White Jade Rouge Python hid in the pool with only half its head above the surface. Golden light flickered in its eyes as it stared at Feng Lingruan.
Feng Lingruan glanced toward it and waved one sleeve. A powerful blast of spirit-beast energy struck the python before it could dodge. Its body flew into the rock wall, then crashed back into the pool, throwing water high into the air.
“If you were fully grown, this lord might show you a little caution. Your spiritual awareness is strong, but it still lacks refinement.”
After delivering that cold judgment, Feng Lingruan turned back to Wen Xian. She looked down at her like a ruler granting mercy to a prisoner.
“This lord should thank you. Because of you, I will receive both a White Jade Rouge Python and the finest dimensional spirit stone. In exchange for them—and because you saved me—I have decided not to kill you yet. I will take you to the Demon Palace and decide what to do with you there. Do not call this lord ungrateful again.”
Wen Xian suddenly laughed. Her shoulders shook as if she had heard the funniest joke in the world.
“Why are you laughing?” Feng Lingruan asked with a cold frown.
Had the pressure damaged Wen Xian’s mind?
Once Wen Xian finished laughing, she raised her head. Her brow rose, her eyes lifted, and one corner of her mouth twisted into the most infuriating expression she could produce.
“You talk far too much.”
Her fear vanished. She recklessly challenged Feng Lingruan once more.
“Thanks to that long speech, you gave me all the time I needed…”
Feng Lingruan’s fine brows drew together. A terrible feeling rose in her heart.
White light suddenly burst from Wen Xian’s body.
Feng Lingruan’s pupils contracted. Her figure blurred, and one hand reached for Wen Xian. Wen Xian watched the useless attempt and smiled.
“Demoness, I won’t be this weak the next time we meet. Until then… farewell.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the white light grew bright enough to fill the cavern.
The painful glare forced Feng Lingruan to close her eyes. Her fingers had already brushed the edge of Wen Xian’s clothes, but the cloth vanished from her grasp in the next instant. Then the light slowly faded.
When Feng Lingruan opened her eyes, the cavern was empty. She immediately sent her spiritual awareness into the pool, but the White Jade Rouge Python had disappeared as well.
The human and the snake had vanished as though they had never existed.
*Boom!*
Feng Lingruan drove a fist into the rock wall. Stone that had seemed impossibly solid shattered beneath the blow.
She bit down hard on her lower lip, her entire body trembling. After a long moment, she raised her eyes and stared at the place where Wen Xian had vanished.
“Human insect, you had better hope this lord never finds you. Otherwise…”
Her teeth ground together.
“I will slice you into a thousand pieces!”
…
In a forest hundreds of miles away, Wen Xian sat weakly on the ground and gasped for breath. The unconscious White Jade Rouge Python lay beside her.
“If you had waited one moment longer, I probably wouldn’t have lived to see tomorrow’s sun,” Wen Xian said.
The system answered irritably inside her mind.
[You caused this yourself! Instead of improving the villain’s opinion of you, you insisted on searching for treasure. You gave her time to heal. You should be grateful she didn’t kill you at once. That was the only reason I could teleport you out!]
Wen Xian used spiritual energy to dry her clothes. Then she held on to a tree and slowly stood. Her legs were still weak, and she needed more time to recover.
“You were dependable for once. Still, thank you. You saved me.”
The recent events left her badly shaken.
Feng Lingruan was simply too strong. Even while gravely injured, she could release enough pressure to leave Wen Xian unable to breathe.
Having her life controlled by another person felt terrible. She had to become stronger as quickly as possible.
“Hmph! The next time we meet, I’ll be strong enough to amaze her. Then I’ll knock down that arrogance of hers!” Wen Xian declared.
The system promptly delivered an invisible slap of reality.
[Stop dreaming. The villain’s talent is one in ten thousand. You cannot surpass her in a short time. Instead, you should decide how you’ll kneel the next time you meet her and beg her to calm down.]
“Hey! Whose side are you on? Why are you praising someone else while crushing my confidence? People should face challenges bravely!”
[Fine, fine. I look forward to seeing your wonderful expression.]
The system’s careless tone made it clear that it did not believe her. Wen Xian was about to argue when it spoke again.
[Why did you make me bring the White Jade Rouge Python? Do you want its heart too?]
Wen Xian’s legs had stopped trembling. She walked a few steps, then jumped several times to make sure she was steady.
“I promised to take it outside and show it the world. Of course I couldn’t break my word.”
[What? That’s your entire reason?]
“What other reason would I need? I always keep my promises. It gave me the treasure, so I must do what I agreed to do. Do you have a problem with that?”
Wen Xian stretched, loosening her stiff body.
[Perhaps next time you keep a promise, you could rely on your own strength. Then I would have no objection.]
Wen Xian froze in the middle of a stretch and immediately changed the subject.
“Oh, I still haven’t looked inside my new treasure! Perhaps it contains some unmatched divine technique that can make me powerful at once. I need to check!”
[Hey!]
Wen Xian pretended not to hear it. She was about to examine the ring in her hand when she discovered it already sitting on her middle finger.
How strange. She clearly remembered that she had never put it on. Had she remembered incorrectly?
She tried to open the ring with spiritual energy, but light suddenly began shining from her body.
*Damn it. Why now?*
Wen Xian tried to curse, but her mouth stopped working. She changed back into an edgeless sword and struck the ground with a clear clang.
After Wen Xian returned to sword form, the system examined Feng Lingruan’s status bars.
Corruption: one thousand.
Humiliation: one thousand.
Anger: one thousand.
Killing intent toward the host: still five hundred.
The system was surprised. Wen Xian had escaped after delivering another challenge, yet the villain’s killing intent had not increased. That was most unusual.
Feng Lingruan did not seem to have noticed the change herself. It was a promising sign.
Now everything depended on how far the host could go. The system could only hope that Wen Xian would redeem the villain.
Then that person could finally be at peace…
