Chapter 23: Cry Yourself Blind—The Malice Value Rebounded
No sooner had she finished speaking than she glared at the grill set up in the center of the sleeping palace. “Why is there something like this here?”
Nan Xun frowned slightly and spoke to the Void Beast in her mind. “Little Eight, I think I smell jealousy… This is bad. I think I’ve invited a wolf into my home.”
The Void Beast chuckled. “Rare insight from you.”
Nan Xun said, “You don’t understand—women understand women best. Look, Hong Chou’s jealous face is already showing. I just didn’t expect her to hide it so well in front of me that I never noticed.”
The Void Beast snorted. “You’re thick-skinned—of course you wouldn’t notice. I saw it long ago.”
“You saw it and didn’t say anything?” Nan Xun despised it.
The Void Beast stammered, “Wasn’t it because that perverted Demon King keeps monitoring you all the time? I never found a chance.”
“What do we do now? I’m scared Hong Chou will kill me to silence me,” Nan Xun said uneasily.
The Void Beast started offering advice again. “Find a way to satisfy her vanity. That way, at most she’ll humiliate you—she won’t kill you right away.”
Nan Xun: …
“I’m talking to you—was it you who brought this piece of junk into His Majesty’s sleeping palace?” Hong Chou frowned.
Nan Xun nodded. “Yes. I wanted to grill meat for His Majesty.”
Hong Chou’s expression instantly changed. She barked, “His Majesty isn’t human—he doesn’t eat this kind of cooked garbage! Don’t ever feed him such filthy things again!”
“Oh, oh, okay,” Nan Xun replied quickly.
Don’t blame her for being cowardly. Before she finished reforming the Demon King and eliminating all his malice value, she had to keep herself alive.
Hong Chou shot her a sideways glance, curled her lips, and suddenly reached out to lift Nan Xun’s chin. “You are indeed pretty, but you’re not worthy of standing before the Demon King.”
Nan Xun put on an expression as if she had just realized something was wrong, eyes widening slightly. “Hong Chou, why… why are you talking to me like this?”
Hong Chou snorted coldly. Her slender jade fingers pinched Nan Xun’s chin hard enough to draw blood, then she shoved her away.
Nan Xun took the opportunity to fall to the ground so Hong Chou could look down on her and throw her weight around, fully satisfying her vanity.
“Zui Li Xuan, you’re nothing but a human—what right do you have to monopolize the Demon King every day? You lowly human!
“I once thought the Demon King had no interest in women, because he hated any woman coming near him. But—but he actually took an interest in you! What do you have that’s better than me, Hong Chou? Your face? I’m not inferior to you either. Or is it your bed skills? I, Hong Chou, know all eighty-one positions—I can serve His Majesty until he’s perfectly satisfied. Can you compare to me?”
Nan Xun laughed in her heart. “Little Eight, this demoness is so filthy. Has she been reading too many erotic manuals?”
The Void Beast replied, “Think about your situation first.”
Nan Xun immediately stopped laughing.
Hong Chou completely revealed her ugly face, jealous of Nan Xun to the point of madness. “…Do you know how excited and jealous I felt when I saw your body covered in kisses? Excited because His Majesty likes women—so I had a chance too. Jealous because His Majesty was so obsessed with you. These past few years, aside from showing himself at the monthly Demon Domain Assembly, His Majesty has never once stepped out of the sleeping palace. His grand ambition to wipe out the human race and divine beasts was worn away by you! Zui Lixuan, you truly deserve to die!”
Nan Xun shrank into a corner and said hurtfully, “Hong Chou, I’ve always treated you as my sister. If you like His Majesty, you could have told me—I would have spoken to him for you.”
“Enough, Zui Li Xuan! I, Hong Chou, don’t need your charity!”
Hong Chou looked down at her with a sneer. “Now I’ll give you two choices. One: get the hell out of His Majesty’s sleeping palace right now and be torn apart and eaten by the demon beasts outside. Two: stay here and serve me. Otherwise, I’ll eat you on the spot!”
To save her life, Nan Xun really wanted to choose the second option—but as the daughter of the Zui Li clan head, she didn’t want to disgrace her father.
So, with great backbone, Nan Xun walked out of the Demon King’s sleeping palace she had lived in for several years.
Behind her, Hong Chou let out a cold laugh, as if she were already seeing Nan Xun’s fate of being devoured by countless demon beasts.
Just as Nan Xun was about to step out of the palace, she couldn’t help turning back for one last look—only to see Hong Chou clutching the snow-silkworm quilt from the bed, pressing it to her mouth and nose with an intoxicated expression. Soon after, she curled herself into the quilt, twisting her body and actually moaning aloud.
Nan Xun: …
She didn’t have the heart to tell her that Xue Ming had never used that snow-silkworm quilt. Nan Xun herself liked to wrap it around her after bathing—so if it smelled like anything, it was her scent.
After leaving the sleeping palace, Nan Xun immediately took out a large stack of talismans her mother had stuffed into her hands. She remembered there were teleportation talismans among them.
Teleportation talismans could send a person dozens of miles away, but the entire Demon Domain was sealed by barriers—she definitely couldn’t escape it. At most, she could temporarily leave the Demon King’s palace at the peak of the Demon Domain.
Just as Nan Xun was about to use a teleportation talisman, the Void Beast suddenly screamed in her mind, “Holy shit, holy shit! What happened? Why did the Demon King’s darkening value suddenly jump to 100?! The malice value has rebounded to 99!”
Nan Xun’s mind exploded with a loud boom. Her shock was no less than the Void Beast’s. “Little Eight, what did you say? The malice value went back to 99? Why the hell does this thing even rebound?! Doesn’t that mean—all my years of hard work are completely wasted?”
Nan Xun desperately wanted to cry.
The Void Beast was also deeply shaken and fell silent.
“Mm!” Just as Nan Xun was wallowing in sorrow, someone suddenly covered her mouth.
She struggled, but then heard a familiar voice by her ear. “Don’t be afraid—it’s me.”
Nan Xun blinked. That sounded like Lan Shui.
No way—one Hong Chou had just left, and now Lan Shui too? Did Lan Shui also secretly harbor feelings for the Demon King and hate her to the bone?
Lan Shui handed Nan Xun a black silk umbrella and said in a low voice, “Hold this umbrella properly and follow behind me. No matter what you see, don’t speak.”
Nan Xun looked down at the black silk umbrella in her hand and faintly sensed the demonic aura coiled around it. She couldn’t help asking, “Lan Shui, what is this?”
“A high-grade demonic artifact—the Aura-Concealing Umbrella. It can suppress your human aura,” Lan Shui said, frowning slightly. “Xuan’er, there’s no time to waste. Follow me and leave at once.”
Nan Xun froze. Lan Shui and the other three maids had never called her Xuan’er. The Lan Shui in front of her suddenly felt strangely unfamiliar.
Strange—but without malice. So Nan Xun didn’t ask further questions, opened the aura-concealing umbrella, and followed behind her.
With a token in hand, Lan Shui passed through unhindered all the way.
Along the way, Nan Xun saw many humanoid demon beasts, half-human half-beasts, and ferocious beasts that couldn’t transform at all.
“Lan Shui, where are you taking me?” Nan Xun asked softly.
“Out of the Demon Domain,” Lan Shui replied gravely.
Nan Xun’s steps came to a sudden halt.
Lan Shui was actually taking her out of the Demon Domain?
