The door slid open silently from the inside out.
Warm jade lanterns lit the interior of the palace, their soft glow swirling gently.
Su Jinxue leaned lazily on a couch carved from ice jade, her snow-white gown draping around her. She looked as though she had just woken from a brief slumber.
With one hand propping up her chin, her other hand casually toyed with her fingers.
She did not look at Zhang Mingyuan directly, merely parting her red lips to utter a few words:
“You did quite well today.”
The words were spoken casually, yet they felt heavier to Zhang Mingyuan than ten thousand heavy hammers slamming into his chest.
Well?
Did she mean it was “well” that he had worn that ridiculous attendant outfit, standing on the altar like a clown to be stared at by ten thousand immortals?
Or did she mean it was “well” that he had been forced to squeeze out a smile uglier than crying, having his eternal humiliation recorded by countless spiritual jades?
Zhang Mingyuan’s fists clenched tightly inside his sleeves. His nails dug deep into his palms, but the sharp sting of pain was not even a fraction of the hatred burning in his heart!
He wanted to kill her.
He would use any means necessary, pay any price, to completely and utterly destroy this woman!
Sensing the unmasked killing intent, Su Jinxue finally raised her eyes slowly to look at him.
Seeing how he looked as if he wanted to skin her alive, her mood inexplicably improved.
She felt even more pleased than when she had first attained immortality.
She spoke unhurriedly, every single word landing precisely on Zhang Mingyuan’s rawest nerve:
“Have you seen the trending searches on 《Secrets of the Immortal Sects》?”
Zhang Mingyuan’s breath hitched.
“They are saying that not only are you now my Sword-Bearing Attendant,”
Su Jinxue watched with great interest as his composure began to crack, and continued,
“...but you are also my captive pet.”
Captive pet!
Those words were like two red-hot branding irons searing themselves onto Zhang Mingyuan’s soul!
“Some also say that before long, your Qingyun Heaven will be merged into my Myriad Snow Palace, becoming our subsidiary. When that happens, the landscape of the Xuanling Realm will face a major shift unseen in ten thousand years.”
Su Jinxue curled her red lips into a smile. To him, that smile was more hideous than the most vicious curse in the world!
Boom!
The final thread of sanity in Zhang Mingyuan's mind snapped completely!
“Su Jinxue! Undo the seal on my cultivation! Right now! Immediately!”
“I want to commune with the Heavenly Dao! I will ban every single one of those accounts talking nonsense! Not a single one will be spared!”
However, Su Jinxue merely looked at him calmly, her expression like someone watching a stray dog barking in impotent rage.
“Ban them?” She let out a soft laugh. “Sure.”
“It works out perfectly, actually.”
She sat up slightly straighter, her red eyes gleaming with the light of an absolute ruler.
“I have already seen through the secret of your ‘spiritual jade.’ It is nothing more than borrowing the laws of heaven and earth to construct a hub for information flow, and then using your unique Tianyuan Dao Runes as a key to communicate with each terminal artifact. You treated the Heavenly Dao as a node to temporarily store and process information. It is a good idea. Unfortunately, you are only at the Mahayana stage; you are merely borrowing its power.”
She raised her hand slightly, and a wisp of the most pristine Heavenly Dao law wrapped around her fingertips, emitting a pressure that demanded submission from all creation.
“But I am a Red Dust Immortal. In a way, I am the Heavenly Dao.”
She looked at Zhang Mingyuan with amusement, her every word striking deep into his heart.
“If you ban those accounts and destroy 《Secrets of the Immortal Sects》, I will simply recreate it myself. When that time comes, I won't need your Tianyuan Dao Runes or any authorization. Every single cultivator in the Xuanling Realm will be gifted one for free.”
“When that happens, the massive profits your Qingyun Heaven earns every year from licensing the spiritual jade will instantly drop to zero. Tell me, what do you think your elders and disciples will think then?”
“A captive Sacred Lord who had his foundation snatched by his archrival, causing his sect to suffer devastating losses... Tsk, tsk, tsk...”
This was going too far!
This detestable woman!
She was truly destroying his mind and heart!
This damned woman!
Seeing Zhang Mingyuan trembling with rage yet completely powerless, Su Jinxue felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.
The immense resentment she had accumulated over the past five thousand years from being teased and provoked by him was thoroughly vented at this moment.
It made her happier than when she had achieved immortality.
However, she quickly withdrew her smile, returning to her cold, aloof, and distant demeanor.
And it was precisely this subtle shift that jolted Zhang Mingyuan awake from his abyss of rage and despair!
No!
He couldn't let things go on like this!
From the moment he stepped into this palace, every word he spoke and every reaction he made had been exactly as she anticipated.
She was enjoying his anger, relishing his pain, and playing with his emotions.
He was like a fly caught in a spiderweb—the more he struggled, the tighter he was bound, only serving to entertain the spider even more.
He could not let himself fall into her rhythm!
He had to seize back the initiative!
In a flash, Zhang Mingyuan forcibly suppressed the monstrous hatred and fury in his heart to its deepest depths.
Slowly, very slowly, he released his white-knuckled fists.
He raised his head to look directly at Su Jinxue. There was no longer a single trace of humiliation or anger on his face. Instead, it bore a strange, unfathomable smile.
“Su Jinxue.”
He called out her name in a completely equal, almost condescending tone.
Su Jinxue was slightly taken aback, somewhat surprised by his sudden change in attitude.
He leisurely smoothed out the silver-white attendant outfit that had caused him so much humiliation, his movements calm and unhurried, as if he were adjusting a magnificent court robe.
“Do you want to know why I was able to invent the ‘spiritual jade’—something that even an immortal cannot create out of thin air?”
“Do you want to know why I always have so many novel ideas?”
“Do you want to know why I would rather risk being discovered by you to tear through space, just to escape back to a place you have never even heard of?”
A succession of three questions caused a ripple to stir in Su Jinxue’s otherwise tranquil, immortal heart.
These were indeed the questions that had always puzzled her.
Zhang Mingyuan was shrouded in secrets.
The curve of Zhang Mingyuan's lips widened further.
He took a step forward, closing the distance between them slightly, and spoke in a soft, highly seductive tone that only the two of them could hear:
“I can tell you a secret.”
“A secret... about another world.”
“About my true background.”
Su Jinxue's beautiful red eyes finally narrowed slightly, unable to contain her reaction.
She was intrigued.
Zhang Mingyuan sneered inwardly.
The fish has taken the bait.
Rate on N.U.
