A Malicious Little Trick

“However, I think you might just be tired of living.”

Sitting in the air and looking down at the goat-headed demon Xin Tianle, Lan Qingyou curled her lip in a retort and dropped an Explosion Potion.

Boom!

The deafening explosion echoed once more.

For the audience who had already witnessed this style of combat yesterday, the impact had faded.

The same was true for Xin Tianle, who had come prepared.

Therefore...

The moment Lan Qingyou spoke, Xin Tianle leaped backward several times, putting at least thirty meters of distance between them.

It was precisely because Lan Qingyou had been throwing stones the previous day that the arena had been enlarged significantly today.

Otherwise, with the way Xin Tianle was jumping around, the stage wouldn't have been large enough for her to play on.

“Why pull away? Weren't you very confident in yourself? Especially in that passive skill of yours, Demon Skin or whatever it was called?”

Lan Qingyou taunted Xin Tianle from above.

Her voice wasn't loud.

But Xin Tianle heard her clearly.

“Heh, so you really have seen through everything. If I’m not mistaken, your Magic Eye must have some kind of peeking ability.”

Xin Tianle grinned.

This was the conclusion the people in her organization had reached after analyzing the footage overnight.

Previously, they had only been half-convinced, which was why she had used her opening line to test Lan Qingyou.

As it turned out, the other party had no intention of hiding it and admitted it directly.

This saved Xin Tianle a lot of trouble.

For Lan Qingyou, her Magic Eye's abilities were bound to be exposed sooner or later.

Especially while participating on a stage as grand as Kalim's, with tens of billions of people watching.

Since it couldn't be hidden, there was no point in trying.

If the identification capabilities of the Analytic Magic Eye were exposed, so be it—as long as its deeper analytical powers remained a secret.

After all, that was the greatest secret of the Magic Eye and her ultimate trump card.

“Even so, what can you actually do about it?” Lan Qingyou asked nonchalantly.

“Nothing, really. In fact, there isn't much I can do. But that doesn't mean I can't launch an attack!”

With that, Xin Tianle pulled out a potion and gulped it down.

Then, she glared up at Lan Qingyou in the sky.

Buzz—

In an instant, Lan Qingyou’s head began to throb and ring.

Her vision started to blur.

When she could see clearly again, Lan Qingyou found herself looking at her parents sitting in the front row.

This... was the day of the car accident more than five years ago.

Her mother was in the passenger seat, turning back to say something to her, while her father sat at the steering wheel with a smile.

Seeing this, Lan Qingyou opened her mouth to speak, but in the next second, the accident happened again.

Lan Qingyou lost consciousness in a whirlwind of spinning and crashing.

When she woke up again, she saw her so-called relatives indignantly claiming they would represent her to seek justice from the Huang father and son.

Then the scene shifted to the arrogant, dismissive face of the unscrupulous lawyer sent by the Huang family.

He tossed several hundred thousand Federation coins onto the bed and left.

After that, her grandmother and uncle’s family arrived, acting all warm and caring, telling her tales of how they had supposedly shown great prowess when confronting the Huang family.

Pitiably, she had actually been moved by their words back then.

After the hospital deducted medical expenses and other costs, the remaining money was taken by her grandmother and uncle’s family under the guise of “safekeeping it for you.”

Days and weeks passed, and they never showed up again.

At first, Lan Qingyou thought they were just busy; after all, she couldn't expect them to revolve around her.

But after a hundred days, and even a year, when they still hadn't reappeared, Lan Qingyou knew she had been swindled.

When that thought first occurred to her, she couldn't believe she was even capable of thinking it.

They were her grandmother and her uncle—her mother's own mother and brother.

How could people possibly do such a thing?

But the reality was that humans could sink even lower.

Because her pre-paid funds had run out, and to avoid having someone die in the hospital—which might bring a shred of negative publicity—for the sake of the bed space...

A doctor actually colluded with a nurse who was being paid by Lan Qingyou to dump her in the slums to wait for death!

Three days.

Just three days were enough to completely reshape a young girl's worldview.

It was during those three days that Lan Qingyou swore that as long as she didn't die, she would make those people wish they were dead.

Speaking of which, the soul crystals of the Huang father and son were still in her hands.

Although their souls had already been materialized, perhaps they could be awakened?

She always felt that simply extracting their souls to use as alchemy materials was a waste. If only there were a spell that could torture the soul itself.

Ugh...

Wait... now isn't the time for this.

Wasn't I in a match?

How did I suddenly start seeing these long-buried memories?

Right, the match. I was fighting someone from the Demon race.

What was that demon's name again? I seem to have forgotten...

Oh, right.

I seem to have fallen into an illusion.

No... calling it an illusion is too generous. It should be called a malicious little trick.

How annoying... I didn't expect that even with Spirit lower than mine, the opponent could still invade my mental domain.

Unforgivable!!!

Infuriated by these visions, Lan Qingyou swore she would take down that dog Xin Tianle.

She began trying to deconstruct the opponent's intrusion method and break the illusion.

However, before Lan Qingyou could act, she felt a sharp pain in her neck, and she collapsed weakly to the ground.

Huh!?

Isn't this Xin Tianle? How did she get so close without me noticing?

When Lan Qingyou emerged from the illusion, the first thing she saw was Xin Tianle's face, which looked remarkably like a goat's.

She saw Xin Tianle filling a large glass bottle with something.

Hey, hey...

This girl isn't collecting my blood, is she?

Lan Qingyou’s eyes darted to the side, watching Xin Tianle, who was humming a tune and working very seriously with her head down.

Fine.

Even though she didn't know exactly what had happened, she couldn't tolerate this dog staying by her side.

Especially while she was messing with her things.

From an alchemist's perspective, Lan Qingyou considered her own blood a rare alchemy material second only to Star Dragon King Essence Blood.

It was an incredibly precious existence.

How could she just hand it over to a goat-head for nothing?

Thus, Lan Qingyou grinned at the fully concentrated Xin Tianle.

“Yo, you look pretty happy!”

“Of course. This is the Witch of the Tower, after all. If I hadn't used a Secret Potion, I might have really lost this time—ugh!”

Xin Tianle had started to respond politely when she heard someone talking to her.

But then it hit her that she was currently in the middle of a match on stage, and her hair stood on end.