Just how formidable Liang Yiman was, Li Jiangying had no idea. Just seeing her casually carry her across more than half the Devil Palace with ease told her that one finger from this woman could poke her to death.
Li Jiangying remained silent and didn’t resist. In her heart, sometimes a normal person was far more terrifying than a little madwoman.
When the little madwoman went crazy, she could be coaxed and deceived. A normal person, however, wouldn’t necessarily believe lies so fake they were perfunctory.
Outside the palace, the vegetation was desolate. The ground was covered with rusty-red gravel and sand, and even the sky was veiled in a thin layer of red.
“Miss Jiangying, you best hurry and leave.” Liang Yiman landed with Li Jiangying, the broken palace wall not far behind them. She suddenly gave her a push.
The surprise came so quickly, it was like a tornado, making one afraid to act rashly, especially since Liang Yiman clearly looked like she had an ulterior motive.
Li Jiangying pointed at her own nose, frowning heavily. “You’re really letting me go?”
Liang Yiman smiled and nodded.
Li Jiangying drew her chin in. Her eyebrows twitched up and down as she tentatively stretched out one foot. Good, no reaction. She stretched out the other foot. Good, still no reaction.
Li Jiangying turned around and started to slowly run away.
Behind her, Liang Yiman laughed so hard she swayed, calling out loudly, “Miss Jiangying, this humble one is no villain. Since you’re unwilling to follow Her Highness, then I wish you a brilliant future ahead. When that time comes, don’t forget this humble one!”
Li Jiangying forced a smile, turned back, and waved at her. “Absolutely, definitely! I will never forget Miss Liang’s great kindness!”
But unfortunately, she didn’t get the opportunity to leave this place and pursue that brilliant future. Li Jiangying hadn’t run far, maybe about two hundred meters, when suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw two dark figures charging towards her from the left and right!
Li Jiangying let out a cold laugh. Swoosh! She spun around, her long legs pumping one after another, and dashed straight back to Liang Yiman.
She just knew it! Liang Yiman wouldn’t be so kind as to let her go! There was definitely a scheme!
Those dark figures chasing from both sides had clearly been lying in ambush here for some time. Now charging straight at Li Jiangying, their objective was clear from beginning to end.
And Li Jiangying, a newly arrived mere mortal—no matter how good her physical fitness, how could she outrun cultivators from a cultivation world? Naturally, within just a few breaths’ time, she was caught up by the two strangers.
However, Li Jiangying wasn’t afraid.
Because before those two could reach out and grab Li Jiangying, Liang Yiman took the initiative and attacked them!
A long stream of silk shot out like a snake, and in a flash of lightning, it had bound one of them tightly. Seeing the situation take a turn for the worse, the other showed no loyalty whatsoever. Instead, he kicked his companion, using his comrade as a rearguard stone while he himself fled for his life.
Li Jiangying nimbly darted behind Liang Yiman and laughed heartily. “Miss Liang, I knew I wasn’t wrong about you! You are truly a great person!”
Liang Yiman looked at her with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.
Stared at like that, Li Jiangying’s laughter began to falter. She touched her nose, stopped playing dumb, and asked in a deep voice, “Who are they? Why do they want to capture me?”
Sighing, Liang Yiman fiddled with a stray lock of hair near her temple. While dragging the trussed-up unlucky fellow with one hand, she pinched Li Jiangying’s wrist with the other, leading her back.
“This matter is both simple and complex,” she said. “Allow this humble one to explain slowly.”
By the time she finished explaining, Li Jiangying and she were standing beside a section of the palace wall that had half-collapsed. Li Jiangying’s face was pale. Sincerely, she grabbed Liang Yiman’s hand and said, “I’ve thought it over carefully, and I’ve suddenly realized that Moon Shadow Devil Palace is a very friendly and harmonious place. Please, you must let me stay!”
Liang Yiman threw her a flirty eye-roll tinged with mockery. “Oh? But I seem to have heard that Miss Jiangying isn’t the real Miss Jiangying.”
“Who dares to spout such nonsense?! Come out here! I will definitely show her what Li Jiangying looks like!” Li Jiangying’s angry eyes rounded, and she thumped her chest with righteous indignation. “I am Li Jiangying! Li Jiangying is me! Guaranteed genuine!”
Amused, Liang Yiman dragged the captive and pulled Li Jiangying, stepping back inside the palace wall.
The reason for Li Jiangying’s such decisive change in attitude was entirely because…
Firstly, starting with ‘Li Jiangying’: Who exactly was this Li Jiangying? Liang Yiman didn’t know. Likely, within the Moon Shadow Devil Palace, besides the Devil Venerable Li Yueying and one other old fossil, no one else knew.
There was no helping it; the time periods simply didn’t match. The current subordinates of the Moon Shadow Devil Palace were mostly those who had joined within the last few centuries. Liang Yiman, though looking like a young woman in her twenties, was, to put it bluntly, the oldest among the subordinates currently active outside the Moon Shadow Devil Palace.
But in truth, she was only about five hundred years old.
Whereas Li Yueying had been mad for at least three to four thousand years.
Moreover, the Devil Venerable, whether mad or not, wasn’t in the habit of idly gossiping about her love life with her subordinates.
In short, everything Liang Yiman knew about ‘Li Jiangying’ she had deduced from her own observations.
“Day and night, Her Highness thinks of nothing but Miss Jiangying. I’m afraid her position in Her Highness’s heart is unmatched,” Liang Yiman said slowly. “However, Her Highness has occasionally gotten angry at Miss Jiangying too. this humble one presumptuously speculates… perhaps Miss Jiangying once wronged Her Highness? But this humble one can’t really say. The only clear thing now is that Her Highness genuinely feels close to you, Miss.”
As she spoke, she sized Li Jiangying up and down, then continued, “Her Highness has someone she can’t let go of in her heart. Outsiders know this, too. As the saying goes, a starving camel is still bigger than a horse. Quite a few people have their eyes on Her Highness and the Moon Shadow Devil Palace. So, some hatched a plan, impersonating Miss Jiangying to deceive Her Highness.”
“Unfortunately, Her Highness isn’t so easily deceived. Anyone exposed was torn to shreds by her.”
After hearing this, Li Jiangying asked in a voice as faint as gossamer silk, “Was there no one who wasn’t exposed?”
Liang Yiman smiled contemptuously. “No.”
Li Jiangying: “As I thought, I’d better run.”
But after hearing what followed, she changed her mind.
“this humble one guesses that perhaps Her Highness once made a pact with Miss Jiangying, because she often goes to the Site of the Myriad Devils Ancestor Statue to wait. Mm, that’s the place where Miss Jiangying descended.”
Li Jiangying nodded.
Liang Yiman continued, “However, I don’t know when it started, but a rumor spread outside. It was said that an ancient, unhatched Divine Phoenix was hidden at the Ancestor’s statue, and that Her Highness went there daily to guard it, intending to refine it into medicine to heal her injuries.”
“This!” Li Jiangying couldn’t help but gape. “How did that get twisted?”
“Who knows? The rumors spread like wildfire, known to everyone in the Devil Domain. The most terrifying part is that Miss Jiangying truly did descend from the sky.” Liang Yiman looked at her strangely. “It is rumored that the blood of a Divine Phoenix can extend life, and refined into a pill, can help a cultivator break through to the Transformation Realm in one leap, without Heart Devil troubles. Every person in the Devil Domain desires it.”
Li Jiangying held it in for a moment, but couldn’t hold back. She asked, “That day when I arrived, I accidentally witnessed your Devil Venerable killing people… Could those people all have been…?”
Sympathetically, Liang Yiman nodded. “Correct. All of them. All of them were trying to compete with Her Highness for Miss Jiangying.”
Li Jiangying sucked in a sharp breath. “Fuck!”
“What does ‘Fuck’ mean?”
“Nothing.” Li Jiangying nervously wrung her small hands. “Has no one suspected the rumor might be false?”
Liang Yiman said, “Naturally, there are those who don’t believe it. But now, even the Righteous Path side says the same. Especially the Divine Calculator of Heaven’s Net Sect. Once she confirms something, no one disbelieves it.”
Li Jiangying’s face scrunched up like a bitter melon. According to this, wasn’t her image in the outside world essentially akin to a walking, talking, ultimate tonic pill?!
Liang Yiman continued adding weight. “Plenty of people saw Miss Jiangying descend from the sky that day. I’m afraid your portrait has already been circulated. If you want to leave the Moon Shadow Devil Palace…” She chuckled coldly. “…be my guest.”
Leaving the Moon Shadow Devil Palace to become someone else’s tonic pill, or staying in the Moon Shadow Devil Palace to impersonate the little madwoman’s obsession… Li Jiangying made her choice with extreme agony.
She chose the latter. At least, when she died, she wouldn’t be eaten.
And who knows? Maybe by the time the little madwoman discovered she was a fake, she’d have already followed along in cultivation and become a big shot. Then she’d have even less to fear!
After consoling herself, Li Jiangying puffed out her chest and raised her head righteously. “No need for more words, let’s hurry back!”
Thus, Liang Yiman dragged her and the captive back to the still-sleeping Li Yueying’s side.
“Her Highness is in Miss Jiangying’s care. this humble one must go entertain this young fellow.” The way Liang Yiman looked at the captive was like she was eyeing a fat lamb.
Before leaving, she gave one final warning. “The only reason the Moon Shadow Devil Palace is willing to shelter you, Miss, is because of Her Highness. If anything should happen to Her Highness, no one here can protect you!”
Sighing, Li Jiangying sat down beside the sleeping human-headed snake monster. Her heart was suddenly filled with confusion about the future.
“I’m not asking for great wealth or nobility anymore. I only want to eat my fill and stay alive. Why is that so hard?”
Li Yueying slept for three days and three nights.
She opened her eyes under the bright sunlight. The first thing that flashed through her mind was the Li Jiangying she’d worried about while asleep. Where was Jiangying? Could she have flown away while she was sleeping?
Unable to wait, Li Yueying frantically swiveled her head left and right, searching for Li Jiangying’s figure. And then she discovered her Jiangying, propping herself on her elbow, legs bent, lying on her side atop a soft daybed.
“Yo, you’re awake.” Li Jiangying raised an eyebrow at her.
“Jiangying!” Overjoyed, Li Yueying cried out eagerly and rushed over without a care.
Good things came in pairs. This time, her Jiangying not only didn’t push her away but held her and caressed her head.
“Jiangying, Jiangying…” She nuzzled against her stickily, happily calling her name.
And her Jiangying bared her teeth in a grin. “Over these past three days, I’ve done some serious thinking. I feel like the way things are now… isn’t working!”
