Jiang Huai’s expression darkened.
He exerted a little force with his arm, wanting to push away Zhu Siyao, who was clinging to him like an octopus, but found that her seemingly delicate arms were now locked around him like iron hoops, unyielding.
In the end, he couldn’t bear to truly use his Lingli to shake her off.
He could only sigh helplessly, his voice carrying a hint of imperceptible fatigue and admonition:
“Siyao, why are you suddenly so fond of calling me that?” “Don’t call me that again next time.”
At first, under the corridor after that banquet, he might have been a little stunned by her provocation.
But now, in this eerie and dangerous Secret Realm, hearing her use Zhu Siyao’s originally clear, now deliberately softened and coquettish voice to call those two words, all he felt was a chill mixed with a strong sense of discord rising from his spine, leaving him at a loss.
How old was he, after all? The age difference between him and Zhu Siyao, in truth, was only a few years.
“Zhu Siyao” sensed the force of his rejection and the distance in his tone. The feigned softness on her face seemed to be covered with a layer of thin ice.
At this moment, within the Secret Realm, her power faintly resonated with this space that was being secretly corroded by Demonic Qi.
Against a Jiang Huai whose heart held scruples, she felt her chances of victory had increased manyfold. Naturally, her attitude became even more relaxed, even taking on a cat-and-mouse playfulness.
Far from letting go, she pressed her cheek against his chest, lifted her eyes, and her gaze was filled with ridicule and disdain: “What? Now that things have come to this, you won’t admit it?” “You humans really are strange and hypocritical creatures.”
She gave a cold laugh.
“You did everything to my mother—snatched her away, took her heart, even had her body. And now you put on the act of a virtuous husband, sitting upright in front of me?”
“Truly disgusting.”
She showed her undisguised contempt for human morality.
In the eyes of the Heavenly Demons of the Outer Domain, only the ultimate extinction of the world was the truth.
Emotions and rites were nothing but insignificant dust on the road to annihilation.
Jiang Huai’s brow furrowed tightly. He tried to communicate with her, to resolve this inexplicable obsession;
“Siyao, I hope that between us, things could be like they were in the Small World—equal, supportive.”
“There’s no need to be bound by those complicated definitions of relationships.”
Hearing this, “Zhu Siyao” suddenly let out a “heh heh” laugh, as if she’d heard something truly amusing.
The coldness that had just frozen her expression became vivid again, but this vividness carried the allure of a venomous snake.
She moved even closer, their noses almost touching.
At such a close distance, Jiang Huai could clearly see her flawless, delicate skin and those beautiful eyes that were nearly identical to Zhuxin’s.
Yet now, instead of Zhuxin’s resilience, they flickered with a strange, demonic light.
The girl’s body had already matured, curvy and delicate.
Her red dress outlined a youthful yet alluring figure.
This face, so much like Zhuxin’s, now bore such an expression, bringing Jiang Huai an extremely intense, chaotic sense of strangeness, as if some taboo boundary was being blurred.
“In the Small World?” Her breath was like orchids, her voice bewitching.
“In the Small World, weren’t we a pair?” “You protected me, I relied on you.”
“Jiang Huai, you say these things now—doesn’t it mean you also want to be with me? Like Dao companions?”
Deep in the Recognition Sea, the real Zhu Siyao’s consciousness saw this scene, and her entire face, including her ears, turned as red as the sunset clouds.
She trembled all over with anger, cursing furiously in the realm of consciousness.
“Shameless! Bastard! You’re making a mess! Let him go! Jiang Huai! Leave quickly! She’s lying to you!!”
Her worry and shame almost tore her consciousness apart.
The Heavenly Demon sensed the increasingly violent tremors in the Recognition Sea and sent a sliver of her mind coldly transmitting her intent:
‘Noisy little worm. Since he’s already entered this Secret Realm, he’s like a turtle in a jar—there’s no escape from my grasp.’
She paused, her tone laced with vicious mockery:
‘Seeing you so “excited,” why don’t I show some mercy and, before dealing with him, use his body to help you fulfill your wish and let you really “enjoy” yourself for once? Wouldn’t that be good?’
‘It could be considered fulfilling your humble secret crush.’
“Get out! Get out of my body!” Zhu Siyao’s consciousness was utterly enraged, her shame and fury transforming into a powerful force, frantically assaulting the seal barrier the Heavenly Demon had set.
“I was bewitched by you back then! I never wanted to hurt him!”
The Heavenly Demon’s face darkened slightly.
Her true form was still trapped beyond the World Barrier of the Five Provinces Continent.
The power she could project here was far from her full strength.
She had no choice but to devote more focus, channeling her magic.
Instantly, thousands of pitch-black, sticky threads of Demonic Qi, alive as if they possessed their own life, surged up in the Recognition Sea, layer upon layer, binding Zhu Siyao’s struggling consciousness tightly, cocooning her like a silkworm and leaving her unable to move, her voice nearly entirely muffled.
Zhu Siyao was firmly bound, able only to scream soundlessly in her limited consciousness space, tears flowing in endless regret.
The Heavenly Demon grumbled impatiently:
‘You humans really are ridiculously hypocritical! Clearly you like him to death, but don’t even have the courage to confess—just hiding in the shadows, wallowing in self-pity.’
‘Now I give you a chance to truly have him once, and you’re actually unwilling?’
She sneered, ‘If I were you—since you can’t have his heart, then just drain his body, devour him completely, and merge together. Wouldn’t that be delightful?’
“You know nothing! You demon! You don’t understand at all! Get out!” Zhu Siyao’s remaining consciousness let out a desperate roar.
Outside, hearing “Zhu Siyao” make ever more brazen suggestions about being “together,” Jiang Huai’s heart blared with alarm.
He finally used all his strength to push her off him, quickly putting several steps between them, his tone serious, even carrying a hint of reproach: “Siyao! If your mother found out you were saying these things, she’d be furious.”
He didn’t know why Zhu Siyao was acting so strangely today.
“Zhu Siyao” wasn’t angry after being pushed away.
She merely tidied the hair at her temples that had been messed up just now, her face bearing a look of indifference—almost cruel coldness.
“My mother? What’s there for her to be angry about?” She tilted her head, her gaze indifferent.
“You’re surrounded by Qin Qingyue, Su Yingman, Tang Zhaoxue, and now even the Holy Maiden of the Crimson Dragon. She’s not angry about that. But if you add one more—me—she’d be upset?” “What’s there to be upset about?”
The smile vanished abruptly from her face, replaced by an icy gaze that regarded him like a dead thing.
Her voice shed all its feigned emotion, leaving only naked threat and killing intent:
“Enough. Game time is over.”
“Now, take your clothes off yourself, and lie down obediently.”
“Let me, or rather, let this body have a good time.”
“Maybe if I’m in a better mood, I’ll let you die a little more easily, with less suffering.”
Her crimson tongue licked the corner of her lips as she added,
“We Heavenly Demons of the Outer Domain always keep our word, and value honesty, you know.”
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