She is only the cousin of the original owner.
She wanted to hang herself with her noble silver hair, or simply smash her head against a piece of tofu.
A hidden heroine with a Phoenix Overlord template—a guaranteed winning hand that could close her eyes and still dominate—this was supposed to be a golden ticket.
Yet the original owner, with her stroke-level idiocy, had forced her into becoming a future mortal enemy!
That was the legendary All-Element Magic Affinity! A master capable of casting forbidden spells with her bare hands!
Now, Xue Lei must have mentally dragged her ancestors eighteen generations and herself through the dirt countless times.
“What can I do to pull out this death flag?”
Annabell sighed, her slender fingers tapping against the table.
Regret now was completely useless. She could only activate survival mode.
Though, according to the upcoming [Abyss Blood Sacrifice] battle, at least if she could disrupt the ritual targeting her sister during the ceremony, would that trigger a backlash from the bottom?
Of course, this was just Annabell the slacker’s reasonable guess based on past experience. The actual execution depended on luck.
A faint, cautious footstep came from outside the door, interrupting her brainstorming.
A typical black-haired, straight-locked beauty stood trembling at the doorway.
The footsteps were very familiar. Annabell raised her eyes and looked toward the door.
Ink-black straight hair was practically a counterfeit-proof marker of a “protagonist” identity. In the Trandy Family, full of white and silver hair, this jet-black mane stood out exceptionally.
She clutched a tray and exquisite magical tea set tightly in both hands, eyes lowered and submissive, barely daring to breathe.
The beauty slowly stepped inside, then thumped down into an extremely humble bow.
“S-Sister.”
This was Xue Lei.
Her features actually bore an eight-part resemblance to Annabell, but compared to Annabell’s cold, sharp face shaped by abundant mana, Xue Lei was too thin, her chin sharper, her features exuding a vulnerability born from years of abuse.
Annabell didn’t respond immediately, her mind still churning through strategies.
Xue Lei, seeing Annabell’s silence, couldn’t help but shudder, maintaining her deep bow, a bone-deep fear hidden in the depths of her black pupils.
Annabell quietly opened the System’s [Favorability Vision] and looked at the top of Xue Lei’s head.
Fortunately, the System hadn’t gone off the charts.
[Current Affection Level: Irreconcilable!]
“Phew—”
Annabell let out a long, silent sigh of relief.
It hadn’t reached [Blood Feud] or [Unending Hostility] yet, meaning the progress bar could still be stalled! There was a chance!
It seemed that in her sister’s heart, there was still a pitiful shred of blood being thicker than water.
If it were a more assertive hard case, being used as a punching bag for years would have already driven them to sharpen knives.
Focus returned to reality.
To avoid breaking the “cold Villainess” persona, Annabell merely gave a very aloof, slight nod.
Seeing the response, Xue Lei felt as if pardoned, kneeling nimbly to the side with practiced skill, brewing a cup of [Calming Flower Tea] emitting a faint blue glow for Annabell.
Annabell picked up the teacup and took a light sip.
It was indeed delicious. Only fitting for tea brewed by one of the protagonists.
Xue Lei, like the lowest-ranking maid, sat properly on the floor five steps away, waiting.
Judging by that muscle memory, how cruelly had the original owner trained her!
Seeing Annabell set down the teacup, Xue Lei took a deep breath, as if steeled by a certain resolve, and tremblingly pulled several black crystals radiating thick blood-red light from her bosom.
“E-Elder Sister… please accept my ‘tribute’…”
These were [Abyss Coagulated Blood Crystals].
They were hot commodities in the Trandy Family, capable of stimulating the awakening of dark magic within the body and raising the purity of demonic bloodline.
As a direct-line member, Xue Lei theoretically had the privilege of receiving allocations of this top-tier resource monthly.
But under the original owner’s tyranny, Xue Lei’s supplies had always been forcibly seized.
This could also be seen as paying protection money—by offering the crystals, Xue Lei could barely buy the right to avoid public executions.
The original owner called it “equivalent exchange of waste utilization”; in Xue Lei’s heart, it was naked, bone-crunching plunder.
Those family scum who secretly stuffed venomous spiders into her bedding and mixed sand into her meals were all tacitly approved by the original owner!
In fact, Xue Lei knew it clearly. Though these past months hadn’t been direct…
Facing Xue Lei’s voluntary tribute, Annabell, who wanted to be a good sister, shook her head:
“Take them back. I don’t need your crystals now.”
The moment the words landed, Xue Lei’s petite frame stiffened violently, sheer panic exploding in her eyes.
What?! She doesn’t want them?!
Does she have some newer, more twisted torture method waiting for me?
Or does she plan to sacrifice me alive at next month’s ceremony?!
That’s definitely it!
Only dead people’s belongings need no taking!
Thud! Xue Lei slid directly into a kneeling bow, her forehead striking the floor hard, humble to the extreme.
“I beg you! Please, Elder Sister, you must accept them!”
This was terrifying.
Someone accustomed to being extorted—when the bully suddenly says they won’t take anymore, she can only think the bully wants her life.
“Someone like me, garbage worse than a magic apprentice, can’t awaken any power anyway. I’m just an inferior mixed-blood with black hair. Using pure-blood crystals would be a waste of heaven’s gifts! Only when used on Elder Sister can they glorify our Trandy Family’s name!
“If I can provide even a sliver of mana replenishment for you, that would be my greatest honor! Please, don’t reject them!”
Xue Lei debased herself with the world’s most venomous words, even breaking into a pitiful, tearful tone.
Hearing that gut-wrenching self-deprecating PUA speech, Annabell’s heart nearly shattered.
Sister, I actually love you…
But if she gently helped her up and said “okay” right now, Xue Lei would surely die of cardiac arrest or have a mental breakdown on the spot.
The damage was already done. Making amends could only be gradual.
“Understood. Put them down.”
To set her sister’s mind at ease, Annabell reluctantly accepted the crystals.
Sure enough, seeing her sister accept the “protection money,” the despair and fear in Xue Lei’s eyes dissipated just a little. She scrambled to bow and retreat.
Watching her sister’s thin, tiptoeing figure flee as if walking on thin ice, Annabell clenched the crystals in her hand.
“Sigh, poor girl. I’ll take it one step at a time.
“First, that damned Abyss Blood Sacrifice—it must be utterly destroyed!”
At the castle’s edge, a dark, drafty underground storage room.
This was the “dog kennel” Xue Lei had arranged for herself.
Returning here, Xue Lei bit her pale lips hard until blood seeped out.
Suppressing the slight tremor in her body, she slowly stood before a full-length mirror covered in cracks.
The moment she heard Annabell had returned from the academy, the suffocating darkness that had shrouded her for over a decade flooded over her like a tidal wave.
She feared her sister.
Greatly! Extremely! Bone-deep fear!
She hated her sister.
Hated her enough to grind her teeth to dust in the middle of the night!
She wished she could drink her blood and eat her flesh!
Yet they were the closest of sisters!
That was the most absurd part—the one who hurt her most was the one most obligated to protect her.
“Despairing? In pain?”
“Pain is right. Without pain, how could you remember this humiliation?”
“Wake up, you pathetic waste. You’re just a pig raised by the Trandy Family, a sheep waiting for slaughter.”
“Guess what? Why did that lofty, perfect elder sister suddenly come home?”
“Hehehehe… Think with that stupid brain of yours. Did she come back to chat? Of course, she’s here to squeeze the last drop of marrow from your bones at the ceremony!”
In the mirror, the reflection that should have mimicked Xue Lei’s movements was now moving on its own.
The mirrored Xue Lei grinned with an exaggerated mouth, crimson demonic light flickering in her eyes, letting out mocking laughter.
Xue Lei shuddered violently, clamping her hands over her ears:
“No… that’s not true… When I was little, she taught me how to condense fireballs. She said she’d protect me forever even if I had black hair…”
The monster in the mirror laughed even louder:
“Hilarious. And then? Have those years of whipping felt good? Has having your organs corroded by mana felt nice? A child’s empty words, and you treat them as faith? You’re an incurably stupid fool!”
“You clearly have all-element talents that rival hers, so why—”
“Even your breathing is wrong! Because in her eyes, you’re a stain on the bloodline! Without power, Father won’t even glance at you!”
Xue Lei took a deep breath, her fear-twisted expression gradually settling into a dead-calm stillness under the weight of immense resentment.
“What… does she plan to do at the ceremony?”
The red-eyed monster pressed close to the glass, staring coldly at Xue Lei in the mirror, its voice frigid as bone:
“Curious, aren’t you?”
“Go to the [Forbidden Grand Library] in the east tower. On the bottom floor, third shelf, there are secret scrolls about the Abyss Blood Sacrifice. Read them, and you’ll be completely disillusioned.”
Xue Lei’s face was blank:
“You’ve been lurking in my mental domain for three years, constantly luring me toward dark magic. What exactly are you?”
The reflection in the mirror showed a maddeningly eerie grin.
“Me? I’m you, my dear.”
Crash!
Xue Lei punched the mirror with a blank expression, blood dripping from her knuckles.
In the hundreds of scattered glass shards on the floor, hundreds of Xue Leis with crimson eyes were reflected, all laughing in unison:
“Physics can’t break this, you know. Abandon your hypocritical light, and embrace the Abyss!”
Xue Lei casually tore off a strip of rag to wrap her bleeding fist, didn’t waste another word, turned and walked into the darkness, heading toward the Forbidden Grand Library.