Having finished showing off and feeling satisfied, Annabell didn’t rest. She still had tedious work to do.
The bullying had been stopped, but the root of the problem remained.
If she wanted her little sister to be completely devoted as her trump card, she couldn’t just beat people up without drawing blood, right?
At that moment, Annabell was sitting cross-legged on the sofa in the family’s “Inner Affairs Logistics Pavilion,” coldly flipping through the <monthly family member subsidy distribution list> in front of her.
The Fat Steward sitting across from her was sweating profusely, like a fat pig awaiting slaughter.
You see, ever since word spread this morning about her crippling the three young masters, the whole city knew this Miss had a bloodthirsty mood today.
After a quick scan of the first page of the distribution list, Annabell’s name sat at the top. Magic crystals, shadow holy water, star stones… a whole page of items listed, and the amounts were enough to make even Annabell’s heart race.
Finally, she spotted Xue Lei’s name in the corner.
It was a miserable sight.
Basic allocation: the worst bread and a few low-grade blood fruits—just enough to keep her from starving, so she could serve as a sacrifice later.
As for the high-tier resource column, all of it was swan eggs!
No wonder she got one-shot critical hits when she turned around and slaughtered the original owner in the later story.
I’d cut her down too!
This was a blood-soaked history of the oppressed class being brutally exploited by the oppressors!
Annabell took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to dig up the original owner’s grave and whip the corpse again.
“Transfer everything to that Xue Lei’s name.”
She tapped her finger on the distribution list, her voice utterly flat.
“From this month onward, transfer all my shares, principal and interest, to that Xue Lei’s name.”
If the System had a notification sound right now, a bunch of red exclamation marks would be popping above the Fat Steward’s head.
“You mean… you want Xue Lei’s moldy blood fruits transferred to your name as snacks, right? I get it, I get it!”
The Fat Steward wiped his sweat and added with self-important cleverness.
“Well, uh, Miss, you probably slipped and clicked the wrong row. What you meant is…”
“Do you think my common language has an accent, or is your IQ just not enough?”
Annabell stared at him coldly.
“Transfer ALL my resource reserves to Xue Lei! If a single coin is missing, you can jump into the oil pot yourself to make up the difference!”
The steward’s brain flatlined.
She’s turned vegetarian, giving away all her wealth to charity?!
Holy crap!
What the hell is going on?!
The Miss suddenly had an epiphany and decided to hand over those mountain-sized piles of terrifying resources to that waste of a sister whom even the dogs wouldn’t bother with?!
But he didn’t dare say a word of objection.
If he provoked this crazy queen, not only would he lose his job, but he might also receive a little souvenir in the form of a “cold ice life-death talisman” that would sink deep into his bones.
“Understood, understood! Not just this month’s—I’ll have a top-tier actuary work overnight to cash out and package the last three years of inventory for the Second Miss!”
The steward frantically scribbled edits on the parchment, and with remarkable initiative, he also automatically redirected the shares of the three crippled young masters to Xue Lei.
Privileged class, right?
Sucking up to the boss is always the number one productivity.
Satisfied with settling the money problem, Annabell smiled and left the logistics office, heading toward the family’s most classified and heavily guarded location—the “Duke’s Treasury.”
Give a man money, and you feed him for a day; teach him skills, and he prospers for life.
This pitiful Xue Lei, one of those phoenix-rising-against-heaven types, didn’t even have a proper grimoire. All she had was trash fire spells you could buy from street vendors.
Such fine jade, and she wasn’t even using the Protagonist Halo’s signature out-level counter-kill style!
Annabell was determined to become a god-tier personal shopper this time.
At the entrance to the Abyss Secret Realm Treasury, Annabell directly whipped out the “Red Lotus Duke’s personal approval waist token” that she’d somehow had forged.
The Old Antique Steward guarding the treasury was about to verify its authenticity through the standard process when Annabell cut him off:
“My mom told me to go in myself. No yapping.”
She shoved the door open with overbearing force, not even bothering to look back at the old man throwing a tantrum behind her.
Does a Villainess Young Lady need to go through security checks?
Dream on.
Entering the treasury, the blinding high-level magical light effects felt like stepping into a game’s cheat zone.
Various magical tomes were stacked on shelves like cabbages at a market.
Annabell made a beeline for the highest-tier secret arts section.
After browsing for a long while—looking at the extreme dark annihilation body chapter on the left, thinking it had plenty of power but lacked self-preservation, then the deep space law meditation method on the right, finding it too support-oriented and missing the late-game domination value—
“Too hard to choose.”
As a deeply obsessive-compulsive player, Annabell stared at the three top-tier [abyss divine rank secret methods] she’d narrowed down, all compatible with any attribute constitution, and tugged at her hair in frustration.
Finally!
Annabell decided to uphold her fine tradition.
Kids make choices—I’ll take everything!
While Annabell was doing her crazy shopping spree, playing “the sugar mama of the arrogant number one,” down in the underground cramped cell.
Xue Lei had just learned that the three noble leaders who once bullied her were now cripples with destroyed mana cores, and the culprit was the sister she’d always feared the most!
Xue Lei clutched the tattered secret scroll she’d stolen from the bottom shelf of the bookshelf, her fingers digging into the parchment hard enough to tear small bloody holes.
“How… why did she suddenly do this?”
For a split second, within Xue Lei’s weed-infested, trauma-scarred heart, a poisonous mushroom named “expectation”—so absurd she couldn’t believe it herself—stubbornly sprouted.
Was this her standing up for her cowardly little sister?
Could that sister, who always looked at her with disdain and kicked her away… actually care about her?
“Pfft hahahahaha—”
A piercing, manic laugh exploded directly from her mind.
It was the Red Eyed Mirror Image, bearing her own face, sneering with the most extreme mockery.
“Oh, give it up, my foolish, pathetic spineless half! Even now, you’re still fantasizing about that cheap, twisted fake sisterly bond?”
“Use that rusty little walnut brain of yours and think!”
“She snapped those wastes in half because she’s just plain vicious and anti-human, alright…”
“Don’t add drama to yourself. In a few days, the one who’ll tear your heart out like peeling an orange is still that oh-so-glorious good sister basking in the spotlight.”
The other seed of malice in her head chattered endlessly, like millions of bone-eating venomous ants.
“Study this Abyss ritual thoroughly, and then personally… snap her neck, inch by inch.”
“I know your fear. I know your reluctance.”
“But it’s fine. Hand all your hatred to me, and once we—”
Cold sweat dripped down Xue Lei’s pale chin.
She stiffly lowered her head, and by the dim blue glow of the dungeon, she read the top-secret ancient scroll titled “forbidden ritual core process.”
Its contents nearly stopped her heart.
The core of the ritual wasn’t to sacrifice to the Abyss…
It was…
All her hopes, in the face of that cruel truth, instantly turned to dead ash darker than the Abyss itself.
In her despair-filled eyes, the last flicker of childish innocence was extinguished for good—
Sister, I won’t die like this!