Elder San’s voice trembled with sheer excitement: “The Grand Duke has sent word—the sacred artifact core is nearly perfect. In seven days, on the red moon night, we will activate the abyss furnace ahead of schedule and carry out the final ‘soul imbuement sacrifice’!”
The elders below erupted into a frenzy, cheering like they’d been injected with adrenaline.
Annabell stayed silent, pricking up her ears and swiftly capturing useful information.
In the original book, this part was described vaguely—only that Annabell, the vicious villain, tried to cruelly sacrifice her sister to activate an ancient divine artifact, only for the sister to break through at the critical moment, escape, and destroy everything.
But the specific ritual process—today, she finally heard the details.
They actually planned to toss Xue Lei into the soul furnace as a living offering!
“That brat’s bloodline, thanks to long-term consumption of the black magic drug, is finally pure enough to qualify as kindling.”
“A frail body doesn’t matter. She’s meant to be a vessel anyway—to absorb the resentment and karmic fire the sacred artifact unleashes.”
“The key is her soul! The more despair and hatred her spirit endures while being eroded and dissolved by high heat and magic poison, the higher the mana conversion rate once she’s sealed into the artifact!”
“Hehehe, sure, grinding her spirit into a mindless vengeful wraith is pitiful, but this is all for the glory of our clan ruling the Continent!”
“Once we have these three abyss imperial weapons, the Royal Knight Order and all—they’ll have no choice but to kneel and lick our boots!”
In the maddened Main Hall, only Annabell clenched her fists tightly.
The more she listened, the more absurd it felt—throwing living people into an alchemy furnace, feeding the sacred artifact with bone, blood, and the agony of the soul.
“Animals! You’re all a bunch of animals!”
As she listened to these lunatics fervently sketching out their grand vision of conquering the Continent with this weapon, Elder San’s withered, bone-like hand directly pointed at Annabell:
“That worthless sister of yours—dying for your throne is her supreme honor!”
“Honor your whole damn family!”
Annabell’s heart was already screaming nonstop.
Not to mention that pulling this stunt would absolutely trigger her sister’s protagonist-level late-game stats and lead to a counter-kill.
Even without the whole transmigration novel premise, as a modern soul who’d gone through nine years of compulsory education, there was no way she’d stand by and watch these demons do this to a sixteen-year-old girl!
“This piece of junk—I’m going to smash it into scrap metal!”
Annabell lowered her gaze, a resolute cold glint flashing through her heterochromatic eyes.
Screw whether her mother would fly into a rage and break her legs. Screw whether the plan was watertight.
If she couldn’t even hold on to her own conscience and bottom line, what was the point of surviving? She had standards as a human being!
Besides, as a villain with extremely high talent, she didn’t need something like this to boost her power!
After enduring the two-hour-long freak symposium.
Annabell grew angrier with every word. None of the elders in the Elder Council cared one bit whether Xue Lei lived or died! In their eyes, this poor girl was just a sacrifice to fulfill the Duke’s House’s grand plan.
As for her as a person—no one gave a damn!
That also explained why, in the original work, this sister had darkened so completely.
This family had nothing worth her lingering over…
Shedding her heavy ceremonial robes, a weary Annabell returned to her luxurious penthouse late at night. Lying on the goose-down bed, her mind was a tangled mess.
She hoped the supplies she’d sent over the past few days would make the girl feel a little better.
“I wonder how that poor little thing Xue Lei is doing in the basement… Poor sister, how is your big sister supposed to save you?”
Annabell turned over, and on a whim, her hand drifted to the bracelet called the “contract seal” on her right wrist.
She’d been so swamped these past few days that she’d almost forgotten her dear wife, who was far away in the Empire’s territory!
This was bad—she hadn’t contacted her for days!
She tapped the bracelet and infused it with mana.
Good grief! The moment the long-distance communication connected, it started ringing “ding-ding-dang-dang” nonstop, the notification sounds almost blowing the top of her head off.
Annabell glanced at the mountain of message history and broke out in a cold sweat.
On the screen materialized a small, glowing figure, cheeks puffed with anger and tears at the corners of her eyes, pitifully wiping them away.
From the morning’s “Honey, are you busy?” to the noon’s “Why won’t Anna reply? Did you get seriously hurt? I’m coming to find you!”
Then to the afternoon’s completely panicked, frantic barrage of “Wuwuwu, don’t abandon me! You heartless, two-timing bad woman!”
The whole screen was filled with love-sick insecurity, giving Annabell a massive headache.
Annabell quickly sent a message: “Ahem, you there? I’ve been swamped with family matters these past two days and didn’t see…”
The moment it sent, the light projection connected instantly.
“Wuwuwu, you finally replied! I thought something had happened to you in the family!!”
Charlotte wept for joy on the other end.
“Wuwuwu, I was so worried I could die!”
Lao Nainai helplessly watched Charlotte alternate between crying and laughing.
At this moment, on the border of the duchy, at the far edge of the Deep Crimson Dragonbone Mountains, Lao Nainai looked at the girl before her and could only feel exasperated.
It had only been a day without contact, and she was already spiraling.
If not for her constant consoling, this silly girl probably would have run off to the Grand Duke’s territory to find Annabell.
She handled everything else with ease, but the moment it came to love, she turned into a fool.
Along the way, the master and disciple had run into quite a few troubles.
Charlotte, with her wits and Lao Nainai’s guidance, had resolved many problems.
They successfully ascended the Dragonbone Mountains.
After contending with several rivals, they finally locked onto the direction of the strange fire.
But Charlotte, who had consistently shown bravery, cunning, and decisiveness, had now fallen into a slump.
She’d lost her appetite, wore a worried frown all day, and was endlessly restless.
The reason? Annabell hadn’t replied to her messages for an entire day.
And it was getting worse. She’d start imagining her dear wife was in trouble, or… well, she just couldn’t stop overthinking.
That night, Annabell finally sent word.
Charlotte, whom Lao Nainai had failed to console no matter how hard she tried, finally broke into a smile through her tears.
She had so much pent-up grievance, yet it vanished in an instant over a single message from Annabell.
Lao Nainai was utterly helpless: “These two girls… Sigh.”
Annabell listened to Charlotte’s plan for capturing the strange fire, then urged her: “Be careful. Don’t let your guard down.”
Charlotte: “Don’t worry, Anna. With Teacher here, and I still have the Medicine God’s soul flame—I’ll be fine.”
Annabell: “But still, don’t be careless!”
Charlotte: “Also, Anna, from now on you have to think about me every day—morning and night, you have to send me messages!”
Annabell: “……”
Charlotte: “From now on, don’t ever make me unable to find you like this!”
Charlotte: “Otherwise—otherwise I’ll get really, really mad! Hmph hmph!”
Rarely, Annabell didn’t act tsundere and instead complied: “Fine, three times a day, alright?”
Charlotte: “Hehe, by the way, Anna, what have you been busy with these past few days?”
Annabell patiently explained—though, of course, she left out the sensitive intel about the blood sacrifice ritual and her fractured relationship with her sister, just saying she’d been helping out a cousin.
But mentioning a sister at all was the wrong move.
Charlotte was shocked: “Huh?! You have a sister? A cousin with shallow blood ties???”
Annabell: “Mm, yeah.”
Charlotte: “She must be just as beautiful and dashing as you. Then you must treat her super well! Wouldn’t she be super clingy with you? Like, clinging to you all day and refusing to let go!”
Annabell: “……”
Dream on. She’d chop me up any chance she got.
But wait—what was with this rising sour smell?!
Charlotte: “I’m so jealous! Why does she get to see you every day? Even if you’re sisters, that’s not allowed! Does the Grand Duke’s clan have some weird ancient custom? Like sleeping together? And bathing together too?”
Annabell was baffled.
Where did this aged vinegar come from?
Being jealous of her sister?
Annabell: “Calm down. Listen to my excuse—no wait, listen to my explanation!”
Charlotte: “I don’t care! If you don’t kiss me to prove your innocence—”