"Haven't you always wanted my inner core?" The demon god's eyes crinkled with laughter. "Now you're scared? Isn't it a little too late? Who was it that asked me for my inner core in front of everyone in the palace back then?"
Liu Lanyan's strength was like a bubble, bursting and disappearing with the slightest touch.
She lowered her head slightly and didn't speak, but her fingers kept twisting her clothes, which showed that she was very uneasy and struggling inside.
"What's wrong? Just say what you want to say." If anyone were nearby and saw the Demon God speak like this, their jaw would drop to the ground in astonishment.
When did the demon god ever have the patience to coax others into talking?
"Hmph, so what if you're powerful? Let me tell you, I'm not afraid of you. I want your inner core, I want to become the most powerful person." Liu Lanyan glared angrily at the demon god, her previous hesitation completely gone, clearly determined to get his inner core.
"Why should you be afraid of me? Who said anything to you?" The demon god looked at Liu Lanyan's wide eyes, which were like a kitten about to get its fur standing on end. She was so cute that he couldn't help but smile, and the icy coldness in his eyes melted into a pool of spring water.
"Aunt Qin said you can't offend her, and she even made me apologize to you..." Liu Lanyan's voice grew softer and softer as she spoke, and her arrogant demeanor gradually subsided.
Seeing Liu Lanyan slowly lower her head, filled with grievance, the Demon God laughed: "Then will you apologize to me?"
"Why should I apologize to you?" Liu Lanyan immediately raised her head high, staring defiantly at the Demon God, raising her hand, clenching her small fist, and threatening the Demon God, "I will definitely win, I will definitely become the strongest person."
"Alright, I'll wait." The demon god couldn't help but chuckle and reach out to touch Liu Lanyan's long hair, but with a snap, his hand stung as she slapped it away.
Looking at his slightly red hand, the demon god was momentarily lost in thought. How long had it been since he had been hit?
That memory feels so distant.
The demon god chuckled softly, showing no sign of anger, but his words suddenly turned as cold as the dead of winter, chilling one to the bone: "Have you seen enough?"
The person who had been hiding in the distance suddenly shivered. Even though the demon god hadn't looked over, he felt as if an invisible, cold blade had sliced through him, making his hair stand on end.
Knowing he could no longer hide, he shakily emerged from behind the tree, knelt down with a thud, and stammered, "Your...Your Excellency, I...I..."
The demon god didn't even turn his head, and simply uttered a single, decisive word—"Get lost."
The blunt words, however, brought the man a sense of relief. He scrambled to his feet and stumbled away as fast as he could, as if some ferocious beast was chasing him. It was truly astonishing.
With the troublesome fellow cleared away, the Demon God smiled and asked Liu Lanyan, "Lanyan, do you want to win the championship at the tasting competition?"
"Hmph, no need to think, I'm sure I can win the championship." Liu Lanyan's confidence made the Demon God laugh, and he repeatedly agreed, "Good, good, you will definitely win the championship."
As he spoke, he reached into the air with his left hand and a long sword appeared in his palm: "Here, take this. We'll use it at the rank-discussion meeting."
"I don't want your things. Aunt Qin said we can't just take things from other people." Liu Lanyan refused righteously.
The demon god looked at Liu Lanyan with amusement, never expecting that someone of his current status would be rejected when giving gifts.
"I am no ordinary person. If you can't even win the competition, how can you possibly take my inner core?" The demon god chuckled gently, using the tactic of coaxing a child.
Liu Lanyan tilted her head and thought for a while before reaching out to take it: "Okay."
"Then I look forward to your performance at the discussion meeting." After saying that, the demon god smiled and disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.
"Come out." After a while, Liu Lanyan spoke up.
"Miss, was that person a demon god?" Bingling's voice rang out, but no one appeared.
"There are people impersonating the Demon God?" Liu Lanyan asked, amused.
No one in the demon realm has ever dared to impersonate a demon god, right?
"Miss..." Bingling wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by Liu Lanyan. She didn't care about the Demon God.
"Put everything away, this is enough," Liu Lanyan instructed.
"Okay, I understand." Bingling carefully put away all the potions that Liu Lanyan had quietly given her earlier, and sighed inwardly, "As expected, Miss is resourceful. She managed to get so many precious potions in just two days."
"Go." Liu Lanyan waved her hand, feeling the icy aura disappear, leaving her all alone in the vast forest.
He then slightly tightened his grip on the longsword, raised it to his eyes, and examined the ancient-looking sword.
The scabbard was extremely ordinary, completely black, and its contents were indistinguishable.
Liu Lanyan glanced down at it twice, but instead of drawing the longsword, she casually put it away.
"Your Majesty..." Peng Zhen, who was waiting in the room to report something, suddenly saw the Demon God appear and hurriedly got up to pay his respects.
The demon god casually waved his hand and walked to his comfortable soft chair, leaning back against it.
"My Lord, there has been a discovery on the glacier." Peng Zhen informed the Demon God of this momentous news. His excitement was evident on his face. This was a problem that had kept them investigating for three hundred years, expending endless effort and energy, and finally they had made some progress.
"Wait until after the evaluation meeting in half a month." The Demon God's words were like a bucket of ice water, dousing Peng Zhen with a chill that went straight to the bone.
Three hundred years, a full three hundred years. They didn't know how much effort and how many lives they had spent to find out the information, and they still had to wait until after the discussion meeting was over to go and investigate.
Isn't this something that Your Majesty has always been thinking about?
How can we possibly endure this until the end of the product review conference?
Peng Zhen was astonished.
Discussion on taste... Discussion on taste, wait, could it be because of -- Liu Lanyan?
"Is Your Majesty worried about Liu Lanyan?" Peng Zhen asked incredulously.
There are sometimes casualties at the gatherings. Could it be that the Lord is worried about Liu Lanyan?
"Your Majesty, you can simply send someone to give the order, and Liu Lanyan will absolutely not suffer any harm." Peng Zhen pleaded earnestly from the side. The matter of the glacier was related to the Your Majesty's health, and the sooner this matter was resolved, the better for the Your Majesty would be.
"She won't get hurt," the demon god said with a confident smile.
Peng Zhen, however, did not take it seriously. Those who came to participate in the discussion were all outstanding young people, and some of them were ruthless and brave. Not to mention injury, death was also possible.
How could Liu Lanyan, a fool with no demonic power whatsoever, be unharmed?
As if sensing Peng Zhen's doubts, the Demon God smiled with satisfaction, a hint of pride in his eyes: "If the Dustless Sword can't even win in the ranking competition, what use is it?"
Peng Zhen was stunned by those words, his mind blank except for three large characters: "Dustless Sword".
That's not... Oh my god...
!
Chapter 30: Attitude Shift
"Lord, Lord, isn't the Dustless Sword..." Peng Zhen, a man who roamed the demon realm and regarded life and death as nothing, was so frightened by the words "Dustless Sword" that he stammered and couldn't utter a complete sentence.
"What's the problem?" The Demon God glanced at Peng Zhen casually and asked indifferently.
Just one glance, and it seemed as if the spring sunshine was floating around, but Peng Zhen was so frightened that he immediately shook his head repeatedly: "No problem, there's no problem at all."
The items belong to the Lord, and the Lord can give them to whomever he wishes.
However, if this thing were to appear at the auction... Peng Zhen no longer knew how he felt. Besides shock, he also felt a mischievous schadenfreude.
He was eager to see how others would react.
The commotion inside the Liu residence was far greater than it was here.
Liu Xinrong's wounds, which had just begun to heal, reopened due to her restless movements, causing her to bleed profusely.
"Father, what did you just say?" Liu Xinrong completely disregarded her injuries, staring wide-eyed in disbelief, thinking that her father had lost his mind to say such absurd things.
"I said, we should treat Liu Lanyan better." Liu Jinli looked at his daughter with heartache and quickly asked the maid to bring the best medicine to stop her bleeding.
Liu Xinrong, completely disregarding her injuries, urgently pressed, "Father, why should we be nice to that idiot? Why?"
“Now that she’s the one the Demon God has taken a liking to, we should naturally treat her well. In any case, being good to her will only bring us benefits.” Liu Jinli comforted Liu Xinrong, “Daughter, I know you’re not feeling well, so just bear with it for now.”
Liu Xinrong lowered her head, and no one could see her expression, which made Liu Jinli watch her nervously, afraid that she might do something foolish.
Just as Liu Jinli was about to say a few more words of advice, Liu Xinrong spoke first: "Father, I know. Let me have some peace and quiet."
After hearing what Liu Xinrong said, Liu Jinli realized that his daughter had come to terms with things, but he was still a little awkward about it.
"My dear daughter, bear with it for now, for the sake of our future. Once we've established ourselves, we won't need to go through this."
Liu Jinli's earnest persuasion was met with a soft "hmm" from Liu Xinrong. Liu Jinli knew that Liu Xinrong was unhappy at this moment, but seeing that she had agreed, he didn't say anything more, sighed softly, and left.
"You may all leave. Huancui, you stay." After Liu Jinli left, Liu Xinrong sent all the maids in the room away.
"Miss, please bear with it." Huan Cui gently applied ointment to Liu Xinrong's wound to stop the bleeding.
After the wound was re-bandaged, Huancui helped Liu Xinrong lie down: "Miss, please don't get agitated. Master's actions were just a temporary expedient."
"Sad?" Liu Xinrong gritted her teeth and sneered, "When Liu Lanyan's father was the Grand Elder, people said we were only benefiting from his family's influence. Now that my father has become the Grand Elder, he still has to support a fool like Liu Lanyan?"
"Why should a fool like her be engaged to Prince Yu Jinshuo? Why should she be treated differently by the Demon God?" Liu Xinrong's eyes flashed with venomous hatred. "When they were prosperous, they sent us money and gifts and mocked us. Now that they've fallen on hard times, they're sending a fool to stand in my way. No way!"
Liu Xinrong gritted her teeth and said coldly, "Since Liu Lanyan wants to participate in the Rank Discussion, I will let her know that her father's power has fallen and she is no longer the respected daughter of the Grand Elder. Now I am!"
"Miss, you mean..." Huan Cui understood immediately; her young mistress was not going to let the matter rest.
"Casualties are perfectly normal when it comes to food processing." Liu Xinrong smiled sinisterly, her eyes filled with a chilling aura, like a venomous snake lurking in the cold grass, waiting to strike its prey.
At the same time, Liu Lanyan looked down at the water glass in front of her, which reflected the scene in Liu Xinrong's room. She sighed softly and murmured, "Do you see? Father, the brotherhood you once valued is nothing but an insult to them."
Sharing good things with them is considered an insult, sigh...
"Miss, Miss, are you back?" Qin Xiu's voice rang out, and the door was suddenly opened.
"Oh dear, Miss, that water is for drinking, how did you put your hand in?" Qin Xiu lifted Liu Lanyan's arm and checked it anxiously. "Thankfully, there's no burn."
"Aunt Qin, are you going out to collect firewood again?" Liu Lanyan hurriedly got up to go outside to get a large bamboo basket.
"No, no." Qin Xiu excitedly grabbed Liu Lanyan's arm with a look of joy on her face. "It's because a maid has been sent for Miss. Miss, you've finally made it through."
Qin Xiu didn't care about her own life at all, as long as Liu Lanyan was doing well.
"A maid? To finally make it?" Liu Lanyan tilted her head, looking at Qin Xiu with confusion.
Qin Xiu excitedly wiped her eyes: "Miss, just wait a while, and I'll go to the Second Master and ask him to arrange your marriage with the Prince as soon as possible. Then, your life will be different."
"Oh." Liu Lanyan nodded as if she understood, and a commotion arose in the courtyard.
Upon hearing this, Qin Xiu quickly instructed Liu Lanyan, "Miss, please rest in the room first. I will go and show the newly arrived maids around the room."
Qin Xiu left quickly, carefully closing the door behind her to prevent the noise outside from disturbing Liu Lanyan's rest.
Liu Lanyan smiled slightly. Take care of? Let's keep an eye on her.