"Oh? You say their relationship has progressed quite well these past few days—that's an unexpected pleasant surprise." When Leticia finally had time to find Lin Qingyu for a heart-to-heart about life, she heard this news from Bai Ling.
Xi Mengyao had been chatting more and more happily with Lin Qingyu over the past few days, and they were almost becoming good friends now.
The speed of this relationship development could practically be called ridiculous. Both these girls couldn't be considered ordinary people—Lin Qingyu was a Half-Elf with extremely high vigilance toward those around her.
And Xi Mengyao, as a newly popular small-time celebrity, obviously wouldn't so easily open her heart to others either.
"Anyway, from their conversations, you can tell their relationship has become quite good." Bai Ling sat beside Leticia, indicating this was fact.
"Eavesdropping on girls' private conversations—Miss Bai, you really are quite the villain."
"It's a necessary measure." Bai Ling didn't argue, since eavesdropping was indeed somewhat embarrassing to mention.
But as long as everyone kept their mouths shut, this matter could be treated as completely non-existent!
This was entirely for these two girls' own good, right? If they didn't monitor, and someone took advantage of their chatting time to launch a sneak attack, wouldn't that be quite problematic?
"Indeed quite necessary." Leticia nodded. Bai Ling's words weren't wrong—if it were her, she'd definitely arrange things the same way. "Has anything happened these past few days?"
Big events naturally hadn't occurred—if something major had happened, the two of them wouldn't be leisurely sitting in a car heading to that manor.
"Nothing major, just that Senior Songstress said she wanted to take a careful look around the manor." Bai Ling said. "After this incident ends, we might see this manor on the big screen."
Planning to use that place as a movie filming location?
"You have people watching her, right?" But Leticia still didn't quite trust Songstress. She could confirm there was a mole on their side, and Songstress's suspicion level was definitely higher than Xi Mengyao, who was an ordinary person.
Even Xi Mengyao was being monitored, so naturally Songstress would definitely be watched too, right?
Bai Ling nodded—she naturally understood this principle. "Mm, I've arranged for people to secretly follow her."
"Good then."
After saying this, they also arrived at their destination. Getting out of the car, the two immediately saw Xi Mengyao and Lin Qingyu sitting in the courtyard sunbathing.
Not far from them, Songstress was crouching on the ground doing something unknown.
Seeing Leticia and Bai Ling, Xi Mengyao was first to greet them both. "Good morning, Miss Bai, Miss Su."
"Miss Bai, Miss Qianqian, good morning." Then came the somewhat reserved Lin Qingyu.
They could see Bai Ling every day, but Leticia didn't appear here very often, so when Lin Qingyu saw Leticia, she knew something might be about to happen.
"Little Yu, how have you been considering what I mentioned to you before?" Bringing Lin Qingyu to another more spacious area, Leticia asked.
What she was referring to was naturally letting Lin Qingyu, with her help, make the elven race properly suffer a setback.
But Lin Qingyu looked quite uninterested in this proposal. "I still don't want to have any unnecessary entanglements with those people."
Although making Elves suffer would make her feel great, she still preferred to live quietly and peacefully. She didn't want to face those past matters again.
"Some things can't be escaped just because you want to escape them." Leticia said somewhat helplessly. Evangelyne was the Elven Empress—no matter how she denied it, she was still that empress.
She wanted to escape, and that was fine, but she couldn't escape.
Just like the former Leticia, she had also wanted to escape her responsibilities, but she quickly learned she couldn't escape.
For her sister's sake, and for her own, she had to become that empress.
Evangelyne was actually better off than Leticia in one respect—her relationship with her sister wasn't very good, so she only needed to become that empress for her own sake.
Otherwise, who knew if someday someone would shout about how a lowly Half-Elf deserved to possess elven royal blood and kill Evangelyne.
Now that Evangelyne held the identity of Elven Empress, those Elves who found her displeasing at least wouldn't act openly, since the crime of regicide was still somewhat difficult to bear.
But if someday Evangelyne was no longer empress, would a Half-Elf who had once been Elven Empress have any reason to live in this world?
The answer was obvious—she had no reason whatsoever to live in this world.
Even if she kept hiding in the human world, Elves would find ways to send this 'Her Majesty the Empress' to the underworld.
Unless she kept hiding under Bai Ling's protection, having Bai Ling protect her.
But this was simply impossible. Bai Ling could protect her temporarily but not forever. Besides, Lin Qingyu wasn't anyone special to Bai Ling—why should she demand Bai Ling always protect her?
Bai Ya was Bai Ling's own sister, but what about Lin Qingyu? Just a stranger met by chance.
"That surnamed Bai can't protect you forever. If you want to survive, you can only rely on yourself. Understand?"
Leticia's words made Lin Qingyu fall silent. She closed her eyes somewhat painfully—all of this was so real that she couldn't voice any rebuttal.
She had been escaping, escaping this problem.
Could escaping really solve everything? It couldn't solve anything.
She could escape only because of Flora's help, but Flora could only help her this much. The assistance a sealed deity could provide was very limited.
Flora couldn't help Lin Qingyu kill people—she could only give Lin Qingyu a chance to escape. But after that, the deity couldn't provide more substantial help.
"Moreover, it's not just Elves who have their eyes on you. That organization that attacked Xi Mengyao—their real target might be you." Leticia continued. "News that you escaped from the elven race with a divine artifact might have already been spread by some with ulterior motives."
"Even if the elven race gives up looking for you, for the sake of the divine artifact, those people won't let you go either."
"Ah, including me—who knows, maybe someday you'll be kidnapped by me threatening you to hand over the divine artifact."
"If it's Miss Qianqian asking me for the divine artifact, I might actually seriously consider it." Lin Qingyu said quietly. "I believe Miss Qianqian is a trustworthy person."
"Great, then give me that necklace and I'll guarantee your life safety." Leticia hummed.
"This..." Lin Qingyu smiled awkwardly. "If I leave this necklace, I'll return to my original appearance."
"Mm, its effect isn't permanent?"
"No, I need to wear it continuously to disguise my appearance." Lin Qingyu, or rather Evangelyne, explained. "Divine artifacts aren't invincible—the help they can provide is limited."
But being absorbed into a divine artifact was different. Facing a deity, even one restricted by rules, was still an extremely difficult matter.
"Forget it, forget it. Think about it some more. I'm not that interested in your necklace—I'm more interested in you as a person, and your identity." Leticia said to Lin Qingyu.
Even if Flora's necklace came into her hands, it wouldn't be very useful. Just the fact that Lin Qingyu said you had to wear the necklace to change appearance made Leticia feel it was useless.
Very few demons knew Leticia's true appearance anyway, and she had the best disguise magic—ordinary people simply couldn't detect any abnormalities.
Moreover, getting Flora to help her would also be difficult. Lin Qingyu had gained Flora's recognition, but Leticia didn't think she could get Flora to help her the same way Lin Qingyu did.
Deities ultimately couldn't be completely trusted.
"Before that, can Miss Qianqian tell me who you really are?" Lin Qingyu was quite curious about this girl's identity. She spoke with such authority and acted like an important figure—could she be the heir to some major demon noble family?
But those major demon noble families didn't seem to have such outstanding offspring as Miss Qianqian, at least Lin Qingyu hadn't heard of any.
Although the elven race's intelligence work wasn't great, they could still find out things like which major demon nobles had relatively outstanding descendants.
The Council of Elders didn't mind letting Lin Qingyu know such things, or rather they wanted Lin Qingyu to know.
To prevent this Half-Elf empress from offending those demon nobles at certain occasions.
Although the elven race wasn't afraid of demons, having an extra enemy for no reason was still quite disadvantageous.
"Me? You could say I'm your colleague."
"Eh? My... colleague?!" Lin Qingyu was stunned. What did she mean by colleague?
She only seemed to have one identity as Elven Empress, right?
Miss Qianqian said she was her colleague, so that meant she was...
"Leticia Infinoi?!" Lin Qingyu spoke this name with extremely shocked tone. This was the person she most envied and most admired.
Like herself, ascending the throne as a youth, but she had already unified the entire demon race by Leticia's age, becoming the true master of the demon race.
Yet she herself was like a puppet manipulated by those elders. Her actions, every word she spoke, were all predetermined.
A puppet—she could become empress only because her sister hadn't come of age. As soon as her sister gained the ability to become empress, Lin Qingyu didn't doubt she would die suddenly someday.
No one would care about the life or death of this empress, because her existence was only to prevent the empress position from being vacant.
"Actually... is it you?"
"What, don't believe it?" Leticia snorted. "I inherited this body type."
She thought it was her body type that made Lin Qingyu not dare believe she was the Demon King.
"No, no, it's just... who is Miss Bai then?" To actually be good friends with the Demon King—Miss Bai was too amazing.
Moreover, when Miss Bai interacted with Leticia, both acted so naturally, as if Leticia's Demon King identity was fake.
Could it be Miss Bai didn't know Leticia was the Demon King?
Lin Qingyu's intuition told her no.
Miss Bai definitely knew Leticia was the Demon King, but she could still treat Leticia this way—just how incredible must her identity be?
"Theoretically speaking, she's your mother's killer." After a moment of silence, Leticia patted Lin Qingyu's shoulder and said.
Mother's killer?!
Miss Bai was the Sword Saint?
For a moment, Lin Qingyu really wanted to rush back and grab Bai Ling's hands to properly thank her for killing her mother.
This might sound unfilial, but this was indeed Lin Qingyu's true feelings. The relationship between her and her mother couldn't be called loving, but rather irreconcilable.
If you asked who in the elven race was happiest after the Elven Empress died, even if Lin Qingyu couldn't be first, she could rank in the top few.
After all, after the Elven Empress gave birth to Lin Qingyu, she completely ignored her. As a Half-Elf, Lin Qingyu's childhood was truly tragic.
Anyone could bully her, and when she was bullied, her mother wouldn't care, because she was a Half-Elf—just an accident from her mother's momentary whim.
Her mother cared more about having a pure-blooded heir with her beloved (male), and after Lin Qingyu's sister was born, she received even less attention.
Oh, you couldn't say she received no attention—occasionally she would still be ordered around by her sister like a servant.
And after her mother was killed, because her sister was simply too young, the Council of Elders had no choice but to push this lowly Half-Elf Lin Qingyu onto the throne.
Actually, there were quite a few candidates for the throne at that time. Although the elven royal family seemed to have a single-line inheritance, there were still relatives within reasonable reach.
It's just that the elders felt that compared to those young and strong pure-blood Elves, the young and impure-blooded Lin Qingyu was easier to control.
And so, Lin Qingyu became this empress—a puppet empress.
"What I want to say is, I can help you become a true empress. You can eliminate everyone you find displeasing, including those elders, even your sister." Leticia rested her chin on her hand and said to Lin Qingyu.
"So what do I need to pay?" Lin Qingyu asked. She knew pie wouldn't fall from the sky—Leticia saying this must mean there was profit to be gained.
How could a Demon King help someone for no reason?
Leticia smiled. "Consider it an investment. An empress with a good relationship with me is better than that useless sister of yours."
"I want to hear the truth." If it were only this, Lin Qingyu felt Leticia wouldn't be so concerned about her affairs.
"Fine, fine. Actually, I just want you to make the elven race a bit more chaotic. As long as they're too busy to care for themselves, our demon race will have much less pressure."
"Make it a bit chaotic?" Lin Qingyu's eyes lit up. She also really wanted to make the elven race chaotic. If the elven race could decline under her hands, she'd be thrilled to death. "Then I think I can do it!"
Just thinking about being able to ruthlessly revenge herself against the elven race with her idol's help made her almost euphoric!
"What did you talk about with her? Why does she seem like a completely different person?" After Leticia finished talking with Lin Qingyu and returned, Bai Ling grabbed Leticia and asked.
Looking somewhat displeased at Bai Ling's hand grabbing her arm, Leticia, who was in a fairly good mood, decided not to bother with this person about such small matters.
"Just did some ideological work with her, helped her determine her future path." Leticia giggled.
After this incident ended and Bai Ling released Lin Qingyu, Leticia would immediately take over this Half-Elf who was already getting eager to try.
Send her back to the elven race, guide her in causing chaos, and help her sweep away enemies while at it.
For both sides, it was an incredibly bright future.
Bai Ling narrowed her eyes. She felt Leticia was definitely plotting some scheme behind the scenes.
"Then tell me what kind of ideological work you did with her."
"Heaven's secrets cannot be revealed. This is a little secret between her and me—you outsider shouldn't pry." Leticia quite annoyingly shook her head, making Bai Ling want to punch her head.
"We're cooperation partners. Is this how you cooperate with people?" Bai Ling asked indignantly.
Leticia naturally nodded. "Right. Things I think you should know, I'll definitely tell you, but the conversation between Little Yu and me just now doesn't happen to fall within that scope."
Bai Ling started grinding her teeth. She felt it necessary to let Leticia know she wasn't someone to be easily bullied either.
"What, want to hit someone? I tell you, I'll fight back." Leticia quickly hopped away from Bai Ling's vicinity. "Come on if you dare—I'm not afraid of you."
But her recent behavior basically wrote the word "coward" on her face.
So Bai Ling decisively drew her great sword and chased after Leticia.
Seeing the situation wasn't good, Leticia immediately ran. The two girls didn't use their extraordinary powers, just chased each other around the big courtyard like ordinary girls.
It's just that the sword in Bai Ling's hand looked a bit intimidating.
Watching Bai Ling and Leticia begin their emotional exchange as if no one else existed, Lin Qingyu and Xi Mengyao looked at each other and laughed simultaneously.
Who would have thought these two ladies had such childish sides?
Behind her laughter, Lin Qingyu was also somewhat curious about how the Demon King had gotten together with the Sword Saint.
The day her mother was killed, Leticia had also suffered the Sword Saint's assassination attempt. Although Leticia ultimately escaped, judging from various reports at the time, Leticia's condition was truly miserable.
This should have been an irreconcilable blood feud, right?
But why now could the Sword Saint and Demon King play around like ordinary good friends?
"It's getting late—shall we head back?" After laughing for a while, Xi Mengyao said to Lin Qingyu.
They had been sitting outside for quite a while now, so going back would be normal.
Lin Qingyu didn't suspect anything and nodded in agreement.
"Are you going back? I'll accompany you." Songstress, who happened to be passing by, heard the two girls' conversation and waved the small notebook in her hand, indicating she was about done too.
"Sure, Senior Zi can come with us." Xi Mengyao naturally wouldn't object.
Deliberately ignoring the two big shots still running around in the courtyard, Songstress led the two girls back into the house.
A gray-haired girl came walking toward them, covering her eyes and drawing something on the drawing board she held with a pen.
"Hello, Miss Xia." Xi Mengyao quickly dodged to avoid being knocked down by the blindfolded girl.
This girl had come over a few days ago. According to what she said, she was an active hero invited by Miss Bai to serve as external support.
However, Xi Mengyao hadn't seen anything special about this girl. These past few days, she had basically been wandering around the house with her eyes covered, occasionally bumping into things.
Including but not limited to walls, pillars, and the passing Xi Mengyao.
She said this was training, but this training method was really hard to understand.
Songstress deliberately kept some distance from the gray-haired girl, as if she and this person were naturally incompatible.
"Ah, by the voice it's Little Xi, so Little Yu must be there too." The gray-haired girl removed her eye mask and smiled at Xi Mengyao and Lin Qingyu. "Oh, and Senior Songstress too."
"Mm." Songstress responded without much reaction.
"Are you going back to your rooms? Little Xi's room is still being cleaned, so you might need to wait a bit before going in." Guild Leader said to the three girls before her.
"Then let's sit in my room for a while." Lin Qingyu offered.
"You do whatever you want. I still need to train, so I'll go first." Guild Leader didn't consider much—she put on her eye mask and continued groping forward in the darkness.
Then, under the three's gaze, she crashed head-first into the wall.
Choosing to ignore this strange girl, the three came to Lin Qingyu's room, which had just been cleaned and looked much tidier than usual.
Lin Qingyu walked to the water kettle, wanting to pour two glasses of water for her guests, but just as she gripped the kettle, a crisp snapping sound came from behind her.
"Ugh!" Lin Qingyu painfully covered her forehead—the sound caused her to feel intense headache.
She turned around to see Xi Mengyao with vacant eyes and Songstress looking at her with curiosity.
Who had snapped their fingers didn't need guessing.
"You can still stay conscious—truly surprising." Songstress walked before Lin Qingyu and examined her carefully. "Can't see anything special about you at all."
"Who are you?" Lin Qingyu wanted to escape but was pinned down by Songstress's hand on her shoulder. "You dare make a move here?"
Wasn't she afraid of dying?
"Choosing to act at this moment is naturally because this is the best opportunity." Songstress smiled. "Don't expect anyone to come save you. Even if they discover something's wrong, they can't rescue you."
Because when she acted, the magic formation had already activated.
These past few days of wandering around the manor weren't really random wandering—she was setting up formations.
Although she didn't understand the principles, the items the Divine Envoy had given her were quite reliable.
According to the Divine Envoy, once the formation was set up, she could choose a small area within this manor and spatially transfer all life forms within it.
Now the formation was complete, and her mission was about to be accomplished.
"I knew it was you!"
"It really is you."
The only problem was that the two people Songstress least wanted to see were moving too fast.