Truly deserving of the title “Cold and Aloof Succubus”

Deep in the night—

In a blink, a silver moon hung high in the sky.

The chirping of insects by the street didn’t make the night any less quiet.

“……”

Su Wanqing wasn’t asleep; she was simply staring blankly at the night view outside the window.

Chen Xueli had contacted her earlier in the afternoon.

The demon-slaying mission suddenly had some unfinished wrap-up work, so she wouldn’t be returning tonight and asked Ning Yuer to stay in her room.

Upon receiving this news, and hearing her disciple’s disappointed voice, Su Wanqing immediately guessed the rebellious disciple’s original intention.

She probably planned for Ning Yuer to stay next door, and then use the excuse of “no available rooms” to sleep with Su Wanqing!

Thankfully, she hadn’t succeeded, otherwise, who knew what might have happened tonight.

Tomorrow was the day to report to Li Ziyu. Looking at the demon core in her hand, Su Wanqing’s emotions were somewhat complex.

Shen Xianyue had discreetly slipped it to her when she was feigning unconsciousness.

It seemed that Shen Xianyue wasn’t as neurotic as she had imagined, at least that’s what she thought now.

Due to excessive tension at the time, she hadn’t thought things through, but now that she was calm, Su Wanqing finally understood everything.

Perhaps that girl hadn’t truly intended to threaten her with a do-or-die approach, at least not initially.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have given her the fox demon’s core without asking for anything in return.

However, in that situation, Shen Xianyue seemed to have been serious and really wanted to…

She must have still been influenced by Su Wanqing’s allure.

“Hoo—”

Looking at the twinkling stars outside the window and breathing in the slightly cool night air, Su Wanqing felt much better.

It was finally over—

She could finally return to her little mountain and continue to lay low.

Finally, she wouldn’t have to fear being targeted by anyone else.

In the afternoon, she had explained everything to Li Ziyu via their communication token and agreed on a time to report back.

However, she hadn’t disclosed anything about Chen Xueli and Shen Xianyue, only saying that she had encountered a rogue cultivator who saved her life.

That rogue cultivator had taken the fox demon’s corpse but left the demon core for her to complete the mission.

Although this explanation was a bit flimsy, it was the most suitable reason at the moment.

Li Ziyu wouldn’t be able to find any flaws in it, and of course, she probably wouldn’t care either.

After all, her mission was simply to eliminate the fox demon, and having its demon core was enough to report back.

Without a demon core, a demon generally couldn’t survive. And they would never allow someone to forcibly extract their demon core while alive.

But even if a demon had its core forcibly taken and miraculously survived, it wouldn’t pose any further threat.

It would not only revert to its original form, unable to cultivate again, but its sentience would also be extinguished, turning it into an ordinary animal.

Li Ziyu and Su Wanqing had agreed to meet tomorrow at Chen Shi (7-9 AM) at the tea house. At that time, Su Wanqing would hand over the demon core, and Li Ziyu would give her the reward.

After tomorrow, Su Wanqing would no longer worry about money. This fortune was enough for her to squander for several years.

She would also hand Ning Yuer over to Li Ziyu, and presumably, Li Ziyu would give her face.

After all, Ning Yuer’s talent was sufficient to join Hongxiu, though not qualified to become an elder’s disciple.

In any case, Su Wanqing would try her best to get Li Ziyu to take Ning Yuer as a disciple, but whether she would agree, or outwardly agree and then renege once they returned to Hongxiu, Su Wanqing couldn’t control.

As long as she sent the female lead away and disrupted everything, with her talent, she would grow regardless, so there was no need to worry.

“Oh, right…”

As if thinking of Ning Yuer, Su Wanqing remembered something else.

That was, Ning Yuer should be having nightmares every day now.

Then, as the plot unfolds, the decreasing frequency of nightmares would signify her complete severing of all earthly ties.

Since she remembered this, how could Su Wanqing let this opportunity slip by?

She wouldn’t miss such an easy chance to gain favorability.

After all, this was the last night, so leaving an even deeper impression on the female lead wouldn’t hurt.

Without further ado, Su Wanqing went to the adjacent room.

Sure enough, Ning Yuer was curled up on the bed, looking unwell.

Her small face was in extreme pain, brows furrowed, constantly muttering in her sleep.

Although her words were scattered, Su Wanqing, who knew her experiences, could roughly discern Ning Yuer’s nightmare.

“……”

“No… don’t abandon me.”

“Father, Mother…”

“I’m not! I’m not a bringer of disaster.”

“No! Mother…”

So, it was still about this matter?

Because of the abnormal color of her eyes, even her biological parents…

This feudal world truly was…

However, judging by the timeline, once this girl started cultivating, the color of her eyes should completely transform in about half a year.

By then, with a pair of golden eyes, even knowledgeable people would probably suspect if Ning Yuer had some special bloodline.

After all, gold seemed to be a noble bloodline in most worlds.

“Sigh—”

Su Wanqing had initially thought of comforting the girl by holding her, but then realized that might be going too far.

Ultimately, she pulled up a stool, sat by the bed, gently held the girl’s small hand in one of hers, and lightly patted her with the other to console her.

She didn’t know if this method would be effective, but it seemed this was how one typically comforted children.

“Mmm…”

Whether Su Wanqing’s actions of stroking her head and patting her back were truly effective, Ning Yuer’s surface emotions did stabilize significantly.

The girl’s brows gradually relaxed, and her sleep-talking slowly ceased.

The reason Su Wanqing didn’t use a more direct method to make Ning Yuer feel secure.

Was because she felt that if she did, this girl might be completely bent by her, and would definitely walk down a path of no return.

Doing it this way, Su Wanqing herself felt, would at most increase some favorability. Even if other thoughts arose, they wouldn’t be many and could be completely ignored.

By the time Ning Yuer arrived at Hongxiu, this faint, alternative emotion would also fade with time.

Soon, another day passed in the blink of an eye.

In the early morning, due to the nightmare, Ning Yuer woke up very early.

At first, she was still hazy and hadn’t fully recovered from the nightmare.

Only after realizing that all the events of yesterday were a terrifying nightmare did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.

And just as the girl wondered why the dream didn’t continue later, she saw Su Wanqing, holding her hand and sleeping soundly by the bed.

As if sensing Ning Yuer’s movement, Su Wanqing also gradually woke up. She was also a little dazed, but upon seeing the awake Ning Yuer, she instantly sobered up and awkwardly greeted her.

“M-morning…”

How did she suddenly fall asleep?

This… when did this girl wake up?

Could she have been staring at her sleeping for a while?

This was awkward…

“Mm, morning.”

To avoid Ning Yuer misunderstanding anything, Su Wanqing quickly withdrew the hand she was holding and explained:

“I saw you had a nightmare last night, so…”

“Mm, thank you…”

The atmosphere between the two was very awkward. They silently stared at each other, both pondering the current situation.

However, compared to Su Wanqing’s complexity, Ning Yuer’s mind was much simpler, filled only with warmth.

Su Wanqing didn’t know that although her thoughts were correct—that doing this wouldn’t cause normal people to have any other thoughts, only a sense of warmth from being cared for—

She overlooked one point: Ning Yuer was in a prolonged state of lacking love.

The care that Su Wanqing considered insignificant would be magnified tenfold, hundredfold, even a thousandfold in the girl’s eyes—

Sure enough, after just one day of interaction, Su Wanqing successfully attracted another Phoenix Heavenly Empress whose heart was completely devoted to her…

Truly worthy of the title “Cold and Alluring Succubus, King of Ten Thousand Females.”