As Shi Sheng’s words fell onto the crowd’s ears, the first few individuals who used their spirit energy started foaming at the mouth. Soon, they collapsed to the ground and started violently spasming. Ten seconds after, they had their last breath.
This sudden turn of events caused everyone’s expressions to drastically change.
“Shen Yaoguang, don’t think that all of our people are in here! Even if you’ve poisoned all of us, the ones outside will discover your plot sooner or later and come rescue us! You’re offending the entire Nine Provinces right now!!!”
“As if I was planning on doing anything to you lot.” Shi Sheng’s lips curled. “I only invited you all here just to watch the Rainbow Lotus being destroyed. Now that you lot have finally witnessed it, stop fucking hovering around me all the time!”
Shi Sheng tossed the now completely dim and withered Rainbow Lotus onto the ground below the stage and gloated., “Here’s the precious Rainbow Lotus you lot wanted. Go ahead and take a few more looks; this might be the last time you’ll ever get to see one in your lifetime.”
The surrounding crowd was angered to the point of puking blood. ‘This Shen Yaoguang is fucking crazy! She called us all here just to get us to witness the Rainbow Lotus losing its potency! So many hearts are dripping blood…’
At this moment, countless people had put Shen Yaoguang’s name onto their inner blacklist. ‘This woman has already played with us once, and she still dared to play with us again! Detestable!’
Jun Hanlin was currently standing in a corner. The expression under his mask was green. ‘This woman’s actions are really too unpredictable…
She destroyed the Rainbow Lotus just because everyone wouldn’t leave her be!
And previously, I thought I’d destroyed her backing and ruined her, but it turned out that I was actually helping her!’
At this point, Jun Hanlin seriously wondered if the reason behind her provocations had been because she’d known he’d act against the Shen Clan.
Shi Sheng seemed to have felt his stare for her gaze landed directly on him. That gaze was still as calm as ever.
He didn’t know why, but Jun Hanlin felt like she was still able to recognise him even under the mask.
Shi Sheng retracted her gaze after a few seconds. “The antidote will be given to you after you leave the city. Though, if you’re gutsy enough, you can reject it. Gutless ones, better to just take it.”
After a brief pause, she continued, “Other than making you feel weak and preventing you from using spirit energy, the poison doesn’t have any other side effects. I believe you guys won’t bow down to the dark side, right? I’m cheering for you!”
Pfft—
There was truly no such thing as the most shameless, only more shameless.
They couldn’t beat her up, and throwing insults were of no use at this point. These people felt quite stifled, indeed. ‘Now even taking the antidote has turned into a damn dilemma!’
……
Qin Langyue hadn’t expected this turn of events. Her chance to recover had been within her reach, but that chance has now been destroyed by Shen Yaoguang with her own hands.
At this moment, the hatred she had for that woman deepened.
Her gaze happened to have swept over the masked man, who was walking past her. A jade pendant was swinging from his waist—a very familiar-looking jade pendant.
“Jun Hanlin!” Qin Langyue suddenly approached him and grabbed his arm. “Jun Hanlin, why are you here?!”
She’d seen the jade pendant on Jun Hanlin before, but he hadn’t been wearing it the last time she saw him. Adding on to the fact that she hadn’t been paying much attention to him, she barely recognised the pendant when she’d seen it just now.
‘Jun Hanlin’s a fool, why would he be here? No wait… his aura is completely different.’
“Let go.” Jun Hanlin frowned and snapped. If he had the strength to, he’d have long since flung her off.
Although he couldn’t see the face underneath the veil, he would recognise that voice anywhere. It was Qin Langyue, his fiancée.
Ever since she had returned from Sunset Forest, she’d always covered herself completely with a black robe. And her attitude towards him had turned even worse than before; there were several times when she’d even hit him.
Of course Jun Hanlin wouldn’t treat her favourably.
“Lass, you’ve got the wrong person. There’s no way Seventh Prince could be here.” Zhong Shiyi hurriedly pulled Qin Langyue back.
“I haven’t gotten the wrong person, he’s Jun Hanlin.” Qin Langyue shook her head before sharply questioning him, “Jun Hanlin, you’re not a fool! You lied to me!”
“Fool? Ha… Sorry to disappoint you, but sadly, I’m not.” Jun Hanlin’s voice contained some hints of ridicule.
Seeing as how he was going to set his plan into motion upon his return, there was no longer a need for him to keep up the pretense.
“Why did you lie to me?” Qin Langyue used all her remaining strength to hold onto Jun Hanlin. She didn’t know why, but her heart was telling her to hold on to him tightly.
Jun Hanlin’s sharp gaze landed on Qin Langyue. “Why? Who do you think you are? Why should I have to explain myself to you?”
“I—” A hint of panic flashed through Qin Langyue’s eyes, but she quickly calmed down and spoke as if he was her last hope, “I’m your fiancée.”
“Well from now on, you’re not.” Jun Hanlin jerked his arm out of Qin Langyue’s grasp. Inwardly, he was smiling coldly. “Qin Langyue, you truly disgust me.”
Qin Langyue, you truly disgust me…
You truly disgust me…
Disgust me…
Those words reverberated throughout her mind, as if they had been set on repeat in her head. ‘How could he lie to me? He clearly isn’t a fool, so why did he lie to me? Why?’
The despair and hatred in her eyes was slowly being replaced by brutality.
By the time Zhong Shiyi had noticed something was wrong with Qin Langyue, it was already too late. She had already demonised[1].
Zhong Shiyi was the first casualty.
Once someone demonises, they lose all form of reason or conscience and will begin a widespread massacre. Furthermore, they are extremely obsessed with their heart’s demon[2].
And Qin Langyue’s heart demon was Shi Sheng.
Not long after, news of someone beginning a massacre in Four-Square City reached Shi Sheng’s ears. As the City Lord, Shi Sheng naturally had to go take a look.
Most of the people invited from outside still hadn’t left the city yet. After all, they didn’t have much energy left due to the poison, so it was already a wonder that they were able to walk as far as they had in the amount of time they’d taken.
No one had expected Qin Langyue to suddenly start a massacre. Many people were implicated and died quite tragically.
Why did Qin Langyue start a massacre, you may ask?
Ha ha. Can you use common sense to describe the actions of a person who’d been demonised?
In novels, whenever someone had demonised, even if they were on their last breaths, they’d still be able to activate another level of berserk to keep going.
By the time Shi Sheng arrived, Four-Square City’s forces had already surrounded Qin Langyue and were currently attacking her haphazardly.
The moment Shi Sheng showed up, Qin Langyue was like a predator that had caught the scent of prey; her pitch-black eyes immediately turned to stare at her. With a flash, she shot towards Shi Sheng.
Everywhere she passed, bits of flesh and blood sprayed.
The resulting wind caused her veil to flutter off and reveal her bark-like skin, causing everyone in the surroundings to suck in a cold breath.
‘Her figure’s clearly that of a young lady, so how come the face underneath the veil is so scary?’
“Shen Yaoguang… die!” Qin Langyue’s voice was strangely stiff, but the hate it contained was palpable.
Shi Sheng pulled out her sword.
At first, she’d planned on just coolly blocking Qin Langyue, but she underestimated the strength behind the attack, resulting in her figure stumbling backward ungracefully.
‘Oh fuck! Looks like demonised people actually deserve their reputation; this combat ability is through the roof!’
Her first hit having landed, Qin Langyue quickly made to attack a second time.
Shi Sheng put her focus into fighting back this time. Every once in a while, someone else would assist by attacking Qin Langyue and distracting her, giving Shi Sheng quite a few openings to attack.
Qin Langyue became extremely agitated from being repeatedly attacked and getting injured. Because of this, she dropped all thoughts of defending and just sprinted towards Shi Sheng, the darkness in her eyes wildly surging.
“Shen Yaoguang!”
Bu Jingyun’s voice suddenly rang out from behind her, nearly shattering Shi Sheng’s eardrums. Following which, a red shadow appeared in front of her and pushed her back.
BANG!
[1] The actual term is “入魔” and is used to describe someone who turned into a demon/devil due to extremely strong hatred/resentment or in some cases, is a consequence when you fail in breaking through to the next cultivation stage. So for the sake of simplicity, demonised.
[2] Just treat this as the opposite of heart’s desire. Someone you want to kill at any cost.