The Real Heiress Just Wants to Be a Lazy Fish - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Going Home

While eating breakfast, Tao Yitong sent a message to Zhou Xinyue, telling her not to spread any baseless rumors to their old colleagues. However, she received no reply by the time they finished eating. Instead, Jiang Zitan was the first to notice her frequent habit of checking her phone.

The inn’s breakfast was simple: white rice porridge served with eggs and buns. The landlady had also prepared her own pickled vegetables to accompany the porridge.

Jiang Zitan took a sip of the porridge; she felt the chopped pickled vegetables were exceptionally sour today.

Finally, when Tao Yitong couldn’t help but let out her third sigh, Jiang Zitan finally asked, “Whose message are you waiting for?”

“It’s about that girl from earlier. She seems to have misunderstood something. I just don’t want any messy rumors spreading out,” Tao Yitong said, rubbing her forehead in a headache.

“Misunderstood?” Jiang Zitan’s hand holding the chopsticks paused slightly.

For a moment, Tao Yitong found it hard to speak. At that time, the landlady happened to go over to attend to other guests. Noticing no one was around, she whispered, “She might have misunderstood that the two of us are a couple.”

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep!!! Sharp alarms suddenly shrieked simultaneously across all the Special Affairs Bureau outposts surrounding the ancient battlefield. The news was immediately relayed to their respective provincial bureaus.

Inside the ancient battlefield, an abnormal surge of energy had directly broken through the internal space, shattering the barrier between the ancient battlefield and the outside world. Erupting along with this energy were the monsters and filth from within the battlefield.

Ordinarily, a stray monster might wander out from the outskirts, but those were few and far between. The monsters from the center were an entirely different concept. If they were allowed to swarm out and cause havoc, countless ordinary people living nearby would face catastrophe, and many families would be torn apart.

“How could this happen… How could the space of the ancient battlefield breach the boundary so directly! What is that power in the center? Scan its level!”

Several energy monitors flashed with red lights. The outskirts of the ancient battlefield inherently possessed energy fluctuations, but they usually stayed between D-class and E-class. Now, the readings on the energy monitors leaped directly to S-class and were still climbing!

The upper limit of the energy monitoring equipment had recently been updated. These were new instruments that had just been issued. They had barely unpacked them and hadn’t even warmed them up before seeing a reading above S-class for the first time.

S… S+…

The Banquet

The banquet venue was located halfway up the mountain. By the time Tao Yitong and her aunt arrived at the destination, it was nearly dusk, though the party hadn’t officially started.

Upon entering the hall, the aunt impatiently said she would find Tao Yitong’s sister for her, telling her to look around. She seemed completely oblivious to the numerous strange looks directed at Tao Yitong the moment they entered the villa hall.

Since discovering her aunt’s true face, the system viewed her like a child views a wicked stepmother, feeling that everything she did was calculated and malicious. It whispered, [Host, she definitely did this on purpose.

If the original owner were here in this awkward position, she certainly wouldn’t be able to stand so many mocking eyes and would surely hate the protagonist even more.

Tao Yitong, having adjusted her mindset, remained steady. Life, after all, was just about capturing a few demons and subduing a few monsters; there were always plenty of ghosts and goblins about. Moreover, the hunter from earlier hadn’t been caught yet. She just had to stay positive. It’s okay, as long as we always remember she is the enemy we need to deal with.

Tao Yitong sat down on a sofa with total composure, picking up a dessert from the table to taste leisurely while observing the arriving guests. The banquet hadn’t started, and the guests weren’t all there yet. Although many looked at her with odd expressions, none were her suspected targets.

Tao Yitong had very faint impressions of some of these people and didn’t know others at all. The only ones who caught her attention were three girls standing in the distance. The original owner hadn’t even remembered the names of the other two, so she didn’t know them, but the leader was one of the original owner’s rivals, named Xu Tingting.

She had large eyes and a somewhat haughty, yet youthful look—a doll-like, exquisite beauty. Her grudge with the original owner wasn’t actually the owner’s fault; it was because the look she desired most was the owner’s type of gorgeous beauty. When someone has what you don’t, you either admire or envy them. Xu Tingting was very envious. Since her family background was slightly inferior to the owner’s, she didn’t dare be sour to her face but often spoke ill behind her back.

The circle was small. When someone “kindly” delivered those words to the original owner’s ears, the owner’s fiery temper where she was always right whether she provoked you or not couldn’t bear it. The next time they met, she was directly sarcastic, crying Xu Tingting on the spot. Their feud was thus established.

Tao Yitong felt that a girl who would cry after losing an argument was unlikely to be capable of hiring an assassin. Since the suspicion was low, she lost interest, ignoring the other’s “predatory” gaze to comfortably search for the next target.

At that moment, the villa doors opened again. The system reminded her: Host, the protagonist has arrived.

The Breach

“Quick! Find a way to contact Captain Tao and report the situation to her! Everyone else, go to the breach above the ancient battlefield to prevent monsters from escaping!” The people outside took action immediately. Jammers, cordons, and various weapons were aimed at the gap above the ancient battlefield.

Worse still, the space at that breach was crumbling bit by bit. It likely wouldn’t be long before the ancient battlefield was completely exposed to the outside. Even constantly stabilizing and repairing the shattered space was just a drop in the bucket; the most important thing now was to quell this powerful energy quickly.

Tao Yitong didn’t need a report to see the energy soaring into the sky. She was actually very close to that place. When the energy erupted, parts of her body uncontrollably began to show signs of beast-transformation.

This power made her feel a threat to her life. Tao Yitong slightly narrowed her scarlet eyes. A word came to her mind Pseudo-God.

The vast and bright starry sky was covered once more. Without the threat from the night sky, the energy spread outward even more arrogantly.

Betrayal… Kill you! No…

Tao Yitong held her forehead. She tried to make contact with that energy, but before she could distinguish what it was, some consciousnesses were transmitted back to her. Those were twisted voices, wailing in unwilling agony and disbelief that an ant, weak in their eyes and only able to gain a foothold through their power, would one day backbite them!

Compared to death, perhaps this humiliation was what these legendary Ghost Kings found most unacceptable.

The power of many Ghost Kings and an unremarkable Underworld deity position were ultimately absorbed by “it,” giving birth to an unrecognized Pseudo-God. However, it was indeed about to acquire God-level power. Once it succeeded, the Ghost Kings would never have a chance to break free. They were restricted by a previously trapped contract and could not leave this fused entity on their own. Thus, their gaze turned to the outside world.

Just now, a power appeared in the ancient battlefield that felt somewhat familiar to them a ferocious beast, a young one. Since Tao Yitong’s soul was almost fused with Taotie, those Ghost Kings judged from her aura that she was a young, incompletely powered Taotie cub someone they could attempt to cooperate with.

Taotie, young Taotie… Save us, we have everything you need to grow!] [Come here, devour this despicable monster! It usurped the position of the Underworld deity; it is a great supplement for you! Eat it! Eat it quickly! Eat it…

Tao Yitong’s mind was filled with the allure of various voices: Eat it, eat it… For a Taotie, eating is an act that can never be resisted. Those Ghost Kings knew how to pique a Taotie’s interest.

Eat! A response indeed appeared deep within Tao Yitong’s soul. The Taotie, which had been sulking earlier, began to struggle frantically in her soul. When “someone” invited it to a grand feast, how could it not go?

But it was restricted by Tao Yitong. That wasn’t a feast; it was a “Hongmen Banquet” laced with poison. If she let Taotie devour such a massive power, it would definitely consume its master!

Tao Yitong had been trying every way to prevent this. She restricted Taotie’s feeding and her own, controlling the power of both sides in a balance to ensure she wouldn’t lose control. Fortunately, during her hardest days, she met Jiang Zitan. Taotie couldn’t use the sense of fullness she gained from her; it even avoided it. But now Taotie was going mad again, and her sister wasn’t here.

“Nng…” Tao Yitong covered her mouth. The fangs in her mouth emerged uncontrollably. She wanted to bite and gnaw on something; she was starving. Most of this hunger was transmitted to her by Taotie, so this kind of hunger could make one lose control!

When she came to her senses, Tao Yitong tasted blood. She had unknowingly bitten her own hand, her fangs piercing the skin. She remembered the legends about Taotie this monster, unable to control its appetite its whole life, finally devoured its own body in a frenzy.

Tao Yitong immediately withdrew her hand and scolded the constantly rowdy Taotie deep in her soul: “What are you going crazy for! Calm down! If you eat its stuff, aren’t you afraid of being poisoned to death?”

If it poisons you to death, fine just don’t drag me down with you.

The Courtyard

“I’m sorry.” Tao Yitong still refused. Knowing this path wouldn’t work, they could only leave in disappointment.

“Tongtong, are there signs that the locks or things in the yard have been moved?” Jiang Zitan asked.

Tao Yitong observed the layout of various items in the yard; they were exactly the same as in her memory, with no signs of movement. So she shook her head and said, “No. Maybe someone passed by my house and the child mistook them for a ghost.”

The yard here had a special arrangement; no ghosts or monsters should be able to get close. Tao Yitong continued walking inside. Just as she was about to open the door to the house, the hand that had just touched the door paused slightly.

Someone really has been inside.

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