The Real Heiress Just Wants to Be a Lazy Fish - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: Original Nature

The expression on Tao Yitong’s face shifted instantly as she arrived before her Master’s grave. The tomb had been tampered with; the soil was freshly overturned.

“Master…”

“You truly were farsighted.”

Her Master’s ashes weren’t actually here. She had predicted that “people” might come seeking revenge in the future, so this grave was merely a decoy. It seemed someone had indeed been fooled; they had likely dug three feet deep without finding the urn and were probably fuming by now.

There were cracks on a nearby stone, likely from a frustrated kick after the intruder realized they’d been played. The prime suspect was the Deviant Demon she encountered last night after all, it was her Master who had personally locked that creature away.

As she struggled to recall something her Master had once mentioned about a “special” Deviant Demon, Jiang Zitan walked over.

The Ancient Battlefield

Although the monsters within the ancient battlefield were rioting, for some unknown reason, the overall foul energy of the area was being weakened. Tao Yitong gathered a group of A-class espers to enter the battlefield and ordered everyone below A-class to evacuate temporarily.

“The energy here… it feels like jumping into a deep fryer and then having a bowl of water splashed in.” The colleague responsible for reconnaissance was sensitive to energy fluctuations. Originally, the place felt like a vat of hot oil still, but containing terrifying power. Now, it was like that oil had met water; it had completely exploded.

“What’s happening? Why the sudden change? Is it a problem with the Inner Layer Tao mentioned?”

Seeing her colleagues’ questioning gazes, Tao Yitong frowned and shook her head. She suspected the anomaly was related to the stars in the sky. If it were the power of the Inner Layer, the monsters should be strengthened, not weakened.

The Night of the Attack (Flashback)

Starlight, stars… Jiang Zitan stood silently. The black gauze mask didn’t hinder her vision in the dark as Tao Yitong had assumed; on the contrary, it had no effect at all. Thus, she could clearly see every micro-expression on Tao Yitong’s face.

Tao Yitong’s features were like a rose in full bloom gorgeous and vibrant, just like her name. Even now, with her face pale and lips colorless, looking like a battered lotus after a rainstorm, she was still beautiful. Aside from her slightly furrowed brows, she showed almost no sign of pain or discomfort. This Tao Yitong deviated so sharply from Jiang Zitan’s perception that a strange sense of unfamiliarity arose.

However, in some regards, her willfulness remained unchanged.

Jiang Zitan turned her gaze to the night outside, her tone flat. “I am not a doctor. I cannot save you.”

Tao Yitong smiled. “Doing nothing is saving me. Otherwise, the more you do, the faster I might die.”

Though weak, her words were clear, and her voice was steady lacking the forced, superficial softness she usually employed. Jiang Zitan’s gaze flickered; this was a warning not to call an ambulance or notify anyone.

A breeze, so faint it was almost negligible, brushed their faces. Amidst the rustle of fabric, the girl crouched before her. One could imagine the eyes behind the black gauze staring intensely. “You know who tried to kill you?”

“I don’t recognize him.” Tao Yitong tapped her forehead with a cold finger. “But I know he isn’t an ordinary person.”

The original owner’s memory held no impression of a man in black wielding a “special effects” blade. Everything was supposed to follow the book’s plot; it seemed the world only began to mutate once she arrived. Tao Yitong didn’t think her “butterfly wings” were that powerful it was more likely the world was strange from the start, containing things the original owner never saw and the book never recorded.

Was it a coincidence that a mysterious man with supernatural powers came to kill a “villainous supporting character”? In reality, there might be coincidences, but not for characters in a plot. Based on this, she suspected that if she let this mysterious girl call an ambulance, the girl would vanish just like the man, leaving her to investigate a cold trail from scratch. It was better to seize the clue right in front of her.

She locked eyes with the girl. “Likewise, I don’t know you. It’s too coincidental for you to appear in my house; you must be after him.”

The girl’s lips pressed thin. After a moment, she said, “You won’t go to the hospital, you won’t call the police, you won’t seek help, and you don’t intend to notify your family.” Her voice was cold. “You don’t trust them.”

In truth, the Tao family’s character was trustworthy they had let the original owner run wild out of sentimentality. Her tragic end in the book was entirely of her own making. But this murder was bizarre, and Yitong wasn’t the “original.” She feared that before she could solve anything, the Tao family would find her flaws and send her to a temple for an exorcism. Plus, given the original owner’s current reputation, they might just think she was playing another trick.

Jiang Zitan sensed the distrust. She felt a flash of displeasure, followed by an unavoidable chill in her heart. Tao Yitong seemed stunned by the question, lowering her eyelashes and showing a rare, silent stillness.

“Right now, I truly only trust you.”

Jiang Zitan froze. A massive sense of absurdity rose in her heart. If Tao Yitong could see her face and knew who she was, she would realize how laughable that sentence was. She actually did laugh a slight curve of the lips, cold and satirical like falling frost.

“You saved me.” Tao Yitong partially closed her eyes, exhausted, yet her tone remained nonchalant. “I’m a failure of a person; countless people probably want me dead. Perhaps you are the only one willing to save me.”

If killing weren’t illegal, the original owner would have died a thousand times over. Perhaps only this “Good Samaritan” would help her. Though she suspected this might be an acquaintance, nothing in her memories matched.

Jiang Zitan’s heart shuddered. She couldn’t tell if the girl was mocking herself or just talking nonsense. “You want me to stay and protect you.”

“Admitting it feels a bit thick-skinned.” Tao Yitong leaned back, trying to get comfortable. Aside from her hand still pressing her chest and a slower speech rate, she looked normal as if she wasn’t the one who just took a blade to the chest. “But I have no other choice. If the killer knows I’m alive, he’ll come back. Waiting for him is better than a needle in a haystack.”

“You can refuse me.” She opened her eyes. “I saw it your hand glowed when you pressed my wound. What was that? Magic?”

Jiang Zitan was silent for a moment. “It’s an Esper Ability.”

Her original plan was to leave after stabilizing her, but the plan changed. Tao Yitong was right: in some cases, waiting is easier than searching. Given the “Hunter’s” style, he would definitely return for a second strike if he knew the prey lived.

Tao Yitong’s performance tonight had overturned all her previous impressions. Jiang Zitan suspected she had a hidden identity. But in the end, she only said: “I will protect you until he is caught.”

Tao Yitong’s furrowed brow smoothed out. She looked up at her; when her peach-blossom eyes focused on someone, they seemed naturally full of affection.

The Journey to the Center

Tao Yitong suddenly recalled the deer rescuing her from the Inner Layer. She thought she might know the identity of the “Suspect Deer.”

“The current situation is in our favor. The key issue is our lack of manpower and the sheer size of the battlefield. we must go for a ‘decapitation’ strike eliminate the cannibal to quell the riot as quickly as possible.”

“But it’s unsettling. The Inner Layer made even you return in such a state. If those things see the light of day, I can’t imagine the catastrophe the mortal world would face,” a colleague sighed.

“The Inner Layer… perhaps only a God could control that.” Tao Yitong looked at the stars. “We can’t control it, and neither can that monster. It and I were both getting struck by lightning in there, so it won’t do that anytime soon.”

The Inner Layer was a bomb; if flipped over, it would kill everyone equally, including the cannibal. Now that it lacked its “Priest’s skin,” the entities there wouldn’t favor it.

“And its ambition is huge. It wants to become a God. That is the top priority.”

“Becoming a God? If a monster like that becomes a deity… I don’t know which is worse, that or the ancient battlefield opening up.”

“Don’t joke. The priority is finding the cannibal. Vice Captain Zhou, this is a wisp of soul I tore from it earlier. See if you can find it.” Tao Yitong pulled out a finger-long, faceless wooden doll a tool for sealing souls.

The Vice Captain of Team Three, an expert in soul capture, activated his ability. The blank face of the doll twisted into a distorted expression. “The location is indeed inside. I can’t be precise from here, but as we get closer, I can pinpoint it.”

“Then let’s move.”

The Truth of the Bite

“Aside from that one attack… but with your soul strength, that attack would only affect you for a few seconds! Everything else had nothing to do with me!”

Tao Yitong’s expression became quite colorful. So… she wasn’t influenced by the Deviant Demon. Her feelings for Jiang Zitan came from her own nature she was simply “attracted by beauty”?!

“My power only stirs up the emotions and desires already in your heart. At most, it just makes you face your inner self…” Song Ying prattled on.

“Enough.” Tao Yitong cut the topic short, not knowing how she would face Jiang Zitan later. “Let’s move on. Does the person who went missing last night have anything to do with you?”

“No! I don’t eat human flesh. Why would I kidnap a human?” the demon shook its head.

“Then what about the blood in my Master’s room? You must have killed that thing, right?”

At this, Song Ying’s face turned dark. “Who knows what you or An Zhiyue provoked. It was sneaking around trying to steal something and polluted the mountain with its blood. I couldn’t stand it, so I tore it apart.”

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