Facing Ji Liuyun’s questioning, Lu Ning felt slightly helpless.
But things had already come to this; she had no way to retreat.
Once she admitted to being the Sect Master of the Heavenly Demon Sect, the consequences would be even more terrifying.
She had to keep acting!
In an instant, Lu Ning’s small face, which was already pale with fright, was flooded with tears.
Her body trembled like a leaf in the wind.
She raised her hands high in a standard gesture of surrender, her voice thick with a sob.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty, you’ve wronged me!”
“This servant… this servant really is just a little maid who knows nothing!”
She played the role of a timid and cowardly palace maid to perfection.
Her large, watery eyes were filled with the purest fear and helplessness, as if she would faint from terror in the next second.
However, Ji Liuyun simply watched her performance quietly, her phoenix-like eyes showing no ripples of emotion.
“A little maid?”
A slight curve appeared at the corner of Ji Liuyun’s mouth.
“A little maid for whom my proud Imperial Sister would lock herself away in the Phoenix Palace for several days, not even hesitating to expend countless heavenly treasures to heal her?”
“A little maid whom the Saintess of the Heavenly Demon Sect would risk exposing her identity and storming the palace to rescue?”
“A little maid whom even a figure like Su Yuexi, the Master of the Myriad Flowers Valley, would subtly protect?”
With every sentence Ji Liuyun spoke, she took a step forward.
The terrifying pressure belonging to an emperor weighed down on Lu Ning’s heart like an invisible mountain.
Lu Ning’s face grew even paler.
She hadn’t expected Ji Liuyun to have seen through everything already.
It seemed she wouldn’t be so easy to fool.
Just as Lu Ning’s mind was racing, thinking of how to salvage the situation, Gu Qinghuan, who was standing to the side, suddenly laughed.
She took a step forward, shielding Lu Ning behind her.
Her cold eyes met Ji Liuyun’s gaze without a hint of fear.
“Your Majesty, you are correct.”
Gu Qinghuan’s voice carried a hint of playfulness.
“She is indeed no ordinary little maid.”
As she spoke, she gently stroked Lu Ning’s cheek, the gesture filled with provocative intent.
“She is the one I kidnapped from your study. You should know better than I do exactly who she is.”
Ji Liuyun looked at her bold and fearless manner, her brows furrowing slightly.
“It seems you believe that by holding my Imperial Sister and this little maid hostage, you have the capital to negotiate with me?”
Ji Liuyun’s tone was filled with ill intent.
“Correct,” Gu Qinghuan admitted frankly.
“Your Imperial Sister’s mind is currently like that of a three-year-old child, and I have placed a seal upon her soul. If you wish to make a move, you are more than welcome to try.”
Gu Qinghuan did not back down an inch.
As the two women locked eyes, invisible sparks seemed to flicker in the air.
Seeing the two of them at daggers drawn, Su Yuexi, who stood nearby, wore a helpless and bitter smile on her gentle face.
She knew she had to step in and smooth things over.
“Your Majesty, Sister Qinghuan is only acting out of urgency. She has no intention of becoming an enemy of the Great Desolate Empire,” Su Yuexi said softly.
“We only wish to take our old friend and leave safely. We hope Your Majesty can make things easy for us.”
“Easy?” Ji Liuyun sneered.
“You break into my palace, destroy my halls, and kidnap my Imperial Sister, and now you want me to make things easy for you? Su Yuexi, do you truly think I am made of clay?”
At that moment, Nanny Yun, who had been standing behind Ji Liuyun, suddenly shifted her clouded eyes.
Her gaze, which had been as calm as an ancient well, fell upon Lu Ning, who was being protected by Gu Qinghuan.
Though this “little maid” had behaved timidly and cowardly from the moment she appeared, there was a faint, lingering sense of incongruity about her.
Nanny Yun had lived for several hundred years and had seen countless geniuses and monsters.
She knew very well that a person’s temperament and gaze were difficult to fake.
Although the girl before her was trying her best to play the role of a weak and innocent person, the look she occasionally revealed — that deep-seated composure and calm — was definitely not something an ordinary maid could possess.
More importantly, the timing of her appearance and disappearance was far too coincidental.
The Sect Master of the Heavenly Demon Sect had just “vanished” from the Phoenix Palace, and then she appeared right afterward.
How could such a coincidence exist in this world?
A bold and terrifying suspicion slowly surfaced in Nanny Yun’s heart.
She took a silent step forward and used a secret transmission technique that only she and Ji Liuyun could hear.
“Your Majesty, there is a trick here. The appearance and disappearance of this little maid are far too coincidental. If this old servant is not mistaken, her true identity is very likely that missing great demon… Lu Ning, the Sect Master of the Heavenly Demon Sect.”
Nanny Yun’s voice was like a thunderclap exploding in Ji Liuyun’s mind.
Ji Liuyun’s body jolted.
Her phoenix eyes suddenly widened as she looked in disbelief at Lu Ning, who was still hiding behind Gu Qinghuan and acting pitiful.
‘Lu Ning…’
‘A’Ning…’
‘So that’s how it is…’
‘So that was it!’
In an instant, all the doubts and confusion, all the abnormalities, finally had an answer.
Why would her Imperial Sister bring a “little maid” back to her private quarters?
Why would her Imperial Sister sacrifice countless heavenly treasures to “heal” her?
Why would her Imperial Sister lose her composure and go mad after the Phoenix Palace was destroyed?
Why would the Saintess of the Heavenly Demon Sect and the Master of the Myriad Flowers Valley gather in the Capital for the sake of a “little maid”?
Because she wasn’t a little maid at all! She was that demon!
She was Lu Ning, the Sect Master of the Heavenly Demon Sect who had played everyone for fools!
“Heh… Hehehe…”
Ji Liuyun suddenly began to laugh lowly, her laughter filled with endless self-deprecation and fury.
She remembered her previous attempts to test and “interrogate” this “little maid” in the Zichen Palace.
She remembered how she had once worried about this “little maid’s” safety, even feeling a touch of pity for her.
Now, it seemed she was nothing more than a giant fool!
A pathetic creature played like a fiddle by that demon without even realizing it!
Boom—!
An indescribable, terrifying aura erupted from Ji Liuyun’s body!
The imperial pressure of the late Great Completion Stage instantly swept through the world!
“LU NING!”
Ji Liuyun’s phoenix eyes had turned blood-red, filled with soaring killing intent and the ultimate rage of being deceived.
She looked at Lu Ning, who was still feigning innocence, her voice trembling with emotion.
“Today, not a single one of you is leaving! I will make you truly understand the meaning of… THE EMPEROR’S WRATH!”
As her voice fell, Ji Liuyun’s figure vanished from her spot.
When she reappeared, she was already in front of Lu Ning.
In the next moment, a phoenix claw condensed from divine essence, carrying the terrifying power to tear the sky apart, lunged toward Lu Ning!
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