CHAPTER 77
Secret High Order: Smiling Rage.
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However, after listening to a solid minute of this nonsense, Lu Xie raised her hand in a silencing motion.
"Hold it right there!" she demanded, her voice raspy.
Trisha paused. "Young Miss?"
"I never planned these with you," Lu Xie stated flatly, wiping the sleep crust from her eyes. "Who approved this? I am a Cultivator, not a debutante!"
>>>>>>>>>>>~^~<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Kush Heavenly Realm~
The Seventh Courtyard~
...
"Demoness Menlela was the one who planned your schedule," Trisha reported blankly.
Lu Xie's grey eyes clouded over. It looked like it was about to rain.
"Give me five."
Lu Xie dismissed Trisha with a wave of her hand, not bothering to hear the rest of the torture schedule.
Exactly five minutes later.
The door swung open.
Lu Xie stepped out looking so clean, fresh, and radiant that you would never believe she had looked like an abject horror just moments ago.
"Someone say, 'The power of cosmetics!'" Lu Xie praised herself, checking her reflection in a small hand mirror. She had skillfully covered the eye bags and dark circles with the precision of a master artist.
"Let's go."
She ushered Trisha out of the residence, the maid following silently in her wake.
Today, Lu Xie had decided to dress the part. She wore a flowing black lace gown with intricate gold patterns that shimmered in the sunlight, accompanied by a black face veil that added an air of dangerous mystery.
Ignoring the relentless gossipers along the way, she soon found herself before Lela's residence.
As expected, it was a paradise compared to her own humble abode. Lush step-trees provided shade, fountains bubbled with crystal clear water, and exotic fauna roamed freely.
Lu Xie sighed in appreciation.
She spotted Lela sitting at the edge of a large, pristine pond. The Demoness was an early bird, dressed in casual white attire that blended with her white hair—a fresh, serene sight compared to her usual crimson leather armor.
Lela's feet were dipped in the water, and several colorful tiny fish were nibbling at her toes.
"Greetings, Big Sis!" Lu Xie called out cheerily, running towards her.
HUM.
An invisible barrier suddenly solidified in the air, halting Lu Xie in her tracks just a few feet away.
"Stop right there, brat!" Lela yelled, her voice soft but carrying a terrifying weight, as if afraid she would scare the tiny aquatic life away.
She turned her head slowly.
"Now... tell me. What in the head of yours made you pick a Grade One Mission?"
Lela's voice was almost devoid of her usual carefree tone. But a strange smile lingered on her face. One that didn't match her expression.
"Congratulations! You've made this Demoness the talk of the Coven. Now everyone is asking me how I managed to fry your brain."
Lu Xie: "....."
Lu Xie stood frozen, her mental faculties struggling to process the situation. The pressure radiating from Lela was suffocating. It wasn't physical Qi; it was pure mental oppression.
'Mental Pressure... wait.'
At that moment, under the crushing weight of Lela's gaze, Lu Xie instinctively activated the manual she had memorized.
The Three Words Mantra.
Buzz.
A spark of clarity ignited in her mind. Her brain processed information faster. The fear vanished, replaced by cold logic. She looked past Lela's face and read her true emotions.
SMILING RAGE.
Lela was raging on the inside, a volcano ready to erupt, but she was smiling on the outside. But Lu Xie felt that the anger wasn't entirely directed at her. Something was causing her to rage on the inside, and it most definitely had something to do with her Lu Xie.
Lu Xie chose her words wisely.
"I wasn't being irrational, I promise," Lu Xie declared.
'A lie,'she confessed mentally. 'I was more impulsive than a hormonal teenager on a sugar rush.'
"Save it!" Lela's voice became icy, the water around her feet freezing slightly.
"Now you have two options. Make them eat their words... or make them eat their words!" Lela declared.
"You are going to begin serious training today. Your Master never loses face. In six months, you will not just join a team. You will lead an expedition into the Holy Gan Valley."
Lela clenched her fist unconsciously, crushing a pebble into dust.
"Big Sis... who dared to bully you?" Lu Xie asked, her eyes narrowing behind her veil. She already had a scenario in her head.
~A Brief Flashback Later~
Lela explained the yesterday's events, and it was exactly as Lu Xie had envisioned.
Bavna's Martial Guide, a rival Demoness, had used Lu Xie's "suicidal" registration to criticize Lela publicly in the Great Hall. She had denounced Lela as an incompetent teacher who let her disciples seek death.
And then, she dropped the gauntlet.
She declared that if the Lu Xie could actually lead an expedition into the Holy Gan Valley herself, she would bow down and call Lela "Grandmother" for the rest of her life.
Lu Xie frowned.
While it looked like they were attacking Lela on the surface, in actuality, it was a scheme to goad Lu Xie into taking the mission for real.
It wasn't too hard to complete a First Grade Mission if you had money. You could pay an Elder to join your team and babysit you.
However the cost of hiring an elder was basically greater than the rewards for completing a first grade mission.
But the rival knew Lu Xie was poor and weak. And "Leading" an expedition implied she had to be the core strength.
It was a humiliation trap.
'If I back down, Lela loses face. If I go and die, Lela loses a disciple and loses face. A deep scheme is at play... revenge, or perhaps something deeper?'
Lu Xie eyes smiled through her veil.
'Interesting!'