On the other side, as soon as Bai Ling walked into the courtyard, she immediately spotted the two of them lying on chairs with their legs crossed, soaking up the sun like a couple of grandpas.
"Ahem!"
She coughed lightly to signal her arrival.
"Hmm?" The two looked up at the same time. The moment they saw Bai Ling, their pupils shrank, and they sprang to their feet, standing as straight as soldiers!
"L-Lord Bai Ling, what brings you here?"
Ye Shu smiled apologetically, "You see, you didn't even tell us you were coming. I would have had the girls line up at the door to welcome you."
Bingxuanzi shrank back a bit, putting Ye Shu in front of him.
"Director Pei is quite leisurely."
Bai Ling glanced at the fruit peels on the table. "It's nothing much. After all, I'm the one who invited you to perform. Naturally, I need to come see for myself to be at ease, lest any mistakes occur."
Seeing that she wasn't angry, Ye Shu immediately let out a sigh of relief.
He hadn't expected such a big shot to have such a good temper.
He chuckled and pointed to the center of the courtyard, patting his chest in guarantee. "The girls are rehearsing in full swing right now. I promise to make this event absolutely beautiful for you!"
Bai Ling nodded and glanced over.
Led by little Qing Li, the dance was as graceful as a startled swan, agile yet elegant. The movements were grand and open but not vulgar. Even Bai Ling, who didn't know much about dance, could tell that this was an excellent performance.
"I remember your dance troupe didn't have this dance," Bai Ling suddenly asked.
"Haha, this is a new dance I carefully rushed out overnight for the performance in the Holy City, specially dedicated as a gift to the Queen."
Ye Shu laughed with a somewhat fawning expression.
How would he know what crappy dances this troupe had before? Fortunately, after cultivating immortality, his mind had cleared up and his memory had grown much stronger. A dance he had occasionally seen on TV in his previous life had been transformed into his own creation in this world.
Bai Ling nodded and asked no more, simply watching the dancing girls quietly.
After watching for a while, she seemed to lose interest.
"Come here, I have something to tell you in private." Bai Ling suddenly beckoned to Ye Shu.
Ye Shu's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly followed her.
"What is it, Lord Bai Ling?"
At this moment, he still hadn't realized the severity of the problem.
But in the next second, Ye Shu was going to be drenched in sweat.
Bai Ling stared at him with a serious face, her eyes gradually turning cold. She enunciated every word clearly, "There is a problem with your dance troupe. Confess honestly, did you come here with intentions to harm the Queen!"
"Wh... What?"
Ye Shu was startled. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, making his clothes stick wetly to him, and even his breathing quickened significantly.
He wasn't acting now; it was real.
A fear stemming from the bottom of his heart.
Because this move was completely out of his expectations. Had he exposed himself? But that was impossible! He clearly hadn't shown any flaws. He was just purely rehearsing the program. There were no witnesses when he dealt with Pei Yong, and even when he hired The Gay Four, he had disguised Pei Yong in advance.
His disguise was so superb, so why?
Where exactly did the problem arise!!!
Ye Shu's mind raced, and scenes flashed through his head, from first entering the desert to the fierce battle with Bingxuanzi, and then to impersonating the half-snake dance troupe... No, there were no flaws.
Wait!
A terrifying thought flashed across his mind.
Could it be... Bai Ling had also been reborn?
Then that was too fucking terrifying, right? This damn system didn't even spare the female villains. No, she wasn't even a female villain, just a random female villainous extra on the side of the road.
But that wasn't right either!
Because he had already confirmed it with Little White.
In this part of the original plot, he hadn't infiltrated through the dance troupe at all. This was merely a background setting.
Damn it, why on earth was this happening?
Ye Shu racked his brains but couldn't figure it out.
N-No good.
He couldn't keep messing up his own footing like this; it would only make the situation worse. Maybe she was just bluffing?
But there's no smoke without fire in this world.
For her to say that, she must have noticed something.
The top priority was to calm down first.
Ye Shu took a deep breath in his heart, but on the surface, he acted extremely humble and submissive. His body trembled, almost bursting into tears, and his voice choked with emotion, "Lord Bai Ling, I am just an ordinary person running a dance troupe. How could I possibly do anything detrimental to the Holy City? Besides, what could a lowly Foundation Establishment cultivator like me even do?"
Hearing this, Bai Ling sneered. Pointing at Bingxuanzi in the black robe in the distance, she said word by word, "You can't do anything, but it's hard to say about that guy..."
Wh-What?
Ye Shu was greatly alarmed.
It was completely over now. He had thought it was just a blind cat finding a dead mouse, but this woman had actually seen through Bingxuanzi's disguise. That couldn't be called a coincidence!
My life is forfeit!
"L-Lord, I don't understand what you're talking about. He's just my personal bodyguard. It's absolutely impossible for him to harm the Queen..." Ye Shu still tried to defend himself.
"Still making excuses."
Bai Ling chuckled lightly and slowly approached.
"The identity of your personal bodyguard is not simple. Bingxuanzi, nicknamed the Martial Maniac, once trespassed into the Holy City and fought a great battle with the Queen. After being defeated by the Queen, his cultivation was sealed, and he fled in panic. Later, he was even put on the wanted list by the Snake-men tribe..."
As she narrated, the beads of sweat on Ye Shu's forehead multiplied, and his heartbeat sounded like beating drums.
Why on earth was this happening?
Where exactly was the flaw?
Finally, Bai Ling was extremely close to Ye Shu.
She leaned in slightly, bypassing Ye Shu's face to get close to his ear. A sinister smile slowly curled up the corners of her mouth. "Director Pei, you wouldn't want... the fact that you brought a mortal enemy of the Snake-men tribe to sneak into the Holy City to be discovered by others, would you?"
Hearing this, Ye Shu's entire body stiffened.
Wh-What did she mean by this?
This familiar tone of voice... could the next step be... Ye Shu glanced at Bai Ling's breathtakingly beautiful face and subconsciously swallowed a gulp of saliva.
Actually... it wouldn't be impossible.
"Wh... What do you want me to do?" Ye Shu tried his best to make his voice sound a bit trembling and resistant, so he could better immerse himself in his role.
Don't misunderstand, just immersing himself in the role of Pei Yong.
"Hehe..."
Bai Ling laughed sinisterly, her breath smelling like orchids.
"What I want is very simple. I want you to... hand him over to me."
Hearing this, Ye Shu looked disappointed.
What the heck.
So she didn't want him?
"What do you want him for?" Ye Shu was a bit confused.
"Don't worry about that. You just need to hand him over to me, then keep your mouth shut tightly and don't let anyone know." Bai Ling's voice was very soft, but it carried a faint sense of threat.
"This..."
Ye Shu was still hesitating when Bingxuanzi's voice suddenly came from behind him.
"Agree to it."
Ye Shu froze for a moment. He turned his head and found that Bingxuanzi had walked up behind him at some point, looking solemn. "Agree to it. It's nothing for me to sacrifice myself for the greater good."
No, under what circumstances should I agree to her?
Ye Shu was completely dumbfounded.
But seeing his persistence, and knowing that he himself was just a nobody, refusing might cause further complications. Thus, he bowed down in fear and trepidation, "Y-Yes, I will follow Lord's orders completely."
"You are a smart person..."
A faint smile touched the corners of Bai Ling's lips as she led Bingxuanzi outside.
Ye Shu stared at their departing figures, feeling a bit bewildered and somewhat in a daze.
So, had he been exposed or not?
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
