"Lord Bishop, please come in. My humble abode is quite simple, so please do not mind the mess."
Lynch enthusiastically pushed open the wooden door and made an inviting gesture.
Lalavina took a deep breath, tightly gripping the mithril scepter in her hand—as if this cold metal rod could bring her a shred of security.
She forced a dignified smile and sat down at the thoroughly scrubbed old wooden table in the living room.
"Please take a seat. I will go brew a pot of tea. I just roasted some wild tea leaves a couple of days ago, and the flavor is quite nice."
Lynch did not notice anything unusual about the Lord Bishop; after all, she had been putting on the airs of a holy maiden this entire time.
With a smiling greeting, he turned and ducked into the kitchen.
Lalavina was left all alone in the living room.
The surroundings were dead silent.
This quietness did not make her feel relaxed; instead, it felt like a pair of invisible hands choking her throat.
She did not even dare to look around, terrified she might see something she shouldn't in the shadows of the corners—like an evil spirit devouring a human soul, or a magic grimoire automatically writing curses.
Just as Lalavina was counting her heartbeats, feeling as though every second dragged on like a year.
Click.
The door leading to the bedroom gently opened.
"Lynch, do we have a guest?"
A cool, lazy voice drifted over.
Lalavina subconsciously turned her head.
She saw a young woman dressed in an off-white cotton lounge dress slowly walking out.
She had flowing silver hair like moonlight, skin so pale it was almost transparent, and features so exquisite she seemed like the gods' most perfect creation.
However.
When Lalavina's gaze met those deep, dark purple eyes.
Boom—!!
It was as if a nuclear bomb had instantly detonated in her mind.
Time stood still at this very moment.
Lalavina's pupils contracted violently—the instinctive fear response of a living creature facing its absolute natural predator.
She recognized these eyes.
She would recognize them even if they were turned to ash!
During that blood-red dusk half a year ago, it was the owner of this very face who hovered high above the heavens, looking down upon all living things as if they were trash, before casually waving her hand and unleashing a forbidden spell that reduced a hundred miles of land to scorched earth!
She was the source of her nightmares.
The ultimate terror of the entire Alfastia Continent.
—The Crimson Calamity, the World-Ending Witch, Xilu Philthemis!
"Urgh... Ah..."
Meaningless gurgling sounds escaped Lalavina's throat as her body reacted before her brain could.
Her knees gave way. That bone-deep instinct to submit to absolute power made her want to slide to her knees on the spot and prostrate herself before this supreme sovereign of the demon realm.
"Have mercy, Lady Witch! I am just a passing nobody! I do not want to die!!"
Just a split second before her knees touched the floor.
Felsy narrowed her eyes slightly.
An invisible yet utterly terrifying mental pressure, like an unseen giant hand, instantly propped up Lalavina's body while simultaneously sealing her mouth shut.
Immediately after, a bone-chilling voice exploded directly within Lalavina's mind:
[Shut up.]
[If you dare expose my identity, I will extract your soul and burn it like a sky lantern.]
Lalavina stiffened all over, then nodded frantically.
Felsy withdrew her pressure, her expression instantly returning to calm, as if the demon god exuding an aura of mountains of corpses and seas of blood just now was merely Lalavina's hallucination.
She walked to the table, casually pulled out a chair and sat down. Resting her chin on one hand, she absentmindedly appraised the nearly-soiled-herself bishop in front of her with the gaze of someone looking at a corpse.
At this moment, Lalavina's mind was in complete turmoil, an absolute storm of wind, rain, and hail.
"No way... Sister, how are you still alive?!"
"Doesn't everyone outside say you perished together with the Holy Son? That even your corpse was burned to ashes? Why are you here!"
"And... what kind of luck is this?! To avoid danger, I specifically requested a transfer to the safest place on the entire continent, the Norlent Territory, only to crash headfirst into the Witch's lair?!"
"How is this a sanctuary for retirement? This is clearly a demon's den! I want to go home, boohoo..."
Just as Lalavina was screaming internally, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Tea is served~"
Lynch walked out of the kitchen, cheerfully carrying a tray.
"I am so sorry, Lord Bishop, for keeping you waiting."
Lynch placed two steaming cups of tea on the table, then naturally walked over to Felsy. He rested a hand gently on her shoulder, a happy and proud smile appearing on his face:
"Let me introduce you. This is my wife, Felsy."
"Felsy, this is the newly appointed bishop, Lord Lalavina."
Staring at that hand resting on the World-Ending Witch's shoulder, Lalavina's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
It wasn't until this moment that she realized another thing.
That is to say... this man, who somehow managed to cultivate plants from the Demon Continent, was actually the Witch's husband?
This, this isn't right!
He clearly looks like an ordinary villager, and he doesn't exude the aura of an elite powerhouse at all.
Lalavina roared furiously in her mind.
"Bro, that is the Witch! That is a monster who can destroy the world with a flick of her finger! You actually dare to put your paws on her shoulder? Do you have a death wish?!"
However, the expected scene of Lynch being blown into a mist of blood on the spot did not occur.
The terrifying Lady Witch actually just tilted her head slightly. Although her face was expressionless, she did not push Lynch's hand away. Her eyes even... revealed a trace of bizarre docility?
"This world has gone mad..."
Lalavina felt like her brain had completely fried.
"Lord Bishop? What's wrong?"
Seeing Lalavina pale and trembling all over, Lynch couldn't help but ask with concern, "Are you feeling unwell? Or perhaps..."
He glanced at his beautiful wife, and a guess suddenly formed in his mind.
It seems she was stunned by Felsy's beauty!
Makes sense. Felsy's level of attractiveness would be in a completely different dimension even in the royal capital. Although this young bishop was also quite pretty, she would inevitably feel a bit inadequate in front of Felsy, right?
"Cough, cough... I-I'm fine..."
Lalavina snapped back to reality. Seeing Felsy staring dead at her, her desire to survive instantly skyrocketed.
She tremblingly picked up her teacup, attempting to cover up her loss of composure, and stammered:
"I... I was just... overwhelmed by... your esteemed wife's... elegance."
"Your wife truly is... capable of toppling nations... simply... terrifyingly so... ah no, breathtakingly beautiful!"
Lalavina was babbling incoherently. Her mind was thinking "terrifying," but her mouth was saying "toppling nations."
This was not flattery.
In myths and legends, those capable of "toppling nations" and causing the downfall of countries were usually witches. There was nothing wrong with that statement.
Hearing this, Lynch was instantly overjoyed.
"Hahaha, Lord Bishop is too kind."
Lynch waved his hand modestly, though his grin stretched from ear to ear. "She is just a bit pretty, that's all. She is actually quite introverted and rarely goes out. Just an ordinary housewife."
"A housewife?!"
Lalavina nearly spat out her tea.
"Big bro, you are calling the World-Ending Witch a housewife? What kind of setup is your household? A Demon Lord's castle?!"
She stole a glance at Felsy.
The esteemed Witch was holding a teacup, taking an elegant sip before saying flatly to Lynch, "The tea is a bit weak."
"Ah, I'll pay attention next time, next time," Lynch chuckled dismissively, reaching out to pinch Felsy's cheek.
The latter looked somewhat reluctant. After all, they had company. However, without the use of magic, her currently frail body simply couldn't dodge his hand.
Forget it.
Lucky him.
Watching this scene, Lalavina felt she had taken massive emotional damage as a single woman. At the same time, her worldview as a survivor completely shattered into dust.
This man...
He actually tamed the World-Ending Witch?!
Just who on earth is he!!
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
. 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!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
