To give this long-awaited greeting, Su Cha made quite a lot of preparations. Not only did he buy the things Ji Tianjin needed, but he also put together a whole photo printing setup.
After returning to their temporary base, he started developing the photos bag after bag. Ji Tianjin was both amused and helpless when he saw this: “Aren’t videos enough?”
Su Cha replied, “Not quite.”
He was planning to help Su Yeling hold a grand and romantic auction.
Just as Ji Tianjin was about to say something, his gaze landed on the black robe drying outside. He asked, “You’re going to wear that?”
Su Cha nodded. “To film a video.”
Ji Tianjin didn’t stop him from his antics and instead focused on modifying the projector.
While they were getting ready, the Gu master had already arrived at the Flower Demon Clan.
Su Yeling was also making his preparations.
Xia Yu’s earlier reminder made him reconsider his strategy. For Su Cha to dare hack the official website and send a threat, he clearly had some backup. It’s impossible to guard against someone lurking in the shadows, so he might as well open a breach himself.
The Gu master was completely covered, his appearance obscured, and his voice hoarse: “There aren’t many who specialize in this field anymore. My Gu worms can evade the perception of most experts.”
Since Xia Yu had recommended this person, Su Yeling trusted their skills.
Right then, Xia Yu called.
“The person has arrived.” Su Yeling glanced at the Gu master and walked to the window to take the call.
“You might as well create an opportunity for Su Cha to take the demon bead.”
Su Yeling said, “I’ll still keep my guard up. If he can take it, that’s his skill. Besides, I won’t lose anything in a normal auction.”
By controlling people through Gu worms, he could reverse-control the buyers.
On the auction day, Su Yeling planned to use an outwardly strict but inwardly lax strategy. No matter who got the demon bead, he would still come out on top.
Xia Yu paused and said, “Just one thing. If the auction gets ruined, it’ll hurt your reputation.”
Among the demon clans, strength is everything. If he couldn’t even manage his own auction, others would start to question him.
“I’ve already publicly invited Xue Li. Whether she comes or not, if something happens, I can pin it on her.”
As long as the public saw this as a clash between the candidates, a few under-the-table losses wouldn’t matter.
“With Xue Li’s love for being in the spotlight, if she impulsively bids on the demon bead, it’ll make things even easier.”
…
On the 27th, Su Yeling departed for Tang City.
This time, he brought only a limited number of people. Too large a formation might scare Su Cha away, and besides, human territories had restrictions on demon activity — it was impossible to get approval for large groups of demons to enter all at once.
The auction was set for 7 PM on the 30th.
By 6:30, luxury cars filled the outside of the Green Hotel. Su Yeling had invited many people this time. With his current popularity, others were willing to show him respect.
Tang City’s mayor was away on a business trip, but two of the mayor’s secretaries came. Su Yeling kept the appropriate level of courtesy and personally went to shake their hands.
“Thank you all for your support.”
His approval process had gone unusually smoothly this time.
The secretary smiled professionally: “Since Mr. Su has promised to donate funds for Tang City’s development, it’s only right to support you.”
A group of wealthy merchants and influential figures entered under the protection of their bodyguards. Many of them were cultivators with considerable strength and weren’t afraid to participate in an auction. Tang City was human territory—if any demons dared cause trouble here, they’d be seeking death.
There were also some demons on the guest list. Some had features that differed slightly from humans, like the spirit turtle clan, who had pure green pupils that couldn’t be disguised with contact lenses.
People gradually filed into the hotel. Occasionally, someone would mention the Flower Demon Clan’s official website being hacked, but most of the conversation revolved around Su Yeling himself.
If Su Yeling could win this election, it would usher in a new chapter in human-demon relations — whether for better or worse remained to be seen.
“Xue Li’s here.”
The famously late beauty arrived, lazily yawning. Rumor had it she carried the blood of an ancient divine beast. As Su Yeling’s strong rival, her style was the complete opposite — brash, headstrong, and staunchly traditional. She believed humans and demons could never truly coexist and should each stay in their own territories.
She walked straight up to Su Yeling and smiled: “It’s a charity gala, at least. If you weren’t going to hire performers, you didn’t need to make it this stiff and serious.”
Su Yeling replied bluntly: “Someone sent a threat. Better to be cautious. But with Miss Xue here, nothing will happen tonight.”
The unspoken meaning was that if something did happen, it meant neither of them could prevent it, so no one could laugh at the other.
Xue Li sneered and turned to find her seat.
The elder in charge of auctioning the early items confirmed everyone was seated, skipped the pleasantries, and jumped straight into introducing the first item.
While the elder was busy hosting, Ji Tianjin and Su Cha were finalizing their plan.
The drone had already captured detailed maps of the nearby streets, and Ji Tianjin had pre-arranged three escape routes.
“If the spatial folding device fails, we’ll fight our way out and regroup at the parking lot.”
He pointed to a particularly eye-catching red supercar—that was Xue Li’s car.
Su Cha understood the hint. The enemy of their enemy is a potential ally. If necessary, they could try using Su Yeling’s rival to their advantage.
Ji Tianjin folded up the map: “Let’s get ready.”
There were only five items up for auction tonight, each extremely valuable.
The first four items received some bidding, but nothing too fierce. Finally, the elder’s tone became more serious: “The next item was specifically highlighted in the invitation.”
The auction catalog had been sent out with the invitations, so the guests already knew what would be auctioned. Subtle changes appeared on their faces.
Officially, demon clans forbade the trafficking of demon beads, except under special circumstances. When vicious demons intruded into human lands and were killed, humans had legitimate reasons to process them, but plant-type demon beads were still untouched territory. The research value of this particular bead was self-evident.
The demons present were also eyeing it. Normally, absorbing 30-40% of a demon bead’s power was the limit, but the Flower Demon Clan had hinted that this one could be fully absorbed.
Su Yeling had personally kept the demon bead safe until now, and he personally brought it to the stage.
Every corner was guarded. The Flower Demon Clan had ten elders in total, two in long-term seclusion, and three present today.
Su Yeling walked steadily, but his guard was fully up.
Yet, nothing happened. All he could hear in the tense silence were his own footsteps.
He lifted the red cloth covering the item, finally revealing the demon bead to the public. It emitted a faint glow. The VIPs in the first two rows quietly probed its energy and immediately understood.
“Very gentle demon energy,” whispered the people in the front row. “And the aura is incredibly pure.”
Time had washed away some of the old stories. Many of the guests had only vaguely heard of the past and were now curious about what crime such a pure demon could have committed.
“I heard it was someone who fell in love with an outsider and betrayed their clan. Didn’t the Flower Demon Clan nearly face extinction because of it?”
The discussions were endless. Xia Yu was also present, sitting calmly as if she hadn’t heard a thing.
“Uncle Li, please help keep a close eye.”
Li Hou nodded. “Don’t worry, Miss.”
A small smile appeared at Xia Yu’s lips. “It’s been a while since we last saw Su Cha. He’s capable if he’s managed to make the Flower Demon Clan suffer several times. But after all, this is a family affair. If things get dangerous, Uncle Li, your priority is your own safety.”
Li Hou felt deeply touched.
He had no idea Xia Yu had already arranged for the Gu master to tamper with the demon bead.
Xia Yu’s lips curved slightly. If Su Cha wanted to steal it, let him. There was no need to risk a family expert for it. If he did take it, it would only lead to his quicker death.
On stage, Su Yeling waved his hand, and the elder automatically stepped aside.
“I will personally host this auction.”
He was dressed in a sharp suit, and like most of the Flower Demon Clan, he kept his hair long—a tradition that hadn’t changed with the times. With his noble bearing, his long hair only made him look more distinguished.
Some of the wealthy young ladies in the audience couldn’t take their eyes off Su Yeling. They were more interested in his face than in the item.
“So handsome.”
“Even better-looking in person than on TV.”
Xia Yu glanced over and saw the way their eyes practically stuck to him. She smirked mockingly.
Of course, Su Yeling easily caught these comments. He raised his brows slightly toward Xia Yu’s direction, and she shrugged, flipping her hair with a silent flirt.
The two of them exchanged a subtle moment of playful teasing.
Su Yeling smiled faintly and shifted his gaze back to the crowd. “This was left behind by a traitor we dealt with a long time ago. I believe whoever buys it will find it well worth the price.”
“Starting bid: one hundred million.”
The guests were all people of status and listened calmly.
“Bartering is also accepted. The value of trade items will be assessed by on-site experts. Special items will be given priority.”
Though the times had changed, great demons still had their own industries and used human currency, but they were ultimately more tempted by rare natural treasures.
One hundred million.
In another dimension, Su Cha’s eyelid twitched: “So I’ll always be the most expensive when I’m in someone else’s hands.”
While he had been worrying about money in the Galan Empire, others had been sending assassins after him at all costs. The gemstones he’d sold the other day were priced down by the pawnshop, and he hadn’t gotten much from them. Yet now his demon bead was being auctioned for hundreds of millions.
Ji Tianjin had already rigged the auction hall’s back wall to ensure the projection would display perfectly later.
As Su Yeling basked in his charm, Ji Tianjin checked the time and handed Su Cha a gun, then began the projection.
At the same time, Su Yeling was making his final remarks: “If anyone offers treasures beneficial to the Flower Demon Clan, I will prioritize keeping it within the clan. I will also separately contribute another two hundred million for Tang City’s development.”
The audience applauded, winning him considerable favor.
“Next, I—”
Bang!
All the security personnel immediately drew their guns, each aiming in a different direction. Li Hou, who was following behind Xia Yu, stepped forward, his eagle-like eyes scanning everyone present.
Soon, he realized no one at the scene had fired a shot. The sound seemed to come from another world. Through the amplifier behind the wall, the sound was so loud that it made the eardrums of those in the front row ache.
A projection suddenly appeared in front of everyone without warning.
What was that?
Before anyone could react, a familiar figure appeared on the screen. Under the dim moonlight, Su Yeling in the video was seen dodging bullets in a panic.
The elder’s expression changed immediately and he was about to act to destroy the wall. He wanted Su Yeling to stop acting on emotions, but this was different from allowing the Flower Demon Clan to lose face. After all, the clan leader represented the dignity of the entire clan.
However, the power he sent out from his sleeve was scattered by another demonic force.
The elder glared angrily at the one who stopped him. Xue Li gave him an extremely seductive smile. “Why are you glaring at me? We need to investigate carefully to find out who’s trying to sabotage this auction.”
For so many years, Xue Li had been able to go head-to-head with Su Yeling. Neither she nor the force behind her could be underestimated. The confidants she brought today were also quite capable and had already engaged the Flower Demon Clan’s forces head-on to ensure the wall wouldn’t be destroyed.
On the other side, Xia Yu narrowed her beautiful eyes. “Go help.”
Li Hou flashed forward and pinned down one of Xue Li’s confidants.
Su Yeling had intended to destroy the projection immediately, but a sudden attack by a tiger delayed his action, forcing him to deal with it first.
The video was playing at 1.5x speed, and knowing what scene would come next, Su Yeling lost his composure. In his panic, he risked injury from the tiger’s claws to turn back and destroy the wall.
Unexpectedly, Xue Li appeared right next to him. “You’re so agitated. Makes people wonder if there’s something indecent in that video, huh?”
“Xue Li, don’t push me.” Gone was the earlier façade of the aloof nobleman. Su Yeling couldn’t hide his murderous aura.
Xue Li licked her red lips, growing even more suspicious that it might be some scandal. “I’m really curious…” Her expression suddenly changed. “Oh, my God!”
Her last sentence was shouted so abruptly that it broke her seductive vibe.
But Xue Li didn’t care about her image anymore. In fact, all the guests were stunned.
On the projection, amidst a flurry of gunshots, blood gushed from Su Yeling’s lower body, soaking his pants from the waist down.
The bleeding concentrated in his crotch area, making it impossible for the audience to discern that the actual wound was on the side of his leg. Everyone instinctively thought Su Yeling was completely crippled.
Recalling how desperately he had tried to destroy the projection, it seemed to confirm their assumption.
For a moment, except for those who knew what had really happened that night, everyone’s eyes involuntarily shifted to that part of Su Yeling. Even the usually calm Xia Yu was visibly unsettled, her fingers curling and suddenly clenching the napkin on the table.
Su Yeling’s face was utterly grim. He had never suffered such humiliation. “It’s just a wound on the…”
Before he could even say “leg,” a real bullet came flying at his lower body with pinpoint accuracy.
Xue Li immediately retreated several meters to the side.
The guests didn’t move much, as the fight was concentrated at the auction stage, which was still some distance away from them. Running around recklessly could get them hit by stray bullets.
The young heirs all had bodyguards skilled in martial arts—deflecting a few bullets was no issue. Some even calmly took a sip of wine to steady themselves, still not over the shock of Su Yeling’s apparent “crippling.”
“Look, it’s exactly the same as in the video.”
Ji Tianjin was replicating the attack from that night—starting with long-range sniping before switching to a more mobile fighting style.
The video had already looped to its third replay, showing the sequence from the long-range sniping to the increasingly consistent bullet streams, as if the events of that night were happening all over again.
Su Yeling stopped dodging. Holding a brown leaf between his fingers, he flicked it toward the source of the bullets. “Burn!” he commanded.
The leaf exploded in mid-air, destabilizing the spatial dimension and making it impossible to aim accurately. Ji Tianjin’s finger rested on the trigger but he didn’t pull it.
He signaled to Su Cha and then stepped out from the spatial fold device.
“Move,” came a low warning. Xue Li also sensed someone nearby. Although she wished Su Yeling would die here and remove a competitor, she didn’t interfere and backed off without hesitation.
At that moment, Su Yeling finally saw who was behind this ambush.
It was a very young face. Cultivation could preserve youth, but the unique aura of a teenager couldn’t be faked.
There was no time to think further—Ji Tianjin’s machine gun was now sweeping directly at his lower body.
Hiss—
This type of attack made the men present instinctively tense up.
Li Hou had been sent by Xia Yu to assist Su Yeling, which gave Su Cha the perfect opportunity.
While everyone thought this assassination was targeting only the Flower Demon Clan’s leader, Su Cha slowly raised his gun toward Xia Yu.
As if sensing something, Xia Yu swiftly pulled out a talisman. Without warning, vines attacked her from behind, wrapping around her wrist and yanking hard.
“Sister Ah Yu, long time no see.”
Xia Yu’s expression changed slightly.
Bullets came at her from all directions, depriving her of any room to dodge. A string of talismans circulated in front of her, blocking most of the impact, but a thin, bleeding cut still appeared on her flawless shoulder.
Su Yeling had dug his own grave—he wanted to loosen security externally while tightening it internally, scheming to use the demon bead to trap Su Cha or the buyers. But now, when it mattered most, he didn’t have enough manpower.
Aside from those guarding the exits, all of the Flower Demon Clan’s experts were already in the auction hall.
Three elders: one was being held off by Xue Li’s confidants, another was busy dealing with the white tiger to ease Su Yeling’s burden, and the last was leading a full sweep search.
The dozens of people who arrived afterward all rushed to surround Ji Tianjin.
Meanwhile, Su Cha, now ignoring his aim, fired continuously with one hand while holding a loudspeaker in the other. His spiritual power offset the gun’s recoil, forcing Xia Yu into a defensive state.
“Ladies and gentlemen…”
His warm, cheerful voice gave many people goosebumps.
“My name is Su Cha, the original owner of the demon bead being auctioned today.”
As soon as he spoke, an elder appeared at the sound’s source.
Su Cha quickly changed position and circled the room while continuing to chatter: “Let me introduce you all—my lover is the one who just crippled the Flower Demon Clan’s leader.”
This sudden revelation even made Ji Tianjin pause briefly.
Su Cha calmly continued moving, vines splitting into two: one blocked the people heading toward Ji Tianjin, and Su Cha took the opportunity to join Ji Tianjin, pulling him into another dimension.
During this, Su Yeling precisely detected the spatial distortion and shot out several flower petals, which got stuck in the overlapping space seams.
The spatial fold device struggled to close, creating an air vortex that threatened to slice through flesh.
While dodging the vortex, Su Cha kept speaking: “I am indeed in love with a human, but not with someone from the Xia family. It’s a man. The girl the Xia family executed back then could never have been my lover, right, Miss Xia Yu?”
This seemingly random story left many people puzzled, but some could piece together that it was probably linked to an old tragic love affair.
Ji Tianjin recalled his white tiger, and the elder quickly returned to Su Yeling’s side, awaiting his command. “Seal the hotel. No one is allowed in or out. Form the barrier…” As he spoke, Su Yeling bit his fingertip, forcing out a drop of heart’s blood. The moment it exploded, it evaporated into countless blood mists, each tiny particle probing the space’s gaps.
Su Cha had an extremely sharp spatial awareness. The flower petals Su Yeling had shot in earlier still swirled in the rift, emitting a trace of origin power that wasn’t easily scattered and continuously guided the blood mist inside.
They were outnumbered. Their advantage came solely from the spatial fold device—if that was destroyed, they would be in trouble.
Ji Tianjin: “Should we retreat?”
They had already accomplished two goals: ruining the auction and publicly humiliating Su Yeling.
“Wait a moment.” Su Cha suddenly snapped his fingers.
A magnolia lotus suddenly appeared above everyone, its calm and peaceful aura clashing with the restless blood mist in the air. The lotus wasn’t particularly powerful—it naturally didn’t like to fight and wasn’t summoned for combat.
Su Yeling immediately transformed the blood mist into a blade and slashed at it. Before the blade could even touch it, the lotus voluntarily dispersed.
Countless tiny white flowers rained down, mesmerizing everyone.
The little flowers were clearly harmless—just a pinch would crush them. What was the point of this?
“H*ll, look at me.”
“Whoa.” No one expected the flower to actually talk.
Anything Su Cha knew, his spiritual projection could also say. The countless white flowers seemed to grow millions of mouths and started chattering nonstop to the guests.
“So, listen to me. Long, long ago, Su Yeling and Xia Yu were in love, but Su Cha took the blame and was punished by the clan…”
Countless voices repeated the same story simultaneously, echoing in their ears in a deeply shocking way.
Xia Yu’s face turned icy, and she attacked mercilessly, trying to eliminate the annoying little flowers in one strike.
Some mini magnolia lotuses climbed onto the backs of the guests’ heads, some burrowed into sleeves, some crouched on thighs looking pitiful, covering their heads with their leaves… “Let me hide for a bit, I’ll continue gossiping later.”
…They were unbearably cute.
The socialite girls who had previously admired Su Yeling’s charm silently opened their designer handbags. Their bodyguards didn’t intervene—these flowers weren’t dangerous, and their weak misses could crush them with ease.
Many people secretly captured a flower, reasoning that it would be a waste not to listen to gossip falling from the sky. Given the Flower Demon Clan’s recent dominance, some hidden jealousy made many eager to see them fall.
While the Flower Demon Clan was busy frantically clearing out the little white flowers, Su Cha carried a sack and began dumping photos through the spatial rift. Screenshots of Su Yeling’s blood-soaked lower body instantly flooded the entire hall like a storm.
At the same time, the projection finally changed.
On screen, Su Cha was dressed like a priest, solemnly holding a Bible: “Miss Xia Yu, do you take this man as your husband? Whether he’s impotent, crippled, or killed in the future, will you love him and support him for the rest of your life?”
Countless little white flowers echoed solemnly: “Whether he’s impotent, crippled, or killed in the future…”
Photos continued flying chaotically. From the guests’ perspective, the entire hall was awash in blood-red images. The bizarre question echoed in the hall, and for a moment, everyone fell completely silent.
The seemingly innocent mini magnolia lotuses urgently poked the guests’ arms: “Why are you just standing there? Take out your phones and post this online!”
