Jiang Lijin stopped three steps away, not even glancing at the dark muzzle of the gun.
She crossed her arms over her chest, her tone casual. "Twenty pills. Is this the dosage required for Felwin to barely maintain her S-class status?"
Arden froze, his brain failing to process her words for a moment before he blurted out, "What kind of bullshit are you spouting! This medicine was clearly meant for you..."
His voice abruptly cut off.
Arden wasn't truly stupid; the moment the words left his mouth, he realized something was wrong. A dose of twenty pills was indeed too much just to frame someone.
Hearing this, Jiang Lijin completely understood. It turned out Arden had no idea about Felwin's true background and was entirely being used as an ATM and a scapegoat.
She couldn't help but laugh out loud. "You really are generous to her. Emptying your pockets to buy medicine, and you don't even know that she's not an S-class at all?"
"Shut up!" Arden flew into a rage out of humiliation, his spiritual power beginning to run wild. "Who the hell do you think you are, to even mention—"
Before he could finish, a terrifying coercive pressure descended from above!
Tinia dropped his playful, smiling facade. Violence roiled in his blue eyes as he unleashed his 3S-class pressure onto Arden without holding anything back.
Arden didn't even have time to grunt before his knees slammed heavily onto the stone pavement, the bones emitting a crisp, cracking sound. He lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for air, unable to lift even a single finger.
It wasn't just him; the four burly bodyguards in the alley couldn't withstand this indiscriminate attack either. One after another, they dropped to their knees, their faces deathly pale, sweat soaking through their floral shirts.
Tinia didn't even spare a glance at his own men. He strode toward Arden, stepped onto his back, and ground his foot down.
"Ugh..." Arden let out a pained whimper.
Only Jiang Lijin remained perfectly still. She raised an eyebrow, looking at the bodyguards collapsed all over the ground.
Killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of his own. When this young master went crazy, he even dealt with his own people.
"Tinia," Jiang Lijin called out indifferently.
Tinia paused his movements and turned to look at her, the violence in his eyes receding slightly. "Sister, it's easiest to just dispose of this kind of trash directly."
"Take the things out," Jiang Lijin said, ignoring his suggestion.
Tinia curled his lip but obediently bent down, fishing the two bottles out of Arden's pocket. He wiped them on his own clothes before handing them over.
Jiang Lijin took the transparent bottle of poison and stuffed it into her pocket.
Then, she picked up the remaining bottle containing the twenty special pills. Under Arden's despairing gaze, she unscrewed the cap and poured out ten perfectly round pills.
The pills rolled onto the filthy ground. Jiang Lijin lifted her foot and crushed them into powder with the tip of her shoe.
After crushing half of them, Jiang Lijin tossed the bottle with the remaining ten pills right next to Arden's face, as if throwing away trash.
"Since you believe in your goddess so much, take this bottle of medicine back." Jiang Lijin looked down condescendingly at the man on the ground. "See with your own eyes whether she uses it against me, or feeds it into her own mouth."
With that said, she turned and walked toward the exit of the alley.
Tinia moved his foot away, and the coercive pressure was abruptly withdrawn. The bodyguards on the ground gasped for air as if granted amnesty. Arden, looking like a fish out of water, lay paralyzed on the ground, his whole body twitching.
Tinia quickly caught up with Jiang Lijin, his tone returning to its usual clingy sweetness. "Sister, are you really just going to let him go?"
She tilted her head to look at Tinia and chuckled lightly. "Isn't watching dogs bite dogs better than getting your shoes dirty?"
Tinia's eyes lit up, and he leaned in to hold her hand. "Sister is so smart."
[What do you mean by dogs biting dogs, Host?] Xiao Yi asked in confusion.
[Arden is a penniless beggar with a criminal record.] Jiang Lijin walked into the sunlight, her steps steady.
[Someone like Felwin would absolutely never marry a useless piece of trash with no exploitative value. Furthermore, with those crazily possessive A-class beast husbands of hers at home, how could they ever agree to let a tainted S-class into the house to compete for her favor?]
[Wait until Arden goes bankrupt to deliver the medicine, only to discover that not only was he deceived, but his beloved S-class goddess is actually a fake who relies on popping pills to maintain her status...]
Jiang Lijin paused, a sharp glint flashing in her eyes.
[Tell me, what would a desperate outlaw who has lost everything do?]
...
A person walked out from the shadows of the narrow alley.
This man wore a pure black half-mask that covered the upper half of his face. His striking, long silvery-white hair was tied back, and through the eye holes of the mask, a pair of completely cold red eyes peered out.
Tianque watched as Jiang Lijin and Tinia walked away.
He recognized that woman at a glance. The name and photo on the matching list issued by the Main Brain had long been imprinted in his mind.
Jiang Lijin, the wife he shared with his brother.
He remained silent until the alley grew completely quiet. Only after the bodyguards on the ground helped each other up and slipped away, and Arden dragged his broken legs out like a dead dog, did Tianque step out from the shadows.
The black market middleman who had sold the medicine to Arden—who was also the supervisor of this area—was hiding behind a shipping container, shivering uncontrollably. The 3S-class pressure Tinia had just released nearly crushed his internal organs, even through the iron plating.
Tianque walked up to the container and raised his hand, knocking twice on the iron.
The middleman scrambled to push open the door. Upon seeing the visitor's white hair and red eyes, he was so terrified that he dropped straight to his knees. "M-My Lord..."
"From now on," Tianque spoke, his voice hoarse and deep, "whenever Tinia of the Yunlan Group, or that woman from just now, appears in this area, report it immediately."
The middleman nodded repeatedly, cold sweat pouring down his face.
Tianque didn't spare him another glance. He turned and melted into the dark alleys behind Valoran's bustling streetscape.
Beneath the glamorous and radiant surface of Valoran hid a massive underground world.
Tianque passed through several secret passages piled high with discarded high-tech parts. He unlocked three hidden doors with his iris scan and took an old elevator all the way down.
When the doors opened, the sight before him was vastly different from the colorful resort star system above.
There were no blinding neon lights here, no holographic advertising billboards, and no messy street vendors. The entire underground city was orderly, the streets wide and smooth, and the buildings on both sides were entirely medieval in style.
The most eye-catching feature was a three-story building situated in the center.
In the interstellar era, metal and synthetic materials were the cheapest building materials, while genuine natural wood—especially hardwood suitable for constructing houses—was more precious than gold.
This building, from its load-bearing pillars to its flying eaves, was constructed entirely of premium red sandalwood and golden thread nanmu. The wood itself was not sturdier than high-strength alloys; using it to build a house was purely to show off the owner's unfathomable wealth.
This was merely a stronghold of the Senluo Pavilion in Valoran, to say nothing of how extravagantly absurd their headquarters in other star systems must be.
Tianque stepped up the wooden stairs, passing through several intricately carved, hollowed-out wooden doors, before stopping in front of the deepest room.
