Threatening Again!

Liu Ruyan was slightly startled, as if she hadn't expected this reaction from Zhou Xuan.

She had assumed he would be ashamed, embarrassed, and unable to show his face due to his own degradation.

But in Zhou Xuan's eyes, there was not a shred of shame, only a calm questioning, and perhaps even a hint of disdain?

This discovery made Liu Ruyan feel very uncomfortable.

Who was she? She was a Heavenly Daughter, a Saintess Candidate, a figure looked up to by countless people.

And Zhou Xuan? He was nothing more than a useless servant without even a Spirit Root, someone she had discarded.

By what right did he look at her with such eyes?

A flicker of displeasure crossed Liu Ruyan's cold, aloof face, but she still generously admitted, "That's right, it was my doing."

She paused, her tone carrying a hint of condescending approval: "I admit, you do have some mundane, whimsical ideas."

"These things, if they were in the mortal world, could have allowed you to become a king or a minister and change the fate of a nation. It is a pity, however..."

Her tone shifted, and the pity in her gaze grew more pronounced: "This is the world of cultivation. Such opportunistic methods are, in the end, minor tricks that cannot stand on the main stage. It failed, didn't it?"

Listening to the other party admit to plagiarizing his ideas with such self-righteousness, Zhou Xuan almost laughed out of anger.

She really was shameless.

Back in the mortal world, he had merely mentioned the concept of hybrid rice to her in passing as a way to increase yields; she had scoffed at it then, thinking it was just a mortal's wild fantasy.

Unexpectedly, after stepping into the immortal gate, she had actually gone and put it into practice.

It was just a pity that this person clearly didn't understand the first thing about science or the necessity of gradual progress.

She had simply and crudely forced his ideas into reality using the methods of a cultivator.

She had directly used spiritual energy to irrigate ordinary mortal seeds, delusional enough to think she could reach the heavens in a single step and force the growth of true spirit plants.

This approach was stupid to the extreme!

If it had been Zhou Xuan doing it, he would have certainly made extensive preparations before taking action.

He would have first analyzed the characteristics of different plants, formulated various cultivation plans, and even attempted to cross-breed or graft spirit plants with ordinary ones.

Only through generation after generation of selection and optimization would it be possible to cultivate a stable new variety.

But Liu Ruyan, she understood nothing.

She simply relied on the fact that she possessed spiritual energy and assumed she could do whatever she pleased.

This arrogance and ignorance were the fundamental reasons why these Mutated Spirit Rice failed.

Zhou Xuan looked at Liu Ruyan's "I may have failed, but I'm still better than you" expression, and he could no longer be bothered to hide the disdain in his eyes.

Liu Ruyan keenly captured the change in his gaze, and an inexplicable fire flared up in her heart.

A piece of trash, actually daring to look at her with disdain?

But she was not an ordinary woman after all; her powerful self-control allowed her to forcibly suppress her anger and maintain her outward coldness.

She did not want to have any unnecessary arguments with such a person in such a place; it would only lower her own status.

"Why exactly did you come here?"

Zhou Xuan had lost the patience to continue wasting words with her and asked directly.

"If you have something to say, say it quickly. I assume you wouldn't want others to see you appearing at the Miscellaneous Affairs Department, standing here with a piece of trash like me, would you?"

This sentence hit exactly on Liu Ruyan's sore spot.

Her expression instantly turned a few degrees colder.

That was correct; this was the thing she was most wary of.

Zhou Xuan's existence was like an indelible stain on her flawless path to immortality.

She took a deep breath, let out a cold snort, and finally stated the true purpose of her visit.

"I came here to ask you one thing."

Her gaze was fixed intently on Zhou Xuan.

"Why must you insist on staying at the Spirit Sword Pavilion? Why stay in the world of cultivation?"

She reached out and gestured to the dirty, decaying environment around them, her voice filled with deep confusion and a hint of suppressed irritation.

"Your assets in the mortal world are enough to make you the uncrowned king of a small nation, wealthy enough to rival a country; it is a peak that many people cannot imagine in several lifetimes."

"You could have lived a comfortable, luxurious life as a mortal."

"Why must you stay here? Living this life that is worse than a pig or a dog, neither human nor ghost? Is this really what you want?"

After hearing this, Zhou Xuan felt nothing but speechlessness.

After all that, it was just for this?

He looked at Liu Ruyan's beautiful face, which was plastered with an "I'm doing this for your own good" expression, but inside, he was sneering coldly.

This person wasn't concerned about him at all.

She simply couldn't bear the thought of him, this stain, continuing to exist in her world.

She wanted him to get lost, to roll back to the mortal realm and stay as far away from her as possible, so that no one would ever bring up her disgraceful past again.

Behind these seemingly caring words lay the most extreme form of selfishness!

"So, you graced this trash heap with your presence just to convince me to get lost?"

Zhou Xuan sneered, unceremoniously piercing through her facade.

He shook his head, his tone indifferent as he said, "There is no need for a high and mighty Saintess like you to worry about these matters; I will walk my own path."

"You!" Liu Ruyan was choked with anger; she had not expected Zhou Xuan to be so ungrateful.

"My staying here has nothing to do with you."

Zhou Xuan's gaze turned completely cold, and he spoke each word clearly and distinctly.

"From the moment you made your choice back then, everything between us ended, and I have long since ceased to have any feelings for you."

"So, why bother deceiving yourself here, putting on this hypocritical act? You might not be tired, but I find it disgusting."

"You!"

That final sentence struck Liu Ruyan's face like a resounding slap.

Her body trembled violently, and a crack finally appeared on her face, which had been frozen for ten thousand years.

Shock, humiliation, anger...

A myriad of emotions intertwined and flashed in her eyes.

She had never imagined that the boy who once obeyed her every whim and regarded her as a god would use such harsh, heartless words against her.

An uncontrollable rage erupted from the depths of her heart!

"Good, very good!"

Liu Ruyan laughed in her extreme anger, the chill in her voice nearly freezing the air.

"Zhou Xuan, you've really grown some backbone!"

She took a deep look at Zhou Xuan, and in those eyes, there was no longer any pity or confusion, only bone-chilling coldness and resolve.

"Since you want to die, I won't stop you."

After saying this, she did not give Zhou Xuan any chance to speak, flicked her sleeves violently, and turned to leave.

That white figure was resolute and swift, without a hint of hesitation, and soon disappeared at the end of the Chore Servant Courtyard.

Zhou Xuan stood where he was, his brows tightly locked.

"What does that mean?"

Liu Ruyan's final sentence was like a thorn, piercing into his heart.

It was not merely a fit of anger.

Based on his understanding of her, a person like Liu Ruyan never did anything meaningless, nor did she ever say anything without weight.

Since she had said that, it meant she would definitely take action next!

And it would certainly be no small matter!