Was he trying to poison me?

Black Shadow followed them over and ordered, "The Demon Venerable has ordered you to remove the ring from her hand."

"Yes." The Demon Realm soldier removed the ring.

"No, don't..." Su Ying watched helplessly as they took off her Spatial Ring. She wanted to snatch it back, but a demon soldier was holding her down, and she simply wasn't strong enough.

Before she could cast a spell, the Spatial Ring had already been removed.

"Lord Black Shadow." The demon soldier handed the ring to Black Shadow.

Then another demon soldier let go of her.

With a thud, Su Ying hit her head again.

The demon soldiers showed no tenderness toward a delicate beauty. They shut the dungeon door and left.

Before Su Ying could recover, she heard her system calling to her in a trembling voice:

[Host.]

"Ow, that hurts." She whimpered.

These Demon Realm soldiers really didn't know how to cherish a delicate beauty.

The pain was killing her.

[Host.]

The system's mechanical voice was still trembling.

"What is it?" Su Ying rubbed the spot that hurt from her fall.

[Rats detected nearby.]

The system's voice trembled.

"What?!" Su Ying immediately sprang to her feet, her eyes wide. Sure enough, she spotted two rats in a corner of the dungeon, one large and one small.

They were standing on their hind legs, their mung-bean-sized eyes fixed on her.

[Host, rats are what I'm most afraid of.]

Following her gaze, the system also spotted the rats, and its voice couldn't help trembling.

"You're a thing without even a physical form! What are you scared of?!" Su Ying trembled all over as she stared at the two rats, which looked as though they were about to become spirits.

She didn't know whether she was imagining it, but she felt that the two rats' eyes gleamed as they looked at her.

[I'm scared, Host. What are you shaking for?]

The system noticed something was wrong with Su Ying, then heard her cry out miserably, "

I'm scared too! Rats and snakes have terrified me since I was little."

She hugged her shoulders, trembling with fear.

"Oh dear, Host, I keep feeling like they're watching you. Why don't you float up into the air? Rats in the Demon Realm probably can't fly," the system suggested.

Without hesitation, Su Ying tried to summon her sword for Sword Flight, only to remember that her Spatial Ring had been confiscated.

"I don't have my Spatial Ring! Damn it, how did that great demon king know I had one... Boohoo, this is so scary! Don't come near me! I'll stomp you rats to death!"

Su Ying threatened the two little creatures in the corner. The thought of rats crawling on her made her so nauseated she wanted to vomit.

"Help!"

"Feng Moyuan, you and I cannot live under the same sky!"

After saying that, Su Ying turned toward the corner and vomited violently.

Watching the scene in the mirror, Feng Moyuan felt some of the anger in his violet eyes inexplicably dissipate.

Perhaps seeing Su Ying so thoroughly frightened by those two rats had lifted his mood considerably.

He had indeed put those two rats in there.

Their purpose was to monitor Su Ying's life in the dungeon.

Feng Moyuan simply hadn't expected Su Ying to be afraid of rats.

At that thought, Feng Moyuan stroked his chin.

If Su Ying angers me again, perhaps there will be no need to lock her in the dungeon...

I can just throw her into a pile of rats.

As Feng Moyuan pondered this, two maids walked in.

"Demon Venerable, everything is ready. Please take your bath," the two maids said respectfully, their lowered eyes filled with fervent adoration for Feng Moyuan.

Almost all the maids in the Demon Realm palace adored Feng Moyuan.

Unfortunately, he never went near women.

"Mm," Feng Moyuan replied lazily. Seeing that neither intended to leave, he added coolly, "I have no need for anyone to attend me."

"Yes, Demon Venerable." The two maids were disappointed, but they still withdrew.

Su Ying remained locked up for several days.

The two rats had been watching her throughout those days as well.

They didn't watch her together, though. They took turns.

Su Ying became even more convinced that they had become spirits. Still, neither had approached her over the past few days, so she wasn't quite as frightened anymore.

At that thought, she weakly slapped the straw bed.

"I'm starving to death. Can someone come check on me?" Su Ying asked feebly.

[Host, why aren't you using the Grain Avoidance technique?]

the system asked.

Su Ying clutched her stomach, her face full of misery. In the days since she had been thrown into the dungeon, no one had brought her anything to eat or drink. The hunger was agonizing.

There were only two rats in the entire dungeon, but no matter how hungry she became, she couldn't possibly eat them. "I don't know what's going on either. Ever since I came to the Demon Realm, the Grain Avoidance technique hasn't worked. I seriously suspect that great demon king is trying to starve me to death..."

[Host, how about...]

The system paused.

[Those rats...]

"No! I absolutely refuse to eat something so disgusting!" Su Ying would rather die than yield, staring wide-eyed at the little eyes of the rats in the corner.

At last, waves of dizziness washed over her. Her eyes slowly closed, and she collapsed onto the straw.

Feng Moyuan dismissed the image and told Black Shadow beside him, "Send her back to the Slaughter Hall."

"Yes, Demon Venerable." Black Shadow had been watching the scene all along too.

It wasn't actually that Su Ying's Grain Avoidance technique had stopped working. Rather, the Demon Venerable had placed a restriction on the dungeon.

Under this restriction, the Grain Avoidance technique was utterly useless. Almost everyone who entered the dungeon, no matter how high their cultivation realm, would starve to death once locked inside.

This was one of Feng Moyuan's methods of torture. Watching people die of thirst and starvation gave his Demon Venerable a sense of pleasure.

Almost everyone who walked into the dungeon was carried out feetfirst in the end.

That was why Black Shadow was rather curious about why Su Ying had been allowed to leave alive.

He had thought she was certain to die.

When Su Ying opened her eyes again, she was already free of that place. She blinked at the surroundings, which were both familiar and unfamiliar. "Am I still alive?"

"Miss, you're awake." A voice suddenly sounded beside her, startling her.

Su Ying abruptly sat up.

"Who are you?"

"I'm a maid Lord Black Shadow sent here to look after you temporarily," the maid explained, envy flashing in her eyes. Su Ying was the first person ever allowed to stay in a side hall of the Slaughter Hall!

And she was a woman!

The maid wondered whether this woman would become their demon empress in the future.

"Oh." Su Ying realized she had survived.

The great demon king had let her out.

That really hadn't been easy...

At that thought, Su Ying felt both thirsty and hungry. "Is there anything to eat or drink?"

The maid hesitated. "Miss, do you really want to eat?"

"Yes, I'm starving right now!" Su Ying nodded without hesitation.

The maid brought over the food that had been prepared.

Su Ying took a single bite and immediately spat it out. "What the hell is this? Why does it taste so awful?"

"Miss, people in the Demon Realm don't cook. Lord Black Shadow sent this over and said it had taken quite an effort to obtain," the maid replied. Looking at it, she agreed it didn't seem very appetizing, and she secretly felt fortunate that they had the Grain Avoidance technique and didn't need to eat anything so terrible.

"Was he trying to poison me?" Su Ying retorted.

Listening from the roof, Feng Moyuan's face instantly darkened.