Ye Lingling was still lounging in the sitting room, sipping freshly brewed coffee and reviewing the company's price list.
Suddenly, the sitting room door was burst open.
The figure who had burst through it was Leng Yulai.
The moment Leng Yulai entered, she collapsed onto the sofa.
Her hair hung loose, her face was smeared with dust, and part of her clothes was scorched. Flames crackled in her purplish-red eyes, her anger dialed all the way up.
She sat on the sofa, grunting to herself, clearly furious beyond measure.
Ye Lingling set down her coffee, folded her arms, and watched Leng Yulai at her leisure.
When those two had gone out that morning, each had been livelier and cockier than the other. Before leaving, they had even declared that they were going to settle the score for the boss.
Now they had come back looking like this. Even a person thinking with their toes could tell they had botched it.
Who did they run into? Did the Underworld Emperor and the Ghost Emperor join forces? Hmm, that's possible.
Ye Lingling walked over and looked Leng Yulai up and down. "Are you hurt?"
"I won't die." Leng Yulai turned her face away, her voice stiff. "You don't need to worry about me."
"Fine, I won't."
Ye Lingling wasn't angry. She went back to sit behind the desk and raised an eyebrow at Leng Yulai.
"Then tell me, how did your trip to the Holy Spirit Cult go? What did you accomplish?"
Leng Yulai pressed her lips together and didn't say a word for a long while.
"It was worse than accomplishing nothing."
Na Nali walked in behind her, her bare feet making soft sounds against the floor and the bells on her ankles jingling.
"We ran into the Holy Spirit Cult's big boss, that Demon Empress, and ended up leaving without a fight. We did tear down a few of the Holy Spirit Cult's buildings, though."
"Someone was scared off by the Demon Empress and lost face, so that's why she's so angry."
"The Demon Empress? The one your Holy Cult calls one empress, two emperors, and four heavenly kings? That person really exists?"
Ye Lingling's gaze sharpened, and she looked at Na Nali in puzzlement.
Na Nali spread her hands helplessly.
"She does. Her origins are rather unusual, but she really is powerful-a notch above a Quasi-God, though she hasn't reached the level of a true god."
"We originally thought she was someone the Ghost Emperor had made up, but it turned out she really existed."
Leng Yulai's expression shifted. She glanced casually at Na Nali, connecting it to how Na Nali had refrained from using her Battle Armor while pursuing the Ghost Emperor, and had hinted that Leng Yulai should also avoid using powerful offensive Soul Skills, so as not to escalate matters.
And how she had quickly withdrawn without getting entangled when they encountered the Demon Empress.
She seemed to have figured something out, and her expression grew angry, with even a trace of grievance.
"Na Nali! Shut up!" Leng Yulai exploded. "Who asked you to speak?!"
"I just feel bad for you." Na Nali flopped onto the sofa and crossed her legs, though a dark look flashed through her eyes.
She had seen the look in Leng Yulai's eyes just now.
"When Sister Lingling asks, I have to give her an honest report."
Seeing Leng Yulai like that, Ye Lingling understood what was going on.
"What did I tell you?"
Ye Lingling picked up her coffee and took a sip. "You charged into their lair the moment your heads got hot. You really don't know how to write the word 'death.'"
"What do you mean?!"
Leng Yulai sat bolt upright. Some things couldn't be said openly.
She couldn't vent the fire in her heart on the person she wanted to vent it on. But if someone else walked into the line of fire, she could blow off some steam on them instead, and that was pretty great.
"I went to the Holy Spirit Cult to settle the score for the boss! We can't just let what happened to Dark Hummingbird go!"
"Ye Lingling, it's easy for you to talk when you're not the one standing in the fire."
Leng Yulai gritted her teeth and vented all her anger on Ye Lingling.
"You sit in the company every day, brewing coffee and managing the accounts, and sleep with the boss when you have nothing else to do. Na Nali and I risk our lives to get things done for the boss!"
"Risk your lives?"
Ye Lingling got angry too and slammed her coffee cup down.
"If you really got yourselves killed at the Holy Spirit Cult, what would happen to the boss? What would happen to the company? Were you planning to make the boss go to the Holy Spirit Cult alone to collect your corpses?"
"Then let the boss collect them!" Leng Yulai retorted stubbornly. "If I die, that's my bad luck!"
As Leng Yulai said this, tears even glimmered in her eyes. Was she speaking to Ye Lingling, or to someone else?
"If you die, everything's over for you, but what about the boss?!"
The two women argued louder and louder, one sitting and the other standing, neither willing to give an inch.
Na Nali sat on the sofa, watching the show and swinging her bells, occasionally chiming in.
"Sister Lingling, don't be so hard on Yulai."
Na Nali spoke unhurriedly.
"She cares about the boss too. Look, she's so angry her eyes have turned red. Poor thing."
"Na Nali, shut up!"
Leng Yulai roared.
"I don't need your pity!"
"All right, all right, I'll shut up."
Na Nali raised her hands in surrender, then added another comment.
"I just wanted to say Yulai's trip wasn't for nothing. Even though she was scared into retreating, at least she sounded out that old Demon Empress's strength. She brought back some intelligence for the boss."
"Who asked you?!"
Leng Yulai glared at Na Nali, then looked at Ye Lingling. Her chest rose and fell several times before she finally threw out a parting remark.
"I can't be bothered arguing with you. You manage the company, and I have no say in it. But don't think you're the only one in the whole world the boss trusts!"
With that, she slammed the door behind her and left.
The sitting room fell quiet.
Ye Lingling sat behind the desk, her face grim. Her fingers tightened slightly around her coffee cup, and she said nothing.
"Sister Lingling, calm down." Na Nali stood up from the sofa and stretched.
"I know." Ye Lingling rubbed the space between her brows.
"I'm just angry that she doesn't think. Is the Holy Spirit Cult really a place she can go whenever she feels like it?"
"When has she ever thought things through?"
Na Nali smiled as she walked to the door, then looked back.
"Oh, right, Sister Lingling, you did a good job covering that red mark on your neck today. Yulai didn't even notice it."
"Na Nali!"
"I'm going, I'm going. No more teasing." Na Nali waved and stepped through the doorway. "Sister Lingling, get some rest early. I'll go report to the boss."
The door closed.
Ye Lingling held her coffee and stared at the doorway for a long while. Suddenly, something began to strike her as odd.
Why was Na Nali so obedient today? She had said she would go report and gone without making a fuss.
She didn't think much of it, assuming Na Nali was tired from playing around.
After leaving the Heaven-Supporting Pillar headquarters, the smile slowly faded from Na Nali's face.
"Boss, oh boss, it's your fault those two started arguing. Who told you to arrange things this way?"
She walked barefoot through the night, her bells ringing with every step. The carefree expression on her face disappeared completely, leaving only calm.
A faint smile still lingered at the corner of her mouth.
After a few steps, she stopped.
The space before her rippled slightly, and a dark purple card appeared out of thin air.
The Devil Card.
On its face, the devil king sat upon a throne, a crown on his head, looking down upon everything.
His originally closed eyes now slowly opened, staring straight at Na Nali.
Na Nali looked back at him without speaking, the faint smile still on her lips.
A gateway slowly opened before her, dim light spilling through the gap.
Na Nali smiled faintly and stepped inside, easy and at ease.
The gateway closed and vanished.
On the card floating in the air, the devil king slowly closed his eyes and sat upright on his throne once more.
The card then dissolved into the night.