***
Bonus chapter! Thank you to JustSomeOne for the donation! ^^
***
As long as you give the other party what they want, cooperation is all but guaranteed. Ruan Qing wasn’t the least bit surprised that Qi Yi agreed.
Though Qi Yi’s gaze had been subtle, Ran Jia’s reaction had betrayed him—which was exactly why Ruan Qing seized the moment to propose teaming up.
As for the two discovering in the next dungeon that their teammate wasn’t him? Well, that wasn’t his problem to consider.
Still, Qi Yi and Xu Jinyan’s participation alone was far from enough. These waters needed to be muddied further—muddied enough that no one would notice him.
Muddied enough… to throw the entire dungeon into chaos.
Ordinary dangers wouldn’t rattle the strong. Only when their enemies were equally formidable would there be even a sliver of chance.
Ruan Qing lowered his eyes faintly, his lashes fluttering slightly. The ones suppressing the Evil God were already in place—now, all that remained was to secure allies for the Evil God.
And the best candidates for that were Lin Zhiyan and the lead staff member.
Xu Jinyan and Qi Yi knew he was a player. Sharing the same identity made cooperation easy. But Lin Zhiyan and Fu Ji? Absolutely not.
The reason Xu Jinyan and Qi Yi had let him leave so readily was simple: they knew keeping him in the dungeon was pointless. Tracking him down afterward would still be nearly impossible.
Naturally, securing his cooperation was the smarter move.
Lin Zhiyan and Fu Ji were different. This was their world. If he dared approach them directly to negotiate, it’d be no different from delivering himself to their doorstep.
After all, these two could detain him on the spot—the odds of them letting him go were practically zero.
Unless… he wasn’t him.
***
The Evil God had vanished.
The news spread like wildfire across the cruise ship, igniting an uproar.
This time, it was the staff’s turn to panic.
How could he disappear? The Evil God hadn’t even granted their wishes yet—how could he just vanish?
…Could it be because of what they’d done?
Their panic spiraled. Frenzied, they scoured every inch of the ship for the Evil God, their composure and rationality crumbling.
Yet even after turning the vessel upside down—even after desperately combing through it seven or eight times—they found not a single trace of him.
The Evil God has truly disappeared.
After failing to find the person he was looking for, Lin Zhiyan radiated a terrifying aura, his face dark as he stormed toward the fifth floor of the cruise ship.
The fifth floor was reserved for guests.
Most of the staff were confused, but the leader among them, Fu Ji, knew exactly who Lin Zhiyan was going to confront.
Xu Jinyan.
Xu Jinyan’s little schemes might have fooled others, but not him. It seemed there was some kind of deal between Xu Jinyan and Lin Zhiyan—one that had been struck even before they boarded the ship.
Fu Ji had never been particularly interested in Lin Zhiyan’s affairs, and he’d turned a blind eye to their secret dealings. But judging by Lin Zhiyan’s reaction, the Evil God’s disappearance likely had something to do with Xu Jinyan.
Without hesitation, Fu Ji followed Lin Zhiyan to the fifth floor.
Before they could reach Xu Jinyan’s room, they found him in the lounge, lounging lazily on a sofa, flipping through some documents as if he’d been expecting them.
Lin Zhiyan’s entire body exuded cold fury. He strode forward, his voice icy as he demanded, “Explain.”
Xu Jinyan didn’t seem the least bit intimidated. He set the documents down on the glass table in front of him and raised an eyebrow. “You don’t actually think the Evil God’s disappearance has anything to do with me, do you?”
Lin Zhiyan didn’t answer, his unwavering gaze making his suspicions clear.
No one knew better than Lin Zhiyan whether the library contained any materials capable of suppressing the Evil God. If such documents had suddenly appeared, they could only have come from Xu Jinyan.
Yet, driven by his own unspeakable, twisted desires, Lin Zhiyan had allowed the staff to discover those documents. He’d even let them carry out their insubordinate acts.
A century of resolve had evaporated the moment he laid eyes on the Evil God. His original wish was long forgotten, replaced by nothing but covetous obsession.
The only reason he hadn’t participated directly was to distance himself—so that even if they failed and the Evil God found out, he could claim innocence.
Instead of explaining, Xu Jinyan merely smiled and said meaningfully, “Are you even sure the summoning array was ever activated?”
Lin Zhiyan’s brow furrowed. The staff who had followed them exchanged uneasy glances, doubt creeping into their expressions.
This summoning ritual had been faster than any before—so fast they hadn’t even been prepared. Based on past experience, the array shouldn’t have fully materialized in such a short time.
If it hadn’t even taken shape, how could it have been activated at all?
At the time, the summoning ritual did appear successful—the Evil God had manifested. Because of that, they had no choice but to suppress their doubts.
Lin Zhiyan and Fu Ji knew this better than anyone. After all, they had been present that day, rushing to the scene precisely because the ritual’s sudden success had caught them off guard.
Noticing the skepticism in Lin Zhiyan’s eyes, Xu Jinyan let out a soft laugh and asked again, “Was the summoning ritual truly a success?”
Lin Zhiyan stared coldly at the man seated on the sofa. “The Evil God was summoned.”
If the Evil God had been summoned, then the ritual must have succeeded.
Xu Jinyan shook his head with a faint smile, tapping his fingers lightly against the documents on the table before speaking in a slow, deliberate tone. “The summoning ritual failed. What you awakened was nothing more than a fragment of the Evil God’s shadow.”
“The true Evil God has yet to awaken.”
Lin Zhiyan lowered his gaze, following where Xu Jinyan’s finger pointed—only to freeze for the slightest moment.
The spot Xu Jinyan indicated was the lower right corner of the document, where the time and location of the summoning were recorded.
But Lin Zhiyan wasn’t looking at the document.
His focus had shifted to Xu Jinyan’s hand.
Under the soft glow of the lights, the slender fingers were pale and finely jointed, resting elegantly against the paper.
Yet because his hand lay atop the documents, anyone would assume Lin Zhiyan was studying the text.
Xu Jinyan didn’t notice the subtle shift in attention. He tapped the documents again, his smile carrying a trace of mockery—as if laughing at Lin Zhiyan’s naivety.
“The timing of a summoning isn’t something you can alter at will.”
When Lin Zhiyan snapped out of it, he felt a surge of disgust at himself. Since when did he care about how Xu Jinyan’s hands look? The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth, like swallowing a fly.
His expression darkened as he pulled his gaze away, glaring at Xu Jinyan. “If you’re lying to me…”
He didn’t finish the sentence before turning to leave, but the threat in his tone was unmistakable.
Fu Ji picked up the documents left behind on the table, skimmed through them quickly, and followed Lin Zhiyan out without a word.
They had come swiftly—and left just as fast.
Xu Jinyan watched their retreating figures discreetly, waiting until they had completely vanished before his composure finally cracked.
Clutching his chest, a trickle of blood escaped his lips as his legs gave way, sending him collapsing backward.
Luckily, the sofa’s backrest was there to catch him before he hit the ground.
But the moment he fell, his appearance flickered—morphing into Ruan Qing’s face.
It seemed “Xu Jinyan” had been Ruan Qing all along, using the power of the Demon’s Eye to disguise himself.
When Ruan Qing went to discuss cooperation with Xu Jinyan, he had already observed Xu Jinyan carefully—the disguise was nearly flawless.
Had the live-stream audience not been watching Ruan Qing the entire time, they might have been fooled too. After all, whether in appearance or aura, there was almost no difference from the real Xu Jinyan.
Such was the terrifying nature of the Demon’s Eye.
But right now, the audience’s attention wasn’t on the Demon’s Eye. Instead, they were utterly confused by Ruan Qing’s actions.
[What the hell is our wife trying to do? Didn’t he just trick those two idiots into suppressing the Evil God? Now he’s conning these two dogs into summoning it?]
[I don’t get it—what does he gain from luring these two into summoning the Evil God? Besides, hasn’t the Evil God already been summoned? Is that Qi Lintian guy not the real one either?]
[I’m lost too. Does our wife want to suppress the Evil God or summon it? Or is he just trying to make both sides fight?]
Ruan Qing had long turned off the live-stream chat and couldn’t see any of the audience’s comments—not that he was in the mood to read them anyway.
His delicate face was deathly pale, his forehead glistening with sweat that clung to the strands of hair falling loose. Weakly, he leaned back against the sofa, his breathing so faint it seemed he might vanish the next second.
Clenching his teeth through his confrontation with Lin Zhiyan had drained him of even the strength to sit upright. Every breath was a struggle.
But at least those two hadn’t grown suspicious.
What had shocked Ruan Qing back then was the true nature of Xu Jinyan and Lin Zhiyan’s relationship. Contrary to the original owner’s assumptions, the two weren’t merely collaborators—there was something deeper between them.
But at the time, he’d been too weak to see the specifics of their arrangement. All he could do was analyze and speculate based on what he knew.
Without understanding the details of their deal, posing as Xu Jinyan to collaborate with Lin Zhiyan was like walking on a knife’s edge.
One misstep, and his entire plan would collapse.
But using Xu Jinyan’s identity to manipulate these two was still his best option.
If they found out the Evil God hadn’t truly been summoned, they would undoubtedly follow the materials he provided and attempt the ritual again.
One side sought to suppress the Evil God, the other to summon it—inevitably, the two factions would clash, and most likely in direct confrontation.
Ruan Qing lowered his gaze to his trembling fingers, tendrils of black mist still curling around his fingertips.
Frequent use of the Demon’s Eye’s power had already saturated his body with dark energy. If this continued, he wouldn’t even last until the seventh day before being completely corrupted—losing all chance of clearing this level.
He took a slow, deep breath, wiped the blood from the corner of his lips, and hid his trembling hands beneath his robe.
This place was too close to Xu Jinyan’s room—he had to leave as soon as possible.
Ruan Qing pushed himself up and weakly kicked at the thin line near his feet. The line snaked from under the sofa, tracing the edges of the furniture before extending toward the hallway.
The thread’s color blended with the floor, and it was tucked so close to the objects around it that it would be nearly impossible to notice unless someone was looking carefully.
When Ruan Qing’s foot tugged the line, it tightened slightly, as if transmitting some kind of signal.
A minute later, a small head peeked out from the hallway—it was the little boy, Li Yi’an.
Li Yi’an cautiously glanced around, and when he saw Ruan Qing beckoning to him, he quickly darted over to the sofa. He helped Ruan Qing up, and the two of them struggled their way deeper into the hallway.
During the staff’s inspections, Ruan Qing had used the Demon’s Eye to disguise himself as a guest, evading detection every time.
The Demon’ Eye shielded him from all scrutiny—no one could see through its illusion.
Now, everything was in place. All that remained was to wait.
But Li Yi’an was small, and his strength was limited. Supporting Ruan Qing was a struggle, and even a short distance took them far longer than it should have.
Meanwhile, the guests who had been hiding in their rooms during the inspections soon realized that the monsters on the cruise ship were gone. After days of starvation, some finally gathered the courage to step out.
When others saw those guests return safely, they rushed out in droves, scrambling toward the dining hall.
Many of the guests had been injured in the earlier monster attacks, so Ruan Qing and Li Yi’an blending in among them didn’t seem too out of place.
Just as Li Yi’an was helping Ruan Qing approach their room, footsteps echoed from the end of the hallway. The sound made Ruan Qing freeze.
Even without looking up, he knew those footsteps belonged to Qi Lintian.
And Qi Lintian was walking straight toward them.
