Lanqi Received a Duel Request from the Poet of Great Love

Melissa's breathing at this moment was faint and feeble one second, urgent and anxious the next. In her eyes swirled a tangle of despair, pleading, and agony. The more she spoke with this black-haired, green-eyed girl, the more her mind went completely blank. "..." Lanqi had originally planned to wait until he was alone to summon the strongest phantom version of the Poet of Great Love and spar with her. If he could win, he might even become a new great demon before regrouping with Hyperion and Antanas. Instead, he had crossed paths with a warden who had accidentally grown addicted to the Poet of Great Love, and he was now being forced into drawing out the Phantom Poet of Great Love. Judging by the situation, ordinary persuasion couldn't soothe the warden's emotions at all. If he kept talking to her or stalling, she might truly lose her mind altogether. 'The Poet of Great Love really is a menace. A perfectly fine warden, reduced to this state by her voice.' Lanqi sighed inward. Now, the only way to help Warden Melissa was to use the Ferrat-style emotion calming technique. And in a moment, he would just have to strike a little harder and bring that crooked, wicked demon of a Poet under absolute suppression. As Lanqi's fighting spirit surged, the barrier mana of B5 began to churn, converging in the distance as if to give birth to a terrifying phantom fiend. Warden Melissa grew certain that the black-haired, green-eyed girl had finally begun doing as she asked, and her eyes seemed to find peace amidst the chaos. In this moment, her entire world revolved around that singular anticipation and joy. Even though no new figure had yet appeared in the corridor where they stood, a cold, heavy pressure had already saturated the air. Immediately after, black mist began to gather at the end of the corridor, slowly swirling. Like an ocean tide, the mist rolled across the floor, bizarre, turbid, and murky. After a long moment, a slender figure faintly emerged from its depths. Warden Melissa fixed her gaze upon it at once. It was the silhouette of a gray-haired girl, her long hair drifting gently, wearing the exact same mask locked across her lower jaw as the black-haired girl. Yet the bright smile in the gray-haired figure's eyes was completely different. Her soul-stirring blue pupils seemed to drift like flames through the mist, resembling stars in an abyss—at once ruthless and enchanting, brimming with an irresistible, demonic allure. The runic lamplight along the corridor flickered erratically around the Phantom Poet of Great Love until the black mist clinging to her slowly receded, unveiling her demon silhouette like an evil deity of love. The way she stepped out of the black mist felt as though a true Tier 8 great demon had been born right here. Generally speaking, phantom duplicates produced by the Hopeless Battle of Annihilation ignored all disguise magic. Which meant that the black-haired, green-eyed girl's true appearance was actually gray hair and blue eyes. Yet Warden Melissa had no room left in her mind to ponder such trivialities. She had long ceased caring what kind of creature the other party was! The instant the phantom appeared, Warden Melissa saw an angel. Raising her sword, she turned into a blur of speed and charged straight toward her. However... Just as she was about to reach the Phantom Poet of Great Love... "Thank you, you two idiots." The Phantom Poet of Great Love slipped off her mask and whispered to Warden Melissa like an exhaled breath. Instantly, Warden Melissa felt as though struck by lightning. Her waist buckled, and her bones seemed to melt away entirely. Unable to stand, she collapsed in a heap on the floor. She lay there twitching faintly, life or death uncertain. Because a certain emotion had reached its absolute peak, she had completely lost all combat capability. "..." Watching Warden Melissa, Lanqi found it difficult to gauge just how high the Tier 8 Poet of Great Love's emotion-amplification multiplier had adapted. The warden's brain was probably fried. Though there didn't seem to be a cerebral hemorrhage, it was hard to define whether her current state was 'good' or 'bad.' Judging by the expression on her face, she even showed the supreme contentment of someone who, having heard the truth in the morning, could die content at evening. Regardless, if she wasn't sent for medical treatment soon, there would likely be a threat to her life, and even if saved, some lingering aftereffects might remain. A mere breath could instantly fell a Tier 7 human powerhouse—even among Tier 8 great demons, she was an exceptionally bizarre existence. Although Lanqi personally ranked the Poet of Great Love second on his 'Useless Demon Leaderboard,' whenever he witnessed the unpredictable impact she had on other living beings, he wondered if he ought to bump her down the rankings a bit. Especially this Tier 8 version—she really did seem to have some genuine strength. Right as Lanqi was analyzing this— "Why... aren't you afraid of me?" The Phantom Poet of Great Love's demonic voice curled in the air. She seemed rather displeased that this black-haired, green-eyed version of herself was entirely unaffected by her magic voice. Furthermore, she felt as if this fellow was thinking about something thoroughly damned. For some inexplicable reason, she found him extraordinarily rude; that placid gaze looked as though he was earnestly comparing who was more evolved between her and a paramecium. "?" Lanqi looked up at the Phantom Poet of Great Love in confusion. "I can manipulate your emotions, you know~ make you willingly fall for me." The Phantom Poet of Great Love wasn't in any rush to kill him. Instead, she tilted her chin up with amusement. "Defeat me, and you'll obtain an exceptionally rare great demon mark. Too bad you won't manage it in this lifetime." Her confident expression proclaimed that she truly believed herself to be the greatest demon in the world. Lanqi snorted with a burst of laughter, as if thoroughly amused by her. "What are you laughing at?" The Phantom Poet of Great Love began to notice that the other party genuinely didn't seem swayed by her demonic voice. Still, that was normal for beings with a tranquil state of mind; she simply hadn't started mobilizing their emotions in earnest yet. She knew her own temperament very well; there was no way her original body could remain untouched by a hundredfold emotional amplification. "I didn't laugh." Even behind the mask, one could suspect that the black-haired, green-eyed Poet of Great Love was holding back laughter. This was the toughest 'try not to laugh' challenge he had ever played. "..." The Phantom Poet of Great Love glared at Lanqi. She couldn't shake the feeling that his eyes held a trace of pity, as if he were trying hard to spare her feelings. This bizarrely passive-aggressive air bewildered the Phantom Poet of Great Love. Why was her original body's personality completely different from her own? According to the principle of knowing oneself and one's enemy, the other party should have started mocking her relentlessly by now. Her nature was to sneer at her opponent no matter what, and after winning, torment them mercilessly and rub it in their face—not calmly pity them right from the start like this. Observing the black-haired, green-eyed girl's expression, the Phantom Poet of Great Love gradually felt that the only reason the other party hadn't taken off her mask to unleash her demonic voice was out of fear that bursting out laughing would be too impolite and hurt her feelings. That heartfelt scorn in those eyes seemed to say: Even if a useless vase like you reaches Tier 8, what good does it do? The Phantom Poet of Great Love flew into a rage! No one dared humiliate her like this!!