“Gospel team: Demon Yinzhi, Fist-and-Claw Sorcerer Amilo.”
“Blood Moon team: Demon Yejian, Necromancer Tiramisu.”
“Abyss team: Demon Longyuan, Parasite Sorcerer Shadow Evil Dragon, and an unknown sorcerer.”
“Paradise team: Demon Lehuai, Fire Sorcerer Curse Elf, an unknown sorcerer, and Rajesh (deceased).”
On the second day after the Golden Rain Catastrophe, inside Mengsi's villa, everyone had finally recovered enough to gather in the main hall and organize their intelligence. Igola turned off the television broadcasting news of post-disaster reconstruction and glanced at Yaxiu, who sat in an electric wheelchair. "Your new gear looks pretty slick. Does it have nitrous boost for drifting around corners?"
"Rose said if my feet so much as touch the floor, she'll resign," Yaxiu replied helplessly.
Rajesh's piercing shot had blown a hole straight through Yaxiu's spine. Joy Sword had merely temporarily reconnected his spinal nerves to restore his mobility. Bone took dozens of times longer to regenerate than flesh and blood; even with Joy Sword, it would take at least a week to make a full recovery.
As long as Yaxiu kept applying Joy Sword to himself, outsiders wouldn't even notice his broken spine. Unfortunately, once he rendezvoused with an unharmed Rose, he had completely let his guard down and fainted right on the spot. Rose had promptly rushed him through the emergency channel for an examination, and from the X-rays she saw a ruined husk riddled with holes.
In Rose's words: an assistant could help her employer harm others, but she would never permit her employer to harm himself. Otherwise, it would be a permanent stain on her professional career.
Sitting in a wheelchair was already Rose's final compromise. She had originally wanted him confined to a hospital bed, attending video conferences without taking a single step away, even having a catheter inserted just to urinate. The moment Yaxiu heard that last part, he had practically scrambled in terror, clutching the wheelchair and screaming at the top of his lungs to be discharged.
That said, the electric wheelchair was surprisingly comfortable. It offered excellent lumbar support, accommodated a cushioned seat, had skin-friendly armrests, and gave him the thrilling sensation of driving a remote-controlled car. Yaxiu was almost tempted to replace every chair he owned with one.
Just then, Rose and Feili brought over a fruit platter. Yaxiu gave two light coughs and pointed at the grapes. Rose glanced at him and was about to hand him the grapes when Weixi reached out and stopped her.
Today, Weixi had changed back into her usual maid uniform. Raising an eyebrow, she plucked a grape and was about to feed it into Yaxiu's mouth, but Yaxiu pulled back. "I don't eat grape skins."
"Fine," Weixi said with a radiant smile. Using her fingernails, she peeled away the skin to reveal the translucent, glistening flesh, then popped it into Yaxiu's mouth right before Feili's envious eyes.
Rose raised a hand. "Actually, we have tools for peeling grapes."
"No, no, no. I want her to do this pointless, repetitive chore slowly," Yaxiu said. "This is her punishment for making an out-of-line joke yesterday."
"Master, have you forgotten that you provoked me first?" Weixi's smile was sickeningly sweet.
"That's why I didn't make you wash my feet," Yaxiu countered. "You're seventy percent at fault, and I'm thirty percent. After offsetting them, you still owe forty percent."
"What makes my fault so much worse? In my era, there was a saying: 'The one who stirs up trouble first is the shameless one.' Have you learned that, Master?"
"Didn't I reach out to you afterward? That was my apology for provoking you."
"You call that invitation to clink glasses an apology?" Weixi laughed in exasperation.
"I say it counts, so it counts," Yaxiu replied unyieldingly. "Now that we've settled who started it, let's talk about the substance. If you had just insulted me or cursed my friends, I wouldn't have held it against you. But crossing the line is unacceptable. If I don't discipline you, I won't be able to sleep at night."
Igola chimed in, "Just insult him. Leave his friends out of it."
"I have fully realized my mistake, Master," Weixi said with utter sincerity. "However, I have one question: does stating the truth count as crossing the line?"
"It does not."
"Then when I meet the mistresses in the future, if I merely report what I saw and heard without any subjective speculation or interior monologues, that shouldn't cross the line either, right?"
Yaxiu stared at Weixi in silence, enunciating each word: "I want to eat a pineapple that you've peeled entirely by hand."
Weixi strode toward the fruit platter with the swagger of a victor. Igola looked between the two of them and remarked, "Maybe it's just my imagination—but haven't the two of you gotten a lot closer? Before, no matter how grave an error Lady Weixi committed, you never dared punish her on an emotional whim, Yaxiu."
"Don't you have a better word than 'close'? Like 'hostile,' 'distant,' or 'irreconcilable'?" Yaxiu said sourly. "Before, I held back because I was afraid she would exploit my emotional fluctuations to counter-manipulate my mind. Now that I realize she's just a paper tiger, naturally I have fewer reservations."
A paper tiger?
Igola and Harvey looked up at the Spectre Prophet, who was currently peeling a pineapple with her bare hands. She met their gaze with a polite smile.
"Also," Yaxiu paused, "I plan to integrate Weixi into our battle roster."
Now they were genuinely shocked.
Joining the battle roster meant treating Weixi as a teammate for tactical coordination. But that also meant Yaxiu, Igola, and Harvey would have to reveal all their trump cards to her; otherwise, how could they coordinate at all? Doing so would inevitably expose the greatest strengths and weakest vulnerabilities of their miracles, effectively handing Weixi all their intelligence!
Back in the Senluo Realm, even Tamashi had not been part of their battle roster. After all, Black Crow had required Yaxiu to fly him into position just to join combat, making their dynamic more akin to a dragon rider and his dragon. Neither the Fire Sanctuary Chikala nor the Star Sorcerer Gwen had been included in the battle roster either; Igola had never felt safe sharing their trump cards with them, nor did he believe their inclusion would significantly bolster their combat power.
Did Weixi have the qualifications to join their battle roster, then?
The answer was beyond question. In the very first angel hunt, Weixi's addition had elevated their team's coordination to an entirely new level; Yaxiu had even worried that Igola and Harvey might become overly reliant on her. As for trust—Yaxiu still held total domination over Weixi. In this world, there was hardly any relationship more stable than absolute subjugation.
They should have added Weixi to the roster long ago. The reason they hadn't was not so much fear of being manipulated by her, but rather an effort to minimize contact with her as much as possible.
Even now, if a button appeared in front of Yaxiu that could permanently kill Weixi, he would press it without hesitation. The only reason Weixi was still breathing was that they hadn't yet found a method to permanently extinguish her means of resurrection.
Even the greedy Igola and the detached Harvey harbored no desire for Weixi to keep living. Weixi was different from Silver Lantern. Silver Lantern's evil stemmed merely from destiny's cruel arrangement, whereas Weixi's evil was that she herself was destiny's cruelest arrangement.
They could still maintain their resolute intent to kill her for now, but once they became teammates, their interactions would grow increasingly frequent, and they would eventually brave life-and-death trials together.
Igola's thoughts stirred, and he glanced at Yaxiu. Yaxiu tapped the whiteboard behind him. "To survive, we no longer have the luxury of wasting combat strength."
"True enough," Igola conceded, letting out a breath. "Since Hell lies straight ahead of us, why fear standing shoulder to shoulder with demons?"
Feili blinked. "Why be afraid of me?"
"Darling, because you're so adorable everyone just wants to take a bite out of you." Weixi had finally finished peeling the pineapple. Spearing a piece with a toothpick, she dipped it in saltwater and held it before Yaxiu. "Besides, unless I truly seize enough power from the angel hunt to overturn the board, I'll have to plunge into Hell right alongside you."
"Still, if you want to survive, you're not entirely without options." Weixi glanced at the four factions listed on the whiteboard, a chill creeping into her eyes.
"If you're willing to become dogs, wagging your tails and begging for scraps isn't a bad way to live either."
Chapter 889