I manage female characters in all the heavens.

She was silent for a moment, then slammed her hand on the table!

boom!

The fine mahogany armchair shattered into pieces in an instant!

"They've retreated?!" Her eyes widened, her voice almost squeezed out through clenched teeth. "They actually retreated! How can this be!"

The city lord was startled by her reaction and retreated repeatedly: "Yes, yes... they withdrew their troops... isn't this a good thing?"

"You big dummy!"

"These useless trash!" Lord Yingri was furious and slammed his fist into a pillar next to him. He didn't use any true energy or technique; it was just a punch to vent his anger.

The entire pillar cracked instantly, and dust fell from the roof.

"I've been waiting for them here for ages, full of anticipation, and they just ran off like that?!"

"How could you do this to me?"

rnm, refund my money!

She paced back and forth in the hall in a fit of rage, leaving deep footprints on the blue bricks beneath her feet.

"What happened to the Demon-Slaying Alliance? What happened to the extermination of demons and the defense of justice? With such cowardice, you dare to call yourselves the righteous path of the martial world?!"

The Demon Extermination Alliance is wavering and indecisive, even backing down in the face of the demons. They are unworthy of being called heroes!

She took a deep breath and quickly made a decision.

No, we can't let them get away like this!

I don't necessarily need their martial arts skills; I just want to prove that my wisdom and strategies will not backfire!

She strode to the door, ready to leave.

The city lord was taken aback: "Lord Yingri, where are you going again?"

Lord Yingri said in a muffled voice, "Return the treasure."

The city lord was dumbfounded. Was he crazy?

Seeing his ghostly expression, Lord Yingri waved his hand impatiently:

"This is to feign weakness, to make them think that I, this demon, am not so terrible after all, so that they can regroup and attack me!"

The city lord stared wide-eyed, opened his mouth, closed it again, opened it again, but ultimately couldn't utter a word.

The gold and silver treasures you painstakingly seized are clearly unwanted by the other party, yet you want to return them—just to invite the enemy to attack you?

Moreover, can this really be called showing weakness to the enemy, rather than reconciliation?

What kind of operation is this? I don't understand it at all!

But the city lord dared not ask or speak, and could only lament that his understanding was insufficient to comprehend Lord Yingri's profound plans.

Only Jiang Yuyan, who had been with her for some time, knew that Lord Yingri wasn't doing anything at all; he was simply going crazy.

But this is something she should keep to herself; she can't possibly tell the city lord and the others about it.

Jiang Yuyan knew about the Absorption Technique and understood that her master, Lord Yingri, had his eye on the martial arts accumulation of the Demon Extermination Alliance members. As Lord Yingri's most loyal subordinate, she naturally had to step forward to share his burdens.

Returning the treasure is a completely futile attempt. What they fear is your martial arts prowess in defeating hundreds of forces in a single day, not your money. Whether you return the money or not, it doesn't change the fact that your martial arts are overwhelmingly superior.

To get the Demon Extermination Alliance to continue sending troops, we need another strategy.

"Lord Yingri, please wait."

Lord Yingri stopped and turned to look at Jiang Yuyan: "What? Yuyan, do you have something to say?"

Jiang Yuyan smiled slightly, walked up to her, and said softly, "My lord, returning the stolen treasure is not a way to show weakness to the enemy."

Lord Yingri is displeased. How dare you doubt my wisdom?

However, she was not an arrogant leader; she would selectively listen to her subordinates' suggestions: "Oh? What do you mean?"

Of course, if I don't say it well and don't satisfy her...

Ah, my sword is not without its flaws!

"My lord, just imagine this—you robbed someone's treasure, and then voluntarily returned it. What would those江湖人士 (jianghu figures) think?"

Jiang Yuyan analyzed slowly and methodically, "They won't think you're showing weakness. On the contrary, they'll think that you're so skilled in martial arts that you could have taken it by force, but you chose to return the money. You're a really good person."

Lord Yingri's expression stiffened slightly. Is that so?

Jiang Yuyan continued, "By then, your reputation as a demon will be further tarnished, and the demon-slaying army will be completely shattered."

"..." Lord Yingri fell silent.

She had to admit that Jiang Yuyan was right.

Taking something and then returning it isn't showing weakness; it's being mentally ill.

At that time, people in the martial arts world will not change her powerful image, but will instead feel that she is a fool. Who will still want to fight her then? Who will bother with a fool?

She took a deep breath, looked at Jiang Yuyan, and chose to trust the wisdom of the big boss: "Yuyan, what do you think we should do?"

Jiang Yuyan smiled and offered a simple yet highly effective method.

She suggested that "Tie Xinlan" use the name of the Eastern Depot. Given the Eastern Depot's notorious reputation in the martial arts world, as long as they were associated with it, coupled with the reputation of being a demon, if the Demon Extermination Alliance dared to withdraw its troops, they would immediately be labeled as afraid of the Eastern Depot and become a laughing stock in the martial arts world.

This forced them to come and attack, since people in the martial arts world value their reputation more than their lives, so they had no choice but to come, no matter how unwilling they were.

After hearing Jiang Yuyan's plan, Tie Xinlan's eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Brilliant! Yuyan, how did you come up with such a cunning plan? I love it!"

As expected of a woman who can become the final boss, her cunning is terrifying. With just a few words, she came up with a very feasible plan, pushing the Demon Extermination Alliance to the brink of despair.

If she wanted, she could even use the power of the Demon Extermination Alliance to deal with the Eastern Depot, and then reap the benefits by eliminating both the Demon Extermination Alliance and the Jiangdong branch of the Eastern Depot in one fell swoop, killing two birds with one stone. That's terrifying!

She immediately summoned the city lord and gave him instructions on the plan, telling him to spread rumors.

"Go! Let rumors become our weapons!" she declared confidently.

The city lord was dumbfounded, and after a long while, he managed to stammer, "Lord Yingri... are you afraid that the Demon Extermination Alliance won't come to attack you?"

"Nonsense!" Tie Xinlan rolled her eyes. "If they don't come to fight me, how can I rightfully kill them all?"

"...Legitimate?" The city lord's lips twitched. You call this legitimate?

"Of course! They came to punish me, this demon, and I was acting in self-defense. What's wrong with that?"

Which law stipulates that villains should be punished?

If a thousand men came to kill me and I fought back, and that's not considered self-defense, then is there any self-defense in the world?

The city lord fell silent, feeling that after following Lady Yingri for a few days, his thinking was aligning with hers, and he actually found that what she said made sense!

Half a day later, a rumor quietly spread from an unknown source and quickly became known throughout the land.

"Have you heard? That 'Sun-Reflecting Demon' of the Yihua Palace is actually a member of the Eastern Depot!"

"More than that! She's the godmother of Liu happy, the newly appointed head of the Eastern Depot!"

"It is said that she is a top-level secret agent secretly planted in the martial arts world by the Eastern Depot, codenamed Sunflower, and is specifically responsible for infiltrating and controlling the Yihua Palace!"

"She is a master of martial arts, ruthless, bloodthirsty and cruel. Back then, Liu happy was able to rise to become the head of the Eastern Depot today because he recognized her as his godmother and received some training from her. He is capable of all kinds of evil."

"She looks young, but she's actually a hundred-year-old monster who has maintained her youth through unfathomable power. No wonder she's so strong at such a young age; she's not young at all, she's an old geezer!"

The rumors were presented in great detail, with a clear cause and effect, and even linked her brutality of wiping out entire families to the practices of the Eastern Depot—

If they weren't from the Eastern Depot, could they be this brutal?

Reasonable!

The martial arts world was in an uproar.

What is the Eastern Depot? It's the common enemy of the entire martial arts world, hated by everyone!

Anyone associated with the Eastern Depot is an enemy of the martial arts world!

No matter what you actually do, if you get involved with the Eastern Depot, you'll be despised!

"That devil Yingri is actually a member of the Eastern Depot, and also Liu Xi's godmother. She's evil on top of evil, and rotten to the core!"

"Damn it! If we let her continue to live so freely, our entire martial arts world will be infiltrated by the Eastern Depot!"

"Even if she's a demon, we still have to defeat her!"

"Anyone who dares to back down in the campaign to defeat the Demon Lord Yingri is a spineless coward, and we must all unite to ridicule him!"

No one wants to be ridiculed by the entire martial arts world; that would be worse than death.

The Demon Extermination Alliance's expeditionary force, which had just disbanded and retreated only half a day prior, had to regroup after receiving the news and set off again for Anqing.

Their faces were filled with righteous indignation, but their hearts were filled with helplessness, realizing that they had embarked on a path of no return.

Damn it, all I wanted was to join a group, gain some fame, and maybe even some treasure, how did it turn out like this?

This car can get on, but it can't get off!

Chapter 124 We lost, yet we didn't lose!

The capital city, the Eastern Depot (Dongchang) government office.

"Snapped--!"

A fine blue-and-white porcelain teacup was smashed to the ground, shattering into pieces and splashing scalding hot tea everywhere.

"What the hell is this godmother! Where the hell did I get a godmother?!"

Liu happy's well-maintained, clean-shaven face was now ashen.

He suddenly stood up from the armchair, flicked the sleeves of his wide python robe, creating a sharp gust of wind that swept away all the documents piled up on the table in front of him.

The dozen or so Eastern Depot officers, executioners, and foremen kneeling below were all trembling with fear, their heads almost buried in the floor, not daring to breathe.

Liu Xi laughed in fury, her laughter sharp and piercing, like the cry of an owl. "Who does she think she is, Ying Ri? Does she even deserve to be our godmother?!"

He strode into the hall and kicked over a small sandalwood table with an incense burner on it. Incense ash was scattered all over the floor, and wisps of smoke twisted and dissipated in the chaos.

“I’m forty-three this year, and she’s just a little girl who hasn’t even grown her hair yet, and she’s become my godmother… This is not only a slap in the face for my family, but also a slap in the face for the entire Eastern Depot!”

Liu happy turned around, his gaze sweeping over the kneeling crowd below like a venomous snake, his voice so sinister it seemed to drip water:

"Investigate! Investigate this place to the death! Dig three feet into the ground, find the source of this rumor! We want to see which fearless bastard dares to mess with us!"