A small flowerpot sat on the windowsill, filled with fresh soil that had just been dug up. Sisha sat by the window, idly rolling a few black seeds in her hand.

These were the Bloodsucking Treant seeds Lu Feng had given her before he left. He had told her that if irreconcilable conflict ever broke out within the Blood Clan, all she had to do was cut her finger, let a drop of blood fall onto the seeds, and place them on the ground. That alone would bring about a catastrophic disaster.

This was Sisha's final trump card. A destructive tool like this had to be used with extreme caution.

At that moment, a knock came from outside the door.

"Your Highness, Princess, Duke Kristin requests an audience," came the attendant Mallory's voice from outside.

Sisha put away the Bloodsucking Treant seeds and hid them carefully.

"Let him in," Sisha said.

Kristin walked in. The moment he saw Sisha, he still put on a smile.

"Duke Kristin, have official matters been light lately? You actually had time to come all the way here?" Sisha's tone made it clear she wasn't welcoming him.

"Sisha, you should understand how I feel about you." Kristin smiled as he spoke, as if he didn't care about her attitude at all.

"My apologies, Duke. I don't have time to sit here and chat idly with you. Please return and attend to your duties." Sisha turned away.

"Sisha... why are you like this?" Kristin frowned slightly.

"I'll be honest with you. Her Majesty the Empress does intend to betroth you to me. Since you're my future fiancée, of course I'd make time to come see you no matter how busy I am," Kristin said.

"The Empress is betrothing me to you?" Sisha turned her face back. Her scarlet eyes locked onto Kristin, her expression icy.

Seeing that Sisha was finally willing to respond to him, Kristin smiled slightly again, a little smug.

"That's right. The Empress does have that intention. And I guarantee it—you will definitely become my wife." Kristin smiled.

"Kristin, if you want to daydream, then please go back to your own estate and do it there," Sisha said.

"You still don't believe me, huh?" Kristin wore a smiling, mysterious look. "Since you still seem unwilling, then I'll just lay everything out."

"When you went to the human Eastern Empire, you took very good care of someone, didn't you?"

"Yes. So what?" Sisha's expression stiffened slightly for a moment, then she replied coldly.

Look at that—she still didn't know her earlier actions had already been exposed. Kristin felt rather pleased with himself.

"If that's true, then I'll have to report it to Her Majesty the Empress." Kristin looked full of himself. "Sisha, while I shouldn't interfere in your private affairs, something this serious and improper should still be reported to Her Majesty for her judgment."

"Are you threatening me?" Sisha turned around fully, her cold gaze fixed on Kristin.

Kristin's smile deepened.

"No, no, no, Princess Sisha. This is merely the duty I must fulfill as a subject. It's all for Your Highness's lifelong happiness."

"Then I'd advise you not to provoke that lord," Sisha said. A smile tugged at her lips as well, full of contempt and mockery.

"That lord...? Sisha, are you out of your mind? Your so-called lord is nothing more than someone with a few cheap tricks. Once he draws Her Majesty's attention, there's no way he'll escape," Kristin said.

"That lord is a supreme existence. The Empress will approve of what I've done," Sisha said flatly.

"Supreme?" This time, Kristin was the one who froze for a moment. Then he laughed again.

"Sisha, putting on airs won't work on me. I'll ask you one last time. Do you agree to our marriage or not?" Kristin spread his hands and delivered his final ultimatum.

"Go take a piss and look at your own reflection first. Then see whether you're even worthy of me," Sisha said.

"Good. Very good. Since that's what you say, then fine..." Kristin was furious now, though he still spoke with a mocking smile. "I'd really like to see just how supreme your precious lord is."

With that, Kristin left the room with a dark expression.

...

...

Another boring night.

Lu Feng sat in front of his computer and, as usual, opened the author dashboard on the novel site. Then he suddenly noticed there was one more comment.

"Author, update faster!!!"

Oh, so if you tell me to update, I just update? Wouldn't that make me look spineless? Lu Feng was a man of principles.

Then he saw the second comment.

"The invincible me tipped the author 1,000,000 Fire Coupons!"

Holy shit, then I absolutely have to update right now!

Lu Feng instantly felt motivated. He pinned that comment at once, all sleepiness gone, ready to grind out a new chapter on the spot.

But...

Looking closer, what was with the "Ashes" title above that user's name?

He checked again. Turns out the so-called tipping line was something that guy had typed into the comment section himself.

To hell with updating! Lu Feng shut the author dashboard.

Even if you beat him to death, he didn't want to touch the web novel business anymore. Thinking up plot points was enough to make him go bald, and in the end, he barely got any subscriptions.

So, in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle while also making some money on the side, Lu Feng decided to try becoming a game streamer.

He glanced at the clock on the wall. There were still two hours before midnight. Yuzi was already lying in bed, sleeping soundly.

Lu Feng walked over to the bed and tucked Yuzi's blanket in properly. Then he returned to sit in front of the computer.

He'd been too idle during the day, so now he couldn't fall asleep.

But what game should a new streamer play?

Games that needed too much fancy control were out of the question. Lu Feng simply couldn't handle them. He was hopeless with his hands. The moment he got into one, his corpse would end up decorating the whole map.

So after thinking it over and over, Lu Feng decided to try streaming a horror game instead.

Just then, an ad window suddenly popped up on his desktop. It opened with a black background. On it was a bloody severed hand, fingers still writhing in pain. The blood-red title was impossible to miss.

"The scariest and most realistic game of the year"

The hell? I only searched for horror games yesterday, and today you're already throwing ads at me this fast?

Lu Feng had to admit it—the age of big data had truly arrived. There was no privacy left at all. And the stuff it pushed to him was exactly the kind of thing he didn't want.

I search horny stuff every day, so why don't you push me more horny stuff instead? How come that never gets recommended?

The ad blocker on his computer was obviously a joke too. It was probably in league with the advertisers, letting ads pop up nonstop every single day.

Lu Feng was just about to close the ad when he suddenly noticed a line of small text beneath the title:

"A blockbuster game, free for a limited time"

Oh. Then this was definitely worth downloading to try out.

The promo poster actually did look pretty creepy, so Lu Feng decided to give it a shot.

—Definitely not because he wanted to save those few bucks.