Volume 3, Chapter 222 – Just How Strong Is Your Divine Sense?

“Not bad, not bad! Everyone’s acting is quite professional—first shock, then pain, with humiliation mixed into the suffering, and unwillingness layered beneath the shame! Even I almost believed it.”

Standing above them, Qi Huang pointed and critiqued with the air of a seasoned director.

“Acting? Do I look like I’m ‘acting’ while struggling on the verge of death? You overestimate my acting skills!”

Li Hua groaned in misery. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined he would capsize in such a tiny ditch.

“G-General… didn’t you say the doppelgänger’s strength is at most eighty percent of the main body’s? Then what the hell is this?!”

Beside him, an Iron Zombie writhed in protest. The Profound Ice-formed liquid was bone-piercingly cold—so much so that even a zombie like him couldn’t endure it. The pain seeped straight into his marrow.

“……”

Li Hua clenched his teeth, speechless. If he had known, why would he have taken such a massive loss?

Qi Huang’s lips twitched. Even as a veteran actor with impeccable professionalism, she nearly burst out laughing.

“Your Highness, Crown Princess, since we’ve cooperated so thoroughly with your performance… could you perhaps retract your divine ability? After all, it’s just acting—no need to go all out!”

After adjusting to the pressure, Li Hua finally managed to straighten his tongue.

‘Do you really have no self-awareness about whether you were acting or not?’

Qi Huang couldn’t help but mock him internally, though she kept her tone light.

“General Li, as a professional actor, shouldn’t you have basic work ethics? I haven’t called ‘cut’ yet—how can you slack off already? Don’t you even want your boxed meal?”

“Then… when does Your Highness consider the performance over?”

Li Hua forced a smile uglier than a crying face.

“General Li, haven’t you heard the saying? ‘The show must go on—until life itself ends.’”

Qi Huang’s lips curled in amusement.

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“Your Highness… are you implying we should act until we die? But as you know, we’re already dead.”

Li Hua tried to reason with her.

“Since you’re already dead, then what is General Li afraid of?”

Qi Huang’s smirk deepened.

“My apologies, Your Highness. Your demands are simply too high. This humble general feels his acting skills still require refinement, so I’ll take my leave to… reflect further. As for the boxed meal, I’ll have to decline.”

Li Hua’s survival instincts were in full swing.

“No, no, no! I think your acting is already superb—no need for further refinement. So today, I insist on giving you that boxed meal.”

“Your Highness, please don’t trouble yourself! Our pitiful skills aren’t worth the cost of a single meal.”

“But I can’t let you work for free, can I? So many people are watching—if word gets out, who would ever act with me again? So today, you will take this meal, whether you want it or not.”

“No need, really! Absolutely unnecessary!”

“You must take it! You really must!”

And so, the two engaged in this “polite” back-and-forth, while the weaker evil spirits gradually sank deeper into the swamp amidst their struggles.

The onlookers exchanged glances, their faces twitching with suppressed laughter. What a heartwarming scene of “harmony between master and servant”.

“Why waste words on him? They can’t move anyway—whether they ‘accept’ the meal or not is up to us!”

Cheng Hongling finally snapped out of her daze. Gripping her sword, she strode forward to forcefully deliver the boxed meals. With swift swings, several nearby evil spirits were promptly buried in the swamp.

“Huh? Wasn’t this just acting? Why did Junior Sister actually attack? And why didn’t those evil spirits fight back?!”

“Didn’t you hear? Junior Sister is the Crown Princess. They’re willingly helping her become an unprecedented genius of the Honghua Sect—unmatched in history!”

“Sigh… They’re putting too much effort into this! Literally acting with their lives on the line!”

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Ruan Lingyu and the other senior sisters sighed in sympathy, their hearts aching at the tragic scene.

“Your Highness, there’s no need for you to dirty your hands. This general bids you farewell!”

Seeing the situation turning dire, Li Hua’s eyes sharpened. His aura condensed, and an overwhelming killing intent surged toward Qi Huang. As a former general of the Western Radiance Dynasty, the lives he had taken were beyond counting—such ferocious bloodlust was only natural.

And Qi Huang?

What she feared most was killing intent.

For a split second, her scalp prickled, and her divine sense wavered.

Seizing the opportunity, Li Hua swept his spear horizontally, using it to vault himself into the air. Landing on the remaining unbroken granite slabs, he fled in disgrace toward the Honghua Sect’s outskirts—snatching up the female ghost Fang Hui along the way.

The other stronger evil spirits also broke free from the swamp, scattering in desperate escape. They knew a cultivator’s strength was proportional to their divine sense. Once that monstrous Crown Princess’s doppelgänger recovered, there’d be no chance left to run.

“You think you can come and go as you please? Do you take the Honghua Sect for an inn?!”

Cheng Hongling dragged her sword and gave chase.

Qi Huang, caught off guard by the killing intent, only snapped back to her senses when the stronger evil spirits had already fled. Stamping her foot in frustration, she sprinted after them, shouting:

“Oh no! My cat food is getting away!”

Worried about Cheng Hongling’s safety, Qi Huang didn’t dare split up to pursue separately. Instead, she and her main body hunted them down one by one. But this delay cost her—she could only watch helplessly as the rest of her “cat food” vanished beyond the reach of her divine sense.

After eliminating one zombie and one Malignant Ghost, Qi Huang and her main body found no further traces of the escaped fiends.

“Agh! So mad! My cat food!!”

Qi Huang stomped her foot in frustration.

“What cat food?”

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Cheng Hongling frowned in confusion.

“N-Nothing!”

Qi Huang’s gaze darted away evasively.

“Fine, I won’t ask about the ‘cat food’. But what’s going on with your divine sense? Why has it suddenly grown so much stronger? Weren’t you just farming vegetables every day?”

Cheng Hongling pressed, and rightly so—this feeling of losing control over her doppelgänger was deeply unsettling.

“I don’t know either! It just… strengthened on its own!”

Qi Huang played dumb.

“On its own? Do you take me for a three-year-old? Was it from farming? Because of that Ghost Tomato?”

Cheng Hongling wasn’t stupid. This doppelgänger’s obsession with that tomato was far too suspicious.

“How could that be? You’ve touched that Ghost Tomato too—aside from poisoning you, did it boost your divine sense?”

Qi Huang panicked for a moment but quickly feigned calm.

Cheng Hongling’s delicate brows furrowed, but she couldn’t find a rebuttal.

“Stop overthinking it! Let’s hurry and chase them down—‘when eliminating evil, spare none’.”

Qi Huang swiftly changed the subject.

“Chase? Chase where? To where?”

“Obviously to that mass burial ground in Meng County! Since the evil’s already erupted, we should press the advantage—or else the common folk will suffer!”

Qi Huang declared righteously.

“You mean… raid their nest? Are you confident you can handle the source of evil there?”

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Cheng Hongling was stunned.

“Do I need confidence? We just have to scare them off. Remember how I dealt with the Heyi Sect and Yuxiao Sect?”

Qi Huang reminded her.

“Tell me honestly—just how strong is your divine sense now? Without sufficient leverage, how can you put on a convincing act?”

After a moment of contemplation, Cheng Hongling asked gravely.

“Around… late-stage Incarnation Realm, I guess?”

Qi Huang gave a very conservative estimate. After all, she was a firm believer in “modesty”.

“Late-stage Incarnation Realm? Then don’t bother acting.”

Cheng Hongling immediately dismissed the idea.

“Fine… early-stage Divine Realm.”

Qi Huang had no choice but to come clean. Why was it so hard to stay low-key?

“Divine Realm?!”

Cheng Hongling’s beautiful eyes widened abruptly, her delicate face frozen in shock. If true, this meant she might no longer be a match for her own doppelgänger.

“So… do I have the qualifications to act now?”

Qi Huang ventured cautiously.

“Act! Act hard! This time, I fully support your performance!”

Cheng Hongling smacked the table, figuratively, and gave her full approval.