There’s No Way My Maid Is a Villain

Shui Cangxuan

Night had fallen deep. The silver moon adorned a splendid starry sky.

Inside the brilliantly illuminated imperial palace, Wanhua Zhankong was hosting a grand banquet to celebrate the successful Spirit Selection, inviting all the talented prodigies who participated.

Joy and pride shone on their faces, and though the scene was a blur, every one of them was accompanied by a shadow—proof that set them apart from the world.

Of course, the failures had no place among them.

Deep underground in the palace, Wanhua Zhankong looked at an elderly executor and asked, "How did this Spirit Selection go, specifically?"

The executor bowed and replied, "There were a total of one thousand participants in this Spirit Selection; eight hundred ninety-seven succeeded, while one hundred and three were eliminated. The most outstanding Spirit Companions belonged to Princess Lingqian's Supreme Divine Lord: Shen Baixue, and Prince Beichen's Abyssal Demon Emperor: Mo Fengren. Although they hail from opposing factions, they had little interaction in their lives."

"Shen Baixue... Mo Fengren... One is a god from the Celestial Realm, the other a demon from the Abyss. Is there some deeper implication in this?"

Wanhua Zhankong pondered. Suddenly, he looked up.

"Could it be that the war between gods and demons is about to begin anew?"

He then shook his head.

"No, no, impossible. Up to now, there has been no spark to ignite a war."

He soon made his way alone to the surface. There, he saw Lingqian already waiting for him, holding a square piece of glass in her hands, with something seemingly inside.

"Qian'er, what are you holding in your hand?"

"Father, this is Yinhua's soul."

"Oh, is that so? You, come over here and deliver this to the prince of the Yuexing Kingdom."

Wanhua Zhankong casually handed Yinhua's soul to a nearby guard, who accepted the order and then hurried to the banquet hall.

"That's your younger sister's soul. You don't object, do you?"

"Royalty has no kinship,"

Lingqian replied in an unusually cold tone.

"Hahaha, well said! Qian'er, can you summon the Divine Lord for a meeting?"

"Father, Baixue is still resting. To disturb her now, perhaps..."

"Is that so? Then go rest soon as well. Remember, you must defeat Yuexing Beichen."

"Yes!"

...............................

The lights in the banquet hall still shone bright.

After the guard delivered the item to Yuexing Beichen, he turned and left.

"With this, my sister can be revived?"

Yuexing Beichen narrowed his eyes, gazing at the cube in his hand.

"That's right, Your Highness. It is a complete, unblemished soul," said an old man with a white beard—the state preceptor of Yuexing, xing Zhaoming.

'Fengren, what do you think?'

In his mind, Beichen communicated with the Demon Emperor.

'It's a complete soul, and it has already lost the will to survive. Even if your sister has only half a soul, she can devour this one easily.'

'Is that so? Good. I just hope that old fox won't play any tricks.'

At that moment, in reality—

"Excuse me, sir, could you give me the soul in your hand? I need her very much."

A woman dressed in a maid's outfit interrupted the conversation between Fengren and Beichen.

"How dare you! This concerns our princess's life; how could we possibly entrust it to someone as lowly as yourself?!"

Before Beichen could speak, xing Zhaoming berated her furiously.

"Is that so? Then please excuse me."

After performing a textbook maid's bow, the woman quietly left.

"Hmph, how shameless,"

Xing Zhaoming said, still fuming. Meanwhile, Beichen stared silently at the maid's departing figure.

'How did she know I was holding a soul?'

He seemed to sense something, but couldn't quite grasp it. Shaking his head, he forced himself not to dwell on it.

After thoroughly enjoying the banquet, everyone began preparing to leave, and Yuexing Beichen was no exception.

The Yuexing Kingdom was quite far from Wanhua, and to return by the next day, they had to travel all night.

Thinking of his long-slumbering sister, Yuexing Beichen was impatient to depart.

Once outside the imperial capital, Yuexing's own guards, numbering dozens, escorted him; the weakest among them was at the fourth level.

Xing Zhaoming and Beichen themselves were at the eighth level. Even for a minor kingdom, such a force was nothing to fear.

Beichen never imagined any danger.

But he was wrong—utterly wrong.

Two hundred li from the imperial capital, in a forest, Beichen, riding in his carriage, mulled over the peculiar maid from the banquet.

His instincts told him something was off. While deep in thought, Mo Fengren suddenly appeared beside him.

"Have you recovered your strength?"

Beichen asked, puzzled.

"No, of course not that quickly."

"Then why did you appear?"

"I'm here to warn you: turn back immediately, or you'll lose your life here."

"How could that be? This isn't your Abyss. Here in the Human Realm, there's no power save for Wanhua's that can threaten us."

"Is that so? If you're so confident, I have nothing more to say."

Mo Fengren shook his head at Beichen's obstinacy, reverting once more to spiritual form and returning to Beichen's body.

As the procession advanced, the leading coachman seemed to hit a layer of watery mist.

Suddenly, Beichen and Xing Zhaoming felt a bone-chilling cold deep in their souls.

"Hiss hiss~~~"

Even the horses refused to go forward. The guards below level six were forced to their knees by the suffocating cold.

Beichen realized this was not a power he could resist.

"Run!!!"

Without hesitation, he ordered a retreat, but it was useless.

Every soldier who tried to flee was instantly gutted, blood spraying across Beichen's vision until all he saw was crimson.

The shrieks of dying soldiers filled his ears, and as they fell one by one, the state preceptor of Yuexing stepped in front of him.

"Your Highness, I'll cover your escape. You are our kingdom's only hope! The princess is still waiting for you!"

Xing Zhaoming shielded Beichen, but the moment he turned around, his head was severed from his body.

Xing Zhaoming's head fell to the ground, disbelief etched in his eyes—he'd been killed without even a chance to resist.

Yuexing Beichen could bear his own uselessness no longer. He stood up and shouted:

Instantly, a powerful force struck his abdomen, hurling him through the rear of the carriage and onto the ground, where he spat blood.

He tried to stand but couldn't.

'What kind of power is this? It slaughtered dozens of my soldiers without even showing itself. Is the enemy invisible?'

Lying on the ground, Beichen sensed the enemy closing in.

'It's over...'

With a 'Bang!' the forest floor shattered. At the last moment, Mo Fengren appeared to block a fatal blow to Beichen.

A bloodstained dagger lodged in front of Beichen, finally allowing him to see the enemy.

It was the maid from the banquet. Beichen's eyes went wide; he never imagined that someone dressed as a mere maid would wield such power—enough to topple a kingdom alone!

"That's a hell of a strike, young lady,"

Mo Fengren remarked, glancing at the wound on his hand where he'd caught the blade barehanded in a moment of desperation.

"Who are you?"

Aili's voice was utterly emotionless, colder than millennium-old ice. She was in an incredibly foul mood.

"There are some things I just can't allow you to kill him for."

Mo Fengren stood by Beichen's side, his face radiating a mysterious confidence, as if unafraid for his own life.

"Then die with him."

Without another word, Aili snatched up the dagger and lunged at Mo Fengren.

"Whoa, whoa, that's not very ladylike. Time to run!"

With that, Mo Fengren scooped up Beichen and fled deeper into the woods.

"Fengren, why did you only appear now? You could have saved them!"

Beichen yelled at Mo Fengren, voice full of blame.

"I warned you to turn back or you'd die, but you didn't listen. In my current state I'm no match for that woman, and there may be more than one enemy. We seem to be inside a water-based barrier. My guess is there's another foe as strong as her monitoring everything."

Mo Fengren spoke with terrifying calm, methodically analyzing the situation.

With Aili closing in from behind, it was a race with death—if she caught them, they would die.

"There's no choice, Beichen. Don't blame me."

With those words, Mo Fengren retrieved Yinhua's soul from Beichen's storage ring.

"Fengren! What are you doing? That's—"

"What it is doesn't matter. All you need to know is, right now this thing is a death warrant!"

Mo Fengren cut off Beichen's protest, then turned and hurled the soul behind him. Sure enough, death stopped in her tracks.

Seizing the opening, Mo Fengren escaped the barrier with Beichen.

In the forest, Aili clutched Yinhua's soul, her expression deeply despondent.

"I'm sorry, my magic is too conspicuous. If I overuse it, my identity might be discovered, so I couldn't help you as much as I wanted."

Shui Cangxuan stepped from the trees nearby, looking at Aili.

"No, it's fine. Thank you,"

Aili answered, her voice choked, on the verge of tears.

"No need to thank me. I just don't want you as my enemy, nor do I wish for my apprentice to grieve."

Pausing, shui Cangxuan continued, "There's no time to linger. The soul must return to the body quickly, or once it dissipates, it's no laughing matter."

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
What will happen to Yinhua?
If she doesn't have any power, she's just a sitting duck...
I hope she gets some power soon...
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】