482: The system's mutterings

Ling Qi gazed at the startlingly bright eyes of her Empress, reached out, and gave her shoulder a firm squeeze.

"Since A Ning has a plan, this Subordinate will take her leave."

"There are still ten kilograms of documents in the office awaiting processing." She mentioned this, then seemed to recall something else.

"A vortex of Yin energy appeared in the seclusion chamber of Ox-Head and Horse-Face two days ago. The disturbance was quite significant; they are likely about to break through to the Seventh-Rank and emerge from seclusion."

"If Your Majesty has any free time, you might want to go take a look."

Shang Wan Ning turned her head, her gaze lingering on Ling Qi's features. The undisguised fatigue made her nod slightly: "Very well, I am aware."

AQi was always like this—busy running off her feet, yet still having to spare attention for everything else.

These days, she had been burying herself in files, and the dark circles under her eyes had never faded.

"Don't stay up too late." Shang Wan Ning raised her hand, her fingertips brushing the stray hair on Ling Qi's forehead. "Those documents won't grow legs and run away; they'll be the same tomorrow."

Ling Qi's lips curved, though she wanted to roll her eyes, feeling that this person's concern was truly hypocritical.

She simply withdrew the hand resting on her shoulder and turned to walk out of the hall.

[There is really no helping her.]

She was truly busy.

The Empress could bury herself in state affairs for a few days and then relax for a few more. The Secretary-General, however, could not. Every day, new files arrived in the Underworld—requests from various departments, reports from the Research Institute, anomaly records from the Department of Reincarnation...

Each and every one had to pass through her hands.

Shang Wan Ning stared at the swaying beaded curtain, and only after a long while did she shift her "guilty" gaze away.

The hall quieted down. The concentration incense had burned down to the last bit, and ribbons of smoke curled lazily upward.

The Underworld Empress leaned back against the soft couch, closed her eyes, and sank her consciousness into the System Space.

As soon as she entered, she heard Xiao Si's electronic voice, clearly filled with excitement and a hint of indescribable glee: "Host, Host, that cross-dressing big shot, Candle Shadow Shaking Red, is truly the GOAT."

"I just reviewed the streaming data from the past six months. Good heavens, she's changed eighty-seven dresses, collected the top three pages of the popular lipstick list in the human world, and has enough eyeshadow palettes to open a specialty store."

"The key is the expression, the movements. She's better at handling male fans than Star was back in the day!"

"Star was doing it for her sister's tuition, gritting her teeth and pushing forward; but Candle Shadow Shaking Red is the real deal. That air of flirtatiousness is completely natural, tsk tsk..."

Shang Wan Ning's consciousness formed a phantom, raised a hand, and knocked on the light sphere.

A dull "thud."

Xiao Si cried out "Ouch," and the data stream flickered: "Host, why? I'm telling the truth."

"Truth?" Shang Wan Ning raised an eyebrow. "You're a yuri system, what do you know about 'flirtatious demeanor'?"

"How could I not know!"

Xiao Si was unconvinced, and a little puffed-up expression appeared on the surface of the light sphere.

[This Old Lady has over thirty thousand human movies, fifty thousand hours of live stream recordings, and eight million street-style photos in her database! My aesthetic sense is absolutely on point.]

Her tone grew excited again: "Seriously, Host, this old monster Candle Shadow Shaking Red might have genuinely fallen for cross-dressing. Think about it, she's lived for hundreds of thousands of years, what hasn't she seen?"

"Now she's willing to lower her status to dress up as a small streamer, obsessing over outfits and makeup every day, and saying 'Love you, wifey' to fans..."

"If this were an average Transcendent, it would be called 'training in the mortal world.' But she is a Ninth-Rank Great Demon, one of the three rulers of the Source Realm! Could it be that she's looking for the thrill of cross-dressing, or enjoying that sense of depravity???"

Shang Wan Ning was at a loss for words.

[Didn't we already complain about this last time? Why is Xiao Si whipping the corpse of Candle Shadow Shaking Red again.]

She lowered her eyelashes, seemingly feeling that mocking Candle Shadow Shaking Red once was enough. The Underworld Empress was not a gossiping hag from the human world.

Xiao Si, however, kept chattering: "What's even crazier is that we used the Abyss Church's name to probe her, and even though her identity might have been exposed, she didn't get angry. She even thought this confrontation was 'interesting'!"

"What does this mean? It means that in her heart, the fun brought by cross-dressing streaming has already outweighed the risk of being exposed. Maybe even..."

The electronic voice lowered a bit, filled with gossip: "She doesn't care about being exposed at all; she might even find it more exciting!"

Shang Wan Ning finally spoke: "Whether she cares or not, I am not sure. But one thing is certain..."

"Besides the currently streaming Candle Shadow Shaking Red, who else in the Source Realm can the Abyss Church, or rather, our Underworld, contact?"

Xiao Si's light sphere flickered: "Oh, right!"

She suddenly realized: "Candle Shadow Shaking Red's Subordinates and colleagues in the Source Realm have no idea that the person behind the 'Candle Shadow Shaking Red' account is their own Supreme."

"Even if we leaked the news of her cross-dressing, we wouldn't find anyone to leak it to!"

"Unless the Underworld could infiltrate the Source Realm, find the demon generals under Candle Shadow Shaking Red, and say to their faces: 'Hey, your boss is cross-dressing and streaming in the human world, the ID is Candle Shadow Shaking Red, go watch it!'"

"But we don't even know where the Source Realm is, so where are we going to find her Subordinates?"

Shang Wan Ning smiled and said: "That is why she dares to be so unbridled."

"This game has been marked out from the very beginning. Candle Shadow Shaking Red is wearing a mask on that side, and I am holding a fake identity on this side. We both know there is more to the other, yet we both pretend to be ignorant."

"Whoever flips the table first loses the fun."

Xiao Si's light sphere spun twice, then suddenly blurted out: "Host, what do you think would happen if Candle Shadow Shaking Red's Subordinates actually found out...?"

Shang Wan Ning thought about it.

In her mind, a group of transformed Great Demons gathered around a mobile phone watching the stream, their expressions changing from confusion to shock, and finally to complete stagnation.

Then "Supreme, you smell so good"!!!

She laughed softly: "They would probably suspect that they had lived their lives in vain."

After all, who could imagine that their Supreme, who could tear apart the void with a wave of her hand and freeze the mountains and rivers with a breath, would privately say, "Wifey, try this rotten tomato color today," to the camera with such gentle softness.

Xiao Si immediately followed up: "And then total collapse! I've already prepared the meme packs — [Supreme, what happened to you, Supreme] [I am blind, I am deaf, I am stupid] [This must be some profound cultivation method, right? Right?]"

As she spoke, she projected several distorted Q-version characters in the System Space.

They were all various demon races holding their heads in collapse.

Shang Wan Ning was amused by Xiao Si, and her phantom's finger poked the light sphere again: "Alright, stop messing around. Keep a close watch on the situation at Wangchuan Internet Cafe; Star's second private message should have been sent out."

"Understood!" Xiao Si put away the playfulness, and the data stream returned to a steady operation. "I am already monitoring the backend of the 'Candle Shadow Shaking Red' account; I will alert the Host immediately if there is any reply."

"But Host, are we really going to continue playing this 'you guess, I guess' game with her? Isn't that letting her set the pace too much?"