The woman, Liu, looked a bit nervous, but she was still clinging to a sliver of hope. "Don’t try to scare me. I don’t frighten easily."

Besides, she couldn’t sense any terrifying cultivation aura from the two of them.

’The Blood-Venerate of The Demonic Sects... How could someone like him possibly come here?’ Thinking this, she became convinced they were just bluffing. If that was the case, there was only one possibility: their cultivation levels were low.

’That’s why they’re afraid of us. They must be intimidated by our Hex-bugs.’

At this thought, the woman, Liu, felt her guess was spot on, and her courage swelled instantly.

’Yes, that has to be it.’

She had heard of The Blood-Venerate’s great name, as well as his fearsome reputation. But according to the rumors, he shunned women and had no wife whatsoever. ’So these two are just impostors! Frauds!’ The realization instantly delighted her.

"Impossible! I won’t be fooled by your little tricks. You dare to impersonate that venerable figure? It’s clearly a bluff."

"Everyone, don’t let them scare you! The Blood-Venerate has no wife, let alone any children. I’d say these two are just a pair of Low-level cultivators. We have our Hex-bugs, there’s no reason to fear them."

Hearing this, the few who had been frightened finally snapped out of it. "Right, they’re just trying to scare us! Exactly! I was almost taken in. Yeah, The Blood-Venerate wouldn’t have some old lady."

Celeste Grant: "..."

’So this is what they call "courting death"!’

Celeste Grant casually raised a hand to offer a reminder. "Has it ever occurred to you that since you’ve been living in this valley for nearly two hundred years, The Exalted One’s son might actually be old enough to run errands by now?"

"Nonsense! Don’t think you can fool us."

Celeste Grant just smiled faintly.

She spoke, a faint smile on her lips.

"Why is it that nobody believes the truth these days? Honestly..."

The woman, Liu, glared at them, her face turning sinister. "Originally, we only wanted to borrow a bit of your blood; we had no intention of taking your lives. But since you don’t know what’s good for you, don’t blame us for what comes next."

’Hah? They’re not going to be polite? I’m quite curious to see what that looks like.’

Celeste Grant now looked at the group as if they were a bunch of morons.

"I’m very curious, just how are you going to be ’not polite’ with us?" Celeste Grant said, putting on a theatrically frail expression. She wrapped her arms around the waist of the man beside her and leaned against him. "Oh, my! The Exalted One, I’m so scared! You have to protect little old me."

Javier Sinclair glanced down at the hands wrapped around his waist, a hint of a smile in his eyes. He lifted his own hand and placed it on her wrist. "Yes, I will protect you. The weather’s turned cold... it’s time they died."

Hearing this,

Celeste Grant paused for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Is this a ’the weather’s turned cold, time for them to go bankrupt’ moment?"

Javier Sinclair arched an eyebrow slightly. "And what might that be?"

Celeste Grant gave a light smile and said, "It’s a type of story, something along the lines of ’The Overbearing President and His Doting Little Wife’."

’Having someone who’s willing to laugh and be silly with you,’ Celeste Grant thought, ’is its own kind of happiness. It’s actually quite nice.’

Celeste Grant turned to face them, extending one hand. "Come on, let the storm rage! Show me what you’ve got. Whatever you do, don’t be polite with us. I can’t stand it when people are polite to me." ’Just look at my nemesis, Jocelyn Grant,’ she mused. ’She was never polite to me. That’s why I feel no burden at all when I return the favor. It’s incredibly satisfying.’

Hearing this, the faces of the group across from them flushed red with anger.

’What does she mean by that?’

’She’s looking down on us.’

"You asked for this! We’ll show you what we’re capable of."

One of them snarled, a vicious look on his face. "Hmph! Then have a taste of the Hex-bugs I’ve spent the last two years raising."

The woman, Liu, then shouted, "Everyone, come on out! They’re not leaving here today!"

’So much for subtlety now that their plot’s been exposed.’

As soon as she spoke,

the other people living there swarmed out and surrounded them.

Clearly, these people hadn’t been idle since the moment Celeste Grant and Javier Sinclair arrived. They had been keeping a constant watch on the wooden cabin, scheming every moment about how to inflict them with their Hex-bugs.

Someone was clearly unhappy that they hadn’t succeeded in afflicting them secretly.

"Damn it, you lot can’t do anything right!"

An older man among the newcomers glared at Celeste Grant and Javier Sinclair, his face contorted with fury. "Since you already know, don’t even think about leaving here today."

As he spoke, some of them began shaking the bells on their wrists, while others took out Bone Whistles and began to blow. Celeste Grant did a quick count—there were over thirty of The Hexed.

As they shook the bells, a chorus of rustling and skittering sounds filled the air.

HISS. SQUEAK. A cacophony of chaotic noises blended together.

Celeste Grant lifted her gaze and saw countless poisonous insects, large and small, crawling toward them from every direction. ’This is quite a spectacle,’ she thought.

At a glance,

there were blue centipedes, green scorpions, and all manner of brightly colored bugs, along with swarms of snakes. They all looked highly venomous.

Just when she thought that was the end of it, as the venomous insects appeared, Celeste Grant heard the sound of a flute. Then, she saw two giant snakes slithering down from the roof of a nearby house—one was patterned, the other black. The two descending serpents were enormous, their bodies as thick as a large bowl.

Even the centipedes and scorpions on the ground were well-fed, some growing as large as bowls, with centipedes stretching over a meter long.

’If I were still living in the modern world, the sight of these things would definitely have scared me. But this is the Cultivation World. Sights like this are nothing special. Even seeing them now, I don’t find it strange.’

’These Hex-bugs are merely creatures that have just begun to evolve and enter the Cultivation Stage. For example, those centipedes are just weak Second-tier Demon Beasts. The rest don’t even qualify as Demonic Beasts. Only those two snakes have reached the level of Third-stage Demon Beasts; they can be considered true Demonic Beasts.’

’And that flute melody?’

Celeste Grant thought of someone: one of the male leads who appeared late in the book she knew. He was also the heroine’s final partner, Timothy Ford.

’His identity was that of a Prince in a Royal Cultivator Dynasty. After offending someone, his cultivation was crippled. His brothers then looked down on him and relegated him to raising Spirit Beasts.’

’This Timothy Ford was too proud to endure such humiliation, so he left in a huff to seek his fortune elsewhere. He ended up getting captured and forced to work in a mine, but as one of the male leads, he naturally had some plot armor. He eventually managed to escape and was teleported here during a Secret Realm storm, where he mastered the Poisonous Insect Technique.’

’These people were dragged here along with him.’

’In the book, he met Jocelyn Grant when she stumbled upon this place, and the two fell in love. With Jocelyn Grant’s help, he used the female supporting character’s Spirit Root and started his Cultivation path anew.’