Chapter 944: The Flame Demon Pulling Strings
Gray Island.
Inside scorching hot artifact forging rooms, Tang Siqi was teaching young artificer apprentices loudly and helping them familiarize themselves with the art of artifact forging.
Tang Siqi was dressed in bright red tight suit. She looked like a radiant, tender and beautiful tree peony.
She walked in and out of the artifact forging rooms while teaching the new recruits on how to manipulate the power of fire.
Flame Demon Tang Beidou was sitting on the window sill of a tall building at Gray Island and looking down from above. He was lost in thought as he stared at Tang Siqi.
A while later, he exclaimed softly from above, "Come up here, Siqi."
Tang Siqi looked up towards Tang Beidou and asked, "Do you have something to tell me?"
"Mn." Tang Beidou nodded.
"Alright." Tang Siqi asked Lian Rou to take over while she went up the building.
"Senior Sister Tang recently looks unhappy and troubled. I wonder what's going on with her." Yi Yuan frowned next to her.
Lian Rou rolled her eyes at him and snorted. "Do you even need to ask? It's Qin Lie, of course!"
A look of realization passed through Yi Yuan eyes as he sighed. "These aren't easy topics."
"What's so hard about it?" Lian Rou glared at him and said fiercely, "If Song Tingyu can become lovers with Qin Lie then why not Siqi? He knows that Siqi loves him deeply, so how can he pretend to be so oblivious? Do you think this is fair to Siqi?"
Yi Yuan rubbed his nose and laughed dryly. "He already has Miss Ling, and now he has Miss Song… Maybe he doesn't want to hurt anyone else?"
"If he has Miss Ling then why did he hook up with Song Tingyu in the first place? They're obviously together!" Lian Rou said disdainfully.
Yi Yuan coughed a few times and shut his mouth consciously.
Lian Rou stopped attacking him after seeing that he had stopped arguing with her. She suddenly lowered her voice and said, "Senior Flame Demon secretly sent a message to summon Qin Lie earlier…"
Yi Yuan came to sudden understanding. "Are you saying that… Senior Flame Demon wants to stand up for Senior Sister Tang?"
"What else could it be?" Lian Rou said matter-of-factly.
"Island Master Qin!"
"The island master is here!"
Suddenly, a distant commotion caused the apprentices who were focusing on controlling the flames to grow excited.
They all walked out of their artifact forging rooms and showered the approaching Qin Lie with gazes of adoration.
In their minds, Qin Lie was a legend of Flaming Sun Island and the hero who saved the human forces of the Land of Chaos.
They respected Qin Lie from the bottom of their heart.
It was this admiration that drove some of these people to rush over from the other continents and work as artificer apprentices on Flaming Sun Island.
Qin Lie smiled and greeted these teenagers who were only fifteen or sixteen years old before he arrived beside Lian Rou and Yi Yuan. He came to a stop.
When he saw the peeved look Lian Rou was shooting his way, he pretended not to notice anything.
Yi Yuan on the other hand was shrugging his shoulders and wearing a wry smile on his face. It was a nonverbal gesture to express that he could do nothing while Lian Rou was angry.
"Senior Sister Lian Rou, who made you angry?" Qin Lie chuckled twice before turning towards Yi Yuan with a look of understanding on his face, "It must have been Yi Yuan, hasn't it?"
Before Yi Yuan could say anything, he scolded him, "Why are you making Senior Sister Lian Rou angry again?"
Yi Yuan groaned incessantly at the injustice.
The new artificer apprentices stuck out their tongues and obediently went back into their artifact forging rooms when they saw that Qin Lie was making fun of Yi Yuan and Lian Rou.
They weren't stupid, and they all knew that Lian Rou had a bad temper. Anyone who dared to watch while she was being made fun of was definitely going to suffer a punishment later.
"Qin Lie, have you forgotten about your sect mates from Armament Sect now that you've become Island Master Qin and the VIP of the Land of Chaos?" Lian Rou waited until the little fellows were all gone before she finally snorted and shot him with an accusation.
"Of course not." Qin Lie smiled.
"Come with me!" Lian Rou pulled his sleeve and dragged him all the way to the corner of the stone building where Tang Beidou was at. After shooting a glare at Yi Yuan to chase away the peepers, she finally said, "Tell me, do you know Siqi's feelings for you?"
Qin Lie thought for a moment before nodding slightly.
"At least you can admit this." Lian Rou was moderately satisfied with his response. Then, she said casually, "What do you think of Siqi then?"
Qin Lie fell silent.
Lian Rou stared at him unrelentingly.
A long while later, Qin Lie sighed quietly and answered, "I just want to give her more time to consider things carefully. I don't even know who I am fully, and I've already owe a debt of love. I'm afraid that she will regret this in the future."
"Then what about Song Tingyu?" Lian Rou glared at him.
"Our relationship is a little complicated. Back at the Graveyard of Gods, we both thought that we weren't walking out of that place alive. That was why we…"
Qin Lie gave her a brief explanation on how Song Tingyu had caught the voodoo poison and lost her will to live back then. They had ultimately come together because they both thought that their time was limited.
"I see." Lian Rou relaxed slightly.
She didn't realize just how scary Qin Lie and Song Tingyu's experience in the Graveyard of Gods really was. It was only now she understood their relationship a little more.
"Siqi loves you very much; I believe that she has thought through everything already. She even hinted many times at her true feelings of her own volition, didn't she? If you keep this up and not give her a straight answer, I'm afraid that she'll… do something foolish one day." Lian Rou said seriously, "Recently, she kept losing concentration while forging artifacts. She even slipped up a couple of times. If this continues, I'm afraid that your presence will drag down even her artifact forging talent and stop her from progressing any further."
"I understand," Qin Lie said.
"Understand what?" Lian Rou was surprised.
Qin Lie smiled but didn't say anything more. Instead, he walked straight into the stone building where Tang Beidou was at.
……
"Is there something you need me for?"
Meanwhile, Tang Siqi had arrived at the Flame Demon's side and gave him a respectful salute.
"I've invited Qin Lie," the Flame Demon said indifferently.
Tang Siqi obviously looked a little nervous. "Why did you invite him?"
"To talk about the thing that's between you and him." The Flame Demon snorted.
"You don't have to bother with such a trivial thing." Tang Siqi was so anxious that even her cheeks had turned red. "I, I'm leaving. Please don't tell him anything. I, I…"
She was about to leave in haste.
"Stop right there!" The Flame Demon exclaimed with a glare. "If you have something to say then say it instead of keep it all pent up in your heart! I noticed that you were feeling down and losing concentration as of late. It's all because of that boy, isn't it?"
After snorting coldly once more, he added, "I will get an answer out of him! What part of my girl isn't comparable to others? Is Song Tingyu responsible for Gray Island's booming success? You're the one who made Gray Island what it is today, isn't it?"
Before Tang Siqi could say anything, he yelled again, "Sure, he has plenty of able people supporting him right now. But so what? If he doesn't give you an answer today, I'll take you away from Flaming Sun Island right now, never to return!"
"I, I don't want this!" Tang Siqi said hastily.
It was at this moment Qin Lie walked in from outside.
Tang Siqi scratched his messy head and glared fiercely at Qin Lie. "Did you hear everything, boy?"
Qin Lie nodded with a smile on his face. "I did."
"What is your answer then?" Tang Beidou yelled.
Right now, Tang Siqi was being grabbed by the Flame Demon. She couldn't leave even though she tried to.
Her head was lowered, and even her neck was red. She didn't dare to look at Qin Lie.
Qin Lie walked right next to Tang Siqi and pulled the Flame Demon's hands away from hers right before his eyes. Then, he gripped her hand with his own and said, "This is my answer."
Tang Siqi abruptly looked up and stared at him in pleasant surprise.
The Flame Demon was momentarily surprised before he let out an odd chuckle. He nodded. "I guess you aren't too foolish after all!"
He then flew away from this place.
"It's been hard on you for the past few years," Qin Lie said softly.
"No. It was not hard at all," Tang Siqi pursed her lips and said softly.
The deep wrinkles around her eyebrows vanished, just like that.
……
"Island Master Qin has been invited to Gray Island by the Flame Demon." Bowing his head and standing beside Song Tingyu, Ge Rongguang informed her of the news softly.
Song Tingyu was pressing her white, left hand against the stone table before her. She seemed to be thinking about something.
When Ge Rongguang looked at her hand, he noticed that there were two letters beneath it.
"Miss Song…" Ge Rongguang let out a reminder.
Song Tingyu finally smiled as if she just came back down to earth. She said, "Did you think that I would feel jealous? Or did you think I should stop them from tying the knot?"
"I wouldn't dare," Ge Rongguang said hastily.
"I have two letters in my hand. One of them comes from Terminator Sect, and the other one comes from Blood Fiend Sect. The messengers who brought them specifically mentioned that Qin Lie must look through them personally." Song Tingyu gave him a strange smile. "What if I tell you I can guess roughly what's inside without even opening these letters?"
Ge Rongguang looked astonished.
"Terminator Sect has always wanted to marry Shen Yue to Qin Lie. Mo Lingye of Blood Fiend Sect also wanted Xue Moyan and Qin Lie to engage in marriage of convenience to pull Blood Fiend Sect and Flaming Sun Island closer," Song Tingyu said with the ghost of a smile dancing across her lips.
Ge Rongguang abruptly trembled and said hastily, "Miss, both these missus are a serious threat to you!"
"They're not the only ones too." Song Tingyu curled her lips and said ridiculingly, "A long time ago, Luo Kexin of Celestial Artifact Sect already tried to absorb Flaming Sun Island into her sect through a marriage of convenience. Three years ago, they even promised Qin Lie the seat of vice sect master and that his child, regardless of the gender, will become Celestial Artifact Sect's new sect master."
"After Qin Lie had rejected their offer, they attacked the Ruined Lands and exposed the fact that Qin Lie possesses the God Race's blood so they could force Forefather Terminator to hand him over."
"That's incredible!" Ge Rongguang looked astonished.
Song Tingyu smiled slightly. "You have no idea how valuable Qin Lie's bloodline is. You cannot imagine how many women of better qualifications than mine will risk everything to climb onto Qin Lie's bed from hereon either."
Ge Rongguang was stunned.
"If I seriously try to stop them all, I doubt I will have the energy to do anything else." She shook her head and said calmly, "At the very least, Tang Siqi is one of us. I will only be happy with her union with Qin lie."
She smiled at Ge Rongguang. "I know better than you about the the relationships between men and women, so you don't have to worry about it."
Ge Rongguang lowered his head and said sincerely, "I shall remember it in the future."