After Pampering Her 5 Beast Husbands, the Villainess Struck It Rich

Neither of them spoke, simply continuing to pile food onto Bai Zhi’s plate.

After a moment, Hu Yan noticed Bai Zhi’s plate was overflowing. He stopped himself from adding more, pressing his temples in frustration. ’What have I been doing?’

He then quietly moved the excess food to his own plate, leaving only a few of Bai Zhi’s favorite dishes.

Watching Hu Yan, Bai Zhi breathed a sigh of relief, but a complex, indescribable feeling welled up inside her. It was like watching a well-behaved child who clearly wants something but insists they don’t.

Hu Yan had obviously been jealous just moments ago. But when he saw how much food was piled in front of her, he knew she couldn’t possibly finish it all. Instead of putting it back, he quietly moved it to his own plate to eat himself, all while making sure to leave her favorite things behind.

The sight made Bai Zhi’s heart ache with a bittersweet feeling—it was complex and a little painful.

Sang Mo observed Hu Yan’s actions and Bai Zhi’s expression, clicking his tongue and cursing inwardly, ’Sly fox.’

Then he said aloud, "Eat whatever you want. If you can’t finish it, I’ll..."

Sang Mo didn’t say this quietly. While the words would have sounded normal coming from anyone else, they felt strangely out of character for him. As a result, all eyes immediately turned in his direction.

Before Sang Mo could finish his sentence, he noticed everyone staring at him. Realizing what he had almost said, he quickly changed his tune, declaring with a cold expression, "If you can’t finish it, give it to them."

Hearing this, a look of "I knew it" flashed in Yue Junxiao’s eyes.

’Sang Mo is still Sang Mo, after all!’

He’d almost thought Sang Mo had been possessed by something like an Illusion Insect.

Sang Mo saw their reactions, and his expression soured. With a dark look, he began forcefully cutting the beast meat on his plate.

Bai Zhi cut two more small pieces of beast meat from her plate. She gave a smaller piece to Sang Mo first, then placed a slightly larger one on Hu Yan’s plate. The second piece looked normal from the outside, but hidden underneath was a small sliver of a sweet and sour fruit she loved—it was perfect for cutting through the richness of the meat.

When Sang Mo saw that Bai Zhi had served him first, a smile touched his lips. He noticed Hu Yan’s piece was a tiny bit larger than his but didn’t mind. After all, she had given him his first; he could let the size difference be a concession to Hu Yan.

When Hu Yan saw Bai Zhi place the piece of meat on his plate, he smiled at her. Then, as she was still moving her hand away, he leaned in and ate it.

After a couple of bites, he realized the taste was different. A sweet and sour flavor cut through the richness of the meat, completely transforming it.

He knew perfectly well that he hadn’t added any sweet and sour fruit himself. His eyes flicked to the fruit on the side, and sure enough, a small piece was missing. Since Bai Zhi had only had a sip of milk and one bite of meat so far, it was obvious where the missing piece had gone.

The smile on Hu Yan’s face deepened as he looked at Bai Zhi.

Seeing that he’d found out, Bai Zhi smiled and gave him a playful wink before turning back to her own food and beginning to eat.

No one else noticed the exchange, but Bai Zhi’s small gesture had managed to placate both Sang Mo and Hu Yan.

Hades, on the other hand, was not doing well at all.

Unlike the day before, he had sustained minor injuries today. Although Diller had pulled him out in time, he couldn’t completely avoid the blast wave.

His men were in even worse shape; even those with the lightest wounds were seriously injured.

Covered in dust and grime, Hades was led away from the blast zone. He had truly brushed with death today; he’d almost gone to see Brutus and the others.

He was terrified and deeply worried.

He had gone to such lengths to disguise himself, even having a decoy dress as him to draw fire, but he was still found.

He felt that nowhere was safe for him anymore.

And it wasn’t just Hades who was afraid. The mercenaries he had hired, whose numbers had dwindled from several hundred down to just over a hundred, were also terrified.

A few men, supporting one another and covered in wounds, approached him. "Sir, we don’t want the rest of the Star Coins. Please, let us go home. We don’t want to stay here waiting to die."

One of the Beastmen spoke, his voice filled with resignation, "That’s right. It’s not that we’re cowards. If this was a real fight, with guns and blades, or if we could at least see our enemy, we’d fight him. But these explosions come out of nowhere, and the psychological pressure is too much. We have to be on edge twenty-four hours a day, terrified that the next time we look up, a bomb will be right above our heads. Even if you were to kill us right now, we wouldn’t stay here any longer. Sticking around is just the difference between dying today and dying tomorrow."

"Exactly! Watching comrades who were alive yesterday get blown to pieces today... with death hanging over our heads every moment, I’d rather just get it over with."

Hades’s face was grim. Of course he understood what they were saying.

And because he understood, his expression only grew darker. Suppressing his rage, he asked, "Who else wants to leave?"

The moment he spoke, nearly everyone who could still move got to their feet. "I do."

"Me!"

"And us."

Among them were men who had lost limbs in the blasts, yet they still gritted their teeth, bodies trembling, and forced themselves to stand.

Seeing every last one of them stand, Hades’s eyes turned crimson with rage. He ground his teeth and roared, "Fine! Very fine! Execute every last one of them!"

At his words, not a single person backed down.

Seeing their resolve, Hades took a deep breath and changed his approach. "For those willing to stay... I’ll pay fifty thousand Star Coins a day! And I’ll double the death benefits!"

Hearing this, some of them began to hesitate.

After all, the price Hades was offering was incredibly high. They were likely to die either way, but this way, they could leave behind even more money for their families. That was better than dying for nothing.

They would live in constant fear, but since they were already prepared to die, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

Seeing them waver, Hades sweetened the deal. "The death benefits will be doubled for *everyone* who stays!"

At that, the men exchanged glances, then declared in unison, "Sir, we will stay."

Hades smirked. A closer look would reveal the expression was one of pure mockery, aimed at the very men who, just moments before, had looked ready to die rather than stay.

’And what happened?’

’They all agreed to stay. As long as you have money, you can make most people do your bidding. If you can’t, it just means you haven’t offered enough.’

’There’s a reason for the saying: with enough money, you can make even ghosts turn your millstone!’

Hades didn’t know what Sang Mo’s goal was, but regardless of the reason, he had no choice but to endure.

After the way he had treated Sang Mo in the past, surrender wasn’t an option. Sang Mo would never let him off the hook.

’Isn’t this whole torture routine just his way of making sure I don’t get an easy death?’

He just never expected that after a few years apart, Sang Mo’s methods of torture would have changed so drastically.

But Hades didn’t know that this was only the beginning. From then on, the same thing happened nearly every day—sometimes in the morning, sometimes at noon, sometimes in the evening, and sometimes even in the dead of night.

And no matter where Hades went, it was as if those little contraptions had a tracker planted on him; they found him with pinpoint accuracy every single time.

After some time, Hades had lost twenty pounds. Unable to eat or sleep properly, his nerves were perpetually frayed, leaving him gaunt and haggard.

Even Diller’s condition began to deteriorate after a while; he was no longer as sharp as he had been at the start.

Worried that Diller would abandon him, Hades promised him even more rewards to ensure his continued protection.

As for Tina, after learning of the situation, she completely vanished. She didn’t visit, and she didn’t even make a single phone call.

Hades was so consumed with trying to evade the attacks that he didn’t even notice Tina hadn’t contacted him in a very long time.

Hades held out for nearly half a month. Finally, unable to endure it any longer, he had his men take him to the hotel where Sang Mo was staying.

The bags under his eyes nearly reached his cheekbones, his dark circles were appallingly deep, and his bloodshot gaze spoke volumes about his recent suffering.

During that time, he had considered hiring more assassins to go after Sang Mo, even bringing in people from outside the Black Domain, but the conclusion was always the same: Sang Mo and his companions were terrifyingly strong.

Not only had he failed to kill them, but every assassination attempt was met with an increase in the number of bombs sent after him.

By now, the number had grown to over a dozen.

The attacks had also evolved from their initial form to a targeted onslaught that destroyed everything in the vicinity.

All of his properties had been bombed to rubble.

He had tried following the advice of others—hiding in crowded places—but it was useless.

The bombs were keyed to him specifically; they wouldn’t detonate anywhere but in his immediate vicinity!

Each time, he only survived because Diller managed to pull him away at the last second, causing the bombs to miss and crash into other objects before detonating.

But because these were such close calls, he was frequently injured. New wounds piled on top of old ones until his entire body was a mess of injuries, leaving him in a terrible state.

He had initially thought Sang Mo’s methods of torture had changed, but he eventually realized he was wrong.

Brutus had only been tortured for a few short hours. He, on the other hand, had been tormented daily for the better part of a month. Sang Mo hadn’t just changed his methods; he had elevated them from mere physical torture to a dual assault on both mind and body.

Now, all he wanted was for Sang Mo to give him a quick, clean death. Anything was better than this endless, day-and-night torment.

News of Hades’s arrival spread like wildfire throughout the Black Domain, and it didn’t take long for Bai Zhi and the others to hear about it.

It was unavoidable. A clash between major figures always drew a great deal of attention, and everyone in the Black Domain had heard the commotion over the past weeks.

Hades’s journey into Sang Mo’s territory was, for all intents and purposes, an act of surrender.

Consequently, it drew a large crowd of onlookers.

Sang Mo and his companions stood on an upper floor, watching as Hades and his entourage arrived below the hotel.

Humbled by weeks of torment, Hades adopted a low posture. In a voice that was hoarse but loud enough for Sang Mo to hear, he called out, "I, Hades, am here to request an audience with Lord Sang Mo."

Yue Junxiao leaned out over the windowsill. "That Hades fellow is downstairs, asking you to meet him."

With his hands stuffed in his pockets, Sang Mo simply continued to gaze coldly down at the scene below, giving no indication of whether he would go down or not.