When They Finally Realized, I Was Already the Strongest Villain - Chapter 22:

Chapter 22: The Most Beautiful Eyes—Shouldn’t You Be Paying Me to Spare Your Life?

After a brief pause of surprise, Gu Han could now be certain—the girl before him was the vicious supporting female character of this novel, the most powerful early-stage female villain, and future Blood Moon Demon Lord—Han Mengyao.

After all, that iconic combination of black hair and crimson eyes… who else could it be but her?

“I’ll take this girl,” Gu Han said, as if he’d finally found something that satisfied him. A faint curve rose at the corner of his lips.

“This…” The shifty-eyed middle-aged man froze momentarily when he saw Gu Han walking toward Han Mengyao. Then, he quickly stepped forward to block his path.

“My lord… you may not know…”

“This girl’s name is Han Mengyao. She’s the lowest-grade product we have here. Poor bone structure, older age, extremely low cost-performance. We wouldn’t want to mislead a valued customer like you.”

“Besides, she was already noticed by someone from the City Lord’s mansion not long ago. Our Lord City Master is especially fond of this type. I was planning to deliver her to him personally in a few days.”

“Though this wild brat isn’t good at cultivation, she does have a decent appearance. Becoming one of the city lord’s women could be considered a good outcome for her.”

As he spoke, the middle-aged man signaled his subordinates to drag Han Mengyao away.

“You wretched girl!” a burly man growled, rolling up his sleeves as he approached Han Mengyao. “You’re lucky the City Lord’s people want you, and you dare show your face here and mess up our business?!”

Gu Han frowned slightly.

Everything was progressing exactly as the plot dictated.

In the original plotline, Han Mengyao escaped during her transport to the City Lord’s mansion. That was the moment her legendary path as a Demon Lord began.

In a way, her escape was the catalyst that led to her miraculous rise.

If he intervened now and took her away, would it disrupt her destined opportunity and prevent her from reaching the heights she was meant to?

Just as Gu Han was struggling with whether to wait for a more appropriate moment to act, Han Mengyao, who had begun trembling in fear under the burly man’s threat, suddenly bit her lip hard. Amid the faint glimmer of tears in her eyes, a flash of determination appeared.

She seized the moment when the man was distracted and, with astonishing speed and strength, burst forward and threw herself at Gu Han before anyone could react.

Her small, mud-covered hands clutched desperately at Gu Han’s robe like a drowning person grabbing onto the last straw. Her voice was filled with raw desperation and pleading.

“Young Master… please take me away from here…!”

“Mengyao is willing to be your servant for life, to serve you without complaint, I—”

“Impudent!” a harsh, venomous voice suddenly cut in.

The shifty-eyed man lunged forward with his large hand, trying to yank Han Mengyao off by her hair.

“Wait.”

Gu Han’s cold voice rang out.

The man’s outstretched hand froze mid-air, his expression stiff and hesitant.

Ignoring the man, Gu Han slowly crouched down.

His dark, deep eyes met Han Mengyao’s crimson ones without flinching, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “Just now, did you say you’re willing to serve me for life, without ever leaving me?”

“Mm!” Han Mengyao blinked, then nodded firmly.

“As long as Young Master is willing to take me away, Mengyao will give everything to you!”

“Then… no matter what I do in the future, you’ll believe in me?”

“I will! No matter what you do to Mengyao, I believe it must be right!”

Those words stirred a strange emotion in Gu Han’s heart.

Looking at the reflection of himself in her eyes, he believed it—Han Mengyao was serious, and she would keep her word.

Suddenly, he found it laughable.

Laughable that the master and junior sisters who had been with him for years all chose not to trust him when things went wrong.

But also… somehow comforting.

See? There was still someone in this world who believed in him, wasn’t there?

“Alright. I accept.”

A gentle curve appeared at the corner of Gu Han’s mouth.

“But I have to say… your eyes are the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.”

The timing was perfect.

In the original plot, Ye Qingyun had captured this demoness’s heart with this exact line.

Now that he’d said it first… let’s see how that dumbass Ye Qingyun would follow through on the plot with this cliché line already taken from him.

…

To Han Mengyao, time seemed to stop in that moment.

The figure of the white-robed man reflected in her crimson eyes stretched higher and deeper, engraving itself in the depths of her soul.

This was the first time in her life someone had complimented her eyes.

Since she could remember, her crimson eyes had always marked her as a cursed being. She was viewed as a harbinger of disaster and misfortune.

Other children her age never played with her. They threw stones at her, calling her a cursed witch who should’ve never been born.

Even her biological parents treated her as the root of all misfortune. When they died during a famine, their final words were that she should never have been born—she had brought nothing but disaster upon them.

Over time, she accepted that fate.

That she was a walking curse, destined to be hated and scorned her whole life.

More than once, she had even wanted to gouge out her own eyes.

Those eyes were the source of all her suffering.

But now…

Gu Han’s words were like a ray of light piercing through the darkness, opening the door to a new world for her.

…

Standing nearby, the shifty-eyed man’s eyes darted around, then he suddenly chuckled with a sly grin.

“Aiya… I didn’t expect that the esteemed lord would fancy this type too!”

“But you see, she was already reserved by the City Lord’s mansion. If you really want her, well… it’s not impossible.”

“It’s just… the price…”

“The City Lord offered 2,000 spirit stones. I can’t be doing business at a loss, right? I still need to grease some palms, you know?”

“Tell you what, let’s be friends—3,000 spirit stones, and she’s yours. How about it?”

…

Outside the dilapidated courtyard, Luo Baizhi had just tracked Gu Han’s trail here. But two Spirit Palace Realm cultivators stopped her at the entrance.

Even so, through a crack in the broken door, she managed to catch a glimpse of what was happening inside.

She had thought her Senior Brother had received some kind of intelligence and was preparing to take down a human trafficking ring.

But instead… he was just here to buy slaves?

Her Senior Brother had always been a just and righteous person, never turning a blind eye to injustice.

Now… he looked like nothing more than a petty villain.

Gripping the sword in her hand tightly, Luo Baizhi couldn’t hide the sorrow in her eyes.

In her heart, she had completely lost faith in this Senior Brother…

Just as Luo Baizhi was about to draw her sword and storm the place to dismantle this child trafficking ring alone—

A cold, emotionless, and faintly amused voice rang out.

“3,000 spirit stones?”

“You’re asking me for spirit stones?”

“Shouldn’t you be paying me enough… as your life-saving fee?”