Still, Zhao Yichen thought that it was such a waste. First and foremost, why would these two guardians need to consume valuable things like gold and silver to satiate their appetite? Just what kind of demons were they? He wondered, sharing the same thought Mu Qing had earlier.

He shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind. This wasn't the reason why Shen Minyao had visited him today. Looking at her calm face, he briefly wondered if she wasn't upset with him anymore. What he did during her confrontation with Yulan had been an eye-opener for him.

"So.. why is a grim reaper with you?" He asked, almost forgetting the identity of this mysterious man that was accompanying the fox woman.

"He's my unwilling bodyguard for now." Shen Minyao shrugged.

When she saw Zhao Yichen raise a slender brow, waiting for her to continue explaining; she sighed in annoyance.

"Someone's after my life," she grumbled.

"You mean the shamans?" Zhao Yichen guessed.

"Of course not! They don't pose a threat to me, only if they have someone as strong as Li Yun on their side." The fox woman scoffed.

"Then, who?"

It seemed to Shen Minyao that Zhao Yichen wouldn't stop his questioning until he got the answer he wanted to hear.

"My ex-husband.." She said in a low voice that Zhao Yichen almost missed it.

"Your what?!" He exclaimed in shock. Why did the two cat guardians never mention to him that their mistress was married in the past?

"What? I thought Yu Yan had already informed you who I was centuries ago." Shen Minyao shot him a scathing look.

"Well.. yeah, she did say that you possessed a human named Su Daji," Zhao Yichen admitted.

"Then, you should know by now what kind of history entails the mention of Su Daji."

Zhao Yichen fell silent at that. Indeed, how could he forget the legend that catapulted Su Daji's name and infamy into books? Su Daji was known to be the favorite consort of the emperor centuries ago. Wait.. when she said her husband wanted her dead, did Shen Minyao mean the fourth emperor, Xuan Yanrui?

"So do you have your answer now?" He heard Shen Minyao ask.

"En." He nodded in affirmation. "But why would he want you dead? Wait.. before that, wasn't the emperor human? How come his spirit is still here in the mortal realm?"

"It's because his spirit evolved into a demon after being a malevolent spirit for centuries. He recently gained a human body to possess." It was Mu Qing who answered his questions towards Shen Minyao.

"Decades can't be considered recent, Lord Hell. You must be forgetting that decades for demons and grim reapers like us are just like the blink of an eye. It has already passed before you know it," the fox woman commented, rubbing the ears of the black cat on her bosom.

Mu Qing couldn't refute her words because he knew Shen Minyao was right. Time worked differently for immortals like them.

"So about the blood-sucking demons.." Zhao Yichen decided to change their topic, hoping to lighten the mood between them. He noticed Shen Minyao getting irritated when he mentioned her husband, the lord emperor.

"Bad news," Shen Minyao replied. "It seems like a brood of blood-sucking demons invaded the city. You should be more careful. Those demons are able to conceal their presence from other demons just so they could mingle with the humans without leaving suspicion in their wake."

If she wasn't bothered by the fact that Xuan Yanrui was trying to get his hands on her, she would have hunted those demonesses herself.. instead of leaving them in Qin Zhi and Li Fei'er's care.

The more Shen Minyao thought about him, the more she got annoyed.

'Lord Husband, please wait for a while. I'll make sure you'll die by my own hands this time.' She sneered inwardly.

"You aren't planning to hunt them, are you?" Zhao Yichen threw another question.

Shen Minyao lifted her gaze and looked at Zhao Yichen then at Mu Qing. These two.. she could tell that they were expecting her to come after those demons.

"No." She denied their unvoiced accusation.

"Are you sure?" Zhao Yichen smiled at her, while Mu Qing chuckled.

"I bet she would have gone and hunted them down herself if I wasn't here," the grim reaper commented.

The fox woman gritted her teeth in annoyance. Damn these two. They only just met, but how come they were now ganging up against her? So what if she wanted to hunt those blood-sucking demons herself? They were merely nothing but a resource for her to satiate her need for more demon orbs.

Before Xuan Yanrui could muster enough power to subdue the other demons, Shen Minyao needed to recover her lost strength for her to defeat the cursed man.

'So annoying,' she thought.

However, she had to admit that Xuan Yanrui had the right grasp on how to turn the tables to his advantage. Of course, a human spirit that turned into a demon would be looked down upon by demons like her and deemed unworthy of their respect. historical

Just as the silence befell between the three, a knock on the door took their attention. Soon, a familiar woman entered the room to join them.

"Ah, Xia Mei. What brings you here?" Zhao Yichen asked, gesturing to his friend to take a seat across that of Shen Minyao.

Xia Mei glanced in Shen Minyao's way, wondering who she was and why she was with Zhao Yichen. She gave the fox woman a curt nod and passed the documents she was holding to Zhao Yichen.

"This is the proposal our company wants to present to the board. I want to ask your opinion about it before I formally file them," she told him.

Meanwhile, Shen Minyao watched the interaction between them, and she could tell that Xia Mei adored Zhao Yichen for a long time. She smiled at herself as she realized that Zhao Yichen was oblivious to it. Not that she could blame him because Zhao Yichen could be clueless at times; nevertheless, he truly cared about those people close to his heart.

Xia Mei gave the fox woman a side glance. She had never seen this pretty young woman before and thought about every woman she knew that could match this woman's face.

"But.. I think I came at the wrong time. I didn't know you were expecting a guest today."

Zhao Yichen blinked and stared at Shen Minyao and then at Mu Qing. Right. He remembered that normal humans couldn't see the cat guardians and Shen Minyao's companion unless their sixth sense was open.

"I'm just dropping by to say 'hi' to Brother Yichen. I'm Shen Minyao." Shen Minyao stood up and extended a hand towards Xia Mei. She paid attention to Xia Mei's reaction, wondering how the older woman would react after finding out who she was to Zhao Yichen.

When she saw Xia Mei furrow her brows, hesitating to accept the hand; Shen Minyao wondered if she learned human customs and greetings wrongly. Before she was able to come up with a conclusion, Xia Mei shook her hand firmly.. but released it at once.

"I'm Xia Mei. I'm also Brother Yichen's friend." Xia Mei's smile faltered as if she wasn't pleased to see Zhao Yichen getting close with another woman—a beautiful young woman at that.

Xia Mei wasn't bad herself. In fact, she looked stunning by human standards. She would surely attract a lot of attention from the opposite sex from her looks alone. However, it seemed like she decided to be with Zhao Yichen now that he was back from abroad.

"Oh, I'm not his friend, by the way." Shen Minyao gave her a grin. "I'm his girlfriend. I'm happy to make an acquaintance with you, Miss Xia."

The smile on Xia Mei's face vanished, immediately replaced by shock. She had never heard that Zhao Yichen was already in a relationship.

Zhao Yichen pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply, wondering what was going on in Shen Minyao's mind this time.

"Please don't mind me. Had I known that Brother Yichen has an important meeting today, I wouldn't have come unannounced," she said before bowing her head, gesturing for Mu Qing to follow her outside.

"You're leaving already?" Zhao Yichen asked, failing to notice the atmosphere between the two women.

"En. We will see each other later anyway." Shen Minyao picked up her purse and smiled at him. "Don't forget to pick me up once your meeting with Miss Xia is finished."

Zhao Yichen nodded and opened the door for her and Mu Qing. In a low voice, he leaned forward and whispered to Shen Minyao's ear.

"I don't know why you are doing this, but don't mess with Xia Mei, okay?"

Shen Minyao only gave him an amused look before she left with Mu Qing to wander around the building.