A Scumbag Alpha Demon Lord's Three Thousand Beauties [Transmigration] - Chapter 3

There had been three accidents during the original owner’s brief sixteen years of life. Song Changge carefully went back through all three of them, but unfortunately, none contained the answer she was looking for.

Then she suddenly remembered that her father had once mentioned something in passing. When she was first born, an extraordinarily rare celestial phenomenon had appeared in the sky: Mars guarding Antares and a three-star alignment had occurred at the same time.

The so-called three-star alignment referred to Saturn, Mars, and Antares forming a straight line.

The last time Mars guarding Antares and a three-star alignment had appeared simultaneously was five thousand years ago. Afterward, the great war between the Human, Demon, and Divine Realms had erupted.

Thus, when this ominous sign appeared again, the human race became like frightened birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, living each day in constant fear. The lords of the major cities, tribal chiefs, and sect leaders gathered together, mobilizing troops and making full preparations for battle.

And yet, this time, the ominous sign never came to pass. After the half-demon descended into the world, she had barely stirred the heavens before everything abruptly died down. Nothing happened in the Human Realm.

Song Changge frowned slightly. There had to be something wrong here. So she jumped directly to the very beginning of the half-demon’s life and began searching from the source.

When the half-demon hatched from a demon egg, she already possessed the mental maturity of a human child around ten years old.

When she opened her eyes for the first time, she saw a world flooded with purple light. Everywhere she looked, thunder roared through the heavens, underground flames burned, lava erupted, and demon beasts roamed freely. The air reeked of sulfur. Countless flecks of ash, still carrying their final sparks, drifted upward through the air, faintly twinkling like stars before finally going dark.

Yet she was not afraid in the slightest. These forces of nature were tens of thousands of times more powerful than human energy and could be refined and absorbed. This purple world was another home to her, as well as a sacred land for cultivation.

That was the only time she had ever felt the overwhelming, tyrannical power of her own spiritual potential, a force capable of destroying heaven and earth.

What followed, however, was a long blank stretch in her memory. Time jumped directly to when she was two years old. By then, she had already followed Song Beiyou to Qingdi City and was living a pampered life in the Song residence. She had also gone from a half-demon feared by everyone to a useless good-for-nothing who had nothing but a fearsome name.

By this point, the situation was already quite clear. The problem lay in that missing year.

Song Changge drew a deep breath, and much of the frustration in her chest eased. As long as she could find out what had happened during that year, there was hope of recovering the power she had lost.

Just then, her stomach started complaining again. She had noticed that ever since transmigrating, she became hungry especially easily. Perhaps it was because her body was still growing and required a great deal of nourishment.

After tidying up her appearance a little, she called toward the maids standing guard outside, “Huangli, Cuiliu, I’m hungry. Bring me some breakfast.”

Huangli immediately came in with five junior maids to help Song Changge wash and dress.

One of the maids brought a medicinal rinse to Song Changge’s lips. She took a mouthful, rinsed her mouth, then spat it out.

Afterward, the five junior maids stood behind her and simultaneously massaged her head, neck, hands, and feet. She simply stood there and let them do as they pleased, becoming so comfortable that she nearly fell asleep.

Then Huangli suddenly reached toward her waist, intending to help undress her.

Song Changge abruptly remembered that she was wearing absolutely nothing underneath and blurted out, “Wait!”

Her sharp shout frightened the maids out of their wits. They all dropped to their knees in unison, heads lowered, bodies trembling.

“Uh—”

Song Changge felt a little awkward. The original owner had lived like this for more than ten years, completely naked in front of her maids without the slightest concern. The things Song Changge found embarrassing had long since become perfectly ordinary to them. Still, these vastly different lifestyle habits would take time for her to get used to.

“You can all leave for now. Put the clothes here. Have Cuiliu bring breakfast in fifteen minutes.”

Huangli breathed a sigh of relief and quickly led the junior maids out of the room.

As she closed the door, she could not help glancing back one more time. In the past, Third Miss always groped her all over whenever she was changing clothes. Yet today she had done nothing at all, and even the way she spoke and the expressions she made seemed strange, almost as though she had been possessed. She would have to remind Cuiliu to keep an eye on her later.

Fifteen minutes later, Cuiliu returned on time with five different junior maids. They arranged five dishes on the table: pumpkin millet porridge, golden shrimp cakes, lotus-root patties stuffed with meat, soup dumplings, and a platter of fruit.

Once the five junior maids had finished arranging the dishes, they withdrew, leaving only Huangli and Cuiliu waiting at her side.

Song Changge glanced at her two personal maids and discovered that they were also fresh-faced little beauties, pleasing enough just to look at.

Beautiful women and delicious food together—what a delightful life.

The corner of Song Changge’s lips curled upward. She picked up a lotus-root patty with her chopsticks and was just about to put it into her mouth when she suddenly sensed something and froze with it suspended in midair.

The lotus-root patty was poisoned!

Song Changge lowered her gaze and swept it over the table. All five dishes in front of her had been poisoned. The deadly toxin was colorless and odorless, yet somehow she could sense it, as though a divine eye had suddenly opened.

When Huangli and Cuiliu entered, their expressions had been perfectly normal and their heartbeats steady. It probably was not them.

The person who had poisoned the food had to be hiding somewhere inside the Song residence, someone who had access to her meals and hated her to the bone.

Who could it be?

The original owner had committed countless wrongs, and there were far too many people who hated her. Investigating them all would not be easy.

Song Changge thought for a moment, and an idea came to her.

“The family cooks keep making the same dishes over and over. I’m sick of them already.” She set down her chopsticks with a sharp clack, swept her long sleeve aside, and stood. “Cuiliu, let’s go take a walk around the market.”

Then she turned her head and quietly said to Huangli, “Investigate where all this food came from. Find out exactly whose hands it passed through, from the raw ingredients to the finished dishes.”

Huangli was intelligent and perceptive and immediately realized there was something wrong with the food. She nodded. “Yes, Miss.”

The mainstream currency system on the Yuanling Continent consisted of gold yuan, silver yuan, and copper yuan. One gold yuan was worth one hundred silver yuan, while one silver yuan was worth one hundred copper yuan. In regions such as the Eastern Isles and the Liuli Sea, pearls, shells, and similar items could also be used as currency.

There were four markets in Qingdi City, located in the east, west, south, and north. The Song residence stood in the western part of the city, so Song Changge decided to visit the nearby West Market.

Whenever the original owner went shopping in the past, she barely carried any money at all. If she was in a good mood, she would write a check. If she was in a bad mood, she would simply eat without paying.

Because Song Beiyou was the president of the Qingdi City Chamber of Commerce, merchants who wanted to conduct business in the city all had to seek the Song family’s protection. Naturally, none of them dared offend Third Miss Song.

If an enormous amount of money was involved, Song Beiyou would provide some compensation afterward. Small street vendors, however, could only swallow their anger and accept their bad luck.

When Song Changge saw Cuiliu preparing to leave empty-handed as usual, she specifically called her over and told her to bring one gold yuan and ten silver yuan. Given prices in Qingdi City, that was more than enough to pay for breakfast.

The West Market was only two streets west of the Song residence. Before Song Changge had even entered the market, she heard someone shouting from afar, “Third Miss is coming! Third Miss is coming! Hurry and put everything away!”

She frowned. If all the merchants packed up their goods, would this trip not have been for nothing? She immediately quickened her pace and rushed into the West Market.

Yet she found the street stalls still neatly set up along both sides of the road, while every shop remained open, as though nothing had happened.

After thinking about it carefully, she realized that when the merchants said to put everything away, they probably meant hiding their most valuable goods so she would not take a liking to them and snatch them away.

The street vendors lining both sides of the road reacted as though they had seen a ghost. Every one of them lowered their eyes submissively and behaved with extreme caution, wishing they could disappear immediately along with all their merchandise.

Song Changge noticed a mother and daughter running one of the stalls. The last time she had come here, she had eaten one of their dried persimmons, thought it tasted good, and simply taken an entire large bag without paying a single coin.

At that moment, the mother had an arm wrapped around her daughter’s head. Her eyes darted away, and her lips moved soundlessly, as though praying for this walking calamity to hurry up and leave.

Song Changge sighed, walked over, and placed a silver yuan in front of the mother. “Last time I took a whole bag of your dried persimmons. This silver yuan should be enough to pay for them.”

Unexpectedly, the mother went pale with fright. Clutching the silver yuan, she dropped to her knees in front of Song Changge with a thud and pleaded miserably, “Third Miss, how would I dare accept your money? You can eat as many as you like.”

Song Changge felt as though something were stuck in her throat. She wanted to say something, but then realized that the original owner’s terrible reputation had already become deeply rooted in the hearts of Qingdi City’s common people. It was not something a few words could erase.

At that moment, Cuiliu noticed her expression and hurried forward. “Third Miss told you to accept it, so accept it. Don’t say anything more.”

The mother froze for a moment, then immediately nodded so vigorously that it was like pounding garlic. She put away the silver yuan, thanked Song Changge profusely, and retreated behind her stall.

The outing had already lost most of its appeal. Not wanting to disturb the vendors’ business any further, Song Changge casually chose a wonton stall, sat down, and ordered two bowls of large fresh-pork wontons. She planned to eat and then head home.

She had only finished half a bowl when the sound of hoofbeats approached from the distance.

Looking up, she saw that the rider wore a red-and-black uniform with a silver lotus insignia pinned over the left side of the chest. It was one of the Song family’s senior guards.

The guard reined in the horse about ten meters from Song Changge, quickly crossed the remaining distance, and knelt on one knee before her.

“Third Miss, Master has urgent business with you. He ordered this subordinate to bring you back to the residence.”

Song Changge found it strange. Urgent business first thing in the morning somehow did not sound like anything good.

She finished the rest of her wontons in a few quick bites, then mounted a horse and returned to the Song residence with the guard.

Song Beiyou, the wealthiest person in Qingdi City, was a tall, striking woman with an imposing, heroic appearance and a Yang attribute. Unlike the potbellied, jewel-covered wealthy people one might normally imagine, she instead possessed the bearing of a general.

Song Changge had not yet fully adjusted to the change. Standing before Song Beiyou, she struggled for a long while but could not bring herself to call out, “Father.”

Song Beiyou did not notice anything unusual about her and beamed with delight. “Xiaoge, I have good news for you. You’ll be able to see Yun Yan very soon.”

Yun Yan?

Song Changge hurriedly searched through the palace of memories for information about Yun Yan. When she saw the result, she could not help being startled.

Yun Yan was the same age as her. When they were three years old, their parents had arranged a marriage between them.

When Yun Yan was eight, she had specially accompanied her father, Yun Zhan, on the long journey from the Western Territories to the Central Region to visit Song Beiyou.

That had been the first time the two of them met, and to this day, it remained the only time. They had spent three days together.

Back then, the original Song Changge had still been a normal child, merely somewhat withdrawn.

Yun Yan had worn a red dress with a long whip fastened at her waist. She had bright eyes, pearly teeth, delicate and lovely features, and when she smiled, she looked like a lotus blossoming. She was unmistakably a beauty in the making.

Yun Yan had even given her a bracelet of blood-sandalwood beads, ten beads in total, said to ward off evil and nourish the body.

Song Changge was still wearing that bracelet around her left wrist to this day.