The man was naturally not stronger than Long Miaomiao.
If he were that powerful, why would he need to scheme so much to deal with Ye Tiancheng, arranging everything so meticulously and cautiously, fearing any misstep that could create more variables?
Why would he be so wary of Long Miaomiao? After all, if he were stronger than her, what would he have to fear? What would be the necessity of staging such a play because of her existence?
While not significantly weaker, the man was indeed not stronger than Long Miaomiao.
Under such circumstances, the man could still sense Long Miaomiao's spiritual consciousness because his mastery of spiritual consciousness was unique, his realm far exceeding his actual strength.
This was why he could achieve it.
Because he was too adept in this aspect, he could sense Long Miaomiao's spiritual consciousness at the first moment, realize more things, react swiftly, change his plan, and make new arrangements.
It was also because of this that he successfully turned Fatty and Ye Tiancheng against each other, causing Fatty to stab Ye Tiancheng.
These were, of course, all his doing.
Fatty would not betray Ye Tiancheng without reason. After all, Fatty and Ye Tiancheng had such a good relationship. Even if there were some friction, some resentment and imbalance, Fatty's first reaction, even to vent at Little Fox, would not be to express dissatisfaction towards Ye Tiancheng.
It was after discovering this that the man changed his approach and successfully swayed Fatty.
Some friction and disputes were not enough to make Fatty betray Ye Tiancheng, but what if Ye Tiancheng betrayed Fatty first? Especially if Ye Tiancheng betrayed Fatty along with Little Fox, it would be even easier to ignite Fatty's rage.
Fatty already harbored imbalance in his heart due to the relationship between Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox. This alone wouldn't make him betray Ye Tiancheng, but if Ye Tiancheng, along with Little Fox, had harmed and betrayed Fatty, how could Fatty maintain his mental balance?
Originally, the man intended to create some misunderstandings between Fatty and Ye Tiancheng to achieve this effect.
On this point, the man was quite conflicted, because if handled poorly, if Ye Tiancheng and the others discovered the truth, resolved the misunderstanding, and exposed everything, it would be easier for Ye Tiancheng to sense something was wrong and become vigilant, making his objective harder to achieve.
While he was hesitating, the man did not expect to discover something very interesting in Fatty's memory.
And Fatty seemed not to remember these things, because that part of his memory appeared to have been deliberately buried and hidden. After reading those memories, the man became absolutely certain that the person who buried and hid this memory must have been Ye Tiancheng.
Although the man could also judge that in that memory, Fatty had fallen into a trap and was killed by someone impersonating Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox, and was later saved by Ye Tiancheng through some method, who then covered up this part of the memory.
Neither Ye Tiancheng nor Little Fox would do such things; even an outsider like the man understood them.
However, this became a point the man could exploit.
His advantage was that he could uncover this memory, while the act of burying the memory was done by Ye Tiancheng. Moreover, Ye Tiancheng had not offered any explanation for what had happened at the time. Although his intention in covering up Fatty's memory was good, this was greatly disadvantageous to Ye Tiancheng himself.
Fatty's memory, from falling into the trap, to being killed, and finally being saved, was complete, but Fatty himself was unaware that he had been deceived long ago.
That is, from Fatty's perspective, the people who did those things were the "real" Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox.
Even if the man did nothing, he only needed to remove the covering of Fatty's memory, allowing Fatty to recall what happened completely. Since Ye Tiancheng had not provided an explanation beforehand, and had crudely overwritten Fatty's memory, Fatty would naturally misunderstand Ye Tiancheng upon remembering.
Thus, the man's objective could be perfectly achieved, even without doing anything else, and the result would be far more perfect than any other arrangement he might have made.
The final experimental results proved that his guess was not wrong, and everything was very successful.
He first stirred up the imbalance in Fatty's heart, concerning Fatty's slight resentment towards the relationship between Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox, causing Fatty to erupt suddenly and light the fuse. Although Ye Tiancheng would certainly sense Fatty's abnormality, because of the relationship between Ye Tiancheng and Fatty, Ye Tiancheng would not ignore Fatty because of it.
As long as this Fatty was real, Ye Tiancheng would not easily give up on his brother.
This was also part of the man's plan.
And when Ye Tiancheng confirmed that Fatty had not been impersonated, and did not get angry at Fatty for it, but still tried to leave the illusion space with Fatty, the man knew he could proceed with his plan.
He made Fatty fall into a coma, then removed the power that had suppressed Fatty's memory, allowing Fatty to recall the past experiences in his sleep.
This was the second step.
Fatty had already been in a state of near explosion due to the outburst of his inner imbalance. With this memory pushing him, discovering that he had actually been betrayed and deceived for so long, the situation naturally became different, giving the man an opportunity to manipulate Fatty.
The man seized the opportunity, secretly continuing to stir Fatty's emotions with words, striking the chord of hatred in Fatty's heart, igniting the fire of hatred within Fatty. All of this ultimately turned into a fatal blow to Ye Tiancheng. Fatty raised his knife and stabbed Ye Tiancheng through the heart.
Everything was executed perfectly.
It was just that at that time, the man had indeed misjudged the situation. He had originally intended to let Ye Tiancheng and the others think they had touched upon hope and could finally leave the illusion space, and at the last moment, have Fatty betray Ye Tiancheng and stab him, which would be enough to cause Ye Tiancheng and the others pain.
Even if Ye Tiancheng did not die on the spot, he would be severely weakened and require a long time to recover.
If he tormented Ye Tiancheng a few more times during that period, it would be enough for Ye Tiancheng to suffer.
He truly did not expect that after Ye Tiancheng was stabbed, Long Miaomiao, who loved to meddle, would be at the bottom of the lake, willing to help even if they were not villagers from her territory.
After all, saving someone stabbed through the heart was not an easy task, let alone recovering so quickly.
No matter how casually Long Miaomiao spoke of it, it was fundamentally not an easy matter.
If he had known this would happen, the man would have preferred that Ye Tiancheng and the others had already left that illusion space, making Ye Tiancheng believe he had completely escaped danger just before being killed.
That would have been better; Long Miaomiao might not have been willing to save Ye Tiancheng again.
Because after leaving the illusion space, Long Miaomiao was in slumber and might not have actively sensed the situation outside the illusion space.
And the effect achieved this way would have been similar.
This would also have caused Ye Tiancheng to pay a greater price.
Ultimately, he was too impatient, too eager for revenge, wanting to collect some interest in advance, which instead allowed Ye Tiancheng to profit. Not only was he saved by Long Miaomiao and recovered quickly, but he also gained such a powerful ally as Long Miaomiao.
Unfortunately, it was useless to regret it now. The deed was done, and he could only think of another way.
The man pondered the current situation as he returned to his temporary dwelling. The first person he had brought under his control and completely managed was Su Muxian, who had previously failed to seduce Ye Tiancheng.
Therefore, the man's control over Su Muxian was the most stable.
And thus, the man was currently staying temporarily at the Su family's residence. He could occasionally help Su Muxian achieve some of her goals and do things for her. Although it required Su Muxian to pay a greater price for the man to do these things, and it was a forced transaction, even if Su Muxian was unwilling to make this deal, she had to yield to the man.
The man truly hated Ye Tiancheng to the extreme.
Facing Su Muxian, who had a very complicated past with Ye Tiancheng and many emotional entanglements, he found it exceptionally satisfying to manipulate her.
Especially when he made Su Muxian attempt to ambush Ye Tiancheng.
This was similar to seeing Fatty betray Ye Tiancheng, bringing the man immense pleasure.
His revenge against Ye Tiancheng was not just about killing Ye Tiancheng; this alone could not fully satisfy his hatred. He wanted Ye Tiancheng to fall into pain and despair, unable to extricate himself, to make Ye Tiancheng feel double the pain and humiliation he had experienced, only then could he offset some of the humiliation he had suffered.
And far away at the Su family's residence, Su Muxian was at home.
Because the man did not take Su Muxian with him on every operation. Only when the man had something to instruct Su Muxian, or when the man returned to the Su family residence for a temporary rest, would Su Muxian have the opportunity to see the man.
After she finished her current work, she returned home.
The current Su family was completely different from the past. The Su family had experienced too many blows, and Su Muxian likewise. She was exhausted from dealing with these difficulties, having to pay a huge price for it, even becoming the kind of person she once despised the most.
And the entire Su family was now gloomy. The vast villa, as if responding, felt like a haunted house, making people afraid to stay in it.
The Su family villa was very desolate, with few servants coming and going.
Because of the Su family's current situation, many people were unwilling to work for the Su family. However, those who were already at the Su family, no matter how unwilling, could not escape and had to bow their heads and continue working, especially after that man appeared. Even if these servants wanted to flee, they could no longer do so.
Before the man appeared, many servants had fled. However, some were still reluctant to give up the salary provided by the Su family. Su Muxian had repeatedly increased the salary to retain people. Some persisted for the sake of money.
After the man appeared, they could no longer run, and their intestines were filled with regret.
If they had known earlier, they should not have been greedy and stayed in such a ghost place for such a small amount of money, unable to escape. It was truly retribution.
Unfortunately, regret was useless. In this world, there was no medicine for regret.
After being forcibly kept, these people could only submit and continue to serve the Su family, serve the man. But because they were kept there, everyone was inevitably affected, becoming increasingly timid and silent. There were almost no servants who even gathered to talk privately.
Their words became fewer and fewer. Unless absolutely necessary, they hardly spoke, which made the atmosphere in the Su family increasingly eerie and unnerving.
After all, in such a large villa, people coming and going lowered their heads, gloomy, with extremely low spirits, moving silently and lightly. The entire villa was deathly silent. It was difficult not to feel scared in such a place.
Su Muxian still had a shred of rationality. She knew that the current situation was abnormal. However, by this point, Su Muxian had no way back.