Chapter 70: Shěn Lí Learning About Her Parents |
[January 03, 2023]...
He coughed another violent cough, as though his internal organs were about to erupt out. Shěn Lí patted his back gently as she asked, “Why hasn’t your injury from last time healed?”
The Demon emperor shook his head. “I’ve just been tired these past few days. . . ” Before he could finish, his hand holding Shěn Lí’s wrist stiffened suddenly. He pushed up Shěn Lí’s sleeve and held her pulse. After a while, he sighed. The emotion in his voice was hard to identify. “You’ve. . . finally absorbed the bead fully.”
The hand Shěn Lí used to pat his back stopped for a moment, and she thought about how to word her question. In a low voice, she asked, “Master, I have something I want to ask you. In this crisis, A-li was fortunate to have the help of Immortal High God Xíng Zhǐ help and one other person. Then I had another fortuitous encounter with a master. That master helped me heal my injuries and told me the Bìhǎi Cāng**the bead she swallowed.** is more like a demon’s golden core, and that the magic and spiritual techniques Master taught me restrained it. Master. . . ”
“Since things have come to this point, and you know so much already, I won’t hide it from you anymore.” The Demon emperor suppressed his cough in order to speak. “Help me to the desk, and we’ll go somewhere else to talk.”
It was the same teleportation array they had used when the Demon emperor gave her the bead. Like before, it sent them to the same silent, tomb-like memorial hall. The bead enshrined on the high platform was gone.
The Demon emperor pushed Shěn Lí away, refusing to be supported. He stepped forward slowly as he took off his mask and reverted back into her original body.**The mask transforms the emperor into a guy.**
The emperor stood silently in front of the high platform for a while before speaking. “It happened a long time ago, so long ago that I can barely remember the details. However, I will always remember how your mother looked when she and I would come here to pay our respects to our master.”
“My. . . mother?”
Master loved refining substances, and he would occasionally teach your mother how to refine substances and create new things. Your mother was gifted with an innate talent, and in three years of training learned the most from Master. This was originally a good thing, but. . . ” Here, the Demon emperor paused and lowered her eyes. “First of all, Master still had other ideas in mind. The higher his refining techniques became, the less satisfied he was with the status quo. Ultimately, he created something akin to a monster, a monster you have already engaged with.”
Shěn Lí spoke in a heavy voice. “Are they the monsters in the Abyss Ruins?”
“Yes, our master was none other than the former Demon emperor, Liù Míng.”
The Demon emperor stepped onto the high platform and wiped the dust off the alter where the bead used to lay.
“As his disciples, we were all happy and excited when the first monster was successfully created. We knew the kind of impact it would have on the Demon army; it was essentially a great killing tool. But Liù Míng was unrestrained and kept creating more and more monsters, until eventually, the situation got out of control. Occasionally when oversight was lacking, the monsters would tear apart and eat our fellow disciples. There were also monsters that escaped and attacked the citizens.
“Protests in court were getting louder, but Liù Míng insisted on doing things his way and continued to create more monsters. It looked like he really planned on creating a troop of monsters to attack the Immortal realm and yank the immortals down from their lofty perch, force them to bow their heads to the Demon realm and show respect to the demon race.”
Shěn Lí shook her head. “Generals are the brains of an army and soldiers are the swords. When soldiers became the masters and generals become useless, the army loses its brain and will become just a bunch of killing machines. I’m afraid the monsters were no longer controlled by the previous emperor, and at that time the Demon realm must have been a place of misery.”
The Demon emperor nodded. “Back then, there were voices in both the court and the sect that opposed the situation, but your mother strongly supported Liù Míng. . . ”
This stunned Shěn Lí.
The Demon lord sighed. “They saw how harmful the monster beasts were, and how Liù Míng’s magic wasn’t strong enough to control so many at once. Liù Míng devoted all his energy to creating the ultimate monster, the King of Monster Beasts, one that would be many times stronger than all the ones he’d created. Unlike all the other monster beasts, the King of Monster Beasts was a child when it was born. It was just like any other child. Liù Míng named it Fèng Lái. Your mother cared for it, so it absorbed the world’s spiritual aura and grew tall and strong. Compared to other monster beasts that were haphazardly created, Fèng Lái was more like a natural monster, so his power was purer and more natural.
Fèng Lái grew very fast, and within three months was like an ordinary young man. No one expected a monster beast would fall in love with the person caring for it.” The Demon emperor frowned. “Nor did anyone expect the one caring for it to fall in love with it as well.”
Shěn Lí lowered her head in shock, as if she couldn’t comprehend the Demon emperor’s words. She looked at the palm of her hand, and her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. “I am. . . the child of a monster? I am. . . ” She thought about the appearance of the scorpion-tailed fox that escaped the Ruins and immediately frowned. “The child of such a monster. . . ”
The Demon emperor continued speaking after a moment of silence. “Soon after the ministers of court secretly reported the disaster with the monster beasts to the Immortal realm. The immortals were shocked and immediately sent troops, however, thousands of monster beasts had already been created. The Immortal troops were defeated and the Immortal emperor was forced to invite High God Xíng Zhǐ to come to the lower realm. High God Xíng Zhǐ fought alone against thousands of monster beasts before finally cutting down Liù Míng and capturing Fèng Lái. After that, he joined forces with the Immortal soldiers and forced the monster beasts to the border where he created the Abyss Ruins and sealed all the monsters away. This severely damaged his vitality, so High God Xíng Zhǐ immediately returned to the Celestial realm. The Immortal army did not remain and also left quickly soon after. Although the Liù Míng was dead and the monster beasts all sealed away, things were still chaotic in the Demon realm.
One faction claimed to support Liù Míng’s offspring still in his concubine’s womb, while another was determined to abandon Liù Míng’s ideology and establish an entirely new leader. The two factions were constantly fighting, and war broke out for several months. I was familiar with those who supported Liù Míng’s ideals, and I knew they would make a comeback unless they were all eradicated. Within that faction were those who supported the idea of using the monster beasts to overthrow the Immortal realm. I had achieved military merit unintentionally and was recommended by several elders to ascend the throne and become the Demon emperor. The last time I saw your mother. . . .
We were at the border and about to defeat Liù Míng’s supporters, when tried to break through the Abyss Ruins and flee inside. Your mother was with them and close to giving birth. I secretly pulled her away from the battlefield then searched for a place amongst the greenery for her to go into labor. It was then that I found out your mother knew Fèng Lái was sealed inside the Abyss Ruins and that was why she made it all the way there on her own while carrying you. But once she got there, she wasn’t allowed to enter the Abyss Ruins. At this point, she discovered out what Liù Míng’s supporters were trying to do. She only joined them because she wanted to see your father.”
Shěn Lí bit her lip, clenched her fists, and held back from saying anything.
“Your mother kept bleeding after delivering you; the monster energy in your body was too strong. She knew she wouldn’t survive, so to make sure you wouldn’t be hunted down by the Immortal and Demon realms, she used her last bit of strength to extract your monster core and transformed it into the Bìhǎi Cāng bead. She died from exhaustion after giving it to me. Her last wish was that you could travel the blue seas and skies unfettered by your identity, unlike your father who is still to this day suffering from imprisonment. Now that I think about it, your mother was the one who gave you the title Azure Sky king.”
To think there was someone who sacrificed their life for her, but she never knew anything knew anything about it, and by the time she did, it was too late.
Shěn Lí felt extremely weak. Her voice was hoarse when she asked, “Her. . . where are her bones now?”
“She said she wanted to stay with your father, but she didn’t want me to put up a tombstone for fear someone would harm you through her. I buried her near the Abyss Ruins, but I’m afraid her grave is impossible to find now.”
“There’s nothing beside the Ruins.” Shěn Lí had fought there and her voice was dark. “Nothing. . . at all.”
The Demon emperor sat down on the platform steps and patted the seat next to her, motioning for Shěn Lí to come over. Shěn Lí lowered her head and walked over to sit down. The Demon emperor touched her head. “You’ve been practicing magic and martial arts with me since you were a child. All the spells I taught you were meant to suppress the power of the monster beast inside you. Your mother and I were both afraid. Would outsiders hate you if they discovered your identity? But you grew up day by day living so wonderfully. I was thinking you deserved to know your lineage. When the scorpion-tailed fox escaped from the Abyss Ruins, I was torn. I didn't want you to go and wanted you to go at the same time. Then I learned you weren’t contaminated when you went to the point were the miasma leaked from the Abyss Ruins. I thought to myself, you had excellent self-control. It was time I returned the Bìhǎi Cāng bead to you. But I was anxious; what should I do if you became someone I didn't recognize. . . ”
“Master. . . ” Shěn Lí said, “Letting me be born was a grace. Raising me was a grace. How is it possible for me to disavow your years of nurturing me overnight? Regardless how I came to be, I am me regardless what my identity is.”
The Demon emperor touched her head and sat quietly for a while before speaking again. “Fú Shēng and the others are probably the remnants of Liù Míng’s supporters. They have been recovering their strength for thousands of years, and now they’ve made a comeback. I heard about Mò Fāng. If I’m correct, he must be Liù Míng’s child from his concubine. I know you were on good terms, but since he defected, we can not show mercy when we meet on the battlefield.”
Shěn Lí thought of the day Mò Fāng rescued her, but the hesitation only lasted a moment. She nodded and said, “A-li knows.”
“Also. . . High God Xíng Zhǐ and you. . . ” The Demon emperor paused and noticed Shěn Lí stiffening. She sighed. “For thousands of years, I have been grateful to High God Xíng Zhǐ for saving the Demon realm in those dark times. I didn’t know his agenda when he first proposed you and Lord Fú Róng marry, but then news Lord Fú Róng’s power exploded reached the Demon realm. All the plants in his resident were purified from the explosion. I didn’t know he had such an ability. Had you married him, being near him would have purified you daily, until eventually all your monster beast powers would have dissipated. High God Xíng Zhǐ must have been aware of your power even if he didn’t know your family lineage.
He is a divine god and his responsibilities are heavy. If one day he knew your identity, I am afraid he would kill you for the sake of the people.”
Shěn Lí looked down at the ground quietly at the Demon emperor’s serious tone. “I think. . . he might have already known about it long ago.”
The Demon emperor was stunned.
Shěn Lí continued. “The Xíng Yún I fell in love with in the mortal realm was the reincarnation of High God Xíng Zhǐ. When he drank the Soup of Forgetfulness for reincarnation, his cultivation was washed away, but his memory as a god remained. In that life, before I followed Master back to the Demon realm, I spent five hundred years of cultivation to save his life.” Shěn Lí smiled. “No matter how much the powers from my monster beast side was drained, there would have been residue left behind. He should have known it then.”
He had taken her with him when he was repairing the seals. He may have had the idea of killing her then, but ultimately, he didn’t go through with it. . .
It suddenly struck Shěn Lí that Xíng Zhǐ wasn’t the same Xíng Zhǐ he was before. He wasn’t an indifferent divine god who only cared about the common people. He had kept his distance, being neither too familiar nor too aloof.
At that time, wasn't Xíng Zhǐ already wavering?!
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