The Demon Lord Is Carrying My Child - Chapter 39

“Is it so strange that I can speak?”

The Skeleton King swept his gaze across the room; everyone his eyes met was nodding.

Skeleton King: “…”

“You say you surrender, so you just surrender? On what grounds?” Mei Wuhen clutched her messy hair. The pearl hairpins that had held her hair back had all been thrown away as hidden weapons during the fight. Now, she stood with a head of disheveled hair in front of Chen Li her beloved!!!

Furthermore, the wound on her shoulder was still throbbing with pain. Flustered and exasperated, Mei Wuhen said, “At least let me hit you back.”

The Skeleton King spread his hand more accurately, his one remaining hand. His meaning was already clear: “I injured you, he broke my arm. We’re even.”

“But I wasn’t the one who broke it,” Mei Wuhen said, still fuming. Could Chen Li breaking it be the same as her breaking it with her own hands?

The Skeleton King asked with some confusion, “Aren’t you two a family?”

When Chen Li broke his arm just now, he had seen the surging killing intent in the man’s eyes. Only a loved one could make someone so tense and furious; or so the Skeleton King speculated.

Hearing this, Mei Wuhen’s face lit up with joy. “Then you may surrender.”

If one looked at it from the perspective of them being family, Mei Wuhen suddenly felt there was no difference between Chen Li breaking it or her doing it herself. Not only was there no difference, but she even felt that this skeleton looked quite handsome now.

At this point, it was futile for Chen Li to open his mouth to clarify their relationship. He himself could feel how angry and tense he had been the moment Mei Wuhen was injured, fearing the skeleton would continue downward and gouge out her heart.

He didn’t know if it was truly a stirring of the heart, but there was definitely something different. Explaining more would be useless and only draw more attention. He didn’t realize, however, how much his silence meant to Mei Wuhen.

No matter how Mei Wuhen tried to fix her hair, it wouldn’t stay right. The more she pulled, the angrier she got. Unable to watch any longer, Chen Li took the hair from her hands and slowly tidied it for her, finally gathering it atop her head. He then cast a glance at Ji Shutao.

Ji Shutao understood instantly, gave a knowing wink, and pulled a hairpin from her robe to hand over.

Mei Wuhen’s heart pounded wildly. She heard a bell ring.

Her bell… had it rung?

Since the fighting had ended, everyone could breathe a sigh of relief and properly dig into the secrets of Mount Shimo. But before that, they needed to find Zhiming, who had taken advantage of the chaos to escape.

Zhiming was the key that this group was looking for.

The Skeleton King was currently pulling that discarded human skin back onto his body. When he heard Zhiming’s name, his eyes filled with bloodthirsty light, looking as if he wanted to tear the man into ten thousand pieces.

His tone was cold and grim: “No need. He won’t get out.”

This underground kingdom spanned the entire Mount Shimo; Zhiming definitely could not escape.

After hearing the Skeleton King’s words, Wu Huo stared at him suspiciously. “You’re not playing tricks, are you?”

As the master of this entire underground realm, he could indeed be feigning surrender. His surrender had been too abrupt; if the underground structure was as complex as he claimed, he wasn’t entirely without a chance of survival. He could have escaped and left them to rot underground.

It was Qian Feng who answered him: “Previously, that might have been a possibility. But now,” Qian Feng flicked her finger, pressing down directly on the Skeleton King’s spine, “it’s impossible.”

Wu Huo realized suddenly and pointed at the Skeleton King excitedly. “I get it! He’s actually a snake—hit the snake at the seven-inch mark!”

Qian Feng was speechless for a moment. “What I mean is, I’ve planted a Puppet Technique on him.”

Wu Huo looked bewildered. “When?”

After asking, he realized what nonsense he had just blurted out. His face couldn’t help but burn with embarrassment. “Hit the snake at the seven-inch mark?” What on earth was he thinking? Now he had truly lost face; he wished he could dig a hole and crawl into it.

“During the fight just now.”

The Puppet Technique wasn’t a rare thing, but legend had it that the Demon Realm was the most skilled in it, and among them, the Left and Right Elders were the most formidable.

Puppet Techniques were categorized into grades. The lowest grade could barely control ordinary people, while the highest grade could easily control powerful opponents. To plant the technique, physical contact was required as a medium; no one could plant it through the air. Once the technique was planted, the victim’s actions would be completely controlled. Only when the caster dispelled the spell would the victim regain their freedom; there was no other way.

To be able to plant a Puppet Technique into such a powerful skeletal body during a fight and she had been following Zhuang Yi all along Wu Huo’s mind wandered, remembering that the Right Elder of the Demon Realm was indeed a woman.

“Is Your Excellency the Right Elder of the Demon Realm?” Wu Huo asked.

Qian Feng nodded. It was likely the skeleton surrendered only because he was trapped by the Puppet Technique. Linking the cause and effect together, Wu Huo’s admiration grew instantly.

Looking at the star-eyed Wu Huo, Qian Feng said, “…There’s really no need for that.”

Just as the Skeleton King had said, Zhiming was quickly discovered by the patrolling skeleton soldiers. After being injured and tied up, he was brought to the Great Hall. By then, everyone was gathered there.

“Zhiming, are you ready to die?” The Skeleton King looked down at him from above.

It seemed they had a deep, entangled history.

The Skeleton King’s name was Bai Chenghe, the Chief of Liuyun Village the very village Ji Shutao and the others had seen earlier.

In the eight hundred years of the Wenren Dynasty, there had actually been one major crisis. The Wenren clan had seized the world from the Bai family. Although the Bais had suffered heavy casualties, their desire to destroy the Wenren clan had never ceased.

When the Wenren Dynasty reached its six-hundredth year, the Bai family led the largest-scale rebellion to restore their rule. They gathered their old subordinates with such momentum that the Wenren clan was temporarily unable to resist. The Bai family drove straight in, even reaching the capital. The Wenren Emperor of the time nearly fell off his dragon throne upon receiving the battle reports. Later, it was the Prince Regent who, with incredible boldness, stabilized the situation and wiped out all the rebels. However, the Wenren Dynasty was severely weakened by that war. The Prince Regent was furious and ordered a nationwide hunt for the remnants of the Bai family, decreeing that even if innocent people were killed by mistake, no one who could possibly be a member of the Bai family should be spared. He wanted to pull them out by the roots to end the trouble forever.

Bai Chenghe was the last bloodline of the Bai Dynasty, hidden in the countryside. The Bai family had originally intended to crown him if the great plan succeeded, but they were defeated in a single day. Bai Chenghe could only flee and hide, eventually scraping by in Mount Shimo.

Mount Shimo was ever-changing, and its plants were incomprehensible; no one could survive there except the people of Liuyun Village. While being hunted, Bai Chenghe was saved by the villagers. They held him in high regard, and he became their Chief. The people of Liuyun Village had lived on Mount Shimo since ancient times; they knew how to find their way and how to avoid the deadly plants. But outsiders did not.

The “outsiders” referred to the disciples of Cangyou Pavilion led by Zhiming. Yet, in the end, they had managed to slaughter their way to the village and kill everyone.

Bai Chenghe covered his face and wept. “Though I led them in a desperate struggle, we were ultimately no match for the formations of Cangyou Pavilion.”

Not only that, but in order to claim Mount Shimo for his own use, Zhiming used Soul-Suppressing Talismans to pin down the souls of all the Liuyun villagers, preventing them from turning into vengeful ghosts and disrupting his plans. The people of Liuyun Village were condemned to never be reincarnated for all eternity.

Ji Shutao felt a chill in her heart. She remembered that secret room; it was indeed a heavy debt of blood. But looking at Zhuang Yi and Qian Feng, or even her senior brothers, they all wore expressions of cold indifference.

“Was there only one Chief in Liuyun Village?” Zhuang Yi asked.

Bai Chenghe nodded through his tears. “Yes.”

“If there was only one Chief, why were there three chairs placed on the platform?”

Bai Chenghe froze, asking in surprise, “You… you’ve been to Liuyun Village?”

Zhuang Yi didn’t answer his question but continued, “Since only the people of Liuyun Village knew the safe paths, and those plants are no pushovers, I suspect there was a traitor among you.”

Bai Chenghe’s expression turned ugly, but Zhiming burst into laughter. The laughter pulled at his wounds, causing him to wail in pain, but he still managed to say, “Bai Chenghe, do you think these people are fools? To make up such a full-of-holes story.”

“Shut up! Do you believe I’ll kill you right now?” Bai Chenghe’s face twisted as he reached out to strangle Zhiming.

Qian Feng snapped, “Let go.”

No matter how unwilling he was, Bai Chenghe was forced by the Puppet Technique to release his grip.

After Zhiming caught his breath, he said with a mocking smile, “Why don’t you all listen to the correct version?”

Bai Chenghe was indeed of royal blood, but he was a useless, “rotten mud” kind of royalty. When the Bai family rose up, they had never intended to hand the throne to him. The reason he was fleeing was simply because he was caught up in the aftermath of the defeat. At that time, he couldn’t have hated his royal blood more.

Later, he was lucky enough to be saved by the Village Chief, Pan Wenle, and the Second-in-Command, Yan Zhao. That was the only reason he didn’t die under the pursuers’ blades.

The villagers had lived in Mount Shimo for generations, knowing how to control the aggressive plants and find the only safe paths in the shifting landscape. The village and the mountain shared a symbiotic relationship; the mountain provided natural protection, and they gave back to it.

That was until they brought back Bai Chenghe, a man who was selfish to the core.

Zhiming wanted to use Mount Shimo as another site for living soul sacrifices, but he couldn’t conquer it no matter what. By chance, he learned people lived there and traced the lead to Bai Chenghe.

Zhiming sneered. “A man like Bai Chenghe would sell the entire village for a few benefits. And yet he has the nerve to act merciful here, taking all the credit and blame upon himself.”

Ji Shutao said with great disgust, “You’re not exactly a good person either.”

Zhiming had promised that once the task was done, he would grant Bai Chenghe immortality and that the throne would be within his reach. Bai Chenghe had agreed readily. Even knowing that the slaughter of the village would be the outcome, he never wavered.

Zhiming successfully ascended the mountain and learned of a path leading straight to the summit. No one in Liuyun Village was spared except for Bai Chenghe. To prevent them from turning into vengeful ghosts after their unnatural deaths, Zhiming used Soul-Suppressing Talismans and set up a formation in the village. Only then was the “cleansing” of Mount Shimo complete.

Bai Chenghe’s face turned ashen, but he remained immobilized by the Puppet Technique.

“As for why he has this underground kingdom, I imagine he used the mutation of the dead souls to gain such powerful abilities. He used others for profit while alive, and he steps on their corpses to rise even after death. Bai Chenghe, the two of us are two sides of the same coin.”

Looking at Zhiming’s face, Bai Chenghe’s teeth itched with rage. He truly wished he could tear this scum to pieces at this very moment to vent the hatred in his heart.

What was this? A case of “dog eats dog”?

But what about those innocent people who died? Because they were kind-hearted and lived without conflict, did they deserve to die? Even now, their souls had found no peace. And the people who killed them felt not a single shred of remorse.

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