The Demon Lord Is Carrying My Child - Chapter 40

All thoughts were crowded densely within Ji Shutao’s mind. She had been protected too well; she had only read of such matters in storybooks, but now it was different those facts lay before her eyes, dripping with blood.

It turned out that in this world, there truly existed such evil an evil unfathomably deep and irrational, where any sense of affection or humanity was utterly crushed upon facing it.

Ji Shutao’s emotions surged. After the truth was revealed, she was the first to speak.

She asked Bai Chenghe, “A hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye. Have you ever felt guilt? Have you ever regretted it?”

She asked Zhiming, “What on earth was it that made you all flock to this so eagerly, wantonly slaughtering innocent people?”

She spoke with such heartfelt intensity, as if the person asking these questions was not Ji Shutao at all, but the wrongly killed people of Liuyun Village.

Though she was a stranger, she could feel their pain so deeply, empathizing with the people of Liuyun Village to such an extent.

Yet, the faces of Bai Chenghe and Zhiming remained blank. They might have had doubts, but they would never feel regret.

Zhuang Yi pulled at Ji Shutao. Ji Shutao had always been a person of deep feeling; she feared the girl would not easily pull herself out of this.

“Shutao,” Zhuang Yi called to her, hoping she would not immerse herself too deeply in the tragedy of Liuyun Village.

Ji Shutao forced back her tears. She patted Zhuang Yi’s hand and shook her head, saying she was fine.

There are ten thousand truths in this world, yet not one could tell her how to walk out of someone else’s sorrow.

Zhuang Yi stroked her head. It was fine for Ji Shutao to be this way; the less darkness one has seen, the more sincere and passionate one remains.

People like Zhuang Yi, Qian Feng, and even Chen Li and the others had seen too much. Though they might sigh at such things, they had already become indifferent.

It wasn’t that they were indifferent to the fact that innocent people should die in vain, but rather that such occurrences were so frequent that their emotions no longer fluctuated much.

Darkness has no lower limit. Although the bright moon shines upon this world, there are still dark places where light never reaches.

Zhuang Yi took a step forward. Zhiming and Bai Chenghe were not far from her. Her voice was cold and clear, devoid of any warmth: “There are two more matters. First, I must ask Zhiming: where is Ye Yiran? Second, I must ask Bai Chenghe: what is the purpose of the skeletons carrying the coffin for the wedding?”

Zhiming and Bai Chenghe were destined to die, but before they died, all mysteries had to be unraveled to avoid leaving future troubles behind.

Indifference did not mean turning a blind eye to all evil. They were accustomed to seeing it, but they would never become comfortable with it.

Zhiming did nothing but sneer coldly and remained silent, presumably thinking that Ye Yiran’s whereabouts would serve as his bargaining chip for survival.

“You might not know me very well,” Zhuang Yi walked up to Zhiming and looked down at him. “Whether you live or die is of no consequence to me. I will eventually find out what I need to know. However, if you tell me personally, you might die a bit more comfortably.”

Zhuang Yi had always been a woman of her word. If someone wanted to bargain with her, they had to be prepared to have their head and body separated.

Meeting Zhuang Yi’s gaze, Zhiming actually shivered involuntarily. This person’s aura was too powerful, just like when they first met. He asked, “Who exactly are you?”

To be able to see through him as a member of the Cangyou Pavilion at a glance, to not die after falling off a cliff, and to possess such overwhelming pressure at the very least, she was not the simple pregnant woman he had previously assumed her to be.

Zhuang Yi pursed her lips: “The Demon Lord, Zhuang Yi.”

Zhiming was stunned for a moment, then burst into loud laughter. This time, he didn’t care even if it agitated his wounds. “I never expected it, I never expected it! The famous Demon Lord Zhuang Yi not only has a child but is actually entangled with Northern Chen Mountain. What, have you two reached a consensus just to destroy my Cangyou Pavilion?”

Chen Li frowned upon hearing this. He also walked up to Zhiming and said righteously, “Your Cangyou Pavilion uses living souls for heavenly sacrifices, wantonly murdering innocent people, and even massacred an entire mountain village. Such actions of yours have long guaranteed an end of divine punishment and earthly destruction.”

He paused and added, “Northern Chen Mountain does not fail to distinguish right from wrong or black from white. Our enemy is not the Demon Realm, but the evil that has already been judged.”

“Chen Li, does Yu Chu know you’re saying this?” Zhiming asked him with a light laugh.

“Master always leads by example; he cannot tolerate your kind either.”

“Oh, is that so?” Zhiming’s gaze landed on Ji Shutao with much playfulness. Zhuang Yi couldn’t help but suspect he knew some inside information.

“Whether it is or isn’t is not for you to say.” Chen Li flicked his sleeve in anger; it was useless to argue with such a person.

Zhuang Yi asked again: “Where is Ye Yiran?”

Zhiming grinned hideously: “She has probably become a sacrifice by now. A dead person’s bones can be buried anywhere; why be so obsessed?”

It seemed the situation was urgent, and even Zhiming didn’t know if they had succeeded.

Zhuang Yi already had an idea. Based on the situation at Wuming Mountain, since Mount Shimo was also a site for living soul sacrifices, the sacrificial altar should also be at the mountain peak. There would be no shortage of traps around it. Moreover, they only knew that Zhiming knew the safe path, but they didn’t know if he had obtained the method to control the plants from the people of Liuyun Village or from Bai Chenghe. If he had, that would be troublesome.

Unfortunately, puppet techniques could only control the body; if Bai Chenghe told a lie, they wouldn’t be able to detect it.

The path and the traps would have to be broken by themselves.

After some thought, Zhuang Yi decided to make arrangements: “Qian Feng and I will stay behind. Everyone else, go to the mountain peak and take him with you.”

Zhuang Yi pointed at Zhiming and saw a flash of panic in his eyes as expected. Bringing him along might even allow them to threaten those disciples.

Time was tight. They had to fight for a glimmer of hope now. If she followed them, she would only slow them down. Since Qian Feng was using the puppet technique to control Bai Chenghe and there were still many things to be settled in this underground area, staying behind was the best choice for the two of them.

Ji Shutao also wanted to stay by Zhuang Yi’s side, but since she had promised Ye Xiaoge she would save Ye Yiran, she had to do her best and leave the rest to fate.

“Be careful,” Zhuang Yi said softly to her.

Perhaps because the contrast in Zhuang Yi was too great just a moment ago she was cold-faced and pressuring, but in front of her, she became this soft and gentle Zhuang Yi , Ji Shutao couldn’t help but nuzzle against her. “I know.”

Zhuang Yi’s face flushed. “I am being serious. Although you are very powerful, you still must be careful.”

Although you are very powerful, you still must be careful.

These words made Chen Li and the others, who originally didn’t want to watch, look at Ji Shutao. Had their junior sister entered some realm they didn’t know about after a month’s absence?

Ji Shutao was already floating on air because of that one sentence. She chose to ignore her senior brothers’ gazes. “Okay.”

Just as they were about to leave, Qian Feng called out to them.

“This underground structure is complex; you must know the correct way out. Also, we need to know that one safe path on Mount Shimo.”

She turned to look at Bai Chenghe, her voice chilling: “Bai Chenghe, if you lie, I will make you grow flesh and blood, and then carve it off piece by piece with a knife myself. Tsk tsk, that taste would probably not be very pleasant.”

Pain was a very distant memory for Bai Chenghe. Precisely because of this, he would find it even harder to endure. Hearing Qian Feng’s words, he was already trembling with fear. He could only stutter out the safe path and arranged for a skeleton soldier to lead them out of the underground.

“What about the method to control the plants?” Qian Feng smiled brightly.

But Bai Chenghe was drenched in a cold sweat: “That… that I truly do not know.”

Seeing that his expression did not seem fake, Qian Feng nodded, and only then did Ji Shutao and the others follow the skeleton away.

Zhuang Yi sat in Bai Chenghe’s seat while he stood before her. She asked, “You should know where the remains of the people from Liuyun Village are buried, right?”

Bai Chenghe, having just been scared out of his wits, said tremblingly, “Right here, underground.”

“So these skeleton soldiers are actually the people of Liuyun Village who died previously. You obtained powerful abilities for some unknown reason, but they did not. Since you couldn’t be an emperor on the surface, you decided to be a king down here in the dark. Is that it?” Zhuang Yi spoke leisurely, yet she tore open the past bit by bit.

“I did not,” Bai Chenghe retorted loudly, “They were all willing themselves.”

“Willing? They don’t even have self-awareness; their souls are suppressed, and they have become walking corpses like this. What ‘willingness’ is there to speak of?”

Providence always seemed to favor such people who committed every possible evil; even at the end of their road, they could still obtain such power.

“When you were at a dead end and living a wretched existence, it was the people of Liuyun Village who saved you. They lived deep in the mountains and were a secluded clan; they certainly didn’t welcome outsiders, yet they gave you food and let you stay in the village. Eventually, you even became sworn brothers with Pan Wenle and Yan Zhao, becoming the Third Master. Bai Chenghe, listen closely is there the sound of people sobbing in this cave? Bai Chenghe, in all these years, has your heart ever known peace?”

Making Bai Chenghe die completely was far too easy. What Zhuang Yi wanted was his repentance; she wanted him to be anxious and fearful before he died, feeling the weight of guilt for those innocent souls who died in vain.

Images of the past seemed to surface before Bai Chenghe’s eyes: Pan Wenle and Yan Zhao saving him, the villagers doing their best to take care of him. That was probably the best time he had ever had in all those years of hiding and running.

But he himself had destroyed everything with his own hands!

He led Zhiming up the mountain and watched them die before his eyes rivers of blood, corpses everywhere. He knew every single one of them, yet he didn’t recognize any of them.

The ones he knew were the vibrant versions of them, not one corpse after another.

Bai Chenghe’s chest was empty, yet at this moment, it began to ache. Returning along with the pain was the truth he had deliberately forgotten for so many years.

It wasn’t that he didn’t regret it; he had simply kept beautifying himself and forgot the regret.

What Zhiming had just said, combined with Zhuang Yi’s current soft-spoken words, tore open the scar on his heart.

“They are suppressed right here underground. By undoing the soul-suppressing talismans, they can be liberated.” Bai Chenghe seemed to lose all his strength and collapsed to his knees.

He heard it the howling cries approaching, cries so desperate they made one feel as if they were in hell.

He finally remembered that he should have gone to hell a long time ago.

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