The Demon Lord Relied on His Imagination to Get Together with the Protagonist. - Chapter 104

Chapter 104

Tong Siqing held Ji Hui, her heart filled with reluctance.

She knew that the other party was the Ninth Prince of the North Sea and rightfully belonged back there. It was not feasible for her to keep following Tong Siqing, especially since once Ji Hui was acknowledged by the North Sea, Tong Siqing would have to dissolve the master-servant contract for the sake of both parties’ reputation.

“It’s impossible for the Dragon Mother and the Dragon King not to have noticed such a deception,” Shi Zhihua asked Ji Hui. “Aren’t your biological mother and father the current two?”

Ji Hui confirmed that it was indeed the two of them.

Tong Siqing was utterly confused. No matter how careless parents are, it’s impossible for them to allow such a thing to happen, right?

If the child was secretly swapped right after birth, it might be understandable. But when I came to the North Sea for my trial, Ji Hui was no longer very young, and combined with the gender factor, how could those two rulers have been so clueless?

Shi Zhihua: “Unless this matter was carried out with their tacit consent.”

No wonder, when the North Sea clashed with the Demon Realm back then, the old Dragon King of the North Sea immediately sent the Ninth Prince, Ji Wudu, to the Demon Realm as a hostage. She was surprised by the North Sea’s style at the time—they were too generous in sending their son.

And that Ji Wudu was not quiet after arriving at the Abode of Indulgence, always trying to find ways to gain favor with her.

Because,  Ji Wudu was not the real Ninth Prince to begin with.

So the North Sea was generous in sending their son, and Ji Wudu was desperately trying to make a name for himself in another territory.

Shi Zhihua asked Ji Hui: “Do you still want to go back and see your parents?”

Ji Hui didn’t speak. She held Tong Siqing and murmured: “I don’t know if they still want me.”

“Then I will go and ask them,” Shi Zhihua decided. “Since your true identity is a princess, I will definitely make those people in the North Sea account for this. Why did they publicly declare you a prince? Deceiving me must come with a price.”

It was one thing if Shi Zhihua didn’t know the sent hostage was fake, but now that she knew, she had to extract some more benefits.

So, on that very day, she went to find the ailing old Dragon King.

The old Dragon King had been sick recently. All affairs were being handled by the Dragon Mother, but the Dragon Mother, unwilling to manage things, had conveniently feigned death.

She dumped a huge mess onto the First Prince.

The First Prince was no match for the Demonic Venerable. Shi Zhihua didn’t take him seriously at all and went directly to the palace with Qing Lin and Su Rong to find the old Dragon King.

The old Dragon King was near the end of his lifespan and gravely ill, making him unfit to receive visitors.

The First Prince tried to block the Demonic Venerable all the way but failed. He could only watch helplessly as the Demonic Venerable brought her people to the palace.

The First Prince chased after them, frantically shouting: “My father is recuperating! Please, Your Excellency, do not make too much noise and disturb my father…”

Shi Zhihua instructed Qing Lin with feigned sincerity: “Did you hear that? Be light on your feet. Don’t scare the old Dragon King to death.”

Qing Lin assented.

Then, upon reaching the door, she very politely kicked open the palace door with a single foot.

The door crashed down, almost shattering the jade tiles.

First Prince: “…”

It would have been better if I hadn’t said anything.

The Demonic Venerable’s temperament is truly arrogant and unrestrained.

The First Prince followed, his face drawn as if his father had died. He sincerely hoped the Demonic Venerable would give him some face and not cause any more destruction. If she did, his father probably wouldn’t survive the winter.

Inside the hall, Su Rong was still carefully treading lightly. She had understood the Demonic Venerable’s implied meaning, but out of a trace of compassion in her heart, she didn’t deliberately cause a disturbance. If the Dragon King was genuinely startled, it could lead to…

Su Rong suddenly noticed the person in front of her stop.

Su Rong: “Your Excellency?”

She followed the Demonic Venerable’s gaze and saw a richly dressed, graceful woman sitting beside the Dragon King’s sickbed—it was the Dragon Mother, who had feigned death. Nearby, a beautiful little girl with golden hair and blue eyes was obediently massaging the Dragon Mother’s shoulders.

Su Rong: “…”

She was startled and involuntarily stopped in her tracks.

Because of her steady and gentle nature, she rarely stopped so abruptly while walking. This time, however, it caused the First Prince rushing behind her to stumble.

The First Prince nearly collided with her. Frightened, he staggered and tried to dodge to the side.

Su Rong caught a glimpse of this and quickly reached out to steady him.

The First Prince was afraid to touch her, thinking the Demonic Venerable’s subordinates were all ruthless. He feared that touching her would cause him to lose a layer of skin. So, the First Prince frantically dodged, becoming even more unstable and falling towards the candle stands on both sides.

Seeing him fall, Su Rong exerted more effort to reach him.

After several attempts, the First Prince finally fell, not disappointing, onto the several-meter-high candle stands. These candle stands in the Dragon Palace were specially made, beautiful but fragile. His fall caused a magnificent domino effect. The candle stands were perfectly close to each other, crashing one after another like falling dominoes. The commotion was huge and continuous.

—This noise could wake the dead.

When Shi Zhihua looked back, the roof of the Dragon Palace was almost being torn off by the immense commotion.

She looked at the mess behind her, speechless.

This First Prince is afraid his father won’t die, is that it?

Simultaneously, the Dragon King also woke up. He coughed thunderously, as if trying to cough out his heart and lungs, startling the Dragon Mother, who rushed forward to help him catch his breath.

Shi Zhihua stepped forward, politely waited for him to finish coughing, and then interrogated him.

She couldn’t be bothered to investigate so many trivial, outdated matters. If she wanted to investigate, she would ask directly. Even if the person was dead, she would force them to speak.

Shi Zhihua condensed a slender blade out of demonic energy and, with a forced smile, placed the blade against the Dragon King’s neck: “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an old acquaintance. I miss you dearly. I didn’t come for anything else today, just to reminisce and ask a few questions.”

Old Dragon King: “…”

The Dragon King was frail, nearly dead. His cheeks were lined with deep wrinkles, and his beard drooped lifelessly. His eyes were clouded and muddy, like a dying fish, devoid of any vitality.

In contrast, the Dragon Mother beside him looked remarkably well, elegant and dignified, showing no signs of aging or impending death.

Shi Zhihua glanced at her, realizing the Dragon Mother was not just in good health, but radiant. She also had a young, beautiful girl with golden hair and blue eyes by her side, but the girl’s complexion couldn’t compare to the Dragon Mother’s.

Just then, the Dragon Mother spoke: “Your Excellency has graced us with your presence. Unfortunately, the old Dragon King is severely ill and unable to answer your questions. If needed, you can ask me.”

Neither of them mentioned the feigned death, tacitly shifting the topic to other matters.

The Dragon Mother had likely investigated something in the past few days. She immediately began to explain to Shi Zhihua: “The two of us are indeed not Ji Wudu’s biological parents. Sending Ji Wudu to the Abode of Indulgence and deceiving you was an act of desperation. For this, our North Sea is willing to offer all our treasures as compensation for our transgression against you.”

Although Shi Zhihua did come to plunder, hearing the Dragon Mother’s words made her even more uncomfortable.

The Dragon Mother truly understood her style of action and offered an appropriate solution.

But.

She thought she might need a different explanation.

As a cold-hearted Demonic Venerable, she rarely encountered such a heartless family, which sparked some curiosity in Shi Zhihua.

She really wanted to know, What kind of parents could abandon their daughter to wander destitute for many years and completely ignore her?

“I once found a golden snake of impressive quality in the Demon Realm…” Shi Zhihua began, using this as a starting point. “Because she was rare, I always kept her by my side. Recently, due to a chance encounter, after arriving at the North Sea, my lover discovered some clues. She had seen your North Sea’s Ninth Prince during her tribulation, and that golden snake strongly resembles the former Ninth Prince.”

After Shi Zhihua finished, she fixed her gaze on the Dragon Mother, hoping for a reasonable explanation.

Why were those of the snake clan able to deceive the two rulers of the North Sea right under their noses? Were the snake clan people incredibly powerful, or had the Dragon King and Dragon Mother tacitly approved the matter long ago?

As soon as Shi Zhihua finished speaking, the Dragon Mother raised her sleeve to wipe away tears.

The Dragon Mother said: “This matter was truly beyond our control. As parents, we deeply cherish our little Jiǔ, but unfortunately, she was ill-fated and died young…”

Shi Zhihua frowned, interrupting her: “Didn’t you hear me? I said your little Jiǔ was taken in by me.”

The Dragon Mother froze, then quickly collected her tears and changed her narrative: “What? Little Jiǔ is with you? That’s wonderful! We miss her very much too. When you have a moment, please bring her to see us. We can catch up and make up for all these years of…”

The reply was reasonable, but Shi Zhihua felt inexplicably unsettled. Looking at the seemingly worried Dragon Mother, she felt the reaction was wrong.

Because it was too reasonable, it seemed somewhat contrary to common sense.

The Dragon Mother earnestly recounted the events of that year to the Demonic Venerable. It was so reasonable that it almost defied suspicion. Shi Zhihua listened, her expression growing colder.

The Dragon Mother said that the North Sea had a nature deity, the one near the northern temple. That nature deity governed the North Sea waters and was the source of the North Sea’s vitality. However, a condition for worshiping the nature deity was that the Dragon King must have nine sons. Only by using the nine sons to consecrate the true deity could the spiritual power of the god be stabilized.

By this generation of the Dragon King, the Dragon Mother had smoothly given birth to eight princes in one go.

They were short one.

When it came to the ninth child, the Dragon Mother was delayed in conceiving for many years. The North Sea Nature Deity grew angry, causing the water domain to rapidly decrease, leading to widespread fear in the North Sea.

Later, they finally conceived, but the child born appeared to be a daughter.

Because it was difficult to distinguish the gender of dragon offspring in their infancy, the two did their best to conceal it. Only when they could no longer hide it did they follow the snake clan elder’s bad idea and adopt a well-behaved little white snake.

To maintain the façade of peace, the Dragon King even used the “Emperor’s Scorn” artifact, sacrificing half his cultivation to transform the white snake into a dragon prince, continuing the pretense of the Ninth Prince…

However, this trick could deceive mortals but not the gods.

The North Sea waters remained the same.

They could only explain to the people that they had done their best and that this was the wrath of the gods, which could not be stopped.

Shi Zhihua asked: “So, you just threw your daughter out and didn’t care?”

The Dragon Mother wiped her tears: “Of course not. We cherished our little Jiǔ. How could we possibly do that?”

She said they had simply believed the child had died, and so they had lived in pain and regret all these years.

The Dragon Mother sobbed uncontrollably: “Look, the old Dragon King is sick and bedridden because of his excessive longing for our child.”

The young girl by her side quickly stepped forward to comfort her.

“It’s nothing,” the Dragon Mother patted the girl’s hand, collecting her tears. “Your Excellency, you see, I am not a cold-hearted person obsessed with power. I only want the North Sea to be safe and peaceful, and for my children to be happy. After the snake clan elder was killed, I merely hid, not wanting to come forward. Alas, my poor little Jiǔ, she has suffered so much these years.”

Shi Zhihua watched her tearful complaint coldly.

Who would have thought that the outwardly graceful and dignified Dragon Mother, who seemed like a straightforward person, would speak so disjointedly, making it difficult for anyone to know how to respond to her.

Shi Zhihua didn’t want to listen to someone trying to garner sympathy, so she turned away, ignoring her.

However, since the other party claimed to regret her actions and missed her daughter, perhaps she should bring Ji Hui over and let the two meet.

Shi Zhihua thought it over. This was feasible.

“Let’s go. We’re heading back.” Shi Zhihua’s arrival was sudden, and her departure was equally so. Arrogantly, she treated the North Sea like her own Abode of Indulgence, immediately leaving the mess behind.

The First Prince, after cleaning up the fallen candle stands, hurried to check on his mother.

The Dragon Mother, who had been tearful moments before, had a changed expression, staring coldly in the direction Shi Zhihua had left.

Dragon Mother: “She doesn’t respect our North Sea at all.”

First Prince nervously suggested: “Should we teach her a lesson?”

“No,” the Dragon Mother sighed. “Heavenly Venerable Sheng Wen is here, and he will definitely intervene.”

First Prince: “Isn’t Heavenly Venerable Sheng Wen in seclusion?”

“Naive,” the Dragon Mother criticized him. “Heavenly Venerable Sheng Wen is only putting on a show. Do you really think he’s in seclusion?”

First Prince: “But she is the Demonic Venerable. How could Heavenly Venerable Sheng Wen help someone from the Demon Realm?”

“She is not just the Demonic Venerable,” the Dragon Mother said. “Don’t forget, Shi Zhihua’s lover is Sheng Wen’s daughter. No matter how much they might dislike each other, they are a family now.”

The First Prince suddenly realized.

Silence fell in the hall. The Dragon Mother looked into the distance with a troubled expression.

Just then, the dying old Dragon King suddenly coughed uncontrollably, vomiting a large mouthful of blood.

This was the ninth time he had vomited blood.

The Dragon Mother’s eyes lit up. As if she had changed her mind, she asked the First Prince: “Is this your father’s ninth time?”

A dragon’s death occurs upon vomiting the ninth mouthful of heart’s blood.

“It should be,” the First Prince was terrified. He frantically supported his father, about to call for help…

“Don’t make any noise,” the Dragon Mother said faintly, restraining the First Prince’s hand. “Just let your father pass away like this.”

First Prince: ???

Huh?

The Dragon Mother feigned regret: “We’ll spread the news later, saying the Demonic Venerable broke into the hall and startled your father, and his body couldn’t withstand it.”

The First Prince stammered: “Mother, this is too rebellious.”

The Dragon Mother looked at the old dragon, who was moments away from death on the sickbed, and said: “Your father has been suffering like this for a long time. This half-dead state is likely not what he wanted to see. In that case, it’s better for him to pass away sooner and let us seize the opportunity to frame the Demonic Venerable.”

“But, didn’t you say…” the First Prince lowered his voice, “that Heavenly Venerable Sheng Wen and the Demonic Venerable are family?”

“Although that’s what I said,” the Dragon Mother analyzed, “in minor matters, Heavenly Venerable Sheng Wen would shield the Demonic Venerable and simply turn a blind eye. But this is a major issue the killing of the Dragon King. Heavenly Venerable Sheng Wen absolutely cannot cover for her. They are not yet at the stage of being a complete family. If something serious happens, I believe Heavenly Venerable Sheng Wen will not pretend he didn’t see it.”

She would take a gamble.

As long as she leveraged the North Sea, she gambled that Heavenly Venerable Sheng Wen would go along with her plan, using the opportunity to kill the Demonic Venerable.

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