The Widowed Demonic Lord Remarried Again?! - Chapter 2

“How could I not dare?”

Before Ruan Yibai could react, Ye Tang grabbed his other hand, intending to drag him to his feet. But the moment his fingers brushed against Ruan Yibai’s wrist, his expression shifted slightly: “Where is your spiritual power?”

Ruan Yibai’s heart skipped a beat, then he averted his face: “None of your business.”

It’s too hard to explain, I can’t be bothered talking nonsense with a fellow like you! Just wait until I recover my spir—

“Just as well.”

Ye Tang scooped Ruan Yibai right off the floor, hoisted him over his shoulder, carried him toward the couch, and tossed him onto it: “That saves me the trouble of tying you up.”

Tossed onto the couch, Ruan Yibai was instantly struck dumb with shock: “Ye Tang, I’m warning you, don’t pull any reckless stunts, otherwise…”

Otherwise,

He had originally intended to drop a fierce threat, but looking at the current situation—he suddenly felt utterly devoid of momentum. Chiefly because without any spiritual power, what else could he rely on to threaten the number one figure in Lanquetian…

His breathtaking, pitiful beauty?

Just as he turned to flee, both of his wrists were pinned down onto the couch by Ye Tang. A warm breath brushed across his cheek. Looking up into the eyes of the man before him, he noticed that the fellow’s gaze carried a faint, impenetrable heat beneath its indifference: “Otherwise?”

Damn it, having known this guy for so long, is he actually going to play for keeps this time?

Ruan Yibai grew inexplicably nervous, his eyelashes beginning to quiver slightly.

From a certain person’s perspective, the person pinned beneath him looked like a trembling, pitiful little rabbit, somewhat cute in its ruffled indignation, desperate to escape yet unable to break free.

Ye Tang suddenly chuckled softly. His features remained heart-stoppingly handsome, yet his other hand showed no mercy as it tugged away the crimson wedding sash at Ruan Yibai’s waist…

The bright red wedding rope slipped away strand by strand, tumbling from the edge of the couch down to the floor where it slowly coiled into a circle.

“Barely a hundred years have passed, have you already forgotten what you said publicly yourself during the doomsday battle?”

Centuries ago.

The Doomsday Battle.

The immortal radiance of Lanquetian fell, and the dazzling divine lights across the sky were dyed and baptized by pitch-black night. A curtain-like darkness, like a creeping, grotesque liquid, advanced from afar and devoured everything, sealing off the heavens and earth!

The next instant, the brilliant light of three divine artifacts tore through space, opening the curtain for this battle with a world-destroying momentum!

Amidst the pitch-black night, everyone looked up to behold the masters of the three divine artifacts.

All immortals of the myriad paths were shaken to their core.

Yuanguang, Yingjie, Poyie.

Whichever one it was, each represented a terrifying, earth-shaking entity!

And right now, these three peerless divine artifacts were actually in a state of being mastered by a single triple-sword lord!

The newcomer possessed an alluring, breathtaking appearance, with snow-white hair and crimson eyes, clad in a magnificently intricate black-patterned brocade robe. He sat leisurely suspended mid-air with crossed legs, the three divine artifacts slowly orbiting around him while countless flashes of divine light manifested! Behind him, a gigantic skeletal corpse resembling a mountain range bowed before heaven and earth, its interlocking finger-bones forming a throne as it reverently elevated him to kingship and supremacy.

Beneath the banner of bones, tens of thousands of demonic cultivators stood poised, waiting solely for the Demonic Lord’s single command.

The scene abruptly cut off here.

[System (clapping briskly):] [As expected of the undisputed Demonic Lord of the Nine Realms, the host is truly magnificent! That triple-sword master state back then was simply too handsome! Though black hair looks great now too, snow-white hair and crimson eyes is absolute paradise for white-hair lovers, ahhhhh!! And then? What on earth did you say on such a grand occasion that made the Yaoquang Immortal Lord still remember it so vividly after all these years?!]

Ruan Yibai racked his brains, pulling and scratching at his head: “It’s been too long, I don’t remember.”

[System:] [No way, how could the host forget something so important?!]

Ruan Yibai: I don’t even remember what I ate for overtime dinner last night; how can you expect me to remember a line from over twenty years ago?

[System:] [It’s not twenty years ago. You spent twenty-five years in the real world, and two hundred and fifty years have already passed in the book.]

Ruan Yibai: …Since you claim I transmigrated into a book, where is the book? Bring it out and let me flip through the plot!

[System:] [The book is currently serializing. Wherever your development reaches, that’s where the book writes.]

Ruan Yibai’s mouth twitched: Turns out you don’t know anything either. What kind of transmigration is this?!

[System:] [Taking an unorthodox path, your plot is decided by you—we’re all about authenticity here!]

Ruan Yibai wore a look of utter disgust: …Tch.

[System:] [Why don’t you try recalling the scene back then, Elder?]

Ruan Yibai: There were so many people back then, how could I remember what I said? But I never had anything nice to say to Ye Tang anyway; it was probably some remark mocking him.

You’d think that as the premier Immortal Lord of Lanquetian, he’d have better things to do than hold a grudge for centuries, wouldn’t he?

[System:] [Looking at it, it doesn’t quite seem like holding a grudge. It sounds more like you said something about marrying him?]

Ruan Yibai looked utterly shocked: How could I possibly utter such nonsense? I’d be more likely to tell him to kneel and marry me instead!

[System:] [Oh ho, host, your ambitions are truly towering and praiseworthy! But look at the current scenario isn’t that exactly what came true?]

Ruan Yibai’s veins throbbed fiercely: Scram!

[System:] [You got it!]

The discussion with the system concluded. At this moment, Ruan Yibai, pinned on the couch by Ye Tang, pressed his lips together.

Over the past hundred years, he and Ye Tang had remained locked in a state of hostility. Coupled with the fact that the Doomsday Battle was the most crucial clash between Lanquetian and the Nine Realms, he certainly wouldn’t have spared any pleasantries before their duel—it was probably some humiliating insult, right?

Yet Ye Tang, as the head of Lanquetian, ought to have treated such remarks with disdain. What on earth was it that made him…

“Judging by your expression, you really can’t remember what you said back then.”

He guessed right; he genuinely couldn’t remember a thing.

Ruan Yibai thought to himself.

Given our tit-for-tat mortal enemy relationship, wouldn’t it be against etiquette not to offer a hint?

Fixing his gaze unwaveringly on Ruan Yibai’s slightly bewildered face, Ye Tang asked, “Are you satisfied with this couch?”

Ruan Yibai was instantly blanketed in confusion: “Huh?”

This couch, are you satisfied?

Wh—what does that mean?

Ruan Yibai blinked, staring incredulously at the Ye Tang before him.

Big brother, satisfied with what? What’s satisfied? What are you even talking about?!

Pressing down on Ruan Yibai’s hands, Ye Tang took it upon himself to nod and summarize: “As long as you’re satisfied.”

Who said I was satisfied?!

“What are you trying to d—Mmmpfmmph…”

Three days later.

Ruan Yibai finally managed to open his eyes, feeling utterly sore, weak, and devoid of strength, as if his bones no longer belonged to him.

He would never have imagined that when some people let loose their inner beasts—

They are absolute beasts!

Still nursing his grievances, he failed to notice that the brilliantly shimmering progress bar in the void had actually moved.

The previously empty space in the middle surged forward dramatically in a brilliant golden hue!

[System:] [Congratulations to the host, cheers to the host—your spiritual power has finally broken past 0!!! This is the power of love, this is the miracle of love!!!]

To hell with the power and miracle of love!

He lay paralyzed on the couch, completely unable to move a muscle. Marks of passion were scattered all over his body like blooming peach blossoms, his waist felt as though someone had snapped it in half, and his two legs remained curled up and trembling uncontrollably… To be honest, he had never experienced anything like this in his entire life—neither in his original world nor after falling into a cultivation deviation and waking up in the modern era.

Logically speaking, that shouldn’t happen. After all, it was just dual cultivation; his body shouldn’t have been left entirely at someone else’s mercy, reduced to such a fragile state… He couldn’t even recall how many times he had passed out midway. Hiss, roughly speaking, it must still be because he had lost his spiritual power.

He just hadn’t expected that Ye Tang—who had always been renowned for maintaining a pure and desireless mindset—would show zero restraint in this regard. Probably nobody would believe it if he told them. The whole world knew that he and Ye Tang were irreconcilable, fated arch-nemesis, locked in fierce, blow-for-blow immortal-demonic wars for over a century!

Yet who would dare believe that just two days ago, they had actually engaged in dual cultivation?! For such a benefit, which usually only appeared in the extra chapters of long web novels, to be unlocked right in the golden first three chapters—

What kind of book was this, and why was it so unconstrained by conventions?!

Although he had initially been forced by that scumbag to submit while completely stripped of spiritual power, if you asked him whether it felt good afterward, his answer would probably be—

[System:] [Good?]

Startled to the point of nearly tumbling off the couch, Ruan Yibai snapped: “Don’t randomly chime in!”

[System:] [The host is truly shameless, crying and begging for mercy in the second half, only to end up provoking the Immortal Lord into going even harder…]

Struggling to prop up his head to defend his innocence, Ruan Yibai retorted, “Do you believe I can report you for defamation just as easily?”

[System:] [I believe it.]

Ruan Yibai exhaled heavily: “Glad you know your place.”

[System:] [But I recorded it.]

Ruan Yibai was left speechless.

Despicable and shameless modern technology!

[System (with a service-industry smile):] [Changes to the progress bar must be properly documented so we have factual evidence to speak of if the numbers look abnormal in the future. Don’t you agree?]

Ruan Yibai sneered: “With your measly +0.01% increments each time, is there even any point in recording such a negligible numerical fluctuation?”

[System:] [Who said this time was only +0.01%? Host, take a look at the numbers at the end of the progress bar yourself.]

Hearing this, Ruan Yibai looked up. In the void, aside from the golden qi-blood-like long bar in the middle, three striking, dazzling numbers were dangling and wobbling at the tail end:

1.88%

A normal session of you-know-what is 0.01%, but with Ye Tang it shot straight up to 1.88%?!

Translating that math, that guy’s single session was 1.88 times that of a normal person??

[System:] [……………………?]

[System:] [How on earth did you calculate that as 1.88 times?! That’s 188 times! Host, are you genuinely terrible at math, or are you just refusing to admit that the Immortal Lord is too insanely capable?!]

188 times? One hundred and eighty-eight… times?

Ruan Yibai’s pupils dilated in an earthquake of disbelief: “Aren’t immortal cultivators supposed to prioritize maintaining a pure mind and curbing desires? We demonic cultivators are the ones who indulge in unrestrained lust! No wonder I felt like my entire body had been reduced to scrap metal and I couldn’t move at all! What on earth is Ye Tang’s physiological structure? He’s way too fierce…”

[System:] [I feel like he didn’t even go all out yet, purely because you’re too weak of a chicken.]

Ruan Yibai nearly attempted to dismantle the system with his bare hands: …Scram!

That was only because I lacked spiritual power. If I ever recover my spir—

“Speaking of which, where is he?”

[System:] [Host, you’ve been lying here unconscious for two days. During this entire time, the Yaoquang Immortal Lord has been taking care of you personally. But it seems he was just summoned away by his subordinates. Guessing he spent three days ignoring Lanquetian’s official affairs, he’s probably accumulated a mountain of work and had to go handle it.]

Hearing that Ye Tang had left, and then glancing back at that ostentatious 1.88%, Ruan Yibai suddenly felt a surge of energy. He sat straight up on the couch, brought his hands together, and prepared to channel his spiritual power: Just as well that he’s gone!

[System:] [Host, you’ve only just recovered a shred of spiritual power and you’re already planning to use it? Is there some urgent matter you absolutely must do?]

Ruan Yibai kept forming hand seals nonstop: “Of course—go find my three precious wives!”

[System (baffled):] [Where on earth did you get wives? Clearly, whether in this world or that world, your official setting is that of an absolute single dog through and through… wait, the ‘wives’ you’re talking about couldn’t possibly be…]

Ignoring the system, Ruan Yibai allowed his spiritual perception to spread outward in an instant, sweeping across the entire world with the speed and precision of a global positioning system!

Although he had only recovered less than 2% of his spiritual power, during his prime Ruan Yibai was a terrifying supreme overlord who made the entire cultivation world tremble in dread! Thus, even a thin layer of spiritual power was equivalent to the decades of bitter toil put in by an ordinary cultivator.

However, just as Ruan Yibai’s spiritual sense captured a trace of fluctuation and he heart-throbbingly prepared to pursue it further, the spiritual power abruptly cut off and vanished completely into thin air.

“What’s going on? Didn’t I just recover my spiritual power? How did it… run out just like that?”

[System (spreading hands):] [Before reaching 100% progress, the host’s spiritual power has usage restrictions. The restriction rules are calculated based on your recovered spiritual power value. For example, your freshly activated spiritual scanning—though brief—completely squeezed dry your meager remaining 1.88%.]

Ruan Yibai was speechless: “No way, it ran out just like that? Is it having a mood swing or something?”

[System:] [Next time, the host can accumulate more spiritual power first, so you won’t give up halfway through.]

Ruan Yibai curled his lip: “How do you expect me to accumulate this stuff?”

[System (maternal smile):] [You know.]

Dawning realization hitting him, Ruan Yibai drew a sharp breath: “It doesn’t have to be deep communication with that scumbag Ye Tang, right? Can we switch people?”

[System:] [Actually… it’s not impossible. According to the settings, as long as a relationship occurs, there’s no rule stating it has to be the Yaoquang Immortal Lord. But if you say you want to swap partners, pure-love warriors will absolutely refuse to accept it.]

Ruan Yibai: ?

Without delving further into what the system meant, although the spiritual scan was brief, Ruan Yibai had still captured the trail of his “wives” in a flash of lightning. To think that after parting ways for so many years, his once proud-and-boastful “wives” weren’t in the immortal or demonic realms, but rather down in the mortal world?!

Since I’m not by their side, my wives must have suffered! To think they drifted all the way down to the mortal realm!

Yet… why do their forms feel a bit strange?

Ruan Yibai furrowed his brows slightly. Right now, his heart and mind were entirely consumed by the urge to find his “wives” immediately, making him eager to ditch Lanquetian right this second!

With that thought, he began rummaging through boxes and chests to search for clothes. To his surprise, all his old belongings were neatly and completely preserved right here, and at a glance, anyone could tell they had been meticulously and exceptionally well-cared for. Could this mean they had emptied out his Hall of Supreme Joy in the Nine Realms?

And probably more than that—even the garments he used to wear and look after back in the palace were preserved as if brand new.

Aside from old items, there were also plenty of brand-new clothes clearly prepared specifically for him. Why was it obvious they were for him? Because Ye Tang never wore black clothing, and furthermore, no one else in Lanquetian dared wear such ostentatious black-and-gold garments besides the Sword Demon Bai Ye—which meant him, Ruan Yibai.

After dressing and finally feeling completely comfortable all over, our hero strolled over to the bedroom door. The moment he pulled it open, a pristine, moon-bright beam of light instantly materialized right before his path!

Ruan Yibai’s eyes lit up. He reached out to flick the beam of light gently; it rippled outward like water waves, revealing the perfect outline of an immortal sword!

“Isn’t this Luoshui Xiyue?” Ruan Yibai stroked the sword body with the back of his finger, then poked his head out to peer around like a seasoned inspector. “Is young master Jie still working himself to the bone as a beast of burden for the Yaoquang Immortal Lord?”

“It’s the Celestial Lord.” The person gripping the sword spoke with freezing coldness, his tone carrying an unquestionable note of emphasis.

Celestial Lord? What Celestial Lord?

[System:] [That would be the Yaoquang Celestial Lord, ahem. From now on, you need to address him as Celestial Lord.]

Promoted again?

Is he stepping over my corpse to climb to the top?

Ruan Yibai let out a cold laugh: “I’ve only slept for a mere few decades, and this fellow Ye Tang’s title has gone up another rank. You guys really spoil him rotten—watch out, the higher you lift him up, the harder he’ll fall.”

The person standing before him threw Ruan Yibai a cold glance. Before he could speak, a noisy, clamorous voice chimed in irritably right beside him: “Wow, what do you mean by a mere few decades you’ve been flat out cold for a full two hundred and fifty years!! Big brother, hurry up and put Luoshui Xiyue away. Don’t you know what this demon is like? Be careful he doesn’t snatch your sword to sacrifice it as an artifact! He’s a habitual repeat offender and a wanted criminal; countless immortal artifacts have gone clattering down into his hands, their centuries of hard work vanishing into thin air in the blink of an eye!”

Ruan Yibai looked quite amused as he regarded the speaker: “Long time no see, you’re still as noisy as ever. Learn from your older brother his sentences never exceed four words, so concise! Right, little brother Jie?”

“Demon, spare me your attempts to cozy up to my brother. I know what you’re plotting inside that head of yours better than anyone!” The youth speaking looked young, possessing a striking and pleasing appearance, though his tone brimbed with seventy percent defiance. He circled around to block Ruan Yibai’s path, becoming even more unyielding. “You say, since you’ve been dead for so long, why did you have to come back to life? Planning to bring catastrophe to the common people all over again? If it weren’t for our Sovereign using his own day-to-day—”

“A-Xun, stop talking.” The cold-faced man put away the immortal sword in his hand, frowning slightly to cut him off.

The handsome youth addressed as A-Xun pouted, blinking his eyes with a wronged expression.

“Sovereign, please return inside.”

Ruan Yibai watched the cold-faced man blocking his path, thinking to himself that Jie Shuya really hadn’t changed at all. As the Left Commander of Lanquetian, wielding the coveted semi-god-tier immortal artifact Luoshui Xiyue at his side, he looked even more upright than a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi pills. His personality was simply cold, uncommunicative, and concise—communicating with others strictly through direct essentials where no sentence ever exceeded four words. In modern terms: awesome, stream-of-consciousness.

“Hear that? My brother told you to go back inside, so don’t be ungrateful. Not everyone treats you like the Sovereign does—pampering you, spoiling you, cherishing you to death. Look at you just wanting to step outside for a second, and he still has to deploy the two great Commanders of Lanquetian to guard the door!”

This gossipy, sharp-tongued handsome youth was named Jie Xun, the Right Commander of Lanquetian. Though not blood-related to Jie Shuya, they were closer than biological brothers. His natal immortal artifact was the Chasing Sun Saber—also a decent immortal artifact, though if Luoshui Xiyue was SSR tier, the Chasing Sun Saber was roughly SR standard.

Back in the day, the old Jie family—meaning the brothers’ father—was also a legendary figure in Lanquetian! Yet for some reason, Old Jie remained childless for years, eventually adopting an orphan from the mortal realm whose parents had perished in the chaos of war, naming him Jie Shuya.

No sooner had the adoption concluded than Old Jie’s wife fell pregnant. Believing that little Shuya had brought good fortune to the household, Old Jie not only refused to play favorites, but valued little Shuya even more, treating him better than his own biological son! He even handed Jie family’s most precious ultra-grade immortal artifact, Luoshui Xiyue, over to Jie Shuya, while his biological son received only the second-tier Chasing Sun Saber.

Both sons were exceptionally brilliant and stood as rare prodigies of Lanquetian for a century. The Luoshui Xiyue had been given to the non-biological older brother, yet if the younger brother held even an ounce of selfishness, it could easily have turned into a “true vs. fake young master” succession drama. Instead, Jie Xun loved his older brother even more than their parents did; not only did he feel no displeasure whatsoever, but he considered it only natural, feeling a hundred times happier than if he had received the sword himself.

Thus, Jie Xun’s big-brother-obsessed nature was common knowledge to all.

Ruan Yibai smiled. “With just the two of you, you think you can stop me from coming and going?”

[System:] [Host, though I hate to admit it… we really can’t beat them right now.]

Ruan Yibai: “Hah, I come and go as I please, just like how I suddenly decide I don’t want to leave anymore.”

With that, he stepped backward and slammed the door shut right in their faces.

[System (slowly raising a thumbs-up):] […Host, you really know how to bend and stretch.]

Left standing outside the door, the two brothers who had just received Ruan Yibai’s door slammed in their faces were left staring at each other. Jie Xun wrinkled his brows in utter bafflement: “Brother, why do you suppose our Sovereign ever took a fancy to this demon?”

Jie Shuya: “Unknown.”

Jie Xun stroked his chin: “Granted, this demon indeed possesses a peerless facade, but the Sovereign doesn’t strike me as someone who would act on superficial lust… Could it be he values his artifact-forging skills? Even so, that wouldn’t make sense; the Sovereign already possesses his own natal divine artifact, Moon Shadow…”

Jie Shuya: “Cease wild guesses.”

Jie Xun hooked his arm around his older brother’s shoulder and laughed: “Alright, alright, I won’t guess. But brother, don’t you think ever since this demon revived, the Sovereign’s mood seems vastly improved? When he went out this morning, he even seemed to smile… I haven’t seen a hint of a smile at the corners of the Sovereign’s mouth for over a century! I almost thought I was dreaming!”

Jie Shuya: “Indeed.”

“Just as I thought, you noticed it too, hahaha!”

Inside the room after closing the door, Ruan Yibai muttered to the void: “Ye Tang has a screw loose somewhere. Jie Shuya and Jie Xun are the Left and Right Commanders of Lanquetian, yet they’ve been reduced to standing guard at my door. Has he lost his mind?”

[System:] [Uh… that’s rather difficult to explain.]

Ruan Yibai waved a hand: “Forget it, forget it. Since the front door is blocked, jumping out the window it is!”

Approaching the window, he pushed it open and vaulted outward with a single-handed push. Expecting a clean, crisp, and effortlessly dashing landing, he instead plunged straight into a warm, solid embrace.

Following that, he locked eyes with a pair of unfathomably deep eyes.

Ptooey, bad luck how did I run right into the plague god the moment I stepped out?

“A-Ruan, where are you planning to go?”

The man’s voice carried a chilling yet faintly alluring cadence, striking the absolute perfect balance any more would be cloying, any less would seem barren. Hearing him speak in that tone right now was simply intoxicating to the max.

Sensing the surging, overflowing spiritual power radiating from the other person, Ruan Yibai offered a cheeky grin, draped his arms around the man’s neck with fabricated affection, and purred: “I missed you, Husband! I was just getting so impatient I wanted to jump out the window to come find you! It’s only been three days since our wedding, how could you bear to leave me in an empty room to grieve all by myself?”

He continued flirting shamelessly: “I’m well aware that you weren’t fully satisfied that night…”

The moment those words left his mouth, before Ye Tang could even react, a series of mounting, disbelieving gasps erupted from directly behind Ye Tang.

Ruan Yibai’s body stiffened slightly, then he cautiously poked his head out to peer past Ye Tang’s shoulder.

Right behind him stood a dense, shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of people.

All kinds of brilliant immortal radiances shone dazzlingly across the scene.

Ruan Yibai: ?

[System:] [Ooh la la, turns out the Celestial Lord was backed by a whole mountain of people.]