Chapter 78
Looking at his tense subordinates in the great hall, Shu Li tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You all saw what happened.”
“Every one of you has a family, so you must understand what it feels like to be estranged from the person you love.”
“Therefore, please discuss today’s matters among yourselves. You need only present me with your final decision.”
After delivering that final line, the mighty Demon Lord shamelessly ended the court session early and left to coax his beloved.
Since becoming the Demon Lord, Shu Li had rarely concerned himself with governance. His way of dealing with them could be summarized as: I’ll kill any enemies who come, but don’t bother me with anything else.
Only after they had practically threatened to die did they finally persuade the Demon Lord to take his seat upon the throne and preside over court.
Who could have expected an interruption like this?
They were beginning to suspect that the Demon Lord had done it deliberately.
But… was it truly appropriate to let them decide something as important as whether to wipe out the remaining orthodox cultivators still clinging to life?
…
“Xia Mo?” Yu Tai rose to her feet.
Xia Mo, all long arms and legs as he climbed through the window, threw himself at Yu Tai with an aggrieved expression.
Yu Tai embraced the clingy Xia Mo and stroked his head. “You’re here too.”
Xia Mo nodded repeatedly. “Mm-hmm. Shu Li said that wherever the three of us are together, that place is home.”
At Shu Li’s name, Yu Tai’s hand paused.
Only he could say something so nauseatingly sentimental.
When Xia Mo raised his head, the rims of his eyes were still somewhat red. He lowered his head again, nuzzled Yu Tai’s neck and shoulder, and asked softly, “Does it still hurt?”
At first, Yu Tai didn’t understand. After thinking for a moment, she realized he was asking about the wounds Shen Zhiyou had inflicted when she placed herself in front of Xia Mo.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore. I’m completely healed.” She patted Xia Mo’s head.
Xia Mo wrapped his arms around her waist and refused to let go. “Shu Li punished that bad man afterward! He deserved it!”
Remembering Shu Li’s crazed state that day, Xia Mo shuddered and pressed even closer to Yu Tai.
“Shu Li is terrifying when he’s angry.”
Something stirred in Yu Tai’s heart. She coaxed him, “What happened after that day?”
A somewhat aggrieved voice suddenly came from the window. “Didn’t we agree that I would explain?”
At some point, Shu Li had taken a seat on the windowsill Xia Mo had broken through. When Yu Tai looked over, he smiled.
Yu Tai immediately turned her head away and asked Xia Mo, “Are you hungry?”
Still hugging Yu Tai, Xia Mo looked at Shu Li and smugly declared, “Yes!”
He completely ignored the faint warning in Shu Li’s smiling gaze.
With a sigh, Shu Li gave Xia Mo a stern look for the first time. “Xia Mo.”
Tears instantly welled in Xia Mo’s eyes, and Yu Tai shot Shu Li a cutting glare.
Softening his voice, Shu Li tried again. “Xia Mo, Shihua made something to eat. If you’re hungry, why don’t you go have some?”
Xia Mo remained unmoved. “I’m not hungry anymore!”
His stomach immediately released a loud growl.
Yu Tai: […Go eat. I’ll find you later.]
Xia Mo hesitantly rubbed his stomach but still insisted stubbornly, “I won’t!”
Yu Tai flicked him on the forehead. “Be good.”
Only then did Xia Mo reluctantly run out.
Yu Tai listened to the sounds outside the door. The moment she withdrew her gaze, she almost collided with the person before her.
Shu Li had somehow appeared directly in front of her. He looked down at her, the lingering tenderness in his eyes so intense that it raised goosebumps all over Yu Tai’s body.
Taking a step back, Yu Tai sat down, crossed one leg over the other, and lifted her chin at him. “You may begin.”
Shu Li obediently sat opposite her. “I never meant to deliberately deceive you or toy with you. Perhaps I did at the very beginning, but not after that.”
“I have always been serious about you,” he said earnestly.
Yu Tai sneered. “Spare me the nonsense. Giving you a chance to explain doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you.”
Knowing Yu Tai’s personality and that he would have to take things slowly, Shu Li began. “The world you were in was false.”
Yu Tai froze.
You’re starting with a revelation that explosive?
Knowing she wouldn’t believe him so easily, Shu Li took a pearl from his sleeve.
“More precisely, it was a prison created by one of my subordinates.”
Everything that happened in that world followed the course of events that had once occurred in reality.
From childhood, Shu Li had secretly studied swordsmanship under Shen Zhiyou, the foremost cultivator in the Three Realms. He believed that one day, he would become famous throughout the world like his Master and, guided by compassion, save all people from suffering.
But in truth, it had all been a trap set by powerful figures to strip a genius of his fortune.
Shen Zhiyou suffered severe internal injuries in an accident. Though he had once possessed the opportunity to achieve ascension and become a god, he was thereafter trapped at the same cultivation level, unable to advance another step.
It was then that Shu Li appeared.
Two elders of the Zuiyin Sect seized the opportunity to suggest that Shen Zhiyou secretly raise this Child of Fortune. When the time was ripe, they could lay a trap and seize all his fortune.
And so, the plot devised by the Junior Sister of the Qingshan Sword Sect accidentally succeeded.
From that day onward, Senior Brother Shu Li-the man who could cleave the Nine Provinces with a single sword strike-disappeared.
In his place stood a traitor who had colluded with a demonic cultivator in an attempt to throw the cultivation world into chaos.
The difference was that, in reality, after Shu Li was betrayed and driven out, he never encountered Xia Mo, nor was he abducted by Yu Tai.
Alone, he endured pain and suffering beyond anything an ordinary person could imagine. He suffered endless contempt and humiliation, until at last he absorbed all the evil within himself and became a true demonic cultivator.
Demonic cultivators could grow only through slaughter and conflict, bathing themselves in blood.
Already blessed with an extraordinary destiny, Shu Li used the lives of the cultivation world’s orthodox cultivators as his altar. Step by step, treading upon blood and tears, he ascended the throne of the Demon Lord.
Jiang Li, who should have inherited the throne of his deceased Demon Lord father, voluntarily yielded the position to Shu Li.
The cultivation world’s devastating calamity allowed the Demon Realm to rise rapidly and replace the former orthodox cultivators as rulers of the Three Realms.
The surviving cultivators could only retreat to the fringes of the Lower Realm, struggling to survive like rats in a sewer.
At that time, someone seeking to curry favor with the Demon Lord learned about his life and created a false world.
He placed the souls of everyone slaughtered by the Demon Lord into that world, forcing them to live inside the artificial prison.
Those people had no idea they were dead.
But whenever the world advanced to the point where certain events were destined to occur, they would experience the agony preceding their deaths all over again.
And so they remained trapped in an endless cycle, never finding release.
Someone questioned whether this would merely keep scattering salt over the Demon Lord’s wounds by constantly reminding him of his past.
But the creator of the toy replied that the Demon Lord was an absolute madman and would surely love the gift.
He was right.
From the first time Shu Li entered that world, he became completely enamored with the game.
But after the world’s story had repeated for the ninety-ninth time, he suddenly grew bored.
He ordered the inventor to seal his memories, then entered the game again.
Yet the hundredth iteration was different.
Someone broke the world’s predetermined cycle, gained a consciousness of her own, and altered a crucial event.