Chapter 11

“Young Master, what should we do now?”

The jade-faced young master looked at the already disordered chessboard, his expression unchanged.

All the subordinates in the room were waiting for his orders, and he decisively stood up.

“Return to Yushan—”

Before he could finish his sentence, the door to the inner room was knocked.

The demons in the room suddenly felt as though an invisible force had seized their throats, and even the actions of those attempting to escape through the window froze in place.

A bead of sweat slid down the young master’s forehead.

The next moment, a thunderous explosion rang out, shaking the room. Wood chips flew, dust swirled, and the stagnant air inside was disturbed.

The demons stared at the figure that had appeared outside the door without a sound, instinctively swallowing.

It was the Twelve Masked Gods and… the Demon King, Mo Lin.

The demons had been focused on the striking Yinshan family’s young lady below, unable to spare any attention to the dangerous Demon King. They had no idea when he had discovered their presence or how they had arrived silently before them.

The mountain demon retracted the leg it had used to kick the door open, the silver ornaments on its body clinking merrily.

It smiled at the jade-faced spider’s composed face, grinning widely:

“It’s been a long time, Lord Yuantian.”

Yuantian’s gaze briefly passed over his face before locking onto the Demon King, Mo Li, who had entered the teahouse.

The last time Yuantian saw him was at his wedding to Yinshan Liuyu.

Despite wearing a bright red wedding gown, there was no joy on his face. Just like the young lady who had stormed out of the banquet without attending, they looked like nothing more than a pair of resentful partners.

But seeing him again today, Yuantian sensed a subtle change.

In the past, Mo Li had been like damp, cold moss, tarnished copper green, or the phosphorescence by a muddy marsh, dark and melancholic. A gloomy indifference lingered in his eyes, as if trapped under a layer of decaying death energy, making it hard to imagine that this was someone who led thousands of demons.

He was now the Demon King of Jiuyou.

Power, wealth, and pleasures of the flesh—everything was within his grasp. What else could he want?

But today—

Yuantian detected a faint sweet fragrance emanating from Mo Lin, like a clean, refreshing scent that seemed to wash away years of accumulated decay, dispersing the deathly aura that clung to him, making him feel more alive.

Mo Lin, at down in front of the chessboard, his legs slightly bent. The dark sleeves of his hand robe tightly fitted around his long, bamboo-like fingers. The Demon King picked up two chess pieces and said:

“Have you seen enough of the show?”

He raised his eyes. His jade-colored gaze was calm, as if having a casual conversation, even kinder than usual.

Yuantian’s subordinates guarded their master, standing in confrontation with the Twelve Masked Gods, yet couldn’t help but glance at Mo Lin, wary of every move he made.

The spider’s appendages behind them grasped the fan handle and lightly shook, releasing the tension in its collar.

Yuantian glanced downstairs.

Below, Jiufang Xinglan had already put on his obedient younger brother mask, concernedly asking Yinshan Liuyu how she was, even offering a box of precious secret medicine from the Jiufang family to Lanzu.

“Your Excellency really brought back a capable consort for Jiuyou,” he remarked with a light fan wave, the golden foil glinting in the sunlight.

Yuantian smiled and said:

“However, during the wedding banquet, I noticed that this young lady seemed quite dissatisfied with Jiuyou. How did Your Excellency manage to make her fall in love with Jiuyou and stand up for Lanzu, who had once defied her, in just two days?”

Before Mo Lin, could speak, one of Yuantian’s subordinates scoffed:

“Your Excellency is so commanding, so magnificent. What need for any other methods? Naturally, it’s because this newlywed is still in her honeymoon phase, riding the waves, relying on that… weapon.”

The chess piece between Mo Li’s long fingers suddenly flew away, trailing a ghostly green flame.

The demons didn’t even see where it went before hearing the demon who had just spoken crudely scream in agony, writhing on the ground, clutching his lower body and crying out for help from the young master.

Who could save him?

Who would dare to?

When he finally died from the pain, Mo Li, showing mercy, allowed the ghostly flame to burn brighter, engulfing the entire demon, ending his suffering.

Yuantian’s eardrums buzzed.

The already silent teahouse became even quieter, with barely a sound, not even a breath.

None of the Twelve Masked Gods showed any sign of surprise.

Loud-mouthed, insulting the consort—this warranted death.

“He doesn’t count,” Mo Lin, murmured, lowering his gaze and picking up a jet-black chess piece from the disordered chessboard.

“You killed her maid, and although I can’t kill you now, I must take some interest. Choose who to kill, it’s up to you.”

In the dead silence, the few subordinates in the tea room finally reacted, one by one turning pale and casting pleading glances at Yuan Tian.

Yuan Tian stared at the chess piece in Mo Lin’s hand.

“What do you mean by this, Lord?”

“When the Colorless City was first established, thousands of demons and ghosts were brought into the city as slaves to survive. Yet, under the protection of a group of demons and ghosts, you only cared about your own small corner, simply because you possess the bloodline of the Demon Lord, which gives you noble status. You promised to liberate Colorless City within ten years, but after a hundred years, we still haven’t seen any hope.”

The chess piece in Mo Lin’s hand transformed from one to two.

His gloomy and deep eyes focused on the face of the Jade-faced Spider.

“You are not satisfied that I took your position as the leader of the demon and ghost clans, fine. You want to kill me? Go ahead. But you can never open the Heavenly Gate again and bring the evil demons from beyond the sky back to this world.”

After hearing these words, the last trace of a smile vanished from Yuan Tian’s eyes.

When the Demon Lord once roamed the land, humanity was but dust beneath their feet, easily trampled.

What royal family? What noble houses? They were all merely blood in a cauldron, boiled into a soup to be drunk. Who would have thought that one day, these two-legged sheep would dare to trample on their heads and degrade demons and ghosts into lowly servants?

“Mo Lin, you have been a slave to humanity for a hundred years, your spine broken, but we still remember the noble blood that flows through our veins—”

Three chess pieces, black and white, sat between the green-clad demon’s fingers.

Yuan Tian’s eyes were bloodshot.

Mo Lin, spoke calmly:

“If you want to be a demon, that’s your business. But right now— you can only choose one to live.”

The four subordinates behind him immediately knelt with a thud.

Yuan Tian closed his eyes.

He couldn’t save his people.

Jiufang Xinglan and he had been in a mutually beneficial relationship. Now that the other party was losing interest, and the timing hadn’t come, he actually had no reason to continue confronting Mo Lin.

However, the immense humiliation blocked his throat, making his blood surge. This feeling of suffocation was one he couldn’t swallow.

Mo Lin.

A nameless nobody who couldn’t even be accepted by his birth mother, yet by chance, he awakened the rare dual energy constitution, becoming the closest being to a demon in this world.

And he, a direct descendant of the Demon Lord, had failed to inherit such powerful strength…

Before Mo Lin lost his patience, the stiff limbs finally moved, casually pointing toward a figure.

Mo Lin’s lips curled into a cold smile.

When Liuyu entered, she saw three chess pieces wrapped in ghost flames shoot out like hidden weapons, piercing through a person’s skull.

She had initially intended to come up and personally collect the debt for the Jade-faced Spider’s maid, Green Pearl.

But she hadn’t expected that Mo Lin would solve the matter before her, and even more unexpectedly, the situation had escalated quite dramatically.

Blood suddenly splattered across the room, splashing onto a young man in moon-white robes standing by the window. Yuan Tian looked up at Liuyu by the door, the blood splatter resembling a red mole, eerily like a beautiful ghost.

Yinshan Liuyu.

Yuan Tian couldn’t help but recall the scene when he met Jiufang Xinglan at Yushan.

Although the two were in a covert partnership, their relationship was that of cooperation, yet Jiufang Xinglan never showed him any respect in his eyes.

Jiufang Xinglan didn’t use the teacups from Yushan, didn’t sit on Yushan’s cushions, and even when he visited Jiufang Xinglan’s temporary residence, everything he touched would be destroyed after he left.

The immortal families of the celestial realm looked down on the demons and ghosts of the Nine Netherworlds in this way.

But Mo Lin, however, could take the precious pearl of the immortal family and bring her into his Extreme Night Palace, living under the same roof, sharing the same bed.

—How dare he?

The honor of the Demon and Ghost Lord, and the unparalleled beauty, all of this should have been his, within his grasp.

“Is this the respected consort?”

A smile appeared on Yuan Tian’s face, making the blood mole on his skin look even more eerie.

“The consort stands so far away. Are you disgusted by the bloodshed in this inner room, or are you disgusted by the demons and ghosts revealing their true forms, and so it dirties the consort’s eyes?”

The demon behind Liuyu, Luzhu, sneered.

It seemed the Jade-faced Spider was truly enraged, speaking such clumsy provocations.

“The consort is a Seventh Realm expert, she can kill you with ease, why would she care about dirt?”

But when he waved his slimy, octopus-like tentacles to clear the debris and prepared to let Liuyu enter—

“Just stay there.”

Liuyu almost lost her composure and, with unprecedented severity, shouted at him:

“Don’t come near me, absolutely do not come closer!”

Luzhu: “……”

No way!

She truly does find us disgusting!

The demon and ghosts hated being looked at with disgust at their demon forms the most.

Some demons were proud of it, like the Jade-faced Spider, but more demons, like him and the Demon Lord, were extremely sensitive to being judged with such contempt for their inhuman parts.

They were born like this, with no choice.

Being despised for their demon forms was like a cripple being scrutinized for their missing limbs.

But of all people, the one who showed such disdain was Yinshan Liuyu.

Luzhu, though displeased, remembered how she had forced Jiufang Xinglan to apologize to him earlier, and his discontent quickly dissipated. He began to naturally make excuses for Liuyu.

After all, they didn’t exactly look good.

The young lady had a stunning beauty, and her subordinates all had handsome, upright faces.

It was normal for her to be disgusted when seeing these demons and monsters in such forms!

She even dared to go against the will of the world and make the young masters of noble families apologize to demons. Wasn’t that showing kindness to demons?

Forget it! Endure it!

He endured it, but when Liuyu surveyed the surroundings, she found she couldn’t bear it.

The eight tentacles behind the Jade-faced Spider were a full yard long, covered in fur, and every joint was incredibly flexible. When they touched each other, they made a chilling hissing sound.

The demon corpses lying on the ground had bat-like wings but no faces, their facial features replaced by wriggling flesh buds. Half of their bodies were burnt to charcoal by Mo Lin’s chess pieces, while the other half was still struggling in its dying throes.

Even the Twelve Masks of the Demon Gods, as Liuyu glanced briefly, showed faces of human-like apes, skeletons reduced to bones, and small insects crawling out from their hair in thick swarms.

The demons present revealed their true forms.

The impact was undeniable.

Liuyu stood outside the teahouse, not willing to move a single step inside.

She ignored the jade-faced spider, her face taut as she asked Mo Lin:

“Jiufang Xinglan has gone to pack his things and prepare to return to the Great Chao, my business is finished. What about yours?”

Mo Lin responded, “Almost.”

He casually swept his gaze over the Twelve Masks of the Demon Gods, and his subordinates quickly reverted to their usual forms, the demon-like appearance vanishing as they returned to the state Liuyu was familiar with.

The ghostly maid inside the carriage still held her head high, flashing a sweet and obedient smile toward Liuyu.

Liuyu stared at her impassively.

It was useless.

She had already remembered the image of the poisonous insects crawling out of the purple bow on her head.

Liuyu maintained her composure, giving a small nod.

“Then let’s go back.”

Mo Lin casually tossed the chess piece he was playing with back onto the board, standing up to approach Liuyu. Just then, the jade-faced spider’s eerie voice echoed from behind.

“I’ve heard that the Sovereign plans to reorganize the Twelve Masks of the Demon Gods?”

Mo Lin paused slightly.

Yuan Tian also stood up, stepping on the still-warm blood on the wooden floor, smiling faintly as he said:

“Please, gentlemen, don’t be careless—the situation now is far different from that in the Colorless City. In the Nine Hells, there are many formidable demons who wish to challenge the Twelve Masks of the Demon Gods and fight for the honor of serving close to the Sovereign.”

The twelve demons had different expressions.

What did he mean?

Could he be trying to take advantage of this opportunity to place his own people among the Twelve Masks of the Demon Gods?

Feeling uneasy, Liuyu didn’t want to stay in this blood-scented place any longer.

Hearing the jade-faced spider still mumbling behind her, her almond-shaped eyes flickered as she coldly glanced back:

“What, do you also want to serve?”

The smile on the jade-faced spider’s face immediately froze.

Liuyu looked him over from top to bottom and said:

“Though the fabric of your clothes may be expensive, the color and material don’t match the belt. Also, the incense in this teahouse—burning incense while drinking tea is a taboo. Don’t you know this? It’s like drawing a tiger but ending up with a dog. You should stop trying to mimic the Great Chao; you’re doing it poorly.”

With that, Liuyu no longer lingered, and with a hand supporting Chaoyuan, she quickly left the teahouse.

By the time they got into the returning ghost chariot, the Mountain Demon still couldn’t forget the jade-faced spider’s expression.

“…I’ve never seen him like that! I used to call him an idiot to his face, and he was indifferent, but how did one sentence—’drawing a tiger but ending up with a dog’—make him collapse like that?”

Bai Pingting, watching the Mountain Demon laugh with his big teeth showing, shook her head helplessly, glancing toward the direction inside the carriage before speaking:

“The jade-faced spider prides himself on being different from ordinary demons, favoring refined things, skilled in light conversation and philosophical discussions. At his core, what he admires most is probably the noble upbringing of the Sovereign Consort. Now that she personally critiqued him as being unworthy, he finds it hard to accept.”

Chaoming, not far away, overheard and couldn’t help but sneer:

“The refined demeanor cultivated by a hundred years of aristocracy—how could a mere mud-stained peasant like him ever learn it?”

The Mountain Demon’s smile slightly faded as he raised an eyebrow and said, “Refined demeanor? I think your lady also quite enjoys the roasted duck made by our Nine Hells chefs…”

Chaoming, who already had a grievance, immediately took offense, and a heated argument broke out, with him acting as if he were ready to defend the dignity of aristocracy to the death.

Meanwhile, inside the carriage, it became much quieter.

This time, it wasn’t that Mo Li was silent, but since getting into the carriage, Liuyu had been staring blankly out the window.

The moon had risen above the willows outside, and the faint candlelight inside the carriage cast her absent expression like a jade statue—beautiful, almost unreal.

Mo Lin guessed that she was displeased by the scene she witnessed earlier.

Not sure if it was because of her actions, he knew she was likely disgusted by the demons’ appearance, yet his own feelings had mellowed significantly. After a moment of thought, he spoke:

“If you truly dislike it, I will ensure that the main hall of the Extreme Night Palace is off-limits to the Twelve Masks of the Demon Gods and the ghost servants in the future…”

After today, they likely wouldn’t have any complaints.

However, the young girl raised her eyes and looked at the Demon Lord in front of her with a very complex expression.

She wasn’t disgusted by the demons.

She was afraid.

Although Liuyu had great talent in cultivation, she had been pampered since childhood, which made her fear spiders, insects, and especially animals that looked particularly ugly. The most terrifying of all to her were snakes.

Snakes covered in cold scales, with vertical pupils, hissing forked tongues, always ready to strike with venomous fangs—those snakes.

She still remembered the cold scales on his body that night after their wedding, and the faint purple-black tentacles on his back. The terrifying sight still left a deep impression on her.

Such a grotesque appearance.

Completely different from his stunning, almost otherworldly looks.

Some of her prejudice in her past life also stemmed from this.

She had once looked down on him so much, even adding salt to his wounds, and had never truly accepted him.

Yet, in her past life, when he was dying, covered in wounds, lying near her tombstone, he still remembered how she had loathed the snake scales on him. He gently picked up the cold snow on the ground and covered his hideous, demon-like marks.

A sigh carried by the wind and snow blew into Liuyu’s ears in this life.

He said—

“If there is a next life…”

“If I could be born in a way that wouldn’t make you dislike me so much… that would be good.”