Chapter 32

Liuyu thought that if it weren’t for Mo Lin’s boundless ghost fire that once set the entire Da Zhao ablaze and filled people’s hearts with terror, she would never have had any chance of getting involved with a demon ghost like Mo Lin in her lifetime.

In the past, the aristocratic youths around her, even if they had feelings for her, only expressed their sentiments through superficial poems, always adhering to etiquette and education, not daring to offend her in the slightest.

But Mo Lin was different from them all.

He never spoke any sweet words.

Even in bed, he mostly remained silent, focused, and relentless.

Liuyu had always thought he was a man of few words.

She never expected that once he did open up in this lifetime, everything he said would be so… unbearable to hear.

In the moonlight seeping through the window screen, Mo Lin’s deep gaze fell on her collarbone. His long lashes lowered slightly, his eyes moving downward.

“Is it because of the ointments you apply every night? Why… is it so white?”

Different from the pallor of a demon ghost.

Her whiteness had a hint of blood, like the pale pink peach blossoms of spring. The fruits they bore were moist and soft, and if you pressed them with your fingertip, they seemed to ooze water.

“Can you… not talk?”

Perceptions were magnified in the darkness.

She could feel the sensation of his calloused fingertips brushing across her skin.

Liuyu felt like she was about to melt under his touch.

Mo Lin’s voice was slightly hoarse:

“You can say things I don’t like to hear, so why can’t I say things you don’t like to hear?”

Her eyelashes trembled like a butterfly caught in his palm.

“Are you… talking to me about fairness?”

The tone of her voice carried an innate arrogance.

Not only was it not annoying, but it also inexplicably made one want to indulge her and spoil her pride.

After a moment of silence, Mo Lin did not refute her words.

He only said:

“You said that if I don’t speak, you won’t know what I’m thinking.”

Liuyu, her breath disordered, broke free from the hand covering her eyes and bit the throat in front of her fiercely.

Not a word of what should be said was spoken.

But the things that shouldn’t be said, he spoke with a silver tongue!

However, after biting, Liuyu noticed that the black scales, which had only shown a bit at the collar, quickly climbed up his neck after she bit him.

His wet, cold, green eyes were filled with desire but cleared up when he realized Liuyu’s gaze was fixed on his neck.

“Don’t look.”

He softly uttered two words and tried to cover Liuyu’s eyes.

But Liuyu grabbed his wrist.

The moonlight reflected off the inhuman black scales, giving them a chilling discomfort.

Yet Liuyu soon realized that these scales and tentacles didn’t appear out of nowhere; they surfaced uncontrollably whenever they had intimate contact.

She didn’t know why.

Things that used to scare her with just a glance.

Now it seemed… not so repulsive.

Once she realized that these twisted, bizarre limbs were born from his desire for her, instead of fear, a subtle sense of satisfaction emerged from her heart.

Liuyu squeezed the snake tail wrapped around her arm.

… Alright, it still made her scalp tingle.

Ordinary demons had only one demonic form, but Mo Lin had not just snake-like features but also engorged tentacles. In her past life, Liuyu had even seen him grow dragon horns on his forehead.

She had heard people say that Mo Lin was an anomaly among demons.

Although he wasn’t of the direct bloodline of the Demon Lord, he had undergone a rare atavism. The human blood in him not only didn’t dilute his talents but compensated for the flaws of his demonic blood.

If he continued to grow, he might become a more formidable monster than the Demon Lord.

Looking back, it was truly the recklessness of youth when she had only glanced at Mo Lin’s face, thought this demon had an extraordinarily handsome appearance, and proposed marriage.

“What I want to know is not these trivial things.”

Liuyu looked at him with some helplessness.

“Isn’t what you should be talking about my Third Uncle? If I hadn’t proactively exposed my Third Uncle, that fool used as a pawn, with the support of the three great families behind the Jade-Faced Spider, would you really have tangled with him for decades, you fool.”

When she spoke of it, it seemed so simple, requiring no thought.

Mo Lin gazed into her eyes without speaking.

How could he have dared to ask at that time?

If she truly despised him to that extent, if she had truly allied with his enemies to take his life, what would he have done?

Just the thought of this possibility made Mo Lin feel an uncontrollable rage and sorrow boiling in his blood.

He wanted to throw away the Nine Nether and the so-called greater good.

Just kill the Jade-Faced Spider, kill her allies, and slaughter all those who tempted and encouraged her.

Just—

“Have you ever thought about killing me?”

Liuyu looked at him, her eyes like a continuous, wet green rain deep in the forest.

“Even for a moment, did you ever want me dead?”

Liuyu was stunned for a moment.

She had never considered this question.

In her past life, she didn’t like Nine Nether, didn’t like this cold and reticent husband.

But Liuyu also understood that he burned Wuse City to liberate his kin and married her as a necessary move for peace between the two realms.

She had moments of intense dislike for him.

But—

“I’ve said it,” Liuyu’s fingers gently traced his deep contours, “Since you became the husband of Yinshan Liuyu, half of your life is mine—whether I want your life or not doesn’t matter; what matters is that no one can take your life without my permission.”

She wouldn’t let him exhaust his cultivation and die a miserable death in a foreign land like in her past life.

Mo Lin’s long eyelashes trembled, seemingly not expecting such an answer.

She was obviously weaker than him.

Yet, when this young girl spoke these words so firmly, Mo Lin inexplicably felt a strange sense of security.

It was as if before hearing this, he was merely a floating weed in the human world, and only now did he grasp a life-saving straw that prevented him from drifting away, finding his grounding in this world.

Mo Lin looked at the snake tail and several tentacles wrapping around her.

The stark contrast between her snow-white delicate skin and his scaled demon form had a cruel, sinful beauty.

But he didn’t want to let go.

Instead, he wanted to root deeply into her body, making sure she could never escape him.

The brocade cover rustled, the green-eyed demon lowered himself, and Liuyu suddenly spoke as she looked at the top of his head:

“—Wait a minute, did you bring that, that box?”

“No.”

The black hair on his shoulder flowed over her legs like water as he raised his head.

His extraordinarily beautiful features looked even more bewitching in the night.

“We don’t need that.”

He lightly wiped the moisture from his lips with his thumb.

“Tonight, you just enjoy.”

—

There were five days left until the re-selection of the Twelve Nuo Gods.

Recently, Shanshao and the others had been increasingly diligent. Whenever there were no official duties, they would gather in the ghost courtyard early in the morning to practice and spar.

“The Sovereign and the Empress haven’t risen yet—I still have some questions I wish to seek guidance on from the Sovereign.”

Shanxiao glanced at the sun.

“It’s almost past the hour of Chen, why are they waking later each day?”

Lan Zhu was sparring with Chao Ming, their blades clashing with such force that even he was surprised. Hearing Shanxiao’s words, Lan Zhu couldn’t help but scoff, dividing his attention momentarily.

“Children will be children, knowing nothing at all…”

Shanxiao furrowed his brows in confusion and was about to ask more when he saw two familiar figures approaching.

“Greetings to the Sovereign and the Empress.”

He looked up and noticed that the Empress seemed a bit tired.

“Did we disturb your rest with too much noise?” he asked.

The Twelve Nuwa Gods around the training platform subtly perked up their ears.

Liuyu, with a slightly weary look in her eyes, responded firmly.

“Yes, exactly,” she said, as if forgetting she could use her energy to block out noise. “If you’re sparring, spar properly. What’s with all the shouting? You’re not monkeys.”

Mi Guang, a demon with a monkey tail, froze mid-action, looking innocent.

Liuyu glanced at the green-clad demon beside her.

His expression was calm, his half-lowered eyelids giving off a cold and distant aura. He looked completely unlike the obsessed man who seemed ready to devour her last night.

…What an actor.

“Have Fang Fuzang and the others left yet?”

By now, Fang Fuzang should have taken Yueniang and a team of demons to the chosen wasteland to build the Ji Mo family’s residence.

This couldn’t be delayed. Originally, Liuyu wanted Fang Fuzang to join the selection of the Twelve Nuwa Gods, but this task was more urgent, so she had to let it go.

Bai Pingting, who was recording the victories and defeats of the Twelve Nuwa Gods, looked up.

“Not yet. They should be at the study hall. It seems that the child named Yueniang has something to give to Ajang before she leaves.”

…Something Yueniang wants to give to Ajang?

“These are all books I brought from home!”

Yueniang dumped the books she was carrying into Ajang’s arms.

“If you like them, keep them and read them slowly. I’ve already memorized them all, so take your time! No need to rush to return them!”

Ajang, overwhelmed by the pile of books, didn’t know how to react. She looked at Yueniang, then at Chao Ming.

“…Master Chao Ming?”

Chao Ming met her gaze, then quickly looked away.

“There aren’t many proper books in Jiuyou. I couldn’t touch the books in the lady’s collection, so I asked her if she had any she wasn’t using. Just keep them and take good care of them.”

Yueniang’s eyes darted between the two of them, and she giggled knowingly despite her young age.

Liuyu, standing nearby, raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“…I’ve never seen Chao Ming give anything to a girl before. Usually, girls give him things, but he never looks at any of them.”

Mo Lin said nothing, but seeing this scene made him feel at ease.

With Chao Ming’s looks, being around Liuyu all the time would be unsettling.

“I’m just a humble servant. These books… I don’t deserve them,” Ajang said, though she clung tightly to the books.

“Nonsense,” Chao Ming interrupted, frowning. “The sage said education is for all. Reading has nothing to do with status.”

Ajang stared at him, understanding a little but not completely.

“Chao Ming is right,” Liuyu said, walking down the steps and giving Chao Ming a teasing look as she passed him. “But you didn’t even ask if she can read before giving her so many books. What if she can’t understand them?”

Chao Ming paused, not having considered that.

“No problem,” he said, pointing to Yin Shanqi, who had just emerged from the study hall. “Mr. Qi can teach. He taught all day yesterday; one more student won’t make a difference.”

In the Ghost Dao Courtyard, Yin Shanqi went by the alias Mr. Qi.

Yawning from having to teach a group of clumsy demon students early in the morning, Yin Shanqi was instantly awake with anger at Chao Ming’s words.

“Who says? Have you ever taught anyone? Do you know how tiring it is to prepare lessons late into the night and get up early in the morning? You don’t know! All you know is how to please women! I never realized you had such tricks up your sleeve…”

Before Chao Ming could retort, Yin Shanqi turned to Liuyu.

“Teaching is fine, but I need more money. If I keep burning the midnight oil, I’ll need to buy some jade face powder.”

Liuyu replied, “No money.”

Yin Shanqi gritted his teeth and looked at Mo Lin.

“Looking at him won’t help; he’s on my side.”

Seeing Liuyu so confident, Yin Shanqi smiled coldly in his heart.

Dear niece, today your uncle will teach you a lesson about how people will say anything when they’re desperate for money.

“Of course, of course, you two have deep feelings, I understand,” Yin Shanqi said, stepping forward and smiling at Mo Lin.

His voice softened, and he spoke kindly.

“I was foolish before. Now I see you and Liuyu are a perfect match, even more so than Zhang Hua. Money doesn’t matter. As long as you two grow old together, I’ll be at peace.”