Chapter 60

What a thing to say.

This showed a complete disregard for anyone else.

How utterly arrogant.

Even the Flame Demon Monarch, who possessed extraordinary patience, was trembling with rage all over.

However, he had no intention of confronting Chu Xingyun head-on.

"I understand the cause of Fellow Daoist's anger today," he said, taking a deep breath to barely restrain himself, and cupped his fists toward Chu Xingyun. "It was Miaohua's willful behavior that insulted Youyou. As her husband, I will bear this lesson."

He could not fathom why Gong Miaohua insisted on pressing the issue against a stepdaughter who did not consume any resources from the Demon City... Was it really that hard to treat the good-for-nothing as if she were invisible?

The Flame Demon Monarch wiped the blood from his face again and continued, "I offer my apologies to Youyou. Please forgive me and your mother."

"No!" The cub shook her head vigorously.

Having a powerful backing made one bold.

"Since the ties of kinship have already been severed, why bring it up again only to breed displeasure?" Chu Xingyun said lightly.

The Flame Demon Monarch forced a blood-smeared, strained smile.

"...Then please forgive us, husband and wife." He dropped all mention of the maternal bond, which the cub felt meant they didn't need to make a massive fuss today after all.

She looked at the Flame Demon Monarch with astute eyes, and after a moment, she extended her small hand, palm facing upward.

"An apology just like that and it's over?" Ao Xin's face darkened, looking like someone who knew the child had powerful backing, as he shouted sternly.

Chu Xingyun smiled.

Neither of these two was a good person: one was fierce and menacing, while the other hid a knife in a smile.

Wanting nothing more than to put the matter to rest, the Flame Demon Monarch produced a storage pouch, which floated into the cub's hand on a beam of spiritual light.

"Let's divide the loot!" The little one's eyes sparkled as she poked around the storage pouch, preparing to split the spoils with her senior brother and the black dragon.

Having taken a direct claw strike from a Celestial Demon powerhouse, the Flame Demon Monarch's primordial spirit had almost been ripped out. He was severely injured and had barely managed to drag himself this far, so he staggered back to his cabin to recuperate.

As for Gong Miaohua, humiliated by the despised daughter she looked down upon and left with no one to champion her, she had long since fled back in tears. Elder Wen watched helplessly for a moment; ultimately harboring more affection for the Gong Miaohua he had watched grow up, he couldn't help saying, "Youyou, my child, Miaohua is your birth mother after all..."

"Pui!" The cub cheerfully retorted.

He who stays near demons becomes black; having spent so much time with the black dragon, she possessed virtually no traditional virtues.

Elder Wen fell silent.

He felt that Sect Master Yu had probably spoiled his only daughter rotten, making her wayward and arrogant.

Chu Xingyun, however, nodded slightly, finding his junior sister vibrant and overwhelmingly adorable.

Since he considered the cub to be utterly flawless, he naturally had no intention of disciplining her.

Elder Wen sighed, choosing not to bicker with a child, and shook his head as he turned to walk away.

Yu Youyou paid no heed to others. After dividing the treasures with her family, she happily paced back and forth on the flying boat.

Feeling exceptionally pleased today because Ao Xin had stood up for her, she wrapped her arms around Ao Xin's neck and said sweetly, "Dragon is good."

Today, he was a good dragon.

Ao Xin was just beginning to feel pleased when, sensing the proximity, he felt a wisp of dragonmight emanating from her and snapped his gaze toward the little demoness.

"Ao Lie," Yu Youyou rubbed her hands together sheepishly.

Ao Xin asked through gritted teeth, "Have the two of you met?" Though he didn't know where they had crossed paths, this little demoness undoubtedly had her own peculiar methods.

The black dragon was furious.

As a dignified Celestial Demon, was he destined to compete with that golden dragon even for the role of a mount in the future?

The cub looked at him with an embarrassed expression, though it was merely a hint of embarrassment—she had no intention whatsoever of devoting herself to a single dragon.

As she tried earnestly to debate the beauty of universal love with Ao Xin, she abruptly sensed a gaze fixed on her. Instinctively looking up, she saw the handsome young man Wen Yu standing in a corner of Elder Wen's flying boat, which was now drifting further away, watching her—heaven knows for how long.

There was confusion, bewilderment, and a strange look in the young man's eyes. Seeing Yu Youyou look over as the two flying boats drifted apart, he still gave her a slight nod before slowly turning to walk back into the cabin.

The cub tilted her small head, failing to understand why his expression was so complicated.

Still, it was of little consequence to her.

She and Wen Yu had only crossed paths a few times, and they weren't particularly close.

More importantly, Wen Yu seemed like an extremely obedient child who did whatever his grandfather told him to do.

Reluctant to have him associate with her, Wen Yu hadn't actually said much to her at all.

And so she cast him to the back of her mind, continuing to join Ao Xin in badmouthing the Sun family.

Meanwhile, Wen Yu had returned to the interior of the flying boat. In one of the cabins, his father, Wen Shi, was speaking with pampering concern: "Are you alright? You poor thing, Miaohua, your face is as white as a sheet from fright. That demonic dragon was truly ferocious; quickly, drink a bowl of calming soup."

The young man stood in silence outside the cabin, watching through the slightly ajar door as his father cherished the woman he loved.

The beautiful female cultivator wept as she leaned against his shoulder and said, "It's all because of that good-for-nothing! Because of her, I've suffered so many grievances all these years. Today I was humiliated, and that unfilial wretch even clapped and cheered!"

"Brother Yu doesn't know how to raise a child. The last time I saw the girl, she was very well-behaved and docile."

Wen Shi lovingly embraced her shoulders and whispered softly, "As long as you are unharmed. Everything today was for my sake... If not for my wedding, you wouldn't have had to travel thousands of miles only to suffer this supreme humiliation."

"You care so much about that Sun girl..."

"An alliance by marriage, merely put on display for others to see in the future," Wen Shi hurriedly explained. "If not for that, why on earth would I want to remarry? My heart belongs only to you."

Spirits are high on happy occasions; he looked more handsome than ever today. Though he couldn't match the bewitching beauty of the Flame Demon Monarch, the Flame Demon Monarch currently had little more than raw flesh left on his face...

Gong Miaohua shuddered, not daring to reminisce, and let out a spoiled huff at his words: "Talk is cheap. You have a harem of wives and concubines; you are no longer the Brother Wen you used to be!"

"How could those women ever compare to you?" Wen Shi said dismissively.

Hearing this, the young man standing outside the cabin clenched his fists tightly.

Flashing before his eyes were his mother at home, depressed, disheartened, and withered as dead wood; his father's endless romantic escapades; the sneers and ridicule directed at his mother by his father's concubines; and the bitter anguish of working hard to be obedient and cultivate diligently so as not to let down his father and grandfather's high expectations, yet still failing to earn even a single glance of approval from his father.

He couldn't help recalling the joyful little girl on the flying boat earlier today.

Clearly, she had also suffered many grievances, yet why was she always able to remain so happy and innocent?

Was it because... she didn't bog herself down in so-called debts of birth and upbringing, caring only about who treated her with genuine sincerity?

Treat her with sincerity, and she would reward you.

If there was no sincerity, abandon it—abandonment was simply the natural course.

Seeing that the pair inside the cabin seemed accustomed to clinging to each other, and that Wen Shi had already coaxed Gong Miaohua back from tears into smiles, the handsome young man turned away.

Yet on the other side of the cabin corridor, another demon had also turned to leave.

He was not a busybody and paid it no mind, nor did the demon hold a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator in any regard. Instead, he strode quickly back to the Flame Demon Monarch's quiet chamber, wearing a hesitant expression.

"Has Wen Shi coaxed her into a good mood?" The Flame Demon Monarch was currently cramming a large handful of medicinal pills into his mouth.

Ao Xin's claw strike had carried the aura of a Celestial Demon, making the wounds lingering on his face extremely difficult to purge and preventing them from healing.

He asked nonchalantly while regulating his breath to slowly dispel the Celestial Demon's energy.

Thinking of Gong Miaohua cozying up to Wen Shi in the flying boat cabin, the demon's expression turned very ugly, but he still reported to the Flame Demon Monarch, "Coaxed into a good mood, but..."

But the Demon Monarch's wife was acting too inappropriately. Since she was already married, shouldn't she maintain some distance from other men?

They were demons, not cultivators of the Joy Sect... Even the Joy Sect cultivators wouldn't be so uninhibited, right?

After all, the Joy Sect also consisted of righteous cultivators who valued monogamy.

Clearly, he had witnessed something, but the Flame Demon Monarch didn't care.

"As long as she's in a good mood, it doesn't matter. She's carrying a child; we should all be more lenient with her so as not to implicate the baby." Clearly indifferent to these matters, he instead sighed and said, "I must say, I now admire Fellow Daoist Yu."

He said leisurely, "To be able to wholeheartedly protect her for so many years, his tolerance is truly vast."

Gong Miaohua's temperament was spoiled to such an extreme, and she remained entangled with other men, yet that Sect Master Yu didn't care at all. If Gong Miaohua hadn't eloped with him, he probably would have continued protecting her forever.

Hearing this sentiment, the demon's mouth twitched.

"Your injuries?"

"Not a major issue." As long as his head hadn't been split open by that claw, it counted as no major issue, the Flame Demon Monarch said slowly. "Since I happen to be injured, I won't need to show my face afterward."

Narrowing his eyes, which flickered with black flames, he muttered to himself, "Chu Xingyun and the demon dragon Ao Xin are not visiting with good intentions. They actually dared to openly disregard Elder Wen's face—this marriage in the Wen family is likely rather bizarre."

Elder Wen shared a profound friendship with the former sect master of the Primordial Sect, and because of this, Chu Xingyun had always accorded Elder Wen a modicum of respect.

Yet judging by today, he hadn't given him the slightest shred of face.

He refused to believe that little creature Yu Youyou would have dared to be so discourteous without the support of her family elders.

"Then I shall guard the Demon Monarch during his seclusion," the demon said smartly.

The Flame Demon Monarch nodded slightly, wiping away the dripping beads of blood as he instructed, "Once the wedding has an outcome, regardless of whether it's good or bad, we are taking Miaohua back to the Demon City." Lowering his gaze with meaningful intent, he added, "She needs to properly focus on raising our child."

Having given these instructions, to which the demon readily agreed, the Flame Demon Monarch went straight into seclusion, ignoring all other matters. As for the members of the Wen family, he held them in no regard, nor did he entertain thoughts of seeking revenge against Ao Xin.

Ao Xin had made his name long ago.

He was a powerhouse who had cultivated into the demonic path as a dragon, ascending straight to the realm of a Celestial Demon.

Though he had vanished from the public eye for many years, this fellow had never been a pushover; only a fool would willfully lock horns with him.

Since he chose not to cross paths with Ao Xin, Ao Xin naturally had little interest in the Flame Demon Monarch either. After all, powerful as the Flame Demon Monarch might be, he hadn't broken through to the Celestial Demon tier, and his cultivation level was unimpressive in Ao Xin's eyes.

Instead, Ao Xin was currently strutting about proudly, continuing to teach the cub how to use Celestial Demon energy to bully people.

Chu Xingyun had long since grown accustomed to the two of them squatting together to whisper and plot misdeeds. Listening in for a moment before letting it go, he simply brewed throat-soothing tea and handed it to the oversized and undersized pair who were scheming how to beat the troublemakers of the Sun family into meat patties.