Chapter 348: A Soldier’s Joy

　　Invincible Heavenly Palace, in the back palace.

　　A certain Demon King was kneeling on the ground, tears streaming down his cheeks and howling for his life.

　　“Exalted… Exalted Goddess, I really like Little Hong. I beg you not to tear us apart.”

　　“Exalted… Exalted Goddess, I’m the one who seduced Little Hong. She’s not to be blamed for any of this. If you must, punish me!”

　　“Exalted… Exalted Goddess, even if you beat me to death, I will insist on being together with Little Hong.”

　　“Exalted… Exalted Goddess, if I stop being a demon, would you let me join Invincible Sect?”

　　“Exalted… Exalted Goddess, please let me marry into your sect?”

　　“Exalted-”

　　“Enough, enough, enough! Quit howling!” Lonemoon could not listen to him any longer. The Demon King’s face was covered in mucus and tears. Had he forgotten that he was the supposed king of one entire realm? “Since when did we say we would not allow the both of you to be together?”

　　“Eh?” Little Black paused and raised his head. “You’re… agreeing?” He glanced at Shen Ying, who was already eating and ignoring him altogether. Then, he faced Yu Hong, who was by then so embarrassed that she was acting like she did not even know him. As if finally understanding something, his face brightened up with a silly grin.

　　“Heh, heh heh, heh heh heh… I knew that Exalted Goddess is a very reasonable person. I knew you would let us be together.” Little Black was overcome with emotion. He started to reach out to Yu Hong with both of his arms. “Little Hong, we can finally be together.”

　　“Get lost!” Yu Hong kicked him away with one foot. She began to suspect if she had been blind to fall for him.

　　“Alright, talk. How did your cultivation get sealed? And why were you hiding in your own treasury?” Lonemoon interrogated him.

　　“I don’t know who it was either,” the Demon King began to explain. “A few months ago, I was planning to present some dowry to Little Hong. Just as I was exiting the demon realm, that man charged at me out of nowhere. He insisted that I stole something of his. We began to fight. I was not losing out to him initially, but he began to employ some strange technique that I did not even recognise. My demonic Qi became frozen. I escaped to my treasury to hide. Later on… I found out that the entrance to my treasury’s mystic realm could no longer be opened. Then, you appeared.”

　　“Was it the new Demon King that you met?”

　　“What new Demon King?” Little Black stared blankly back at them, as if he had no idea that he had been replaced by a new king.

　　Lonemoon pondered for a moment. He raised his hand and conjured an image of the man who was sitting in the jail cell. “Was it this person?”

　　“It was him!” Little Black jumped to his feet and pointed to the image. “he was the one who attacked me.”

　　“He’s the current Demon King of the demonic realm,” Lonemoon explained.

　　“What!” Little Black started. It was clear from his expression that he could not wait to beat that man up. Awhile later, he thought of something and suppressed his anger, saying, “Forget it. In any case, I have no intention of being the Demon King any longer. I don’t mind whoever takes my place.” Afterall, he had Little Hong now. Heh heh heh, he glanced at Little Hong and blushed. The silly grin re-appeared on his face.

　　The group: “…” *F*cking retard! *

　　“Wait! That’s not right!” Little Black exclaimed, just when everybody thought he had become retarded. “He’s not a demon. How can he be the new Demon King?”

　　“Indeed, he isn’t a demon,” Lonemoon answered, looking at Little Black who had regained his sanity. “Think carefully – when he attacked you, did he say anything? Did he say what his motive was?”

　　Little Black thought hard, then shook his head. “No, he only said he wanted me to return something to him. I… I don’t even know who he is. How would I know what he was looking for?”

　　“What kind of dowry did you prepare?” Shen Ying suddenly asked.

　　Little Black paused, subconsciously placing his hand on the storage back hanging by his side. “Exalted… Exalted Goddess, I intended to give this to Little Hong.” He meekly leaned against Yu Hong.

　　Yu Hong pursed her lips and looked at him with contempt. Kicking him, she said, “Take it out!”

　　“Alright!” Little Black pitifully opened his storage bag, taking the dowry out piece by piece. There were many valuable items like pills, talismans, arrays and weapons. There were also less important items like tables, chairs, stools and pots. Little Black retrieved all types of items from his little storage book. Soon, the entire room was filled with items.

　　Everyone: “…”

　　This freaking man had emptied the entire Demon Palace, hadn’t he? Did he even consider how the next Demon King would feel?

　　“Alright, alright!” Lonemoon frowned. He quickly stopped the Demon King from taking more items out of his storage bag. “What we meant was, were there any special weapons – specifically, jewellery – that you intended to give to Yu Hong as the dowry? An example would be the hairpin that you gave to Yu Hong earlier.”

　　Little Black stared blankly back at him. As if recalling something, his eyes brightened, and he nodded profusely. “Yes, yes, yes!” Once he finished speaking, he retrieved an antique-looking box from his storage back. It looked like a box from ages ago. On top of it were written words in a language that none of them understood. Little Black opened the box, presenting to them different types of hair accessories for ladies. Inside, there were also different earrings, necklaces, rings and the like. There were more than ten different accessories in the box.

　　“This is one set. I was planning to give this box to Little Hong after we got married. In the future, we would then be able to pass them down to our children,” Little Black said proudly. Pointing to each accessory in turn, he said, “This one can be for our eldest daughter. This, our second. This, our third-”

　　“Shut up!” Lonemoon was in no mood to listen to a silly and lovesick Blackie. He turned to address Shen Ying. “Is it these?”

　　Shen Ying walked over and glanced at the accessories in the box. With a flick of her wrist, she retrieved the purple gas that they had found in Yu Hong’s body.

　　With the appearance of the purple gaseous mass, something seemed to be activated. There was a bright purple glow. What initially looked like ordinary gas began to stir. The items in Little Black’s box shone with a similar glow as well. Then, they emitted purple smoke that mixed with the gaseous mass in Shen Ying’s hand.. The gaseous mass got thicker and richer. A few seconds later, it grew to become as big as a basketball.

　　All around, they felt the immortal Qi expand. It became even richer than God Power, threatening to take their breaths away. Shen Ying, Yi Qing and Lonemoon were fine, but Yu Hong and Little Black were having difficulty withstanding the burst of immortal Qi. Immediately, they fell to their knees.

　　Shen Ying retrieved a transparent box and slapped the ball with it. The rich purple gaseous mass flew inside the box, taking the immortal pressure from the room with it.

　　“What… just happened?” Lonemoon looked around, confused. If not for the assistant seal which broke their connection with this realm, he and Chef would likely have not been able to withstand the immortal pressure as well. “That immortal power… How come it felt even stronger than God Power?” It was clearly just immortal Qi.

　　Shen Ying frowned. This was the first time she was seeing such a rich body of gas as well.

　　“Master, it seems like this was what that man was after.” Yi Qing looked at the jewellery, which seemed much less colorful now without the purple gas. The person who caught Little Black and tried to catch Yu Hong multiple times must have been after these.

　　“Little Black, where did you get these accessories?” Lonemoon asked.

　　Little Black paused. He was just regaining his composure after being overwhelmed by the immortal pressure. Matter-of-factly, he answered, “I stole them from the previous Demon King!”

　　“You mean the previous Demon King, Zhan Ting?” The one enslaved his wife, Cuihua, with whom he eloped?

　　“Yes!” Little Black nodded. After awhile, he shook his head again. “No, no, no, that’s not right.”

　　“What do you mean?” Who exactly was he referring to? Was it a yes or a no?

　　“We have generations of Demon Kings. Each one of them only came to power because they managed to defeat the one before,” Little Black explained. “This was what I found in the treasury after I… defeated Zhan Ting. They had been there for a long time. I only found them in a corner when I was clearing up the treasury. I guess he did not even know of their existence himself.”

　　“So they could belong to the Demon King before him?”

　　“Yes, yes, yes.” Little Black nodded.

　　In other words, they had no way of finding out what exactly these items were. He looked closely at the words on the box and turned to address Yi Qing. “Chef, do you understand these words?”

　　Yi Qing took a look and then shook his head. “I have never seen these words.” After awhile, he added, “But it looks like there are a lot of arrays surrounding this box. They look like concealment arrays set up by divine beings.”

　　Concealment arrays? Was this the reason why the man could suddenly locate Yu Hong and Little Black? Was it because they took the hairpin out of the box? But who else would understand the words written on the box, if even the descendant of the ancient dragon race could not understand them? Could it be that these items really belonged to an invader?

　　At that moment, Lonemoon’s eyes brightened as he thought about one person. “I’m going to look for the Godfiend. He’ll surely know about this. Just as he started to open a passage to the Godfiend’s divine territory, a disciple rushed in.

　　“Sect Master, Elders.” The disciple bowed respectfully to the group and said anxiously, “The lady… in the side hall has regained consciousness!”

　　“Who?” Lonemoon momentarily could not understand what the disciple was saying “What lady?”

　　“The lady who returned with Elders a few days ago,” the disciple explained. He added, “The lady who is pregnant.”

　　Pregnant…

　　“Jing Qi!” Shit, they had forgotten that the crazy boy was sick. “Just keep an eye on her.” They had no time to deal with him right now.

　　“No… No…” The disciple was getting more anxious now. Worriedly, he said, “There’s something wrong with her.”

　　“What!” Lonemoon exclaimed. “Did he escape?”

　　“No, no, no!” The disciple shook his head. Struggling, he said, “He… He’s about to give birth!”

　　Huh?

　　Σ(°△°|||)

　　Everybody present fell silent. The three of them immediately looked constipated.

　　Only Little Black looked confused by what was going on. He silently raised his hand. “May I ask, whose baby?”

　　Shen Ying, “…”

　　Lonemoon, “…”

　　Yi Qing: “…”

　　Things were awkward.

　　“Let’s take a look!”

　　Lonemoon had not expected Jing Qi to give birth this soon. It had only been a few days – one to three days, to be exact. Were they supposed to praise the Spring of Life for being so effective? With this level of effectiveness…

　　The few of them made their way to the side hall immediately. Before they even arrived, they heard terrifying screams coming from within.

　　“So painful, it’s killing me! I want to die, I want to die…”

　　The few of them paused outside. Two female disciples were standing outside of the door, not knowing what to do. The door was shut tight.

　　“What’s going on?” Lonemoon paused. “Why aren’t you going in?”

　　“Elder… Elder!” One of the disciples replied. “She… She chased us out. We’re not allowed in.”

　　The other disciple nodded and said, “She also said… said that if we dared to remove her pants, she would kill us. We were not allowed to help her deliver the baby as well.”

　　Everyone: “…”

　　The image of the two female disciples removing Jing Qi’s pants popped into Lonemoon’s mind. He pursed his lips and felt a surge of pity for a certain someone. Suddenly, he was not sure if he should enter or remain outside the hall.

　　“Well…” He frowned and asked, “Which one of you knows how to deliver-”

　　Before he could finish, the four people behind him covered their ears and retreated to the yard.

　　“All the best, Father Niu!”

　　“You can do it, Father Niu!”

　　“Elder Lonemoon, you’re the best in the sect!”

　　“Elder Lonemoon, you can do anything!”

　　“…” Lonemoon felt a blood vessel in his brain burst.

　　A while later…

　　“You all freaking get over here!” *If he was to be blinded, all of them had to suffer with him. None of them could get away! *