Chapter 27

"Uncle?" The tiny cub dangled in mid-air, looking utterly bewildered.

She could not quite grasp why the Black Dragon was once again hurling insults from behind the restriction barrier. The Black Dragon really did love to scold people. The little one wiggled her small body in the air. Soon, she was retrieved and settled into a wide embrace filled with the pleasant, fragrant aura of an immortal.

This immortal aura was simply wonderful. Yu Youyou lay flat, then looked with confusion at the Black Dragon, which had been cursing for quite a while yet was now cautiously edging closer.

As it approached again, Ao Qing stared at it for a long moment before lowering his eyes to ask Yu Youyou, "Do you still want to eat it?"

He had already heard from Sect Master Yu about how Yu Youyou consumed the Black Dragon’s demonic energy, and he was here now to witness it for himself. He stroked Yu Youyou’s small head and said slowly, "Was the demonic energy you ate last time like this?"

That was no ordinary demonic energy. It was the true demonic essence of a Heaven Demon-tier entity, equivalent to an Immortal-tier existence. True demonic essence was on par with immortal aura; an ordinary person would burst from consuming even a single mouthful.

Yu Youyou had once forcefully devoured a massive amount of true demonic essence that had coalesced into a dragon claw. Ao Qing watched her intently for a moment, his gaze lingering on her hair, which seemed to have darkened slightly, before he held her and looked together at the Black Dragon.

The Black Dragon was furious upon hearing this question and prepared to unleash another torrent of abuse. However, when Yu Youyou heard it, she glanced back at the swirling demonic energy, remembered her father’s warnings, and recoiled, shaking her head vigorously.

"Eww!"

"Dirty!" This Black Dragon hadn't bathed; it was filthy.

The Black Dragon froze, unsure whether to curse the damnable Ao Qing first or the damnable little demon.

"You find it too dirty to bathe? You're right. Since it’s suppressed here, it can't roam the seas like other dragons," Ao Qing said, sounding uncharacteristically satisfied. As a dragon who bathed every day, he was indeed clean, and this mere Black Dragon was truly filthy.

He paused, lowered his eyes, and asked Yu Youyou slowly, "If I wash it clean today, would you like to try a bite?"

The cub stared blankly at him for a moment, then wiped the corner of her mouth. The Black Dragon actually smelled quite good. It smelled exactly like the Grand Uncle-Master holding her.

"No!" But she was a house-pet now. Her father often worried that she would get a stomachache from eating the Black Dragon’s demonic essence, or perhaps there were other reasons.

The little one shook her head hard, clutching her small fists, and said, "Endure!"

She was hungry, and there were many things she wanted to eat. But her father, senior brothers, and senior sisters were working so hard to raise her, so she could endure anything.

She spat the word out with great effort. A rare smile appeared in Ao Qing’s eyes as he raised his hand. With a dull dragon roar, the Black Dragon shrieked, and a beam of black light shot out from the restriction, hovering in Ao Qing’s palm.

A sharp, pitch-black dragon scale swirled in Ao Qing’s palm, washed over by streams of water-light until it became increasingly lustrous. Tossing the scale into Yu Youyou’s arms, Ao Qing said nonchalantly, "You are still small. Go find your father and have him make you a heart-protecting armor with this."

Armor crafted from Heaven Demon-tier materials was the most durable, impenetrable to anything below the Immortal-tier. It was the best way to protect a child.

The cub’s eyes lit up. She felt that the Grand Uncle-Master was truly, incredibly good to her.

"Daddy!" she called out, holding up the dragon scale. Whenever she had something good, she wanted her father to have a share, too.

"There is no need for your father to wear heart-protecting armor; he has his own life-saving treasures." Sect Master Yu was already at the peak of the Mahayana stage; his protective divine light was enough to safeguard him. If someone above the Immortal-tier wanted to strike him, this dragon scale wouldn't hold up anyway. Giving it to anyone other than this weak, defenseless cub would be a waste.

Ao Qing patiently flicked his finger, wrapping a green light around the obediently nodding Yu Youyou. "I still have matters to discuss with Ao Xin. You go back and find your father first."

His green light carried Yu Youyou away. The cub was very well-behaved, though she busily pointed to a deacon token at her waist, babbling, "Look."

She was currently responsible for watching the Black Dragon. Because she was so capable, Youyou had even managed to leave her own name on the secret task records of the Deacon Hall and had even earned a reward.

"Not bad, a fine disciple of the sect," the Great Elder praised her half-heartedly.

The cub, who had been puffing out her small chest and holding her head high with pride, beamed with joy at the praise and was happily swept away by the green light. Because she was so proud and happy, even though the green light smelled pleasant, the cub didn't sneak a bite to taste it.

Seeing her swept beyond the restriction and back toward the Main Hall, the area inside and outside the barrier fell silent.

At this moment, the Black Dragon, having been stripped of a scale, finally recovered. It slammed into the barrier in a rage, glaring at Ao Qing with blood-red eyes. "You dare rip off my scale for that little demon!"

Its voice was thunderous, but it could not penetrate the restriction. Ao Qing turned his head, his tone far less polite. He sneered, "Would you rather I rip off my own for her?"

Was there really a choice between stripping one's own clothes or someone else's? The Black Dragon was stunned by this shamelessness.

"You’re even protecting her! Ao Qing, that little brat is strange. The fool surnamed Yu might be hoodwinked by her, but you shouldn't be!" Ao Xin hated the damnable green dragon outside the barrier so much its eyes began to bleed. But more than that, it feared the little demon.

It pressed hard against the restriction and shouted at the narrowing-eyed Ao Qing, "She is too strange, and I..."

"She possesses the Gong family bloodline; she was born with a pure Upper Immortal body," Ao Qing said, his expression unchanged. "It has been millions of years; the Gong family has finally seen a return to their ancestral bloodline."

"Bullshit! An Upper Immortal body can't devour true demonic essence!" The Black Dragon roared, "And this realm has long been cut off from the Great Continents of the Upper Realm; the spiritual energy is scarce. How could an Upper Immortal body reappear? And her soul... that child’s soul... Ao Qing."

Thinking back to the moment its demonic energy was devoured and the fear that had surged, along with the greedy, bone-chilling gaze the child's primordial spirit had fixed upon it, it said urgently, "Her soul is absolutely not of a good nature. That feeling—I have only ever felt it in the Tomb of Gods and Demons."

The terror of being a prey about to be devoured, the primal fear an inferior feels before a superior predator.

Trembling under Ao Qing’s silent gaze, the Black Dragon whispered, "She is something from the Tomb of Gods and Demons."

"What do you think she is?" Ao Qing asked slowly, looking at the Black Dragon, whose crazed pupils were filled with fear.

"I don't know what she is, but she definitely came from the Tomb of Gods and Demons. You wouldn't understand; you've never been to the depths of the tomb." The Black Dragon’s demonic energy surged.

It struggled and roared, and bolts of lightning fell from the restriction to scatter the demonic aura. The Black Dragon panted, muttering, "Only I have entered the deepest parts. The things inside feel very similar to her, but it seems..."

It slammed against the barrier, as if trying to keep itself sane, and grunted, "It seems she is even more terrifying than the things in the depths." At least in the Tomb of Gods and Demons, it had the courage to run away.

These words, sounding like the ravings of a madman, left Ao Qing in silence. He looked at it and said softly, "You should never have entered the Tomb of Gods and Demons back then."

"...? Is this the time for that? I am talking about that little demon! She is a master of disguise, leading that fool surnamed Yu around by the nose, making him think she’s a good daughter."

The Black Dragon glared at its fellow dragon for missing the point. "Ao Qing, even though you bastards suppressed me the moment I escaped the tomb and we have a blood feud, I do not want something from the Tomb of Gods and Demons to escape and wreak havoc on this realm. She is an expert at pretending, acting like a child and feigning kindness in front of you all."

Watching her pretend to "not eat"—she was too good at it. Was this little demon trained by a troupe? Every time it thought about how the brat would drool while staring at it in private, only to act cute and sensible when others were around, the Black Dragon felt like exploding.

"She is definitely lying to you! If you don't believe me, wait until she is alone; you will surely see her evil nature."

"If she were something from the Tomb of Gods and Demons, why hasn't she eaten you? At the Heaven Demon-tier, you should be enough to give her a full meal." Ao Qing, however, did not seem tense at all. He was even calmer than usual, looking at the Black Dragon and saying faintly, "Do you really think she didn't eat you because you don't bathe?"

He knew even more, for Sect Master Yu had told him what the cub had done to the Sect’s Spiritual Vein. It was right there at her lips, yet she hadn't devoured a single bit. Furthermore, just because the Black Dragon spouted some crazy talk, did he have to suppress a child?

Ao Qing lowered his eyes, the image of the cub standing on tiptoes to offer him a small milk cake flashing through his mind.

The Black Dragon, frequently attacked for not bathing lately, was shaking with rage. "If you refuse to listen to reason, the day she reveals her true face, Ao Qing, you will be the sinner of this world." It gritted its teeth at Ao Qing. "When I escaped the tomb, you insisted I was tainted by its aura and suppressed me. Why! Why won't you suppress her?!"

Was this not a double standard? What was even more infuriating was that the little demon was much more obvious than him; she almost wantonly displayed her lack of goodness. Regarding the Tomb of Gods and Demons, the Black Dragon Ao Xin believed no one had a greater right to speak, as it had once faced the most terrifying things in existence and could never mistake that aura.

"Wickedness, being alone." Ao Qing snorted. He paused, looking at the Black Dragon, which was so insistent on misidentifying a cub’s nature, and said softly, "Then let me show you what she is doing."

He raised his hand, and a green, shimmering water mirror appeared before them. On the mirror, a beautiful little pavilion emerged.

Three people sat in rows inside the pavilion. Two sat stiffly like puppets, motionless and unresponsive, their eyes hollow and vacant. Between them sat a small, skinny cub.

"What happened to that old man from the Primordial Sect?" The sight of the former Sect Master’s hollow state made Ao Xin pause, then sneer. "He’s in such a state, and you still dare to let him be alone with this little brat?"

It looked like there was no one else around. Wouldn't this little demon... Sure enough, the little one looked left and right, then climbed off the stool.