Chapter 72: Demon Lord (17)

After much difficulty, the child was finally full, and Huai You Nong was ready to leave. But the child squatted on the bench and refused to come down.

“Get down,” Huai You Nong urged.

“Mm…” Qian hugged her knees tightly and shook her head vigorously, making a nasal sound of refusal.

Huai You Nong didn’t care what kind of hallucination she was seeing. She was the one who insisted on drinking that stuff.

He directly reached out and pulled her off the bench. Given his current size, “dragged her down” might be a more accurate description.

The moment Qian’s feet touched the ground, she started hopping.

In her eyes, the floor was now covered with giant toads, densely packed like clumps of earth, their long tongues constantly shooting out in an attempt to grab her ankles.

So, to Huai You Nong, it felt like the moment she landed, she acted as if the ground was scorching hot, constantly shifting her feet. Then she climbed onto him, clutching his hair tightly.

“Get down!”

“Wuuu, so many are grabbing my feet!”

She refused to let her feet touch the ground.

“You are the mighty—” Huai You Nong swallowed his words and gritted his teeth. “What exactly has scared you like this? Where is your dignity? Get down!”

After much struggle, he managed to pry her off, but in just a few moves, she climbed onto his back again. If he hadn’t stopped her in time, she would have been sitting on his shoulders.

Huai You Nong hadn’t expected that once he compromised with the child, things wouldn’t just fail to improve—they would get even worse.

Like earlier, when he failed to resist her whining and bought her the honey nectar, leading to the current mess where she was hallucinating and becoming even harder to handle.

So now, with her clinging onto him like a sack of gold, he walked towards the inn’s entrance. Just as they reached the door, Qian suddenly leaped off his back.

“Not that way! That’s a mouth—a huge mouth!” she cried, grabbing Huai You Nong’s robe and desperately dragging him backward.

In her vision, the inn’s entrance had turned into a giant, illusory monster mouth, complete with rows of sharp teeth, foamy saliva dripping like a small stream, and a massive tongue licking the edges of its lips.

Compared to that, the toads on the ground didn’t seem so disgusting anymore.

“It’s all an illusion. It’s fake!” Huai You Nong said coldly.

The child tilted her head back and wailed, “Bad Daddy-Bro is going to get eaten by the big mouth! Ahhh!”

Huai You Nong had never coaxed a child before, and now he had no way to deal with her. He could only sigh in exasperation and keep compromising.

“One upper-room suite. For one night,” Huai You Nong said to the innkeeper at the counter.

He had no choice but to let her sleep and wait for the effects of the honey nectar to wear off.

But when they reached the room, just as he was about to enter, Qian pointed at the doorway and shouted that it was a spider’s lair, filled with spiders.

Huai You Nong’s patience had long run dry, and he scowled. “If you don’t go in, we’ll leave right now and walk into that mouth outside!”

The child sniffled pitifully.

Huai You Nong, who had never made such an expression in his life, sighed helplessly. He reached out, covered the child’s eyes, and held her hand to lead her inside.

Once inside, Qian quickly scanned the room. Whatever she saw in her hallucination made her gasp sharply, and she grabbed Huai You Nong’s hand, pushing him onto the bed.

The bed was adult-sized, so it was spacious for two children.

With a tense expression, Qian anxiously shoved her speechless Daddy-Bro onto the bed, then wrapped them both up in the blankets.

Now facing each other under the covers, Qian whispered in a hushed voice, “Shh! The big spider is sleeping there. If we hide here, it won’t see us.”

Huai You Nong had lost all desire to argue with her. He stayed silent inside the blanket, just waiting for her to fall asleep.

But the child was wide awake—after all, she had already slept on the road.

She kept peeking out from under the blanket and reporting back.

“You’re a kid right now. You can’t beat the big spider. We can’t wake it up,” she instructed Huai You Nong with a serious expression.

Huai You Nong: “When will you sleep?”

“Shh!” The child gave him a look as if he were the one being unreasonable.

Huai You Nong simply sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and started meditating. The backlash from the Demonic Scripture of Sacrifice made his cultivation painful even now.

Rustling sounds came from the blanket as the child scooted closer, leaning against his arm.

Huai You Nong opened his eyes to glance at her. Seeing her curled up, barely breathing, he thought she looked rather foolish.

It was warm in this place, and being buried under a thick blanket made her sluggish from the heat.

“Serves you right for insisting on drinking it,” Huai You Nong sneered.

Smack! The child slapped her hand over his mouth.

Annoyed, Huai You Nong peeled her hand off, then suddenly lifted the blanket, revealing her frightened face. With a blank expression, he asked, “Where’s the big spider?”

“Right there—ah! It’s waking up!” Qian yelped, clutching the blanket in an attempt to cover them both again.

Huai You Nong followed her pointing finger to the wardrobe in the corner. Picking up a candlestick from the bedside, he threw it hard, smashing the wardrobe apart.

“Alright, the spider’s dead,” he said indifferently.

Qian stared at the shattered “spider” on the ground and, for the first time, looked at her Demon Lord Daddy with admiration.

After all the grand battles and powerful foes he had faced, who would have thought that the first time his daughter admired him would be for killing a “spider”?

“Can you sleep now?” he asked.

The child pointed at the floor, horrified. “Oh no! Lots of little spiders are crawling out of the big spider’s body!”

Huai You Nong: “…”

It had only been a day, and he was already tempted to return to the Demon Palace.

Maybe he should have brought his guardians along.

Fortunately, later that night, an intruder broke into the room, giving the Demon Lord an excuse to vent his frustrations after being tormented by his daughter.

The next morning, Qian finally sobered up. But after the whole ordeal, her attitude toward Huai You Nong became warm and affectionate again—for the second time.

The first time was when she discovered he had turned into a child.

When she woke up and saw him, she greeted him with “Big Brother” for no reason and even wanted a hug.

Before this, every morning, the moment she woke up, she would step on his feet and dash out of bed like the wind.

But our Demon Lord did not change his attitude just because his daughter was being affectionate. He dragged the lazy girl to wash up, then pulled her downstairs, all the while reciting a series of strict parent catchphrases.

“You’re waking up this late? When I was your age, I was up training before dawn.”

“With this kind of attitude, you’ll regret it when your cultivation falls behind.”

“Did you learn your lesson from yesterday? Start reflecting now.”

To Qian, his words were nothing more than an alarm clock ringing. As she gradually woke up, the first thing she asked was, “What’s for breakfast?”

As they passed by a guest room, they noticed a staff member inside cleaning. The door was half open, and the room reeked of blood.

Downstairs, another staff member spotted them and approached eagerly. “Honored guests, what would you like for breakfast? We have a fresh batch of meat today—would you like to try some?”

Huai You Nong let out a cold snort. “Don’t serve any of that filthy stuff to us.”

The staff member immediately stepped back, bowing repeatedly. “Y-yes! Understood! You can rest assured!”

For those they couldn’t afford to offend, they always maintained the utmost humility. Even if the other party looked like a child, anyone capable of twisting their second shopkeeper’s head off last night was clearly no ordinary demon.

In all the guests who had come and gone, not many had ever survived an encounter with their second shopkeeper.

To Qian, this was just an ordinary inn. After finishing an ordinary breakfast, she was content as she left with her father-brother.

Outside, the carriage they had stolen from bandits was still parked in front of the inn—and surprisingly, the bandit who drove it was still there.

Huai You Nong glanced at him casually. “Why are you still here?”

The bandit nearly burst into tears. Do I have a choice?

Last night, he had agonized over whether to run or stay, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and remained, afraid that if he tried to flee, he’d end up like his gang’s leader—reduced to minced meat by that little demon.

Little did he know, what Huai You Nong truly meant was: How are you still alive?

After all, the danger in this place didn’t just come from the guests passing through. If that were the case, this border town wouldn’t be so desolate.

“Get in. We need to reach the Mortal Realm today,” Huai You Nong ordered.

The bandit hesitated before cautiously speaking. “Are you aware… His Majesty the Demon Lord has forbidden us from entering the Mortal Realm?”

Officially, yes. But plenty of demons still sneaked in—just as there were cultivators from the Immortal Realm who ventured into the Demon Realm.

A sharp pain suddenly shot through his body, making him shut up immediately. Without another word, he drove the carriage forward.

That inn, in a way, served as a checkpoint between the Demon Realm and the outside world. Once they left Xiling Path, there were no more obstacles. They smoothly entered the Mortal Realm.

“The first mortal city is just ahead. May I ask what business you two have here? No matter what it is, I can handle it for you. I swear I won’t expose you…” The bandit chuckled ingratiatingly.

In the blink of an eye, his smile melted away—leaving behind only a pool of blood, dripping from the carriage shaft onto the ground.

Huai You Nong dragged the half-asleep Qian out of the carriage, leading her toward the main road, abandoning the carriage behind them.

But instead of taking Qian into the city, he used his demonic energy to transport them to a slightly larger city elsewhere.

Now that they had left the Demon Realm, he no longer had to be as cautious. In the Mortal Realm, which was full of ordinary people, he didn’t have to worry about being noticed for using demonic energy.

However, since he was still injured, he couldn’t travel too far at once, nor could he teleport repeatedly.

Qian blinked and looked around.

To her right was a three-story tavern with hanging banners and side windows. Down the street, food stalls were selling snacks, steam billowing from bamboo baskets. Behind them, an alley filled with cluttered junk housed a stray dog, lazily lifting its head to glance at them.

Huai You Nong held her hand, guiding her into the bustling street filled with vendors’ calls.

Despite having been in this world for a while, this was the first time Qian had seen such a lively, everyday scene.

The two of them stood out as they walked.

They were simply too good-looking. Though their clothes weren’t embroidered with gold thread, the fabric was far from common roughspun cloth. They looked like a wealthy young master and lady—but oddly, they had no servants or guards accompanying them.

Qian noticed many people stealing glances at her and instinctively tightened her grip on Huai You Nong’s hand.

He turned to her. “Weren’t you just saying you were hungry? I’ll take you to eat.”

At those words, Qian’s steps suddenly became much more eager. She pointed at a street stall. “I want that one!”

It was a pancake vendor.

The shopkeeper, seeing two adorable children in front of his stall, wiped his hands on his apron repeatedly before carefully making a large pancake—about the size of Qian’s head.

She struggled to hold it with one hand, but her other hand was still clutching Huai You Nong’s, making it difficult to manage.

In the end, Huai You Nong grabbed the back of her collar, forcing her to use both hands to hold the pancake.

Qian eagerly took a bite, slowly munching away. After nibbling the crispy edges down, she handed the rest to Huai You Nong.

“Brother, have some!”

Huai You Nong overheard passersby cooing about how adorable the child was—saving half her food for her older brother.

But knowing this daughter of his, he was well aware that she simply liked the crispy outer edges and had no interest in the soft center.

“Finish it yourself,” he said. “Otherwise, don’t expect me to buy you anything else.”

Qian’s cheerful, sesame-covered face instantly fell. Sighing dramatically, she begrudgingly forced herself to eat the soft, unwanted middle of the pancake.