Chapter 192 – The Protagonist (30)

In past Immortal-Demon Conventions, the Cultivation Realm and the Demon Realm would jointly select a location to construct the competition grounds. Each side would open different trial zones, allowing their disciples to enter and compete separately.

Only those who successfully emerged from the trial zones would be eligible to participate in the main duels.

The convention was always a grand affair, lasting an entire month. During this time, a bustling Immortal-Demon marketplace would spring up around the competition grounds.

But this time, everything was unusually rushed. When disciples from the major sects of the Cultivation Realm arrived, many smaller sects without large spirit vessels were still hurrying along the road, far behind.

At the outskirts of Ninth City, where the event was to be held, no combat arrays had been drawn on the ground, nor had any dueling platforms been constructed.

Cultivators and Demonic Cultivators stood clearly divided, occupying separate areas. All eyes were fixed on the sky, where a vortex loomed like a massive eye.

It was the sign that the Secret Realm was about to open. Once the violent winds at the edge of the vortex calmed and the tightly shut “eye” opened, entry would be possible.

The vortex’s crimson and gold hues, along with the fierce winds that swept across half the sky, all hinted at just how rare and dangerous this Secret Realm was.

This was the legendary, ancient, and most mysterious Secret Realm—one that had only ever existed in myths.

It was said to have formed from the remains of a fallen god, a spatial anomaly birthed from divine death. Within it might lie precious treasures, ancient legacies, and more.

And this time, the Immortal-Demon Convention would take place inside the Godfall Secret Realm.

All disciples who met the criteria could enter. Whichever side managed to retrieve the most valuable treasure would be declared the winner.

But under the current circumstances, most people understood that victory no longer mattered as much. What truly mattered was what one could obtain from this once-in-an-era Secret Realm.

The smaller sects and rogue cultivators only learned about the Godfall Secret Realm upon arriving, and were now abuzz with excited chatter about it.

Meanwhile, the few who had inside information and had predicted the Secret Realm’s emergence waited in silence.

Gongxi Yue, who had also known about the Secret Realm in advance, had just finished calming her restless disciples when she turned around—and realized the child was gone.

Gongxi Yue: I knew it.

There was no way that child would stay put. Even if she promised not to wander off, her words couldn’t be trusted.

With a flick of her hand, Gongxi Yue summoned a binding spirit cord and stormed off to find the missing child, determined to tie her to her waist until the Secret Realm opened.

At that moment, Qian hadn’t gone far—just near the Yunyin Immortal Sect’s camp. She had only poked her head out curiously at first, but was drawn out completely by the shiny bald heads of a passing group of monks.

The Buddhist Cultivators from Faxiang Temple rarely interacted with Cultivation Realm cultivators and seldom attended the Immortal-Demon Convention. But this time, upon hearing of the Godfall Secret Realm’s appearance, they had sent a team.

Even though they weren’t being ostentatious, a group of bald monks walking around the camp was still quite eye-catching.

At the rear of the group, Monk Wenxi noticed the soft patter of tiny footsteps beside him. He looked down and met a pair of large, round, dark eyes.

A cute child. Just as he smiled kindly, the child beamed and called out, “Daddy!”

So by the time Gongxi Yue arrived, Qian had already called several of the monks “daddy.” They all stared wide-eyed, too stunned to respond.

To Qian, everyone looked more or less the same—especially the bald ones.

She called one “daddy,” then decided another looked just as fatherly, and so on. Her enthusiastic cries of “Daddy!” left the group of monks pale and speechless.

Had this place not been so remote, they might’ve had to immediately defend their reputations.

Even monks who faced demons without flinching were rarely caught off guard like this. Especially since their team leaders, Wenxi and Ziru, had discovered something shocking—the child possessed Buddha Bone.

She was truly fated with the Buddhist path.

While the monks stood solemn and troubled, Gongxi Yue arrived. The intense stares from the Faxiang Temple monks made her pause mid-step. She walked up to Qian and asked, “Did you do something bad?”

Qian shook her head and declared, “I’m looking for the roundest head to be my daddy!”

Calling random people “daddy” was an old habit of hers. She didn’t even distinguish between men and women.

Gongxi Yue didn’t care what nonsense Qian was up to this time. She grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, nodded politely to the grim-faced monks, and prepared to haul the reputation-ruining child back.

“Are you the Lonely Moon Sword Monarch?” Monk Wenxi stepped forward and asked.

“I am. What do you want?” Gongxi Yue thought, If this monk dares say Qian is fated with the Buddhist path and wants to take her away to cultivate, he can forget it.

“I believe this child is… unusual,” Monk Wenxi said solemnly. “Her bones and flesh anchor her to this world, but they cannot support her growing up. Her spirit does not belong here. If Sword Monarch insists on keeping her, it may be in vain.”

Gongxi Yue stared at him deeply, then pulled the child into her arms and said coldly, “That’s none of your concern.”

She rarely got angry these days, but Wenxi’s words struck a nerve—one that burned.

Qian, perched on her shoulder, twisted around and waved goodbye to the annoying monk.

She even had the audacity to make a request: “I want to touch his head! It’s so round and shiny!”

Gongxi Yue snorted, “I hate bald people the most.”

Qian immediately went limp in her arms, letting out a pitiful little whimper like a sad puppy.

The child in her arms was so small—and never seemed to grow.

Over the past two years, elders, friends, and juniors alike had all, in their own ways, expressed concern over Qian’s stunted growth.

But just as none of them had ever managed to learn where Qian came from, no one had ever gotten an answer about why she wasn’t growing.

Qian wasn’t a child born through normal means. Gongxi Yue had gradually realized that her time in this world was limited—and shorter than she had imagined.

So she had no choice but to push herself harder, to cultivate more urgently.

For herself. And for her.

As people passed by Gongxi Yue, their gazes lingered.

Not just because of her renowned beauty or her astonishing cultivation speed, but because this icy, aloof beauty—famed throughout the Cultivation World—had a rope tied around her waist.

And at the end of that rope was a child who looked just like her.

When Gongxi Yue went to meet with the elders of her sect, they spoke of the potential trouble the Demon Realm might cause inside the Godfall Secret Realm.

Though their expressions were serious, their eyes kept drifting toward the child crawling around on the floor.

She seemed to think her mother was a giant boulder, using every ounce of strength she had—like she was in a tug-of-war—trying to pull against her. Gongxi Yue didn’t even twitch an eyebrow, but the group of elders watching nearby were already exhausted just looking at the child’s effort.

Once the serious matters were settled, Gongxi Yue stood up, grabbed the rope, and dragged the child away without a word.

A few of the elders looked on and muttered among themselves, “Tying up a child like that doesn’t seem right. She should really let Qian go.”

“You go tell her, I’m not saying a word!”

“What, does she go to other sects to discuss business looking like this too? Where’s the decorum in that?!”

Mu Yiling had also arrived. From a distance, through the crowd, she spotted the oddly paired mother and daughter. The disciples passing by shot them curious glances, clearly unsure whether to comment. Mu Yiling gave them a wave.

The child, of course, had no awareness of the tense atmosphere. All she knew was that this place was bustling—there were more people here than at the Gongxi Family’s New Year gathering!

Walking into the crowd felt like entering a forest of legs. Robes and hems fluttered past her eyes, and she couldn’t resist the urge to reach out and grab them.

Spotting her chance, she darted into the throng, using the spirit tether tied around her waist to cause trouble for her mother—tripping passersby, tangling them up, that sort of thing.

Gongxi Yue kept yanking her back, but she’d just laugh and run off again, having the time of her life.

Suddenly, the legs around her shifted aside, and Qian, head down, ran straight into a pair of snow-white thighs.

The woman’s red skirt swayed as she walked, parting to reveal golden rings on her legs.

At Qian’s height, all she had to do was tilt her head slightly to see the delicate gold rings—and without thinking, she grabbed one.

“Gongxi Yue, this your daughter?”

Tu Hongying stood there, idly twisting the nine-section chain at her waist, eyeing the little girl now clinging to her leg and fiddling with her gold ring.

The kid had crashed into her without a hint of fear and immediately taken a liking to her jewelry.

The spirit tether snapped tight, yanking Qian back with a startled yelp. Gongxi Yue caught her and held her close, eyes turning to Tu Hongying.

“The Godfall Secret Realm hasn’t opened yet. Showing up this early—don’t tell me you’re looking for a fight?” Gongxi Yue asked.

Tu Hongying strode through the righteous cultivators’ camp without the slightest hint of unease, exuding an arrogant air that made others instinctively step aside.

She stopped in front of Gongxi Yue, her tone a mix of mockery and provocation.

“I heard from Xiao Shou that this girl is his daughter too. So I came to ask—are your standards really that low?”

Gongxi Yue already knew Xiao Shou was a shameless liar. She sneered, “That kind of nonsense? He probably only dares to say it in front of you.”

Seeing that Gongxi Yue wasn’t taking the bait, Tu Hongying lost interest. She looked down at Qian, bent over, and lifted the girl’s chin, scrutinizing her.

“Why does your daughter look exactly like you? That chubby little face is really not cute.”

Gongxi Yue frowned and reached to pick Qian up, wanting to get her away from her moody nemesis. But just then, the wretched child suddenly lunged forward, grabbed a fistful of Tu Hongying’s red hair, and let out a thunderous shout:

“Dad!”

Gongxi Yue: “…” Not again.

Tu Hongying hadn’t even reacted yet, but the surrounding cultivators—who had gathered to gawk at the sudden appearance of the Demon Realm’s Young Master—erupted in shocked whispers.

“What’s going on? Isn’t that the daughter of the Lonely Moon Sword Monarch? Why is she calling the Demon Realm Young Master ‘dad’?”

“Isn’t Tu Hongying a woman? Or… is she actually a man?”

The rumor that the Lonely Moon Sword Monarch had a child with a mysterious man had long stirred speculation in the Cultivation World. Now, with the child publicly calling someone “dad,” the already delicate tension between the two sides exploded.

Tu Hongying, who had come here ready to pick a fight, now found herself holding a child whose soft, chubby cheeks were rubbing against her hand, giving her a full-body case of goosebumps.

That one word—“dad”—turned her face green. She exchanged a look with Gongxi Yue, whose face had gone black. Both of them looked utterly miserable.

Qian, on the other hand, was delighted. She opened her mouth to shout again, only to have Gongxi Yue clamp a hand over it and drag her back to her side.

Tu Hongying pulled her hand back and shook it off in disgust, then tossed out her challenge: “See you in the Godfall Secret Realm. This time, you’re destined to lose to me.”

The dramatic flair she’d imagined was completely gone. Frustrated, Tu Hongying couldn’t help but glance back and glare daggers at the little troublemaker.

Despicable. Her sworn enemy had actually stooped to using a child to get under her skin! So what if she had a kid—what’s the big deal?

As the crowd dispersed, Gongxi Yue folded her arms and cornered Qian.

At that moment, she deeply regretted not dragging Wen Xunzhen—who was actually good with kids—along with her.

“Why did you call her ‘dad’?”

“She has red hair! Red-haired bad dad!”

“Oh? Then those monks—you called them ‘dad’ too?”

“Bald dads!”

“You used to call your godmother ‘dad’ as well.”

“Silver-haired dad!”

“…”

Gongxi Yue rubbed her temples. “You are not allowed to call anyone ‘dad’ anymore!”

Qian thought for a moment. “Can I call people ‘mom’ instead?”

Gongxi Yue: Where did this child even pick up this ridiculous habit of calling everyone ‘dad’ and ‘mom’?