Chapter 67: Demon Lord (12)

The underground tunnels were intricate and complex. In the end, Huai You Nong led Qian through them with practiced ease and arrived at a concealed cave.

The space here wasn’t very large, but it was much cleaner than the outside.

A pool of underground spring water lay at the center, with crystal-clear water trickling down from the cracks in the ceiling.

Huai You Nong drew out his long whip with one hand and sliced off half of a large rock, turning it into a flat stone platform.

He placed the child on it and took out the Shifang Mountain Scroll, handing it to her.

“I will be in seclusion here, and you must also train diligently.”

The child was dumbfounded. Wasn’t this just being locked in a dark room?

Having lived through two worlds without ever being required to study seriously, Qian stared wide-eyed at Huai You Nong.

A large, powerful palm pressed down on her head.

“You must learn to become strong on your own. I cannot always protect you—you can only rely on yourself. Do you understand?”

From the moment he was born, Huai You Nong had spent most of his life in danger, constantly struggling to survive. Even after becoming the powerful Demon Lord, assassinations and threats against him had never ceased.

He had no doubt that if one day he fell to his enemies, not only would his body become a meal for them, but this little creature would also be devoured, leaving not even a scrap of bone behind.

Qian hugged the scroll and climbed down from the stone platform.

Huai You Nong immediately picked her up and placed her back on it, then coiled his long whip around the platform in a circle.

“Try stepping out again.”

Qian did try. But as soon as her foot stretched past the boundary of the whip, a surge of numbing heat shot through her, as if she were being electrocuted and burned at the same time!

She quickly retracted her foot.

“You’ll stay here and cultivate. Don’t even think about going anywhere else.”

Huai You Nong sneered.

He had no idea where this child had been living before or who had raised her, but she had been spoiled into sheer laziness!

He walked past the underground spring, flicked his sleeve, and sat down on another stone platform, closing his eyes to meditate.

Qian sat cross-legged on the stone platform, secretly making a face at him. Then, mumbling to herself, she unrolled the Shifang Mountain Scroll and entered it.

But as soon as she stepped in, she was dumbfounded.

The vast playground was gone. All around her was an impenetrable fog. The only thing visible was the desk she usually used for practicing calligraphy, along with a pile of study materials and tools.

Since ancient times, getting a young child to sit still and study had always been a challenge.

Let alone being locked up to study. Qian’s rebellious streak flared up.

She swore she would never listen to that bad father!

But… she was so bored.

She lay on the desk and doodled for a while, but there was no one around to chat with.

She exited the scroll and tried stepping out of the circle again, only to get burned once more.

Sprawled out on the stone platform, she was so bored that she started counting the glowing specks on the rock.

She flipped around restlessly, eventually glancing toward Huai You Nong. He was still sitting there in the same posture, unmoving, surrounded by a faint layer of white light.

Qian clapped her hands against the stone walls, making loud noises in the cave. He didn’t react.

Then, she noticed another problem—there was no food, either in the cave or inside the scroll!

“I’m starving!” she shouted at Huai You Nong. Whether he was at a critical moment in his cultivation or just pretending not to hear her, he didn’t respond at all.

Although her body stored spiritual energy and she wouldn’t actually starve even after years without food, she was used to eating delicious meals every day. The sudden deprivation was sheer torture.

“Wuuu… wuuu… wuu…” The child’s pitiful sobbing echoed through the cave.

She covered her eyes with her arms and whimpered for a while, then peeked out sneakily—Huai You Nong still hadn’t moved.

Although she was a little mischievous, she had always been a sweet child. Even after countless attempts by Luo Ye to “corrupt” her, she had remained adorable. But under the oppression of this devilish father, she had made significant progress in just a few days.

Now, she was getting really good at cursing.

After realizing that whining, rolling around, throwing tantrums, and even sobbing didn’t earn her any sympathy, she finally turned to the textbooks inside the scroll.

Once Qian finally stopped fussing and obediently entered the scroll, Huai You Nong, who had remained silent for days, let out a faint snort.

What an annoying child. How could she be this noisy?

Only then did he truly begin cultivating the Demonic Sacrificial Codex.

Inside the scroll, Qian started studying on her own. She was no longer a little Azure Dragon, and since she had changed worlds, she couldn’t use dragon magic from the previous one. However, for some reason, dragon script written in this world bore similarities to certain spiritual rune formations—and they all gathered spiritual energy.

So Qian diligently practiced writing runes, honed her calligraphy, and recalled the spells Han Qiu had taught her.

With spiritual energy now circulating in her body, the easiest way to unleash it was through forming hand seals and using spiritual artifacts to channel attacks.

After two days, Qian emerged from the scroll, first sneaking a glance at Huai You Nong. Seeing that he was still motionless, she confidently tossed one of her drawn spiritual runes at the whip barrier trapping her.

Whoosh!

The whip burst into flames, and the sudden flare-up was so intense that it even singed the ends of Qian’s hair, making it curl up even more.

She shrank back, protecting her hair. Fortunately, the fire quickly burned out due to a lack of sufficient spiritual energy.

Undeterred, she experimented with various spiritual runes. Once she ran out of those, she moved her chubby fingers and laboriously formed hand seals, successfully casting her first spell.

A tiny bolt of lightning struck the whip, sending sparks crackling.

Qian had already figured out that the whip was infused with her bad dad’s demonic energy. But if she continuously bombarded it with spiritual energy, she could gradually deplete the demonic energy.

If she could erase those red and black auras, maybe the barrier wouldn’t burn her anymore!

Determined to escape, the little one put her mind to work.

She persistently used her spiritual energy, and finally, one day, she completely dissolved the demonic energy attached to the long whip.

Tentatively, she extended her toes beyond the boundary again. This time, there was no resistance—no numbing, no burning sensation!

Qian glanced at Huai You Nong once more. This time, she moved as lightly as a thief, barely even daring to breathe, afraid of waking up the bad dad and getting caught again.

Without thinking, she turned and darted toward the tunnels, eager to escape. But before running off, she didn’t forget to snatch up the Demon Lord’s weapon—the long whip—dragging it along as she fled.

She had to take his weapon and hide it! That way, next time, he wouldn’t be able to trap her again.

The moment she escaped, Qian clutched the painting scroll in one hand and dragged the whip with the other, running excitedly through the tunnels. But soon, she realized—she was lost.

The pathways were far too complex. Watching Huai You Nong walk through them had seemed easy, but she couldn’t navigate them at all.

She weaved left and right through the countless forked paths, disturbing the small dark creatures living in the stone crevices. One scurried out and startled her, making both of them jump in fright.

After wandering for a long time without finding an exit, the old Qian would have just plopped down and waited for someone to come pick her up. But now, she merely pouted before seriously sniffing the air, trying to use the unique scents she had noticed earlier to retrace her steps.

That scent… it was from that big beast.

She wasn’t sure how, but by following the scent, she actually managed to find the right path.

Hearing the roar of the fierce beast, Qian was overjoyed. She stuck her head out of a narrow hole like a chipmunk emerging from its burrow.

This entrance was completely different from the one they had used before—but who cared? She had found a way!

Then she realized something—she couldn’t find the actual exit.

Like most children, Qian only thought about the present, not the consequences.

Since she couldn’t move forward, she simply sat down on a nearby rock.

The fierce beast, excited to see a human, kept trying to get closer.

Qian was still a little afraid of it, so she pushed a round stone toward it, hoping to scare it off.

The massive beast, with its flat, long, horned face, simply headbutted the stone back at her. Then, shaking its head excitedly, it reared up on its front paws and spun in circles—nearly getting tangled in the chains around its neck and feet.

If it weren’t so big, Qian would have felt like she was playing with a dog.

As everyone knows, both kids and dogs love having playmates.

Unsurprisingly, Qian quickly started playing with this “big dog.”

She soon grew bored of using clumsy stone balls and decided to try using her magic.

At first, she wanted to make an ice ball or a water ball, but she failed. Instead, a stream of water spurted from her fingertips, splashing the beast’s face.

The beast froze, staring blankly for a long moment—shocked or perhaps delighted.

It had been locked here for years, surviving only by licking droplets of water seeping from the rock crevices and eating small creatures hiding in the cracks.

A stream of fresh water like this… It was something from a distant memory.

For the first time ever, it was excited beyond measure.

Its excitement rubbed off on Qian. Seeing how much it liked the water, she tried again, figuring out how to create an even bigger flow.

The clear stream poured over the beast’s face. It snapped at the water in the air, nudged it with its head, and soon, it was completely drenched.

Before long, the ground beneath it turned into a muddy mess. The beast’s fur, previously gray-black, was now revealing patches of white and red beneath the grime.

So, it wasn’t actually a pitch-black monster.

With a thin layer of water pooling on the ground, Qian had nowhere dry to step.

If only she could freeze it—that would be fun.

She forgot how to turn water into ice using this world’s magic, so she ran into the painting scroll to search for instructions. After studying for a bit, she came back out to experiment.

Gradually, frost formed under her hands, slowly spreading across the ground. When she ran out of spiritual energy, she went back into the scroll to replenish it, then continued building her ice rink.

Curious, the beast stepped onto the ice—only to instantly slip. It skidded helplessly across the surface, its belly facing the sky, its limbs curled up in confusion.

“Hahaha!” Qian burst into laughter.

Watching a dog slip and fall was always hilarious!

After playing with her new companion for a long time, Qian started feeling sleepy. She decided to go back to bad dad’s place to rest.

This place smelled too strong, and the beast never stopped moving—it was way too noisy to sleep here.

Waving at her still-eager playmate, she promised to return and then squeezed back into the tunnel, heading back to Huai You Nong.

But she had a nagging feeling she was forgetting something.

What was it?

The long whip she had casually dropped earlier had long been trampled into the mud by the beast—and then, later, accidentally frozen by her.

As the Demon Lord’s weapon, it had never suffered such humiliation.

Back in the secluded cave, Qian peeked inside, saw that bad dad was still asleep, and breathed a sigh of relief.

But his complete lack of movement only made her bolder. She crossed the underground spring, crouched beside Huai You Nong, and waved a small hand in front of his face.

At this moment, Huai You Nong was completely unaware of his surroundings.

Confirming that he wouldn’t wake up, Qian’s confidence swelled. Her eyes gleamed mischievously, and she giggled wickedly.

Climbing onto his stone platform, she grabbed his luxurious outer robe. With her sharp little nails and teeth, she tore a big hole in it.

Holding the large piece of fabric in her hands, she figured she could bundle it up into a cloth ball—a lightweight ball would be perfect for playing with her new friend.

But what should she stuff inside?

Her eyes landed on Huai You Nong’s pristine white inner robe and sleeves.

“Riiip!” She tore off a sleeve, exposing his arm and shoulder.

“Rip, rip!” She shredded a piece of his inner robe, revealing most of his back.

His once-elegant clothing was now in complete tatters. At this point, the only thing the Demon Lord still had intact… were his shoes.

…Shoes?

Qian’s gaze shifted to Huai You Nong’s tall boots. She reached out with both hands and yanked.

Both shoes came off.

Curious, Qian stuffed her chubby feet into the oversized boots, feeling as if she were wearing two baggy pant legs.

With a bundle of torn fabric in her arms and the giant boots clomping on her feet, the child pitter-pattered away—leaving behind a Demon Lord who, having lost most of his clothing, now looked thoroughly indecent.

Completely absorbed in his closed-door cultivation, the Demon Lord remained utterly unaware of both the child’s “prison break” and his own state of undress.