Chapter 805: You... Are Smiling?

Truthfully... the moment Tian Tian walked into the secret chamber by himself and the stone door dropped behind him, it was not only Zheng Fan.

Every Demon King, even Fan Li... turned in perfect unison to look at the Blind Man.

It was you.

You.

Definitely you.

The veteran scheming bastard among us.

Sacrificing what could be sacrificed in exchange for an outcome one personally approved of was a style every Demon King possessed.

The difference was that the others were lazy.

Siniang was busy nurturing her pregnancy.

A’Ming was busy appreciating wine.

Third Master had only just obtained a new specimen and was happily buried in research.

A’Cheng had an endless pile of military affairs every day.

Even Fan Li’s usual approach was basically:

“So annoying. How about we just chop it?”

Only the Blind Man possessed truly strong initiative.

He was willing to set things up.

Willing to make them happen.

But the Blind Man denied it.

And once he denied it, everyone actually became less certain that he had been responsible.

If he had done it, then he had done it.

Hiding it beforehand was one thing.

But now that the matter had already happened, if he still refused to admit what he had done, that would be truly beneath them.

To the Demon Kings, that loss of style would have been even more serious than proving he had schemed against Master’s most beloved godson.

The reason this group could stay together, joke and curse, mock and stab at one another day after day... was fundamentally because their values matched.

Because their sense of aesthetics resonated.

When you were not sick... the people around you knew how to groan for you.

You could be sinister.

You could be low.

You could be vicious.

But you could never lose that shared aesthetic sense.

Otherwise, you would be expelled from the ranks of demons.

Only... this was no longer the time to argue over it.

Tian Tian had gone down.

Zheng Fan took a deep breath and asked Xue San:

“San’er. Is there any other entrance left?”

“Reporting to Master, this is the only entrance now. But because this door was only meant as decoration, so...”

Zheng Fan nodded.

“Fan Li. Lift the door.”

“Got it, Master.”

Fan Li stepped forward, bent down, wedged his fingers into the crack between the stone door and the ground, then began straightening his body.

The stone door slowly rose.

Zheng Fan’s expression had become frighteningly dark.

Anyone could see that he was suppressing his fury.

Tian Tian was Zheng Fan’s reverse scale.

Not merely because the child had been obedient and sensible from the time Zheng Fan raised him from infancy.

Tian Tian also carried the trust Old Tian had left behind.

Emotion.

Reason.

Trust.

Righteousness.

By any measure, Zheng Fan would never allow Tian Tian to suffer any harm.

“Faster!”

...

Inside the secret chamber...

Tian Tian hopped and skipped down the steps until he reached the coffin.

“Grandfather. Grandfather...”

Tian Tian called.

The coffin lid slowly rose.

Then Sha Tuo Queshi sat up from within.

Many people... even the Demon Kings... had overlooked one thing.

A person, or any being with intelligence, could form bonds through time.

Through companionship.

For example...

Zheng Fan did not know that the green python’s scales could treat external injuries.

Tian Tian did.

For example... most of the time when Zheng Fan came carrying wine to chat with Sha Tuo Queshi, Sha Tuo Queshi remained lying inside the coffin.

When he would awaken and when he would actively respond was, in everyone’s understanding, something that depended upon circumstances.

If danger appeared, he would probably wake.

But with Tian Tian... the child could wake his “god-grandfather” whenever he wanted.

“Grandfather, help me open the door.”

Sha Tuo Queshi did not hesitate.

He rose.

Left the coffin.

And walked toward the stone door deeper inside.

Opening the stone door required a key.

But Sha Tuo Queshi was far too familiar with this place.

Once baleful qi gathered, a light flick was enough to spring the locking catch.

For a great zombie... that was genuinely no difficulty at all.

And brute-forcing the door open afterward was even less worth mentioning.

Demon Child floated beside Tian Tian and silently watched everything.

Master was never the only one who spoiled the child.

Sha Tuo Queshi and Demon Child were the two who indulged Tian Tian most.

That indulgence could override nearly every restraint.

More precisely... in their understanding, there were not many things in this world truly worthy of being called restraints in the first place.

RUMBLE!

The stone door was raised.

Tian Tian leaned forward and peeked inside.

He pursed his lips.

Then walked in.

Demon Child followed him.

After lifting the door, Sha Tuo Queshi slipped inside as well.

Only one arm remained extended backward, holding the door up.

At that moment... the secret chamber entrance was forced open.

Zheng Fan led the others rushing in.

“Don’t close the door!” Zheng Fan shouted.

Unfortunately... some people truly underestimated the power of grandparents spoiling grandchildren.

Or perhaps... when Zheng Fan had kowtowed to Sha Tuo Queshi in the desert all those years ago, he had very obviously taken enormous advantage by forcibly inheriting the old relationship of blood-offering worship.

But Zheng Fan was already a grown man...

Tian Tian, on the other hand, had been playing atop Sha Tuo Queshi’s coffin since he was still wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Across those long years of darkness, Sha Tuo Queshi had watched him sleep.

Watched him crawl.

Watched him laugh.

So... when Zheng Fan and the others came running over...

Sha Tuo Queshi released his hand.

BOOM!

The stone door crashed down.

Zheng Fan clenched one fist.

For the first time in a long while... he truly understood what impotent fury felt like.

It was like trying to discipline your child while the grandparents stood beside you doing nothing but spoiling him and protecting him from criticism.

The most suffocating part was that you could not even blame them.

You could not so much as say one harsh sentence.

“Fan Li! Open the door!”

“Got it!”

Fan Li stepped forward and tried.

Twice.

He failed to lift it.

Xue San came over, inspected the locking mechanism, and immediately said:

“The lock cylinder was forced out of alignment. Blind Man, manipulate it open.”

“All right.”

The Blind Man stepped forward.

He began using mental force to control the internal locking mechanism.

...

Tian Tian followed the passage downward.

Ahead of him floated Demon Child.

Behind him, keeping step after step, came Sha Tuo Queshi.

One was a resentful spirit.

One was a zombie.

Yet to Tian Tian... aside from his godfather, these were the people closest to him.

The place was eerie.

Even the Demon Kings, when designing this prison, had thought only about practicality and security.

No one had wasted effort making it attractive.

But Tian Tian thought it was interesting.

His threshold for “scary” had been absurdly high since childhood.

When assassins had once come to the Residence, Sha Tuo Queshi had crushed one assassin’s neck right in front of him.

Tian Tian had only sat there holding sachima and laughed, “Hee-hee-hee.”

Compared with that... this place was drizzle.

The only problem was that the steps were rather tall.

And the farther down he went, the taller they became.

Even an adult had to descend carefully, bending one leg and testing for the next step with the other.

Tian Tian could only turn around and lower himself down one step at a time.

Demon Child did not help.

Perhaps... he too was conflicted.

On one hand, he did not want to refuse Tian Tian’s request.

The child had been sensible ever since he was small and had almost never asked for anything.

On the other...

Demon Child knew perfectly well how dangerous the black-armored man inside that cage truly was.

Unfortunately... there was no chance the stairs alone would make Tian Tian give up.

This was, after all, the first child Demon Child had personally helped raise.

On the outside, Tian Tian looked like a plump little good-luck doll.

But deep inside... he had inherited a certain stubbornness from his biological father.

So...

Demon Child flew down the steps first.

The red stone moved forward and stopped before the cage.

Inside, the black-armored man remained bound from head to foot.

His eyes were closed.

He did not move.

But... the feeling had changed.

A person’s state could not be divided crudely into only awake and asleep.

There were many layers between.

At this moment...

Demon Child could clearly sense that the other man was, in fact, “watching.”

“ROAR!”

Demon Child roared at him.

The black-armored man did not respond.

It was as though everything else in his “field of vision” simply did not exist.

...

Outside the stone door... the Blind Man opened the lock.

Fan Li began exerting force.

Siniang reached over and squeezed Zheng Fan’s hand.

“Master, nothing will happen. Demon Child and the others are inside.”

Zheng Fan did not answer.

He hated this feeling of trouble being forced into existence.

As far as he was concerned... whether they learned the secret or not was not important.

Whether the prophecy came true or not was something he could, to a certain extent, treat lightly.

All he needed to do was keep moving forward, one solid step at a time.

Be more cautious.

Be more careful.

If the prophecy said there were seven Demon Kings... then he would catch one and destroy one.

Catch two and destroy two.

If prophecy could be changed... then he would change it.

If it could not... what did “ordained by Heaven” matter?

But the problem now was that certain people and certain events had begun slipping beyond his control.

Going against his will.

Zheng Fan had never thought his own “will” was worth much silver.

At least not among the people closest to him.

But right now... that sense of disorder had ignited his anger.

Once this matter ended... he would have to properly put on the airs of Master and discipline a few people.

First in line... his “biological son” and his “godson.”

...

THUD!

On the last step, Tian Tian’s foot slipped.

The chubby child tumbled down, rolled once across the floor, and stopped.

Sha Tuo Queshi descended the final step behind him.

He did not help Tian Tian up.

He simply stood there quietly.

Tian Tian did not cry.

He only held his little head and rubbed it.

He had bumped it against something just now.

Nothing serious.

His body was strong to begin with.

From childhood onward, he had never cared about little scrapes and knocks.

What embarrassed him more was falling while descending a few steps.

Looking at Sha Tuo Queshi standing in front of him...

Tian Tian climbed up, dusted off his trouser legs, and began laughing.

To everyone in Prince Pingxi Residence...

Tian Tian’s laughter was music from Heaven.

Pure.

Warm.

Bright as sunlight.

And it was precisely that laughter... that made the black-armored man in the cage behind them suddenly, truly... open his eyes.

His eyes were entirely black.

No pupils could be seen.

And an exaggerated expression of bewilderment appeared across his face.

The exaggeration was not deliberate.

Fan Li had punched him in the face so many times two days earlier that his facial muscles and bones had been partially damaged and displaced.

If anything... that helped him communicate his emotion even more clearly.

Not that he seemed interested in hiding it.

The black-armored man’s voice came from the cage.

“You should be angry... You should hate... You should be mad... That should be... what you are... That should be... the you I was meant to see...”

After a moment... an even more bewildered voice came from the black-armored man.

“But... why... are you... smiling?”

[End of Chapter 805]