“Bang—”
The great hall’s doors were flung open by an icy ghostly gale, a sudden fierce wind sweeping away the room’s dawn light, plunging everything into darkness.
By the time Little Dumpling reacted, the black gust had already brushed past her and swiftly struck its target.
“Thwack—”
“Bang—”
One palm strike landed, followed immediately by another, without the slightest hesitation.
“Pfft…” Bai Yan clutched his struck chest, violently coughing up a mouthful of blood. The crimson splatter across the floor was blinding, the pain twisting his expression.
In an instant, the black gust transformed into a human figure.
The man, stern and imposing, his brow filled with murderous intent, was none other than the King of Hell himself.
“Father Lord?!” Little Dumpling’s violet eyes widened in shock, her face pale with terror. The medicinal flower in her hand vanished into the Cosmic Bag in the blink of an eye.
Whether the flower had been drawn to the bag or the bag to the flower remained unclear.
“Cough, cough…” Bai Yan hunched over in pain, his eyes bloodshot as he glared at the man who had suddenly appeared and attacked him. Through gritted teeth, he demanded, “Your Highness, King Yama, what is the meaning of this?”
Yan Yi stared coldly at him, not a trace of pity in his eyes, as indifferent as a block of unfeeling wood. His tone was icy. “This Highness has said it before—she belongs to me.”
Moreover, she was the fetal form he had painstakingly awakened from her original state as a mandala flower, having sought her blood essence across heaven and earth five hundred years ago.
Which child of the Demon race, upon birth, did not receive ten thousand forms of nurturing and a thousand kinds of care to awaken into human form after millennia?
Yet she, Miaoyuan, was the only one in all the Four Seas and Eight Desolations born directly in the form of a human infant, her cultivation level surpassing everyone else’s by tens of thousands of years from the start.
Whether it was due to her dull nature or excessive haste in her growth, her tens of thousands of years of cultivation had stagnated, unable to advance. Compared to her peers, she was utterly outmatched.
Thus, all the evil ghosts throughout Hell showed this somewhat frail Little Highness extra care and affection.
This had fostered her current foolish state—ignorant of worldly affairs, unable to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, or even recognize demons and monsters.
Yet despite this, Little Dumpling’s reputation resounded through the heavens and shook the Four Seas, for she was the King of Hell’s only Little Daughter—a noble, precious, and exalted Little Highness.
Bai Yan swallowed the blood at the corner of his mouth and sneered. “I am well aware of the Little Highness’s esteemed status. There is no need for Your Highness to remind me repeatedly.”
“Regardless of your intentions, escaping from prison without permission is a grave offense. Since Yu Heng entrusted you to my custody, whether you are rewarded or punished is for me to decide.”
As soon as Yan Yi finished speaking, hundreds of evil ghost soldiers appeared, each holding sharp and imposing red-tasseled spears. They marched forward in perfect unison. Though their steps were silent and they uttered no words, their presence evoked an unprecedented sense of awe-inspiring might and trembling fear.
They were like a well-trained army: once told where their target lay or who their enemy was, they would seize it without fail.
“Arrest him and bring him back to Hell. Punish him with a hundred lashes of the scorching whip, cast him into the Eighteenth Layer, and forbid him from taking a single step.”
“Yes, Ghost General obeys the command.”
“Father Lord?!” Little Dumpling was so frightened that she rushed forward, tightly clutching the hem of his robe, and said fearfully, “He… he didn’t hurt me. Please… please don’t kill him…”
He hadn’t done anything yet. How could he be cast into the Eighteenth Layer of Hell?
That was the place in this Hell that made cultivators wish for death, a place of unbearable agony.
Yan Yi turned slightly, looking down at her from above. His eyes were filled with a gloomy emptiness, utterly indifferent, especially as his words fell low and heavy: “My punishment of him is already an act of mercy. If he had truly harmed you, do you think mere punishment would suffice?”
“But he… he really didn’t do anything to me, Father Lord… could you… could you forgive him this once?”
“What, are you pleading for him?”
“I—” Little Dumpling immediately fell silent, her big, round eyes wide open as she looked pitifully and sorrowfully at the towering, imposing, and fiercely cold Father Lord before her. The words she wanted to say suddenly felt too frightening to utter.
Wah wah wah wah, Father Lord is so terrifying right now. What should she do? She wanted to cry.
“Little ghost!”
“Remember what I told you!”
“As long as you remember! Even if you kill me, I won’t be afraid!” Bai Yan suddenly shouted loudly at Little Dumpling, but before he could say anything more, he was already taken away by the entire ghost army.
“You—” Little Dumpling was about to ask him what she should remember when his figure vanished from the great hall. As she tried to look more closely, she suddenly met a pair of chillingly cold eyes, frightening her so much that her small body fell to the ground, tears welling up in her eyes.
“Hold it back.” Yan Yi uttered a sentence filled with immense intimidation and pressure, making her immediately suppress her tears as she choked out, “Father Lord…”
Wah wah wah wah, she really didn’t know anything. Please don’t look at her like that. It really, truly would scare a ghost to death.
“What did he say to you?”
“He didn’t say anything.” Little Dumpling immediately shook her head, her voice trembling with tears. He really hadn’t said anything, and even if he had just spoken, she had already forgotten it all.
Yan Yi slowly stepped forward, pressing with extreme patience, “I’ll ask you one more time. What did he say to you while he was here?”
“Wah wah, Father Lord, please don’t be like this…” Little Dumpling could no longer hold back. Crying, she crawled toward Yan Yi, following the embroidered five-clawed dragon horns on his robe upward as she climbed.
She cautiously extended her small, fair, and tender hands to wrap around Yan Yi’s neck.
Although she dared not look into her Father Lord’s eyes, fearing his anger and reprimand, for Xiao Miao Yuan, the warmest part of Father Lord’s chest would always be the place she felt safest.
As long as she obediently nestled in Father Lord’s embrace, clinging to his neck as she always had, and acted coquettishly in his arms, no matter how much trouble she caused, Father Lord would never harshly scold her again.
Little Dumpling felt the only warmth on Father Lord’s body, and her heart instantly settled. She sniffled her little nose and slowly said, “He… he just came to this hall, wanting to ask me… to ask me for medicinal flowers. It seemed like he said he needed them to treat his friend’s illness, but… but I don’t have any medicinal flowers…”
Yan Yi suddenly tightened his grip on Little Dumpling’s small arm, his eyes carrying a dangerous glint as he asked, “Where are your medicinal flowers?”
If Yan Yi remembered correctly, her Cosmic Bag should contain thousands upon thousands of medicinal flowers. Among them, a large portion had been stolen from his Spirit Ring—all of them were ones he had sent people to search for far and wide, purchased at high prices for her to nourish her body.
After all, Yan Yi had allowed this little dumpling to transform into human form in an instant, damaging her foundation, so she needed constant replenishment.
Little Dumpling quickly explained, “Didn’t Father Lord tell me to apologize to that Demon Clan member? I went to apologize, and he said we were even, so I gave all my medicinal flowers to him.”
“All of them?”
“Yes, all of them! I didn’t keep a single one. Didn’t Father Lord say that those who make mistakes must make amends and apologize?”
Yan Yi was so angry that his internal organs ached, his entire face darkening. His voice gradually grew sinister and dense as he said, “Then, did he mention that I had already given him a gift as compensation?”
Yan Yi didn’t mind giving Mo Han a few more gifts, but Little Dumpling’s medicinal flowers were specifically reserved for her for emergencies.
And what did she do? She turned around and gave them away as an apology gift, as if afraid others would think her apology wasn’t sincere enough.
Little Dumpling still hadn’t sensed anything wrong. She nodded and continued, “He did. That Demon Clan lord said the same thing, but I told him that Father Lord’s compensation was Father Lord’s share, and mine was my own share.”
Wasn’t she clever?
Little Dumpling lifted her small head, her expectant gaze fixed on him.
“Hah,” Yan Yi laughed coldly. He looked down at the little glutinous rice dumpling in his arms and effortlessly pulled her away. Before Little Dumpling could even register what was happening, she was already placed flat on the ground by Yan Yi. Yan Yi sneered, “You truly live up to being my daughter.”
Apologizing and making amends with such clear distinction between yours and mine.
How… splendid!