The Hell Knight felt as calm as an ancient well over Ji Xiuning’s death.

Although Ji Xiuning had once been her host, she did not feel the slightest bit of emotion for her. No one knew better than the Hell Knight, Old Fourth Bai Ye, everything Ji Xiuning had done and thought.

"This Ji Xiuning is even more... dark than Fu Lingxi." The Hell Knight Old Fourth Bai Ye thought for a long time before choosing this word.

Fu Lingxi was an extremely selfish and self-serving woman, short‑sighted and a weathercock. Ji Xiuning was different; she was deeply scheming, with very lofty ambition and ideals.

"Bring Ji Yingsha in." Lanling said.

Not long after, the mature and beautiful Ji Yingsha came to the front of the great hall and knelt before Lanling.

She just knelt there quietly, saying nothing.

"Do you regret killing Jiang Shang?" Lanling asked.

"I don’t." Ji Yingsha said.

"Why?" Lanling asked.

"Because I hated him, or rather, I was extremely disgusted by him." Ji Yingsha said.

Lanling lifted his hand slightly, signaling her to go on.

Ji Yingsha said, "Everyone has selfish motives, no one is absolutely noble, that includes you, Great Emperor, doesn’t it?"

"Yes." Lanling said.

Ji Yingsha said, "But from beginning to end, Jiang Shang behaved as if he had no selfishness at all, thinking only of restoring the Dragon Emperor’s glory, thinking only of the common people under heaven, so noble it didn’t feel real. Staying by his side made me very uncomfortable, as if I was constantly being reminded that I was a despicable petty person. So killing him was a kind of release for me."

Lanling said, "Like a sun shining into the ravines, erasing all shadows, leaving nowhere to hide. Under that scorching light, there feels like no place to exist."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Ji Yingsha said. "So the instant I received the order, I truly let out a long breath. I was finally free, I no longer needed to keep acting. That’s why I killed him; all the other reasons are secondary."

Lanling laughed. "You’re trying to tell me you aren’t that loyal to the Sky Holy Palace at all. You killed Jiang Shang merely as a way to free yourself. You want to tell me that you and I are both worldly people. You’ve hidden it very well, but you still want to live, is that it?"

Ji Yingsha’s face trembled as she said, "Yes, this lowly concubine wants to live."

"Why?" Lanling said. "Within the Ji Family, aside from Ji Min, they’re all dead. Why do you still want to live?"

"I just... purely don’t want to die, I can’t bear to die." Ji Yingsha said.

Lanling lifted his head and thought for a moment, then said, "You should still go and die."

Gou Li stepped forward and thrust fiercely into Ji Yingsha’s back, instantly piercing her heart, then lightly slapped her head.

Ji Yingsha, unwilling even in death, had her soul scattered on the spot, her fragrant jade body destroyed.

...

The next day, Lanling brought Fu Yan’er and Fu Zilin, and under the lead of Demon Star Pavilion Master Ning Wuya, flew toward the Demon Star Pavilion.

Qin Qin was almost seventeen now, truly a beautiful, slender young maiden.

At this moment she had no idea what was happening outside, because she had never taken a single step out of the Demon Star Pavilion.

Right now she was still devoting herself entirely to painting.

This time, she seemed to be trying to paint Yan Nai’er, so she was completely immersed in her memories, picturing what Mother Yan Nai’er looked like.

After the people‑crazy Fu Yan’er entered the Demon Star Pavilion, she was about to start shouting, but Lanling covered her mouth. The woman stuck out her tongue and licked Lanling’s palm, and Lanling frowned, wiping the saliva onto the back of her skirt, while the shameless woman wriggled her hips again.

Even her son Fu Zilin couldn’t bear to watch and turned away on the spot.

Ning Wuya, meanwhile, directly knelt at the doorway, pressed flat to the floor without moving.

Lanling silently walked up behind Qin Qin and watched her paint.

Qin Qin painted very seriously, her body and mind fully invested, so much so that she didn’t notice at all that Lanling had come up behind her.

To see Qin Qin, Lanling had even deliberately changed his face, becoming exactly the same as before when he was Suo Lun.

Once Qin Qin finally finished the painting, Lanling suddenly stepped forward and picked her up.

"Ah..." Qin Qin let out a soft cry, turned her face around, and when she saw Lanling, first showed a wild joy that she almost didn’t dare believe.

"Daddy... Daddy... Daddy..."

The first call was hoarse, the second excited and joyful, the third so ecstatic it was almost bursting out of her.

After clearly seeing Lanling’s face, Qin Qin clung to him like a koala, so happy she didn’t even know whether she should cry or laugh.

Lanling carried her out just like he had eleven years ago.

Of all his many children, there were three he cherished the most: Qin Qin, Ashi Yuanba, and Zhi Yu. And among these three, the one he loved most was Qin Qin. Even though she was not his biological daughter, there was no difference anymore.

Qin Qin just held onto Lanling like that, crying softly.

For these past ten‑odd years, there had truly been only one belief in her mind: to see Daddy again. She had always firmly believed that one day Daddy would come to rescue her, rescue Mother, and rescue little brother.

After holding onto her father for a long time, Qin Qin gently struggled down, wiped away her tears, and said happily, "Daddy, wait for me a moment."

Then she ran into her room like a little bird.

Before this, every time she walked, her steps were light, neither fast nor slow, moving cautiously for fear of stepping on and killing an ant.

But now, without anyone teaching her, she was walking with the springy bounce of a sixteen‑ or seventeen‑year‑old girl in full bloom.

After quite a while, she came back carrying a thick stack of drawing paper, nearly half a meter high, enough to cover her little face completely.

"These are the things I’ve drawn over these years, and this is only part of them." Qin Qin happily pulled out one portrait after another.

Lanling had thought these would be portraits of himself, Zhi Yu, Fu Yan’er and the others. He hadn’t expected them to be memory scrolls.

From his and Qin Qin’s very first meeting, to every single day in the Ashi Liren Mansion, every memory. Him teaching Qin Qin and Ashi Yuanba to draw, to read, eating together, returning to Tianshui City, the whole family happily gathered together—those scenes, with Zhi Yu, Yan Nai’er, Suo Ningbing and many others, all appeared in the scrolls.

There were thousands of them. Truly, every single moment of life between her and Lanling had been recorded by her brush.

At the end were the scrolls of her life after she came to the Sky Holy Palace, with her mother and her younger brother Fu Zilin.

The earlier scrolls were full of sunlight, bright and vivid. The ones from the Sky Holy Palace, however, looked as if shrouded in a dark filter, steeped in gloom from start to finish.

Lanling was truly astonished. His daughter’s artistic talent really did surpass his own by far.

Any one of these paintings, taken out on its own, was a remarkable work of art.

By this time, Fu Zilin had already slipped in and was sprawled over the table, looking at the paintings.

"Big Sis..." Fu Zilin called.

Qin Qin gave him an indulgent smile, then ruffled his little head.

Fu Yan’er was a total airhead, so from childhood on it had always been Qin Qin who enlightened Fu Zilin, very much like an eldest-sister-as-mother, even though she herself was still very young.

Then Lanling, Qin Qin, and Fu Zilin spread all these over a thousand paintings out across the floor.

They reminisced as they went, explaining the scenes in the pictures to Fu Zilin.

At first Fu Yan’er had also been excitedly sprawled on the floor playing along, but later she grew impatient. She didn’t dare interrupt Lanling and Qin Qin, so she shot Qin Qin a fierce glare and said, "Heartless."

Qin Qin looked up with a smile. "Mother."

Fu Yan’er pouted. "So you still remember to call me that. Once you saw your father you forgot your own mother. The pair of you, father and daughter, are both biased."

Lanling laughed. "For such a brainless woman to give birth to two such outstanding children, you do get some credit."

"I hate you..." Fu Yan’er took the chance to throw herself at him, curling into Lanling’s arms, kissing and nuzzling him.

Fu Zilin said, "Mother, can you not do that? I’m still a kid. When you keep being all lovey-dovey with Dad like this, I feel really awkward watching."

"Go on, go on..." Lanling patted Fu Yan’er on the butt. "Before we go back to the Human Kingdom, hurry and go throw your weight around to your heart’s content."

At once, Fu Yan’er bolted out like a streak of smoke.

Since coming to the Sky Holy Palace she hadn’t interacted with many people, but there were still a dozen or so. She was going to visit every one of them, make each of them kneel and kowtow to her, beg and flatter her, and take back tenfold all the grievances she’d suffered before.

...

"Gui Qinshao gave birth to a daughter?" Lanling asked.

"Yes," Ning Wuya replied.

"Where are the mother and daughter now?" Lanling asked.

"Not in the Sky Holy Palace," Ning Wuya said. "They’re at Sky Academy."

"Sky Academy?" Lanling said in puzzlement.

Ning Wuya explained, "The offspring of the ruling class of the Human Kingdom, as well as the children of the Four Great Mizhou, all come to Shenlong Academy to study. And the very best disciples from Shenlong Academy all go on to Sky Academy for further training. Sky Academy has an extremely powerful energy environment, powerful laboratories, and powerful Energy Arrays. Ashi Yuanba and Gui Qinshao’s daughter are both studying at Sky Academy."

Lanling said, "Then why didn’t Qin Qin and Fu Zilin go?"

Ning Wuya said, "Because we knew that although Princess Qin Qin was favored by you, she was not your biological daughter and her bloodline talent was average. As for Prince Fu Zilin, at the time we felt that Fu Yan’er was out of favor, so we somewhat neglected him as well."

Lanling let out a cold laugh. "They’re my children, and I haven’t ranked them by status—but you people have."

"Your guilty minister deserves ten thousand deaths." Ning Wuya knelt and bowed his head to the floor.

Lanling glanced at him without speaking, then noticed a stunningly seductive woman kneeling beside him—Kui Yao.

The former Demon Pavilion Master, Kui Shuangshuang’s mother.

She had been kneeling off to the side the whole time without moving. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Exterminate every last member of the Demon Dragon Clan," Lanling ordered.

"By... by Your command..." Ning Wuya kowtowed, tears slipping from the corners of his eyes.

After a brief hesitation, he kowtowed and said, "Your guilty minister begs Your Majesty to spare Kui Yao’s life. She is not like Kui Shuangshuang; she has no ambitions. She’s just a simple woman."

Lanling said, "Ning Wuya, you don’t strike me as a sentimental man. You’d care about the death of a Kui Yao?"

Ning Wuya pressed himself flat to the floor, knocking his head against it repeatedly. "To report to Your Majesty, before this your guilty minister truly did not care whether Kui Yao lived or died, even though she has followed me for decades. But... after Your Majesty took the Sky Holy Palace, this minister was left with nothing—no one—save her alone. So... I beg Your Majesty for mercy!"

Lanling thought for a moment and said, "Do you know what my greatest trait is?"

"This... this minister does not know." Ning Wuya kowtowed again.

Lanling said, "I do as I please and am fickle in my moods. Today I saw my precious daughter, so my heart is soft. I’ll spare this woman’s life."

Lanling stepped forward and easily stripped the Demon Dragon Clan bloodline from Kui Yao’s body.

In an instant, Kui Yao rapidly aged, turning from a peerlessly beautiful woman in her thirties into a woman over fifty, old and worn. From this day on, she would no longer be of the Demon Dragon Clan, but only an ordinary human woman.

Ning Wuya slammed his head to the ground. "Your minister kowtows in thanks for Your Majesty’s boundless grace!"

Kui Yao dropped heavily to her knees, forehead touching the floor, sobbing softly.

"Let’s go. Take me to see Gui Qinshao and her daughter," Lanling said.

...

Note: Here is the second update. I beg for your support, beg for monthly tickets, thank you all.