Marrying the Soft-hearted Villain

Lu Ziran's face was filled with astonishment. His handsome features twisted into a ferocious grimace for a fleeting moment. Seeing this, Niu Yue couldn't help but frown. Lu Ziran had always maintained a perfect facade in front of her, never revealing such an expression. Niu Yue wondered if she had perhaps been mistaken.

"Ziran, what's wrong?" Remembering Lu Ziran's recent tenderness towards her, Niu Yue suppressed the anger that had flared within her from being scolded and patiently inquired.

Lu Ziran, realizing his expression had betrayed him, lowered his head as Niu Yue's gaze met his. He clenched his fists, his voice low and pained. "Yuan Jue, that name… it's the same as the wolf demon who injured me all those years ago."

His eyes reddened, as if he had suffered a great injustice. Fabricating a story, he continued, "Back then, a human woman married him in our tribe. Out of goodwill, I went to visit them, but unexpectedly…"

His voice choked with feigned sobs. A powerful male demon, he expertly portrayed himself as a vulnerable victim. "That woman… he devoured her, bones and all. Not even a scrap remained."

Niu Yue had a weakness for powerful and handsome male demons who displayed vulnerability in front of her. Her heart softened immediately. Gently taking Lu Ziran's arm and resting her head on his shoulder, she comforted him. "Don't think about it. Perhaps it's just a coincidence? I've never heard of a demon becoming a Demon King. It must be someone with the same name."

Under normal circumstances, Niu Yue wouldn't care about coincidences. She would confidently declare, "Anyone who dares to offend someone I care for, I'll chop them to pieces!" But this was the Demon King they were talking about, a formidable being above the eighth rank. With a flick of his wrist, he could command the entire demon realm. Crushing her would be as easy as crushing an ant.

She didn't have the confidence to defeat the Demon King. Moreover, her own survival was uncertain. She might not even live long enough to see that day.

These thoughts brought a wave of sadness over even the resilient Niu Yue. Looking up at Lu Ziran's pale face, she made a silent decision. "Ziran."

Lu Ziran's mind raced with thoughts of abandoning Niu Yue and fleeing, but he kept his expression gentle and affectionate. "Hmm?"

"Leave," Niu Yue said, pushing him away with a resolute look in her eyes. Her expression was a mixture of pain and sorrow, but her words were firm. "Regardless of whether the Demon King is your old enemy, I've already…"

She changed her wording. "I've already grown tired of you. Don't follow me anymore."

Genuine surprise and bewilderment flashed across Lu Ziran's eyes. He hadn't expected Niu Yue to suggest his departure. His feelings were a complicated mix. He had assumed that demons' emotions were weaker than those of the yao, focused only on desire. However, Niu Yue's reaction to this predicament, so different from Rou Yue Rao's, stirred a flicker of guilt within him.

But only a flicker.

Lu Ziran, a creature of pure self-interest, immediately played along. "Yue, you…" He choked back a sob, as if hearing something unbearably heartbreaking.

Niu Yue was heartbroken too, but she refused to let her beloved male demon die with her. "Leave. The spatial passage back to the Yao Continent should still be open."

"Thank you for your company these past few days. Let's not meet again," Niu Yue said, her voice choked with emotion. Secretly, she yearned for Lu Ziran to stay by her side.

Demons had a legend: if two died together, their ashes mingling, they might be reunited in the next life.

Lu Ziran simply gazed at her from afar, silently shedding tears, feigning profound grief. "Alright, I understand."

He turned and left, never looking back until he disappeared from Niu Yue's sight.

As she watched him go, a strange feeling lingered in Niu Yue's heart. But she had no time for sorrow. Her communication talisman buzzed again, and Commander Ying's voice crackled through. "Damn it, Niu Yue, why aren't you here yet? The Lord said you have one last quarter of an hour. If you don't reach the Demon Palace, prepare for the demon gu to devour you from the inside out!"

Niu Yue wiped away her tears and let out a low growl. Her body swelled, transforming into a five-meter-tall, fifteen-meter-long horned demon, her skin covered in hard keratin. She galloped away on her five hooves.

Upper Demon Abyss, within Mo Xi's Demon Palace:

Blood-red trees shaped like inverted saws grew everywhere, their branches laden with countless yao corpses. They stretched out in all directions, shrouded in a thick, bloody mist.

The two trees closest to the palace were adorned with fresh red eagle carcasses. The flesh and blood of the powerful red eagles had been absorbed by Mo Xi, leaving only the weaker, older corpses uneaten.

Niu Yue, famished after her frantic run, devoured a small red eagle carcass, shifted back into her human form, and entered the Demon Palace.

Despite being called a palace, it was simply a structure built from a special ore found in the demon realm. By modern standards, it wasn't particularly grand, but in the Upper Demon Abyss, it was considered magnificent.

Guarded by numerous fourth-rank demons, Niu Yue entered the main hall and promptly knelt, slapping herself several times. "My Lord, I beg your forgiveness! Niu Yue is late."

She didn't dare raise her head or extend her spiritual senses, keeping her gaze fixed on the cold, unadorned floor.

Commander Ying, a middle-aged man with a sinister appearance, saw Niu Yue's hurried arrival and the traces of yao blood on her face. He glared at her and snorted. "My Lord, deal with her as you see fit."

A soft chuckle echoed through the silent air at Commander Ying's words.

Seated on the highest throne was a deathly pale demon, shrouded in blood mist. He looked remarkably human, with short black hair, arched eyebrows, and pitch-black eyes that seemed to lack any white. Strange patterns covered his skin.

He wore a white robe and a smile played on his lips, but it was a smile more terrifying than any frown. Killing intent radiated from his throne, keeping the demons on either side at a distance.

"Niu Yue, you're late." Mo Xi toyed with a black, fist-sized sphere. It pulsed rhythmically, as if something were trapped inside.

"This subordinate knows her mistake," Niu Yue trembled, sweat beading on her forehead and back. "I implore you to punish me, My Lord."

"Tsk." Mo Xi chuckled again, his voice soft and ethereal, like a fleeting illusion. "You know I dislike tardiness."

He squeezed the black sphere, and Niu Yue's face paled further.

Suddenly, he tightened his grip, and Niu Yue coughed up a mouthful of blood, hastily wiping it away with her sleeve. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

"Very well." Mo Xi, seemingly losing interest, shifted the topic with a cough, his tone displeased. "This newly emerged Demon King, is his name Yuan Jue?"

"Yes, My Lord," Commander Ying replied. "He appeared two days ago in a wasteland in the Lower Demon Abyss, along with the Forbidden Treasure Mountain, which had vanished for centuries. It's as if…"

Commander Ying trailed off, but all the high-ranking demons present understood his meaning. It was reminiscent of the terrifying previous Demon King from seven hundred years ago.

"Hmph." Mo Xi sneered, his lips curling. "Yuan Jue… that name sounds awfully like something I'd eat."

"Commander Yan, if I recall correctly, you and Commander Yan led the beast horde that crippled that wolf cub, Yuan Jue, in the Flame Wolf Tribe, didn't you?" Mo Xi asked. "And you were the one who suggested sending Qing Ruyi to monitor him?"

Commander Yan broke out in a cold sweat, his voice trembling. "Y-yes, My Lord."

He dropped to his knees. "My Lord, it must be a coincidence."

"Heh." Mo Xi scoffed but didn't pursue the matter further. "The army of one hundred thousand demons currently attacking us is far stronger than the thirty thousand I painstakingly cultivated. I have no intention of engaging the Demon King in battle."

"But…" Commander Ying began, surprised, but fell silent under Mo Xi's indifferent gaze.

"I've summoned you here to ask if you're willing to abandon everything and flee with me to the lower abyss. There might be a sliver of hope for survival there," Mo Xi said casually. "Those thirty thousand demons outside are merely a delaying tactic."

His gaze swept over the assembled demons, and he smiled faintly. "If you're unwilling, it doesn't matter. I won't force you. I'll grant you your freedom."

Mo Xi's tone was gentle, his smile widening, as if he genuinely intended to let them leave.

Niu Yue, still kneeling, trembled uncontrollably. She knew her lord was a high-ranking demon devoid of emotion. His sole purpose seemed to be the pursuit of power, constantly striving to become stronger. The only things that brought him any semblance of pleasure were the thrill of slaughter and the joy of cultivating his "fruits."

The black sphere in his hand was his greatest achievement in nearly two hundred years of life – a demon gu crafted from the core of a Star Moon Wolf demon who had just broken through to the seventh rank and had the potential to become a Yao King.

Mo Xi had seized the opportunity during the wolf demon's vulnerable post-breakthrough period, opening a spatial passage and slaughtering the wolf king's half-human, half-demon wife. Then, before the devastated wolf demon's eyes, he had ripped out her heart and devoured it.

He had beaten the wolf demon to within an inch of his life, laughing as he carved out his heart. "I hear you have a child. I wonder if its heart will be as delicious as its parents'."

Blood had flowed freely that day, the Star Moon Wolf Tribe nearly annihilated by the demons Mo Xi had brought with him. Mo Xi had called this triumphant massacre a "hunt" – a demon hunt of the yao.

She had been there, a mere foot soldier in the ranks, too weak to defeat a human couple. She had only managed to injure them before watching helplessly as they clutched a small girl and a wolf cub, leaping into the chaotic spatial rift.

Few creatures could survive the spatial turbulence, and so she had been spared. But that massacre had also taught her a chilling truth: her lord would never let them leave alive.

If any demon showed the slightest hint of dissent, Mo Xi would likely kill them on the spot.

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