A green snake flicked its forked tongue, its jade-bright eyes pinning the girl below like pins on silk.

She let the wild berry drop, forced a fawning smile that wobbled like a paper lantern in wind. “Uh-hehe… boss, you eat, you eat.”

The snake ignored her, coiling tight, gliding closer like a creeping vine chasing sunlight.

The purple-haired girl stepped back two paces, memory stirring like mist—her master had said snakes don’t rashly attack prey bigger than themselves.

Nerves knotted like wet rope, she squatted and dared not move.

Then the snake’s pupils gleamed with crafty light, sly as moonlight on a blade.

Its mouth opened; it lunged like a spring uncoiling.

“Waaah!” She jerked on reflex, slammed the scabbard into its face, then bolted, tears flying like rain.

Struck, the snake refused to chase. It licked the air, then flashed into an azure longsword, whooshing back like a blue comet to the hand of a man standing on a high branch.

Li Gongxuan covered his mouth with one hand and with the other slapped the trunk, laughter bursting like firecrackers. “Pff—hahaha! This girl’s too funny!”

The purple-haired girl ran and wiped her eyes, cursing like thunder under her breath. “Dammit, that stinky old man tricked me!”

She missed a stone, rolled across the ground like a tumbleweed. “Ugh… waaah!”

She hit a sapling and finally stopped. She wiped the dust from her cheeks, brow knotted like a drawn bow. “The gods must be sick of me lately.”

Perched on the crown of the tree, Li Gongxuan glanced at the sky, then eyed her with teasing sunlight. “Well. Whether the gods like you, I don’t know. But you’re real fun, that’s true.”

Ahead, water murmured like a silver ribbon. She grabbed her scabbard. A narrow river flowed there, broken ice drifting downstream like shattered mirrors.

Her eyes lit like stars. “Oh! Long live—maybe the gods do love me!”

Li Gongxuan sighed a helpless smile, then froze, a hawk’s focus snapping in. “Hold up!”

She was already at the riverbank. She looked up at him, puzzled like a deer in tall grass.

“Huh?”

Roar!

From midstream, a massive tentacle shot out, whipping toward her like a black mast.

A colossal maw surged up right after, breaking the water like a cliff.

“Begone!”

Li Gongxuan’s shout cracked like thunder. His palm cut out, Battle Aura condensing in an instant like a storm packed into a fist. The pressure of wind he raised pinned the flung tentacle and its owner hard to the riverbed like stones under torrents.

The nameless beast roared, unwilling, a furnace of sound under water.

A giant hand of radiant golden Battle Aura fell like a sunlit mountain, and with unmerciful force hammered the beast into pulp.

Li Gongxuan dropped, cradled the girl, turned with her in his arms. The splash thundered down like monsoon rain; his body arched over her, keeping the cold spray from her skin.

Her scabbard trembled like a bird ready to home, then flew to Jade North Star’s side. The white blade Jade North Star slid into the scabbard on its own, neat as a swan landing on a lake.

Li Gongxuan smiled, wiped the mud from her face with a sleeve damp as morning grass. His voice was soft, like shade in summer. “Not hurt, right?” Smug as a tomcat, he thought, With me behind you, if you get hurt I might as well eat crap.

She frowned, a ripple passing through water. “Mm. I think I sprained my ankle.”

Li Gongxuan coughed, the sound dry as dust. “...Ahem.”

She lifted a brow like a feathering blade. “Huh? What’s wrong?”

“Ahem. Nothing. I’ll get you out of here.”

“Wow, that’s perfect—let’s go!” She bounced like a sparrow, not wearing the chill of near-death at all.

Li Gongxuan sighed, wind through leaves, then hefted her onto his shoulder again.

“Hey! Could you be a little more elegant to a lady?” Her protest fluttered like a flag.

This guy had moved hero-handsome while saving her; but then his brain wandered like clouds.

“Oh, uh…”

“I won’t run!” she shouted, voice bright as metal.

Li Gongxuan glanced at her, gaze steady as stone. “Mm. Your name first?”

“...Carlo… Carlo Shetiel.”

“Good.” He nodded like a tapping drum, then lifted her in a princess carry, arms firm as iron.

Carlo went speechless, silence stretching like twilight.

They moved for a long while, Li Gongxuan leaping across treetops like a flying fox. Carlo finally muttered, prickly as thistle. “Hey—dumping me over there without a single word?”

Li raised a brow, thought drifting like a lazy cloud. Explain? To whom—his girlfriend? Why explain.

So Li ignored the purple-haired chatterbox whose words ran like a brook.

When they returned to the Ninth Prince’s manor, they found Eli in a white mage robe, dressed to the nines like a swan, and Li’s sister chewing an apple like a rabbit.

“Hm? Your sister said you’ll act with me?” Eli tilted his head like a curious owl, flicked a look at the girl in Li’s arms, then let it go like a leaf.

Li set Carlo down, smiling like spring. “Yeah. Looks like I’ll need to guard my dumb little sister for a while.”

Eli nodded once, simple as a bell. One more Sacred Rank stronger than him was worth more than gold.

Hilriad stepped out in peasant clothes, moving like a calm stream. He looked around. “Oh? Another gentleman with us?”

Eli smiled, easy as sunshine. “Yes, Your Highness. You don’t mind, right?”

Hilriad’s smile was warm as tea. “Of course. Many hands, great strength.” He turned to the butler behind him. “Moser, I’ll trouble you again for a while.”

Moser shook his head, steady as an old tree. “It’s nothing, Your Highness.”

Eli squinted at the morning star already kindled like a torch in the blue. He waved to the group, gesture crisp as a flag. “We move. Target: the Holy Court Church.”

…

“Ahhh! Failed again.” Edlyn rolled her eyes, frustration snapping like a taut string.

She tried to compress the black mist to a dense cloak, to wear it like night, but every time it either snapped apart like brittle ice, or thinned so much it’d expose places best left under moonlight.

She squatted and drew circles on the floor, sulky as rain.

Reni, already hopping mad like a sparrow on hot tiles, checked the time, bit down hard like biting a chili. “Screw it! We have to go in and look!”

She bowed to the black-mist chamber, voice ringing like a bell. “Your Majesty, Demon King! Forgive the intrusion!”

She pushed through the dense magic fog like parting reeds, walking to the room’s depths. “Your Majesty?”

Edlyn jolted, a shiver like frost up her spine. She hurried to wrap herself in the surrounding mist, night swathing her like velvet. “Mm? What is it?”

Reni let out a breath, relief soft as dusk. “Whew. Great—you’re fine.”

“Mm.” Edlyn’s tone went stiff, brittle like thin glass.

“But, Your Majesty… why not come out? Our demonfolk are waiting for your return like fields waiting for rain.” Reni scratched her hair, baffled as a cat.

Edlyn’s mouth twitched, then after a moment’s thought like a slow tide, she said, “Reni, go find something more… domineering. Bring it for me to change into, so I don’t lose face.”

Reni frowned, crease sharp as a cut. “True… but as long as it’s you, to us you’re our supreme awe. No need for extras.”

“Enough with the chatter. Just go!” Edlyn snapped, her voice cracking like a whip.

Reni tucked her head and ran to fetch clothes for the Demonic Lord, feet quick as mice.

“Just toss it to me when you’re back. No need to walk up,” Edlyn called, thinking ahead like chess.

“Oh…” Reni pouted, lips like a peach. Was the Demonic Lord disgusted with her?

“Ahem. Don’t overthink it. I just—mm—can’t touch anyone now. Or your legs will go soft like jelly and you’ll kneel here for a while.” Sensing her mood drop like clouds, Edlyn offered the excuse fast as a thrown fan.

Sure enough, Reni lit up like dawn and hurried to get the clothes.

A short while later, Edlyn emerged bearing a crown set with gems for the seven branches of the Supreme Demon Ruler, silver hair spilling over her shoulders like a moonlit waterfall. She wore a black long-sleeve dress, went barefoot like a temple dancer, eyes closed, aura ‘domineering’ like storm over sea, stepping from the mist.

She flicked her hand, and the chamber’s fog fled like birds; she opened her eyes, and the demon generals felt that familiar command wash over them like a tide. Within that imperious force, a stronger surge rose in them like spring sap.

The returned Demon King gave the Demon Race something they hadn’t felt in a century. Confidence, bright as a dawn banner.

Her eyes were mismatched, twin lanterns in night.

Her amber left eye poured self-belief like fire, and bloodline pressure settled like mountains, reminding them she was truly that peak-standing Demon King.

Her emerald right eye hummed, speeding the magic within their bodies like rivers after rain.

Reni stared into Edlyn’s eyes, power coursing through her like wind through pines. “So this is the commander’s radiance of our Demon Race?”

Edlyn’s smile bloomed, the chill on her pretty face melting like frost. “Good. The world belongs to strength. I’ll be back very soon.”

Her beautiful gaze tilted toward a certain direction, sharpening like a blade’s edge. “Hero… I’ll make you taste what I tasted these years. And the humiliation you fed me.”

Somewhere, Eli, busy arranging a carriage, sneezed, sudden as a sparrow’s chirp. “Ah-choo… huh? Hell, even a Sacred Rank can catch a cold?”

“We welcome our lord’s descent. The Demon King eternal! The Demon Race eternal!” Reni led like a drumbeat, left foot sliding back a step, dropping to one knee. Her left fist pressed to her chest; her right hand rested on her right knee.

Behind her, the demons mirrored the motion like a field of reeds bowing to wind. When all had knelt, they lowered their heads together, loyalty heavy as stone.

Edlyn smiled, cute and impish as a fox. “Good, my people. The Demon Race returns in force. Let them learn that only my Demon Race deserves the summit of all life!”

A thunder of cheers rolled like surf. “Oh!”

Edlyn raised her left arm, high as a standard. “I, Pandora—no. I, Edlyn Bruyar! The Arrogant Supreme Demon Ruler, Pandora’s reincarnation! Hereby, the Demon King officially returns!”

“Long live the Demon King! Long live the Demon Race!”

Edlyn laughed, joy bursting like fireworks. This day had finally come.