Tsukika’s thoughts were like an onion.

Peel back one layer, and there was another inside.

Every time he thought he’d touched the truth, there was another truth hidden beneath it.

But this time, Li Wei had no mind to care about any of that.

Because Tsukika had mentioned his daughter.

The daughter he had “abandoned” for seven years, and only with great difficulty gotten a chance to have again.

“So you’re saying that some absurd setting like this wasn’t placed on all demons, but only on Yue Lin alone?”

he asked softly.

Tsukika replied flatly, “That’s right.”

“On the day Yue Lin was born, she received no support from her father, no blessing from the world. The only thing she received was a curse.”

Her crimson eyes rested quietly on Li Wei.

“The war between demons and humans lasted for a very long time. They slaughtered each other, violated each other... What the Chosen Hero did to me in the past, how could that possibly have been a one-off between demons and humans? But have you ever heard of any other child born from a demon and a human?”

“It’s a universally accepted rule in this world that demons and humans cannot produce offspring.”

“...So Yue Lin was the one who broke the rule.”

Li Wei murmured softly.

“The one who broke the rule wasn’t her. It was you and me.”

Tsukika corrected him in the same calm tone.

Li Wei paused for only a moment, then understood what she meant.

Tsukika was the Demon Lord. He had once been the strongest human alive. Their union, and the birth of a life from it, had exceeded the limits of some rule.

That rule couldn’t target them.

But it could target their daughter.

So some kind of correction became this world’s curse, and descended upon Yue Lin.

“Her existence is a violation of the rules. A curse upon this world. But to me, she is happiness.”

“And when this world turns around and curses her, it is cursing my happiness.”

Tsukika let out a cold laugh.

“I won’t let anyone, or anything, take her from me. I don’t care what it is that tries to take her away. I don’t care whether I have to kill humans or other demons.”

“But what about you, Chosen Hero? As her father, do you want to become my enemy... or become my accomplice?”

Tsukika suddenly leaned close to Li Wei, just like the first time they met. Back then, the boy had abruptly stepped into her space while she was defenseless, cleanly breaking through the walls around her heart.

Only this time, the one who instinctively stepped back wasn’t her.

It was the seemingly lost Chosen Hero.

She lifted those crimson eyes, like she was waiting for candy, and pressed him without mercy.

“Will you keep choosing to uphold your justice... or protect the selfish desire you may never have had?”

Looking at the stunned Hero, Tsukika found herself thinking of a distant past. A trace of sorrow and pity flashed through her eyes, so faint it was almost impossible to catch.

It seemed she had never once seen Li Wei fight for himself.

But one day, he would completely break his shackles.

And so would she.

Maybe when that day came...

...

Li Wei stared blankly into Tsukika’s crimson pupils.

How strange.

Those eyes were clearly the color of blood, dyed scarlet like fresh gore. So why could they reflect his image with such clarity?

That was what he murmured to himself.

But in his mind, Tsukika’s question kept repeating.

Selfish desire.

To Li Wei, it was a word far too unfamiliar.

When had he first lost something like that?

Was it the moment he chose to become the Chosen Hero and set foot on the road to save the world?

Or was it the moment he watched that girl—the one he had given candy to, the one he had promised a better future—die before his eyes, while he failed to protect anything at all?

Or maybe it was the moment he watched sacrifice after sacrifice pile up, and had no choice but to shoulder the responsibilities passed down to him.

Li Wei didn’t know.

He only knew this:

Back then, he had thrown himself onto the path of becoming the strongest because he wanted to protect the people precious to him.

In the end, it seemed he had reached the end of that road.

But at the end of it, that road had become unbearably lonely.

Even after stepping down from the position of the strongest, that loneliness had never left him.

If anything, it had wrapped around him even tighter.

In the end, it felt like all he had left was responsibility.

The meaning of protecting others... seemed to have become nothing more than protecting for its own sake.

And yet.

That state, that loneliness, suddenly seemed to have changed.

Li Wei couldn’t help pressing a hand to his chest.

That word, selfish desire, which had been foreign to him for so long, had quietly settled into his heart once more.

Whether Li Wei wanted to admit it or not, it remained there in silence, living in his chest.

When he decided to leave the party and retire, that thing had not yet truly taken shape.

Its real beginning...

was when Tsukika appeared with their daughter.

The moment he realized that, Li Wei’s gaze trembled. He looked at the Demon Lord before him again.

And suddenly, it all felt a little ridiculous.

The cold and ruthless Demon Lord was willing to bear any price, any burden, to save her daughter.

Yet he, the Chosen Hero supposedly full of human passion and feeling, was still standing on the road to save his daughter, coldly judging himself in the name of justice over burdens he no longer even wanted to carry.

Hero, or father.

The first time he met Yue Lin, his daughter’s outpouring of pain and sorrow had lodged itself in his chest again, tightening around his heart and breath little by little.

Those tear-choked words of hers had really meant only one thing.

—He was the strongest Chosen Hero.

But not for even a single moment had he ever been her Hero.

He fell silent for a long while, then suddenly asked,

“What’s the method for suppressing Yue Lin’s curse? Do we still have time to make more preparations? Is there any chance of a better option?”

Even as he asked, Li Wei mocked himself inwardly.

Because even now, he was still thinking that on the human side, materials like death-row prisoners locked in cells would be more suitable...

But the moment an execution was carried out for selfish desire, it became hypocritical justice.

Still.

That identity of a flawless man had never really belonged to him in the first place.

What he wanted to preserve wasn’t justice at all. It was only the principles he had defined for himself. And if he laid hands on the innocent, then perhaps even those principles would have to break...

Tsukika smiled.

On her small face, as if stained red beneath a deep crimson glow, that smile became even more enchanting.

Li Wei was still asking questions, but she knew it already.

He had made his choice.

He had already stepped across the line.

“There isn’t one anymore, Chosen Hero.”

“The curse on our daughter hasn’t been suppressed for a very long time.”

Tsukika spoke in a low, distant voice. “As for the method of suppressing it, naturally, it’s to deceive the curse. The curse consumes Yue Lin’s life. I mixed the lives of demons and humans together as materials, then used sacrifice to alter a divine artifact so it could be consumed in Yue Lin’s place by the curse. But that kind of consumption requires a constant supply of fresh materials.”

“Today is the day the curse erupts again. And with the lingering curse still draining it from before, the materials the divine artifact previously Devoured are no longer enough to withstand another outbreak.”

“There are no materials more perfectly suited than the subjugation force that came out of the Demon King Citadel. They satisfy both conditions at once, human and demon. I picked them very carefully.”

After saying that, Tsukika tightened her grip slightly on Li Wei’s hand and led him out from the forest shadows by the roadside.

At the same time, a layer of crimson light covering them both rippled like water.

Only at this moment did Tsukika truly use the power of her Domain to swallow both herself and Li Wei into it.

Their earlier conversation had seemed detached from the world outside the Domain. Even when that subjugation force passed right by them, they noticed nothing unusual.

Only now, when the two of them truly merged into the Domain, did the subjugation force suddenly realize something was wrong. Shocked and wary, they stared at the two figures that had appeared out of nowhere ahead on the road.

As they had been trapped walking inside the Domain, they had already sensed that something was off.

The road ahead had begun looping back on itself. No matter how they walked, they couldn’t break out of the cycle.

Li Wei looked at the subjugation force.

He didn’t know any of these people. The thought of striking down innocents filled his heart with a crushing heaviness.

But the instant that thought crossed his mind, many people in the force snapped out of their brief shock and stared at Li Wei with shrinking, trembling pupils.

Neither side spoke.

Before Li Wei or Tsukika could say a single word, dark figures carrying a fierce killing intent suddenly dropped from the treetops on both sides of Li Wei.

Three assassin-class fighters, each close to level 50, had long been lying in ambush by the roadside. Before Li Wei or Tsukika could make any move, they launched a coordinated surprise attack at Li Wei without the slightest hesitation.

They had locked onto Li Wei.

Their eyes surged with killing intent.

“Shadow Leap!”

“Backstab!”

The three shadows moved as one, unleashing their strongest assassination skills with ruthless precision.

Their attack seemed to melt into the screaming air itself, a sharp killing aura rushing straight at him.

“Shhk.”

Then came the faint sound of flesh being cut.

Or rather, not just one sound.

Countless sounds of flesh being sliced overlapped in the same instant.

The three assassins froze mid-lunge in the air, one meter away from Li Wei and Tsukika, still locked in their agile attack postures.

Killing intent still flowed in their eyes.

And then...

bloody mist suddenly burst from their bodies in clusters.

Under the shocked and terrified gaze of the convoy, the three strongest members of their group exploded into clouds of blood just like that. Their shattered bodies broke into countless pieces and pattered down to the ground.

A kill in an instant, without warning.

Not only had the onlookers failed to see how the three died.

Even the three assassins themselves had not realized they had been killed until the moment they died.

The only one unsurprised was Li Wei.

Tsukika’s invisible slicing power was a nightmare even for many Heroes above level 70.

Among those people, the special power Tsukika wielded even had its own name—

Judgment.

That power was derived from Tsukika’s Domain.

The moment Tsukika decided to target these people, Li Wei had already known this would be a slaughter they had no power to resist.

But now, his focus had suddenly shifted again.

He was no longer dwelling on the blood of innocents that seemed about to stain his hands.

Li Wei looked toward the leader of the convoy, a level 51 holy-light class fighter. His face was full of terror.

But Li Wei had clearly noticed something.

The moment he and Tsukika appeared, that man’s gaze had landed on him.

Li Wei had made no attempt to disguise himself. He had long been prepared for the possibility of being recognized.

What he hadn’t expected was this:

After the initial shock, the emotion in that man’s eyes had turned into fear and... vicious killing intent.

The same went for the three assassins’ decisive strike.

At first glance, it seemed reasonable. Faced with an abnormal situation, they had set up an ambush in advance and responded quickly.

But the more he thought about it, the more every part of it felt wrong.

“Why, after recognizing me, was their first thought not to ask why I was here, or what I was trying to do... but to kill me?”

That was Li Wei’s confusion.

Those three had seemed to cover both him and Tsukika in their attack.

But in truth, their target had only ever been him.

Tsukika smiled sweetly, her gaze fixed on the fear etched across their faces.

She raised a hand and gently swept it forward. Instantly, the invisible wind turned murderous, thick with the scent of blood.

“Leave the leader to me.”

Li Wei’s voice came softly.

Tsukika pursed her pink lips slightly, casting him an ambiguous glance. Then she lifted a finger again, gently swiping sideways to redirect the invisible slash.

“Monster…”

“Monster!”

By now, the convoy members’ minds had shattered at the brutal deaths of the three assassins. Not a moment was spared for grief—driven by raw terror, they scattered in panic.

But trapped within Tsukika’s Domain, where could they possibly flee?

In a blink, the invisible cutting force engulfed them. Without exception, not even a scream escaped before their bodies split cleanly in two. They collapsed onto the ground, slowly swallowed by the blood-soaked earth.

Only the holy light practitioner seated at the convoy’s front remained.

Outwardly composed, despair had utterly consumed his heart—especially the moment he saw his comrades fall into deathly silence in a single breath.

“Who are you? Why do you want to kill me?”

Li Wei’s voice suddenly sounded right before him.

The holy light practitioner’s pupils trembled violently at Li Wei’s instantaneous appearance. Li Wei saw shock, confusion, bewilderment, fear… and finally, something like relief flash across his eyes—all in a fleeting instant.

The moment Li Wei shot a hand toward his chin, the man’s eyes glazed over. Black blood oozed from his mouth.

Li Wei slowly lowered his hand. The man was already dead.

A faint freeze crossed Li Wei’s expression, his gaze complex. He hadn’t expected this man to possess a suicide soldier’s resolve—to choose death so decisively, revealing nothing.

How could he not realize now? This convoy was far from innocent… or simple.

He turned to Tsukika. “With your power, stopping his suicide shouldn’t have been hard, right?”

“Chosen Hero,” Tsukika replied, feigning innocence as she approached. A faint flicker stirred in her crimson eyes. *His movement just now didn’t use my power.* *As expected—he still has hidden cards.*

Seeing Li Wei silent, she pouted. “Besides, I meant to kill him anyway. If you’d asked me to do it, I might’ve helped. But he chose death himself—asking a demon to save a human? Isn’t that a bit unreasonable?”

Li Wei studied the Demon Lord’s deliberately clueless act, then murmured, “You’d already spotted something off about them… that’s why you targeted them?”

Tsukika’s innocent mask melted into a scoff. “Tsk, tsk. Only realizing it now? Didn’t I say they were *carefully selected*? You really missed the point.” A teasing smile curled her lips.

“What a pity—I won’t see the Chosen Hero’s anguished struggle after corrupting himself to slaughter innocents for his daughter. As compensation… how about showing me a few cute expressions tonight?”

Twirling the tip of her silver ponytail, her pink lips curved in a casual, teasing smirk.

Li Wei paused. “Then why stop? Wouldn’t a ‘carefully selected’ target better serve your interests?”

Tsukika giggled. “Your threat still holds *some* weight. A fleeting corruption? Boring. Having the Chosen Hero follow me forever? Far more interesting. My vision isn’t as short-sighted as those fools who abandoned you. For now, I’m wholeheartedly devoted to winning your love.”

Noticing Li Wei’s unchanged expression, she tilted her head. “Why stare so intently, Chosen Hero? Moved that I preserved your heroic integrity? Starting to like this Demon Lord?”

This time, Li Wei didn’t deflect. He held her gaze seriously for a long moment. “Thank you.”

Tsukika froze—just for a heartbeat—then masked it with playful disdain. “Huh? Thanking a Demon Lord *after* watching her kill? Sun rising in the west today.” She pouted. “But ‘thank you’? So little sincerity. Real gratitude means dropping your pants. Common sense, right?”

Her small hand, hidden behind her back, clenched tight. *He actually thanked me… sincerely?*

Before she could steady her racing heart—her eyes widened.

“You’re *actually* taking them off!?”