About half an hour later, the two of them had hastily finished the food in their own bowls. Then, as if by unspoken agreement, they quietly watched their daughter, who was rubbing her round little belly with complete satisfaction.

It was only a while after finishing her meal that Yue Lin seemed to notice something was off. She blinked, looking a little dazed and confused as she glanced at her parents, as if she couldn't understand why they were both staring at her.

She tried to think.

But by this point, her brain had no room left for thinking at all.

Like some miserable grade-schooler forced to finish all their summer homework in one day, then dragged on an all-day military-speed trip the next, she completely crashed.

The energetic ahoge on top of the girl's head had long since curled up. With a blissful look still on her face, she suddenly tipped sideways and fainted.

Before Yue Lin could hit the ground, Li Wei reached out and caught her.

His daughter's body was soft and light in his arms, lighter than a feather, almost unreal in its weightlessness.

And yet beyond that unreal feeling, Li Wei also felt something heavy.

The weight of happiness.

After so long apart, this was the first time he had held his daughter...

And he actually had to rely on Tsukika drugging her to do it without restraint.

Li Wei's feelings were complicated.

"If the Chosen Hero had been this gentle with me back then, I probably wouldn't have hated you this much."

Tsukika gazed at the father and daughter with dark, unreadable eyes. A strange light flickered in her crimson pupils.

Li Wei forcibly ignored the truckload of innuendo rolling over his face and asked softly, "Yue Lin doesn't know about the curse on her?"

When Tsukika told him the drug was for their daughter, he had already roughly guessed what she was planning.

"Of course I can't let her know something like that," Tsukika said leisurely.

She looked into Li Wei's eyes and smiled. "Yue Lin already knows she was raised all alone by her mother with great difficulty, and that alone is enough to make her heart ache for me. How could I bear to tell her about the curse too? If she knew her mother had always been living in fear, constantly suppressing her curse, she'd be devastated."

Li Wei unconsciously pulled the daughter in his arms a little tighter. But as he looked at Tsukika, his heart also tightened bit by bit.

Though Tsukika spoke lightly, he could still imagine how much hardship she had endured to let their daughter grow up safely. Especially now that he knew Yue Lin's existence seemed to be a taboo in this world, he belatedly realized...

Behind everything he couldn't see, Tsukika must have paid a huge price just to hide Yue Lin's identity. Not to mention secretly gathering materials all this time to suppress her curse.

Li Wei couldn't even explain where this aching pain came from.

Was he pitying a Demon Lord?

Tsukika seemed to see the struggle in his heart and the complicated feelings hidden in his eyes. Her own emotions stirred slightly, but she kept smiling as she continued,

"But now that I have a guilty accomplice helping me shoulder that burden, things are much easier for me. Wouldn't you agree, Chosen Hero?"

Li Wei didn't answer directly. After a moment of silence, he said, "Why is your neck red?"

Tsukika's skin was far too pale and delicate. So while she was speaking, Li Wei could clearly see a flush slowly creeping up her fair neck, adding a seductive charm to her already lovely appearance.

That was what confused him. This Demon Lord often had a blush on her cheeks, but that was usually from excitement or teasing, and he was used to it by now. But this was the first time he'd seen her neck turn red before her face did.

"????"

Tsukika immediately raised a hand to cover her collarbone, then shot Li Wei a fierce glare.

"You really never miss a chance to observe me, do you, Chosen Hero? But isn't your attention landing in a very inappropriate place at a very inappropriate time?"

"I'm worried something's wrong with you, aren't I? What we're about to do next depends a lot on your condition, right?" Li Wei looked at the hand she had pressed to her chest, and the corner of his eye twitched.

For one brief moment, he had the urge to remind her... there was no need to cover up. There wasn't really anything there to cover.

But when he thought of the soft, warm fabric that had been stuffed into his mouth not long ago, he wisely suppressed that thought.

The sock was already in his pocket. If this Demon Lord retaliated again, who knew what she'd shove into his mouth next.

The flush on Tsukika's neck had already spread to her face, but it wasn't embarrassment.

It was irritation.

She was so mad she almost laughed. With a cold sneer, she said, "Thank you for your concern, Chosen Hero. I'm perfectly fine. There's absolutely nothing wrong."

She had thought this guy had noticed something.

But was she just overthinking it?

Tsukika's eyes turned cold.

"...Then it's fine." Li Wei looked at the suddenly half-broken Demon Lord with suspicion. After a pause, he asked, "What do we do next?"

"Before the curse erupts, I'll trigger it myself."

Tsukika calmed down and said flatly,

"By the way."

"The method to complete your power may be with our daughter."

"But whether you can find it or not depends on you."

Li Wei froze slightly.

After being led around in such a huge circle by Tsukika, then learning that their daughter was entangled by a curse, he had almost forgotten about that matter. Or rather, even if he remembered, he had only treated it as an excuse Tsukika used to lure him over. He had never thought there was still room to turn things around.

And now Tsukika was telling him the method to complete his power was actually real?

This Demon Lord really hadn't gone back on her word?

But why would it have anything to do with their daughter?

Still, looking at Tsukika's composed little face, Li Wei wisely chose not to provoke her, even though he had no idea why she had suddenly become so angry.

Tsukika pulled a pendant out from inside Yue Lin's collar.

The shape of the purple teardrop made Li Wei's gaze tremble again.

After hesitating for a moment, he said,

"If I'm not mistaken, this is the divine artifact worshipped by the Eternal Church, the Tear of Eternity?"

Like the Legion, the Eternal Church was a major power that gathered many spellcasters. They held a lofty faith in the fallen gods, using that faith as the core that bound their organization together, and often acted as agents of the gods. In some ways, they held even greater influence than the Legion.

"Is that so? Then why don't I know that?" Tsukika said.

"Does it have the Eternal Church's name written on it?"

Li Wei silently raised a hand and pointed at the ouroboros-like symbol on the pendant.

Tsukika: "..."

She wiped a hand across it. Blood-red sealing patterns immediately appeared on the teardrop, forming a special spell that swallowed the symbol back up.

"Now it doesn't."

Li Wei opened his mouth as he looked at Tsukika, but before he could speak, he swallowed his words back down.

Tsukika noticed the motion. After thinking for a moment, she suddenly gave him a half-smile.

"Don't tell me you were about to say that if you'd come to me for help earlier, taking this thing would've been much easier."

"But you know~ if we'd met back then, forget handing over the teardrop. I'd have been lucky if you didn't give me a few sword strikes instead."

Li Wei really wanted to say, you said all that yourself. I didn't say a thing.

But when he met Tsukika's dark, quiet gaze, he thought it over and decided to stay silent to the end.

Never argue with a woman.

Especially when that woman was a Demon Lord.

Still, when a Demon Lord got angry, was she actually no different from an ordinary girl?

Li Wei thought blankly.

In his old impression, a Demon Lord's fury was always tied to rivers of blood and corpses strewn for miles.

But now?

It was sarcasm, petty sulking, and anti-Hero weaponry.

Seeing that Li Wei wasn't speaking, Tsukika gave a light huff. She took out the crimson blood bead she had condensed earlier and pressed it against the purple teardrop.

The blood bead melted at a visible speed and was absorbed by the teardrop.

The faint blood-red patterns on the teardrop instantly became much clearer, completely changing the Tear of Eternity beyond recognition. Only then did Li Wei understand why the mark of Eternity had been exposed earlier.

It was because the power Tsukika had infused into it had already been exhausted.

Tsukika raised a finger. The blood-red patterns on the teardrop formed a special sigil, then suddenly trembled, as if some kind of seal had been undone.

The moment Tsukika released the seal, Li Wei felt an immense malice surge out from every corner of the world, all of it locking onto his daughter.

A dark aura gathered from all directions, seeping into every gap. Like a pack of wolves catching the scent of flesh, it greedily swarmed toward the daughter in Li Wei's arms.

So this was the curse Tsukika had spoken of, hidden deep within this world and aimed at Yue Lin?

Li Wei thought coldly, but in the abyss of his heart, something seemed ready to surge upward.

In the next instant, before those auras could invade Yue Lin, they all froze in place at once.

Holding his daughter, Li Wei slowly raised his head. Golden light glimmered deep within his pupils.

The power of will inside Li Wei had been awakened. As it echoed through him, he instantly completed a special sublimation and crossed to the far side of Limit Break.

His vast will covered the entire area. Like a supreme ruler, like a king, it forcibly cowed the surging malice.

"Get lost."

Li Wei spoke coldly, as if issuing an order to the entire world.

The still pond seemed to collapse in an instant. The distant waterfall, white as silk, seemed to forget how to rush downward. Even light and sound were being forced back and stripped away. Struck by that thunderous command, the malice trembled in rare fear and dread.

This was power that seemed to rule the world itself.

Tsukika was stunned by the change too. She stared at Li Wei for a long time. The cold light in her crimson eyes faded, replaced by a soft gleam.

Behind the man's tall, slender figure, his faintly visible will shone over the world like a god, coldly looking down on the jackals circling around him.

He was too towering, too magnificent, as if seated upon an unrivaled throne. His majesty flowed out like a tide, carving fear into the depths of that malice.

In the past, Yue Lin's world had no sun.

Only the moon kept her company.

But this time, there was a sun in her world.

Tsukika quietly looked at the man holding their daughter. Many years ago, his light had shone into her world the same way, washing away the shadows and darkness that had covered her.

After a brief moment of dazed remembrance, Tsukika spoke softly.

"You can't protect her like this forever."

"Don't forget. I made preparations too."

Li Wei's body clearly stiffened. A few seconds later, he silently withdrew his will. As it receded, an overwhelming weakness rapidly filled his body.

But Li Wei, still holding his daughter, didn't feel tired. He remained standing straight, "looking" at the malice hidden in the void.

As his will withdrew, that malice gathered around them once more.

But the fear from before still seemed carved deep into those bizarre consciousnesses. They didn't dare truly approach. Instead, from a distance, they began drawing something out of Yue Lin.

Li Wei realized what it was.

It was the aura of life.

Whether this curse came from the world itself or from some unknown power, it wanted to take Yue Lin's life away.

But Tsukika's preparations quickly took effect. The Eternity pendant, now dyed blood-red, quietly protected Yue Lin. The power stored inside it was continuously drained away by that malice in Yue Lin's place.

After some time, the malice vanished without a trace.

The blood-red glow on the pendant at Yue Lin's chest had dimmed considerably.

Li Wei understood.

This outbreak of the curse was already nearing its end.

He hugged his daughter tighter. But before he could even let out a breath, Li Wei's gaze froze on her once more.

Li Wei once again sensed the flow of life energy.

This current was not draining away—it was converging toward Yue Lin’s body.

Moreover, this gathering life energy felt utterly distinct from the bloodthirsty aura stored within the Eternity Tear: serene, gentle, and inviting—a presence that made one instinctively want to draw near.

Li Wei suddenly lifted his gaze to Tsukika.

"You felt it too, didn’t you?"

Tsukika regarded him quietly. "This is the Miracle inscribed upon Yue Lin. Not the status panel humans possess, nor power drawn from the demon race—but her own unconscious resistance against those curses. Though for now… it remains too weak."

As she spoke, she slowly leaned in and gently stroked her daughter’s tender cheek.

Her crimson eyes never left Li Wei. "But this fragility will no longer be her flaw. Isn’t that right… Chosen Hero?"

Li Wei silently tightened his grip on his daughter’s small hand, his expression complex.

In that moment, he finally understood Tsukika’s meaning—the key to mending the flaw in his own power had always resided within his daughter.

Physical strength. The very deficiency sheer willpower alone could never compensate for after losing his status panel.

He had searched endlessly, found nothing. Now the veil lifted—he realized the final piece of the puzzle had long since entered this world, brushing past him time and again.

Yet beside this seemingly within-reach "surprise," the Demon Lord’s predicament weighed far more heavily upon his heart.

"Naturally," he murmured.

"Is that your promise?" Tsukika asked softly, her gaze unwavering.