Chapter 81: The Spirit Fire's True Form

 

Sima Jiao proved woefully inadequate as an emperor—just as he'd been inadequate as someone's ancestral master. He resembled less a venerable ancestor and more a great demon from the enemy camp. Having previously been Cizang Daojun yet orchestrated the downfall of Gengchen Immortal Mansion, and as Demon Overlord having slaughtered nearly half the Demon Realm's overlords and generals, Liao Tingyan had long abandoned expectations of proper imperial conduct. After all, everything remained under her... demon generals' surveillance. Nothing catastrophic would occur.

The snowstorm disaster plaguing the southern prefecture vanished overnight. The following spring's epidemic, barely beginning its spread when reported to the Emperor, mysteriously dissipated. The demon generals possessed no expertise in managing epidemics—their talents lay in spreading plagues and conjuring disasters with undead spirits—so this task fell to cultivators from the immortal cultivation world, with Qinggu Tian contributing significantly.

The cultivators, invited by the Demon Realm to dispel epidemics among ordinary mortals, worked in a state of profound bewilderment.

We are righteous cultivators! Why are we collaborating with the Demon Realm to save the world?! No—why is the Demon Realm saving the world? Are they the cultivators, or are we?

Once this matter concluded flawlessly, rumors proliferated throughout the realm. The Emperor possessed heaven's mandate, people whispered. He could summon immortals to descend and render assistance.

Ministers who had previously feared yet secretly disdained Sima Jiao conjured elaborate theories and grew increasingly apprehensive, not daring to question why the young prince hadn't grown in two or three years.

Among palace attendants, a particular rumor circulated vividly: on a stormy night, a giant serpentine shadow had appeared at the young prince's palace, nearly coiling around the entire structure.

"What snake? That must have been a dragon!"

"Exactly! The young prince is the crown prince of our nation—naturally he possesses the aura of a true dragon!"

Sima Jiao paid no attention to any of this. He and Liao Tingyan rarely remained in the palace. Even when indulging in laziness, Liao Tingyan favored locations with magnificent scenery and abundant delicacies. She would settle somewhere for a period, then seek another place, frequently changing locations every six months to a year, entirely according to whim.

This represented a lazy person's dream of travel—departing whenever desired, going wherever pleased, yet lounging regardless of location.

Regarding leaving the little snake in the palace, Liao Tingyan initially harbored some guilt, but Sima Jiao declared: "Let him remain there. Serving as emperor will benefit his future. After ruling for over a decade, he'll be able to speak."

The fortune of mortal dynasties and that of the cultivation world naturally differed. Sima Jiao, a grand master, wielded his own power and various targeted methods to nurture both his beloved and his follower, accelerating their advancement remarkably.

Sima Jiao—this terrifying man possessed horrifying power!

The Emperor, who at some point recalled he'd never possessed a gosling, continued raising the large black snake as such. The scenario Liao Tingyan had anticipated—him experiencing embarrassment after remembering everything—never materialized.

She felt slightly disappointed. Once the little Emperor transformed back into the old dog ancestor, he became increasingly adept at pretending. She couldn't discern whether he felt ashamed or angry. Even through divine communion, she couldn't perceive it. What she could perceive remained too embarrassing to articulate aloud.

Sima Jiao's temperament had improved considerably lately. He no longer exhibited that constantly suppressed, explosive rage from his ancestral master days. Liao Tingyan attributed this largely to improved sleep quality, demonstrating how crucial adequate rest was for maintaining good spirits—it could even alleviate and cure mania.

Recently, they'd traveled somewhere unprecedented—the western region at the cultivation area's edge. Here, thousands of mountains stretched endlessly, shrouded in year-round clouds, mist, and humid rain, alongside boundless forests and countless local delicacies. The spiritual energy here wasn't particularly dense, even inferior to the Demon Realm, but unique cultivation clans practiced not orthodox five elements techniques but spirit shamanism.

Liao Tingyan had come for the local specialty—roasted mushrooms. After consuming one serving, she began feeling unwell, her entire body burning hot. Lying in bed questioning her existence, she wondered if she'd been poisoned by mushrooms. But as a powerful master, could mere mushrooms poison her? That wasn't very cultivator-like!

After sleeping and waking, she discovered an egg beneath her.

Liao Tingyan stared blankly at the object in her hand. An egg?

Wait—this egg, this red patterned egg—what was it? Had Sima Jiao placed it there while she slept to tease her?

Sima Jiao entered at that moment. Liao Tingyan held up the warm egg, gesturing toward him. "Your egg. Take it back."

Sima Jiao accepted the egg, examined it briefly, sat on the bed, and tossed it up and down. "Did you lay this for me?"

Liao Tingyan gaped. "We're both human—how could we produce an egg?" Wake up! You're not a snake spirit anymore! You can't lay eggs!

She still believed this was something Sima Jiao had created to tease her. This man had been unusually playful lately.

Sima Jiao examined the egg carefully, then suddenly knocked it against the wall. Liao Tingyan's heart clenched, and she blurted: "My egg!"

Immediately recognizing her mistake, she corrected herself: "Your egg!"

The egg didn't crack to reveal yolk—it remained perfectly oval.

Sima Jiao's lips curved. "Why don't you try incubating it and see what hatches?"

Liao Tingyan wasn't as easily fooled as before. Hearing this, she regarded him with suspicion and wariness. "You know what's inside, don't you?"

Sima Jiao laughed, reclined beside her, and casually dropped the egg into her collar. Liao Tingyan felt the warm egg roll down to her stomach, immediately retrieved it, and stuffed it into Sima Jiao's arms. "If you want to incubate it, do it yourself! I refuse!"

Sima Jiao caught her hand, wrapping it around the egg. "In that case, let's roast and eat it." As he spoke, transparent blue flames materialized from his palm, enveloping Liao Tingyan's hand and the egg together.

"Wait!" Liao Tingyan protested. How could he simply burn it? What if something alive existed inside and it died?

The egg in her palm cracked open with a sharp sound as the flames consumed it.

From within, a red flame shot forth, immediately shouting: "Holy hell, you conspiring dog couple, trying to torture me again! I must have accumulated eight lifetimes of bad karma to be forced to follow you two!"

The foul-mouthed little flame! It had been so long.

Liao Tingyan had assumed it had been refined into unconsciousness when joining with Sima Jiao. After all, nearly twenty years had passed since she'd possessed this spirit fire, yet she'd never heard the foul-mouthed little flame utter a sound.

She instinctively looked at Sima Jiao. From his expression, she knew he'd been aware all along. This man had concealed more than just one or two things from her. The most infuriating part? He wasn't deliberately hiding things—he simply didn't consider them worth mentioning, his mind perpetually occupied with unknowable matters.

Generally, she discovered things one at a time, when she happened upon them. She never knew what sort of "surprise" he might reveal next.

Liao Tingyan grabbed the babbling flame and tossed it into Sima Jiao's arms. "What's happening here?"

"The spirit fire's true form can manifest externally." Sima Jiao flicked away the foul-mouthed flame. "It means you've now completely merged with this spirit fire."

After all, Liao Tingyan didn't possess Fengshan clan bloodline. When he'd forcibly transferred the spirit fire to her, the process hadn't been easy. This required a lengthy merging period, which he'd estimated should require thirty years. However, due to his spirit fire's influence these past years, the merging completed ahead of schedule.

The spirit fire perched on a nearby jade pillow, seemingly having been suppressed extensively and grown considerably bolder. It proclaimed loudly: "Sima, do you possess any conscience? After following you for so many years, you abandoned me for another woman without hesitation. Look how I've shrunk! Your Sima family..."

Why did that sound so inappropriate?

Liao Tingyan sighed. "Am I interrupting? I'll take my leave."

She realized that although she'd possessed the spirit fire previously, she couldn't wield it as freely as Sima Jiao. She'd attributed this to lacking Fengshan bloodline, causing the spirit fire's power to diminish. Now it seemed the incomplete merging was responsible. With the spirit fire's complete integration, she gained numerous insights and felt her power surge once more.

Suddenly, she understood what Sima Jiao had been planning all along.

First, he'd terrified all troublemakers in the Demon Realm and influential figures in the cultivation world. Then he'd given her the spirit fire to intimidate others. By the time she fully merged with the spirit fire, his lingering prestige would no longer suppress those with disloyal intentions—but by then, she would have completely integrated with the spirit fire and would fear nothing.

He'd considered everything so thoroughly, even more comprehensively than she'd initially realized.

Liao Tingyan pressed down the chattering foul-mouthed flame and absorbed it back inside. She lay on the bed. How did this man always manage to simultaneously move and irritate her?

This vexing ancestral master!

She remained silent. Sima Jiao glanced at her, pulled up his sleeve, and placed his wrist before her. Liao Tingyan obligingly opened her mouth and bit his wrist.

"Not angry anymore?" Sima Jiao stroked the row of teeth marks, judging by their depth that her anger level this time registered as moderate.

"Mm." Liao Tingyan felt that if she grew angry with Sima Jiao over these matters every time, she'd eventually inflate like a balloon and float away. Besides, anger was exhausting. Once was manageable, but multiple times would prove unbearable. So she decided to release it, merely showing token anger out of respect.

Inexplicably, the two had developed this pattern. Whenever Liao Tingyan displayed signs of anger, Sima Jiao would lift his arm or offer his fingers for her to bite and vent, or allow her to choose any spot.

He possessed a tuft of hair that had grown rough and ragged from her biting, which still dangled at his hair's ends, occasionally caught between his fingers when he examined it.

Feeling restored, Liao Tingyan rose to seek food. Delicacies constituted an extremely important aspect of her existence, for which she'd traveled incognito all this way. She certainly wouldn't stop at just one meal.

Before she could savor more delicacies, she encountered a spirited young woman who'd taken a fancy to Sima Jiao's appearance and began arguing with Liao Tingyan in the street.

I'm not skilled at arguing, Liao Tingyan thought.

So she released the foul-mouthed little flame that had been suppressed so long. Although the flame's vocabulary of insults wasn't extensive, as everyone knows, a child's shrill screaming and unreasonable crying can overcome all street cursing. The young woman who'd attempted to flirt with Sima Jiao covered her ears and fled with a darkened expression.

Liao Tingyan finished two skewers of wild roasted vegetables on the side, feeling the unique flavor had indeed made the journey worthwhile.

The men and women here were exceptionally passionate.

On the return journey, Liao Tingyan was approached by a wild-looking man with face paint. In this place, when men and women flirted, they would directly take the person to bed if they won an argument or fight. So Liao Tingyan had received a duel invitation from that man, but before he could finish speaking, he was incinerated to ashes directly before her.

She heard screams erupting around her and the crowd descending into chaos.

She saw Sima Jiao move his fingers slightly beside her.

He released a cold laugh, his long-absent ferocity rising, flames flickering around his form.

Just like the great flame demon king who'd created a sea of fire at Three Saints Mountain long ago. She'd thought his temperament had improved, but now it seemed that might have been an illusion.

The legend of the great demon king in the cultivation world gained a sequel.

"Ancestor! Withdraw your divine powers! Let me handle it—can I handle it?"

Later, the legendary great demon king became two.

Liao Tingyan sighed internally. So unfair. It was all Sima Jiao framing me.

Divorce proved impossible. She could only be framed by him for a lifetime.

(End of Main Story)

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