GD Ch. 52 Part 1

Chapter 52: The Time to Take It

Luo Qing had sharp brows and star-like eyes, his posture tall and imposing. As he stepped over the threshold, many eyes turned toward him. Without glancing to the side, he bypassed the crowd listening to the storyteller and strode directly up the slanted staircase toward a private room on the second floor, slightly to the right.

Hanzhu noticed that the tea on the table had gone cold, so she placed her hands over the cup, using her spiritual energy to warm it. Turning her head, she happened to see Luo Qing standing outside the door.

Zhuyou did not turn around. The wooden window at her side was slightly propped open, allowing the lingering coolness of the spring breeze to slip inside, causing the jade ornaments in her hair to rattle softly.

She had already sensed Luo Qing’s presence when he paused at the entrance, but she did not turn back. Instead, she lifted her tea cup and took another sniff. Her ink-black hair cascaded down her back, swaying gently in the breeze. A sliver of her pale, slender neck was exposed, appearing especially fragile.

“Your Grace.” Luo Qing cupped his hands in greeting.

Suddenly, Zhuyou poured the half-filled cup of tea onto the ground. With a sharp splash, a water stain spread across the floor.

She did it so decisively, as if something filthy had fallen into the tea.

Hanzhu didn’t understand but refrained from asking. She lowered her head and remained standing quietly at the side, knowing full well that whatever her mistress did, there was always a reason.

Ever since leaving the Devil Realm, she had been disciplined several times—not just with words but also with beatings. Zhuyou had struck her with such force that she had hovered at death’s door more than once, each time left barely clinging to life.

Zhuyou had been furious to her very core. She showed no mercy, nearly beating Hanzhu to death before feeding her a pill to keep her alive. Only after the punishment did she coldly ask whether Hanzhu now understood her mistake.

Perhaps after spending so much time by her mistress’ side, Hanzhu had begun to absorb some of her temperament. She refused to yield and stubbornly remained silent.

Thinking back to the events a hundred years ago when they first left the Devil Realm, Hanzhu still felt lingering fear—but even now, she did not believe she was wrong. In her entire life, she had only ever defied her mistress once, and it was all for the sake of a dragon whose origins were unclear.

Keeping that dragon by their side would surely have invited disaster. Besides, if the dragon were taken back to the heavens and carefully protected, wouldn’t that have been for the best? Her mistress could have benefited from it. As long as the dragon did not have its heart’s blood extracted, then no matter what happened to her mistress, the dragon’s life could be used as compensation.

Having entered the Devil Clan, she should have been heartless—how could she have the luxury of feeling pity for a dragon?

Even now, Hanzhu did not see her actions as a mistake. In fact, she believed they had been justified. Over the past century, they had rarely encountered immortals from the Heavenly Realm. If they had kept that dragon by their side back then, they wouldn’t be living as comfortably as they were now.

Zhuyou set down her teacup and turned to look at Luo Qing, her eyes filled with curiosity. “Lord Luo, what brings you here again?”

Luo Qing’s expression was upright and solemn, yet who would have thought that someone who appeared so righteous was, in fact, a devil? He was tactful enough to remain at the doorway without stepping further inside. “I ask Your Grace to join us in discussing the matter of reclaiming the Devil Realm.”

Zhuyou merely chuckled and shook her head slightly.

At present, the Devil Realm was tightly sealed by heavenly soldiers, guarded so thoroughly that not even air could slip through. Every passage had been blocked, all devils inside had been subdued, and those outside were unable to return.

Since that day, the devils outside the realm had been left to scatter and flee, turning the once-mighty Devil Clan into nothing but a pile of loose sand.

Reclaiming the Devil Realm was an almost impossible task—far more difficult than retrieving the last fragment of the Devil Lord’s soul.

Zhuyou was never one to shy away from difficult endeavors, but it depended on whom she was doing it for. She gestured to the spilled tea on the floor and said, “Do you know what this is?”

“Tea,” Luo Qing replied, perplexed as to how this was relevant to his request.

Zhuyou continued, “Now that I reside in the Mortal Realm, my heart is like this spilled tea—once poured out, it cannot be taken back.”

Luo Qing’s gaze flickered as he looked at the tea stain on the ground. “I ask Your Grace to enlighten me.”

Zhuyou sighed inwardly. This Lord Luo was as dull as a wooden block, entirely lacking wit and unable to take a joke. He truly was…

Not as clever as the dragon she had raised a hundred years ago.

“I find the Mortal Realm quite interesting now and have no desire to return to the Devil Realm.”

Speaking of which, she wondered how that dragon was doing these days.

Back then, she had once again shattered the Devil-Suppressing Tower. Though the tower was destroyed once more, she herself had suffered a crushing blow, as if her bones had been torn apart. She had been completely drained of strength, collapsing into the yellow sands with a thud.

Fortunately, the immortals had also been affected by the divine power, preventing them from immediately capturing her. She had fallen to the ground and reverted to her original form, vaguely aware that Hanzhu had carried her away from the Devil Realm.

Yet Hanzhu had only taken her—not the dragon.

For the next two days, she drifted in and out of consciousness, unable to spare a thought for the dragon. Only after scraping together the last remnants of her strength was she able to speak again. Rather than ordering Hanzhu to find Changying, she instructed her to retrieve the Crystal of Law buried underground, lest someone else seize it.

By the time she fully regained awareness, she realized that the Devil Realm had been sealed off, and the dragon’s whereabouts were unknown.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Hanzhu—but she needed to see things with her own eyes to believe them. Thus, she probed Hanzhu’s spiritual consciousness.

In the strands of memory, she saw Hanzhu hurriedly carrying her away. Meanwhile, Changying remained behind, pale-faced, struggling to stand before collapsing again.

Changying must have wanted to follow. Unfortunately, due to the heart’s blood, she had been in unbearable pain, unable to move.

Zhuyou thought, Forget it. If the dragon’s whereabouts were unknown, then there was no need to search.

She returned to the present moment and slowly placed a hand over her chest.

Ever since her heart’s blood had been replaced, she often felt cold. Fortunately, the drop of heart’s blood kept close to her chest had been warmed by the Phoenix Clan’s lineage, preventing her from freezing entirely.

She wondered how Changying had endured such cold when she was still just a young dragon. No wonder, despite being a creature that shouldn’t fear the cold, she always complained about it, constantly pressing herself against her.

Now that the dragon carried her heart’s blood, she was probably suffering from constant heat, longing to soak in a pool all day.

The more she thought about it, the more her mind wandered. She even found herself worrying—had Changying learned to fly by now? A dragon that couldn’t even take to the skies was nothing more than a four-legged worm.

What a pity.

At the moment, she had no means to openly challenge the Heavenly Realm and snatch back the dragon. Thinking it over, it really wasn’t worth risking her life over one dragon.

Perhaps, after seeing the splendor of the Heavenly Palace, Changying had recalled past memories and no longer wished to leave.

She had no idea what Changying was truly thinking, but to make herself feel better, she placed all the blame on her. Turning the thought over in her mind, she concluded: After basking in heavenly luxury, why would that dragon still want to follow her?

Forget it. Some things were never meant to be.

A hundred years apart, and the delicate, obedient dragon once by her side had ultimately become an immortal of the Nine Heavens, sworn enemies with all devils. Fate truly has a way of playing tricks.

Luo Qing stood with hands cupped in salute, waiting for Zhuyou’s response. But Zhuyou remained lost in thought.

She was reflecting on the aftermath of that fateful conflict—how the spies from the Devil Realm scattered across the lower world had been slaughtered by heavenly soldiers. Gaining any information from the heavens had since become nearly impossible. She had no way of knowing whether the dragon she had once raised had strayed from its path.

A hundred years… That dragon had grown noticeably in just a matter of days. After a century, who knew what it had become? Perhaps even ten massive three-legged cauldrons wouldn’t be enough to stew it now.

She did feel a tinge of regret. That dragon had once promised to give her its horn, but she had left before remembering to ask for it. Now, there wasn’t even a keepsake left behind.

Luo Qing noticed the devil before him was distracted and had no idea what she was thinking about. He didn’t believe in the superstitions of the human world, so he frowned and repeated, “We still hope that you will join us in discussing the recovery of the Devil Realm.”

Zhuyou truly had no interest in returning with them. However, considering that she still held two of the Devil Lord’s souls, it was understandable that these devils sought her leadership. Besides, with Xuanjing gone, the Devil Realm was no longer even a match for half the Heavenly Realm.

For a hundred years, these devils had pleaded for her to return the two souls of the Devil Lord. Yet she stubbornly refused. After all, they couldn’t take them by force, so all they could do was beg.

And Zhuyou was not one to be easily moved. No matter how much Luo Qing humbled himself, he still failed to retrieve the Crystal of Law.

Zhuyou remained indifferent, barely acknowledging Luo Qing’s words. Instead, she remarked meaningfully, “Rather than begging me to help reclaim the Devil Realm, you should be asking me how to find the Devil Lord’s remaining hun soul more quickly.” She lifted her eyes and lazily glanced at Luo Qing. “If you truly want to contend with the Heavenly Realm, you’d be better off awakening the Devil Lord sooner. With the Devil Clan’s current strength, taking back the Devil Realm is nothing more than a fool’s dream.”

Luo Qing’s brow furrowed deeply, and his clasped hands tightened.

“All this talk about reclaiming the Devil Realm and conquering Shangxi City… Such matters would be far easier left to the Devil Lord,” Zhuyou casually reminded him.

“But we still haven’t found the Devil Lord’s remaining hun soul,” Luo Qing replied, his brows knit in frustration.

“There is an artifact in the Heavenly Realm that could help locate it,” Zhuyou said as she flipped her hand over. A tattered ancient book materialized in her palm.

The book was already yellowed with age, with only a few surviving pages. It looked as though it had been gnawed by insects, leaving several holes scattered across its surface.

With a brush of spiritual energy, the book flipped open with a soft rustling sound.

“A Heavenly Realm artifact… What is it?” Luo Qing quickly asked.

Zhuyou traced her fingertip across a line of text and said, “The Turbid Mirror.”

Luo Qing had never heard of this artifact before, but since it belonged to the Heavenly Realm, even with his formidable cultivation, how could he possibly steal it and leave unscathed?

“How could we possibly obtain it?” he asked, stunned.