Granny Rong scoffed after hearing that and gave a mocking laugh.
“He’s just a demonic cultivator, yet he’s arrogant to the extreme.”
Granny Rong also knew that Lin Mo was the recently renowned “Sword Demon.” Even if his talent wasn’t bad, in her presence, he didn’t even have the strength for a proper fight. A demonic cultivator at the Soul Splitting stage wanting to challenge a True Demon of the same level? That was nothing but a fool’s delusion. Let alone the Soul Splitting stage— even Divine Transformation stage cultivators had died by her hand. This was the fundamental difference between demons and humans.
“Then go ahead and try, and see whether I have the right to be this arrogant.”
Lin Mo’s tone was neither light nor heavy.
“I wouldn’t mind having a taste myself, of how the heart of such an arrogant demonic cultivator tastes.”
In an instant, a pair of pitch-black giant hands slammed toward Lin Mo. Lin Mo merely gave his Liuli Sword a slight twist, and the giant hands were instantly severed.
“You do have some skills, I’ll give you that.”
Granny Rong merely voiced mild surprise, then released waves of black mist to engulf Lin Mo. In the blink of an eye, Lin Mo was wrapped into a black cocoon.
“Daddy…” Lin Xiang’er was so anxious she nearly burst into tears.
Seeing that things were taking a bad turn, Mo Pao’er prepared to slip away unnoticed.
“Nothing more than this.”
Granny Rong gave a sneering victor’s smile.
In the next moment, bursts of sword light erupted from within the black cocoon, breaking through Granny Rong’s offensive. They were layers upon layers of superimposed sword energy, ultimately forming jet-black sword qi. Granny Rong summoned her own demonic aura to resist, but that sword qi cut through it again and again.
Seeing this, Granny Rong sensed something was seriously wrong. She had a premonition that if struck by this sword qi, even if she didn’t die, she would be gravely wounded.
“You little brat, just you wait.”
Leaving those vicious words behind, Granny Rong turned into a streak of black light and vanished without a trace.
Lin Mo deeply understood the principle of not pursuing a cornered enemy. But really, a True Demon was nothing more than this. At the same cultivation level, the only one who could make him struggle would be Zhu Shiyao. If it had been Zhu Shiyao, she too could have easily slain a True Demon under the same conditions.
“Daddy is amazing!”
Lin Xiang’er clapped her hands, bouncing up and down in excitement.
The demonic cultivators watching around them were all in disbelief. In all these years, this was the first time they had seen someone of the same cultivation level push back a True Demon. Because of this, they no longer dared to provoke Lin Mo.
“Where do you want to go?”
A cold voice came from behind Mo Pao’er, startling him into a full-body shiver.
“I wasn’t planning to go anywhere. I just wanted to help you scout ahead, Brother Mo, to see if there are any more enemies further away…”
Lin Mo rolled his eyes. He could tell that Mo Pao’er had thought he was definitely going to lose, so he had planned to flee the moment things went south. But Lin Mo didn’t really mind.
“Pack up—we’re going to take a look around the territory of the Meiyan Clan.”
Lin Mo’s plan was simple: since it was no longer possible to gain Regret Value at the border, they would just head into the interior and get it there.
Before this, just in case, Lin Mo still spent 30,000 regret points at the system to buy a one-time Dream of a Yellow Millet ability that could predict life and death in advance.
Meanwhile, at the residence of Demon Lord Meiyan—
“Lord, we’ve found the young mistress.”
Granny Rong respectfully addressed the woman sitting in the main seat.
“Why didn’t you bring her back with you?” Demon Lord Meiyan asked.
“She was protected by her father…”
Granny Rong’s voice wavered a little.
Demon Lord Meiyan frowned. “How does Lin Xiang’er know her father?”
“I don’t know either. Anyway, Young Miss called that man ‘Dad,’ and he didn’t deny it.”
“Why didn’t you forcibly bring her back?”
Demon Lord Meiyan’s tone turned cold.
“Couldn’t beat him…”
Granny Rong’s voice grew even more faint.
“What level of cultivation is he?” Demon Lord Meiyan sounded slightly surprised. She had learned that her cousin had secretly visited the Human Realm some time ago. However, during the search at that time, they couldn’t sense her cousin’s aura in either the Upper Realm or the Middle Realm.
In other words, her cousin could only have gone to the Lower Realm or to the fringe areas of the Middle Realm, and in those places, the strongest cultivators she might encounter would only be at the Golden Core stage at most. Could it be that she’s gotten involved with a powerful expert hiding in the Lower Realm?
“Soul Splitting stage…”
Granny Rong spoke while lowering her head in shame.
“You were defeated by a human at the Soul Splitting stage?”
Demon Lord Meiyan’s entire body surged with demonic energy, her expression terrifying.
Granny Rong quickly explained, “Lord, this old servant has always been loyal to you. I swear I have no disloyal thoughts.”
“That human cultivator may only be at the Soul Splitting stage, but his swordsmanship was superb, almost otherworldly. Especially the demonic aura on him—it made me feel extremely uneasy…”
Demon Lord Meiyan gestured for her to continue.
“That demonic aura was incomparably pure, not something a human demonic cultivator could have refined. Instead, it was no different from a true demon’s. The most important thing is, the aura of his demonic energy made me feel like I was facing the Ancestor…”
By the time she finished speaking, Granny Rong herself felt that what she’d said sounded a bit ridiculous. Sure enough, in the very next moment, she was sent flying by a single slap from Demon Lord Meiyan.
“Don’t make excuses for your own failure. The demonic aura of a human being could never possibly resemble that of the Ancestor. Send out that person’s appearance to everyone in the clan, and have them find and bring Lin Xiang’er back.”
Granny Rong climbed to her feet and replied, “Understood, my lord.”
After Granny Rong left, Demon Lord Meiyan once again sank into deep thought. She had never heard that the Ancestor had taken a human woman. The Ancestor only had one daughter. If his daughter had joined with a human and left behind offspring… then this kind of possibility could exist…
But she clearly remembered that the Ancestor’s daughter had already died. No realm had been able to trace her, and she was absolutely, completely dead. Thinking to this point, Demon Lord Meiyan could only assume she had overthought it.
On the other side, in the deepest part of the Abyssal Sea of the Demon Realm, a man was watching everything occurring within the Demon Realm. The moment Lin Mo stepped into the Demon Realm, his full attention had been focused on him. Every single move Lin Mo made, he watched it all closely.
“As expected, he is my offspring. Ning Xin, oh Ning Xin, you actually gave me an outstanding grandson. Cultivating both the immortal and demonic paths actually appeared in my grandson.”
The speaker laughed heartily toward the sky. His true identity was the sealed Ancestor of the Demon Realm, Chu Tiange.
At this moment, the seal had already begun to weaken. Soon, he would be able to break out of this Abyssal Sea.
“The position of the Demon Realm’s Young Lord would be quite fitting for my grandson to sit upon.”
A few days later, Lin Mo arrived at the inner region of the Meiyan Clan’s territory.
This place was clearly much more prosperous than the border area.
“Do you recognize this place?” Lin Mo asked, glancing at Lin Xianger, who was curiously observing the scenery around her.
“Daddy, except for those days when I came to find you, I’ve never traveled far from home. I’ve always just wandered around near the house,” Lin Xianger replied.
“I see…” Lin Mo recalled that Granny Rong had once said that Lin Xianger was a close relative of the Meiyan Demon Lord. In other words, Lin Xianger’s mother was also a close relative of the Meiyan Demon Lord.
Right now, Lin Mo’s greatest confusion was: why did someone from the Meiyan Demon Lord’s side want to target Lin Xianger? Judging by that attitude back then, Granny Rong clearly hadn’t been planning to bring Lin Xianger back to be doted on.
“Xianger, do you know if your mother encountered any danger?”
“I don’t know…” she shook her little head.
“Then where were you at the time? At home, or somewhere outside?”
“At home. At the time, Mother seemed very anxious, and when she teleported me and Seventh Sister away, she told me not to come back…” Lin Xianger’s face clouded with sadness once again.
Afraid she might start crying again, Lin Mo quickly changed the subject. “Did Seventh Sister say anything to you?”
“She told me that Mother encountered danger, so she had to take me away.”
Lin Mo looked helpless. After all that questioning, he still hadn’t gotten any useful information. But what he could confirm was that he definitely couldn’t bring Xianger back to the Meiyan Demon Lord’s place. If there had been no danger at home, then Xianger’s mother wouldn’t have teleported her away and told her not to return.
“Mo Pao’er, do you know what cultivation level the Meiyan Demon Lord has reached?”
“Brother Mo, don’t scare me—Meiyan Demon Lord is a True Demon at the Integration stage, two major realms above you!” Mo Pao’er looked terrified. He truly feared Lin Mo might be bored and reckless enough to go stir up trouble with the Meiyan Demon Lord.
Hearing this, Lin Mo temporarily abandoned his plan to help Lin Xianger rescue her mother. Battles involving Integration stage powerhouses were far beyond his ability to participate in. It seemed he still needed to keep improving his own strength—at the current stage of the cultivation world, the Soul Splitting stage really wasn’t enough. For now, he should keep collecting Regret Points as much as possible if he wanted to quickly break through to the Divine Transformation stage.
In the end, he still had to rely on the system.
[Wuwuwu, Host, you’ve finally grown up—you finally understand how important I am!]
Lin Mo said sincerely, “You’ve always been incredibly important to me—I absolutely can’t be without you.”
Suddenly, an indescribable emotion welled up in the system’s heart. If it could show expressions, it would probably look like this: /w\//\w/ Could this be what humans call “fluttering of the heart”???
“So then… when I choose to spend Regret Points to break through a realm, can you give me a discount—like, 90% off?”
System: “……”
It had actually just believed this host’s nonsense. As expected, all the sudden friendliness had a purpose behind it.
[The Regret Points required for realm breakthroughs and lottery draws are fixed and non-negotiable.]
Lin Mo pouted. “Tsk…”
The system roared internally: “This scummy host is toying with me—Even though I’m just a system, I actually had pure feelings!!!”
After a short while, Lin Mo noticed something interesting—it seemed that the demon cultivators here held great hostility toward him.
Mo Pao’er explained, “Brother Mo, almost all the demon cultivators here belong to the Meiyan Clan. You just chased off a True Demon of the Meiyan Clan a few days ago. Word must’ve spread here, so of course they’ve got a problem with you.”
Lin Mo asked, “Then how did they even recognize me?”
“Didn’t I already tell you, Brother Mo, your face is way too handsome? And with the distinctive spiritual sword you always carry, it’s no surprise they could recognize you.”
Lin Mo pretended not to hear clearly. “What did you say about my face?”
Mo Pao’er snapped back, “Handsome! In my entire life, I’ve never seen anyone more handsome than Brother Mo!”
The surrounding demon cultivators, watching Lin Mo, couldn’t help but curse under their breath. “That so-called ‘Sword Demon’ from the rumors really is shameless.”
“Xiang’er!” Just then, a woman called out to Lin Xiang’er.
Xiang’er turned her head and happily called out, “Sister Qiqi!”
The woman walked up to Xiang’er, her face full of worry. “Where have you been these past few days, Xiang’er? Don’t you know how dangerous it is here?”
Xiang’er pointed at Lin Mo and said, “I found Daddy. Daddy said he’ll help me save my mother.”
“Xiang’er, you can’t just randomly call someone your daddy!”
The woman furrowed her brows and looked toward Lin Mo. At that moment, Lin Mo happened to look over at her as well.
Their eyes met, and both of them froze in surprise.
Qiqi thought: She actually found her real father!
Lin Mo thought: Could she really be… my daughter?