Sima Jiao was quite lacking as an emperor, just as he had been when he was someone else’s ancestral master—not at all like an ancestral master, but rather like a great demon from the enemy camp. Given that he had previously been Cizang Daojun yet brought down the Gengchen Immortal Mansion, and as the Demon Overlord of the Demon Realm had killed nearly half of the realm’s overlords and generals, Liao Tingyan no longer expected him to be a proper emperor. After all, everything was under her… demon generals’ watch and nothing serious would happen.

The snowstorm disaster in the southern prefecture was suddenly resolved. The following spring’s epidemic had not yet had time to break out on a large scale when it was reported to the Emperor, and then mysteriously disappeared. The demon generals weren’t skilled in dealing with epidemics—they only excelled at spreading plagues and creating disasters with undead ghosts—so this task was entrusted to some cultivators from the immortal cultivation world, with Qinggu Tian also contributing.

Invited by the Demon Realm to dispel epidemics for ordinary people in mortal realms, the cultivators worked while feeling somewhat bewildered.

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

After this matter was perfectly resolved, rumors spread everywhere about the Emperor being protected by heaven’s mandate, saying he could invite immortals to descend and assist him.

A group of ministers who had previously both feared and secretly disdained Sima Jiao imagined who-knows-what and became increasingly apprehensive towards him, not even daring to ask why the young prince hadn’t grown in two or three years.

Among the palace attendants, a certain rumor spread vividly, claiming that on a stormy night, a giant snake-like shadow had appeared at the young prince’s palace, almost coiling around the entire building.

“What snake? That must have been a dragon!”

“Yes, yes, the young prince is the crown prince of a nation, of course, he has the aura of a true dragon!”

Sima Jiao didn’t care about any of this. He and Liao Tingyan rarely stayed in the palace. Even when being lazy, Liao Tingyan preferred places with beautiful scenery and abundant delicacies, so she would stay in one place for a while, then find another place to stay for a period, often changing locations every half year or year, basically according to her mood.

This was probably a lazy person’s dream of travel—leaving whenever they wanted, going wherever they pleased, but always lounging around regardless of location.

Regarding the act of leaving the little snake in the palace, Liao Tingyan initially felt somewhat guilty, but Sima Jiao said: “Let him stay there. Being an emperor for a while will be better for his future. After being emperor for over ten years, he’ll be able to speak.”

The fortune of mortal dynasties and that of the cultivation world naturally had their differences. Sima Jiao, a great master, used his own power and different targeted methods to feed both his beloved and his follower, making them level up rapidly.

Sima Jiao, this terrifying man, was horrifyingly powerful!

The Emperor, who at some point remembered that he didn’t have a gosling, still raised the big black snake as his gosling. The scenario Liao Tingyan had wanted to see—him being embarrassed after remembering everything—never materialized.

She was slightly disappointed. Once the little Emperor transformed back into the old dog ancestor, he became increasingly good at pretending. She couldn’t tell at all whether he was ashamed or angry; even through divine communion, she couldn’t perceive it. What she could perceive was something she was too embarrassed to say aloud.

Sima Jiao’s temper had improved considerably lately. He no longer had that constantly suppressed, explosive rage from his days as the ancestral master. Liao Tingyan believed this had much to do with his improved sleep quality, showing how important adequate sleep was for maintaining a good mood—it could even alleviate and cure mania.

Recently, they had traveled to a place they had never visited before—the western region at the edge of the cultivation area. Here, thousands of mountains stretched endlessly, with year-round clouds, mist, and humid rain, along with boundless forests and countless local delicacies. The spiritual energy here wasn’t dense, even worse than the Demon Realm, but some unique cultivation clans practiced not the orthodox five elements techniques, but spirit shamanism.

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

Then after sleeping and waking up, she found an egg beneath her.

Liao Tingyan stared blankly at the object in her hand: “…” An egg?

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

Sima Jiao happened to walk in, and Liao Tingyan held up the warm egg, gesturing to him, “Your egg, take it back.”

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

Liao Tingyan: “Hah, we’re both humans, 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 tightened, and she blurted out: “My egg!”

As soon as she said it, she realized her mistake and immediately corrected herself: “Your egg!”

The egg didn’t crack open to reveal yolk; it remained an oval egg shape.

Sima Jiao: “Why don’t you try incubating it and see what hatches?”

Liao Tingyan wasn’t as easily fooled as before. Hearing this, she looked at him suspiciously and warily: “You know what’s inside, don’t you?”

Sima Jiao laughed, lay down 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 won’t!”

Sima Jiao caught her hand, wrapping it around the egg. “In that case, let’s just roast it and eat it.” As he spoke, transparent blue flames appeared from his palm, enveloping Liao Tingyan’s hand including the egg.

Liao Tingyan: “Wait!” How could he just burn it? What if there was something alive inside and it burned to death?

The egg in her palm made a cracking sound as it was burned open.

From inside, a red flame shot out, immediately shouting: “Holy crap, you conspiring dog couple, trying to torture me again! I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to be forced to follow you two!”

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

Liao Tingyan had thought it had been refined and lost consciousness when it joined Sima Jiao. After all, it had been almost twenty years since she possessed this spirit fire, yet she had never heard the foul-mouthed little flame make a sound.

She instinctively looked at Sima Jiao, and from his expression, she knew he had already been aware of this. This man had kept more than just one or two things from her. The most infuriating part? He wasn’t deliberately concealing things; he just didn’t think they were worth mentioning, his mind always occupied with who-knows-what.

So, she generally discovered one thing at a time, when she happened upon it. She never knew what kind of “surprise” he might reveal next.

Liao Tingyan grabbed the babbling flame and tossed it into Sima Jiao’s arms. “What’s going on here?”

“The spirit fire’s true form can manifest outside the body.” Sima Jiao flicked away the foul-mouthed flame. “It means you’ve now completely merged with this spirit fire.”

After all, Liao Tingyan wasn’t of the Fengshan clan’s bloodline. When he had forcibly passed the spirit fire to her, it hadn’t been easy. This required a long merging process, which in his estimation should have taken thirty years. However, because of his spirit fire’s influence these past few years, the merging was completed ahead of schedule.

The spirit fire perched on a jade pillow nearby, seemingly having been suppressed for a long time and grown much bolder. It loudly proclaimed: “Sima, do you have any conscience? After following you for so many years, you abandoned me for another woman without a second thought. Look how I’ve shrunk! Your Sima family…”

Why did that sound so inappropriate?

Liao Tingyan: “Am I interrupting? I’ll take my leave.”

She realized that although she had possessed the spirit fire before, she couldn’t use it as freely as Sima Jiao. She had thought it was because she lacked the Fengshan bloodline, causing the spirit fire’s power to diminish. Now it seemed it was because she hadn’t fully merged with it. With the complete merging of the spirit fire, she gained many insights and felt her power increase once again.

Liao Tingyan: “…” She suddenly understood what Sima Jiao had been thinking back then.

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

He had considered everything so thoroughly, even more comprehensively than she had initially thought.

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

This vexing ancestral master!

She remained silent. Sima Jiao glanced at her, pulled up his sleeve, and placed his wrist in front of 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 was moderate.

“Mm.” Liao Tingyan felt that if she got angry with Sima Jiao over these things every time, she would eventually turn into a balloon and float away. Besides, being angry was very tiring. Once was manageable, but multiple times would be unbearable. So she decided to let it go, just showing token anger out of respect.

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

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

Feeling better, Liao Tingyan got up to find food. Delicacies were an extremely important part of her life, for which she had gone incognito and come all the way here. She certainly wouldn’t stop at just one meal.

Before she could enjoy more delicacies, she encountered a spirited young woman who had taken a fancy to Sima Jiao’s good looks and started arguing with Liao Tingyan in the street.

Liao Tingyan: “…” I’m not good at arguing.

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

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

The men and women here were also exceptionally passionate.

On the way back, 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 back 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 burned to ashes right in front of her.

Liao Tingyan: “…” She heard screams erupting around her and the crowd becoming chaotic.

She saw Sima Jiao move his fingers slightly beside her.

He gave a cold laugh, his long-unseen ferocity rising, flames flickering around his body.

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

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

Liao Tingyan: “Ancestor! Put away your divine powers! Let me handle it, can I handle it?”

Later, the legendary great demon king became two.

Liao Tingyan: “…” So unfair, it was all Sima Jiao framing her.

Divorce was impossible; she could only be framed by him for a lifetime.

(End of Main Text)