The woman held the golden-eyed baby and wept softly on the bed.

Zanxing understood that this newborn baby should be Gui Yansheng.

Gu Baiying frowned slightly, seeming to dislike seeing the scene before him. He turned his head to ask Zanxing beside him, “Where is your father?”

Zanxing was stunned: “What?”

“This baby is Gui Yansheng. His mother looks like just an ordinary mortal. Where is the Demon Lord?” he said. “Don’t you demon clan value the Demon Lord’s bloodline highly? How could you just let the bloodline wander outside like this?” He glanced again at the weak woman: “Even abandoning his own woman so heartlessly.”

“I…” Zanxing was speechless.

Gui Yansheng had killed Zi Luo, framed her for it, thrown her into the Extreme Ice Abyss, and repeatedly put her in mortal danger. She deeply despised Gui Yansheng. But seeing this scene before her, she had to say that Demon Lord Gui Diao Tang’s behavior of abandoning his wife and child was even worse than Gui Yansheng’s.

A human woman giving birth to offspring with a demon clan bloodline – those golden pupils could never be concealed, no matter what. One could imagine how difficult it would be for this mother and child to survive in this world. Gui Yansheng’s mother must have been very clear about this, which is why she didn’t even hire a midwife. She trusted no one, choosing to give birth to the Demon Lord’s offspring alone on such a thunderous, rainy night.

“As expected,” Gu Baiying looked coldly at Zanxing: “Demon clan members are all heartless, promiscuous libertines.”

Zanxing seriously retorted: “You can’t paint everyone with the same brush. The Demon Lord is the Demon Lord, the demon clan is the demon clan.”

He laughed mockingly, his tone disdainful: “Why make excuses? Don’t you also have seven male concubines in your palace?”

Zanxing: “…” She had forgotten about this. Well, her reputation for being promiscuous and bedding men nightly had probably become household knowledge throughout the cultivation world – she couldn’t clear it even if she jumped into the Yellow River.

She simply gave up: “Although I have seven male concubines, I would never do something like abandoning a husband and child.”

At these words, Gu Baiying’s gaze became even more contemptuous, and Meng Ying’s words suddenly echoed in his mind: “Your feelings for her run deep, like the sea, like cotton growing long.” He angrily said: “How could I…” His words suddenly stopped.

Zanxing asked curiously: “How could you what?”

He snorted: “Nothing!”

Zanxing didn’t continue asking. However, she pondered in her heart – this past was when Gui Yansheng was born, but there was only the past Gui Yansheng here, no future Gui Yansheng to be seen. Could it be that the place where the Two-Life Buddha Wheel stopped turning wasn’t here? The past that Gui Yansheng wanted to change wasn’t now either?

Just as she was thinking, the sky outside had already brightened.

Gui Yansheng settled down to live in this village.

This woman, Gui Yansheng’s mother, was named Jiang Yiru. “A concubine’s heart follows her lord, lingering and tender as well” – it was said she was once a wealthy family’s young lady who, shortly after marriage, was discovered to be secretly pregnant and was expelled from the mansion, coming to this remote village to await childbirth.

The village people both pitied her lonely helplessness and gossiped behind her back about her fickle nature. However, this young woman was beautiful and charming with a gentle, careful temperament. As time passed, she got along peacefully enough with the villagers.

Not long after arriving in the village, she gave birth to a young son named Yansheng. What mother would name her child “Yansheng” (Life-Hating)? The neighbors speculated that this child’s biological father must be a heartless, fickle man, which made Jiang Yiru hate even her son. Of course, this child was also pitiful – born blind, unable to distinguish colors, binding his eyes with white cloth from childhood. Though he was born beautiful and handsome, he had a crippled body.

Yes, Jiang Yiru told outsiders that Yansheng was born blind.

She used a white cloth to bind Yansheng’s eyes, covering his golden pupils so neighbors wouldn’t discover his strange eye color and identity. She wasn’t as hateful toward her son as others said – more often, she was indifferent toward Yansheng. Maternal instinct made her unable to help caring for and protecting him, but on the other hand, she was disgusted by the fear and trouble this child brought her.

Yansheng grew day by day.

The worry between Jiang Yiru’s brows also grew deeper each day.

She was always very afraid, living in fear every day. She worried that Yansheng would someday be discovered for his true identity. Humans always felt hatred and fear toward non-human alien races, calling for their death and destruction.

Jiang Yiru’s health was originally poor, and with matters weighing on her heart, depression accumulated within. In the fifth year after Gui Yansheng’s birth, she died of illness. Before dying, she kept gripping Gui Yansheng’s hand, tirelessly repeating her instructions over and over: “Don’t remove the cloth strip, don’t let people see your eyes, don’t let them discover your identity… just live like this…” She raised her head, her eyes frighteningly bright: “Yansheng, do you remember?”

Five-year-old Gui Yansheng knelt before his mother’s bed, silently listening to his mother’s final words, obediently speaking: “I remember, Mother.”

Jiang Yiru passed away.

Gui Yansheng continued living alone in the village.

The neighbors helped arrange Jiang Yiru’s funeral affairs and, pitying him as a young, lonely child, gave him a small job helping in the carpenter’s shop, barely enough to get by.

Gui Yansheng silently accepted.

Contrary to his beautiful appearance was his overly silent temperament. He always worked very diligently and seriously, seemingly not knowing how to slack off. When the carpenter gave work to apprentices, other apprentices would always dump it on him, but he wasn’t annoyed and silently did work that wasn’t his responsibility. Though his eyes couldn’t see, his hands were very skillful. The woodwork he made by feel couldn’t be faulted by anyone in the village.

Watching this, Zanxing’s mood was very complex. The current obedient and honest Gui Yansheng before her eyes was completely different from the later mad Gui Yansheng – she wondered what exactly had happened.

Soon, Zanxing learned what had happened.

When Gui Yansheng was ten years old, one night after finishing the day’s work, it was already very late. He wanted to go catch some loaches by the village rice fields. It was autumn – the hot weather after harvest was perfect for catching loaches. His monthly wages weren’t much, so eating meat wasn’t easy. If he caught loaches himself, he could improve his diet somewhat.

By the water pond beside the rice paddies, moonlight coldly spilled brilliant light everywhere. The sweltering summer had just passed, and cicadas hadn’t completely disappeared yet. In the countryside filled with chirping sounds, he heard suppressed voices, as if someone was silently struggling.

Gui Yansheng’s movements paused as he looked toward where the sound was coming from.

Though his eyes were bound with white cloth strips, he could still see all things clearly – perhaps this was a benefit that came with the golden pupils. So in the night, he easily found a young girl being pressed down in the wild field, struggling desperately.

The person in the wild field also saw him and immediately crouched low, covering the girl’s mouth and nose with his large palm, trying to muffle the sounds from this side.

Gui Yansheng was a “blind person.”

He shouldn’t have been able to see.