Zanxing watched Gui Yansheng following behind the woman and let out a heavy sigh.

“What are you sighing about?” Gu Baiying glanced at her.

“Don’t you think the way that person just spoke resembled the traffickers in villages who abduct children?” Zanxing said. “Gui Yansheng is already sixteen or seventeen years old at this point—how can he not see through even this?”

Gu Baiying’s eyes moved slightly as he spoke in a calm voice: “For him, as long as he can find his father, he’s willing to try even the most clumsy lies.”

Zanxing was stunned and couldn’t help but look at Gu Baiying. She thought that back then, Gu Baiying’s feelings about wanting to find Qinghua Xianzi were probably no different from Gui Yansheng’s current feelings of trying to find his father.

However, since he had already found Heishi City, could it be that in the end, he never found Gui Diao Tang? Or… this woman had done something to him. Zanxing’s gaze fell upon the woman.

Since she had returned to Heishi City, she had more or less seen all the demon race people. Even if she hadn’t seen them, Xiao Shuang’s roster contained portraits. This woman was born with the elegant, ethereal beauty of a divine maiden—if she had seen her, she definitely wouldn’t have had any impression at all. This could only mean that this woman was no longer in Heishi City now.

The woman led Gui Yansheng forward all the way until they reached a cave dwelling. Compared to other demon race residences, this cave dwelling looked much more ordinary. Only some white gauze curtains decorated the outside of the cave—there were no colorful bowls and chopsticks, nor golden, gleaming pillars. Inside the cave dwelling, it looked like an ordinary human household’s residence, with tables, chairs, and a dressing table, all quite refined.

Gui Yansheng followed her inside and looked around.

That woman, however, found a soft couch and leaned against it herself first.

Gui Yansheng stood still and looked at her: “Didn’t you say you would take me to find my father?”

“Yes, I did.” The woman smiled sweetly in response. Her tone was still gentle, but her gaze was completely different from before. She still had the same appearance as before, yet in an instant, her eyes were tinged with an eerie quality.

Gui Yansheng also noticed this change. He stepped back and bumped into the dressing table behind him. On the red sandalwood dressing table, various cosmetics and fragrances for women were scattered about messily. His hand touched something soft, and when he looked back, it was a piece of silk as thin as cicada wings. The handkerchief depicted delicate eyebrows and eyes… No, that wasn’t silk at all—what was in his hand was a beauty’s skin!

Even though he had experienced quite a lot over the years, even though his mind was more mature than ordinary youths of his age, at this moment, Gui Yansheng still couldn’t help but cry out in alarm.

The woman, however, seemed to have seen the funniest joke in the world and laughed “ge ge ge” aloud. She reached out to caress her face, chuckling: “Originally, my face was injured for most of half a year, and I was punished with a prohibition from leaving the city. I didn’t expect you to come to my door yourself to become my nourishment.” Following the tracing motion of her fingertips, burn marks gradually appeared on that delicate, powder-white cheek. These marks began from her cheek, like half a burned handkerchief—half beauty, half asura—truly frightening.

She rose and gracefully walked toward Gui Yansheng: “Don’t worry. Once your skin is used on my face, you and I will be as if merged into one. Then I’ll wear your face to help you find your father—I won’t break my word.”

Gui Yansheng stepped back repeatedly. He wanted to grab something to protect himself, but there was nothing around. The cave dwelling’s entrance was blocked by an invisible restriction—he had nowhere to escape.

The youth stepped back repeatedly, forcibly suppressing the trembling in his voice as he looked at the approaching woman: “I am of the demon race. You cannot kill me.”

“Demon race?” The woman laughed loudly: “You mortals are truly interesting. Having a pair of golden pupils doesn’t mean you can call yourself a demon race. You don’t have the slightest bit of demonic essence power in your body—how could you be demon race? You say you want to find your father, but you’ve come to the wrong place! This is Heishi City, not a place mortals can enter.”

Gui Yansheng was stunned.

He wasn’t a demon race?

Then who exactly was he? He had grown a pair of golden pupils and was viewed as a demon by the villagers—he couldn’t possibly be mortal. He had originally thought that coming to Heishi City, he would be acknowledged by his kind. But this woman said he wasn’t a demon race.

The woman seemed to have grown tired of talking with him. She reached out and grabbed his throat with one hand—her slender jade fingers instantly became sharp claws. She pressed her half-burned face against Gui Yansheng’s face and impatiently took a deep breath: “The scent of a living person is truly fragrant.”

Wisps of a living person’s breath flew out from Gui Yansheng’s mouth and drilled into the woman’s lips. She was like a greedy giant beast, devouring the delicious meal before her in great gulps. One hand crawled up Gui Yansheng’s face to his forehead as the woman laughed: “Let me tear off your skin… give me your face…”

Gui Yansheng struggled with his body with difficulty, closing his eyes somewhat despairingly.

But at this moment, a miserable scream suddenly came from beside his ear.

He abruptly opened his eyes and saw that the woman had collapsed not far from him, looking at him with shock and terror, as if he were some kind of monster.

Traces of black marks faintly lit up along his forehead, and at his brow, a black begonia flower vaguely bloomed.

“Demon Lord’s seal…” The woman looked at his brow center, her tone unable to hide her shock: “How could you have the Demon Lord’s seal?”

Gui Yansheng was suddenly released and couldn’t help but step back two paces. He grasped his neck and coughed heavily twice. Though he had no strength left, he still looked at that woman and asked in a hoarse voice: “What is the Demon Lord’s seal?”

“You are the Demon Lord’s son?” That woman stared at him fixedly, her expression full of disbelief. Not knowing whether she was speaking to herself or others: “Impossible, you cannot be the Demon Lord’s son. You are mortal—could you be a half-demon? There absolutely cannot be half-demons in this world!”

Her expression became increasingly frenzied, and Gui Yansheng gritted his teeth without speaking.

Until that woman gradually calmed down. She seemed to finally accept a fact she was unwilling to believe, so she stood up again. Looking at Gui Yansheng with a gaze that carried a strange, profound meaning, she said: “So, your father is the Demon Lord.”

“Demon Lord?”

“Yes, he is the master of Heishi City. The entire Demon Realm must follow his lead. If you had said earlier that you were the Demon Lord’s son, you wouldn’t have had to suffer so much.”

Demon Lord? He was the Demon Lord’s son? It sounded like the mortal world’s emperor. Since he was the Demon Lord’s son, wouldn’t that mean he no longer had to live a life of wandering and hiding everywhere in the future?

A secret joy arose in Gui Yansheng’s heart. However, before this happiness could transform into a smile, he saw the woman before him look at him and speak with pity: “What a pity.”

His heart tightened: “Pity what?”

“Pity that our Heishi City’s master, Demon Lord Gui Diao Tang, values bloodline hierarchy above all else. Since he came to power, he issued a decree: once a half-demon body is discovered, kill.”

She smiled as she looked at the youth before her, the smile on her lips gentle, but the words she spoke were like the most vicious curse.

“You are a half-demon.”