On the eighth day of the lunar month, the once-in-a-century Grand Competition arrived once again.
This year’s event was still held at the Hengyang Sect. However, the nature of the competition had changed. In the past, it served as a platform for exchanging information and uniting against the demon race. Now, with immortals and demons coexisting peacefully, the Grand Competition was merely an opportunity to test the younger generation.
Susu had sent a letter to Gongye Jiwu in advance, expressing her wish to bring young demonic cultivators along with Tantai Jin to participate in the competition.
After reading the letter, Gongye Jiwu naturally had no objections.
Knowing that the Demon Lord would be visiting, the Hengyang Sect had begun preparing courtyards days in advance to host their demonic guests.
To be honest, the disciples were quite uneasy. The memory of Tantai Jin’s brutal killings a thousand years ago remained vivid in their minds. The thought of such a formidable demon lord setting foot in their sect was unsettling—if he were to turn hostile, it would be a scene of no survivors.
Although they knew Tantai Jin had saved the six realms, the psychological trauma was not something that could fade so quickly.
With unrest spreading among the disciples, Gongye Jiwu, as the trusted sect leader, felt somewhat helpless.
Fortunately, he maintained a positive attitude and reassured them, “Don’t worry. If anything happens, your sect leader will die before any of you.”
Yue Fuya remarked in surprise, “Sect Leader, you’re actually making jokes now?”
Gongye Jiwu smiled faintly.
The disciples, however, were not comforted by their leader’s dark humor. On the day of the competition, everyone waited anxiously for Tantai Jin’s arrival.
Dark clouds gathered on the horizon, their oppressive gloom making the disciples look up involuntarily.
A carriage pulled by a nine-headed bird monster descended from the sky.
Gongye Jiwu stood calmly in the wind and greeted with a gentle smile, “Junior Sister.”
Sure enough, a pale hand lifted the carriage curtain, revealing Susu’s smiling face. “Eldest Senior Brother, Fuya!”
Susu leaped down from the carriage. It had been a long time since she had seen her former home. While the competition was the stated purpose, her true intention was to return for a visit.
Back in her days at Hengyang, Susu had been everyone’s beloved junior sister. Now that she had returned, her former senior brothers and sisters were overjoyed, momentarily forgetting her status as a goddess as they gathered around her.
The group chatted warmly and affectionately.
The demonic cultivators who had arrived with the nine-headed bird carriage glanced at Susu and then at the ominously dark carriage, choosing to remain silent.
Everyone knew that the Demon Lord had no interest in attending this so-called Grand Competition.
It wasn’t that he feared the young demonic disciples would lose and bring shame—demons were naturally competitive and eager for a fight. The reason Tantai Jin was reluctant to come was the rumor that the Hengyang Sect housed many of his former romantic rivals.
All of them were said to be kinder and more upright than the Demon Lord had been in the past.
Even the nine-headed bird could sense Tantai Jin’s foul mood.
Tantai Jin stepped out of the carriage, holding A’Mi in one arm, and immediately spotted the elegant and poised Gongye Jiwu standing opposite him.
The depth of their intertwined fates was profound. Tantai Jin narrowed his eyes slightly and walked over calmly, still carrying his daughter.
Gongye Jiwu’s gaze was serene, neither joyful nor sorrowful. When his eyes fell upon A’Mi in Tantai Jin’s arms, he paused for a moment, then his expression softened.
“Are you A’Mi?”
A’Mi blinked her large, dewy eyes at Gongye Jiwu, then stretched out her arms toward him. “Uncle, hold me.”
Gongye Jiwu stiffly reached out and took A’Mi from Tantai Jin’s arms.
Tantai Jin raised an eyebrow and released his hold.Su Su looked at A'Mi, then at her rigid senior brother, and walked over to Tantai Jin, secretly pinching his waist. "Hey, what mischief are you and A'Mi up to?"
Tantai Jin lowered his gaze and smiled at her. "If you don't trust me, fine, but why don't you even trust your own daughter?"
Su Su: "..."
A'Mi was only obedient in front of her. Ever since Tantai Jin returned to his position, little A'Mi had become a lawless little devil. And to make matters worse, her father always smiled and encouragingly praised A'Mi for her mischief.
Their daughter mostly resembled her, but she was, after all, a mixed-blood of god and demon, with a hint of Tantai's inherent mischief in her bones. Su Su overheard the little girl biting her finger and asking Gongye Jiwu, "Uncle, where is your dao companion?"
Gongye Jiwu paused for a moment before replying gently, "Uncle doesn't have a dao companion."
"Oh, why doesn't Uncle have a dao companion?"
Gongye Jiwu rarely interacted with such a young child and found himself at a loss for an answer. He and A'Mi stared at each other, wide-eyed.
Su Su quickly walked over. "Senior brother, let me take A'Mi."
A'Mi turned her head and glanced at her demon lord father.
Tantai Jin's lips curved slightly, his expression unreadable.
Naturally, A'Mi listened more to Su Su and let go of Gongye Jiwu, standing on the ground by herself.
"Sorry, senior brother, A'Mi dirtied your clothes," Su Su said.
Gongye Jiwu looked down and indeed saw a grimy little handprint on his shoulder, smeared with sticky residue. "It's nothing," he said, making a hand seal to clean his robes. "The grand competition is about to begin. Fellow cultivators, please take your seats."
Everyone settled into their seats one by one.
Su Su looked at the two faces before her, one large and one small, and warned, "No causing trouble in Hengyang Sect, and no messing with Senior Brother Gongye. Understood?"
A'Mi obediently nodded repeatedly. "A'Mi understands, Mother."
Su Su kissed her cheek. "A'Mi is such a good girl."
True to her childish nature, A'Mi soon became engrossed in watching the matches, happily cheering along.
"And you, Tantai Jin."
Tantai Jin fell silent for a moment, seemingly quite reluctant.
Seeing Su Su still staring at him, he had no choice but to say, "Understood."
Su Su breathed a sigh of relief. When Tantai Jin promised her something, he would always keep his word.
Su Su smiled and whispered something in his ear. Upon hearing it, Tantai Jin's eyes also lit up with a faint smile.
As they spoke, Gongye Jiwu watched them from the side.
Yaoguang, sitting beside him, said enviously, "I used to think Cang Jiumin was gloomy and cold, but now it seems he treats Su Su quite well."
Gongye Jiwu nodded gently.
Indeed, he did.
When Su Su spoke, Tantai Jin listened intently, his eyes holding only her reflection. No matter what Su Su said, his eyes sparkled with faint light.
As the Demon Lord, he didn't care how his disciples perceived him. After peeling grapes for Su Su, he peeled some for A'Mi as well.
Throughout the entire banquet, he didn't eat a single bite himself.
A millennium of grudges and grievances, entangled since their mortal lives, had led to this moment. Gongye Jiwu had prepared himself for Tantai Jin to make things difficult for him, but in the end, nothing happened.
Tantai Jin even nodded politely to him before turning back to look at Su Su.
Seeing her happy smile, Tantai Jin smiled as well.
That smile was unusually pure. In that moment, Gongye Jiwu suddenly understood why Su Su loved this man.Even if Tantai Jin had once been selfish and indifferent, stubborn and arrogant, cruel and malicious—for someone like him, a thousand-year grudge would be a fight to the death—yet with just a word or a smile from Susu, Tantai Jin would shed all his thorns and become simple and pure.
A heart of innocence, unexpectedly found in a Demon God.
Gongye Jiwu silently finished the wine in his cup. As long as Tantai Jin treated her well, he could rest assured.
That night, Susu and Tantai Jin stayed at Changze Immortal Mountain.
This place was very familiar to Tantai Jin. In the nightmare illusion, when he was still Cang Jiumin, he had been here before.
Back then, Susu had woven a sword tassel for him with a feather by the Heavenly Pond, but unfortunately, the tassel was only half-finished. Later, before Tantai Jin went to his death, he imagined that scene and completed the unfinished tassel himself.
Once, this place had been filled with nothing but sorrow for Tantai Jin.
But now, it was the place where she had grown up.
He wanted to walk the paths she had walked, meet the people she had known, and take part in the life he had missed.
Deep in the Heavenly Pond, there was a wooden cabin where Susu often cultivated when she was young.
Sitting cross-legged on a pearl cushion, Susu showed Tantai Jin the things from her childhood.
One by one, she took them out of a wooden box, reminiscing as she spoke to Tantai Jin: "This is a grasshopper my father made for me, this is a token given to me by Senior Sister Xiangyue, and this is the amber frog the senior brothers used to scare me..."
Tantai Jin listened intently, just like the studious young man he had been in the mortal world.
A faint smile flickered in his eyes as he gently patted her head.
Hatred.
Susu did not ask about his childhood. She knew that Tantai Jin’s childhood had likely been far from good. His past was filled with hunger, hypocrisy, and malice.
So now, she had the patience to show him many beautiful things.
Just like the Mortal World Talisman she had once shown him, she presented those beautiful scenes before him, filling the void in his heart.
She encouraged Tantai Jin to return to the Carefree Sect, allowed him to clumsily and dotingly teach their daughter. The injustice fate had once dealt him was now being compensated in another way by Susu.
That night, they slept in the wooden cabin, on the bed Susu had once used.
Tantai Jin held Susu in his arms and, with a wave of his hand, filled the sky above Changze Immortal Mountain with countless stars.
He kissed the divine mark between her brows, and Susu leaned against his chest, sleeping peacefully.
A gentle breeze brushed by. Susu, who had long become a celestial god, opened her eyes. The red demon mark between Tantai Jin’s brows flickered faintly, carrying a sinister and ominous aura.
It was the heart demon that had secretly followed him ever since his return to the demon realm.
Or rather, it was the heart demon belonging to the Demon God’s destined fate.
It had slipped through the cracks of the Path of Sorrow and attached itself to him in this life. Strangely enough, this heart demon was also born from "Tantai Jin," so he remained unaware, feeling nothing amiss.
Susu had always wanted to know what it was. Before, in the demon realm, she couldn’t investigate it, but tonight, she could.
Susu formed a hand seal, and the phoenix tree outside the window rustled.
An invisible array activated, helping her capture the heart demon the Demon God had hidden.
Closing her eyes, she pressed her forehead against his. Since Tantai Jin did not resist her aura, she easily saw the Demon God’s heart demon with the aid of the phoenix tree.
It belonged to another person, yet it was also "Tantai Jin."
Before her eyes was a lifetime in which she had never appeared by his side.
Tantai Jin grew up as a mortal, struggling and fighting to survive as an ordinary person, only to fail at the very last moment.The youth perished in the great fire, his gaze fixed on the desolate mortal world until his last breath.
His eyes were filled with confusion and pain.
The flames stood like a wall, separating him from the rest of the world. Inside the fire, he was alone and terrified, while outside, the people cheered loudly, celebrating his death by burning.
Like a child who did not know what he had done wrong, he curled up, unable to shed a single tear.
Su Su suddenly felt a deep ache in her heart.
"Tan Tai Jin!"
Through the flames, she grasped the youth's hand.
He trembled slightly, his dark eyes turning to her.
In that one glance, which felt like an eternity, the pain in his eyes seemed to vanish, replaced by a gentle smile.
—This mortal world is full of suffering, but the moment you held my hand, it became happiness.
Carefully, he returned her grasp.
Gradually, the scene faded along with him, and the inner demons hidden deep within his fate silently dissipated.
Su Su yawned, feeling content.
The first light of dawn filtered in.
Tan Tai Jin opened his eyes.
Su Su slept peacefully in his arms. He touched the fading demon god mark on his forehead.
When he was pulled into the Path of Shared Sorrow, he had seen another version of himself—a demon lord devoid of emotion, knowing only schemes and treachery until the end.
Yet now, those lonely visions felt very, very far away.
The glass bead bracelet on his wrist shimmered faintly in the sunlight. He lowered his gaze to examine it, and beneath the lingering remnants of the spell in the phoenix tree forest, his demon eyes saw what Su Su had secretly infused into it long ago.
—It was the most precious blessing and love of a goddess.
For a long time, he remained in a daze. On this ordinary morning, the demon god, born without love or tears, suddenly felt his eyes grow moist.
[End of Full Text]
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