They could only take one step at a time.
Su Su entered the room and saw several midwives surrounding a woman in undergarments.
The woman was beautiful, her forehead soaked with sweat, her eyes filled with pain.
"Your Highness! Hold on!"
The midwives were also drenched in sweat. The hot water in Su Su's hands was taken by someone at some point.
Pushed out of the crowd, she could only watch the situation unfold.
"What should we do?" one midwife said anxiously. "Consort Rou went into labor this morning, and it's already evening, yet the baby hasn't been born."
Consort Rou on the bed had long lost her strength. With Ginseng Slices in her mouth, she strained for a while but ultimately fainted.
Blood trickled down her bare legs.
Even though Su Su had never witnessed childbirth, she could guess what fainting in such a situation meant.
Sure enough, the midwives' faces turned pale.
Someone quickly made a decision: "Inform The Emperor of the situation... Now, we must decide whether to save the mother or the child..."
Soon, the furious voice of The Emperor echoed from outside.
"Worthless fools! Save Consort Rou! If anything happens to her, you will all be buried with her!"
Su Su looked at Consort Rou's heavily swollen belly.
She knew in her heart that the child likely could not be saved.
But unexpectedly, just as the physicians and midwives were about to act, Consort Rou woke up. Her eyes were dazed as she murmured, "My child... my child..."
Tears streamed down Consort Rou's face. "Please, save my child!"
Everyone looked sorrowful, and Su Su felt a pang of sadness in her heart.
The Emperor had given the order, so naturally, only Consort Rou would be saved.
Suddenly, a midwife exclaimed joyfully, "Your Highness, push! I can see the baby's head!"
Consort Rou's lips trembled as she gritted her teeth!
The midwife cheered, "The baby is out..."
The next moment, the midwives suddenly screamed.
Su Su had a bad feeling.
The commotion was so loud that The Emperor, waiting outside, kicked the door open and stormed in.
The Emperor stared intently at the blood-soaked bed, where a baby boy lay in a pool of blood.
His dark, gleaming eyes were open, and he clutched Consort Rou's intestines in his hand.
The baby boy seemed curious about what he held—warm, pliable, and unbreakable.
He opened his mouth and took a bite.
The baby boy revealed cold, milky-white teeth.
On the bed, Consort Rou lay with wide-open eyes, already dead.
The midwives and physicians trembled as they knelt on the floor.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty... This..."
This little monster had not cried once after being born, and he had teeth! His nails had even pierced Consort Rou's belly!
Su Su almost instantly realized who this was—it was Tantai Jin!
She never expected that, by a twist of fate, she had entered Tantai Jin's dream and witnessed the moment of his birth.
The Little Demon, sensing he was being abandoned, had decisively killed his mother to be born.
The Emperor looked at Consort Rou's corpse, then grabbed the baby boy and hurled him violently against the wall.
"Monster, you monster, die!"
The baby boy on the floor, despite being thrown like that, did not die. He spat out large mouthfuls of blood. Babbling, he blew bloody bubbles and even grinned happily.
This innocent yet sinister appearance was utterly terrifying. One midwife screamed and fainted from fear.
Tantai Jin, blood staining the corners of his mouth, met Su Su's gaze with his pitch-black eyes.
The moment Su Su and the baby boy locked eyes, the space around them twisted and shifted.When she steadied herself again, someone whispered in her ear, "You've suffered too. That little scourge still needs you to collect his body. Left in the cold palace for so many days, the corpse must have rotted..."
By the time the words faded, the palace maid had departed, leaving Su Su standing alone outside a palace gate.
After a moment's hesitation, she pushed the door open and saw a tattered, blood-stained swaddling cloth discarded beside withered grass.
So after Consort Rou's death, Tantai Jin had been abandoned here. It appeared he had been left for several days already.
Su Su approached.
She knew this was clearly the best opportunity to understand the Demon God's past.
Inside the swaddling clothes, the "Little Demon" was in a wretched state.
The cloth was caked with mud and grass fragments, his exposed arms covered with mosquito bites.
There were also scrapes and bruises, his face so filthy its features were indistinguishable.
No one had changed his diapers, and a foul odor emanated from the swaddling clothes.
Tantai Jin clutched a dead gray rat tightly, his eyes firmly closed.
Rat blood stained half his mouth.
Su Su finally understood how he had survived without a single drop of breastmilk.
The rat that tried to eat him had instead been caught by him and used as food.
His tiny body trembled as he hugged the dead rat as if it were his only hope in this world.
Though the rat had already begun to rot, Tantai Jin still couldn't bear to let it go.
The infant boy seemed to understand that no one would raise him, no one would care for him.
Badly injured, his lips now appeared purplish-black.
Su Su's feelings were indescribable.
In this short time, she had witnessed both his cruelty and his pitiful vulnerability.
This conflicted mindset had persisted ever since she traveled back five hundred years.
Given the choice to kill him during his childhood, Su Su knew she would certainly act.
However, as long as the Evil Bone existed, the Demon God would remain immortal.
The choice to kill or not kill wasn't hers to make.
As she crouched down to pick him up, faint footsteps sounded from outside.
Su Su quickly hid herself.
She saw the crimson-clad palace maid from that day enter with red-rimmed eyes, picking up Tantai Jin while sobbing uncontrollably: "My poor mistress, young prince.".. Young Prince..."
The maid wept bitterly for a long time before finally biting her lip and carrying the child away.
Su Su thought to herself - this was likely Consort Rou's most loyal maid, who both hated Tantai Jin for causing Consort Rou's death, yet remembered he was her mistress's final bloodline, the child Consort Rou chose to protect at the cost of her own life.
That's why she had come to retrieve Tantai Jin.
Just as Su Su prepared to follow, dizziness suddenly overwhelmed her.
Resigned, she thought - another forced scene change was coming.
When Su Su awoke again, she saw a four or five-year-old child kneeling on the ground.
A palace maid said: "Come on, make the sound again."
The boy tilted his head and obediently called out: "Woof!"
The palace maids covered their mouths, laughing.
Someone threw out a stick of candied hawthorn: "Here, fetch!"
The boy quickly ran over, picked up the candied hawthorn, and bit into it without caring about the dirt on it.
The crimson-clad maid appeared in a fury: "What are you all doing!"
The maids pouted and scattered.
The crimson-clad maid tearfully pulled the boy up, angry yet helpless: "Your Highness, how could you do this? Though we've fallen from favor, you're still the master! How could you imitate an animal's cry and kneel to servants!"
Tantai Jin lifted his small face and said obediently: "Aunt Lan'an, they said they'd give me food if I barked like a dog."
He crunched the candy pieces in his mouth, biting through the sugar coating with crisp sounds.Lan An said angrily, "Your Highness, do you know what self-respect means?"
Tantai Jin asked in confusion, "What is self-respect?"
His pupils were pitch-black, his face showing no trace of humiliation. Lan An was startled, suddenly realizing that the boy before her was born without a sense of shame.
Lan An's lips trembled: "It means... they are making a fool of you..."
"Is that so?" Tantai Jin tilted his head, the innocence fading from his eyes as he calmly asked, "Weren't they going to give me food?"
Lan An: "No."
Tantai Jin swallowed the sugar crumbs in his mouth and licked his lips: "I see..."
Su Su, currently a small kitten, stood on the rockery, silently watching all of this.
Two days later, a palace maid's body was found in the lake.
It happened to be the maid who had made him bark like a dog.
Her body was bloated, floating on the surface, ugly and terrifying.
Su Su covered her head with her paws, thinking, what kind of damn nightmare is this!
Lan An pulled the young boy under the candlelight, her lips trembling: "Your Highness, d-did you do this?"
Tantai Jin tilted his head: "What did I do?"
"Your... Your Highness..."
"Why do the Third Prince and Fifth Prince have servants and get to study, while I don't?" The boy interrupted her, his black-and-white eyes wide open as he asked.
Lan An said bitterly: "Because we have no power or influence, no one to rely on."
Tantai Jin pondered for a moment, then said coldly: "If they had no one to rely on either, would I be the same as them?" As long as they also lost their mothers, everyone would be equal.
Lan An covered her mouth, taking two steps back in horror.
"You!"
Tantai Jin said: "Are you afraid of me?"
Lan An forced a smile: "Your Highness misunderstands."
The boy lowered his head, his eyes filled with confusion and incomprehension.
Su Su never expected that after Lan An left, she would be caught by Tantai Jin.
The boy's hand was bony as he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. As a small kitten, Su Su's fur stood on end.
"I found you," he said.
The next moment, Tantai Jin released her and pressed her before a small dried fish.
"Eat," he commanded.
Su Su thought, I'd be stupid to eat that.
However, the kitten she was possessing, driven by instinct, uncontrollably began licking the dried fish.
Su Su wept and despaired inwardly.
Not long after, her kitten body convulsed and stopped breathing.
Tantai Jin calmly buried the kitten.
Su Su's spirit was forced to leave. This time, she didn't know what she had possessed, but she couldn't move at all.
On a stormy night, the door was pushed open.
Lan An shoved the young boy inside, crying hysterically: "I was wrong, I shouldn't have saved you, shouldn't have begged The Emperor to spare your life for old times' sake. You're not Consort Rou's child, you're a monster!"
"Aunt Lan'an?"
"Shut up!" Lan An screamed hysterically, "You actually tried... to poison the Third Prince!"
"He didn't eat it," Tantai Jin thought for a moment, then showed an obedient smile, "Didn't he not eat it? Auntie, don't be angry."
"That's because I stopped him!" Lan An said, her lips trembling, "I can't teach you anymore. From now on, you're on your own."
Tantai Jin's smile disappeared as he looked up: "Are you going to betray me too?"
Lan An didn't answer, pushed him away, and disappeared into the storm.
Tantai Jin sat cross-legged on the prayer mat.
Lightning split the sky, revealing the boy's calm, pale face. He moved his facial muscles, trying to form an innocent, pitiful expression.
The next moment, he returned to his indifferent demeanor.Looking down at his indifferent expression, Su Su suddenly realized he didn't care in the slightest. He might even be thinking that Lan An deserved to die for betraying him.
So this was what they meant by the innate Evil Bone. Born with a bloodthirsty and violent nature, he would stop at nothing to survive.
He lacked compassion, pity, and didn't understand the meaning of shame.
Perhaps... Su Su thought distractedly, he didn't understand love or emotions at all, inherently cold and detached.
This was why her father said those born with the Evil Bone could never be redeemed.
Even though Lan An had been so good to him, raising him with care, his gaze toward her remained cold and indifferent.
When Lan An abandoned him, he felt no reluctance, only the displeasure of being provoked, his dark pupils appearing profoundly gloomy.
A flash of lightning illuminated the room, and Tantai Jin unexpectedly spotted a statue of the Glazed Goddess on the high platform.
The glaze was transparent and clear, the Goddess's hair flowing down to her waist, her robes layered and flowing, with a dot of Cinnabar between her brows.
Holding a sword, she appeared both courageous and holy.
He stared unblinkingly at the Glazed Goddess for a long time.
Su Su felt chills running down her spine.
Then, he actually began climbing toward the high platform. Halfway up, he fell, a three-inch-long gash from wood splinters bleeding on him.
He got up as if nothing had happened and continued approaching her.
Su Su almost screamed: Don't come any closer!
After several attempts, she was finally grasped in Tantai Jin's hand.
With his blood-stained hand, he gently stroked her cheek.
His childish voice whispered softly: "So beautiful."
Long hair, cinnabar mark.
The brave and holy sword-wielding Goddess, stunning beyond compare when illuminated in the darkness.
Looking at the Glazed Goddess in his palm, he obsessively smeared her entire body with his blood using his stained hands.
Feeling his icy fingers, Su Su felt completely unnerved: "..." What a lunatic!
So what exactly was her current body?
OpenNovel