Jiang Yuechu listened for a long while, but she never once looked back.
She only calmly tossed out a sentence after Demon Emperor Jade Dust's impassioned speech had completely finished.
"You're quite handy to use; I'll just treat it as raising one more pet."
"Pe... pet..."
Demon Emperor Jade Dust's entire body shuddered.
Hearing those words.
An uncontrollable surge of excitement actually welled up throughout his entire body.
A pet!
The Demon Emperor's pet!
Wouldn't that be roughly equivalent to... being the Demon Emperor's most trusted of confidants?
Demon Emperor Jade Dust immediately straightened his back, his antlers held high, and the wrinkles on his face smoothed out a bit.
Wang Ziyu looked at the Deer Demon's foolish, overwhelmed expression and felt a bit of a headache for a moment.
This silly thing.
He still thinks Jiang Yuechu is the Demon Emperor even now.
Once they reach Great Tang and he finds out his supreme Your Majesty the Demon Emperor is actually a Human Race Grand Princess.
I wonder what kind of wonderful expression he'll have.
Wang Ziyu withdrew his gaze, not bothering to say more.
However, there was one thing.
He could indeed see it.
This girl never took the initiative to acknowledge others, and her face always wore that cold, aloof look that warned strangers to stay away, but in her heart... she actually quite enjoyed this kind of flattery.
It made sense.
An eighteen-year-old girl.
No matter how remarkable she was, she had only lived for over a decade in this life.
With someone shouting "unrivaled Divine Might" and "eternal longevity" in her ear all day.
She might complain it's noisy, but her tail is probably already cocked up to the heavens.
The flying boat broke through the clouds, heading east all the way.
The peaks of the Yu Mountain Great Range gradually receded behind them.
...
Spirit Mountain.
Lightless Cave.
Iron chains hung down, covered in rust.
Several breaths had passed since the Man in White's voice had faded.
The White Elephant's massive body remained motionless.
Its snowy-white fur shimmered in the gloom, and its vertical pupils were half-closed, as if digesting the sentence just spoken.
"..."
The Man in White sat quietly by the rock, hands resting on his knees, his posture composed.
He didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with what he had just said.
Silence spread.
The White Elephant's eyes slowly opened.
First, they froze.
Then, an extremely soft and low laugh spilled out from deep within that massive body.
As if it had heard some absurd, preposterous joke.
"Ha..."
The laughter was very light at first, barely audible, with only the airflow from its nose becoming slightly heavier.
But after a moment.
The laughter was no longer restrained.
Its body began to tremble slightly.
Dozens of iron chains, as thick as bowls, clattered loudly from the vibration.
"Haha..."
"Hahahahaha—"
The laughter grew louder and louder.
In the end, it actually threw back its head, opened its massive mouth, and let out a burst of deafening, wild laughter.
The Man in White sat in place without moving an inch.
His expression was calm, and even when a few drops of murky water splashed onto his robes, he didn't raise a hand to brush them off.
The White Elephant laughed for a long time.
By the time it finished laughing, there were even hints of moisture in its eyes.
It lowered its head, looking at the man sitting upright before it.
"I've lived for tens of thousands of years... it's not long, but not short either... but after all, I can be considered well-traveled and knowledgeable."
"All sorts of demons and monsters, various Dao Lineage Main Seats, and exceptionally brilliant Prodigies... in these tens of thousands of years, I've seen them all, more or less."
"But today..."
"Those words of yours have truly amused me."
The laughter faded from its face, revealing a look of mockery: "Mo Qianxun... what on earth do you think you are?"
"You're nothing more than a dog at Profound Sun's feet... and yet you're worthy of taking an interest in the Painting Realm?"
"Wake up."
The White Elephant withdrew its gaze and lowered its eyelids again, seemingly having lost interest in continuing the conversation.
"Some things aren't yours just because you want them... Go back and report to your master that I won't reveal the location of the star palace atlas even on my deathbed... Even if you come a hundred times, a thousand times, the result will be the same."
Its voice trailed off.
The Lightless Cave sank back into a deathly silence.
The Man in White remained sitting in place.
From beginning to end.
His expression never changed.
He didn't even frown once at those extremely harsh words.
He just quietly waited for the White Elephant to finish speaking.
Then.
Mo Qianxun slowly raised his hand.
He unhurriedly brushed away the water stains splashed on the corner of his robe.
Only after finishing this did he look up, his gaze clear and calm: "You are right."
"In front of True Lord Xuan Yang, I am indeed just someone who follows orders; if he tells me to come, I come, and if he tells me to ask, I ask."
"I am indeed no Prodigy either."
"I entered Yujing Tower at seventeen with mediocre Aptitude, ranked at the bottom. Among my peers, Wang Canglan had already reached the Ink Dot Realm at seventeen, while in my seventeenth year, I hadn't even stabilized the Hearing the String."
"I've cultivated for over sixteen hundred years... among the thousands of Disciples under the True Lord, no more than ten know my name. I am not a one-in-a-million Prodigy like Wang Canglan... nor am I some great figure."
He lowered his eyes slightly.
"You calling me a dog... isn't actually wrong."
The White Elephant was slightly taken aback.
It hadn't expected the other party to so frankly accept such an evaluation.
Mo Qianxun stood up.
"However, a dog has a dog's way of living. Wang Canglan was a Prodigy... but he is dead."
"He died at the hands of someone younger and more obscure than him. The True Lord doesn't grieve, and doesn't even bother to investigate... because in the True Lord's eyes, whether it's Wang Canglan or me, we are both just chess pieces... if one dies, he just replaces it."
"But who says... a chess piece can't have ambition? Besides... this game of chess has now become a stalemate; one can neither advance nor retreat. Whether one is a chess piece or the player, in the end, no one can escape this maze."
The White Elephant still didn't open its eyes.
However, its slightly twitching long ears betrayed the fact that it wasn't truly indifferent.
"Are you finished?"
"Almost."
Mo Qianxun silently spread his palm.
Within his palm.
Large swathes of Crimson Sun had already surged forth.
The brilliant radiance instantly illuminated the entire cave.
For the first time in tens of thousands of years, the Lightless Cave, which had never seen the light of day, was filled with such dazzling brilliance.
Under the light, the rusty iron chains cast dense shadows that crawled across the four walls.
The White Elephant's vertical pupils snapped open.
"This is..."
As if thinking it was hallucinating, it quickly shook its head and looked carefully once more.
It was indeed Painting Intent.
That was an aura that could only be possessed by someone who had touched the threshold of the Painting Realm.
Even if it was just a tiny wisp.
It was absolutely not something an ordinary person could forge.
The White Elephant's body froze.
But how could this be possible?!
With this person's Aptitude, his cultivation level, and his insignificant status in Yujing Tower...
How could he possibly touch the Painting Realm?
Something Wang Canglan couldn't do.
Something True Lord Xuan Yang didn't dare to do.
Something that Moyang True Lord had risked his life for and only managed to set half a foot into back then.
A nobody.
A dog ignored by everyone.
How could he possibly achieve it?
Mo Qianxun looked at the White Elephant's reaction; he wasn't smug, nor did he explain, but simply said calmly, "Prodigies are Prodigies because they are born standing on high ground... while I was born crawling on the ground, mediocre and unremarkable, rubbed into a heap by everything, unable to even possess a hint of difference."
"If I were merely mediocre and aimless, so be it."
"But what I fear most is being mediocre and aimless my whole life, while comforting myself that being ordinary is precious—that... is the true tragedy."