“Freia is right, Shen. I’ll ask you to do what she said.” → Ashura
Ashura said with a serious face. The emotional shock was strong enough to make him turn into a semi-god, using the flames of anger to become a small “Sura”, evil divinity of destruction and carnage. Happily, because of the “Dhavala” charm that Shen placed on him, Ashura remained just a “small Sura”. If Shen really died at that time, Ashura could’ve become a true Ashura, breaking the charm then killing and destroying whatever was in front of him, the only one who could calm him at least a little after that would’ve been his little sister, Tara.
“I agree, I think it’s for the best for his majesty to go and sleep. As a king, you can’t stay on guard.”
The two high-elves said with solemn faces.
“Shen, with this body you won’t be able to stay awake for a long time. How about I come and see you 2 hours before sunrise? At that time, the sleepiness hits the hardest.” → Sylvia
Sylvia knew she couldn’t make him do otherwise, she felt his unyielding heart so she chooses another option.
“I’ll do as Sylvia said, as for the rest of you; please don’t worry, even though my body is broken, my soul is still strong. One night with no sleep is nothing and as one of the future rulers, I need to be sure even that my people are not harmed in my presence.” → Shen
Shen said with a domineering voice.
After calming everyone down, he sent them to sleep and stayed in front of the deck, looking at the dark sea. Three hours later Shen sees in front of him how the darkness formed a vortex, in the middle of it, a dark silhouette started to form.
“You finally showed yourself, Demon Lord.” → Shen
Shen looked with cold eyes at the silhouette which looked like a dark shadow with two dark-blue shining eyes. An incredibly oppressing aura suddenly appeared, dropping over Shen’s shoulders.
[Hm, not bad for a human. So you already knew about me contacting you.]
The shadow said with an ethereal voice, just like how Shen talked when he was a spirit.
“What might be your reason for visiting me? Revenge for hurting your third brat?” → Shen
Shen asked with a cold voice.
“That idiot almost brought the destruction upon this world, next time I see him, he won’t be that lucky!” → Shen
[I know. For his foolish decisions, I will punish him accordingly. His head will be cut and from it, a cup shall be made then sent to you as a gift. Is that good enough?]
The demon-lord asked with a neutral voice as if he were talking about a toll and not his own son.
“Don’t send me your trash. Punish him as you see fit but don’t give me his body parts, I don’t need them.” → Shen
Shen said with some disgust.
“What you can truly do is freeing all the elves you imprisoned as slaves and bring them back to the World Tree, like this you won’t risk for another seal to be broken.” → Shen
Shen said while trying to see if his plan would work.
[Sounds logical. I shall do as you say then. However, this will not seem like I am paying you back anything. I know you sacrificed your own cultivation to reseal the godly beasts. Besides freeing the elves, I will accept two more conditions of yours as long as I find them acceptable.]
“Oh~. How generous.” → Shen
Shen was really surprised by the demon lord’s generosity. however, his guard was still up.
“I can see you’re able to tell the gravity of the situation. Then, I think you already know about the new forming kingdom that started to grow in the middle of the three continents, right?” → Shen
[Yes. You wish for me to leave it alone. I will accept so but only for 50 years. After that, I will come and make it one of the Demon Kingdom vassals, paying taxes and tribute.]
The demon didn’t even wait for Shen to finish, saying what was on his mind at that time.
[If showed any resistance I will eradicate it.]
“Tsk, never mind what I said, you are quite stingy. Very well, 50 years are enough. And don’t think it would be that easy. I will be there as well!” → Shen
Shen made a ferocious smile. Even though he had no mana or chi circulating inside him, the aura he emanated now was like that of a tyrannical emperor, activating [Subduing Aura] subconsciously. Shen then calmed down and continued as if nothing happened.
“Now the third request. Eight years from now, one of my disciples that is also your seventh son will have a match with you. No killing, just a duel between father and son. I wish you‘d be able to honor this fight.” → Shen
Shen didn’t give any room to decline.
[Hooh~, are you that confident in your disciple to fight me? Do you even know why I threw him away?]
“No reason is good enough for you to throw your own son away.” → Shen
[But there is. He was made with a human woman, making his mana-pool much smaller than a pure blooded high-demon. He’s nothing but a hybrid, not even a true demon. My family does not need such trashes.]
“Are you done?” → Shen
Shen’s veins started to bulge, he felt like flying toward the demon king’s castle and bash his face in.
[Let me ask, are you sure about the duel? I might kill him by mistake.]
The demon-king said with a disdainful voice.
“Don’t you worry about that. Theo will resist your hits with no problem, you’ll have some surprises-” → Shen
Shen said with a calm smile, then the smile subsided and a face colder than any he ever made in his life appeared with a voice just as cold. His eyes turned black and two suns appeared where the pupils should’ve been, his aura exploded with a controlled shockwave so he won’t destroy the deck. Even so, some cracks still appeared. The space around him flickered as if he were scorching hot and on his shoulder, a black squirrel with red eyes appeared. It emanated an evil dark-red aura, looking as if black smoke were rising from him, he looked in a threatening way at the demon-lord and pressured the shadow in front with his own energy.
[But listen here. If you dare kill Theodore, I’ll be sure to erase your entire family together with your kingdom from the Eihwaz continent. Any mistake will be unforgivable and your entire kin will pay for it.] → Shen
Shen’s voice boomed only where the two of them resided, making the demon lord feel all the pressure.
[Admirable. Your body is crippled but you still have such strength. Even more so, you tamed a spatial devil. It seems I should award my son for his stupidity that made you weaker.]
The demon-lord released his own evil and dark aura, making the darkness around look like it was a huge dark beast and the water turning in huge waves. His dark shadow twisted in a sinister smile, giving the chill to anyone who saw it.
The two auras confronted, making the sea split and the darkness twist. It looked as if shadows tried to escape this unseen battle and even the ocean looked as if it was terrified. After 2 minutes of clashing auras, from inside the ship steps were heard, rushing toward the deck.
[Your people have been alarmed. We will meet again, Immortal King Shen.]
The shadow said then slowly it started to disappear.
[Pray to never see me again until the day of the duel, Lord of Demons.] → Shen
Shen said with a neutral voice.
[Ahahaha~! Your arrogance makes me laugh…]
The shadow said while laughing amused, disappearing without a trace.
After his shadow disappeared, Shen retracted his aura and his eyes turned back to normal. The squirrel also disappeared from his shoulder. He had a tired and pale face, he was too tired now to stay awake the entire night. From behind him, rushed footsteps were heard.
“Shen!” → Sylvia
Sylvia and Ashura were able to feel the strong auras. Even though he tried to conceal the auras so he wouldn’t wake up the others, the confrontation between them was still way too ridiculous to be concealed from a seer and a semi-god.
“Shen, what was that just now? I felt two ridiculous auras clashing into each other. Was one of them yours? Aren’t you crippled?!” → Ashura
Ashura asked with a confused face, not being able to comprehend how was Shen able to emanate such a monstrous aura when he couldn’t even cultivate.
“First of all, aura is the power of the spirit, it doesn’t has much to do with the body’s strength. As long as I’m able to show my spirit, I can emanate an even stronger aura. And second, the other party was the demon-lord, he made me a visit.” → Shen
Shen said while looking at the darkness, he wanted to be sure that no residual energy was left behind from the demon-lord.
“The demon-lord?! But why did he visit? Does it have anything to do with Theo?” → Sylvia
Sylvia asked with worried eyes.
Shen told them what happened, making the both of them make complicated faces.
“Surprisingly, he’s an honest and righteous person. It makes me question his decision in abandoning Theo.” → Shen
Ashura didn’t know what to say after he heard this.
“A noble person can have a sick mind, this Demon Lord is no difference.” → Shen
“Anyway. Ashura, I’ll leave the guarding parts for you, this body is truly too weak to resist such a confrontation, I’m way too tired now.” → Shen
“Yes. Please leave it to me.” → Ashura
That night, Shen slept till the next day in the evening, getting woken up by Sylvia.
“Shen~. Come on, you need to wake up.” → Sylvia
Sylvia was amused, seeing Shen in such a state. When he entered his room last night, he hastily changed in his sleeping clothes, throwing his coat and shoes around, crashing right into bed head first, remaining in the same position till the next day.
I never expected to see such a side of him, he looks like a normal young man. → Sylvia
Sylvia made a naughty face and whispered gently in his ear gently.
”Shen~, if you don’t wake up now, I’m going to bite you.” → Sylvia
“Mwaht?” → Shen
Shen mumbled something while having his face inside his pillow. Feeling his ear ticklish from Sylvia’s breath, he simply turned around.
“Very well~.” → Sylvia
“Agh!” → Shen
Sylvia leaned forward and bit his ear and lightly licking it, making him twitch. He hastily got up and looked around, seeing Sylvia, his face reddened.
“Eh? Sylvia? Why are you here?” → Shen
Seeing the chaos he left behind after falling to sleep, he felt even more embarrassed
God damn it! What have I done before falling asleep?! Why is my coat on the ground and my shoes on the chair?! Have I been drunk or what…? → Shen
“Fufu~ Shen, it’s already evening, are you not hungry? Having no cultivation, you must be starving by now.” → Sylvia
Sylvia said while showing to Shen his favorites, 5 hot dumplings and a cup of hot herbal tea.
“Eh? Groowwwll~~ Ugh…” → Shen
Shen’s stomach made the most monstrous noise he ever heard. It was true, he hadn’t eaten anything after they left Alfheim, making him close to anemic.
“Hehe~” → Sylvia
Sylvia started to giggle after hearing Shen’s noisy stomach and seeing his embarrassed face. She gave him the dumplings and said.
“Here, eat these, I made them especially for you.” → Sylvia
“Ugh… Thank you Sylvia. I’m sorry you have to take care of me, that’s a huge blow to my pride right now.” → Shen
Shen felt horrible, making the woman he loved to take care of him as if he’s a newborn baby. There is no bigger shame and stronger blow to a man’s pride than having someone take care of you, especially if that someone is the one you love.
Crap… I’m worthless. → Shen
Shen thought while eating and drinking with a downed face.
“…It’s delicious…” → Shen
Shen mumbled under his beard, making Sylvia smile brightly. Seeing him eat with such a bitter face, Sylvia knew what he felt so she said.
“Please don’t think like that, Shen. Finally being of some use to you is what makes me truly happy. All this time you were the one who did most of the work and also the one who protected us. This time is your turn to be supported and protected. Please leave everything in my hands, I’ll be sure to make you forget about being a cripple.” → Shen
Sylvia got closer to Shen in bed, walking on all fours like a feline. Shen looked with surprised eyes at the approaching Sylvia, he was dazed by what she said but after she was right in front of him, he finally reacted.
“Eh? Wait. Wait a second Sylvia.” → Shen
He still felt a little bit dizzy, so when he reached his hand to push Sylvia, he accidentally grabbed her well-developed chest.
“Hau~.” → Sylvia
Surprisingly enough, Shen touched one of her weak points without knowing.
“Haah~ that’s cheating, Shen.” → Sylvia
She said while breathing heavily and with a bright red face.
“Ah. Sorry, didn’t mean that.” → Shen
Even Shen was surprised by his action, but even more so by her reaction.
