Chapter 47

As an inexperienced little cub, Su You had never tasted such fragrant and delicious food since birth!

"So delicious!"

As the tiny cub held the roasted meat in her small hands, took a big bite, and chewed with a face full of bliss, the Nether Clan members waiting nearby also wore happy smiles.

That's wonderful!

They knew the cub would love this roasted meat!

Wan You, standing nearby, looked extremely smug. "Hey, see? My roasting skills are still as memorable as ever after all these years!"

The other Nether Clan members couldn't help but roast him in return: "Who knows who it was that just burned three pieces of meat in a row!"

"He even forgot to sprinkle the seasoning while roasting!"

"The spices brought from home were almost growing grass!"

Hearing his clansmen's teasing, Wan You immediately retorted, "Hey, I haven't roasted meat in several millennia! It's understandable to be a bit rusty at first, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes, Lord Wan You, you're entirely right."

The surrounding Nether Clan members all smiled in Wan You's direction. Soon, someone brought various delicious fruits from different places and juiced them, while others washed sweet fruits clean and placed them on sparkling broad leaves right in front of the cub.

At this moment, everyone seemed to fall into a massive baby-adoring frenzy. If the binary-thinking diodes in the Primary Universe Virtual Live Broadcast Ball Subspace No. 001 could somehow take physical form, they would probably look exactly like the Nether Clan members right now!

The little one ate with boundless joy under the continuous feeding of the Nether Clan.

A couple of bites of roasted meat—so fragrant and savory!

Freshly roasted and still dripping with juices, dusted with aromatic spices infused with spiritual energy, the aroma could genuinely drift for ten miles. It was simply too delicious!

A couple of sips of fruit juice—sweet and tangy!

To prevent the cub from encountering a flavor she didn't like, these overly indulgent Nether Clan members practically squeezed dozens of different kinds of juice. If they weren't restricted by space, they would have gathered every delicious fruit in the entire Nether Realm to make juice!

A couple of crunchy fruits—bursting with juice!

Every single fruit was fragrant and huge. When the little cub took a bite, she found it overwhelmingly sweet and delicious, making her wide-eyed and eager to roll around right on the spot in pure happiness.

Perhaps sensing how much Su You liked the fruit in her hands, someone immediately brought over more of the exact same fruit in the blink of an eye, completely without considering whether the cub could possibly finish them all at once.

And the little snack provided by the Exalted Nether Demon Lord was undoubtedly the cub's favorite—the powerful Demon Lord used his own energy to condense the cub's favorite fruit juice and fresh milk into soft, fluffy shaved ice, topped it with sliced fruits, and drizzled it with honey. A bowl of sweet and delicious shaved ice was freshly prepared!

Wan You, standing nearby and witnessing this snack provided by his own Demon Lord, nearly popped his eyeballs right out of his head—wasn't their Lord Demon Lord supposed to be the most ruthless, cold-blooded, and icy-faced of all?!

He still remembered back when their Demon Lord was utterly obsessed with cultivation, flatly stating that he would never waste his power on useless things.

So... was this fellow making shaved ice for a cub really still their Demon Lord?!

Noticing the look of profound curiosity on Wan You's face, the Exalted Nether Demon Lord cast a cold, mocking glance at Wan You's hands, which had already healed back to normal—the look clearly meant: Would you care to reflect on what you did earlier?

In fact, it wasn't just the Demon Lord; quite a few Nether Clan members had previously noticed Wan You refusing to let his wounds heal so that he could let the cub hold his hand and comfort him for a long time.

Thus, Wan You, who had been boasting about his peerless roasting skills just a moment before, was unceremoniously shoved away from the core position by his good clansmen and tossed to a spot where he couldn't even see the cub, leaving him howling in protest on the sidelines.

After howling in frustration for a while, Wan You finally climbed up and sat on a tree branch, looking at the scene below and feeling all of this that he hadn't experienced for nearly ten thousand years...

"What? Crying?"

Also appearing by Wan You's side was one of his best friends from back in the day. The three of them had once been the next-generation Demon Lord candidates following closely behind the Exalted Nether Demon Lord.

As candidates for the future throne, the three of them were both rivals and close friends.

However, as the curse of the Nether Clan descended, in order to suppress the ugliness and violent emotions raging within their hearts, and out of the desire to hide their own hideous and terrifying appearances, each of them had retreated into the most secluded corners of the Nether Realm.

He had originally thought he would spend the rest of his life passing the days in such a manner.

He never imagined there would come a day when he could return to the sunlight.

Yet now, though the two of them had returned, their other dearest companion would never live to see this day of seeing the light again.

They didn't know when exactly their companion had fallen, nor could they blame their good friend for a lack of mental resilience—for in those despairing days, a mental collapse was merely a matter of time.

That they had managed to hold on until now and experience rebirth wasn't because they were strong enough, but perhaps simply because they were cowardly enough.

"Grand Elder, Second Elder, Third Elder..."

They had once stood silently and stealthily alongside the Demon Lord by the Mirror Lake, watching elder after elder of the Nether Clan cast themselves into the Mirror Lake without a second thought for their own safety.

If those elders had wished, they could actually have remained hidden in the Nether Realm for much longer, and might even have had a chance to wait for the appearance of the cub and gain a new lease on life.

Yet they did not.

For the sake of a glimmer of hope for the Nether Clan, those elders had all chosen to plunge into the Mirror Lake while they still had strength left, wishing to forge a path of survival for their race.

Ultimately, when all the elders had plunged themselves into the Mirror Lake, it was their patriarch, the Exalted Nether Demon Lord, who had driven them away from the shores of the lake.

They knew that was also the Demon Lord's way of preserving the very last flicker of hope for the Nether Clan.

...

As Wan You sat high upon the tree branch, watching his clansmen reveling recklessly below, he knew this was not only because of their gratitude toward the cub, but also because every single member of the Nether Clan desperately needed a moment to release their suppressed emotions as much as possible.

High upon the tall branches, the person standing beside Wan You said quietly, "...But we ultimately waited for hope."

...

On the second day, when the cub woke up from the little nest made of warm jade piled up by the Demon Lord, she accidentally took a tumble with a soft thud.

The little one was still dazed from sleep, and the Demon Lord hadn't expected Su You to pull such a sudden in-place tumble right upon waking, leaving him no time to reach out and steady her.

Fortunately, the tiny cub wasn't all that delicate. Although she fell right where she stood, the warm jade she slept on had already been piled deep with various soft fabrics and feathers by the Demon Lord to create a plush bed, so she didn't feel any pain at all.

She was just a bit embarrassed.

The little one covered her face with her two chubby hands and said with a troubled expression, "Tongtong, Youyou fell down again!"

The powerful and calm Battle King System 001 had already accepted the fact that its cub host's combat strength was "a bit weak."

It didn't matter, though. Her cub host possessed formidable spiritual power and unique racial traits, which were more than enough to offset any shortcomings in combat strength.

Just as System 001 was comforting its host with its gentle and calm voice, it suddenly felt that something was amiss. Falling silent for two seconds, it said to its host: [Youyou, darling, step away for a moment.]

In fact, there was no need for the system to prompt Su You to move. Just as the little one sat in a daze upon her "bed," the Demon Lord beside her had already sensed that something was wrong.

The Demon Lord quickly approached and scooped the little one up from the bed. Immediately afterward, he watched with his own eyes as the warm jade bed beneath the cub slowly crumbled into fine powder.

System 001: [?]

Demon Lord: "?"

Wan You and his good brother, who had noticed the cub waking up and had come over to check on her: "......?"

What was going on here?

Wan You stared in utter shock at the warm jade bed that had inexplicably shattered into powder, then silently raised his gaze to look at their Lord Demon Lord: "...My Lord, was this piece of warm jade... Nether Crystal Jade?"

The Demon Lord looked at the warm jade bed, which had now turned entirely to dust, and silently nodded.

Nether Crystal Jade was one of the specialties of the Nether Realm, known for its warm temperature and extreme hardness.

Even with his abilities, turning a massive block of Nether Crystal Jade into powder would require consuming a considerable amount of power—so just what kind of terrifying power was hidden within the tiny body of this little one in his arms, allowing her to crush this enormous warm jade bed into such a state in the blink of an eye?

However, before the Demon Lord could ponder this for long, his attention was captured by the little one in his arms.

Held in the Demon Lord's arms, the little one's face flushed red as she buried her head into the crook of his neck, mumbling, "Wuwu, Mingming, I'm sorry! It's just because Youyou ate too much, and Youyou slept the bed right into collapse!"

The Demon Lord: "..."

The Demon Lord fell silent for two full seconds, then finally smiled, raised a hand to stroke the little one's head, and said in a gentle, pacifying tone, "It's all right, it's not Youyou's fault. It's just that the bed was of poor quality and far too fragile."

Watching their Lord Demon Lord shamelessly telling such barefaced lies to the cub, Wan You and Wan Shan nearby couldn't help falling into a collective silence as well.

Yet when the little one timidly looked up and asked, "Really?", Wan You and Wan Shan also nodded without changing their expressions—

"Of course!"

"The bed was just bad, Youyou is wonderful!"

...

System 001, which was also watching these Nether Clan members "perform" from the void, silently observed everything unfolding before it, while also reviewing the combat power fluctuation values it had captured just a moment ago.

Within the cub's body, her combat strength index, which usually hovered stably within the range of "n," had suddenly exhibited a sharp, explosive fluctuation just an instant ago—and that instantaneous explosive fluctuation was undoubtedly the real reason why the warm jade bed had been reduced to this patch of dust.