He gazed at Bai Ran, a handsome curve lifting the corners of his lips, his dark eyes brimming with tender affection.
The Mistress... this woman was truly the one he held dear...
Long Yu's expression was tinged with bitterness. Had he already missed their wedding...?
It was only natural. Centuries had passed since he left the Demon Realm and the young Long Jin Han. It was normal for him to have found someone he loved.
As a father, he truly was incompetent.
"Little girl, may I speak with you alone?" Long Yu's voice was subdued, his eyes dim.
Long Jin Han frowned, a trace of confusion crossing his handsome face. However, at Bai Ran's glance, he left the room with Jing Feng.
"Girl, if you encounter danger, call me immediately."
Long Yu's heart skipped a beat, his disappointment becoming more apparent.
In the spacious room, Bai Ran simply stared at him, not speaking first.
After a long silence, Long Yu sighed, forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace than a smile. "Miss, I apologize..."
The curve of his lips was stiff. Perhaps it was because as the Nine Heavens Supreme of the Demon Realm, he had never apologized to anyone before.
Bai Ran shook her head. "You don't need to apologize."
The Demon Lord, revered by all in the Nine Heavens, had been ambushed by someone from the Divine Realm and imprisoned for hundreds of years.
Tortured, controlled, misunderstood, he had done nothing wrong.
"Time truly flies..."
An unreadable glint flickered in Long Yu's eyes as he reminisced about the past.
Back then, Long Jin Han was still young and would pester him for stories, calling him Daddy...
And he, not a prisoner of the Divine Realm, not a pawn of the Divine Emperor, but the most respected Supreme of the Demon Realm.
"I don't have many treasures on me, but if you don't mind, I'll give you this dagger."
He offered his small knife.
The hilt was crafted from thousand-year-old profound iron. Although for Bai Ran, the value of thousand-year-old profound iron was negligible, for Long Yu,
This was the most precious treasure he owned now.
Bai Ran looked at the dagger but did not reach for it. "I appreciate your kindness, but I cannot accept this dagger."
Long Yu's outstretched hand paused, then slowly withdrew after a long moment.
Silence descended upon the room once more. Long Yu looked at the woman before him, having many questions but unsure where to begin.
Bai Ran sighed softly and spoke, "Long Jin Han does not resent you."
Hearing this, Long Yu froze, his eyes filled with unspoken words.
"I am not lying. He said it himself," Bai Ran's tone was calm, but it exploded in Long Yu's heart.
"Is it true? He... doesn't resent me?"
The Demon Realm did not inherit power through bloodlines but through a cruel selection process. The strongest became the next Demon Lord.
With his mother gone and his father absent, Long Jin Han had no protector. From the son of the feared Demon Lord, he became useless and isolated.
For centuries, Long Yu's whereabouts had been unknown. He couldn't imagine what Long Jin Han had endured during those times.
How had he survived, how had he fought against those vying for power to reach his current standing.
Just imagining it felt like his heart was being ripped apart by a thousand knives...
"Yes, he does not resent you."
Before Long Yu had awakened, Bai Ran had asked Long Jin Han if he harbored any ill will.
Long Jin Han had said that while there were feelings, he had never resented him.
Long Yu's eyes welled up, and he could no longer suppress the bitterness in his heart...
After a while, his emotions gradually stabilized, and he felt a sense of release.
Bai Ran pursed her lips and looked at him, speaking, "There is something I do not understand..."
Long Yu sighed, understanding her confusion. "It was the Fourth Elder and the Palace Master of Yaochi Palace."
Despite Long Yu's immense power, his spiritual strength was incredibly fragile and vulnerable.
The Fourth Elder falsely claimed that the young Long Jin Han was in their hands. In his haste, Long Yu fell victim to an ambush by the Palace Master of Yaochi Palace, who had been hiding in the shadows.
That Palace Master of Yaochi Palace was a powerful cultivator who used spiritual energy, and the shackles were also created by him.
"Miss, there are a few more things you might not know."
Long Yu's expression became serious, his tone earnest. "The Divine Emperor is... peculiar."
Peculiar? Bai Ran's brow furrowed deeply as she listened intently.
Recalling his ordeal, Long Yu recounted, "The order to imprison me came from the Divine Emperor, yet that very night, he acted abnormally and wanted to release me."
The Divine Emperor had secretly entered the forbidden area where he was held captive. However, just as he was about to escape, he was stopped by the elders who arrived, and they set up many formations, thus thwarting this farce.
"The forbidden area to the west of the Divine Realm is also very strange," Long Yu said, his face darkening ominously.
"There is no aura of living beings within the forbidden area, yet I have a persistent feeling that some terrifying entity is hidden within."
He was imprisoned on the outermost perimeter of the forbidden area, and every night, an eerie wind would blow from its depths.
The wind carried the scent of blood and the foul stench of decaying corpses...
At the heart of the forbidden area, it seemed a terrifying being was also imprisoned...
A peculiar Divine Emperor, a strange forbidden area... Bai Ran pieced together the clues but remained at a loss.
They said the Divine Emperor's memories were erased, yet he remembered everything, knew Bai Ran, and knew his mother.
They said he was inherently this way, but his actions were extremely bizarre and confusing.
First, he imposed verbal restrictions on Wen Yan and Jiang Ye, and now he was trying to sneakily release Long Yu...
And then there was the forbidden area to the west, which even someone as powerful as Long Yu found terrifying.
What kind of terrifying existence could that entity be?
The more clues she obtained, the more bizarre the mystery became.
Long Yu lowered his gaze. "Ever since I ascended the throne, I attacked the Divine Realm countless times."
At that time, Guardian Huan Yan was a force to be reckoned with, unmatched by anyone. Yet, even with such a disparity, they couldn't conquer the Divine Realm in one fell swoop.
"Have you ever considered seeking help from other powers?" Bai Ran asked him.
Long Yu pursed his lips, a look of helplessness appearing on his face. "We have considered it. Several factions did indeed join forces."
The Demon Race, the Demon Realm, and even the fallen Ghost Race offered assistance, but it was still unsuccessful.
The Divine Realm was like a bottomless pit; no matter the casualties on the first day, new forces would emerge on the second.
A protracted war was impossible, so the factions planned to conquer the Divine Realm within a single day.
However, there was a traitor.
Within the Demon Race, a heavenly soldier from the Divine Realm had infiltrated their ranks and revealed all their plans to the Divine Emperor.
The plan, conceived by three factions over several days, became utterly useless overnight.
They didn't know how many people from the Divine Realm were among them and dared not join forces easily again.