Chapter 94: I Am the Demon Emperor, My Name Is Lu Daocheng

Over a thousand years of time, Lu Daocheng could barely control his own sorrow.

He was pained by his own uselessness in his youth, which had caused his mother to die in such a wretched state, without even a straw mat to wrap her corpse.

But this illusion, everything here, was causing his sanity to crumble.

Why, what on earth was the reason, why was everything so different?

It hurts.

Why did his heart ache to such an extent? Lu Daoshuang was startled; watching Lu Daocheng, who was kneeling on the ground with his arms wrapped around his body, she carefully gathered her skirt and gently patted his shoulder.

"Lu Daocheng, are you alright?"

Lu Daocheng's shoulder moved; he slowly raised his head, his eyes still brimming with tears, "What did you call me?"

Lu Daoshuang paused.

She could sense that something was wrong, but since the Family Head had not indicated anything, then it was fine.

Therefore, Lu Daoshuang patiently squatted down and spoke to him in a soft, gentle voice.

"Lu Daocheng, your name is Lu Daocheng."

"The 'Cheng' is for riding the wind and breaking the waves, it is the Family Head's expectation for you; 'Dao' is the character for our generation. My name is Lu Daoshuang, the 'Shuang' of frost and snow for a thousand years. We also have an older brother named Lu Daoran, for the Dao follows nature."

She sat gently by his side and spoke to him in detail.

Word by word, sentence by sentence.

Anecdotes of the Lu Family came from her lips; her eyes curved slightly as she spoke in a soft, gentle voice.

Lu Daocheng felt his heart slowly calm down.

He slowly squatted down, the bewilderment in his eyes gradually being dispelled, and after a long while, he asked suddenly and abruptly.

"This is not an illusion, is it?"

Lu Daoshuang smiled.

Her eyes were like a curved sliver of a moon.

"Of course not."

Her words were soft, but extremely firm.

"This is the Lu Family; there cannot be any illusions here."

The two of them fell into silence.

After a moment, Lu Daoshuang asked with some curiosity: "Where did you come from?"

Lu Daocheng: "From... the Demon Realm."

"Is the Demon Realm good?"

Good?

Of course it is not good.

It was just that there was no need to say what should or should not be said.

He shook his head faintly, clutching that Image Recording Stone to his chest as if it were some rare treasure, his eyes red, and choked out, "Thank you... thank you."

"Thank you for what?"

Lu Daoshuang smiled, "We are siblings, after all."

So, Lu Daocheng, who knows not where you came from, you must fight to the death for my Lu Family...

"Of course I will care about you."

After all, your existence has been tacitly approved by the Family Head.

"If you like, we can also go through the other Image Recording Stones in the Library Pavilion together."

In this way, she could also confirm exactly what level this Lu Daocheng was at. Lu Daoshuang smiled, not revealing a single thought in her heart.

Lu Daocheng was silent for a long time before he suddenly raised his head and revealed a smile; it was a bit sweet and cloying, clearly not something he did often, and it was extremely awkward.

Lu Daoshuang instructed: "That's not quite right; the original little Cheng's smile was more restrained. You need to disguise yourself well."

She added: "Nowadays, probably only the Family Head and I know. Although I don't know where you came from, it is still better that fewer people know."

"You must work hard, new little Cheng."

Lu Daocheng was stunned again and again.

He swore that he had never been as stunned in his entire life as he had been today.

He couldn't help but ask: "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why help me?"

Lu Daoshuang tilted her head, her expression peaceful, "What other reason could there be? You don't think that the entire Lu Family consists of people of the same bloodline, do you?"

Lu Daocheng was stunned again, stammering: "Isn't it?"

"Of course not."

Lu Daoshuang shook her head.

She was extremely calm as she recounted the history of the Lu Family.

"Many people only changed their names after entering the Lu Family. Did you really think that this massive family, comparable to a sect, was all born into it?"

Too...

Too foolish. She shook her head casually.

"Of course it couldn't be like that; there are so many people in the Lu Family."

"But you can rest assured..."

As she spoke, she couldn't help but laugh.

"Moreover, the reason the Family Head and I judged you to be harmless is that Poor Oddity brought you across the Questioning Path. Do you know what that represents?"

"What?"

Lu Daocheng felt that he was now a machine that repeated things over and over again.

Understanding nothing.

Knowing nothing.

For him, the dignified Demon Emperor, this was originally an extremely humiliating matter, yet he strangely felt a sense of peace.

In the Library Pavilion, thick with the scent of books and amidst numerous restrictions, he sat cross-legged beside the bookshelves, whispering softly to the young girl beside him.

It had nothing to do with love, nothing to do with power, and even less to do with the struggle for resources or deceitful schemes.

For the first time in a long while, he felt a rare sense of peace.

At the same time, there was also jealousy.

Jealousy was like a surging, ignited flame, scalding his chest, burning his heart, and searing an unspeakable scar into his throat.

Each and every one was a wound.

The flame of jealousy could not be stopped.

Why was this Lu Daocheng able to be so lucky?

He possessed almost everything he had once dreamed of but could never obtain.

Everything, absolutely everything, felt like a dream, which was why he had assumed it was an illusion.

Over a thousand years of time, the Demon Emperor had stepped over mountains of corpses and seas of blood to ascend to his high throne.

He was not of the Demon Race, but a Demon Cultivator.

The cultivation world consisted of three races: humans, demons, and the Demon Race.

There were further distinctions between demon cultivators, human cultivators, ghost cultivators, Demon Cultivators, the Demon Race, and Demon Beasts.

He was a Demon Cultivator, and even more, the Demon Emperor.

For so long, a full thousand years, he had only known deceit; in his youth, before he had even touched the threshold of cultivation, he still had his mother's company, but he had no money, nothing at all, and his mother could only wither away while riddled with illness.

He had had women, but they killed him for the sake of so-called righteousness.

He had had friends, but they betrayed him for cultivation resources.

He had entered a sect, but was framed, humiliated, and in the end, his spiritual roots were crippled, his cultivation abolished, and he was cast into the Demon Domain, utterly wretched, surviving death by a hair's breadth, and relying on his own ruthlessness, he climbed step by step to the Demon Emperor's throne.

Since then, he had no love, no sorrow, no joy, and no hatred.

He did not practice the Heartless Dao.

But rather the Non-Action Dao.

Nothing mattered, nothing was to be feared, nothing was to be done, and it mattered even less how many people he killed or saved.

There was no reason, nothing at all.

But what about this Lu Daocheng?

He had a name.

A name that provided a sense of belonging.

He had a family, siblings, a Family Head, people to protect him, existences that felt joy and sorrow for him, and even more, he had a backer.

He had everything.

The young girl with bright eyes before him, though she had her own little schemes, had eyes filled only with him.

She was like a little wolf cub trying hard to show she was harmless; as long as she was certain he was one of the wolf pack, she would expose her belly to him without hesitation.

Jealousy.

The fangs of jealousy gnawed at Lu Daocheng's heart, but there was even more pain.

Pain that he had nothing, that nothing belonged to him, and that even the body he currently possessed belonged to someone else.

He was Lu Daocheng, and yet he was not Lu Daocheng.

"Why are you crying?"

Lu Daoshuang's voice came from beside him, and Lu Daocheng realized with a start that he had shed tears.

He paused for a long time before revealing a smile that belonged to "Lu Daocheng."

Lu Daocheng said, word by word: "It's nothing, I just feel..."

"Happy."

Yes, happy.

Therefore, he would never hand over this body.

(End of chapter)