Chapter 367: Meeting an Old Friend in a Strange Land

When cracking a joke, Ren Yidao's smile was as bright as sunshine.

But looking at the sharp spikes erupting from the ground, the smile on Ren Yidao's face shifted.

One second, happy.

The next second, not happy.

Very not happy!

"Stop!!!"

After he had stated his identity, the other party remained relentless, those branches still stubbornly chasing after him; Ren Yidao truly could not smile at all anymore.

Oh no.

Sister-in-law can't take a joke, she's gotten worked up...

He twisted and turned in mid-air, dodging the branches that were rushing at him from all directions.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Dodge! Dodge! Dodge!

Although he could no longer feel that bone-chilling killing intent, he could still sense a thick, intense annoyance from those branches.

"This must be her getting angry out of shame after realizing she was being shy!"

"But even if you are shy, don't take it out on me!"

After dodging for a long time, and nearly having a hole poked in his backside by a branch, Ren Yidao could not help it anymore and shouted angrily:

"Every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt has its debtor!"

"If you have the ability, don't show off your might here; go find Jian Xinxin to cause trouble!"

It would have been fine if he hadn't said that; the branches had already shown signs of relaxing and stopping.

But once those words were out, the sky-filling branches fell into complete madness!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Under the full-force assault of the Great Demon, although Ren Yidao was fast, he was indeed struggling to hold on, and dodging became increasingly difficult.

Those thousands of branches split into two paths: one kept up a relentless pursuit, while the other began to flank from the perimeter, attempting to trap Ren Yidao inside a giant ball made of branches!

The encirclement was getting smaller and smaller, and the situation was becoming more and more critical.

If he let her succeed, then Ren Yidao would truly become a trapped beast, and he wouldn't be able to escape at all except by teleporting!

This cannot go on!

"Tsk."

"Fine, fine, fine!"

Ren Yidao gritted his teeth and laughed angrily:

"So this is how you want to play, right?"

"Alright! I'll play along with you!"

"You forced me to do this!"

Driven to a dead end, a desperate Ren Yidao had no choice but to use his trump card!

A white light flashed in his palm, and he took a wooden tablet out of his storage space, holding it high!

Ren Yidao opened his eyes wide in anger and shouted:

"Hey!"

"You tree demon!"

"Look at what this is!!?"

Evil creature!

Now that you see this treasure, why don't you reveal your true form immediately!

Sure enough, the moment Ren Yidao took out this wooden tablet, the sky-filling branches suddenly froze.

The material of the tablet was nothing special, just Spirit-Calming Wood with a soul-soothing effect; what was special were the eight large characters written in a vertical row on it.

"Spirit Tablet of My Wife Mei Yongdi"

Yes, that's right, it's that one.

Ren Yidao's exclusive secret collection, the Golden Token to avoid a beating in case Jian Xinxin ever flew into a rage—the Spirit Tablet of Mei Yongdi.

Don't ask if it's strange, just ask if it works!

It's just that he had never tried it before, so he wasn't sure about the specific effect; he couldn't say for sure whether it would save him from a sound thrashing or lead to him being beaten even harder...

After a moment of silence, the branches seemed to wake from a dream and slowly began to move again.

Watching the branches stir and close in on him again, Ren Yidao hurriedly shouted:

"Besides, you already poked me once last time!"

"You can't poke me again!"

Damn it, you poked me the moment you woke up!

And now you want to poke me again!?

Is there no justice in Heaven!

Is there no law!

"Let me tell you, don't go too far; I'm not just Jian Xinxin's Junior Brother! I'm also Li Long's brother! And Ran Yeting's daughter is my own Junior Sister!"

By the time he finished speaking, Ren Yidao simply stopped dodging.

He was furious.

After reaching the peak of his anger, he got angry for a moment.

Damn it, if you have the guts, then come at me!

Ren Yidao simply stood there, holding the spirit tablet in such a brazen manner, and threatened:

"If you stab me again, I will definitely complain about you to them later!"

Of the four of you sworn siblings, the other three are all very nice to me; why are you the only one so unfriendly toward me?

Could it be just because I took your spirit tablet?

Huh?

Under Ren Yidao's glare, the branch finally held back its force and stopped in front of him, the closest one less than a hand's breadth away from Ren Yidao's buttocks.

Feeling the sharp aura beside his vital point behind him, Ren Yidao could not help but tense his muscles.

Suck in the stomach! Tighten up!

And then...

Slap!

In the end, one of the branches still gave Ren Yidao's upturned buttocks a light, yet firm, swat.

Another branch snatched away the spirit tablet in his hand, gently stroking the characters on it as if it were a finger.

The branches, carrying the spirit tablet, slowly retreated like a receding tide, having lost interest in Ren Yidao who stood in place.

Ren Yidao, having been swatted on the buttocks, was now well-behaved, no longer as jumpy as before, and gave two light coughs.

"Ahem!"

"So, I've said so much, you've made so many reactions, and now you've even taken this thing away—don't you intend to say a few words?"

Could you at least say something?

No one answered; the branches slowly retracted back into the ground.

Ren Yidao landed on the ground, stopped urging, and just waited quietly for the other party's response.

Although he needed to show some necessary respect to this nominal sister-in-law, there was no need to go out of his way to fawn over her.

"Nothing to say?"

Ren Yidao narrowed his eyes, then slowly nodded, turned around, and left.

"... Fine."

Just pretend I never came.

Just pretend I never saw you.

Not until Ren Yidao was about to leave the island did he finally hear a sigh.

"Sigh..."

It was a voice he had heard once before.

She said:

"Come down."

Ren Yidao stopped in his tracks, turned his head to look at the bottomless, pitch-black hole in the ground beneath his feet, and his mouth twitched.

Should he go?

If he went down, that would mean a face-to-face encounter with the Heavenly Demon, walking right into a domain from which he could never escape.

But this is supposedly his own sister-in-law; everyone is close family, so she shouldn't harm him, right?

Should... right?

But not going, that certainly wouldn't do either.

He had asked for half a day, and now that she had invited him, not giving her face would be wrong.

Would she swat him?

Ren Yidao hesitated for a moment, first gave a light cough, and then said:

"Wait a moment, I'll go give the others a word and be right back."

I am absolutely not trying to escape!

I am just going to do a little mental preparation!

From Ren Yidao's perspective, he was using true emotion to move his long-lost sister-in-law.

There was danger, but it wasn't great; at most, he would just get his buttocks swatted by an unsympathetic sister-in-law.

But the same event, in the eyes of Qingteng and the others, was completely different.

Ever since Ren Yidao stepped onto the island, he had been subjected to the violent attacks of the tree demon; those overwhelming branches were something even the fastest, Canglan, was not confident in dodging entirely.

Yet, in the midst of his twists and turns, Ren Yidao dodged them all gracefully, his Feather Garment fluttering, fully displaying his elegance.

And although they were too far away to see exactly what Ren Yidao had taken out, nor did they know specifically what he had said.

But when facing the might of the Heavenly Demon, he still stood steadily in place, and that unyielding figure was clearly captured by the eyes of the few.

All four of them were speechless, silently watching Ren Yidao persist under the Heavenly Demon until the Heavenly Demon retreated, leaving him unscathed.

He really did it.

The four of them had barely escaped death at the hands of the Heavenly Demon, while this Crown Prince had truly forced back the Heavenly Demon all by himself.

After a long while, Mo Qi, covered in spirit medicine, was the first to speak, saying with sincere admiration:

"I was wrong."

Hm?

The three of them all looked at Mo Qi, not knowing what this meant.

Mo Qi gazed intently into the distance, watching Ren Yidao flying toward them, and spoke in a deep voice:

"Before today, although I actively guarded His Highness, I was merely following the orders of the clan to protect His Highness's safety."

"I had never truly respected His Highness from the heart, thinking he only had a good bloodline and was inferior to me in other aspects."

"But looking at it now, I was wrong about everything."

"In terms of strength, I am inferior to His Highness."

"In terms of bravery, I am also inferior."

"In terms of courage and insight, I still do not even measure up to half of His Highness."

Qingteng and Luzhi were silent; how could they be any different?

Regarding this Phoenix Divine Son who had descended from Heaven, was their inner attitude not the same?

It was just that compared to Mo Qi, the shift in their inner perspectives would still require some time.

Only Cang Lan seemed to have sensed something, somewhat understanding why Mo Qi had such a change at this moment.

The characteristics of each race are different; the Black Moon Dog Clan worships the strong and is extremely loyal; once they recognize a lord, they will never betray them.

But they are not blindly loyal, and they will not hold the same respect for the lord's offspring.

The Black Moon Dog Clan is currently loyal to the contemporary Demon Emperor, but that does not mean they will be equally in awe of the Demon Race Crown Prince.

Unless the other party can demonstrate the aptitude and strength to make them offer their loyalty, everything else is off the table.

And now, Ren Yidao's performance seemed to have already begun to win Mo Qi over.

"……Sigh."

As one of the only two people in Demon Emperor City who knew Ren Yidao's "true identity," Cang Lan did not know if this was good or bad for Mo Qi, nor did she know if she should stop it.

After pondering for a moment, Cang Lan decided to act as if she had seen nothing.

"Forget it, let him be; anyway, even if I said something, he definitely wouldn't listen."

If someone else said it, it might be different, but if she, as a member of the Silver Moon Wolf Clan, said it, Mo Qi would definitely not believe a single word.

He might even think that she was saying these things to compete for favor... Tsk!

Who would do such a thing!

"Good words are hard to use to persuade a ghost who wants to die; anyway, when you are abandoned in the end, it has nothing to do with me."

She clicked her tongue in secret dissatisfaction, leaving the three people on the side confused.

What is wrong with her?

Why is she so unhappy to see the Crown Prince come over?

Between the two of them... what happened?

"Yo, you're all awake? Good, that's perfect."

After Ren Yidao returned, he did not notice the strange atmosphere among the four and spoke casually:

"The problem is solved; I have already reached an agreement with that tree demon senior, and there will be no more danger."

"That senior invited me to sit on the island; you all wait here. If I have not returned in ten days, you should return to Demon Emperor City first. I have a Transmission Stone on me, so I will return on my own later."

After Ren Yidao finished speaking, Cang Lan and the others all nodded in agreement, only Mo Qi shouted with high spirits:

"Yes!!!"

Huh?

Young man, what kind of sickness do you have?

Rabies?

Although Ren Yidao found Mo Qi's excitement a bit strange, now was not the time to care about that, so he blinked and didn't pay much attention to it.

After casually giving a few more instructions to Cang Lan and the others, he did not linger and returned to the island again.

This time, he did not hesitate and calmly entered the cave.

"I'm here—"

This cave was extremely deep, far exceeding Ren Yidao's expectations, with a depth of over a thousand meters.

And the further down he went, the colder the air became.

By the time he landed slowly, it was bone-chillingly cold, actually giving him the feeling of being in the dead of winter.

"Hoo..."

Ren Yidao exhaled a puff of white air, looked at the target of his visit, and smiled as he bowed:

"Divine Path Sect disciple Ren Yidao, greetings, fellow Daoist."

"Fellow Daoist..."

Rustle, rustle, rustle...

Accompanied by the rustling sound of leaves vibrating, the woman's upper body emerged from the tree trunk, squinting at the youth in front of her, and said slowly:

"After seeing my current appearance, you still call me fellow Daoist?"

Huh?

"Then what else?"

Ren Yidao tilted his head curiously, looked around, and asked in confusion: "Otherwise, what should I call you? Sister-in-law? That's not impossible, or are you saying you want me to call you sister?"

Yuck!

You woman, why are you taking advantage of others right from the start?

Mei looked at him like this, her brows furrowing tighter and tighter, and she said slowly: "You... can you not see what I look like now?"

Ren Yidao widened his eyes, examined her carefully for a moment, and then said firmly: "I see it, a tree, so? And then? Is there a problem with that?"

He pointed to his own ears and tail and asked back, equally confused: "After seeing my current appearance, you still won't let me call you fellow Daoist?"

Are you trying to engage in racial discrimination?

Although one of us is from the animal kingdom and the other is from the plant kingdom, we are both demons!

The woman in the tree stared at Ren Yidao for a long time, her eyes complex, and she said slowly:

"I have seen you; you were at the scene of my awakening."

"However, I remember that back then, you should have been human."

Hey!

Ren Yidao couldn't help but roll his eyes and retorted irritably: "The way you say that, it's as if you're human right now."

Big sister, would you like to look down and see what you look like first?

Let's not have the big brother mock the second brother; aren't you a demon right now too!

Since there's no difference between us, let's not look down on each other.

Ren Yidao's words struck a sore spot for Mei, causing a ripple in her emotions; she lowered her head in silence and whispered:

"You don't understand, my side... the situation is a bit complicated."

I don't understand?

If you don't say anything, of course I won't understand.

But since she didn't bring it up voluntarily, Ren Yidao had no intention of digging deeper, so he shrugged and said indifferently:

"My situation is simpler; there's nothing complicated about it."

"I have always been a demon, from the moment I was born."

Mei raised her head and asked doubtfully: "Do they know?"

"My Senior Sister knows, but Senior Brother... he likely doesn't."

Ren Yidao knew what Mei wanted to ask, so he waved his hand and said casually:

"What is there to be conflicted about?"

"Whether human or demon, does that affect the fact that I am his junior brother?"