Chapter 30: Checkmate—The Handsome Man Turned into a Snake
“Alright. I promise I’ll come back to see you without missing even a single hair,” Xue Ming said with a faint smile.
As he spoke, Xue Ming conjured a bracelet out of thin air, strung together from blood-red beads, and fastened it around her wrist. In a deep voice, he instructed, “This bracelet is made from the hardest scales on my body. No one but me can remove it. If you ever encounter danger, shake the bracelet and call my name three times. No matter what happens, I will find you immediately and rush to you.”
Nan Xun stared curiously at the bracelet on her wrist, shook it a few times, then called Xue Ming’s name three times. Smiling brightly, she asked, “Like this?”
Xue Ming pinched her nose, the corners of his thin lips lifting. “Yes, exactly like that.”
After Xue Ming left, Nan Xun yawned and said lazily, “Little Eight, for these past ten years I haven’t stepped outside the gate or even past the second door. I’ve almost forgotten what the sun outside looks like.”
Sigh… did this count as being kept?
Back then, she had been carried into the Demon Realm by the Demon King in a white sedan chair. There had been no wedding rites, no worship of heaven and earth, so she couldn’t be considered his proper wife. She was more like a hidden mistress the Demon King kept, concealed away day after day.
Nan Xun had stayed in the Demon Realm for so long, yet only a handful of demon beasts had ever seen her true appearance.
As for that white sedan chair, Nan Xun later asked Xue Ming about it. This fellow replied with an innocent face that he thought white suited her well, so he had specially ordered a white sedan chair—made from ten-thousand-year snow silkworm silk, no less.
Nan Xun didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The Void Beast yawned along with her. “Watching you two flaunt your affection every day is about to blind me. Good news—the Demon King’s malice value has dropped to 5.”
Propping her chin on her hand, Nan Xun asked, “Once I eliminate all of Xue Ming’s malice value, will I have to leave this world immediately?”
“That’s right,” the Void Beast said. “At most, you’ll get a two- or three-day grace period.”
Nan Xun suddenly fell silent and said nothing.
This battle was destined to be unprecedented in scale. To avoid harming innocent civilians and nearby living beings, the demon beasts, the human race, and the divine beasts chose a vast wasteland as the battlefield. The wasteland spanned hundreds of miles—more than enough space even for emperor-level powerhouses to fight.
On the night before the battle, Xue Ming, as usual, held Nan Xun and “flipped pancakes.”
Nan Xun whimpered softly beneath him. She was too lazy to move anyway, so she let him do whatever he wanted.
Just as things were getting intense, Xue Ming suddenly kissed her earlobe and said something gently.
Nan Xun’s mind was muddled, and she didn’t catch what he said. Thinking it was just some sweet talk, she gave a vague “mm.”
In that instant, Xue Ming’s blood-red pupils flashed, his gaze burning as he stared at her.
Nan Xun felt her scalp tingle and weakly asked the Void Beast, “Little Eight, did I just agree to something I shouldn’t have?”
Of course, the Void Beast didn’t respond.
However, Nan Xun faintly heard Little Eight’s schadenfreude-filled laughter, which made her even more uneasy.
Then, in the very next moment, Nan Xun’s pupils suddenly shrank, and her heart seemed to explode with a bang.
The Demon King, who had been a peerlessly handsome man just a second ago, revealed his complete beast form in the blink of an eye—a four-clawed Crimson Blood Teng Snake!
Nan Xun was utterly stunned. Her dazed gaze landed on the massive snake head suspended above her. The thick, crimson snake body coiled around her naked form again and again, leaving only her neck and head exposed. Two front claws like dragon talons braced on either side of her, while enormous crimson flesh wings spread out, enclosing both woman and beast within.
That red snake tongue licked her small face again and again, while the blazing blood-red eyes stared straight at her.
Nan Xun was already crying rivers on the inside, but nothing showed on her face. She forcefully patched up the powerful heart in her chest, then gently hugged the snake’s head, tilted her chin up slightly, and placed a kiss on its mouth.
……
The next day, the Demon King had already rushed to the battlefield. Nan Xun buried her face in the pillow, unwilling to see anyone.
The Void Beast cleared its throat lightly. “Be good. Last night’s nightmare is already over. The Demon King’s malice value has dropped to 1. We’ll be leaving this godforsaken world very soon~”
Nan Xun lifted her head, her eyes red. “Little Eight, can I still trust you?”
“O–of course! If you don’t trust me, who else can you trust?”
This war between humans and beasts wouldn’t end in three or five years at the earliest. With Nan Xun’s reminder, Xue Ming didn’t leave her starving this time. He directly gave her a storage ring that could hold living creatures—an emperor-grade treasure, ridiculously powerful. Once Nan Xun put it on, she didn’t want to take it off, cherishing it endlessly.
Inside the storage ring were all kinds of spirit herbs, spirit fruits, and spirit beasts. Whenever Nan Xun got hungry, she could grab a spirit beast to roast and eat, or pick some vegetables to snack on.
She ate when full, slept when full, and lived a parasite-like life.
Unconsciously, five months passed. Nan Xun pinched her waist and said with some sadness, “Little Eight, don’t you think I’ve gotten a whole round fatter?”
The Void Beast snorted. “You eat and sleep all day. The fact that you’ve only gained one round instead of two is something you should be celebrating.”
Nan Xun sighed. “What else can I do? I finished all those storybooks Xue Ming found for me in just a few days.”
“How about I livestream the battle between the Demon King and the human race and divine beasts for you?” the Void Beast suddenly suggested.
Nan Xun hesitated. “Will it be very bloody?”
The Void Beast replied, “You’ve already seen the Demon King eating people—are you still afraid of something bloodier?”
Nan Xun thought about it and agreed.
Since she had been mentally prepared in advance, even when she saw scenes of severed limbs, she could continue watching with a calm expression.
“Holy crap, Little Eight! Look, there’s a huge, majestic azure dragon right in the center of the battlefield! Could that be the legendary leader of the divine beasts—the Azure Dragon?” Nan Xun said excitedly.
“And over there, over there—look! That black snake with enormous flesh wings, isn’t that the divine beast Teng Snake?” Nan Xun hurriedly pointed in another direction.
Nan Xun had only recently seen Xue Ming’s beast form, and she recognized it at a glance—that thing was a Teng Snake.
Compared to it, Xue Ming’s four-clawed Crimson Blood Teng Snake merely had four extra crimson claws like dragon talons. Its scales were sharper, the barbs along its spine more terrifyingly keen, and its color wasn’t pitch-black but blood-red. Aside from that, there wasn’t much difference.
Logically speaking, although the four-clawed Crimson Blood Teng Snake was a mutated Teng Snake and more bloodthirsty by nature, one thing couldn’t be denied: it carried the blood of the divine beast Teng Snake and had once been a member of the Teng Snake clan.
So why were these Teng Snakes so cold and ruthless, determined to put Xue Ming to death?
Xue Ming had once said that when he was young, because he looked different from his siblings, he suffered endless bullying. He had always suppressed the bloodthirsty nature deep in his bones, silently enduring all the abuse without fighting back. Yet even so, he was never liked or accepted.
Until one time, when he finally couldn’t endure it anymore and ate a tusked red-skinned wild boar alive.
The way he ate was far too bloody. He directly plunged his claws into the boar’s belly, grabbed its entrails, and began chewing on them—his entire face smeared with blood.
