"Compared to before, you seem to like me more now," Jiu Yue asked directly, his insight as sharp as ever.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Song Huilan replied without hesitation, looking at the handsome young man with great joy.

Although he doesn't look much like Shang Beiyu, in her eyes, he now looks exactly like Shang Beiyu.

"Why? Don't you like my enthusiasm towards you?" Jiu Yue was genuinely confused, even his raised eyebrow gesture was full of bewilderment.

"No, it's because when Huilan met Your Majesty, Your Majesty already had someone else in your heart, and Your Majesty is like this now." Song Huilan's beautiful eyes were filled with shallow tears, as if she had returned to the time in Dazhao, back to when she was still the innocent Miss Song.

"You like that I have someone else in my heart?" Jiu Yue frowned slightly, his forehead full of question marks.

Jiu Yue's straightforwardness made Song Huilan burst out laughing. She clung to his arm affectionately and shook her head softly, "No, of course not. Huilan just prefers that time, and she likes the way the Venerable One was when she first fell in love with him."

"Human love is truly complicated." Jiu Yue was still completely bewildered, but Song Huilan's complete devotion to him and her pure and unadulterated love for him still touched him, who had been complicated all his life: "Don't worry, as long as you behave and stay quietly by my side like this, I will definitely give you the world you want after I have finished what I need to do."

When Jiu Yue said these words, he still didn't have much sincerity or emotion, and even treated Song Huilan as just a piece of furniture.

But Song Hye-ran found it endearing.

Back then, Shang Beiyu took her away and left her at the ancient temple, keeping her warm from a distance.

She wasn't a masochist; she just loved and cherished him too much when they first met.

The handsome young man's enthusiasm would remind her constantly that he had already died after opening a path to life for her.

But the current Venerable One makes her feel that he is still alive.

Jiu Yue (the handsome young man) gently twirled Song Huilan's soft hair behind her head with his fingertips, but what floated into his mind was Yun Yao's innocent and fearful face in his Demon Palace.

When the Great Zhao plane where Shang Beiyu was located collapsed, the wisp of demonic soul that he left in Shang Beiyu's body also vanished.

Therefore, although he knew from Song Huilan's memories that the person in Shang Beiyu's heart might be Yun Yao, he did not have Shang Beiyu's memories and therefore could not perceive Shang Beiyu's feelings for Yun Yao.

What would it feel like to develop feelings for your destined one?

Will he eventually become like those ordinary mortals, giving up the future of the entire Demon Realm because he can't bear to part with Yun Yao?

Will he go from being a supreme being adored by all demons to a pitiful person hunted by all demons, with nowhere to go?

Jiu Yue raised his hand and lightly patted his forehead, drawing out a wisp of gray demonic thought from within. He then tossed it into the scorching lava beneath him and scoffed, "As expected, the demonic shell is a lowly vessel for mingling in the mortal world, filled with worldly distractions. It's better to get rid of it sooner rather than later and destroy it."

At that moment, the handsome young man holding Song Hye-ran's arm became even more aloof.

Although he was still holding Song Huilan in his arms and gently stroking her hair, it was just like petting a pet cat.

On the Danzong side.

Ji Fengyao arrived at the area she had chosen earlier, found a mountain peak, sat down cross-legged, took out her alchemy furnace and medicinal herbs, and began refining pills.