Chapter 1 seems a bit off.
The Demon Lord, Chi Li, has recently encountered a problem.
She lived too long, so long that she felt her days were like wutong tea steeped 30,000 times, utterly bland.
As a phoenix of noble blood, the queen who rules over all demons, she should logically have some higher aspirations.
For example, unify the three realms, or at least find trouble with the neighboring immortal realm and have a fight.
But at this moment, she was yawning without any regard for her image, while looking at the mountain of jade slips piled up in the government affairs hall.
"Your Majesty, this is ice crystal ore, a tribute from the Northern Wolf Clan..." The eunuch respectfully presented the list.
"Hmm, put it in storage." Chi Li rested her chin on her hand, her eyes vacant.
"Your Majesty, the Feathered Clan of Nanze has clashed with the neighboring Ape Clan over a sacred lake, and they request..."
"Let their clan leaders fight it out, and whoever wins gets the lake." Chi Li waved her hand lazily, her method of resolving disputes simple and brutal.
The eunuch's lips twitched slightly. After finishing his record, he quietly withdrew.
The empty hall was once again left with only Chi Li alone.
She sighed, a wisp of crimson-gold flame flickering at her fingertips, as she instantly scanned and annotated the contents of the jade slip.
Extremely efficient, but also... extremely boring.
"Fine, I'll go out for a walk and see my kingdom." The main reason was that if she didn't move around a bit, she suspected her magnificent tail feathers would wrinkle under the weight of the throne.
Thus, Her Majesty Chi Li began her aimless inspection tour.
Wherever it went, the demons knelt down, silent as cicadas in winter.
She swept across the bustling city of demons, flew over treacherous mountains, and finally landed on the edge of a tranquil forest.
The spiritual energy here is quite abundant, and the vegetation is lush, but... it's too peaceful.
Chi Li paced back and forth, her sharp phoenix eyes sweeping over the spiritual plants trembling under her pressure, her sense of boredom growing stronger.
Just as she was about to turn and leave, her gaze was inadvertently caught by a glimpse of gold.
At the edge of the forest, near a sacred spring, a not particularly tall ginkgo tree was stretching out its branches and leaves.
In autumn, its leaves display an incomparably pure and brilliant gold color, seemingly glowing in the sunlight.
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves, which, unlike other spiritual plants that cowered in fear at her arrival, swayed joyfully as if greeting her.
Most remarkably, Chi Li could sense that the spiritual energy around the tree flowed peacefully and cleanly, which inexplicably calmed her heart, which had been somewhat agitated by dealing with trivial matters.
"Oh?" Chi Li became interested, walked to the tree, stretched out her finger, and gently touched the rough trunk.
When she probed with her divine sense, she could feel a faint yet extremely pure spiritual consciousness hidden within the tree, innocent and naive, like a newborn baby.
“Three hundred years of cultivation, and only the beginning of his spiritual awakening; he is indeed a rough gem, uncarved.” Chi Li muttered to himself.
She has lived too long and seen too much cunning and scheming; such pure spiritual awareness is truly rare.
Perhaps it was because the sun was shining so brightly today, perhaps she was just incredibly bored, or perhaps that golden hue simply caught her eye.
On a whim, Chi Li made a decision that would later become the talk of the entire demon realm.
She gathered a wisp of pure phoenix divine power, a warm golden-red halo emanating from her fingertips, and pointed at the tree trunk once more.
"Little one, you've been sleeping for so long, it's time to wake up."
Divine power, like a gentle, warm current, flowed into the veins of the ginkgo tree.
In an instant, the entire tree burst forth with dazzling golden light, its branches and leaves moving without wind, emitting a joyful hum.
Nourished by divine power, that pure spiritual consciousness grew and coalesced at an unprecedented speed.
Chi Li stood with her hands behind her back, watching this scene with a sense of accomplishment.
Enlightening living beings was merely a matter of lifting a finger for her.
She had already begun to imagine what kind of respectful, fearful, and grateful little demon this tree spirit would be after it transformed into human form.
Perhaps we could bring them back to the palace to serve tea and water, which would add some fun to these boring days...?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft, sweet exclamation, as if she had just woken up.
"ah--!"
As the light faded, a girl dressed in a dress made of green leaves and golden light appeared in the spot.
She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, with fair skin, delicate features, and a pair of large, clear light brown eyes, like the purest amber.
However, the transformation seemed to have exhausted all her strength, or rather, she had not yet learned how to stand on her own two legs.
She swayed slightly, and then... fell straight down towards Chi Li!
Chi Li was completely unprepared for this turn of events and instinctively opened her arms.
With a "plop," a warm, soft body bumped into him.
The girl threw herself onto her, burying her face in her luxurious clothes, her soft, long golden hair tickling her chin.
She smelled wonderfully of sunshine and fresh leaves.
Chi Li froze.
For thousands of years, no human or demon has ever dared to approach her so offensively.
She was about to lift the ill-mannered little demon away when she felt the girl in her arms move and then lift her small face.
Those amber eyes were crystal clear, reflecting her somewhat bewildered expression.
Far from being afraid, the girl seemed to have discovered something new and exciting. She sniffed it deeply, then broke into a bright, dazzling smile, and spoke softly with a touch of awkwardness, as if she were learning to speak for the first time:
"You feel so warm."
Like the sun.
All the dignified reprimands that Chi Li had prepared, befitting a demon king, instantly got stuck in her throat.
She looked down at the little tree spirit in her arms, who was lying still and even unconsciously rubbing its cheek against her chest. For the first time, she felt... at a loss.
She, Chi Li, is a ten-thousand-year-old phoenix and the supreme ruler of the demon realm.
The result of patrolling the territory was... finding a little sun that seemed not very bright and seriously lacked a sense of distance?
Looking at the girl in his arms with her pure and dependent smile, Chi Li silently looked up at the sky.
The boredom of the demon's life seems to be about to be broken.
But isn't there something wrong with the way this was broken?
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