Sword Sect Little Demon Child, Three and a Half Years Old and Extremely Fierce

The Imperial Palace.

Two rows of banquet tables stretched from the palace gate all the way to the end of the Imperial Garden, like two winding dragons.

The left row is a hundred kinds of banquets

Candied hawthorn, crispy buns, soup dumplings, roast duck, shumai, tofu pudding, mung bean jelly, potstickers, steamed buns, donkey rolls, pea flour cake, sugar-coated sesame cakes, jianbing guozi, stinky tofu... all kinds of local snacks, stretching as far as the eye can see.

The row on the right is a seafood feast.

Boiled lobster, steamed grouper, garlic mantis shrimp, salt and pepper king crab, braised sea cucumber with scallions, spicy crab, oyster omelet, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, lobster, sea urchin egg custard... all of them were blasted up from the seabed by lightning, and each one was incredibly plump.

Little Black is gnawing on a lobster on its left, holding a piece of roast duck in its right, and has a string of candied hawthorns curled up on the tip of its tail.

Jumping left and right, eating with great gusto, all the while in a flurry of activity.

Wei Cangxuan glanced at it sideways: "Watch your manners! You've already nibbled on it, how are we supposed to eat? And your tail is swishing around, the syrup from the candied hawthorn is all over my sleeve."

Little Black, with half a lobster in its mouth, looked up and said, "This is the territory of the Emperor of the Mortal Realm. I can eat however I want, what's it to you?"

Just as Wei Cangxuan was about to start criticizing, I quickly interjected, "Sect Master, let it go. It's been imprisoned for five thousand years, it's old and has a bad temper, and it's never eaten anything good. Let it eat. It's never even eaten a steamed bun from our sect before. It would be beneath your dignity to stoop to its level."

Wei Cangxuan glanced at me, paused for a moment, and then silently took away the largest flower crab.

Xiao Hei: "What's the meaning of you picking up the biggest one?"

Wei Cangxuan: "I want to eat."

Xiao Hei: "That's the one I've set my sights on!"

Wei Cangxuan: "Just because you've chosen it doesn't mean it's yours. Will it answer if you call its name?"

Little Black: "...Flower Crab! Answer me!"

The flower crab did not agree.

Wei Cangxuan expressionlessly cracked open the crab shell, took a bite, and said, "It didn't agree."

Xiao Hei: "…………"

It turned to look at me, its golden vertical pupils clearly saying, "You need to control him."

I pretended not to see it and kept my head down, eating my rice.

Xiao Hei turned to look at my brother, who pretended to pick up some food.

Then I turned to look at my mother, who pretended to drink tea.

Finally, turning to look at Shen Qingchen, Shen Qingchen expressionlessly picked up a lobster.

Xiao Hei: "…………"

It lowered its head and took a bite of the lobster, muttering as it ate, "You're all in cahoots, ganging up on me."

Wei Cangxuan: "You've lived for ten thousand years and still get bullied, which means you deserve it."

Xiao Hei: "Say it again?"

Wei Cangxuan: "I'm telling you, you deserve it."

Xiao Hei: "Wei Cangxuan, do you think I wouldn't dare to criticize you?"

Wei Cangxuan: "Go ahead and spout nonsense. If you do, I'll throw you into the sea and let the sea worms keep you company."

Xiao Hei: "…………"

It paused for a moment, then decided to lower its head and continue eating the lobster.

It stopped talking, and even the candied hawthorn at the tip of its tail stopped swaying.

I secretly picked up the biggest king crab leg for it and placed it in front of it.

Little Black's vertical pupils narrowed with pleasure. He didn't say anything, but the tip of his tail started wagging again.

Wei Cangxuan saw it, his lips twitched, but he didn't say anything more.

Su Ning whispered to himself, "Junior Sister is quite good at coaxing the dragon."

My brother glanced at me and said, "She's not trying to appease the dragon, she's trying to appease the peace of this family."

Suning: "That makes sense."

…………

The emperor rose at the head of the table, cleared his throat, and raised his cup to thank everyone: "This great calamity in the mortal realm is largely thanks to the assistance of all you immortals. On behalf of the people of Great Yan, I toast you all."

Everyone raised their glasses, and the clinking of glasses filled the air.

The emperor put down his wine cup and continued, "I have already ordered people to rebuild the damaged seaside area. The people living by the sea have also been temporarily relocated outside the city and will return to their hometowns once their new homes are completed. You need not worry about them."

My mother, holding her teacup, bowed slightly: "This tribulation has affected the coast, causing trouble for His Majesty."

The emperor waved his hand, his smile sincere:

"You flatter me, my fairy. I thought that even if that period of time had stopped, the vitality of the mortal realm would have to recover slowly. If it took three to five hundred years to see any effect, I would be grateful for the blessings of our ancestors."

"I never imagined that life would return to the area near the East China Sea in just one day!

"The grass and trees are sprouting, the earth is moistening, and even the wind feels a bit clearer."

"The losses from this reconstruction are insignificant compared to the vitality of the entire mortal realm."

"Don't even mention surviving a few tribulations. If you can bring back the vitality of the mortal realm, I'll tear down this palace and build sheds for you."

My mother was amused by him and shook her head.

The emperor seemed to remember something, his smile fading, and his tone becoming more serious: "However, I have a question. Although the great formation at the bottom of the sea has stopped, could it one day be drained of its life force by those on it again? I'm always uneasy about it."

Wei Cangxuan put down his wine cup: "Huanhuan has already destroyed the formation."

The emperor was taken aback: "Destroyed?"

I took out a fist-sized crystal from my storage bracelet and placed it on the table.

The crystal is entirely dark blue, with fine light patterns flowing inside, like a sleeping eyeball.

It was Yuanming Yushu.

"The core of the array is here. We have extracted the core of the entire array. Although the array patterns on the seabed are still there, without the core to drive them, they are just dead patterns that can no longer rotate. Once the array patterns lose their power, they will slowly dissipate on their own."

The emperor stared at the crystal for a long while, then asked, "Is this thing valuable?"

I answered honestly, "It's extremely valuable! But I'm not selling it."

The Emperor: "I have no intention of buying it."

I nodded: "That's good."

He added, "It's a real shame about all those spirit stones. To save time, they were all wasted at once. Over 100,000 top-grade spirit stones and hundreds of thousands of high-grade ones were poured into the grand formation as fuel; not a single one was left. Once we get back, the Heavenly Sword Sect will be poor again."

The emperor was utterly shocked: "Such a grand gesture?"

I nodded and explained:

"The flow rate of the Reverse Contract Rune is already ten times that of the original array, and it becomes even more powerful with the addition of spirit stones."

"The main reason is that we're afraid the higher-ups will discover it too early and cut off the contract, so we can only use it as fuel and throw it all in at once to accelerate the process, and we need to get the immortal source back before they realize what's happening."

The emperor remained silent for a moment, then raised his wine cup and solemnly toasted everyone once again:

"Your generosity, esteemed immortals, is a debt of gratitude that the Great Yan will never forget. I raise another cup to you all!"

Everyone raised their glasses again.

Wei Cangxuan put down his wine cup and said solemnly, "Your Majesty, there are a few things that need to be explained."

Emperor: "Please speak, Immortal Master."

Wei Cangxuan: "The official passage between the mortal realm and the cultivation world, Tianque Pass, remains closed to this day. All the secret realm rifts between the two realms have also collapsed and sealed off."

"The root cause is that the spiritual energy in the cultivation world has been overdrawn for ten thousand years, and the mortal world is lacking in vitality. The energy between the two worlds is unbalanced, and the passage can no longer hold up."

"We can only wait for the world to slowly heal itself. When it will reopen depends entirely on the natural order of things."

The emperor pondered for a moment: "Then... approximately how long will it take?"

Wei Cangxuan shook his head: "It could be as fast as a hundred years, or as slow as a thousand years. The pace of Heaven's self-healing is not for me to decide."

The emperor was silent for a moment: "A hundred years is fine, it's better than never seeing the light of day again. If I can't wait, my grandson will."

Gu Zhaoye suddenly interjected, "Father, don't worry about how long it will last. You only have a few decades left to live anyway. Don't worry about what happens after that. Just leave it to me and my sister."

The emperor's face hardened: "Shut up."

Gu Zhaoye pursed his lips: "I'm telling the truth."

The Emperor: "Even the truth cannot be spoken in front of so many immortals!"

Gu Zhaoye: "So you mean, we should tell them behind the immortals' backs?"

The Emperor said, "What I mean is that you will copy the palace rules a hundred times tomorrow."

Gu Zhaoye shut up.

Gu Zhining was secretly laughing to herself when the emperor glared at her halfway through, so she quickly lowered her head and started eating.