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

Fu Yan secretly transmitted his voice to me: "When the sect leader was young, he was the number one genius in the cultivation world. Moreover, if he couldn't win, he could run away. It is said that when the sect leader runs, even a Great Ascension stage cultivator can't catch up with him."

I blinked: "That amazing?"

Fu Yan nodded: "Most importantly, our Heavenly Sword Sect has the strength to back it up."

I pressed further, "What gives you that confidence?"

Fu Yan: "The sect's grand formation was left behind by the patriarch, and it is said that even those at the Mahayana stage cannot break through it."

I understand.

So he's a person with a turtle shell; no wonder he's not afraid of real turtles.

It was clear that those elders were really about to make a move.

The spiritual energy in the air had begun to become disordered, like a pot of water about to boil.

Fu Yan quickly stepped forward.

"Esteemed seniors," Fu Yan began, "may I have a word to say?"

The elders glanced at him and barely suppressed their anger.

After all, since a junior stepped forward to smooth things over, they couldn't continue making a scene in front of so many people; it wouldn't sound good if word got out.

Fu Yan rolled up his sleeves, revealing a scar on his arm.

The scar was long, stretching from the wrist to the elbow, like a centipede crawling on the skin.

"Fifty years ago, I was just a lowly cultivator in the Qi Refining stage. I was once hunted down by evil cultivators."

"The enemy leader is also at the Void Refinement stage."

"I fled all the way from the mortal realm to the cultivation world, and it was only by chance that the sect leader picked me up."

Fu Yan lowered his sleeves. "I suspect that the organization that is hunting me down is the same group that is slaying Tu Zong."

Patriarch Murong asked, "How can you be sure it's the same person?"

Fu Yan said, "I'm not sure. But the method is very similar."

Ancestor Ouyang asked, "The difference between a Void Refining stage cultivator and a Qi Refining stage cultivator is merely a snap of the fingers. How did you manage to escape?"

Fu Yan raised his head: "Because they don't want to kill me. They want to capture me alive."

He pointed to his arm: "This wound was left when the other party almost destroyed my dark spiritual root."

"Dark spiritual root?" Someone's eyes lit up.

Fu Yan nodded: "Yes, the other party knows better than I do: I am a demon. They also know that my father is the Demon Lord."

The entire room fell silent.

Fu Yan continued, "Fifty years ago, my father was quelling an internal rebellion in the Demon Realm. The other side wanted to capture me alive, probably to threaten my father."

People started whispering among themselves.

"So, the Demon Realm has also produced a traitor?"

"—They even allied with traitors in the cultivation world?"

But someone quickly noticed something suspicious.

"Wait a minute, you're the young master of the Demon Realm, shouldn't you be surrounded by high-ranking demon generals? How could they possibly go to the Demon Realm's capital to kill you?"

Fu Yan shook his head: "I was in the mortal realm at that time."

The man pressed on, "What are you doing in the mortal realm? Aren't you the young master of the demon realm?"

Fu Yan paused for a moment: "Back then... I didn't know I was the young master of the Demon Realm."

The entire room was silent for a full three breaths.

Then it exploded.

—"What?"

"Wait, you mean before you went to the cultivation world and joined the Heavenly Sword Sect, you didn't know you were the young master of the Demon Realm??"

"The Demon Realm's young master doesn't know he's the young master??"

Fu Yan nodded: "I don't know."

Someone pressed further, "Then how do you know you have a dark spiritual root?"

Fu Yan: "The sect leader saw it. He saw it on the very first day I joined the sect, but he didn't say anything. He only told me twenty years later."

All eyes turned to Wei Cangxuan.

Wei Cangxuan smiled, like a fox who had stolen a chicken.

He picked up his teacup, took a sip, and slowly began to speak:

"That's right. Fu Yan joined the sect at the age of fifty-eight and stayed in the Heavenly Sword Sect for twenty years, without even knowing that he was the Demon Lord's child."

"He always thought he was the son of an ordinary rogue cultivator, whose father was away on business and whose mother was doing odd jobs at the sect! He himself was learning martial arts at the Heavenly Sword Sect."

"A standard script for a left-behind child in the cultivation world."

"It wasn't until the war between immortals and demons thirty years ago, when he followed the Heavenly Sword Sect to the war, that he saw the Demon Lord appear wearing a mask and recognized him as his father."

"Because he bought that mask for three coins at a street stall in the mortal realm; it was a birthday gift he gave to his father when he turned 38."

The entire hall fell silent for another three breaths.

Then the gossip started.

"So you grew up in the mortal realm and the Heavenly Sword Sect?"

"Why did your father hide his identity from you? Was he afraid you'd become arrogant?"

"I know! It's definitely to keep it from your mother, isn't it?"

"Oh, that explains it. It must be a child born from a woman the Demon Lord seduced outside."

"If he were deceiving people from the Demon Realm, there would be no need to hide his identity. In that case, the Demon Lord must be deceiving female cultivators from our cultivation world."

"And they must be someone important, otherwise they wouldn't be hiding it like this."

"Who is your mother?"

"Could it be from the Hehuan Sect?"

"Why can't it be from Qingyun Sect? The way the Demon Lord looked at Sect Master Qingmeng was off when he surrendered during the last Immortal-Demon War."

"Does your mother know now that your father is the Demon Lord?"

"Does your father know that your mother doesn't know he's the Demon Lord?"

I stood to the side, silently watching these big shots gossip online.

Their eyes shone brightly, their expressions were animated, and they completely forgot that they were investigating the major case of the massacre of the clan.

Wei Cangxuan leaned back in his chair, a hint of amusement playing on his lips.

Fu Yan remained expressionless, like a statue, unmoved as the waves of gossip crashed against him.

After everyone had finished asking their questions, he finally spoke, replying with only one sentence: "No comment."

The four words were spoken with force and conviction.

But gossipers no longer care about the answer.

They have already created at least ten versions of the story, each of which could be turned into a bestselling novel in the cultivation world.

At that moment, I noticed a few people's eyes flicker.

For example, Elder Hu Tu, Xie Qianjue, Bai Jingxin, and the ancestors of those reclusive families.

They probably guessed who my mother was.

But no one said it out loud.

Some things are a different story when they are said aloud.

As the gossip subsided, Wei Cangxuan patted the armrest.

"Alright, alright, are you here to investigate a case or to listen to a story? Should I get you some more melon seeds and peanuts?"

The sect leader of the Food God Sect silently put the peanuts into his sleeve.

The Zen master coughed and came out to preside over the ceremony.

"Right now, there are two urgent matters: finding out who killed Tu Zong and preventing similar attacks from happening again."

The hall fell silent.

Once back to the main topic, the atmosphere became serious again.

Fu Yan stepped forward and said, "I'm going back to the Demon Realm to investigate now."

He looked at the crowd.

"On the surface, only my father can command high-level magical beasts. But..."

"Some old noble families in the Demon Realm are allowed to keep mid-level magical beasts as pets."

"If their magical beasts advance to a higher rank without being reported, or..."

"Or perhaps they're colluding with people from the cultivation world..."

He paused.

"We need to go back to the Demon Realm to investigate these matters."

The abbot nodded: "Very well. Young Master of the Demon Realm, please proceed. Report any news immediately."

Fu Yan turned to leave.

I grabbed his sleeve.

"elder brother."

He looked down at me.

"careful."

He patted my head.

"understood."