Chapter 602: Chapter 551: Joking Words Become Reality

Ning Feiyan and Hong Zhuang’s father, named Ning Guanying, was the only son of the Enchanting Demon Demon Lord. In the clan, whether in temperament, intelligence, cultivation, or status, he stood at the pinnacle of prestige.

After the old Demon General heroically sacrificed himself in this war of aggression, the entire Enchanting Demon clan, from top to bottom, acknowledged his authority.

The Enchanting Demon clan had strongholds throughout the Beiyuan Forest, and after surviving the war, the remaining Enchanting Demons were arranged to recuperate in the depths of the secret forest.

Upon returning to the rest area, Ning Guanying immediately ordered the clan’s physicians to tally and inspect the physical conditions of the captive Enchanting Demons.

If any were found to be afflicted with Demon Poison, they would need immediate detoxification and treatment.

The list of names was quickly drawn up, and those whose names appeared on it, although not expelled, were inevitably disgraced and held in contempt by their fellow clansmen.

So it was that Mrs. Ning lived in trepidation for several days, only to discover that her name was not at all on the list.

Just as she was about to sigh in relief, her husband, departing from his usual gentleness, came to her with a bowl of medicinal soup with a stern face, insisting she drink it.

She indifferently ingested the tasteless medicine.

If she were not infected with Demon Poison and in good health, why would he have her take medicine without cause?

From that day onward, her husband’s treatment of her turned increasingly cold and distant.

As for why her name was absent from the list, it wasn’t difficult to guess.

Unlike the common Enchanting Demon, she was the legitimate wife of the Demon Lord’s son.

Her husband held high status, and it would be nothing less than the largest scandal in the history of the Enchanting Demon clan, should it become known that his wife, for a mere piece of bread, a bowl of water, had so humbly surrendered herself to the sworn enemy of her own people.

She had long known Ning Feiyan to be exceptionally aloof and indifferent to human life, but she could never have imagined that she would be so ruthless as to strike at her own birth mother.

The estrangement and coldness of her husband, her own inner shame and disgrace, eventually brewed into boundless hatred.

Thus, that night, the few, fleeting moments of compassion that had arisen while soaking bread in water, finally dissipated into nothing.

The scenes rapidly shifted, and time hurried past before Baili An.

The once young Enchanting Demon girl had fully matured, as if polished by the years.

Baili An saw beneath the plum grove, Hong Zhuang in dazzling white, her beauty surpassing others, her grown figure bearing the spitting image of Ning Feiyan in the real world.

However, her eyes, unlike Ning Feiyan’s pair that seemed to naturally contain a wisp of misty fog, were bright and clear, filled with the innocence and elegance of a young girl’s, like a mountain stream’s deer.

In Mo City of the Ming Continent, it was time for the Spring and Autumn Conference, a crucial trial held once every decade for the young members of the Demon Clan to compete for the position of Demon General.

Thanks to their ancestors’ blessing of the Divine Origin, several elders from the Enchanting Demon clan had emerged thirty years ago, who had stood out in the Spring and Autumn Conference and ascended to become Demon Generals.

It was just that during that catastrophic disaster, these elders had perished in battle.

For this Spring and Autumn Conference, Hong Zhuang, renowned in the clan for her scholarship, qualifications, and cultivation, had a foundation even more profound than those elders from thirty years ago.

In preparation for the trials of the conference, she diligently practiced her swordsmanship, brimming with confidence and fully prepared, determined to triumph over the Nine-Headed Snake Clan’s tenth son, the most talked-about competitor, and take the top prize.

The whole clan had high expectations for her, and in recent days, any precious resources were generously allocated for her use.

Hong Zhuang did not disappoint, venturing alone into the deadly expanse of Beiyuan Forest, where she hunted a formidable Earth Fury Giant Shadow Elephante, a mountainous Demon Beast, and carried it back to the clan, earning admiration and cheers from all.

Even Mrs. Ning, who had grown reclusive and aloof from years in her quiet room, made a rare appearance to toast in her celebration.

Under the leadership of Ning Guanying, a group of young Enchanting Demons proceeded to Mo City of the Ming Continent.

During this season of autumn rains clearing away the dust, Spring and Autumn passed briskly by.

A list of names from the Spring and Autumn Conference traveled a great distance and arrived in Beiyuan.

To everyone’s astonishment and sighs, their youngest, most talented Enchanting Demon girl not only narrowly missed becoming the champion in the conference but only managed to secure the third place.

She did not defeat the Ten Snake Clan’s tenth son as everyone had expected; it was said that the tenth son had cultivated a powerful Demon Soul.

In the battle at the Spring and Autumn Conference, she suffered a crushing defeat; even her sword, a symbol of her dignity, was taken by her opponent.

But more surprising than her loss was that the tenth son was not the champion either.

The real champion turned out to be someone else.

It’s said that fortune and misfortune are intertwined – Hong Zhuang’s third place indeed qualified her for a position of a Demon General in the Royal City, yet there were the Prison Law Demon Generals above them. The conditions to become a Prison Law Demon General were exceedingly stringent, selected once every ten years only from the top of the Chunqiu Pavilion list.

Those who followed second were hardly remembered, let alone third.

Such a result was profoundly disappointing.

The unforeseen true champion of the Spring and Autumn Conference was none other than Hong Zhuang’s older sister of the same bloodline, Ning Feiyan.

Ning Feiyan never gained much fame within the clan; if anything had left an impression, it was her use of a poison scheme during that hopeless battle years ago, which had turned the tide and saved the entire clan.

But even so, that could not alter the dislike and aversion the Enchanting Demon clan held toward her.

The Enchanting Demon clan, naturally weak, was accustomed to banding together against formidable enemies, possessing a strong sense of racial camaraderie, yet Ning Feiyan seemed more like a cold-blooded outsider in their eyes.

Moreover, since she had been sent off to the barbaric Southern Wilderness during her childhood, it was clear that Ning Guanying and his wife favored Hong Zhuang far more.