So, in other words…
These two little girls were the Evil Dragon’s children? Not only had she given birth, but she’d had two of them—and right on her own doorstep, no less?!
“I… I have eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai. I I I… y-yes…”
Cold sweat beaded across Miss Flame Demon’s face. She snapped to attention in an instant, her eyes glazing over in bewilderment as she stammered incoherently, unsure what sound to even make.
If this was the Evil Dragon, that was an existence she truly couldn’t afford to provoke!
No wonder they could swim freely in the Magma Pool, treating thousand-degree heat like bathwater and frolicking about inside without a care.
Chesia turned around and pointed to the scales on her body. “Tilly, you forgot something.”
“Ah… ah?”
It was only then that Tilly remembered—she wasn’t wearing any clothes!
Standing right in front of her was a complete stranger she’d never laid eyes on before. Mama had always said not to expose yourself casually to outsiders. You could be a bit more lenient with family, but in front of strangers, you had to protect your privacy!
She half-dragonized in a flash, copying Chesia’s example by covering her vital areas with the scales sprouting from her body. Blushing furiously, she ducked behind Chesia’s petite frame and even quietly placed a hand in front of Chesia’s barely developed little chest.
Chesia didn’t complain. She simply smiled in satisfaction. “You should leave this place for now—if you don’t want us to kill you~”
Miss Flame Demon could only “obey respectfully rather than decline.” Though she dearly wanted to meet the strongest powerhouse of the Demon Race, she was in real mortal danger right now and had no choice but to comply. If Chesia had been a touch more ruthless, she would have already knocked Miss Flame Demon out cold with a physical “hypnosis” and made her forget everything that had happened here.
Just as Miss Flame Demon turned to leave, a black magic circle suddenly appeared around her. In the next instant, it expanded into a pitch-black birdcage.
Tilly had cast the spell with a mischievous grin.
“E-E-E-Evil Dragon… Miss, I swear I didn’t mean to disturb you! If you could just let me go, please! I really didn’t intend any harm! I swear!”
Miss Flame Demon desperately wanted to stay alive.
A nap lasting a few millennia was still far too short for her. Back in her previous life as a human, she had endured endless oppression, fleeing from place to place while adventuring with a bunch of detestable scum, only to be framed and trapped here in the end. From that day forward, Miss Flame Demon had sworn never to set foot outside again.
Better to live as a total shut-in, muddling through her days in a haze. If any humans ever stumbled in, at least she could use them for a bit of entertainment.
“Well now, since you already know the Evil Dragon’s story, wouldn’t leaving empty-handed be a little inappropriate~?”
Tilly shifted in a heartbeat from sweet and soft to eerily impish—clearly imitating Mama Leia’s tone.
The cage was rock-solid. At the very least, weaklings at the Soul Tier couldn’t break out of it. The mighty Flame Demon, who hadn’t even reached Soul Tier Layer 6 yet, could only stay trapped inside like a good little prisoner, her face a picture of pure grievance.
She rubbed her hands together nervously, eyeing the two Evil Dragons.
“I… I don’t have much to offer you. How about… I give you some Flame Chrysanthemums? Wuu~, I’ve got over two thousand in stock. You can have half…”
“Yay!” Tilly beamed with delight. After all, a single Flame Chrysanthemum could fetch 100 gold coins. A thousand of them? That was tens, hundreds, thousands…
A full 100,000 gold coins!
Of course, flooding the market like that would tank the price, but even at the low end, it would still be 70 or 80 thousand gold coins at least. She could even pile them all up in the house to make a little mountain and curl up on top of it.
“Tilly.” At that moment, Chesia offered a gentle reminder in her soft, fluffy voice.
“Tilly, our drool is worth 200 gold coins, you know.”
“What?!”
Tilly was stunned all over again.
Was Dragon Drool really that valuable?
If so, then Flame Chrysanthemums were worth less than half her own saliva!
Tilly immediately lost interest. She had no desire to accept something cheaper than her own drool.
Oh, and by the way, Chesia added, “Mama Xuefei once told us that a scale Mama shed fell into the Elf Kingdom long ago. By some stroke of fate, it ended up in a human nation. At the grandest auction banquet, the starting bid was…”
Chesia held up one hand, forming a “five” with her fingers.
“500 gold coins?” Tilly guessed.
Chesia shook her head.
“5,000… gold coins?!”
Chesia shook her head again.
“No way—50,000 gold coins?!” Tilly’s eyes sparkled with longing.
“500,000 gold coins.”
“That’s… wuu~, the equivalent of 5,000 Flame Chrysanthemums?!”
What Tilly didn’t mention was that the scale had ultimately sold for 3 million gold coins.
Although these scales were dozens of times weaker than Xuefei’s, they had already surpassed the utmost hardness of any metal the human world could produce. Moreover, their nature made them impossible to forge into weapons, rendering them no threat at all to the Demon Race.
Thus, in the end, the “conditions” offered by Miss Flame Demon were pathetically underwhelming!
“Wah wah wah, I don’t have anything good to give you! I’ve lived for 3,677 years, and every day is just sleeping and arranging flowers. I really don’t know anything at all!”
Miss Flame Demon was on the verge of tears. Tilly suddenly felt a pang of guilt, as if she’d gone too far. Her expression softened, and all traces of her earlier mimicry of Mama Leia’s enchanting demeanor vanished. Pouting her little lips, she said,
“Then tell us a story. You’ve lived such a long time, after all. Share some of your wild adventures and strange tales!”
But Miss Flame Demon had no such wondrous experiences to recount. Her memories from her human days were hazy and indistinct, offering little of value.
There was one, though, if she had to pick…
Miss Flame Demon knelt on the ground with her legs tucked neatly together and cleared her throat. The other two immediately perked up their ears to listen intently.
“A long time ago—about 150 years back, I think—a group of humans came here.”
“They were incredibly strong, nothing like those adventurers who come just to die. The leader called themselves the ‘Hero Party.'”
“Hero Party?!”
Tilly’s interest ignited in an instant.
Mama Leia often told stories about heroes, and Tilly never tired of them, hanging on every word.
Hero tales were just so delightfully thrilling!
Now she was eager to hear it—what grisly account did Miss Flame Demon have this time of slaying a hero?
“Wah, my memory’s a little fuzzy on the details. It was around the time of the ‘Tide of Dark Filth’—Yi Era 3145, I believe.”
“Hmm?” Tilly narrowed her eyes and cut Miss Flame Demon off.
“That’s not right. This year is 3143, isn’t it? Did you sleep so long that you lost track of time, Sister Flame Demon?”
“Impossible~”
Miss Flame Demon crossed her arms over her chest and declared confidently.
“I might sleep every day, but my internal clock is flawless! Absolutely precise!”
“That’s strange, then. This year is definitely Yi Era 3143,” Chesia chimed in, nibbling thoughtfully on her little hand as she joined the puzzled contemplation.
“No way! You’re the ones who got it wrong. Even the Evil Dragon holes up at home for endless naps. Who knows—maybe you’ve all overslept by more than a century!”
Miss Flame Demon argued fiercely.
“This year is 3292, without a doubt!”
