462: The candlelight flickers red

The morning light in Jiaotai Palace arrived late.

When Shang Wan Ning awoke, the space beside her was already empty.

The bedding still held a trace of warmth, and a piece of plain stationery was pressed onto the neatly folded phoenix robe beside the pillow.

She rubbed her sleepy eyes, sat up, and casually pulled the stationery over.

The handwriting was refined and sharp; it was Ling Qi's script: "Morning meeting at the Research Institute, back by the hour of Si. Breakfast is warming on the stove."

A simple sketch of a little fox was drawn at the sign-off, its pointed ears perked up.

Shang Wan Ning stared at those perky fox ears for two seconds, her lips curling upward involuntarily.

She shuffled in her shoes to the outer hall and, sure enough, saw a celadon bowl simmering on the small stove. Reaching out to lift the lid, she found spirit-grain porridge with a layer of rice oil, accompanied by two plates of crisp pickles and a steamer of translucent crystal shrimp dumplings.

Simple, but to her taste.

After finishing breakfast, a maid quietly came forward to clean up.

Shang Wan Ning paced to the window, took out her phone, and scrolled through the Netherworld forum, but finding it uninteresting after a few glances, she casually exited.

She quietly spread her divine sense and perceived that Ling Qi was inside the Research Institute, discussing matters in detail with Institute Director while looking over holographic blueprints.

Her aura was calm, her expression focused.

Unwilling to disturb her rashly, she withdrew her divine sense.

Shang Wan Ning withdrew her divine sense and paced aimlessly around the hall twice, suddenly feeling a sense of emptiness.

At this hour in the past, she would either be hunched over her desk reviewing reports, listening to subordinates report on official business, or pondering ways to develop new revenue streams for the Netherworld.

Now that matters in Country R were settled, the Annihilation Tower project was on track, the Healing Zone was on track, and even the thorny issue of the soul tide had been completely diverted and resolved.

She was free.

She clutched her phone, rubbing the edge of the screen lightly, as a thought sprouted in her mind: find something to do.

Just as the thought arose, footsteps came from outside the hall.

Lin Ran walked in, clutching a bundle of files, her ponytail tied meticulously. "Your Majesty, the draft for the third phase of the Fengdu City expansion plan, please take a look."

Shang Wan Ning raised an eyebrow: "So fast?"

"Secretary-General finished reviewing the accumulated official business last night and also took the liberty of revising the previous two draft versions." Lin Ran spread the files out on the desk. "This is the final version, just waiting for Your Majesty to apply the seal to make it effective."

Shang Wan Ning sat down to look it over carefully.

The draft was extremely detailed; from the site selection for the new city district and the regulations for yin dwellings, to the layout of the commercial street and the ratio of public nether shrines, it was clear and logically rigorous.

Ling Qi's vermilion annotations were written in the margins, each word precise and hitting the mark.

She finished reading page by page, took out the Imperial Seal, and solemnly stamped it at the end of the draft.

The moment the dark gold seal landed, a layer of faint light shimmered on the surface of the files.

This meant the expansion plan was officially effective, and the General Affairs Department could immediately begin promoting its implementation.

"Anything else?" Shang Wan Ning looked up.

Lin Ran shook her head: "That is the only urgent official business for today. Secretary-General specifically instructed that if Your Majesty is free, you could go to the Mirror of Retribution to check on the training situation of the newly arrived soul bodies, or go to the Nether Sea Region to relax for a while."

After saying this, she couldn't help but add resentfully: "In any case, just don't loiter outside the Research Institute."

Shang Wan Ning couldn't help but chuckle.

This was clearly because she found her in the way, intentionally finding ways to send her away.

She waved her hand: "ARan, go get busy."

Lin Ran bowed and retreated.

The hall became quiet again.

Shang Wan Ning sat quietly in the hall for a moment, then stood up, changed into a windbreaker, and decided to actually go take a look at the Mirror of Retribution.

After all, as the Lord of the Netherworld, making an occasional appearance could be considered checking on the people's condition.

Of course, it was definitely not because her hands were itching and she wanted to take the opportunity to discipline that group of restless soul bodies.

...

At the spatial rift between the Netherworld and the Source Realm, the flow of time formed a closed loop, completely different from the outside world.

Above the Mercury Plane, the Source Realm outside the rift had fallen into a long slumber after the great catastrophe of that year, until spiritual energy began to flow back several decades ago.

Only then did the sleeping divine existences begin to awaken one after another.

Zhulong was the first to wake up.

As the supreme existence of the Demon race, He should have been stationed in the northern part of the Source Realm, ruling over the thousands of remnants of the Demon race, and restoring the Demon race's former glory.

And that was indeed the case.

At least, that was how it appeared on the surface.

Deep within His cave abode, the palace built of black ice was towering and solemn, with a biting chill.

Outside the hall, twelve figures stood solemnly with heads bowed, their auras either ferocious or sinister; they were all old subordinates who had fought in all directions with Zhulong back in the day and established illustrious war records.

They dared not look directly at the blurry light and shadow on the throne.

"Exalted One, the Heavenly Emperor has submitted a covenant, willing to form an alliance with the Demon race." The third Demon general on the left stepped forward and spoke in a deep voice.

"The Buddha still has doubts, but he can be persuaded." The second one on the right immediately followed, with a determined tone.

"Those bald donkeys in the Western Desert Buddhist Lands..."

Someone in the hall immediately snorted coldly, with a look of disdain on their face.

The light and shadow on the throne moved slightly, and a deep, thick voice sounded, revealing no joy or anger: "Understood. You all shall proceed according to the plan, and everything should follow the established precedent."

"As you command!" The twelve figures kowtowed and exited the hall in order.

Until the last one left, the hall doors slowly closed.

Only then did the light and shadow on the throne gradually solidify.

The figure was slender and upright, wearing a scarlet Liuxian dress, the hem embroidered with dark gold cloud patterns, and a jade belt tied around the waist, outlining a slender and supple waist perfectly.

The long hair was loosely pinned up with a suet jade hairpin, with a few stray strands falling casually by the cheeks, adding a touch of laziness.

A thin layer of powder was applied to the face, making the skin look whiter than snow, with a light touch of vermilion on the lips, gorgeous but not vulgar.

Zhulong lowered His eyes, carefully examining this attire.

The fingertips rubbed the delicate cloud brocade fabric of the dress, feeling the soft texture that was completely different from armor and murderous military attire.

He spun around, the skirt rippling out in an arc, like a blood-colored epiphyllum blooming suddenly.

[Looks good.]

When the thought emerged, He remembered the experience of His clone being "forced" to change into women's clothing to deal with the succubi at the Succubus Bar under the jurisdiction of the Netherworld last time.

At first, it was just an "expedient measure," but later, curiosity gradually grew, and then it turned into a secret pleasure He did not want others to know about.

The supreme existence of the Demon race wearing women's dresses—if this matter were to spread, it would likely scare those old-fashioned Demon antiques to death.

Therefore, Zhulong acted extremely cautiously; His main body always remained stationed in the northern part of the Source Realm, never revealing a single bit.

He only privately used divine powers to condense a few insignificant clones, suppressing their strength to the first-tier level.

In this way, even the Netherworld's routine monitoring could not detect them.

These clones traveled between the human world and the Source Realm, bringing back all kinds of beautiful dresses, rouge and powder for Him, as well as those novel items called "cosmetics."

He was naturally intelligent and learned very quickly; now He could skillfully draw eyebrows and apply eye makeup, match clothing and accessories, and even meticulously studied the color differences of makeup under different light sources.

The skills were already superb.

And all of this, He absolutely could not let His old subordinates know.

Although they were loyal and devoted, their thinking was rigid and quite old-fashioned.

If they were to find out that the Exalted One was indulging in women's clothing and makeup, they would likely remonstrate with their deaths, causing the entire Demon race to be in turmoil.