Frost was playing with Xiaoxiao when suddenly there was a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” she asked, even though she already knew.
“Me.” Su Mo’s voice came from outside. He felt he needed to clear things up with Frost to avoid all sorts of trouble later.
Frost’s expression turned cold: “What are you here for?”
As she spoke, she winked at Xiaoxiao, signaling her to go open the door. Xiaoxiao understood and trotted over happily to open it: “Auntie, you’re here!”
Su Mo’s expression stiffened. He thought to himself, this little girl changes what she calls me every single day.
Xiaoxiao gave a hard jump and hung onto Su Mo’s neck. She rubbed her little face against his and said, all pitiful, “Auntie, you have to stand up for me! Mom hit me again. She’s super mean…”
Su Mo glanced at Frost. Their eyes met, but she immediately turned her face away and said coldly, “This is my royal bedchamber, my consort. Surely you haven’t come to share my bed?”
“I’ve already successfully found another way for the Celestial Demon Tribe to go to Earth without suffering backlash.” Since she was being prideful, Su Mo wasn’t going to indulge her. He completely forgot what Hong had just said and didn’t mention anything about apologizing.
“You’re from Earth yourself. How can I trust that you’re not lying to me?”
Su Mo’s tone was firm and confident: “Because we’re family!”
Frost’s Demigod-level body couldn’t help but tremble slightly. Her gaze shifted from cold to flustered. She hadn’t expected to hold such a place in Su Mo’s heart.
Why didn’t you say so earlier? You made me destroy all that hard work I’d put in over the past few days.
She turned around again, leaving only her back to Su Mo because her cheeks had flushed red. She didn’t want him to see. She just said softly, with a hint of coyness, “Who’s family with you?”
Su Mo didn’t notice the change in her mood. He was still thinking about the information he had found in the ancient texts. Thinking out loud, he explained, “Don’t rush to deny it. Let me explain it to you slowly.”
Xiaoxiao blinked her big eyes. Even though she didn’t understand, her big eyes were full of anticipation.
Frost finally turned around. Her face had returned to calm, but beneath her cold expression hid a trace of joy and sweetness: “I’ll give you a chance. Go ahead.”
Su Mo “pulled” Xiaoxiao, who was stuck to his face, off with a pop sound, and then began to speak eloquently:
“I suspected it from the very beginning. Why do the Celestial Demon Tribe look so much like humans? And why is your language a dialect of our Xia Kingdom? I can’t tell exactly which region it’s from, but it’s pretty close.”
Frost: (≖_≖)
“Then, after reading through a large number of ancient texts, I discovered that many things recorded in them are extremely similar to our Xia Kingdom. For example, the names of cultivation realms, and again, the records of fierce beasts from the wilderness are very similar to the descriptions in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. It’s very likely they’re describing the same things.”
Frost: (▼ヘ▼#)
“There are many other similarities. This is absolutely not a coincidence. So I guessed that your Celestial Demon Tribe were originally natives of Earth, and you lived in the Xia Kingdom. We’re family! Later, because of the so-called divine punishment, you were driven to the Celestial Demon Domain, forced to live in this harsh, cold land with these fierce beasts.”
Frost: (╬◣д◢)
“Maybe that’s why you call Earth your ancestral land. And I believe that since you were originally Earth’s natives, there must be a way to solve the problem of not being able to go there. As it stands, this law force isn’t insurmountable.”
Frost: (ﾟ⊿ﾟ)ﾂ
Seeing that Frost had finally gone from angry to curious, Su Mo’s anxious heart relaxed a little. Then he smiled and said, “To be honest with you, I happen to be just the person who can solve this problem.”
Frost was finally fully drawn by Su Mo into the serious discussion. She frowned skeptically and said, “You’re not just feeding me a pipe dream, are you?”
Su Mo made a strange face. Oh ho, these seekers don’t do their proper jobs, but they sure bring back weird cultures.
“I’m not joking with you.” Su Mo’s tone turned serious. “I am the inheritor of Earth’s divine will. Over there, we’re called Chosen Ones. Someday, when I break through the shackles of life and achieve godhood, sending you all back would be as easy as snapping my fingers.”
“That still sounds like a pipe dream to me. By the time you become a god, the flowers will have wilted.” Frost showed an impatient look. “Besides, even if the Celestial Demon Tribe were once a part of Earth, would the humans of today be so at ease and willing to share Earth with us?”
After saying that, she added, “You only represent yourself. You don’t represent humanity, and you certainly don’t represent Earth. Also, I do like you, but I won’t entrust the survival and interests of my entire tribe to you because of that. I have to be responsible for my people.”
In that moment, her image grew tall and mighty. She was no longer the Frost who had thrown a tantrum because her gift was rejected, but the Celestial Demon King, commanding her entire tribe in their bitter struggle for survival in the Celestial Demon Domain.
Su Mo met her gaze. His aura was completely crushed. He let out a muffled grunt and coughed up blood. Xiaoxiao gently wiped it away for him.
“As expected of the Celestial Demon King, truly domineering. But have you ever considered this: right now, I’m all you can rely on. Because some shackles must be struck from the outside to be broken, and I happen to have the hammer for the job. Even if it’s not hard enough yet, it has the potential to grow stronger.”
Facing Frost’s powerful aura, Su Mo didn’t yield an inch. He spoke slowly, enunciating each word: “And besides, when I truly reach that point, who in this world could stop my decisions? At the very least, I can make the Celestial Demon Domain a much better place than it is now.”
His tone was beyond doubt, sounding to outsiders as if he were stating something already set in stone.
“You’re really confident you can become a god?”
“It’s a long way off, but how will I know if I don’t try? Besides, I inherently have more potential for godhood than ordinary people.”
Frost’s lips parted slightly. Looking at his confident face, the illusionary but handsome figure surfaced again in her mind. “So, you’ll strive towards that goal, and I just need to choose whether I’m willing to cooperate with you?”
“That’s about it.”
Frost’s gaze suddenly became resolute. “I am willing to cooperate with you, and I will use the full power of my tribe to help you. But to be safe, you must sign a Blood Pact with me.”
“Blood Pact…” Su Mo stroked his chin, thinking. “Isn’t that the thing where, once you sign it, you can’t break your oath, or else you’ll face divine punishment?”
Anyone who’s read novels could guess that much…
“More or less.” Frost waved her hand, and a blood-red piece of paper appeared out of thin air. “This is a very high-level magical artifact. It’s said that even gods cannot easily break an oath once they’ve signed on it.”
Their vows quickly appeared on the paper, the words radiating an inviolable golden light.
To show her sincerity, she was the first to write her name on it: Bai Shuang.
So her surname was Bai.
Su Mo hesitated for a moment, then signed his own big name: Chiba Zhenxiang.
Rumble rumble—
Su Mo thought, Oh no, realizing he’d signed the undercover name. He quickly rewrote it: Ye Qingyi.
Crack—
A large hole was blasted open in Frost’s bedchamber. A bolt of lightning hung above their heads like the divine sword of the nine heavens, seemingly warning him that if he didn’t write his real name, it would strike him down.
Trembling, Su Mo signed the two characters “Su Mo.” Only then did the thunder completely disappear, and the Blood Pact gradually turned into specks of light, dissipating into the air.
So the Blood Pact requires you to sign your truest, real name!
Su Mo felt a lingering fear. It wasn’t that he had intended to trick her. It was just that he had been playing roles for so long, with so many names, he wasn’t sure which one to sign.
Frost, standing by, had watched him sign three different names one after another. What she was thinking was anyone’s guess.
