The Queen of Heaven nodded lightly.
“If that is the case, then if it were you, what method would you choose to strike back at the demon race?”

“Of course—an eye for an eye. Repay their tactics with the same tactics.”

Luan Ling lifted her head.
“After so many years of non-interaction between the Heavenly Realm and the Demon Realm, as long as the two realms still coexist, there will inevitably be contact and friction. Instead of enduring their provocations, it’s better to take the initiative. They want to probe us—naturally, we also want to know what their situation is.”

In the years since the great life-and-death war—after both realms had purged their internal spies—the Heavenly Realm had no longer sent agents like Duguzhi into the Demon Realm. Yet the Demon Realm had repeatedly made probing moves and had already gained a certain understanding of the Heavenly Realm. On the other hand, the Heavenly Realm had grown increasingly unclear about the current state of the Demon Realm.

The superficial peace between the two sides was sustained only because the unknown had not yet been shattered. For the Heavenly Realm, this was an extremely passive position.

The Queen of Heaven merely listened. She neither expressed agreement nor disagreement, as though she were considering something. Then, suddenly, she changed the subject.

“These past years, you seem to have been rather curious about Luan Qingchen.”

How could anyone not be curious?
Anyone who spent even a few encounters with Luan Qingchen would be curious!

Luan Ling silently complained in her heart, but her expression remained calm.

“Shenjun Qingchen is extremely powerful. A Shenjun of such strength is naturally someone worth observing and learning from.”

“Is that so?” The Queen of Heaven said lightly.
“Then aren’t you curious why other gods may all have emotions, yet he has neither feeling nor attachment? What exactly is going on?”

So there really was some official explanation behind this after all.
Luan Ling had always thought that cultivating to a certain level would simply turn one into someone like Luan Qingchen.

But since the Queen of Heaven suddenly asked her this, she didn’t quite know how to respond, and could only say,

“Perhaps Shenjun Qingchen is so powerful precisely because his heart is free of distractions. That may be why he has reached a level unmatched by most gods of the Heavenly Realm.”

The Queen of Heaven merely smiled.

Luan Ling rarely saw her smile. And every time the Queen of Heaven did, Luan Ling’s heart would tighten—she always felt that something was about to happen.

“If I were to tell you that, before he cast aside all his past and memories, he had already mastered such power… would you still think there is any necessary connection between emotions and strength?”

Well, since you put it that way, obviously there isn’t, Luan Ling muttered inwardly.
But of course she would never say that out loud.

Still, if what the Queen of Heaven said was true, then Luan Qingchen in the past…

“He wasn’t very talkative back then either,” the Queen of Heaven continued.
“From the moment he was born, he was more gifted than most gods. He only attended the academy for a few years in his childhood, and then began studying and developing techniques on his own.”

It seemed she had recalled something that, to her, was neither especially distant nor particularly recent—a memory standing at the blurred boundary between recollection and clarity.

“Although he didn’t speak much, that didn’t mean he lacked thoughts. On the contrary, he was very much like you. He always liked to suddenly create things that had never existed in the Heavenly Realm and bring them to show me. He would also say many strange things that even I found hard to comprehend. He didn’t smile as much as you do—but back then, I could clearly sense his happiness and his disappointment through his divine consciousness.”

Hearing this, Luan Ling felt a shock ripple through her heart.

It was the first time she had so directly felt something human in the Queen of Heaven.
If she had not heard it with her own ears, she probably would have remained half-skeptical—just as she still was about the story that the Queen of Heaven had once sung her a lullaby.

“It’s just a pity.”

The Queen of Heaven suddenly changed her tone.

“As the most gifted god of the new generation, he happens to be the child of the Heavenly Emperor and me. Some responsibilities—no matter how much I may not wish for him to bear them—he still must.”

Luan Ling fell silent.
She could only sigh inwardly, feeling fortunate that her own origins were… irregular, and that she also had certain glaring shortcomings. She was not a perfectly well-rounded, six-stat war god like Luan Qingchen.

Otherwise, she would probably have ended up in the same half-human, half-ghost state he was in now.

“But responsibilities come in many forms.”

The Queen of Heaven’s gaze suddenly fell upon Luan Ling.

“Every god has a different position in the Heavenly Court, and therefore bears different responsibilities.”

Of course Luan Ling understood that.
But what did it mean for the Queen of Heaven to look at her like that?

An inexplicable unease rose in her heart.

Yet the Queen of Heaven did not continue this thought. Instead, she said,

“Your divine power is now strong enough to cover the entire Heavenly Court. If you still have doubts, go and ask Luan Qingchen. He will be able to give you some guidance.”

Me? Ask Luan Qingchen?

Luan Ling was immediately bewildered again.

Luan Qingchen really did not look like someone from whose mouth one could extract any meaningful answers.

The Queen of Heaven had summoned her, said a string of puzzling things, and left her feeling as if she had grasped something—yet at the same time, as if she understood nothing at all.

Just as Luan Ling was about to give up thinking and return to cultivate, someone appeared at the entrance of her palace—someone she had never expected to see here.

“Y-Your Majesty… the Heavenly Emperor.”

Luan Ling was stunned the instant she sensed him.

Not saw—sensed.

Because she had never actually seen the Heavenly Emperor before.
This nominal father of hers existed only as a faint spiritual connection within her divine consciousness.

“Luan Ling!”

The moment the Heavenly Emperor saw her, he smiled warmly, like a mortal father who had not seen his child for many years, and opened his arms toward her.

Luan Ling did not dare step forward.

For a split second, she even suspected that the Heavenly Emperor in front of her was fake. After all, someone who had been in seclusion for so many years suddenly appearing without warning—especially with the recent demon infiltration—anyone would be suspicious.

Fortunately, appearances could be forged. Divine power could not.

From the vast and mellow domain of divine consciousness surrounding him—power that only a truly formidable god could accumulate—she knew this was real.

Luan Ling walked forward slowly and performed a formal salute.

“Heavenly Emperor.”

“Why are you being so distant?” The Heavenly Emperor patted her head.
“My good daughter. You are my child. If you feel unfamiliar because we haven’t met for so long, it’s fine to call me Heavenly Emperor for now.”

The divine power flowing from his hand felt very familiar to Luan Ling.

Yet the scene still felt strangely awkward.

At this moment, she would honestly rather go ask Luan Qingchen what was going on.
Because she really wasn’t close to the Heavenly Emperor at all. Compared to him, Luan Qingchen suddenly seemed like the easier one to communicate with—after all, if she didn’t speak first, he wouldn’t speak either. That was, in its own way, very easy.

Not knowing what to say to this practically unfamiliar father, Luan Ling finally asked,

“Your Majesty… you were the one who brought me here. Then… what exactly is my responsibility?”

She had wanted to ask this for a long time.

Where did she come from?
She was born a god.

But as the Queen of Heaven had said, every god bears a responsibility. Lesser immortal lords could still choose their paths after growing up. But shouldn’t a god already have a role to fulfill from the moment they become a god?

Why was it that she had received the identity of a god from the very beginning, yet had no idea what kind of divine role she was meant to bear?

The Heavenly Emperor looked into her eyes.

For an instant, Luan Ling felt that his gaze was surprisingly similar to the Queen of Heaven’s when she looked at her. Their personalities were worlds apart, yet at this moment, they shared an inexplicable, unsettling tacit understanding.

“Your responsibility,” he said,
“is naturally to safeguard the peace of the Heavenly Realm.”

It sounded like an answer—but also like no answer at all.
What god didn’t safeguard the peace of the Heavenly Realm?

Luan Ling asked bluntly,

“Is there no more specific duty?”

The Heavenly Emperor’s gaze softened even more.

“You are a god. When that moment comes, you will naturally know what you must do.”

Another infuriatingly vague, fortune-teller-style answer.

Luan Ling was almost annoyed—but he was still the Heavenly Emperor. No matter how gentle he seemed, she didn’t dare show any temper.

So she could only say,

“Even though I don’t understand… I will do what I should do.”

The Heavenly Emperor immediately smiled.

“You really inherited my honesty—and your mother’s reliability as well.”

Mother.

Luan Ling had not expected him to mention this taboo topic so casually.

What worried her even more was the sudden appearance of the Queen of Heaven’s divine presence behind her.

The Heavenly Emperor patted her head again and said cheerfully,

“Your mother is incredible. She’s intelligent, powerful, kind, and understanding. You should love her just as I do. Oh, right…”

Luan Ling wanted to die on the spot.

She desperately tried to signal the Heavenly Emperor to stop talking—because news of his emergence from seclusion had clearly already spread through the Heavenly Palace.

In the blink of an eye, someone was already standing on the roof of her palace, looking down.

“Oh?”

The Heavenly Emperor had clearly sensed Luan Qingchen’s arrival.

When he turned to look at him, the smile was still on his face—but his eyes were no longer as relaxed as when he had been facing Luan Ling.

At this moment, the two of them seemed more like complete strangers.

Luan Qingchen’s eyes were utterly calm.
The Heavenly Emperor’s gaze, however, carried a trace of contemplation.

“Qingchen has grown to this extent already.”

Luan Ling wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she even sensed a faint hint of melancholy in the Heavenly Emperor’s tone.

Was it possible that he, too, felt a little sorrow over no longer belonging to the strongest generation of the Heavenly Realm?

But very quickly, the Heavenly Emperor’s expression returned to its original gentle warmth. He turned back to Luan Ling and said,

“This is your elder brother. Why haven’t you greeted each other?”

Neither of you greeted each other, and you expect me—the half-related one—to do it?

Luan Ling complained silently.

At this point, she really was about to brace herself and greet Luan Qingchen, begging him to take her away from this trouble zone—because she had already sensed the Queen of Heaven’s arrival.

“I just remembered I still have unfinished coursework. Your Majesty, may I return to the academy first? We can talk about anything later.”

“Huh? But I heard the academy is still on break today. Don’t you want to come with me to see your mother?”

Luan Ling didn’t even wait for him to finish.

She turned and tried to flee.

Unfortunately, at the exact moment the Heavenly Emperor raised this extremely dangerous topic, she ran straight into the Queen of Heaven.

…It’s over.

Luan Ling instantly felt cold from head to toe.

At that very moment, the Heavenly Emperor even caught her by the back of her collar and said cheerfully,

“Our family can finally be reunited. Oh, right—where is Luan Yu?”

Luan Qingchen lowered his eyes and looked down at everyone standing below.