She still remembered the silver collar that Elona had, it was as beautiful as a necklace and there were a lot of exquisite floral engravings. It was practical and aesthetic.
… They were both collars, so why was hers so strange!
The collar on her neck was as thick as two fingers, and the grey metal looked extremely cheap, and even had some rust. It looked like the slave collars that slave dealers used, it was ugly and demeaning.
Only genuine slaves would be locked up in these poor-quality shackles.
“W-what is the meaning of this!?”
Elena was shocked and started grabbing at the collar, but she couldn’t take it off no matter what she tried.
Why did she have to wear this? She was the demon king, how could she wear something only human slaves would wear?
Elena felt an intense humiliation and was enraged, but when she wanted to erupt, she only felt emptiness.
“Why… why is it all gone!?”
She couldn’t feel anything.
All the demon king’s power within her completely vanished, other than her perception skill that could still prove her identity as the demon king, she was now just an ordinary human girl…
No, she was even worse than an ordinary human girl, because she was Lin Xiao’s slave.
“Uh, don’t worry, this is Snow’s enhanced demon-sealing collar, along with the reagent from earlier, it suppresses your power.”
“What!?”
No! Impossible!
Elena couldn’t believe it and did whatever she could to take it off. She clawed at her neck until it was red, in the end, she was forced to bite her tongue and tried to awaken her blood’s power!
The pain almost made her blackout, as she closed her eyes and strained herself trying to use all her strength to break free, but all that was waiting for her was endless emptiness.
Her legs went soft and she plopped down onto the floor.
“It’s gone, it’s all gone…”
She lowered her head and looked at her right hand as she clenched it and formed a fist, then she relaxed and then clenched it again, she foolishly repeated this over and over in a daze.
She tried everything and the only thing left was a sense of powerlessness. She didn’t have the demon king’s strength anymore, nothing, the only thing she could do was clench her small fist that was no threat at all.
“Do you really not feel anything? Wow, that brat Snow is amazing!”
Lin Xiao walked over and looked left and right, then tugged it a couple of times, causing Elena to be shaken along with it, leaving behind some pitiful red marks.
Elena had her head down and her expression couldn’t be seen, while Lin Xiao happily nodded his head.
“Amazing! This is just a simplified demon sealing barrier, and it also wouldn’t leak, so it won’t weaken over time… hehe, that’s amazing.”
With this, Elena was the perfect maid! He could bring her anywhere without any risk of her identity being revealed, it was safe insurance.
“Is this why you didn’t want me to move? You lied to me and told me it was because you were clearing up the demon sealing barrier, but you were afraid I would resist so you sneakily slipped this collar on me, right?”
Elena calmed down as she slowly stood up. She stopped tugging on her collar like she accepted the reality.
She finally realized why Lin Xiao made a solemn vow that he wouldn’t do anything to her midway because as long as she wore this collar, she would lose all her strength and become powerless.
She was now completely Lin Xiao’s slave, he could do anything he liked to her now.
Look at that perverse expression, he’s probably already getting impatient and would soon do something strange to her.
Elena knew she fell into a trap and simply gave up resisting. It was funny, she actually naively thought that she was Lin Xiao’s comrade in arms and they were standing together against Snow, but in reality?
In reality, they were intimate siblings and their quarreling was just a show, in the end, Lin Xiao and Snow were family, so Elena the outsider, was cheated.
“Uh… how could you call that lying?” Lin Xiao awkwardly smiled and changed the subject, “So Elena, can you really not feel anything?”
“Yes, I’m just a normal girl now, so I can’t resist no matter what you do to me.”
“Really?”
“Really, I can’t do anything like taking you with me… you don’t have to worry.”
She still remembers when she first became Lin Xiao’s captive, he almost pushed her down and stripped her, at that time she was able to scare Lin Xiao off with the threat of killing him along with herself so they came to an agreement.
Elena would promise to be his maid and he would promise that he wouldn’t do anything overboard to her.
Thanks to that, they came to an agreement, and their relationship quickly improved, since then, they came from being enemies to allies.
But Elena forgot the saying that life springs from sorrow and calamity, death comes from ease and pleasure.
The peacefulness numbed her sense of danger and she lost the vigilance she should have as the demon king. As she cooperated with Lin Xiao, she gradually forgot about the agreement and the core that maintained their relationship.
The core that maintained their relationship was power.
Because she’s the demon king, she had the power to kill him along with herself, so she could earn his respect and become allies… but what would happen once she lost that and become a normal girl?
Lin Xiao liked her stubbornness, her beautiful face and criminally alluring body, he even once honestly said that he wanted her to stay by his side as his maid forever.
The reason he never did that was that he was afraid, now that she lost all her power, what would he do?
Yes, what would a young male going through puberty do to his beautiful and obedient maid?
Was there a need to ask? Everyone should know!
Look at his perverted gaze right now that couldn’t stop glancing at her chest.
“A normal girl, huh?” Lin Xiao felt like Elena sounded off, but he still heartlessly continued to joke around, “You don’t have any power, right? Hmph, demon king, let’s see how you keep acting high and might toward me now!”
“Yes, I can’t.”
“Now you know to be afraid, right? I told you that you would pay the price for your arrogance!”
“Hm, I was wrong… so master, please forgive me.”
“It’s not that simple! Did no one teach you that you should be respectful when apologizing? How should you address me as a maid?” Lin Xiao didn’t notice how she called him and continued questioning her.
“I should call you master… but master, that is how I addressed you earlier.”
“Ah? Did you?”
Lin Xiao thought back and realized that Elena already started calling him master, it was completely unexpected.
He still remembers when he tried so hard to teach her and tried many ways to force her to call him master, but she would always agree, call him master for a while, and then go back to calling him Lin Xiao, or pervert, anyways, she just refused to call him master.
But now she was doing it of her own accord!
Was Lin Xiao happy? Of course!
Elena’s voice was extremely pleasing to the ear, no matter how apathetic she was.
If her simply calling him master was that addicting, how amazing would it feel if she moaned next to his ears!?
That would have been something impossible, but now, his delusions could become reality!
Because Elena was completely reduced to being his maid and had to follow all his orders.
“So master, how do you want to punish this disobedient maid?”
As if noticing his inner delusions, Elena apologized and crossed her hands over her stomach and slightly bowed as she silently awaited her master’s orders.
Any orders…
It was time for another elective class on child nutrition. Today, Mu CangZhou was home for the rest of the day, so Jing Man let him take the children to the pool in the backyard to play, and shut himself up in the study to start the class.
Teacher Tang Yuan1 had discussed with Tang XiaoYu and decided not to bother the person who anonymously voted for six races. In the lesson, she showed everyone a video of her children when they were young and had just broken their shells before they became human.
Among her children and grandchildren, fourteen were undead, five were beast people and two were aquatic. However, she only showed the undead children today.
The fourteen undead were divided into five wax figure sub-races, five zombie sub-races, three vampire sub-races and one skeleton sub-race. Jing Man had seen the children were cute, looking at these different, gothic style children, his heart was very surprised.
He still didn’t know exactly what sub-race his Little Six was, so he was very curious, and his eyes were glued to the kids.
The wax person as a child was like a delicacy, like detailed, finely carved wax. Feeling the temperature slightly hot, they would melt. The zombie children had green and white skin, with black marks that looked like cracks, and their expressions were stinky, as if they were in a bad mood. Vampire children were most like humans, but compared to humans, they were white and snowy, with red eyes and sharp canine teeth. The skeleton child was a cold, white skeleton, without any flesh and blood tissue, but because it was still a child, the body was also strangely cute.
He did not wait to guess what race his child would be, when suddenly the screen flashed.
On the screen appeared the smiling face of Teacher Tang, “We all know that the undead are divided into six sub-races, right? My children only account for four, but I will teach you all the nutritional supplements suitable for all undead babies, do not worry.”
The students’ mikes were turned off during the online class, but everyone’s speech would float through the air in the form of pop-ups to interact with the teacher. Jing Man saw half of the pop-ups were full of flattery, saying that their family was undead, and that they looked forward to the course.
He patiently finished today’s lesson and walked out the door to see Mu CangZhou and the kids lying on the couch watching TV. The TV was showing the cartoons that the children liked, with colorful imagery. To his surprise, not only the children, but also Brother Mu’s eyes were looking at the TV.
Xiao Shui was talking with his head tilted, his hair in the air, looking like he was explaining the plot. Brother Mu had a smile in his eyes and nodded frequently in response. Xiao Jin and FanFan’s eyes on the TV, lazily rolled together, Xiao Jin also learned from the adults, paws petting the fur on the back of the tiger cub. BaiBai and ZhiZhi were not interested in the cartoon being shown, so the two kids did not raise their heads, holding pudding while eating. To be precise, BaiBai was eating with his mouth, and ZhiZhi looked more like they were playing with their hands squeezing the pudding.
It turned out that Brother Mu and the children were alone together in this way, very calm and warm.
Jing Man walked over, took Xiao Jin and FanFan into his arms and sat down. He asked Mu CangZhou, “It’s time for Little Six to hatch, right?”
Although each egg hatched at a different time, it had been more than ten days since the last egg hatched, and it was Little Six’s turn to hatch according to the order of the previous eggs.
Mu CangZhou nodded and shook his head, not answering his question positively.
Catching a flash of unnaturalness on his face, Jing Man was a bit surprised and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Mu CangZhou spoke, “This morning I measured with a tool, the breathing hole on the top of the sixth child’s eggshell was closed…”
That sounded bad, and Jing Man felt a dizzying sensation, just breathing unsteadily. He moved the children in his arms to the side, pulled his legs up and ran for the bedroom. Seeing his master suddenly start running indoors, Big Bear was startled and barked a few times to follow him.
Mu CangZhou wanted to say that for the undead, the breathing hole should be closed a day before hatching.
When he had no choice but to rush to the bedroom, he saw Jing Man sitting crouched on the floor, legs bent at the knees, holding the dark purple frosted egg in his arms.
“ManMan,” Mu CangZhou said helplessly as he removed the egg from his hand, “You’re moving it around like that, it’s going to affect its growth.”
“Huh?” Hasn’t the sixth child… gone cold?
Jing Man looked up in confusion, and the corners of his eyes were moist.
Seeing his appearance, Mu CangZhou knew that this person had no common sense again, so he went over and took him in his arms. He raised his hand and rubbed Jing Man’s head, touched his forehead and asked, “You didn’t read the general knowledge lesson I shared with you about children, did you?”
“Hmm?” Jing Man doubtfully opened the optical computer, and found that a while ago Brother Mu did share with him the general knowledge lesson, but he never found… This was very embarrassing, he scowled and asked, “What does it say?”
“The undead need to go through a ‘nirvana rebirth’ process before breaking their shells, and tomorrow our Little Six will hatch out.” Mu CangZhou took the purple hatchling egg away from his arms and carefully placed it back in the crib.
The next day, thinking that their sixth child was going to break out of his shell today, Jing Man deliberately set the alarm clock for 6:00 am. When he saw the crib, he realized he was still late getting up.
The top of the dark purple eggshell was scratched with marks by the sixth child, and he was about to lift the eggshell and say good morning to the world. Jing Man rushed to wake up the others, set up the camera, and the family held their breath as they crouched and watched the child break from the shell.
It didn’t take long for the egg shell to make a crisp click and the top was opened by the little child.
Jing Man’s heart overflowed with anticipation, and soon a pair of ash gray eyes met his. It was a very beautiful pair of eyes, with clear, hazy eyes. Like the thick snow of a polar winter day, and like the residual ash that hovers in the air when the leaves were burned.
“It’s my younger brother!” After seeing clearly what it was, Xiao Jin rubbed his sleepy eyes, his little paws holding the edge of the stroller, and let out a cry of surprise.
Perhaps startled, the little child shrank back into the shell. However, their curiosity about the outside world was too strong, and it wasn’t long before they reached out a small, ash gray hand, just like BaiBai when he was first born, and he was humanoid.
Jing Man shushed the other children who had come to their senses and asked them not to speak, and their bodies unconsciously leaned over to Brother Mu’s side. Not long after, the little child felt that the outside world was no longer a threat to them and poked their head out of the eggshell again.
When Jing Man finally saw the full face of his sixth child, he felt some familiarity. Turning his head to look at Mu CangZhou, it dawned on him. Except for the twinkling peach blossom eyes, the other features were carved out of the same mold as Mu CangZhou.
He was not like other babies, so soft and cute, his small cheeks actually carried a harsh sharpness.
“He’s a little zombie.” Mu CangZhou observed for a long time and lowered his voice to conclude.
“Mn, I recognized it.” Jing Man nodded in embarrassment.
After yesterday’s poke at his knowledge blind spot, he hurriedly remedied the relevant knowledge.
Sky Blue Star’s zombie sub-race belonged to the undead classification, their bodies looked slender but physically strong, and they were natural born warriors. They were born without the concept of a heartbeat, and their staple food was some kind of plant unique to the tropical rainforest, and they would also eat some gems and half-cooked meat on weekdays.
Yesterday when he looked through the undead illustrated handbook, his eyes could not move when he saw the zombies. It was as if he knew in the dark that the sixth child would be a zombie, and read that section of knowledge with hunger and thirst.
Feeling something on his arm, Jing Man looked down and saw that it was Xiao Shui wrapping his wrist with his hair. Xiao Shui blinked his big eyes and asked, “Daddy, what’s the name of our brother?”
Before Jing Man could say anything, Mu CangZhou interjected, “Let’s call him Xiao Sang.”2
At this, Xiao Jin and Xiao Shui brightened up and exchanged a look, their moods becoming happier to the naked eye.
Xiao Sang seemed to be a relatively quiet baby, Jing Man observed for a while and came to this conclusion. He was a little depressed to find that this baby’s attention to inanimate objects seemed more interested than the father and older siblings up and down the family.
No, on the fourth day of incubation, he finished chewing on the eggshell that was born with him and hid when no one was looking. Jing Man was shocked to find the child gone before his eyes.
They immediately searched through their home. In the end, he was found by Big Bear in a take-out bag that was thrown away yesterday, and when he found it, the person in question was carrying unopened disposable tableware in his hands like a steel bar to play with.
It was then that Jing Man realized with great sadness that his sixth child’s light, cold gaze was not always like unmelted snow. He showed great interest in the broken pair of disposable chopsticks, and his ash gray eyes were filled with a flame of inquiry.
This was not like the book!
It said undead hatchlings after the eggshells were consumed, perhaps would have an inappropriate interest and appetite for fresh life and need serious parental guidance?
He was afraid that Xiao Sang would reveal his ferocity and bite Xiao Jin or FanFan, so he purposely asked their two non-humanoid children to stay away from his brother.
The result… The result was that Xiao Sang built a home by the garbage can!
Jing Man picked up Xiao Sang with the paper bag and put him on the table. He frowned and stared at the boy, wondering how to tell him that it was bad.
However, Xiao Sang unexpectedly showed a mature flavor. He saw that Jing Man’s eyes kept falling on the wooden chopsticks in his hands and thought that Daddy wanted this. So… slowly stretched out his greenish-white right hand, and when his small hand let go, the chopsticks fell onto the table with a snap.
Seeing that Jing Man didn’t take the chopsticks away, he was a bit puzzled and let out a wheezy syllable from his throat, slowly crawled over and pushed the chopsticks, which were almost as long as his body, towards Daddy’s side.
Why was he still looking when he’s already in front of Daddy?
Xiao Sang blinked and somewhat reluctantly picked up the chopsticks, which were too long and heavy for him, with both arms and tried to push it into Daddy’s hand.
“Is this… Is it for me?” Jing Man thought for a long time but couldn’t figure out how to solve the problem of not being a “fetishist”. When he came back to his senses, he found that Xiao Sang had already brought the chopsticks to his hand.
Xiao Sang was wheezing again, nodding and crawling to Jing Man’s hand to sit against him. In fact, the motive of the little zombie’s behavior was the opposite of what Jing Man thought.
From the moment he broke his shell he clearly knew that this was his home, and that the circle of different-looking turnip heads on the side were his siblings.
He had been in the eggshell for the longest time, and had been observing everyone for the longest time, so the living people he saw every day were not new to him at all, and there was nothing to study. But today, he finally discovered something new! Daddy ordered takeout that he had never eaten before, and the paper bag that was delivered was so strange!