Inner Demons

This King Ao, surrounded by a group of Demon Generals, ascended from the dark depths of the valley to the bottom of the lake. Exiting the gorge through the mountain passes on both sides, he saw a naked, fiery-red demoness swimming restlessly in the water. She wore no clothes, but her body was covered in countless hard, steel-like scales. Each scale was a brilliant red, glowing faintly in the dim, lightless depths of the water.

When King Ao came out of the valley and saw her, he roared, "You brazen Red Serpent King! I sent one of my vanguard to deliver a message, and you bit off one of his pincers. Why have you come to my Wind and Wave Valley now? Are you here to bully me?"

The Red Serpent King, though she had the form of a human, was in her demonic body, and her appearance was far from pleasant. Her face was ferocious with a few bony spines, and the faint red light from her body made her look terrifying and strange. She first revealed a dreadful smile and then said, "What are you talking about, King Ao? That Demon General of yours lost a pincer, but it'll grow back in a few days. It's not a big deal. But as for my Coiling Immortal Valley..."

She wasn't afraid of King Ao hitting her with his golden mace. Instead, she swam gracefully toward him with her gruesome smile. "Something terrible has happened in my Coiling Immortal Valley and the Cauldron Forging Valley! That Vicious Worm somehow came here, ignoring the big fish and specifically preying on the small demons. It first wrecked that Old Wang Ba's cave and then came to my cave. It looks like it's headed for your Wind and Wave Valley now. So I thought, 'Oh, King Ao was so right before—we should join forces to subdue that Vicious Worm!'"

King Ao sneered when he heard her. "If you had known this would happen, why did you act the way you did then!"

The Serpent King gave him a bizarre smile. "I know you're worried about the aquatic creatures in our Dongting, King Ao, and that's why you want us to work together. But you've forgotten one thing—whose side is that Old Wang Ba's little daughter on?"

The resourceful King Ao was stunned for a long time, pondering the deeper meaning of her words. But he couldn't figure it out. He simply changed his expression, said no more, and feigned a look of knowing it all. "Oh... so what?"

The Serpent King's eyes widened in surprise. "King Ao, think about it! All six of us demon kings in the valley know about this—this Vicious Worm is supposed to be killed and given to the Golden-Winged Great Peng King to eat! Every year, who comes to collect the worm's meat? It's the Peng King's adopted daughter, Bai Yunxin! Do you remember, King Ao? A hundred years ago, when Bai Yunxin was at the lake, Old Wang Ba's daughter happened to be out playing. Bai Yunxin saw her, said she looked cute, picked her up, and took her away to be her maidservant. She's been extremely fond of her for the last hundred years!"

"Why didn't I want to get involved before?" The demoness stared at King Ao with her yellowish eyes, and then she moved closer, whispering near his ear. "Because even if the five of us drained our resources to kill the Vicious Worm, when Bai Yunxin comes to get the meat, Old Wang Ba's daughter can say a few good words about him in front of her. Those few words are worth a thousand of ours, and all the credit will go to him! King Ao, don't you think I'm right?"