Chapter 176: Zi Chen’s End
Zi Chen seemed to understand everything. She closed her eyes and took a long, steady breath. When she opened them again, the softness that had lingered there was gone—her gaze sharpened, regal and commanding. The aura radiating from her body carried the unmistakable authority of a sovereign—heavier, deeper, even than the demon king’s beside her.
Her eyes swept once more across the devastated land before she spoke.
“Sheng Heng, do you still remember the vow I made the day I became the Demon King? I swore to devote all my strength to protecting the peace of the demon realm, that all our kin might live free and unharmed, without fear of slaughter by the other realms. For that, I endured the taint of demonic energy, bore betrayal without resentment, and did all I could to shield my people.”
“…” Sheng Heng lowered his head.
“I believe I fulfilled that vow,” she said quietly, sorrow seeping into her voice. “I died without regret. Yet now, because of me, thousands of demon souls have been sacrificed to pave my road back to life, while the demon realm suffers under this miasma. Tell me—after all this—am I still worthy to be called King?”
“Your Majesty…” Sheng Heng’s head jerked up, panic twisting his face. He shook his head violently. “No! This was all me—it has nothing to do with you!”
“Sheng Heng,” Zi Chen said softly, “you were my closest aide—the one I trusted most. What you have done is no different from what I would have done myself.”
She smiled faintly, but it was a smile filled not with joy, only with grief. A flash of green light appeared in her palm, and a pulsing demon core shimmered between her fingers. “I almost wish I had never awakened.”
“What are you doing?!” Sheng Heng’s face went ashen. Abandoning all decorum, he rushed toward her in terror. “Don’t—!”