Chapter 152: I am nothing but a joke!

A cold sense of desolation washed over me.

We were both her children, so why—why did I have to face such treatment?

She only muttered in a daze, "Only on this condition did Youluo agree... It was... Mother... being selfish, trading your seventy years of lifespan... in exchange for Xin'er's... I... I..."

Before she could finish, I burst out laughing once again!

Indeed, what an utterly hilarious joke!

Standing behind us, Xin'er had no idea what the two of us were talking about.

Meanwhile, my heart felt as though it was about to burst wide open!

"I! I truly never imagined! That all of this! Was personally arranged by my own mother! Truly! I never imagined it!"

I took a step toward her, my eyes blazing with a blood-red light!

"Weren't you insane? Didn't you run away the moment you gave birth to Xin'er? What contribution have you ever made to me? What gives you the right to decide my fate? What gives you the right to demand my death?! Why?!"

"No! Qianqian! You must try to understand Mother!" She began to grow agitated as well. "Mother isn't harming you by doing this! It's simply to protect Xin'er! You must have pity for a mother's heart... Do you know how many years it has been since the Underworld produced a pure-blood Netherbeast like her? She is hope! She is Mother's hope! The hope of all Netherbeasts! But! Mother has made too many enemies, and there is truly no way to bring her back to the Underworld! Nor could she marry Youluo and ruin her entire life! Mother thanks you for taking care of Xin'er all these years! Truly!"

"Understand? Pity you? Pure-blood? Thank me?" I mechanically repeated her words. "Thank me? Yes, I did the work that a mother should have done. And in the end, I'm supposed to protect this pure-blood you speak of, and die in my sister's place? Was my whole life predestined from the start? Heh... Heh... Was I destined to have my life ruined? Destined to vanish into nothingness?"

By this point, my voice was thick with tears I refused to shed.

I wasn't feeling sorrow; rather, it was a profound grievance—a grievance of the soul that was simply too heavy to bear.

If not for the day I died, when I met Wangchuan, which altered the course of my existence... what would have become of me by now?

"I... I..." She suddenly grabbed my hands. "Qianqian! Don't be afraid! It's not really death! It's not vanishing into nothingness! It's merely falling into eternal damnation! There will be no more reincarnation! No more rebirth! Your physical body will be offered to the Nether King, and your soul will indeed belong to the Third Princess Consort! We Netherbeasts belong in the Underworld in the first place! You truly don't need to be afraid!"

"Oh," I let out a vacant, humorless chuckle, taking another step forward. "Eternal damnation? No more reincarnation? No rebirth? My flesh offered to Youluo as a sacrifice? My soul serving him as the Third Princess Consort? And what was that you said... we Netherbeasts? Heh...?"

She immediately wiped away her tears. "Yes! You truly won't die! You must believe me! We Netherbeasts live and multiply in the Underworld! Although you will lose the chance to reproduce after marrying the Nether King, the majority of Netherbeasts never have offspring in their entire lives! Living in the Underworld! Married to the Nether King! You will be very happy! Truly, you will be very happy!"

I stared blankly at the woman before me, rambling such absolute nonsense while my ears rang continuously.

Lose the chance to bear offspring?

Ah, yes—how could I have forgotten? Youluo was the Nether King, a ghost. How could there possibly be any chance of reproduction?

Souls and souls cannot give birth to little souls... We were all dead entities, so where could descendants possibly come from?

I was going to be married off to a living eunuch who could only perform the act but could never procreate?!

I only now understood why it was so difficult for Netherbeasts to conceive, and why they often had to rely on mixed-blood unions to continue propagating their lineage!

Yet deep down inside, I was laughing—laughing bitterly! Because I had just heard the greatest joke in existence.

It truly was a joke, and I myself was the biggest joke of all!

At that moment, I should have thanked Wangchuan. I truly ought to have thanked him!

Thanked him for everything he gave me! For allowing me to continue living like a human being!

Even if, nominally, I was his pet, being with him made me feel far more human than anything else.

Heh... I stood there in a daze, feeling as though everything around me was echoing with a mournful hum, including the sound of Xin'er weeping softly behind me, yet not a single tear fell from my eyes.

The only person in my mind was Wangchuan.

Without him, how could I have ever possessed the chance to become a mother now?

Without him, by this point, I might have already fallen into eternal damnation, lingering in that dark, foul-smelling abyss for goodness knows how long, enduring goodness knows how much bullying and torment?

Sacrifice? Dedication? No reincarnation? A ruined life? Such terrifying words! Such terrifying terms! And they came from the mouth of my own mother—my biological mother!

How long would I have to endure this after the sacrifice? Thousands of years? Tens of thousands of years? Until my soul was completely extinguished and I finally perished? Or perhaps... would death never come at all...?

At that moment, I deeply regretted all those times I bristled and bared my teeth whenever Wangchuan subjected me to his minor teasings or molestations!

Without him, my current situation would have been a million times more tragic than any torment he ever put me through, wouldn't it?!

To be honest, being tethered by the bedside back then had felt humiliating enough, making me wonder how any human being could possibly be treated that way.

When I first entered the rift, I had even thought that if I hadn't already died and found myself at the mercy of another, I would never have wanted anything to do with such a violent and cruel master!

I had even considered Wangchuan a pervert at times, vowing that if the opportunity ever arose, I would run far, far away from him!

Yet now, encountering such an ordeal, discovering such a truth, and learning these horrifying facts that made my very heart tremble, turned my internal organs sour, and plunged my entire existence into instant darkness, I finally understood.

Compared to all of this, being tied to a bed for protection, being teased and tormented by the one who loved me, blushing and bristling under his provocations, or even—during our arguments and fights—hearing him utter infuriating remarks or getting spanked by him... those were a hundred times more blissful than my current reality!

Thinking this, I laughed again—laughing at the fact that even when I had knelt and begged Wangchuan to bring me back, I had never felt as utterly degraded as I did facing the woman before me at this very moment!

Truly degraded! And realizing that my life was indeed, just as Wangchuan had once said, utterly cheap!

Cheap to an unimaginable degree! To the point where even my own birth mother did not care about it in the least!

Looking at that weeping woman, shedding her tears so skillfully... speaking with such righteous conviction... I actually found myself unable to refute a single word she uttered.

Indeed, if someone had told me all of this back then, for the sake of my sister, I truly would have willingly done it all! I wouldn't have been afraid in the least, and I would have even felt that my death was entirely worthwhile!

However... discovering now that all of these events had been orchestrated by my own biological mother, who decided upon my death without ever asking me a single word, all to trade for Xin'er's longevity—

That stirred an entirely different kind of emotion within me...

Therefore, I could only sneer coldly, "Good... truly wonderful. You really are a fine mother..."

"Yes! How could Mother ever harm you? Besides! Your father is currently in the Underworld as well! Soon, our family can be reunited! As long as you come back with me!"

Hearing this, I laughed from the very depths of my heart.

"Go back with you... and then fall into eternal damnation? Never to be reincarnated? And you claim you aren't harming me? For the sake of your own selfish desires, you want to destroy the happiness I currently have? If I go back with you, resolving the crisis for you and Xin'er, will I be happy? It's you who will be happy, isn't it? It's you, right?! Would I be happy at all?"

"Aren't you going to be happy?" She looked at me, blinking her eyes. "The Third Nether King is a gentle man, truly. He won't let you be bullied. What Mother has arranged for you will never be wrong!"

"Never be wrong? Then have you ever considered this! I am carrying another man's child! I am doing very well with him right now! You expect me to abandon him and go back with you?!"

My flesh offered as a sacrifice?

I only now understood why he hadn't taken me back in the beginning and had simply watched the spectacle instead!

It was because, after I had conceived the beast's offspring, he had wreaked havoc in the rift time and time again!

Claiming I was his fiancée and treating me well—what Youluo wanted wasn't just me, was it? It was also the little beast growing inside my belly, wasn't it?!

What a horrifying truth! In the beginning, it might have just been a casual whim to consume me, but now he was taking it seriously—all because of what Wangchuan had given me!

Because I was Wangchuan's cat! Because I was carrying Wangchuan's seed in my womb! Because this seed was a one-in-a-million beast cub! Whether it was to be devoured or brought back to contribute to the Underworld, it held countless benefits and not a single drawback!

They... had planned everything so meticulously!

"No, no! Child, it is merely a ritual... Since you have followed the Nether King, naturally you must offer everything to him... Moreover, since you are with him, why dwell on a child from some other man?!"

I shook violently from head to toe, looking at the woman standing opposite me, feeling for the very first time that I was completely speechless.

I had lost—defeated utterly and completely!