Chapter Ninety-Four: The Demon Lord Has Arrived

Compared with the wretched state he had been in the first time he entered the palace, Mo Dun looked far more composed on this second visit, if only because this time he had walked in under his own power.

After passing through the Vermilion Bird Gate, he was searched thoroughly inside and out by the guards, and then, as if that were not enough, scanned from head to toe by something that looked uncannily like a detector from a later age.

Mo Dun curled his lip in disdain. It was only a magnet, after all. If he really wanted to smuggle something in, he had plenty of ways to get past them.

Of course, that thought could remain safely in his own head. If he said it aloud, the search would surely become even more severe.

He awkwardly put his shoes back on and straightened his clothes. These perverse guards left no suspicious person unexamined.

Pang De, standing to the side, watched Mo Dun make a fool of himself with a pleased little smile. The fellow had absolutely done it on purpose and had not even bothered to warn him beforehand.

“All right. Anyone entering the imperial city for the first time has to go through this.” Pang De said.

Mo Dun nodded helplessly. Even with the highly refined detection systems of a later age, people could still find ways around them. Let alone now, with nothing but a magnet and a human search. Manual inspection had always been an indispensable step. After all, this was an age when imperial power was as mighty as the heavens.

Mo Dun followed Pang De through the imperial city. Along the way, they were stopped and questioned several times, but never as strictly as before. Some guards, seeing Pang De leading Mo Dun, asked only a few perfunctory questions before letting them pass.

Before long, Mo Dun was brought before a grand hall.

The Hall of Esteemed Learning.

Seeing the three large characters above the entrance, Mo Dun suddenly understood. So this was where the princes came to study.

“Eunuch Pang! May I ask where His Majesty is? I should go and pay my respects.” Mo Dun asked cautiously.

“Viscount Mo, please wait here for the moment. Once His Majesty is finished with the morning court, he will come here to inspect the princes’ studies. When that happens, you will naturally meet him.” Pang De replied.

Mo Dun let out a breath of relief. So Li Shimin had come to inspect the princes’ lessons and had merely swept him up in passing.

It seemed he had been thinking too highly of himself. He had even imagined that Li Shimin had specially summoned him in the midst of his busy schedule.

“Phew.”

Mo Dun slowly exhaled and comforted himself inwardly: he was not that important. Li Shimin would not deliberately target him. At most, at most, he would be used as a negative example for the princes’ practical lesson.

The more he tried to comfort himself, the less confident he became. Especially after Pang De had led him to the front of the Hall of Esteemed Learning and hurried off, leaving only Mo Dun and the guards there staring at each other.

“May I ask this big brother’s honored name? I am Mo Dun. A pleasure to meet you.”

Mo Dun ingratiatingly tried to strike up a conversation with the guard beside him, but received no response at all.

Embarrassed, Mo Dun scratched his nose and tried to smooth things over. “With a sense of duty like yours, big brother, your future prospects are surely limitless!”

Heh heh heh.

Still silence.

The whole scene became awkward in an instant. Defeated, Mo Dun gave up on the idea of making connections and began fretting over the uncertain fate awaiting him. Had he really done anything outrageous?

He did not know how long had passed before a murmur of whispered voices interrupted his thoughts.

“Did you see him? He is that great demon king.”

The voice of a little boy came from behind the stone guardian lions outside the Hall of Esteemed Learning.

“Really? Why does he not look that scary to me? He is not even as strong as Big Brother.” A soft, adorable voice replied timidly, so cute it made one want to smile.

“Princess Sizi, do not let his appearance fool you. Once you start your lessons, you will understand just how terrifying this great demon king is. Do you know what happens when one pipe pours water in and another pipe lets it out? When does the pool ever fill up?” The little boy’s voice was full of indignant grief.

“Ninth Brother, would that not waste water? Why not just close the draining pipe?” the cute voice asked.

“How should I know? That problem was made by that great demon king!” the boy said angrily.

Hearing this, Mo Dun’s heart stirred.

Ninth Brother, Sizi.

Two children outside the Hall of Esteemed Learning, while the guards acted as if nothing were amiss.

Then there was only one possibility.

They were Prince Li Zhi, the ninth among the imperial princes, and Princess Jinyang, Li Mingda, courtesy name Sizi.

Those two little ones probably thought they were whispering very quietly, and that hiding behind the stone lions meant they had concealed themselves perfectly from everyone’s eyes.

Mo Dun could only smile bitterly inwardly. In his own heart, the greatest demon king had always been Li Er, but he had never imagined that he himself had become a demon king in someone else’s eyes. Li Zhi was clearly the victim of the countless elementary mathematics problems Mo Dun had casually thrown together.

“Speaking ill of people behind their backs is hardly the conduct of a gentleman,” Mo Dun said on purpose, putting on a stern face to tease them.

“Ah! Ninth Brother, the great demon king has found us. What do we do?” Princess Jinyang’s dazed, childlike voice grew a little anxious.

“Sizi, do not be afraid. Ninth Brother will protect you!” Li Zhi said, stepping forward bravely.

“It was me who said it. What of it?” A seven-year-old boy sprang out from behind the stone lion, his face full of righteous indignation. Right behind him was a girl of four or five, dressed in a pale yellow brocade robe. Her chubby little face was tight with nervousness, and her small hand clutched tightly at the hem of Li Zhi’s clothes.

The guards, who had been ignoring Mo Dun all this time, bent respectfully in salute.

“Greetings to Prince Jin and Princess Jinyang!”

Mo Dun cast a contemptuous look at the guards who had been silent until now. The guards could only smile wryly in their hearts. If the two children had stayed hidden, there had been no need for them to salute. But now that the two of them had come out, how could they possibly pretend not to see them?

With the guards present, Princess Jinyang was no longer so nervous. She looked at Mo Dun and asked in her soft, adorable voice, “Who are you? Why are you bullying Ninth Brother?”

“Mo Dun of Mo Family Village pays his respects to Prince Jin and Princess Jinyang.” After just finishing mocking the guards, Mo Dun promptly found himself mocking his own dignity as well. Who had told them to be royal?

“Ninth Brother is lying again. How could Mo Dun be a great demon king? I heard from Big Brother that Mo Dun is fun and knows all sorts of strange things. Last time, Little Gold was almost dead, and Mother was the one who used Mo Dun’s method to bring it back to life!”

Princess Jinyang looked at Mo Dun curiously.

Little Gold was a koi fish. Once, she had put Little Gold into a basin of water, only for it to quickly suffocate and flip onto its belly. It was Empress Zhangsun herself who had taught Princess Jinyang to blow air into the water, and only then did Little Gold survive.

Seeing that she had personally saved Little Gold, Princess Jinyang had been delighted beyond measure. Empress Zhangsun had specially explained the principles behind it to her, and had then told her stories about Mo Zi’s thousand-year faithfulness, the catfish effect, and Mo Dun’s invention of the technique for reviving live fish. As a result, Princess Jinyang had a very deep impression of Mo Dun. She never could have imagined that the great demon king Ninth Brother spoke of would be the same Mo Dun she regarded as a great hero.

“Sizi, do not let him fool you. Do you not know how terrifying the mathematics problems Mo Dun makes are?” Li Zhi said anxiously. He had not expected the ally who had always stood most firmly on his side to be won over so quickly.

“Really? I think arithmetic is very simple,” Mo Dun teased the boy.

“Then I ask you this: what is twelve times nine, plus twenty-one?” Li Zhi demanded.

“One hundred and twenty-nine!”

Mo Dun answered without the slightest hesitation.

He could not help chuckling to himself. So the trouble with Li Zhi had been mixed operations after all.

“What about fifteen times seven, plus twenty, all divided by five?” Li Zhi then blurted out the most terrifying problem in his own mind.

“Twenty-five!”

Mo Dun suddenly realized he had fallen into a trap. After hearing Mo Dun’s answer, Li Zhi actually reached into the satchel on his back, pulled out a sheet of paper, and nodded in satisfaction.

Only then did Mo Dun feel his intelligence slipping. He had actually been tricked by a seven-year-old into doing homework.