Chapter 863: Chapter 442: Oh No, Sister Wang Discovered My Relationship with Louis (2)

The Cosmic Serpent’s individual strength is too great, and it can’t really be restrained, so every faction that can help out is basically emptying whatever trump cards they’re allowed to deploy.

They’re terrified of a repeat of back then, when hundreds more wounds were ripped into the earth.

If that happens, they’re done; they won’t even be able to defend their own homes.

So with just 50 Demigods, you really do have the potential to overawe the entire continent.

After all, every nation harbors ulterior motives; there’s no way they can fully trust their allies.

As long as there’s even a sliver of suspicion, the effectiveness of your allies plummets.

The chance of being picked off one by one then rises exponentially.

Even within the Lokeshi Empire, the Demigods are split into factions.

But what if we’re talking about Demigods who share the same father, or the same mother?

That’s actual brothers and sisters; even if they squabble, their relationship will still be better than most Demigods’.

A brotherly alliance like that—ten of them are as good as fifteen.

Get to 50...

Hiss.

Just from Louis’s hypothetical, even Beatrice herself felt a little tempted.

"How about after this child is born, we find a way to have another?"

Beatrice was a bit itching to move.

Heaven take pity—these last years, the empire’s upper ranks have been so shorthanded she’s practically worked herself insane.

Sometimes her brain goes wild, fantasizing about a bunch of Demigods falling out of the sky to help her ease the crisis.

And now...

Hiss, it kind of feels like Demigods really might be about to fall from the sky.

Though it’s hard to say.

After all, if you kill too many demons, they’re not going to keep voluntarily delivering themselves to you.

What things will look like in the end is really hard to predict.

"Louis, let’s find some time to go kill a few demons. We can help Father Emperor relieve some pressure while we’re at it."

Louis nodded.

Beatrice didn’t need to personally charge into battle; she just had to deliver the finishing blows.

"But killing demons like this—will it affect the child?"

Ais frowned and asked from the side.

Even though the child wasn’t born yet, it was ultimately the newborn of this family; she didn’t want anything happening to it.

Even if she wasn’t the one giving birth.

But the corners of Beatrice’s and Louis’s mouths both curved up slightly.

"Let me explain."

Louis looked at Ais and said:

"What’s the biggest problem when a Sin kills demons?"

"It constantly absorbs the Seven Deadly Sins power inside the demons, making its own strength continuously climb."

"Right, so for a Sin, large numbers of demons are most dangerous because they’re very likely to cause its authority to spiral out of control, right?"

"That’s about it."

"Abyssal Pus, as the filth condensed from the power of the Four Gods—if it’s just a tiny amount, it actually strengthens a Sin’s power.

But a large concentration of Abyssal Pus is very likely to cause mental contamination, which is equivalent to killing massive numbers of demons in a short time, and can likewise lead to your authority going out of control and getting dragged into the Abyss."

Ais spoke thoughtfully:

"The reason the Dark Side of the God of Love Church was so hard for you this time, wasn’t it precisely because of this?"

The little Swan said helplessly:

"Yeah. Who would’ve thought they’d stockpiled that much Abyssal Pus? Most of that stash was probably supplied by Lust itself; there’s no way the Dark Side of the God of Love Church just slowly saved it up."

Only if you’re planning to move against the Love God, who wields equally powerful Divine Power, is it worth using that much Abyssal Pus.

Just to screw over the Lokeshi Empire?

That would be a guaranteed loss.

"But aren’t you forgetting something? Abyssal Pus is extremely dangerous to the Sins, but for ordinary professionals, the danger is actually quite a bit lower."

At those words, Ais’s eyes gradually lit up.

She slapped her forehead and muttered:

"Following you all day long, I almost forgot—we’re the minority."

Louis, Olivia, and she can be left aside for now; once there’s a lot of Abyssal Pus, it’s hard for them to deal with.

Qian has some issues too; half her power comes from the Shadow Plane, and the other half from the Star Continent.

Because of her own uniqueness, she can first ’pledge allegiance’ to the Emperor and receive a portion of the Emperor’s power, then pledge allegiance to Beatrice and grow together with Beatrice.

Her situation can’t be counted as that of a normal person.

After all these years, Ense has only ever produced one mixed-blood girl like her who could become an Iron Guard.

But Beatrice and Lumi and the others don’t need to worry that much.

As long as they take proper precautions, the contamination carried by Abyssal Pus can’t even leave many marks on them.

That’s the reason why Beatrice, despite being a mother, still chose to shoulder a certain amount of risk to go kill demons.

With the mother’s body acting as a filter, as long as they don’t go too overboard—whether they’re triggering an Abyssal Blood War by killing demons, or directly burning through Abyssal Pus—that all counts as "farming Abyssal Source for free."

So the most reasonable approach is for Louis to suppress the demons’ actions while Beatrice delivers the finishing blows.

That way Louis won’t trigger an Abyssal Blood War, Beatrice can keep purifying the contamination, and all the benefits from the Blood War can be cleanly fed to their little sweetheart.

"Then let us help too. We might not be as strong as Louis, but a few more of us means a bit more power. We absolutely can’t let any accidents happen."

But just as Ais finished saying that, she saw Beatrice’s half-smiling, half-not expression.

For some reason, she suddenly felt a little guilty.

"W-what’s wrong?"

"You two... sneaked a bite?"

Ais had just suddenly gone quiet, and the little Swan was still wondering what was going on.

Who could’ve thought that after hearing Sister Wang say that, she’d instantly feel her soul leave her body.

I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead!

Why did Sister Wang notice so fast?

She had clearly been consciously avoiding contact with Louis!

Beatrice said lightly:

"How many years do you think I’ve been running an empire? You two may not be weak, but in front of the Eye of Truth, there aren’t many people who can really hide themselves.

Also, Olivia, back when nothing had happened, you and Louis were very close—close in the way of family.

But now that your relationship is clearly better, you’ve instead grown this distant. Isn’t that basically waving flags and beating drums to say there’s a problem between you two?"

The little Swan froze on the spot, feeling like the sky was collapsing.

Will Sister Wang abandon her in a fit of anger?

If she really abandons her, she’ll be so sad; by then she’ll only be able to hide in the sewers where Sister Wang can’t see her and protect her from there.

Beatrice gave Olivia a helpless look, then glanced at Ais, who was covering her face, not daring to meet her eyes.

Is she angry?

Of course she’s very angry.

But she won’t make Louis lose face.

She knows very well what kind of person her lover is. If he coveted someone just because they looked good, the Sin of Lust wouldn’t have been suppressed for so many years before finally showing itself.

You could even say Lust is pretty pitiful.

Among the former Sins of Lust—who measured their favored concubines in the thousands, and some even went overboard enough to build entire nations of women—Louis was so pure he was practically a little white flower by the roadside.

At first, she thought he was the Sin of Greed.

She never expected he could suppress that greed so well.

Or rather, what he wanted was too big.

If he was going to be greedy, he’d just straight-up take a whole Empress.

And sure enough, she fell straight into the trap and couldn’t climb back out.

It was just that she hadn’t gotten to be happy about it for long before a sky-falling sort of news reached her ears.

Louis told her himself that he’d discovered he wasn’t the Sin of Greed, but the Sin of Lust.

Thinking about it now is almost funny.

In that moment, Beatrice only felt her vision go black and her heart scream that they were done for.

Judging from how the Sins of Lust operated in the past, she really would’ve entrusted herself to the wrong person.

But she’s always been the reserved type; she wouldn’t condemn Louis lightly based on guesses alone.

She chose to watch with her own eyes.

And as she watched and watched... huh?

The more she looked, the more Louis really seemed like a little white flower.

His mind just wasn’t on that track at all, and he had a strong aversion to the whole "sneaking off to eat wild game" thing.

—He was the kind of person who, if he really wanted to eat wild game, would just raise the wild game into proper livestock.

When he came back from the Giant Plain, she vaguely sensed he had changed.

He was even better to her, staying by her side as much as he possibly could.

Of course...

Beatrice recalled what had happened before, her cheeks flushing slightly.

That gentle yet intent-on-filling-her-completely way he treated her made her heart tremble even more.

Sneaked a bite?

That was her first thought at the time.

But that sense of guilt... somehow didn’t feel quite right.

It was more like... tinged with a faint helplessness.

The look of someone who never expected things to develop in that direction at all.

So she had vaguely realized back then that Lust had started making trouble.

What, did people think a Sin authority was some pure white lotus?

Why couldn’t the Sin of Greed be triggered?

Because the number one merchant guild on the continent is currently in Louis’s hands.

Why couldn’t the Sin of Wrath be triggered?

Because most of the people who angered Louis got taken out by him on the spot; what need was there for wrath?

But Lust...

It was bound to erupt sooner or later.

The only question was who it would choose.

Now that she knew who it was, for some reason she actually let out a breath of relief.

At least she felt a spontaneous sense of satisfaction that no outsider had gotten the bargain.