Having the genes of a demon king, I never intended to be a kept man.

However, no matter how much the demonic sword trembled or buzzed, the roots quickly wrapped around him and bound him tightly, then began to drain his energy.

Ye Ge knelt down in front of him, meeting his gaze: "How do you feel?"

The demon sword was terrified: "How can you control the Demon Realm Tree?!"

"I already told you, I am the new ruler of the Demon Realm, but you wouldn't believe me." Ye Ge sighed. "Since you're unwilling to serve me, then you can be sealed here and used as a perpetual motion machine to nourish the Demon Sword Tree. You won't die anyway, it'll just be a bit tiring. But considering you are a sword, and the ghost dragon within you is only a soul without a body, it probably doesn't need rest, right? So you can work 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week, 720 hours a month... With your efforts, I think the Demon Realm Tree can evolve to the Transformation stage within a month, and enter the Mature stage within a year. If you work for a thousand years..."

"..." The Demon Sword was dumbfounded.

What the hell... is this some kind of demon capitalist?!?

Even if his soul is immortal, his magic power will still be depleted if it is constantly being absorbed by the Demon Tree! It takes time to recover!

And...who says the soul never gets tired?

"Yes, keep it up! You are the unsung hero behind the infrastructure development of the new era of the demon realm!"

With a look of daunting responsibility on his face, Ye Ge patted the Demon Sword's shoulder (the hilt guard), then stood up, ready to leave.

"Wait, wait... wait a minute!" the Demon Sword hurriedly said.

"how?"

"..."

The demonic sword paused, then chuckled awkwardly, saying, "Well... little one, don't be so heartless... What I meant was that I will absolutely not submit to ordinary people, and since you are the new ruler of the demon realm, equivalent to the demon lord of the new century! So of course I will obey and serve you..."

"So, you've changed your mind again?" Ye Ge glanced at him. "So, do you want to follow me now, or do you want to pay protection money every day?"

"Of course I'll follow you!"

The demonic sword hummed with a metallic, resolute sound: "From now on, I will be your most loyal and sharpest sword! At your beck and call! Use me as you please!"

"..." Ye Ge finally smiled and nodded in satisfaction: "Hmm, that's good."

"Unfortunately, it's too late to pledge allegiance now."

"Let's work for a while first and see how you perform before we talk about it."

"If you perform well at work, I might consider reducing your working hours to 18 hours a day."

"I have always been very generous to my hardworking demon employees."

Ye Ge turned her head and gestured with her thumb to the demonic beasts that were carrying supplies to the Demon Realm Tree: "Look at them, how happy they are at work."

The Demon Sword: "......"

Ye Ge's face hardened: "What, you're unwilling? Let me tell you, if you don't do it, there are plenty of demons who will!"

The Demon Sword: "......"

"I...I'm willing, I'm willing..."

......

Yu Li has been noticeably distracted these past few days.

Inside the underground alchemy laboratory, Yu Li dropped a drop of alchemical liquid into a boiling pot of medicine. Watching the purple bubbles rising in the pot, she pursed her lips and looked away, clearly preoccupied with something on her mind.

For the past two days, she's been thinking a lot about what the professor said...

Actually, the professor was right; she was just an intermediate alchemist.

Although she managed to concoct potions and liquid energy... those were actually the results of Night Song's guidance and the things Night Song taught her...

In reality, I didn't accomplish anything at all.

With my current skill level, is it really possible for me to attempt original experiments and improve upon Young Master Yege's work?

Yu Li lowered her head, sinking into deep self-doubt. The image of Professor Li speaking to her at the auction kept replaying in her mind, making her feel increasingly sad.

"Glug glug glug..." More bubbles rose from the pot.

"Watch out!" Gao Shenxue's voice suddenly rang out, pulling Yu Li back from her reverie.

Yu Li snapped out of her daze and saw the pot of boiling alchemical liquid in front of her, which startled her so much that she frantically tried to grab it.

But it was too late for her to stop it. The alchemical liquid in the pot exploded with a "boom," and raging flames and purple toxic gas instantly surged toward the girl!

"what!"

Yu Li cried out in surprise and fell to the ground.

However, neither the explosion nor the gas ultimately harmed her.

A spherical mechanical flying robot flew in front of her and conjured a colorless energy barrier out of thin air, blocking all the explosions from entering.

The danger dissipated, and the flying robot slowly flew back to Takashi Yuki's side.

Yu Li sat on the ground, still lost in thought. Gao Shenxue came to Yu Li's side, helped her up, and looked at her with calm eyes: "Have you been preoccupied these past few days?"

"N-nothing...it's nothing..." Yu Li forced a smile. "I'm sorry, Xue'er, I'm probably just too tired..."

Gao Shenxue paused for a moment, then said, "That drop of ZX solution should have been added when the water reached 75 degrees Celsius, but the pot had already boiled. Adding it at that point is basically like putting dynamite in a pot of oil. Even I, a beginner in alchemy, wouldn't make that kind of mistake."

“…” Yu Li lowered her head.

Seeing that she seemed unwilling to talk about it, Gao Shenxue didn't press further: "If you're not in a good mood, take a few days off. I would never do scientific research when I was in a bad mood."

"Hmm..." Yu Li was silent for a while, then suddenly asked curiously, "Xue'er, did you... ever have times when you were in a bad mood before?"

"Ah."

"What's going on?"

Gao Shenxue thought for a moment and said, "When I haven't seen my godson for several days."

Yu Li was taken aback: "...Huh?"

......

Ye Family.

That day, Xia Xiyao took Yu Li's arm and led her to the Ye family to play cards with Ye Ge and Gao Shenxue.

The four little ones sat barefoot on the carpet in the room, forming a circle, with a large pile of drinks and snacks next to them.

"Yay! I won again! Hahahaha... Xiaoye, you lost again~ Now I can punish you again!"

Xia Xiyao waved her hands happily, picked up a drawing pen, drew a circle on Ye Ge's face, and then laughed loudly, pointing at his face.

Ye Ge reached out and touched the black pen mark on her face, saying in a low voice, "Why is it that when I lose, it gets drawn on my face, but when you lose, it gets drawn on your arm? That's not fair, is it?"

"Well..." Xia Xiyao hesitated for a moment, then said coquettishly, "I'm a girl, it would look awful to have it painted on my face..."

"But both of your arms are covered in drawings."

"It's okay, it's okay, I'll have you draw it somewhere else later. Anyway, I don't want to draw my face~"

"..."

The room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

Yu Li sat among them, trying her best to force a smile, not wanting to ruin such a beautiful atmosphere.

But the sorrow in her eyes seemed to have been caught by the perceptive Ye Ge.

Ye Ge looked at her, stared at her intently for a while, and suddenly asked, "Xiao Li, is something on your mind today?"