AEKMEM chapter 61

However, as Jiang Qi had suggested, Chu Heng still went to find “An Qiao.” An Qiao seemed slightly injured. He hoped An Qiao, disguised as an elf, could escape soon so he could rest and recover.

After Chu Heng left, An Qiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although Chu Heng wouldn’t recognize him because of his elf disguise, An Qiao felt guilty. He was worried that he might reveal the slightest flaw and allow Chu Heng to see through his identity.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t let Chu Heng know about his identity as an elf. He would have to tell Chu Heng sooner or later.

However, the confession had to be done slowly and privately. He couldn’t let Chu Heng expose his true identity so abruptly.

Besides, this was in public, and he didn’t want to reveal to everyone that the “elf” was actually him, An Qiao.

“Your Excellency, will you appear again in the future?” At that moment, someone nearby boldly asked.

Another person asked, “Your Excellency, what do you think of the imposter who claimed that Crown Prince Chu Heng would bring great disaster to the empire?”

“Nonsense!” An Qiao recalled the words spoken by the imposter posing as an “elf,” and his anger resurfaced, almost causing him to lose his aloof and noble expression.

The cameras broadcasting the Empire’s live stream had somehow shifted to him.

He glanced at the camera and calmly said, “The Crown Prince is quite good.”

Although Chu Heng wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about finding elves and could secure his position as crown prince without their support.

After thinking for a moment, he added, “I’ve also met the Crown Princess, An Qiao. He is also very good.”

Despite his “useless parasitic vine” persona and the fact that he had beaten up several people who had mocked him openly, almost no one dared to say anything to his face.

However, it wouldn’t hurt to use this opportunity to improve his reputation.

With that said, the elf in elven disguise floated away, leaving the Imperial citizens, both present and watching the live stream, still in a daze.

“Did I hear that right? Did the elf say he’d seen An Qiao?!”

“So, An Qiao might be the first person to see an elf. The elf seems to have a very good impression of him and even praised him as very good.”

Thinking about it, it makes sense. An Qiao is handsome, like an elf. It’s only natural for the elf to have a good impression of him.”

“I suspect An Qiao might actually have some kind of lucky ability. First, he was matched with His Highness the Crown Prince by the brain system. Now, he might be the first person to see an elf…Gaining the elf’s approval, receiving the ‘very good’ praise, gaining the elf’s support.”

“Does anyone remember how many people bet that the Crown Prince would definitely file for divorce within a month?”

**

“Your Highness, the elf clarified the rumors spread by the fake elf and said you were ‘quite good’! He seems to have a pretty good impression of you.” Jiang Qi, whose senses were exceptionally sharp due to his strength, couldn’t contain his excitement.

His efforts to use the illusory figure to get Chu Heng to talk to the elf weren’t in vain. He gave Chu Heng the persona of being “devoted” to the Crown Princess An Qiao. Of course, the persona was real—so love-struck that Jiang Qi sometimes couldn’t help but complain.

Chu Heng naturally heard what An Qiao said.

He stopped in his tracks.

Knowing An Qiao well, he could tell that he was actually very angry when he retorted with “nonsense.”

An Qiao was angry—angry that he had been slandered and splashed with dirty water.

To protect him, Qiao Qiao publicly praised him as “quite good” in front of the entire empire’s cameras while disguised as an elf. This was tantamount to saying that he favored him as the crown prince and stood on his side.

Qiao Qiao cares about me.

—Chu Heng clearly felt this at that moment.

He already knew that An Qiao was very good to him—so good that he was sometimes even somewhat indulgent. But at that moment, he had a vague intuition that An Qiao’s concern for him might be more than that of a friend.

“Thump, thump, thump…” His heart suddenly raced.

Then, he heard An Qiao say, “I’ve met the crown princess, An Qiao. He’s very good.”

It seemed An Qiao didn’t dislike the title “Crown Princess,” speaking of it very naturally.

But Qiao Qiao, is it okay to praise yourself like this? What if your elf disguise is accidentally exposed one day and people find out you’re actually an elf?

“Your Excellency the Elf has actually met the Crown Princess?!” Jiang Qi was so shocked that he almost dropped his jaw. “So, the Crown Princess has met an elf?”

Chu Heng thought to himself. You’re already so shocked just by the fact that he “met” an elf. Who knows how shocked you’ll be when you find out that An Qiao is actually an elf?

“Your Highness, didn’t you know the Crown Princess had met an elf?” Jiang Qi asked.

Then, under his breath, he muttered, “Looks like Your Highness needs to work harder to gain favor with the Crown Princess.”

Chu Heng: “…

How could he possibly know? It’s the same person—how is he supposed to meet himself?

“I’m going to find Qiaoqiao,” he told Jiang Qi. “You handle the rest.”

He saw that An Qiao had just left and would probably find an opportunity soon to shed his “elf” disguise and revert to human form. Getting Jiang Qi out of the way now would make it easier to find An Qiao later.

Of course, getting Jiang Qi out of the way wasn’t just an excuse. Because the matter involved elves, the Second Prince, and Mo Zhiyuan’s fake elf trying to tarnish his reputation as Crown Prince, the local government might find it difficult to handle. They would likely consult him, who is currently in Blue Star City. Therefore, Jiang Qi needed to keep an eye on things.

Chu Heng suspected that the “illusory figure” was behind all of this.

This person harbored a grudge against An Qiao and likely came from the same place, thus knowing An Qiao’s background and situation.

To avenge An Qiao, the “illusory figure” created a fake elf and manipulated Mo Zhiyuan. Chu Heng witnessed the “illusory figure” separating from Mo Zhiyuan’s body. Afterwards, Mo Zhiyuan fell into a coma with depleted spiritual energy and damaged mental sea.

The “illusory figure” forced Mo Zhiyuan to broadcast the appearance of the fake elf live throughout the entire empire, thus forcing An Qiao, the real elf, to reveal himself.

The “illusory figure” had set a trap at the scene, but An Qiao saw through it and killed the figure.

Chu Heng was annoyed that he hadn’t arrived in time to help An Qiao and left him to fight alone. However, he was also relieved that he had caught the “illusory figure” on his way there and helped An Qiao.

Thinking this, Chu Heng followed An Qiao’s departing figure from a distance.

He dared not get too close for fear that An Qiao would notice. He planned to approach and “coincidentally” meet with An Qiao after some time had passed, guessing that An Qiao had probably shed his elf disguise.

**

The entire empire was talking about the “elf livestream” incident.

Unexpectedly, the elf that appeared at the beginning was fake! Mo Zhiyuan—or rather, the Mo family behind him and the Second Prince—had dared to create a fake elf to fool the entire empire!

Fortunately, things took a turn for the better. A real elf appeared and exposed the fake elf. He clarified that the crown prince is quite good and mentioned that he had met the crown princess and thought he was very good.

It seemed that the elf had a good impression of Crown Prince Chu Heng and Crown Princess An Qiao.

Unfortunately, the elf only appeared briefly before disappearing, and it was unclear when he would reappear.

The Second Prince, Chu Feiyu, became so anxious that he almost died on the spot. They tried urgently to contact Mo Zhiyuan, the manipulator behind it all, but they couldn’t reach him. They could only contact someone who had accompanied Mo Zhiyuan to Blue Star City.

That person told them that Mo Zhiyuan had suddenly fallen unconscious. They found that his mental energy was depleted and his mental sea was damaged as if he had been controlled by someone’s mental power. Moreover, upon reflection, Mo Zhiyuan had indeed seemed different from usual these past two days. Although he was usually ambitious, he wouldn’t have acted on such a major charge without authorization.

The Second Prince was furious and wanted to curse. He wondered who had controlled Mo Zhiyuan to create the fake elf.

Perhaps someone who particularly hated Chu Heng?

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have allowed the fake elf to slander Chu Heng by claiming that he “would surely bring a disaster to the empire.”

However, the Second Prince was too preoccupied to consider the mastermind behind it all. He was frantically trying to manage public relations.

He ordered the announcement and dissemination of the following statement: “Mo Zhiyuan acted unilaterally, but that wasn’t his intention. His damaged mental state proved that he had been mentally controlled—a malicious act by the mastermind.”

Upon close examination, this explanation was actually a bit unreliable. Damage to the mental sea could also be a self-inflicted trick to shake off responsibility after the incident. Regardless of how many people believed it, this fake elf scandal must not be pinned on him!

Chu Wen and Xiong Yi couldn’t make it to the scene, but they watched the live broadcast.

The two exchanged bewildered glances; they were both utterly shocked that An Qiao had actually seen an elf.

“It seems Teacher Zhen’s prophetic abilities were accurate after all.”

He predicted that the elf would be found in Blue Star City by the “outstanding freshmen” of the Empire’s First Military Academy. Therefore, the school assigned the top three freshmen the task of “finding the elf” in Blue Star City on their final exams.

Now, it seems it was exactly as predicted.

Now that they have completed the task, they should receive a lot of credits, right?

Another prophecy—”His Highness the Crown Prince will soon see a real elf”—was also accurate. Crown Prince Chu Heng did indeed see a real elf and even spoke to it.

Chu Wen secretly thought that An Qiao was being ungrateful.

He had already seen the elf but kept it a secret, which made them go through all that trouble searching Blue Star City for it.

—Though he could understand that the elf probably didn’t allow An Qiao to speak of it.

The next time they saw An Qiao, they would definitely “condemn” him for being disloyal. They would make An Qiao explain how and where he saw the elf. Then, they could try their luck at that place and maybe see the elf with their own eyes.

**

An Qiao quickly shook off the people secretly following him—who were sent by an unknown imperial star power—and switched back to human form in an empty alley, taking off his white hooded cloak.

The blood he had swallowed by force, a consequence of the Demon King’s curse, finally erupted in a cough.

It really hurt!

The Elf King almost couldn’t help but curse.

That Demon King wouldn’t even rest in death! He had sacrificed his own demonic body to cast the Demon King’s curse, leaving behind a remnant soul that was madly seeking revenge and causing him so much trouble.

Fortunately, the Demon King’s remnant soul brought this upon itself and was completely annihilated.

Because he had personally destroyed the most powerful fragment of the Demon King’s remnant soul this time, the backlash from the curse he suffered was more severe than before.

Fortunately, his light-attribute magic had recovered to 70–80%, alleviating some of the pain from the backlash.

An Qiao frowned wearily and leaned weakly against the wall.

Now that the Demon King’s remnant soul was completely eliminated, the only thing left to deal with was the curse within him.

Even without the influence of the Demon King’s remnant soul, the curse would occasionally flare up and cause him pain—enough to be quite annoying.

However, breaking the curse wouldn’t be easy. Even at his peak, with his strength fully restored, he couldn’t easily remove the curse.

The curse was bizarre and powerful—a forbidden curse cast by a Demon King of roughly equal strength who sacrificed his own demonic body before death. It was fueled by intense hatred and resentment. The dark curse also clashed with the light-attribute magic within him…

“Qiaoqiao!”

He heard Chu Heng’s voice.

An Qiao: “… ”

Thankfully, he had completely switched back to human form! The white cloak that the “elf” had worn had been thoroughly cleaned, leaving no trace behind. Chu Heng shouldn’t be able to tell anything.

But then he wondered how Chu Heng had found him so quickly. He was deep in a secluded, deserted alley. He shouldn’t have been easy to find. How did Chu Heng find him so quickly and accurately?

An Qiao couldn’t help but feel increasingly suspicious.

Could Chu Heng have been chasing the “elf”? Is that why he found him so quickly?

With his extraordinary ability to conceal himself, Chu Heng shouldn’t have seen anything just now, right?

“You’re injured?” As he approached, Chu Heng noticed a trace of blood on An Qiao’s lips that hadn’t been wiped clean.

Initially, he thought it was just a minor injury. But now, seeing An Qiao’s pale face and the unconscious furrowing of his brows—unable to hide his listless exhaustion—it was clear that he was seriously injured.

For the first time, Chu Heng hated himself. Why had he hidden the fact that he knew An Qiao was an elf?

Otherwise, An Qiao wouldn’t have ventured out alone and gotten injured just to avoid revealing his identity as an elf.

This wasn’t the first time.

Because he couldn’t let An Qiao know that he had seen through his elf identity, he could only watch helplessly as An Qiao found excuses to leave alone and encountered various troubles out of his sight.

“It’s nothing,” An Qiao said, shaking his head. “Just an old injury flaring up.”

Chu Heng frowned.

It was that strange old injury again.

Suddenly, Chu Heng received some inherited memories of the dragon race in his mind.

These memories were related to a “Demon King’s Curse.”

He was about to ignore them temporarily.

But wait—thinking about it carefully, wasn’t Qiaoqiao’s “old injury recurring” the same state as when the “Demon King’s Curse” flared up?

The eerie, dark power emanating from the “illusory figure” he saw matched the power of the “Demon King” in the memories, too.

Eager to learn how to break the curse, Chu Heng continued flipping through the remaining memories.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, he found what he was looking for: “Dragons with high-level bloodlines can break the Demon King’s Curse if they are willing to pay a certain price.”

Hmm…as long as the “Demon King’s Curse” can be broken, any price is acceptable.

Chu Heng was eager to find a solution to the problem, but he discovered that the inherited memories from later generations no longer contained any information about the “Demon King’s Curse.” The rest was just… yellow trash!¹“黃色廢料” yellow trash/waste is modern Chinese slang mean “useless erotic content” / “sexually explicit junk.”

You can read the full completed story here with instant full access. ✨

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  “黃色廢料” yellow trash/waste is modern Chinese slang mean “useless erotic content” / “sexually explicit junk.”