One month later...

"Nothing is working!" Li Ming stated frustratingly.

She threw the crystal balls on the ground which immediately broke into tiny pieces due to the hard impact of the ground.

The group of demons surrounding her looked at the young girl with sympathy. All of them knew that nothing could change the sad reality of the Demon Realm.

However, they had watched how Miss Li had been trying to find a way to help them throughout the last entire month.

She would often visit the Evernight Province with a lot of packed warm and delicious food and clean water.

The demons really enjoyed her visits as she always brought lots of happiness with her and even hope.

As the winter was almost about to approach, Miss Li had even started bringing warm clothes for them.

They noticed how the young girl walked away from them. Though she always tried her best to stay positive and calm throughout her past failures, but they all could see that the constant failures were taking a toll over her.

Throughout the entire month, she tried to find a way to start agriculture in the Demon Realm but even after trying numerous tactics, nothing worked.

She also tried to find a way to free the demons from the tight hold of the black mist but so far she wasn't able to find any help from the hundreds of books and scrolls that she had read while staying awake throughout her free nights.

And as for trying to build new houses, unfortunately, even that wasn't going anywhere. Whatever she built came crashing down at dawn, leaving crumbles behind.

She had not seen Moon Immortal and Hei Long even a single time in the entire month.

Even Zhang Yong came to meet her only twice, as he wanted to make sure that she wasn't tiring herself out too much.

As Li Ming stood on the same bridge where she had listened to Ruoshan telling her about the past of the Demon Realm and its Rulers, her thoughts drifted to the Evernight Lord.

How did he succeed in staying calm and strong in such situations?

She was only failing for a month and she already felt sad and frustrated. On the other hand, Ruoshan had been going through this for years and he still looked calm while facing his people.

Just how much hurt, sadness, and pain that man was storing inside himself, keeping it hidden from everyone.

However, due to some unknown reasons, she hadn't seen him for the past week.

Her soul had already started aching to feel the warmth of her mates. The distance that had grown between them was also contributing to her restless nights.

She had been out working herself for weeks by now. During the day time, she mostly stayed either in the Dongji village or in the Black Jade Inn.

For the past month, she had been focusing on building the agriculture and Inn businesses.

She regularly participated in the morning cultivation classes with the children and on some days when she wasn't busy in the fields or in the Inn, she spent her time teaching the children more about various new things.

Some children were doing extremely well while the others had still to come out of their shells, but she had made sure to give all of them her equal focus.

She herself had broken through a couple of cultivation levels due to constant six hours cultivation for the past thirty-three days.

She was currently a fifth rank High Cultivator.

Though there was no breeze blowing around her, but as she stood on the bridge looking down at the running water she felt goosebumps appearing on her skin.

Her hands automatically moved to rub her arms to keep herself a little warm. However, out of nowhere, she felt someone putting a cloak over her shoulders.

Her nose was assaulted by the light smell of the ocean mixed with some kind of sweet herbs.

She was too possessed by the mind-blowing fragrance that it took her mind quite a lot of time, basically three minutes, to register the unknown presence beside her.

As she turned to look at her left, she came across a man dressed in dark black brocade robes.

What amazed her was that even though his entire clothes were black but the belt at the borders of the long robe was of white color with golden carvings on it.

It was such a contrasting combination of colors but it suited the man perfectly.

His long hair was combed and neatly tied in a bun inside a golden coronet. His face was covered in a silver mask, only leaving his obsidian eyes and thin pink lips visible.

Li Ming was so engrossed in observing him that she was taken back when his deep cold voice entered her ears.

"Looks like you liked the cloak."

Li Ming came out of her trance as she skeptically looked at the man with a frown. Her hands clutched the cloak tightly in her tiny fists. Due to some unknown reason, she didn't want to return the cloak back to the man.

"Who are you?" She asked as she eyed the man, trying to observe him.

Her eyes took in how his thin lips curved slightly at one end at her words. Though, his eyes were completely blank as he stared back at her.

"You need to be patient. Not everything can be as easy and simple in life as you want. Sometimes you need to work hard and for a long time to get better results," The man said as he completely ignored her question.

Li Ming looked at the man in confusion. Exactly what he was trying to imply?

"Who are you and Why are you here?" Li Ming also ignored his deep statements as she again repeated her question. This time adding another question along with the previous one.

The man turned a little sideways to look at the horizon at a far distance.

Though the entire Northern Province of the Demon Realm was in chaos but still at that moment, the horizon looked amazingly beautiful.

The red, black, and maroon colors of the sky molded together to give a wonderful view of the horizon.

"See, even such a place can hold such beautiful scenery in it. The question is whether you have the eyes that can recognize the lotus in the center of a dirty pond." The man lightly whispered.

It was like his words were especially for her ears. Though his words sounded so poetic and amazing, but Li Ming wasn't someone who had studied poetry.

Therefore, she just kept staring at the man, whishing for him to start speaking in human language so that they could converse, or more like so she could finally get the answers to her questions.

"Are you a poet?" Li Ming suddenly asked as she broke the moment.

She had this sudden thought and seeing his way of talking made her doubt that the person was indeed a poet or something.

The silver mask man turned to look at the girl, though he stayed silent.

"You are a poet, right? I mean it makes sense. Hearing your poetic lines, I should have guessed it soon but I was a little taken back by your sudden appearance."

Li Ming chuckled softly as she shook her head at her slow brain cells before continuing.

"By the way, are you here to take some motivation? Like...you are a poet, you can find motivation anywhere and from anything. Only people like you can come up with such amazing lines in a place like this."

The man was still silent as he listened to her sweet voice.

"I love to write a few lines sometimes, but I'm nowhere near the great poets of the mainland." He finally replied softly with a little smile on his lips.

"Aah! Look at you being so humble and all. You are actually good. I'm not into poetry and all but still, I think with a little more practice you can improve." Li Ming motivated the man.

"So? Are you trying to say that I should not give up?" The man asked her.

In reply, Li Ming immediately nodded her head as she said, "Of course, you are already doing so good. You need to work hard to reach your goal. If your goal is to become the best poet of this world, then you have to improve your faults and with time you will see better results."

The man looked like he was thinking deeply about her words before he suddenly asked, "But what if I keep failing and failing again? What if no matter how much I try, I can't succeed? Should I still keep trying?"

Li Ming took in a deep breath as she started, "Everything depends on how much you want to reach your goal. If you want to give your hundred percent to it then don't settle before reaching it. Of course, you won't succeed overnight. Maybe it will take you a long time, but the first thing you need to learn to achieve your goal is to never give up."

"But what if even after giving my hundred percent to it, I don't achieve it?" The man asked her again.

Li Ming shook her head as she looked directly into his eyes as she replied, "If you haven't reached your goal yet, it means that you haven't given in your hundred percent into it."