They had discovered a treasury.

It was quite by accident too, and gave much for Wei Ying to think about. Hui Gai was exploring the Palace and looking to renovate other rooms to make them suitable for housing more children. This time Wei Ying and Lan Zhan were following him, swinging hands as they were prone to do, although it was mostly instigated by the former.

Hui Gai wandered to stand in front of a blank wall. He looked from side to side, thinking.

"What's up?" A particularly bubbly Wei Ying asked, standing next to him.

"Don't you think this is odd?" Hui Gai said.

"What about it? Is it just a wall?" Wei Ying put his hands against it.

"When is a wall not a wall?" Hui Gai answered, his red eyes gleaming.

"When it's a door." Lan Zhan added, calmly.

The other two just stared at him.

"Exactly." Hui Gai put both his hands on the wall.

And fell through.

Wei Ying let out an expletive and then gave Lan Zhan an apologetic look.

"He startled me!"

Hui Gai popped back out.

Wei Ying cursed again, accidentally.

"You're right. It's a door." He waved his hands over the surface of the wall and it disappeared.

"Aaah, an optical illusion!" Wei Ying said, fascinated already.

The doors were carved into the face of a monster, with huge canines as the steps leading up to the threshold. Startlingly realistic eyes looked back at them, and the snout...the whole door was fearsome to look at.

"Might be an ancestor..." Hui Gai pushed open the oxidised silver doors. "Look what we found!"

Fires lit automatically across the walls along the sides, and for a few seconds they were blinded by the brightness.

Everywhere they looked, there was gold, be it coins, platters or vases. Urns were filled with precious stones, too many to contain, rubies and emeralds spilled onto the floor, decorating the base. Expensive daggers, knives and swords were hung on the walls, their scabbards decorated to the hilt; there were tables filled with pure gold cutlery, plates and bowls. Chests were overflowing with pearls and precious metals.

"You know...I'm sure there must be something here that belonged to your father." Wei Ying said, thoughtfully.

He picked up a rather plain looking spoon.

"Perhaps." The demon replied, enigmatically.

Wei Ying looked at him then.

Since that night when they tried to call upon his real father and got a nasty surprise, Hui Gai had not mentioned it again, the speaking with his parents. Wei Ying was worried about him.

"How about we ask your mother? She may be able to help." Wei Ying saw the look on his face. "Just for closure...nothing else." He added quickly.

"Alright. Let's do it now." Hui Gai produced the white cloth that had been his since birth.

"What?" Wei Ying would have sworn that Hui Gai was trying to give him whiplash this morning.

"I'm ready. And you're right. Let's do this." Hui Gai rubbed his hands, a little nervously. But he smiled anyway.

Wei Ying looked at Lan Zhan, who came to hold his hand.

"Alright. Let's do this." He echoed, sitting next to Hui Gai, with Lan Zhan on the other side, keeping a careful eye on what might happen.

"How sure are you that this will work?" Hui Gai asked. His knee kept bouncing in an effort to expel excess energy.

"Well, you said you kept this from when you were a baby, right? So I'm guessing that she had a strong emotional attachment to this material, especially because it was the last thing she ever was able to give you both." Wei Ying rested his hand on the knee that wouldn't stop, applying a little pressure to still it. "So, quite sure."

Hui Gai covered his hand with his, giving him a small smile. His other hand was holding tightly onto his tail.

"Look, what's the worst thing that can happen?" Wei Ying told him gently. "You're a fabulous person, my friend. You have nothing to worry about."

Hui Gai pushed the cloth towards him.

"Let's find out."

Wei Ying used his spiritual energy to connect with the white cloth, while Lan Zhan played Inquiry.

They did not have long to wait.

A yellow light filled the space in front of them, and inexplicably, Hui Gai was reminded of the box he had opened to defeat Yao Wang the first time.

Was it the same light? What did it mean?

A glowing shape appeared, standing in front of the demon.

"Diyu WangZi?" She whispered, as if not quite able to believe it.

"I go by a different name now. It's Hui Gai." He whispered back.

The yellow light wrapped around him as if hugging his body.

Hui Gai was filled with a sense of peace, as if all of his worries were taken away from him, inconsequential and unimportant. Maternal love, unconditionally his, surrounded his being. His mother was happy with him.

And it was not because of anything he had done or accomplished, or anything that he had failed to do.

It was because she loved him anyway.

All of her wishes for him to be happy, for him to succeed, and to have all the good things in the world were right here, in this embrace.

"My child, you have grown well."

The words echoed in his head, and he was a puddle even before she had finished speaking.

His throat closed, rendering speech impossible.

"I had to leave you at such a young age, but I'm seeing that it wasn't all bad. At least, I hope not. You have already suffered the estrangement of your parents..." She waited for him to say something.

"My beginning may not have been the best...but I met somebody who changed all that." He finally said, looking at Wei Ying, who blushed.

"Ah...it wasn't me. You were already a great person." He quickly said, smiling at the yellow light.

The yellow light surrounded him, a hug of thanks.

"Mother, I have a daughter now." Hui Gai said quietly, afterwards. "And two, if I'm honest. One is living far away but I can visit her whenever I want to, or if she needs me. The other is a baby. You'll love them both. And...I found someone to stay by my side."

"I am proud of you, my son. But may I ask, where is your brother?"