The little episode from the night before was put on pause amid that subtle atmosphere, and on the first official day of winter break, the two of them lived much as they usually did.
If anything, they were even more diligent.
After waking up, since there was no need to rush to No. 2 High School for morning study, Qin Shu first sat on the bed for a while. After a complete and thorough stretch, he practiced entering meditation for another half hour.
Pei Zhao said meditation was a good habit. Learning to enter meditation quickly was beneficial to both body and mind. Those cultivators who could cultivate anytime and anywhere could even have companions cover them during a lull in battle if they were injured, sit down cross-legged on the spot, and start treating their wounds… He had to admit, it was efficient.
So Qin Shu was struggling to cultivate this good habit. It was also a form of training that forced him to calm his mind, so he would not wake up groggy every day with a pile of things stuffed in his head, none of them finished, and create needless anxiety for himself.
After meditating, he ate a perfunctory breakfast, then opened the earthen jar to feed Yuanbao’s ravenous appetite. The little guy had been especially hungry lately and made a fuss at Qin Shu every morning. Before it finished all the Gu insects Chen Shui had sent over as gifts, it probably would not settle down.
Besides that, Qin Shu let Coalball out to return to No. 2 High School and play with its little friends while patrolling the campus to make sure the teachers and students staying behind were not being harassed by ghosts. As for Xu Qian… Xu Qian spent most of her time in the basement. Pei Zhao had given her a freely usable territory of her own so she could adapt to the increasing number of special abilities she gained as she continued evolving.
Ever since stealing a good deal of Xiao Zhu’s power in Phoenix Village, the eyeball’s mentality had changed somewhat. Although the bones from her human life had long since been buried deep in the cave together with Zhang Mei Jiang, power and desire were forever twin things that could not be separated.
Unsatisfied with her present state yet unsure what direction to work toward, she could only remain in the basement and explore, confirming exactly what she was capable of now.
The white dragon, on the other hand, was completely free-range. Qin Shu had no desire whatsoever to manage him. If the two of them spent too long together, they would absolutely get sick of seeing each other’s faces. Qin Shu only knew the guy liked sleeping on the roof and occasionally slipped back to No. 2 High School to hang around with Coalball in silence. Yes, the white dragon got along surprisingly well with that timid little black puff and had never once caused any trouble with it.
Maybe it was because everyone around the white dragon ordered him to do this and that, whereas Coalball was an obedient little cub with almost no demands. It could even transform into Xiao Zhu’s appearance, and it was timid too… so the white dragon liked playing with it.
Once, Qin Shu had even accidentally seen Coalball riding on the white dragon’s head, trembling as it sat between those white-jade dragon horns like a real lump of coal dropped into a snowy pond. The visual impact had been considerable.
This morning was the same.
Qin Shu sealed Yuanbao’s food jar. The smell of all those Gu insects had made him slightly nauseous, and he had barely opened the floor-to-ceiling window facing the courtyard to air the room out when an enormous snow-white dragon head suddenly pushed in through the opening, carrying a black puff on top.
The previously spacious living room instantly became cramped and oppressive, as though even the oxygen level had dropped.
“Something wrong?” Qin Shu frowned.
The white dragon leaned closer, cold eyes boring straight into Qin Shu. “Qin Shu, you’re going to Zuo Zhe’s house to hunt for treasure?”
“You want to come too?”
“…Mm.”
“Then come with us. I’ll ride you there. Okay?” Qin Shu pressed a hand against the broad dragon muzzle and pushed the huge head back out the window. Helpless, he said, “If you have something to say, can’t you just use voice transmission? Why deliberately stick such a huge head inside… Are you copying Yuanbao now?”
“I was afraid somebody wouldn’t hear me, then change his mind halfway through and send me back.” The white dragon’s gaze slid past Qin Shu to Pei Zhao, who was packing things by the sofa, his tone inexplicably sarcastic. “You didn’t take me along when you killed someone. Surely you’re not going treasure hunting without me too? If I don’t make myself clear, who knows what might happen?”
“All right, all right. Next time we kill someone, we’ll definitely take you. You’re coming with us later too. Satisfied now? Head out!”
The white dragon snorted coldly and left in a huff with Coalball still perched on top.
Qin Shu silently closed the window again and looked at Pei Zhao in disbelief. “Was he… Did he seriously get mad because we didn’t take him along to kill Zuo Zhe?”
“If he likes working that much, give him more work from now on. We can take him when we go to the Dragon Palace. A true dragon can enter a Dragon Palace without a teleportation pearl. He can find his own way inside.”
Pei Zhao spoke lazily while rearranging the things they intended to send to Phoenix Village. Two cardboard boxes were packed full but remained unsealed, just in case Zuo Zhe’s house contained anything more useful that could be brought back and stuffed inside with the rest.
“…Then, shall we go?” Qin Shu went to the wardrobe, found a hoodie in the same color family as Pei Zhao’s, pulled it on quickly, and said with great enthusiasm, “I’m dressed.”
“Let’s go.”
Pei Zhao grabbed Yuanbao, who was sleeping soundly inside one of the boxes, and stuffed him into his pocket along the way.
And according to Qin Shu’s earlier promise, their transportation for today’s outing was… the white dragon.
The enormous dragon body stretched fully through the high sky, no longer deliberately reduced from its normal size. Qin Shu looked back and saw only the blurry afterimage of the winding tail disappearing into the dense clouds, its end almost impossible to make out.
Finally able to unleash his full power above Jiangcheng, the white dragon’s mood improved considerably. Without complaint, he carried the two of them atop his head, where there was still more than enough room to move around.
Coalball sat at the very front as usual, quiet and well-behaved as it clung close to the white dragon and looked around. Its thick, dense black fur whipped constantly in the wind, yet it held steady against the icy gale created by their speed. Thoughtfully, it even enlarged itself a little to block some of the wind for Qin Shu and the others.
What a sweet kid… Qin Shu was hardly afraid of wind or rain, but he wanted desperately to grab Coalball over and knead it fiercely between his palms. He had to use every ounce of self-control to resist.
The trip was extremely short because Zuo Zhe’s residence was directly across from Qin Shu’s own house. Driving over the bridge would require detouring along several roads and turning around on an overpass, probably taking more than ten minutes.
But they chose the high-altitude shortcut across the river. The white dragon rarely had a chance to fly so freely, so he delayed a little, streaking back and forth above the water like lightning. He accidentally produced several muffled peals of thunder in broad daylight before hurriedly restraining himself and returning to the proper route.
Qin Shu let him play and did not stop him. They had planned ahead this time and finally won a swift, thunderous victory. No one had been hurt, and they had even gained a huge pile of treasure afterward… They really did deserve to relax and celebrate for a while.
It was unlike before, when every time they did not take the initiative, someone seemed to get hurt whenever anything happened. This time, letting the white dragon circle openly above the river was almost like a fighter-jet drill. Making such a racket over the Dragon Mother’s territory was, in fact, a kind of advance show of force and provocation.
Provoking an enemy in advance would normally be the height of stupidity. But when the future opponent was mentally unstable, the nature of the act changed.
Maybe it would backfire and strengthen the enemy, but maybe it would corrode the enemy’s judgment even further.
Qin Shu was certain the Dragon Mother’s mental state was already abnormal.
Putting himself in her position, if he were the Dragon Mother and knew there was a guy named Qin Shu who did not get along with him, that they had already clashed before, and that this guy had a whole pack of bizarrely capable Pokémon plus two true dragons ready to help him fight at any moment…
Even if he wanted to remove the threat in advance, he absolutely would not have chosen to coerce Daoist Master Xu and Lin Shi Yu, forcing the Daoists who lived in his own temple to put themselves in danger and struggle between two sides, while even dragging the ox yao from the same faction into it. That was truly a perfect way to offend everyone involved.
More importantly, if he were the Dragon Mother and his birthday was coming up soon, and he also knew this Qin Shu had an invitation to his birthday banquet… the first thing he would do was revoke that invitation.
There were many ways to take it back. The Dragon Mother only needed to issue a notice. Even if she did not appear personally, she could have some close yao cultivator or mountain lord announce it for her.
For example, she could cancel Qin Shu’s guard slot, encourage everyone to steal the pearl from him, and award the slot to whoever succeeded. Every cultivator in the world coveting a glimpse of the Dragon Palace would come after Qin Shu, scheming and ambushing him in secret. They might even kill Qin Shu himself and solve the problem once and for all.
After all, this so-called longevity banquet was basically a birthday party. In that case, making sure the banquet could proceed smoothly on the day itself, then taking the opportunity to collect gifts and enjoy some incense offerings, should have been the priority.
Qin Shu had long considered the risk of someone stealing the invitation. He had specifically tested it by leaving the teleportation pearl at home while he went to school, taking the eyeball and Yuanbao with him and leaving no one behind to guard it… When he returned, the teleportation pearl was still sitting on his bedside table, and there was no sign anyone had entered the house.
And so, even now, that priceless black pearl remained safely in Qin Shu’s possession.
Unless the Dragon Mother had serious mental problems, she really should not have ignored such a simple and direct solution. As long as she herself did not appear, Qin Shu would not be able to storm the Dragon Palace and cause trouble there in a day or two.
Which suggested another possibility: the Dragon Mother was waiting for him to come down personally so she could kill him on her own turf. A Hongmen Banquet, an ambush laid specifically for the fool bold enough to show up first.
If that was the reason, provoking her in advance did not matter much. Better to let the white dragon enjoy himself first, so he would not brood and then have some emotional problem at a critical moment.
And once he had played enough, it was time to continue their favorite activity: looting.
“Turn left, go down, the villa closest to the water. Land on the driveway. Don’t crush anyone’s flowers.”
As Qin Shu spoke, he patted the snow-white dragon horn and discovered it felt surprisingly nice. Like a deer’s antler, it was covered in a layer of fine velvet. He could not resist rubbing it several more times. It might have felt prickly to an ordinary person, but Qin Shu’s skin was tough enough that he found it comfortable.
“…Hiss. Stop touching me randomly. Can’t you touch your boyfriend’s instead?”
The white dragon actually shuddered in midair from being stroked, then replied through clenched teeth. Even so, he obediently landed on the open concrete before impatiently shaking the two of them off.
Qin Shu landed steadily. Hearing that, his eyes brightened instead, and he immediately leaned toward Pei Zhao to whisper, “Then can I touch yours? Wait, have I touched them before? Does it feel weird?”
“…You have. I like it. Feels good.” Pei Zhao’s expression quietly stiffened. He pulled Qin Shu toward the villa, forcibly compressing his answer into short words that popped out one after another.
The shorter the answer, the more truthful the information!
Qin Shu’s breathing deepened slightly. He looped an arm around Pei Zhao’s waist and slipped his hand into Pei Zhao’s trouser pocket, slowly lifting Yuanbao out and tossing him onto the electronic door lock.
It was an ordinary case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Having Yuanbao open the door for them was extremely convenient.
Of course, Qin Shu’s hands remained perfectly serious while doing serious business, but his mind was still lingering on the feel of the dragon horn. His voice dropped lower and lower. “When are you letting me touch them?”
“If I turn back into a dragon, wouldn’t I be too big?” Pei Zhao tilted his head. “I’d break the bed.”
“…You… What does the bed have to do with this?!”
Qin Shu was speechless. Then he watched Pei Zhao calmly circle around him and push open the door Yuanbao had unlocked.
“Still not coming in?” Pei Zhao stopped after one step and glanced back. The smile curling at the corner of his lips was obvious. He had done it on purpose.
“Tricking me. You’re awful.”
Qin Shu muttered, then immediately leaned over and pulled Pei Zhao into his arms again, completely ignoring the impatient cough the white dragon made behind them.
The interior of Zuo Zhe’s home looked nothing like the modern exterior of the detached villa. The instant they stepped through the entrance, a lethal killing formation nearly activated completely, only for Pei Zhao to smash it apart with one casual move.
The defenses here were several times stricter than those in the office building. There was no meaningless decoration whatsoever. Everything was simple, cold, almost excessively plain.
Every ornament visible to the naked eye was a trap. The expensive-looking jade pieces were the worst. Touching one would trigger a self-destructing explosion and set off a chain reaction.
“So basically, if we trigger even one trap, this entire house will be blown to dust from top to bottom. Every treasure and every scrap of information hidden here will be destroyed, leaving nothing behind…” Qin Shu frowned slightly.
Zuo Zhe’s memory fragments did contain scenes of him living in the villa, but they all looked like perfectly ordinary daily routines with nothing special about them. If Pei Zhao had not mentioned it, there was no way to tell from Zuo Zhe’s usual behavior that he spent every day living among bombs.
“Exactly. So this is the place he truly put effort into protecting. He would rather let everything he accumulated over so many years vanish than allow even the slightest secret to leak… Qin Shu, don’t spread out your divine sense. You might trigger a mechanism. Just use your eyes.”
Hearing that, Qin Shu truly did not dare wander around. He carefully followed Pei Zhao and quickly stuffed the curious Yuanbao back into his pocket. Without Pei Zhao’s approval, he absolutely would not reach out and touch anything unfamiliar.
After bypassing layer upon layer of outer defenses, Pei Zhao stopped in front of the bathroom.
“So that’s it. His cave dwelling is here.”
“…In the bathroom?” Qin Shu’s brow twitched. “Cunning bastard. If I’d come here alone, the bathroom would’ve been the last place I searched.”
“Stay there. I’ll see if I can open it.”
Pei Zhao closed his eyes. A moment later, his entire aura changed, and he actually transformed directly into Zuo Zhe. Height, appearance, bearing, everything was identical, down to the direction of every strand of hair on the day of the unified exam.
He tilted his head slightly and looked at Qin Shu.
Qin Shu’s eyes widened, and his fist nearly clenched on instinct. Those eyes were full of the weariness of years, with a trace of deeply hidden wickedness. The surface was kind and scholarly, but the calculating intelligence underneath was unmistakable.
That was Zuo Zhe!
No matter how Qin Shu looked, all he could see was Zuo Zhe’s face. Not the slightest feature belonging to Pei Zhao remained. If Pei Zhao deliberately transformed into someone else and passed Qin Shu head-on in the street… Qin Shu honestly would not recognize him.
“Coalball, come learn! This is master-level transformation!” Qin Shu grabbed the plump little black puff off the white dragon’s head and brought it close so it could study that flawless face properly.
Coalball was equally diligent and eager to learn. It immediately transformed its own head into Zuo Zhe’s appearance, then repeatedly adjusted the details using Pei Zhao’s version as reference.
“Exactly, just like that. Yes, yes. Our Coalball really is talented.” Qin Shu immediately showered it with praise until Coalball smiled dazedly.
But smiling like that with Zuo Zhe’s head was wrong. In itself, it was one of the tells that exposed an illusion. Coalball’s imitation skills still needed work, Qin Shu thought, silently drafting an entire training plan.
Pei Zhao was different. Even now, the smile at the corner of his lips looked exactly like that damned old man’s. If even Qin Shu could not recognize him, no one else had a chance.
That included the detection mechanisms inside Zuo Zhe’s own home.
Pei Zhao stepped into the spacious marble bathroom and casually touched the rinse cup on the sink. A moment later, radiant light exploded, and the entire room changed abruptly.
The gleaming marble and tile dimmed all at once. The spotlights overhead and the enormous bathtub disappeared as well, or rather, returned to their true forms.
This really was a genuine cave dwelling, even an extremely old-fashioned one in the style of ascetic qi cultivators from a thousand years ago.
Stone walls and stone tables, bamboo meditation cushions, an elegant tea table with an earthenware stove, and bamboo used as firewood to boil water.
The cultivation area and artifact-refining area were separated by a bamboo curtain. Qin Shu carefully passed through it and saw an alchemy furnace of a type he had never even heard of standing beside the red furnace used specifically for artifact refining.
There were almost no decorations in the cave dwelling. The stone walls could not even be called smooth, and lighting came only from several floating luminous pearls glowing faintly inside a formation powered by spirit stones.
But the two enormous pieces of equipment were eye-catching enough to serve as decorations all by themselves, carrying an indescribable air of luxury beneath their antiquated design. Gold formed the base, densely ornamented with pearls, jade, and gems. They looked almost like… royal Daoist furnaces meant specifically for an emperor, extravagant contraptions designed to convince the Son of Heaven that someone could refine an elixir of immortality for him.
“They’re all genuine.” Pei Zhao seemed able to hear what Qin Shu was thinking. His fingertips brushed over a blood-red gem on the red furnace as he confirmed faintly, “Now they’re mine.”
“Zhaozhao, can you change back now?” Qin Shu coughed. “Hearing a giant villain say something like that is making my entire body uncomfortable.”
“No. Better to be careful. He left dozens of layers of protective formations here, and they only remain dormant when they see this face. Rather than waste time dismantling them one by one, this is faster.”
Even Pei Zhao’s voice and tone were identical to Zuo Zhe’s. Qin Shu’s temples tightened uncontrollably as he listened, and he could only take several deep breaths to adjust his mood.
“You’re right. Completely reasonable.”
At least Pei Zhao’s real nature still surfaced from time to time. He could not stop admiring the beautiful gems. That tiny trace of familiarity was enough for Qin Shu to confirm this really was Pei Zhao.
He let Pei Zhao slowly admire the gemstones and returned to the cultivation area, carefully scanning it again with See Through.
There were no cabinets at all inside the cave dwelling. The storage space was probably hidden in some deeper interstitial space.
Eventually Qin Shu stopped in one corner beside a sparkling luminous pearl. This pearl looked different from the others. Although its glow was similar, the object itself carried a strange sense of insubstantiality. Looking closely, Qin Shu could faintly see darkness seeping outward beneath the pearly light.
There was another world inside. So this was probably one of Zuo Zhe’s storage artifacts… Always hidden in the strangest, most counterintuitive places.
Qin Shu took down the luminous pearl and slowly wrapped his divine sense around it. It was a storage artifact specially made for soul cultivators. It could not be activated with spiritual power and could only be handled using soul power.
But Zuo Zhe was already dead. Erasing the owner’s mark he had left behind was no longer especially difficult, particularly for Qin Shu, who had devoured remnants of Zuo Zhe’s soul.
The sluggish resistance blocking his perception lasted only an instant before opening completely. Qin Shu’s divine sense entered without obstruction.
This was the true hidden world.
The enormous space stretched so far he could not see its boundaries. It was piled high with heavenly treasures, rare materials, medicinal herbs, countless jade slips, spirit stones, and soul-cultivator artifacts. Compared with the austere cave dwelling, the extravagance inside this storage space looked as though it belonged to an entirely different person.
The information possibly contained in the jade slips was the true treasure. Qin Shu casually opened one and was instantly drowned beneath a dense flood of text, then closed it again at once. There were so many jade slips that he would never finish reading them alone. He would have to drag the entire household in to help.
He stood dazed for a while, letting his divine sense wander through the enormous space for a long time. Only after quite a while did he remember to call out, “Zhaozhao, Zhaozhao! I found the storage space!”
“Good. Then I’ll pack up the things outside.” Pei Zhao reacted immediately. With a casual gesture, he stored away both the alchemy furnace and the artifact-refining furnace, not even sparing the several luminous pearls of decent quality.
After taking everything valuable from the cave dwelling, Pei Zhao led Qin Shu outside, then started upstairs. “I’ll check his study too. Don’t come with me. Go look through the basement with the white dragon. Once you’ve confirmed there’s nothing left, we’ll leave.”
“Got it.” Qin Shu lifted his chin toward the white dragon. “Let’s go. Stairs are over here… You’re reliable, right? Shrink down so you don’t accidentally touch anything you shouldn’t.”
“Can you stop looking down on me all the time?” The white dragon snorted disdainfully through his nose, but obediently reduced himself to the length of a small snake and slithered silently down the cold steps.
The basement was black and lightless. Heavy, icy air rushed toward them, chilling even the spaces between their bones, accompanied by a thick, ominous stench of blood. Qin Shu did not recklessly turn on the lights. He only took out his phone and switched on the flashlight.
One human and one dragon descended the stairs, then stopped at the basement entrance at the same time. They stood in silence for a moment, neither willing to go in first.
Because the room was filled with corpses.