Qin Shu knew nothing about what had happened outside. He really had gotten drunk.
When he was only slightly tipsy, his body stopped obeying him. It would lean against Pei Zhao on its own, instinctively trying to dress him up, kiss him, and hug him, impossible to shake off.
But at that stage Qin Shu’s mind was actually still very clear. He could remember what had happened and knew what he was doing. It was just that every command issued by his brain seemed to pass through a layer of gauze before reaching his body, unable to transmit properly… or he could only watch helplessly as his body magnified a simple command into a whole series of completely unreasonable movements.
Only after the third citrus-scented cocktail did Qin Shu become truly drunk enough for his consciousness to turn hazy.
Everything before his eyes blurred. He could only sense one familiar scent and touch, and only one familiar voice could reach him clearly. Everything else became meaningless noise that did not need attention or thought. None of it had anything to do with him.
This was what complete, genuine relaxation actually felt like.
Qin Shu had never slept so well in his life.
He did not actually get headaches from drinking. His body had already metabolized the alcohol completely. The uncontrollable haze and dizziness came instead from an innate intolerance in his soul. He knew this because yesterday, while his mind was still clear, he had heard the conversation between Pei Zhao and Yuxu and remembered every word.
His incomplete soul was no longer a private suspicion he had been secretly entertaining alone. It was a fact, one that barely affected his everyday life and did not even need to be repaired urgently.
Then there was nothing to worry about.
Qin Shu took it in stride. He threw back the blanket, lazily stretched out a hand, dragged Pei Zhao, who was sitting beside the bed reading, back down, and wrapped him in his arms. “Morning!”
“Pretty energetic.” Pei Zhao did not resist. He adjusted himself with practiced ease, rested his head on Qin Shu’s chest, and kept his gaze fixed on the bamboo manuscript in his hands without moving it even slightly.
“I blacked out a little. What happened afterward?” Qin Shu kissed his hair, trying to detect any trace of yesterday’s events in the glossy black strands, but they were as soft and smooth as ever, with no suspicious creases anywhere.
“Toward the end, you became very obedient.” Pei Zhao’s lips curved slightly. He thought for a moment. “Whatever I told you to do, you did. Stupidly obedient, like a robot that only knows how to follow instructions.”
Qin Shu laughed. Thinking back to his hazy state yesterday, only Pei Zhao’s scent, voice, and touch had been able to pierce through that barrier and appear clearly in his perception. It was not surprising at all.
He muttered quietly, “I knew I behaved really well this time. No wonder you’re still willing to sit beside the bed today instead of staying eight hundred meters away from me.”
“Did you sleep comfortably?” Pei Zhao finally looked away from the ancient text in his hands and tilted his head toward Qin Shu.
“Extremely relaxed… No wonder you suddenly agreed to let me drink. You’d already arranged a way for me to unwind and rest in advance.” Qin Shu narrowed his eyes. “Greatest brain alive, aren’t you tired from thinking about this many things every day?”
“I’m used to it.” Pei Zhao did not discuss the topic further and smoothly changed direction. “If you’re rested, get ready for class. This afternoon we’ll train with Yuxu. The formation still needs safer, more stable improvements, and you need to adapt to it several more times… I want to rescue Ao Run before the New Year.”
“Sure. Full support from me. What are we training?”
“Do you still dare to look directly into the void with your own eyes?” Pei Zhao was silent for a moment as he looked at him.
“Of course.” Qin Shu raised an eyebrow. “It’s definitely dark, but not that frightening. The most terrifying thing was that God of Wealth’s snot. Just remembering it gives me chills.”
“Good. Then we’ll simulate it first and move on to real practice. Let your soul adapt completely to the chaos coming from the void so nothing else goes wrong later. With the Five Manifestation Gods of Wealth stationed there, your safety can be guaranteed.”
Pei Zhao had already worked out an entire series of plans. “You’ve succeeded once before, so Jing City’s fracture is the most suitable place for repeated training. Yuxu being there also guarantees the stability of the external environment.”
“Will this make my soul power grow faster too? Pressure creates growth. Feels like another good shortcut for accelerating cultivation.”
“Mm. This isn’t only preparation for the next rescue operation… it’s also training against your inner demon.” Pei Zhao paused and became slightly more serious. “A soul cultivator is bound to produce an inner demon. Yours still hasn’t truly appeared, not even when you were guiding spirits a few days ago. That’s later than I expected. Far too late. The later it appears, the stronger it will be.”
“Why… does appearing later make it stronger?”
“The more experiences you accumulate, the more achievements you gain, the more complicated your memories become. That means the inner demon has more material to exploit and distort into weapons.” Pei Zhao stored the bamboo manuscript away and said softly, “Its weapons are your memories, your consciousness, and your understanding of the world. The stronger you become, the stronger it becomes. It’s simple.”
“Got it. Then the void really is the perfect place to train the mind.” Qin Shu drew a deep breath. “That feeling like you’re about to go insane, those chaotic extreme thoughts that seem real enough to fool you, are they a lot like what happens when an inner demon erupts?”
“Exactly. Learn to overcome it again and again, conquer it again and again. Then when your inner demon truly appears, it won’t catch you completely unprepared.”
“…All right. Up!”
Qin Shu liked plans that were organized and goal-oriented, especially when Pei Zhao was the one making them. The certainty that they would succeed always filled Qin Shu’s chest like an invisible syringe of adrenaline.
His method of getting out of bed was impressively dramatic. He lifted Pei Zhao together with the blanket, placed him steadily on the neatly arranged desk, recklessly pinched his cheeks and kissed him several times, then enthusiastically opened the wardrobe and picked out clothing that matched Pei Zhao’s color scheme.
Breakfast was handled at the Jing City University cafeteria, while lunch came from another restaurant enthusiastically recommended by Su Ting Lian. Their daytime schedule was fairly full too. One alcohol-appreciation class had been enough. For the remaining time, following Yuxu’s recommendation, Qin Shu chose almost entirely outdoor activities.
Get closer to nature, regulate his mood, and let the wooden bead Yuxu had given him do its work too.
So within a single week, Qin Shu mysteriously found three phones, two wallets stuffed with credit cards, several sets of car keys, and one classmate’s carefully prepared notes for a chemistry competition in various random places. One of the sets of car keys even belonged to Teacher Ouyang.
Perhaps because he had been interacting too often with the Five Manifestation Gods of Wealth, the wealth-attracting effect was becoming slightly too conspicuous. Fortunately, the bead’s ability to calm the mind, ward off evil, and avoid misfortune was just as effective.
Every day Yuxu and Pei Zhao discussed increasingly fine details of the formation’s design, constantly modifying it to conserve resources and improve stability. Qin Shu’s practical training throughout the week was equally successful.
Looking into the void still tormented him every time. Each time he linked with the formation spirit, he had to exhaust his mind to make sure he did not carry out some bizarre extreme impulse. But it did get better every time, because his body’s ability to withstand pressure always grew faster than his mind did.
Three days later, when Yuxu used the dragon pearl to output the same amount of powerful spiritual energy, Qin Shu no longer vomited blood easily, and the repeated fractures in his bones gradually disappeared. Once his body stopped bearing pressure beyond its limits, the burden his mind had to share also decreased.
A few days after that, the two of them sat beside the pond eating the assignments they had made during a baking class. Qin Shu had produced an enormous tray of matcha cookies, while Pei Zhao had made a terrifyingly large caramel Basque cheesecake.
Qin Shu had already forcibly distributed a large portion among their classmates, but there was still far too much left. The rest had to be handled by the two of them.
So Qin Shu made a rapid trip to the campus gate, bought two extra-large milk teas, and sat down with Pei Zhao in silence to force themselves through this sudden afternoon tea.
Cookies could be stored longer, but dairy-based desserts were different. Qin Shu split the remaining cake into two portions, then brazenly dug an enormous spoonful out of Pei Zhao’s share and swallowed it almost whole. “Have you picked a date to rescue Ao Run?”
“Mm. Yuxu calculated one. It’s not a perfect auspicious day, but it’s good enough. We’ll go there and back quickly, finish it overnight, and won’t need to skip class.”
“Go there and back quickly… then there’s no need to book tickets. Let the white dragon fly us.” Qin Shu looked thoughtful. “If we leave early enough, we can take a look at the scenery in Hai City along the way. Supposedly the beaches there are especially beautiful, that crystal-clear glass-sea kind of place. I’ve never seen one in person.”
He had seen something similar inside the Living Water Village ghost domain, but back then he had lost his memories and Liu Yang Yang had been standing naked on the beach… There had been far too much going on to appreciate the natural scenery.
“We can arrive before sunset. No problem.” Pei Zhao looked beneath the clear pond water, opened his mouth, and ate the cookie Qin Shu offered him in one bite. “Ao Wang, heard that? Don’t run around too much these next few days. Catch fewer fish. Be careful not to anger the river god and get detained.”
The moment he finished speaking, the peaceful pond exploded into churning spray. The white dragon’s enormous head abruptly surfaced. Clear droplets slid over his snow-white scales, scattering crystalline light beneath the afternoon sun.
If Qin Shu had not known the white dragon for so long already, he would absolutely have pulled out his phone, taken three hundred photos, and sent them to all his friends for admiration.
But when he remembered that this fantastically beautiful spectacle came from an immature little dragon inexplicably hiding in somebody else’s university pond to catch fish… Qin Shu sighed, quietly extended his fork, and stole another half piece of cake from Pei Zhao.
“River god?” The white dragon shook his head and stared with bewildered golden eyes. “This pathetic little pond has a river god too?”
“This is Jing City. Local gods of every size are everywhere. You didn’t know?” Qin Shu could not help laughing. “This pond isn’t stagnant either. It shares the same water system as Jing City’s main river. Watch your mouth. If Pei Zhao weren’t sitting here keeping an eye on things, someone might already have come out to spank you.”
“You!”
The white dragon choked for a moment. He instinctively wanted to answer with something crude and uncivilized, but after a brief pause he forced it back down, only letting out a muffled snort before changing the subject with one curt reply. “Call me before you leave. I’ll sleep here.”
Then he avoided Pei Zhao’s gaze and slipped straight back beneath the water. His snow-white body quietly vanished among the ripples.
“What happened to him?” Qin Shu stared. “Why did he suddenly start behaving on his own?”
“Maybe he lacked maternal affection growing up and finally got some of it back,” Pei Zhao guessed with a tilt of his head. “His mother died young, in an accident.”
“I see. Thank goodness for Senior Yuxu, seriously… Speaking of which, Zhaozhao…” Qin Shu fell silent for a moment, finally too embarrassed to steal any more cake from Pei Zhao and putting down his fork instead. “When you were a little dragon, your family…”
“Don’t be so careful. I don’t have trauma about it.”
Pei Zhao smiled and said leisurely, “My family was happy. The clan was harmonious. My parents loved each other. I was an only child and received a normal, systematic education. I was also the youngest shen dragon. In the beginning, I was spoiled even worse than Ao Wang. Otherwise, I never would’ve secretly crossed the Nine Provinces just to see you once.”
Qin Shu raised an eyebrow. “So you were especially willful? Honestly, I can still tell. That’s basically your nature. You only do what you want to do. Very good.”
“Very good?” Pei Zhao tilted his head, apparently not understanding the compliment.
“Who doesn’t want the person they like to be able to do whatever they want?”
The answer was so simple and direct that Pei Zhao imagined it from the opposite perspective and was convinced instantly. “…Mm. Very reasonable.”
“Zhaozhao, dragons live for an incredibly long time, right? Lots of records mention it. You’re practically as long-lived as Heaven and Earth. Then where did all the other shen dragons go?” Qin Shu rested a hand on Pei Zhao’s shoulder and squeezed gently.
Since Pei Zhao had already emphasized that there was no need to be overly cautious, Qin Shu simply asked directly. He wanted to understand more.
“They died in battle. An honorable death.” Pei Zhao answered seriously. “Around the time of the Severing of Heaven and Earth and the fall of Mount Luofeng, law and order failed, spiritual energy dried up, evil beings ran rampant, and the Blood Calamity spread everywhere. Humans and yao cultivators alike were struggling to survive. To preserve as much living strength as possible, the older dragons without divine offices all died on the battlefield. Not only dragons. Humans did the same.”
He had stopped grieving over it long ago. Time was the best anesthetic, and Pei Zhao had already lived in this world longer than his parents ever had. More importantly, they had died in a worthy cause and with dignity. In prosperous ages, that sort of death had been considered worthy of songs and celebration.
“So you’re the only shen dragon left alive?”
“Mm.” Pei Zhao paused. “More or less.”
“Then Pei Zhao, can you still… forget it. You don’t need to become what you once were. You’re perfectly fine like this.”
Qin Shu did not pursue the question. Everyone already knew what he had left unfinished.
Pei Zhao did not need the power of a dragon pearl to keep himself functioning. He could still do what a shen dragon could do, yet he was stronger than Lord Zhaoyuan had once been and had a better chance of surviving a chaotic age. That was enough.
After finishing the cake, they carried the remaining matcha cookies to the cave and continued the day’s unfinished practical training.
Qin Shu sat at the center of the formation, closed his eyes tightly, and looked into the void at the same time.
It was only noise.
＊
Several days later, on a quiet afternoon, the white dragon leapt out of the pond.
Taking advantage of the security guard looking elsewhere, he silently hovered in midair and shook every drop of water from his body.
The movement was meticulous and serious, far more patient than usual. The reason was simple: the passengers were different this time.
Yuxu would be traveling with them, bringing the necessary dragon pearl and the other supporting tools.
Every one of them carried treasures valuable enough to trigger bloodshed if word got out. Ordinary cultivators were not the only risk. Yao, demons, ghosts, and other creatures hiding in the shadows could also become unpredictable factors.
To ensure that nobody was left alone and exposed to some unknown accident, traveling as a group was the safest option.
And the white dragon, their designated mode of transportation, did not feel humiliated in the slightest. If anything, he secretly felt a nervous excitement.
He was about to rescue his imperial father, and he could even personally bring his father’s old flame to him. Who would dare call him the most useless dragon prince of the West Sea after this?!
Cough. Of course, that childish competitive instinct, directed at nobody in particular, was only part of it. More importantly, he genuinely wanted Yuxu to approve of him.
Never in his life had the white dragon flown this steadily. He made sure everyone on his back sat comfortably and securely, without any abrupt turbulence or drops. Control was a very complicated and profound discipline for the white dragon.
Coalball, standing on the dragon’s head, discovered that even his thick fur was not being blown all over the place. Confused, he paced back and forth.
Along the way, he could not resist transforming into the heads of various dead people and leaning out to look at the distant scenery beneath the white dragon, repeatedly confirming that they really were in flight.
The behavior startled Qin Shu over and over again, almost distracting him completely from looking at the scenery.
“Coalball, don’t use Zuo Zhe’s head! Bad luck, bad luck!”
“No, who is this old lady?! Where did you see an old woman this terrifying?”
“…Fine. Grand Shaman Chen’s head is acceptable. But don’t mess around like this in front of Liu Yang Yang and Chen Shui. If they lose control and want to hit you, I absolutely won’t help.” Qin Shu closed his eyes. “They’ll beat you flat into a pancake.”
The white dragon listened shamelessly to their ridiculous conversation. He could not help imagining the black fluffball with an old man’s head getting flattened into a thin pancake, and a snorting laugh escaped him.
The vibration rumbled through his chest. Yuxu, jostled slightly by it, casually reached out and held one of his dragon horns. Then she laughed too. “Ao Wang, this is more like you.”
“…Oh. Cough.”
The white dragon went rigid all over and almost forgot how to fly. He wobbled around several thick clouds for quite a while before Yuxu reminded him that they had already reached their destination.
Anping Town, an ordinary coastal town in western Huaguo. The white dragon had raced along the coastline all the way here. Even while keeping the flight smooth and steady, the journey had taken only a little over ten minutes.
True to the ping in its name, the town lay across a broad plain with no tall, continuous mountain ranges, and neither the main dragon vein nor its branches extended into the area. From high in the air the terrain was even easier to see. Mountains rose much farther away, poking through the clouds with a hazy, snow-colored cold glow.
But none of that romantic coolness seemed to touch the soil of the town itself.
“How strange. A few dozen kilometers farther out, everywhere else is mountains. Only this little patch around Anping Town is completely level with the sea…” Qin Shu paused and sighed softly. “The water is so clean.”
There was no sandy beach along the coast, only a forest of dark stone. Pure, translucent pale-blue seawater covered it, leaving every bizarrely shaped rock fully visible beneath the surface.
Just over ten meters farther out, the depth multiplied abruptly. The seawater turned into wide stretches of thick, mysterious deep blue, separated from the pale shallows by a sharp boundary visible to the naked eye.
“Anping Town’s mountains are in the sea. Go only a little farther offshore and you reach sheer cliffs beneath the deep water, a bottomless abyss.” Pei Zhao looked toward the dense deep-blue color. “This is the original site of the true West Sea Dragon Palace, something very few people in the world know. The temples and palaces elsewhere were only extensions of the Dragon Palace.”
His meaning was clear. No matter how grand and imposing Jiangcheng’s Dragon Palace might appear, it could never compare with the orthodox palace once ruled by an actual Dragon King.
Beneath the prosperous, extravagant surface had been a quiet, hidden true residence that outsiders could not easily reach.
“White dragon, did you grow up here?” Qin Shu suddenly understood. “The scenery’s great. How long has it been since you came back? You nearly went the wrong way.”
“I never came back after I reached adulthood. This place is boring as hell. Just one flat patch of land. In ancient times wars couldn’t reach it, merchants were blocked on the other side of the mountains, and there weren’t even any beautiful wild beasts… Hmph. The locals are all boring too. Even the Tudigong is that honest, silent type. I bet nothing new has happened here in thousands of years.”
“Isn’t peace and stability a good thing? Your father got exiled into the void. What, you still want something more exciting than that?”
“…Qin Shu, can you say things a little more nicely?!”
“I’m already here. Obviously I’m here to save him.” Qin Shu laughed and stopped teasing. “Senior Yuxu, where exactly is the fracture? Zuo Zhe’s map only circled the town itself. There doesn’t seem to be any obvious landmark…”
“Yes, the buildings in Anping Town all look fairly similar. It really is hard to find.” Yuxu spread out her divine sense. “Ao Run mentioned it to me before. It isn’t along the coast. It’s inside an abandoned auditorium closer to the town center.”
“Let me look. Auditorium, auditorium… Is it the place marked West Sea Television Station? The building beside it looks like an auditorium. The sign’s already been removed.” Qin Shu did not need divine sense. His eyes alone were enough to see Anping Town clearly. He patted the back of the white dragon’s neck. “Let’s go. Down for a look.”
The white dragon said nothing and immediately obeyed, diving downward with a restlessness he could not completely hide.
But they did not rush all the way in. Halfway there, the white dragon braked sharply, changed direction with everyone still on his back, and silently settled onto a tree.
Behind West Sea Television Station was a residential compound for employees. They hid among the branches of an enormous old banyan tree, its dense, heavy leaves providing perfect cover and keeping all of them buried inside the shadows.
There were people inside the auditorium. More than one. In fact, an intense battle involving what looked like a large criminal group had suddenly erupted right before their eyes.
There was the sound of something □□ being detonated. It had suddenly carried into the sky before the white dragon even approached, followed by both sides shouting at one another and police warnings blaring around the area.
Elio’s Notes: The supplied raw contains □□ immediately before “being detonated,” so the exact object or explosive device is missing from the source and is not reconstructed here.
“…What is happening?” Qin Shu stared blankly for a moment and looked through a side window into the smoke-filled auditorium. “No. The police are going inside. We need to find a way to get all of them out. If anyone accidentally approaches the fracture, they’ll all die.”
As he spoke, he jumped directly from the treetop, rapidly reached the staff passage at the back of the auditorium, avoided the police cars’ line of sight, and headed inside.
But he had not even taken two steps before someone collided with him in the smoke. Or rather, someone ran into Qin Shu. Qin Shu had seen the man in advance and simply chose not to avoid him.
It was a strong middle-aged man carrying a crude hunting shotgun. He was tall and straight-backed, actually quite handsome, with a sharp trace of outlaw ferocity in his brows and eyes.
“…Dad?”
Qin Shu narrowed his eyes, confirmed his judgment again, and irritably snatched the shotgun away. “Qin You Wei, do you have a death wish?”