This really could not be blamed entirely on Qin Shu. Anyone who saw a bloody umbilical cord flying toward them… even one of ordinary size would probably fail to respond with sufficient composure.
And this enormous umbilical cord, large enough to trigger a full-blown case of megalophobia, had not even managed to get properly close before Qin Shu slapped it viciously down into the depths of the Blood Sea.
Thanks to his previous combat training, Qin Shu was extremely good at striking through empty space. His familiarity with the deep sea as a battlefield was second only to fighting on flat ground. And because he had been startled, he had genuinely used a little too much strength.
The water shook, the buildings trembled, the Yellow Springs churned… The impact was far too powerful. After sinking into the roaring waves for an instant, that unreasonable flesh-red umbilical cord was not only completely unharmed by Qin Shu’s strike, it was pushed back upward by the equally powerful recoil and burst out of the Blood Sea.
Only then did Qin Shu realize that the section of umbilical cord he had seen before was only about one-tenth of its full volume.
It was no longer merely comparable to an adult elephant. It was more like an extra-long, extra-wide jumbo airliner. Calling it an aircraft carrier would not even be an exaggeration.
In an instant, a vast rain of blood fell over the dim ghost city. Fortunately, they were at the deepest part of the seabed. The umbilical cord forced out of the Blood Sea could not keep rising. It wobbled in the water, then fell back again without struggling and sank into the Blood Sea.
For some reason, Qin Shu could even read a faint wilted, dejected emotion from that hideous, wet strip of flesh. It was almost as though… it had been hurt by Qin Shu’s reaction too.
Was this normal?
Was this reasonable?
“…Zhaozhao.”
“Mm.”
Qin Shu coughed and turned toward Pei Zhao’s blank expression. “Um… why aren’t you saying anything?”
Pei Zhao was silent for a moment, then turned toward Qin Shu as well. His face carried an unusually genuine blankness, almost dazed.
Only after a long pause did he murmur softly, “Qin Shu, I think that’s Pangu’s umbilical cord.”
“…Huh? I’ve never seen it before. Have you?”
“I haven’t either. But Fengdu’s Blood Sea was formed from Pangu’s navel.”
As Pei Zhao spoke, he blinked slowly, then glanced toward the surging crimson waves before them, his tone slightly unnatural. “If the Underworld Emperor intends to rebuild the true Blood Sea here, then that umbilical cord can only belong to Pangu… It looks incomplete. That seems to be the only piece he has.”
“Huh?” Qin Shu blinked instinctively along with him. The vicious edge awakened by the accident vanished completely.
He had gotten himself into something enormous!
He had actually slapped Pangu’s umbilical cord!
Qin Shu’s mood became extraordinarily complicated, because he now understood his own origins quite clearly, even if the distant past had long since become chaotic and remote.
The first time he was born, he had not been a baby. He had opened his eyes already a gigantic monster, crouched on equally gigantic ancient vegetation. In the distance was a world still taking shape; nearby flowed the young, immature Yellow Springs.
He had bitten a petal beneath his feet and disliked the taste. Then he bit an evil creature passing by and found it delicious.
Rounding generously, he was a child of this land. Rounding even more generously, what Pangu’s umbilical cord represented and the power it contained could basically count as his true biological father and mother.
Which meant what he had just done… could only be described as an earth-shattering display of filial piety.
Pei Zhao had clearly thought of the same thing, which was why his expression had become so unusually unnatural. He genuinely wanted to laugh, but the situation also really did not seem appropriate.
The two stood there in a daze, staring at the endlessly churning waves of the Blood Sea, speechless for a very long time.
Pei Zhao was the first to sense that something was wrong. He turned and poked Qin Shu in the waist. “How much force did you use just now?”
“…A lot. A lot of force.”
“No wonder the waves still haven’t stopped.” Pei Zhao grabbed him and turned away. “Let’s go outside and look.”
Qin Shu’s heart sank. Without saying a word, he immediately hurried after him.
They followed the Yellow Springs out of the ghost city and returned to the real seabed of the human world. Only then did they understand just how absurdly powerful Qin Shu’s slap had been.
There had been an undersea earthquake. Continuous shockwaves spread outward ring after ring. The residual force was still relentlessly shaking rock and sediment, turning everything in their vision into murky chaos.
Amid the shifting sand and stone, light from magical power flickered. Qin Shu followed the glow and discovered that the snake yao were casting a formation together.
The impact had knocked them unsteady, and they had no idea what had happened, but none of them panicked. Their enormous heavy tails intertwined across the seabed, with Chang Liu Yi at the center holding a circular artifact. Together, they forcibly pulled back an earth vein that had nearly cracked apart completely.
Qin Shu did not dare publicly admit that he had assaulted an umbilical cord. He first sent Chang Liu Yi a private voice transmission, quickly explained the chain of events, then watched her expression become complicated too.
“Ahem… Little Qin, the seawater is being pushed upward. If we want to disperse the force completely, we have to let this impact leave the water. We can guarantee the seabed won’t split apart,” Chang Liu Yi paused, “but there may be a tsunami.”
“We’ll go up and look right now!”
There was no time for extended discussion. Qin Shu understood perfectly how serious this was.
When they left the seabed, the residual shock had not yet reached the surface, but the sea level near the port had already begun rising slowly. It looked peaceful, yet the change was visible to the naked eye.
If you could directly watch the sea level rising, the situation was already extremely urgent.
While Qin Shu called Tang Rui Cheng, Pei Zhao immediately contacted Yuxu as well and told her to bring Ao Run over quickly to help. He also had the white dragon summoned so it could broaden its horizons.
The force of nature was not something ordinary cultivators could casually move. Qin Shu and Pei Zhao were not incapable of stopping a tsunami, but doing it themselves would be exhausting and carried a high risk of backlash. Their affinities simply did not match.
Dragon Kings were different. Their species was born to govern clouds and rain and naturally knew how to control the rise and fall of water.
In theory, the white dragon, as Ao Run’s son, should also have been born skilled at it. But judging from what happened when Jiangcheng flooded before… it really did not seem very good at this.
This was the perfect opportunity. The white dragon absolutely had to come for remedial training.
“Actually, it wouldn’t matter if we let them stay,” Pei Zhao said blandly after Qin Shu ended the call. “If you’re worried this will make the news, we can move the nearby fishing boats and passenger ships away, set a barrier between sea and shore, then use a concealment spell to hide the tsunami. As long as the barrier holds, no one will notice.”
“Zhaozhao, we came here to travel, not to work. You have to learn to distribute the workload to people who are actually good at it.”
As Qin Shu spoke, he looked left and right, confirmed there were no airplanes nearby, then wrapped an arm around Pei Zhao and simply lay down on a cloud. He found a comfortable angle and spread his wings beneath them.
“Think about it. Moving hundreds of tons of ships away is exhausting. Then you have to find a safe, empty place to set them down and use another concealment spell to fool everyone’s perception. After the tsunami is dealt with, you have to move everyone back and pretend nothing happened. Mm… by my calculations, at least three concealment spells.”
Pei Zhao tilted his head, propped himself up, and looked at Qin Shu. “That doesn’t sound exhausting. I’m good at that.”
“No.”
“Oh.”
Pei Zhao lay back down and nestled into Qin Shu’s open wings. After a moment of silence, he asked softly, “Are you a little unhappy?”
“I just think you’ve worked too hard. When I threw you into Jiangcheng back then… I wanted you to rest and enjoy yourself. The great affairs of the world shouldn’t be your responsibility anymore. And today’s mess is something I caused. If someone else can solve it, and we can even see some friends along the way, then there’s no reason to tire you out again.”
Qin Shu’s tone was very serious. The longer Pei Zhao listened, the more stubbornly he insisted, “Something this simple wouldn’t tire me at all.”
Qin Shu could not resist poking his cheek. “Being too smart has disadvantages too, Zhaozhao. Does your brain ever stop?”
“It stays stopped the whole time when we’re in bed.” Pei Zhao answered calmly and naturally rubbed his cheek against Qin Shu’s hand, then kissed the tip of Qin Shu’s finger.
Qin Shu’s breathing caught. His serious attitude from moments earlier vanished instantly. He snapped his wings shut around the two of them. “…Ancestor, don’t provoke me in the sky!”
“You haven’t gotten angry with me in a long time,” Pei Zhao murmured.
Qin Shu murmured right back, “Why would I randomly get angry at you when I have a perfectly good relationship to enjoy? If anything, shouldn’t you be angry with me today?”
“Mm… I shouldn’t be. Even if I should, you can compensate me tonight and pretend to be angry.” Pei Zhao’s voice grew quieter. “Make it convincing.”
Qin Shu truly had no defense against Pei Zhao.
He discovered that Pei Zhao’s art of speaking in front of him seemed to be getting more and more advanced. Being smart really was different. Pei Zhao could casually find a way to make even Qin Shu’s hair stand on end like a hedgehog’s.
Qin Shu forced himself to maintain a little dignity. “You still aren’t allowed to provoke me in the sky! The Five Lakes and Four Seas can all see us. They’re probably arriving any second. Pei Zhao, behave with your hands!”
Facts proved Qin Shu’s prediction completely correct. They had barely been lying there before everyone they had called arrived.
Ao Run and Yuxu were preparing for their wedding and seemed even more affectionate than before. They had actually arrived holding hands.
The white dragon followed behind them looking deeply unhappy. When it saw Qin Shu and Pei Zhao also cuddling comfortably together, the sour stench of romance around it nearly knocked it unconscious.
It would probably remain single for life. Its mental balance might never recover, because its ideal partner was an extremely violent, slightly unhinged, intelligent female dragon who would force it into submission.
But as for being unhinged enough to nearly kill each other… in the entire world, Xiao Zhu had been the only dragon who fit that description.
So the white dragon had basically accepted reality now. If it had the ability to kill Qin Shu, it absolutely would. If killing Qin Shu could bring Xiao Zhu back, it absolutely would.
But it simply did not have that ability.
Not only did it lack the ability, somehow it had muddled its way into becoming what Qin Shu called a Pokémon. And now Pei Zhao apparently did not even trust its skill at commanding clouds and rain and had insisted on making it fly all the way from Jiangcheng for remedial study.
“Can you two pay attention to the setting?!” the white dragon snapped through gritted teeth, immediately looking for trouble. “If you want to sleep, go home and sleep! Do you really think the sky is your bed?”
“You’re here?”
Qin Shu ignored it completely. He got up, used the opportunity to shake Ao Run’s hand, and passed Yuxu the grapes he had swiped from the Emperor of Fengdu. “Senior, Pei Zhao already told you what happened. Ahem. I used too much force. Sorry for the trouble.”
Ao Run glanced down at the port and instantly judged the approximate area affected by the impact. He burst into booming laughter on the spot. “Hahaha! Good kid, that’s some strength! No wonder Lord Zhaoyuan thought about you for so many years. Good heavens, that is one hell of a hit!”
Not only did he not consider it troublesome, the more he looked at Qin Shu, the more satisfied he seemed. The white dragon rolled its eyes and nearly said something that would earn it another beating, but Yuxu reached up and pinched its big mouth shut.
Yuxu smiled gently. “It’s fine. We happened to want an excuse to come out and get some peace. A human marrying a dragon is such a hassle. Ao Run’s eldest brother has been forcing us to prepare paperwork lately…”
“Exactly! It’s unbelievably annoying. Who knows where that old Jade Emperor ran off to play? Little Yu and I agreed ages ago. Get the human marriage certificate, hold the banquet at the Dragon Palace, put the union in the clan genealogy, and our marriage is completely legitimate. Only my stuffy eldest brother insists on following every rule and procedure. He even nitpicks the design of my marriage document!”
Ao Run complained with his hands on his hips. As he talked and laughed, his head had already transformed into an enormous dragon head, and his voice grew louder and louder until it rolled across the sky like muffled thunder.
He opened his huge mouth toward the steadily rising sea level, as though turning his irritation into motivation, and took one enormous breath.
A waterspout carrying its own vortex shot into the sky like rain falling upward. Most of the seawater disappeared into the Dragon King’s stomach. The remaining water transformed into a steady downpour and fell from the sky amid flashes of lightning.
In an instant, torrential rain poured over Hai City Port.
Tang Rui Cheng was smart. He had not shouted that a tsunami was coming. Instead, he randomly yelled the name of a celebrity, grabbed his classmates, pretended they had spotted the star, and sprinted inland… Simply exploiting everyone’s instinctive love of excitement was enough to pull most idle people away from the port.
The remaining passersby heard the rolling thunder and hurried back toward safer areas as well.
Qin Shu relaxed slightly. With great interest, he lay back down on the cloud and raised one wing to block the rain, watching Ao Run’s belly grow larger and larger. His figure changed from that of a tall, powerfully built handsome uncle into one with a full and proper general’s belly.
Only today did Qin Shu learn that Senior Yuxu was also an astonishing person.
Normally, she did like Ao Run and care about him. But only after seeing this enormous wall-like dragon head attached to a general’s belly did Yuxu’s eyes light up for the first time. She even took commemorative photos and repeatedly ran her hands over that round, beautifully textured leather ball.
“Ao Wang, study hard.” Yuxu’s voice dropped to an eerie softness. “Look at your imperial father. So mighty and imposing.”
White Dragon: …
Qin Shu: …
All of the white dragon’s irritation vanished instantly. It completely forgot what it had been angry about and only regretted that its eyes were too large to somehow go blind.
Qin Shu was speechless too. He secretly sent Pei Zhao a voice transmission. “I suddenly think that in a human-yao relationship, one side always has to have very unusual taste. That’s how the relationship lasts.”
Pei Zhao blinked in confusion. “Mm?”
Pei Zhao apparently had no idea why the two of them were shocked.
“…Zhaozhao, do you think Ao Run looks handsome like that?” Qin Shu’s heart tightened and he cautiously followed up.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
Pei Zhao slowly nodded. After thinking seriously, he lowered his voice and suddenly confessed something very strange. “Every living thing other than you looks ugly. I can’t distinguish them.”
“…Huh?”
“If someone else is decorated with gemstones, has glossy smooth scales, thick luxuriant fur, or soft reflective skin, then they can indeed give off an attractive overall impression…”
Maybe Qin Shu looked too shocked. As Pei Zhao continued, he shifted his gaze away and his voice grew quieter. “But if I look only at the face, they’re all about average.”
“That’s exactly what I meant!” Qin Shu stared in disbelief. “So that’s it… Zhaozhao, you’re the one with the strangest taste.”
“I disagree.” Pei Zhao’s voice immediately rose, clearly offended. “My taste is excellent.”
“But…”
Qin Shu was about to argue, then thought about it and swallowed the words.
Wasn’t this perfect?
“I was wrong, Pei Zhao. You have the best taste in the entire world.” Qin Shu affirmed him solemnly. Ignoring the white dragon watching beside them, he first leaned in and kissed Pei Zhao hard. “Believe in yourself. Never let anyone else influence you.”
“Mm.”
Pei Zhao was satisfied now. He no longer thought about helping Ao Run and comfortably nestled back into Qin Shu’s arms.
Naturally, by the time their little dispute ended, the seawater inside Ao Run’s belly had basically been dealt with. Returning seawater to the world in the form of a thunderstorm was indeed convenient, though it could not be used too often.
But right now Heaven had no one managing it anyway… Ao Run could not be bothered caring. He would use one spectacular demonstration to teach his son first.
Heavy black clouds gathered over the port. The evening sun was completely blocked, and the city, which should have still been bright, fell into premature darkness as night descended.
At first glance, it looked exactly like the hour when yin energy ran rampant.
Many scattered remnant souls seized the opportunity. They keenly smelled people’s anxiety and danger and swarmed toward the area. The moment they gathered above the sea, however, they were sucked away by the soul-drawing formation built by the Emperor of Fengdu and neatly dragged into the ghost city as laborers.
The formation had standards too.
Someone as strong as Liu Yang Yang could not be sucked in at all, because the underworld was still in early construction and did not need more people sitting in offices as officials.
But if the soul was so weak that a pig butcher could kill it with one slap, it would be shattered by the formation before even reaching the ghost city, fall into the Yellow Springs, and become part of the River of Forgetfulness.
Perhaps because a Dragon King had appeared today and stirred Hai City’s qi, the soul-drawing formation caught quite a few laborers. So when everyone returned to the seabed, curious to see what the umbilical cord Qin Shu described actually looked like…
The moment they entered the ghost city, sinister ghost-miasma rushed over them. The Emperor of Fengdu’s satisfied, miserly laughter still echoed through the air, making Qin Shu’s temples throb.
“Somehow I helped him again.” Qin Shu sighed and led everyone around the palace toward the Blood Sea.
The small section of umbilical cord submerged in the Blood Sea was soaking there quietly, just as before. Its fleshy-red outer skin was smooth and semi-translucent, while beads of blood continuously traced across its surface. It lay coiled in spirals, and the severed end showed marks of tearing, like a strip of flesh ripped away by brute force.
Blood qi surged. The sky above was a damp haze of gloomy red.
Qin Shu narrowed his eyes and looked carefully. Because his extremely forceful slap had never actually touched the umbilical cord itself, it had not left even the slightest mark from the impact.
“Is that really Pangu’s umbilical cord?” Yuxu murmured softly without approaching.
She raised a hand and cast a spell, enclosing herself and the white dragon within protection while covering the dragon’s eyes, preventing the vast yin energy of the Blood Sea from invading their bodies.
Ao Run rubbed his still-expanded belly and nodded solemnly, his tone unusually serious. “The genuine article. That old rascal the Underworld Emperor really is capable, hiding this thing for so many years. Ao Wang, come here and bow to the ancestor.”
The white dragon, which had been enjoying Yuxu petting its head, froze. It looked around and discovered it was the only dragon present who needed to bow… because it was still a child, or at least theoretically the lowest-ranking generation there.
Coming forward alone to bow would let the ancestor take a special look at it and grant smoother cultivation and extra fortune in the future.
The white dragon was not stupid enough to reject such a good thing. It lowered its head and bowed, tail coiling as its snow-jade dragon horns lightly touched the damp sediment.
Blood-stained sand fell across the dragon horns. The dark red vanished in the next instant. The horns remained bright and lustrous, the filth disappearing like melting snow.
The ancestor had stroked its crown. That counted as a successful bow. The white dragon’s future path should become a little smoother.
Qin Shu tilted his head and watched. Out of a subtle sense of awkwardness, he instinctively kept some distance from the umbilical cord and quietly said to Pei Zhao, “What a pity Yaya has a tongzi fate. Otherwise I’d call her over to bow too.”
A child with a tongzi fate who encountered a deity could easily be reclaimed to serve as a child attendant at the deity’s side. It sounded like a bright future, but in reality it meant dying.
Yaya was diligently cultivating under Xu Min’s guidance and working toward truly being born in the future. Liang Ming Yue had even quit smoking in advance, stopping the moment she decided to. Everyone was extremely careful about her, and even Daoist Master Xu did not dare let the little girl come play at his temple.
According to the old man’s hard-earned experience, no one these days could guarantee that working for a god was actually an iron rice bowl… Speaking of which, after Dragon Mother disappeared, Daoist Master Xu knocked down walls and renovated the Dragon Mother Temple, rebuilt it under a completely new image, and gave it a name several times more arrogant than before.
Longhu Youqian Temple.
Translated directly, it was a beautiful vision hoping the Dragon God and Mountain Lord would bless him with money.
Conveniently, Jiangcheng now had an unusually large number of dragons. Even the low-key Jiangcheng Mountain Lord apparently descended from a remarkably powerful White Tiger divine-beast lineage. Daoist Master Xu had deliberately chosen the name to flatter both sides and avoid offending either.
Supported by Daoist Master Xu’s own reputation, the temple’s business was doing quite well. Its trial opening had ended smoothly, and recently it launched a grand opening promotion with twenty percent off. Yellow talismans were all discounted, and larger purchases even came with complimentary consecration service for magical artifacts. Very lively.
Unfortunately, Liang Ming Yue could not bring her daughter hiking up the mountain for now.
Pei Zhao did not think that was unfortunate. He grabbed the white dragon by its horn, lifted its head, turned it left and right, and commented, “Yaya doesn’t need that little extra blessing. The tribulations in her fate have already passed. Things will only get better for her from now on.”
The white dragon looked as though it wanted to say something but stopped itself. Its head was still trapped in Pei Zhao’s hand and could not pull away, so it could only close its eyes angrily.
Qin Shu laughed. “In that case, have all the tribulations in your fate passed too?”
“Hm? Don’t you not believe in this?” Pei Zhao shook his head. “I don’t know. Divining for yourself isn’t accurate.”
“Believe the good parts and ignore the bad ones. Since you can’t calculate your own… Uncle Dragon King, can you calculate it? Do his fortune for him.” Qin Shu grew even more curious.
“Hey, hey, I wouldn’t dare.” Ao Run stroked his beard with a laugh and jokingly brushed the request aside. “I’ve got a wife above me and a son below me. I absolutely can’t recklessly say things that offend people. Little Friend Qin even dares hit the ancestor, and nothing happened after you did it. What tribulation are you still afraid of? Live your life peacefully. Whoever comes to fight, fight them back. That’s what youthful spirit is.”
“Uncle makes a good point. Though I really didn’t do it on purpose…”
Qin Shu coughed awkwardly, took Pei Zhao’s hand, and walked several steps closer to the Blood Sea until the toes of their shoes nearly touched the shallow crimson ripples.
He rummaged through his trouser pocket. From that pocket, which looked incapable of holding much of anything, he successively pulled out an enormous eyeball, an enormous centipede, an enormous Coalball, and an enormous hen… Ao Run’s eyelid twitched violently at the sight.
Peaceful days had gone on long enough that every child in the household had grown rounder than the last, largely because the two of them spoiled them shamelessly.
There was no helping it. Creatures that looked vicious and terrifying to everyone else all looked cute to Qin Shu, while to Pei Zhao they were equally ugly and therefore received no differential treatment.
Pei Zhao raised an eyebrow when he saw what Qin Shu was doing. He casually dragged the white dragon forward too, arranged it in front of Great General, then made all the children sit in a neat row and handed each of them three sticks of incense.
“Ahem. Sorry, Ancestor. In the future I’ll think before acting and try not to hit people randomly, especially you. But I’d better not bow personally this time. I’m afraid I might bow you back to life and bow myself to death instead…”
Qin Shu cleared his throat, felt that his attitude was not serious enough, thought for a moment, and straightened his expression. “Pei Zhao and I are doing very well. Thank you, Ancestor, for tying our red thread. Jiangcheng is peaceful, the Shu region is developing very well now, lots of people in Phoenix Village have proper official posts, and Hai City will become better too.
“There are no wars across the Nine Provinces. Most days, we just study and raise small animals. My parents recently ran off to Africa to see lions. Apparently the family taste in hobbies is hereditary… People say my family ties are shallow, but honestly it’s not so bad, right? This is the information age. Friends keep in touch easily. No matter how far apart we are, we don’t lose contact.
“My childhood friend went off to an agricultural university to study aquaculture. Nobody expected that. He once got his bones broken by someone jumping from a building, then nearly got killed by a demon. He’s traumatized by things that fly through the sky and run across the ground, so only things swimming in the sea still make him feel somewhat safe. Hahaha. And today I almost made the guy run into a tsunami. I don’t even dare tell him the underworld is going to be directly beneath Hai City from now on…
“In the end, friends gather and separate. Everyone has their own path. If they stayed beside me all the time, they might just keep running into bad luck. As for me and Zhaozhao, I don’t think it’s only because we’re hard to kill. You also need to not be afraid of dying, and luckily neither of us is particularly afraid. No matter how many times we die back and forth, we can still live like conjoined twins now. That’s what you call a match made by heaven… This red thread really worked perfectly. Thank you again, Ancestor, for bringing us together.”
By the end, Qin Shu nearly could not stop himself from bowing. After thinking about it, though, he first directed everyone else to light their incense. A large handful of incense sticks ignited at the same time, and warm woody smoke immediately enveloped the Blood Sea.
The smoke blurred the crimson boundary of the shore and quietly softened the features of both men as well.
Neither human nor beast, neither living nor dead, neither righteous nor evil. Body present in this moment while spirit wandered elsewhere, spirit present while the body had no form. Their true appearance emerged only in chaos.
They looked frightening, but when everything was stripped away, they were merely in their purest primordial state. Almost like children. Yet only a very small number of beings in this world could withstand seeing what they truly were.
Before the smoke dispersed, Qin Shu held Pei Zhao’s hand and bowed solemnly.
“Thank you, Ancestor, for tying our red thread.” Pei Zhao spoke softly, a faint smile lifting the corner of his lips. “If I had not seen that red thread when I first opened my eyes in Jiangcheng, I probably would have eaten Jiangcheng long ago. But the red thread remained. You sent him where he wanted to go, and you sent him to my side too.”
“…Eaten Jiangcheng?” Qin Shu’s bent waist snapped upright. He hurriedly covered Pei Zhao’s mouth with one hand.
But he had not covered it tightly enough. Pei Zhao blinked and calmly continued speaking against Qin Shu’s palm. “Mm. I was very hungry then. I could eat a little of anything. I wasn’t picky.”
The more Qin Shu heard, the more nervous he became. “Ancestor, can we secretly discuss this at home? Please don’t say it in front of my actual ancestor…”
Before the sentence ended, there was another slap-like sound. The enormous umbilical cord had silently risen out of the Blood Sea at some point. Its writhing flesh opened wide and swallowed both of them neatly into the warm, dark, blood-seeping tube.
It swallowed them from head to toe in one go, nearly frightening the onlookers to death as well.
But this time Qin Shu endured it. He did not move or struggle. His mind was still entirely occupied with preventing Pei Zhao from saying anything else shockingly brutal… By the time he came back to himself, both of them had already been spat out and were sitting face-to-face on Yuanbao’s back. Their hair was wet and dripping with blood, their faces covered in blood too. They genuinely looked extremely vicious.
“…Was that revenge?” Qin Shu stared at Pei Zhao’s unusually disheveled face. After a long while, he laughed. “You’re so cute.”
Pei Zhao’s lips curved upward. For once, he did not care about his appearance at all. “No. Look down.”
Qin Shu immediately lowered his gaze toward their joined hands and discovered shining red threads wrapped around both of their wrists.
Thicker, larger, longer. A super-double, reinforced red thread.
Because the ancestor had specially upgraded it, their red thread was far too bright and dazzling. Even the enormous gloomy ghost city became filled with flashing red light, as though the Emperor of Fengdu himself were getting married. It was inexplicably festive.
Qin Shu took a deep breath. “Ancestor, I understand. The two of us have to be tied together so tightly we can never separate and go torment anyone else!”
Pei Zhao nodded hard and, unusually, even put an exclamation point into his voice. “Mm!”
“…But how long is this red thread going to glow? How are we supposed to put it away?”
“…I don’t know.”
“Zha… Zhaozhao, even you don’t know?”
“Mm.”
“Then that really was revenge!”
“Why? I think it looks very nice. It’s shiny.”
“…Ahem. Fine. Very nice. Extremely nice.”