Chapter 591: The Queen of Instant Cowardice
"I am!" Lonemoon took a step forward.
The queen shifted her massive body and came slightly closer. A pair of compound eyes the sizes of half a human head each instantly reflected millions of the opposite figure. She laughed coldly after a moment. "Human, you are very brave, do you know that in these few thousand years, you are the first human who dared to come into my nest."
"Queen, I mean no offense." Lonemoon frowned, his impression of the insect race was still left at the horror films from his previous life, all he could was look at the insect before him as a large scale demon monster. "But the egg that you took away is extremely important to us, please return it to us."
"You're referring to this?" She suddenly shifted her belly, and they could see that various types of eggs underneath, the one right in the middle was that colored egg. She directly stretched out two feelers and picked that colored egg up, the pair of icy compound eyes looked towards Lonemoon once again. "You want this egg?" Lonemoon nodded. "Yes."
She suddenly laughed, that laughter was very odd, it sounded like some kind of howling, so sharp that it was slightly ear- piercing, and there was no emotion in it, just like she was simply reading out her lines. "You humans can always discover some weird things. The same goes for this egg, it looks like it doesn't have much energy but in actuality, the energy in here is purer than any other. You all can't tell, but I can feel it."
Lonemoon frowned but heard her continue to say, "Do you know why I'm collecting these eggs?" As if not needing his answer, she then said, "My children's sentience are limited, they think its purely out of liking so they go around finding eggs for me to nest, but they don't know that I've merely taken a fancy to the energy in these eggs, that they can ease the damage on my body."
"The insect race has always depended on the queen for survival, as long as I exist, the insect race will not go extinct." She waved her feelers, rotating the colored egg on it while her voice became lower. "But when I passed through to this Void Land, I suffered unrepairable injuries, this led to my birthing speed dropping severely. As such, our insect race could no longer enjoy the past glory that we had. But this egg could temporarily ease up such injuries, especially this specially pure one."
"…"
"So human…" Her voice dropped, faintly containing some mockery. "Do you think I willr return this to you again?"
Lonemoon's brows knitted even more tightly, in this case, it seems like being reasonable wouldn't work. "Then queen you ought to know that since I dare to come to your nest, I must get that egg and we are not afraid of fighting."
The queen let out that odd laughter once again, the millions of figures in the compound eyes became even clearer, making one very uncomfortable. After a moment, she said, "Human, you don't need to threaten me. From the moment you stepped into this royal court, I could already sense the capabilities on your bodies. You are indeed very strong, but not to the extent where you have no weaknesses."
Lonemoon faltered, after a sense, he instantly felt his body became sluggish, the divine power in his body felt like it was being locked up, this feeling was slightly familiar, just like… the previous time he was forced to marry by the peach flower demon. He was shocked. "The flowers here…"
"Did you finally notice?" The queen's laughter became louder. "Why do you I talked to you here for such a long time, I've said it long before, I am different from those children of mine with low sentience. Whereas you humans have always been arrogant, loving to materialize the other races that do not have human forms."
F*ck! Lonemoon also felt that he was too careless. This queen was more intelligent than the average demon monster, even more cunning than average humans. She'd never thought of giving the colored egg to him, she'd merely set up a trap for him to walk into.
On the other, Buggy was already a little anxious, he glanced at Lonemoon, then peeped at the queen. "My queen…" The natural instincts of his race made he that he could not say anything that could rebut his queen and he could only panic.
"The energy in your body is also quite interesting." The queen directly crawled two steps closer to him, the pair of cold compound eyes now contained some killing intent. "Perhaps after absorbing your energy, my injuries can heal even faster." With that said, she lifted her front legs that resembled big shears.
"On Buggy's account, we do not wish to fight you." Lonemoon's surprise earlier only lasted a moment, he resumed his composure immediately. Back then, that flower demon could control him, was mainly because of he had been drugged, he wasn't sober, it wasn't that those flowers could restrict him, he was a manager after all. "Do you really think that by using these flowers to lock up my divine power, you'd be able to win?"
The queen faltered, seeming to reminded of something, then she smiled again, saying, "Are you talking about the two people outside?" She sneered coldly. "Foolish humans, do you really think they can save you? Alright, anyway all of you will become my food, I do not mind letting you have a reunion."
With that said, she let out another inexplicable sound, in the next second, the footsteps of two people sounded from outside. In moments, two familiar figures reflected on the screen at the entrance. "I would like to see if they too, have such abundant energy, like you?" Once her words fell, two figures walked through the screen into the room. "Naive humans, I will never be defeated…"
Huh?
Her words became stuck as her entire body trembled abruptly like she had been struck by a wave and was in extreme shock. It was a male and a female who walked in, the male was emitting a robust energy all over, whereas the female…
Big… big… big… big devil…
Σ(°△°|||)
With a few spurts, her tail shook as she was so terrified that strings of eggs spurted out.
"Hey!" Shen Ying looked up and swept a glance at the queen. "It's a big insect." "…"
In the next second, the queen, as swift as lightning, laid flat on the ground and raised the egg between her feelers, bringing it to Shen Ying's front.
"Mdm Shen Ying, your egg!"
She became timid in a sparking moment, that caught everyone by surprise! It was as if the person who was swollen with inordinate arrogance earlier, wasn't her.
Lonemoon: "…"
Yi Qing: "…"
Buggy: "…"
Heh heh, indeed, "timidity upon seeing Ying" was a fine tradition of the insect race!
"Oh." Shen Ying reached out and took the egg. Her fingers but twitched but she still managed to hold back from habitually pulling the queen over together.
The queen hastily retracted her feelers and retreated instantly. The whole insect shrank to the other end of the room, her massive body fought to curl up, working hard to reduce her presence. The arrogance from earlier had vanished, like it never existed, she even didn't dare to lay anymore eggs.
Chapter 592: Finding Clues
Lonemoon was speechless, it felt like he had met a fake queen earlier. But he was too lazy to bother with her and walked right towards Shen Ying, looked at the egg in her hands and asked, "How is it Shen Ying, is this the spirit seed?"
Shen Ying frowned, only replying moments later. "Perhaps…" With that said, her hands tighten, with a crack, the spirit seed was crushed.
"Damn, Shen Ying what are you… huh?" He paused midway, instantly stunned. "It's empty!" How could this be, he looked closely at her palms, there was only the empty eggshells, there was nothing in it at all. Even that aura of original source that was initially on it had vanished.
For a moment, the gazes of all three people fell onto a certain massive being.
"It… It has nothing to do with me, Mdm!" The queen shivered as her entire body began trembling, a layer of dust fell from the room, looking like it was about to collapse from her shaking. "I… I've never opened that egg, I only absorbed some of the energy on the shell. Really! I swear!" As she spoke, she lifted eight claws and two feelers, leaving only a huge belly to maintain her shape.
"This spirit seed might not have been in this egg from the start." Yi Qing said in a low voice. "This might be why we couldn't sense its location no matter what in the Immortal Spirit Academy previously." The Qi of the original source on the shell was too weak, without it being in their presence they couldn't sense it too. At the beginning, they'd thought it was because the egg shell was hiding the spirit seed, they didn't expect the spirit seed to not be here at all.
On further thought, Lonemoon thought that makes sense too! It seems like this queen wouldn't dare lie to Shen Ying too. Besides, spirit seeds carried such concentrated Qi of the original source, if it was really in the insect nest, it was impossible that they were unaware.
"What do we do now?" He frowned, their lead was broken again. "Where do we go to find it?"
"The egg shell is here now, then it's highly possible that the spirit seed had already broken away from this form." Yi Qing also frowned. "Right now we do not know what form it will appear in, we're indeed at a loss of where to start looking."
Both of them went silent, they didn't think it would be a futile attempt.
"Why don't we find and ask fish bone?" Shen Ying suddenly suggested.
"What fish bone?" Lonemoon was confused then came to a realization a moment after. "You're referring to Ling Wen Xuan? Why him?"
On the other hand, Yi Qing faltered before hastily reminding, "Father Niu, do you remember how Ling Wen Xuan injured his legs?"
"Ah?" Lonemoon was still lost. "Didn't they say it was during a mission from the academy that he met a demon monster and even brought this spirit… damn!" He was instantly enlightened, his eyes widened abruptly. "Could it be that he was the one to bring this spirit seed back?!" Ling Hong had mentioned to him that the first prize of the league was something that was found during the time Ling Wen Xuan injured his legs in a mission. This proved that they must have encountered danger before finding it, Ling Wen Xuan was even injured, then he naturally ought to know what happened then.
"Let's go, we'll go back to find him!" He walked out directly, Shen Ying and Yi Qing followed.
In a moment's time, three people disappeared from the room. A certain massive being that was still curled up in a corner then sighed in relief carefully, while still not daring to let out sounds there were too loud, afraid of bringing the people who'd already left back.
She actually didn't die, she was actually still alive, her race was still well! She really wanted to cry…
——————
The few of them flew very quickly, in less than ten minutes they were back in Yang City and heading right for Ling Hong's house. Ling Hong had gone to the academy, when they arrived, he'd yet to return, Ling Wen Xuan who opened the door was stunned for a moment when he saw them before he ushered them in.
"My three benefactors, why are you here?" He was delighted and invited them to sit. In the short period of a few days, his legs had already recovered, he could walk like a normal person. Lonemoon swept a glance and found that the demonic aura in his body had completely dissipated and he had resumed his Golden Core cultivation.
"I was intending on personally paying you a visit to give my thanks after my brother returns, I didn't expect you all to come here first." He looked at the three of them and questioned after a thought came to mind. "I remember that it is the day of the finals today, why did Ling Hong not return together?"
"We had something on so we left first." Lonemoon replied, "We disrupted you today because we had a matter that we wanted to ask Fellow Daoist Ling for some information about."
"You're too polite, just call me Wen Xuan." His smile was exceedingly gentle. "The recovery of my legs was all thanks to the help of you guys. Wherever you need, please feel free to let me know, climbing a mountain of swords or plunging into a sea of flames, I will not say no."
"Not at all, fellow daoist." Lonemoon habitually said a word of courtesy.
We only helped to refine the fish bone, it's not considered any great act of kindness."
Yet his expression became even more solemn. "What are you saying! My brother couldn't tell, but how would I not know. Regardless of how unusual the Red Scented Fish bone was, it cannot cure my legs and recover my cultivation." He said directly, "The medicine you gave me that day was completely different from what my brother had produced, I understand that it was you all helping me in the dark that I could recover so quickly!"
As he spoke, he dropped to his knees and solemnly bowed to the three of them. "Thank you all, for the grace of rebirth!" "Don't mention it, Wen Xuan!" He didn't expect him to be a wise one, that was great then. Lonemoon quickly helped him up. "The last time was just a small matter, but now we indeed have something that needs to trouble you."
"Please speak!" Ling Wen Xuan seemed to have noticed their haste and asked directly, without any delay.
"Could please tell us in detail about this rainbow colored egg?" He brought out the colored egg that had been broken by Shen Ying earlier on and was repaired by his spell. "Where did you find this that day, did you encounter anything?"
"This… colored egg?" Ling Wen Xuan faltered, glancing at the egg, a trace of surprise flashed across his face at once. "Turns out you won the championship of the league! Congratulations fellow daoist." He excitedly congratulated before answering, this egg was found on a mission I went on with a teacher from the academy to the northern flame mountain."
He thought back carefully before continuing to say, "The Flame Mountain is a fire mountain, there are many demon monsters deep in the Flame forest near it. Back then it was because high level demon monster charged into a city and they were unable to handle it, and so requested for Immortal Spirit Academy to help out. And this colored egg was found in the den of the demon monster after we exterminated it."
"Other than this, did any unusual things happen?" Lonemoon continued to question.
"No." He shook his head. "If you were to say unusual… that demon monster was surprisingly aggressive, even teacher couldn't guard against it completely, that's why I…" He subconsciously looked down at his own legs and sighed. "After I was bitten, I lost all my cultivation and was totally unable to use any spells."
Hold on! Cultivation?
Chapter 593: Friendship between Classmates
Lonemoon paused and turned back to survey him, something seemed to be coming up yet he couldn't catch onto it.
Until Chef suddenly reminded from beside him. "It's demonic aura."
He fell into a momentary daze before instantly understanding where was the problem. This was Void Land, as it was overly disordered, the demon monsters here do not have demonic auras. Instead, it was a chaotic aura that even they couldn't differentiate apart. Just like the monster in the mystic realm and the peach blossom demon from the previous time, there was completely no demonic aura on them.
However, Ling Wen Xuan's injury was really and truly affected by demonic aura. He had mixed elixirs into the medicine to dispel the demonic aura in his dantian before he could recover. It means that… the demon monster that they had dealt with was a true demon monster! Just like the ones in their planes, demon monsters that came with demonic aura. Lonemoon looked at the egg shell in his hands. Only spirit seeds of the original source can breed pure demon monsters. It was impossible just based on this egg shell alone, which means this spirit seed had indeed been in this egg at the start. No! He should say that it was once in the Flame Mountain, that was why it caused those demon monsters to carry demonic aura. And it was brought back to the nest by that demon monster, only it disappeared after?
"Huh?" Ling Wen Xuan paused for a moment and suddenly looked towards the empty egg in Lonemoon's hand, subconsciously commenting, "Why does it feel like the energy in this egg lessened by a lot?" He said confusedly, "I remember when I first saw this egg, the energy in it was a lot more concentrated."
Lonemoon turned back and glanced at me, instantly becoming more sure of his own idea. "Fellow Daoist Wen Xuan, may I know the specific location of that Flame Mountain?
"Flame Mountain is in the Northern region, closer to the west." Ling Wen Xuan replied, "It's about a thousand miles from Yang City." "Thank you for letting us know." Lonemoon nodded. "We have something urgent to see to, we shall not disturb you any longer and leave first."
The few people got up, intending to leave yet Ling Wen Xuan stood up directly and asked with some anxiety. "Are all of you really setting off for Flame Mountain?"
Lonemoon felt that there no longer any need to hide it and nodded. "Mm, there are some things we have to get to the bottom of."
"That area is way too dangerous and the terrain is complicated…" He looked worried and gritted out after some thought. "Why don't I follow along? It'll be easier to show you all the way too."
It was best to have someone lead the way, Lonemoon glanced at him but still shook his head in the end. "It's alright, you're also a disciple of Immortal Spirit Academy, it's not good if you just leave like this." This academy was almost like a sect, he was already being disliked because of his injuries, even Ling Hong and the others were often being targeted as a result, there was no need to create more trouble for them. "But…" He was still a little worried. seeing that they really did not need him to lead the way, he thought for a while and said, "Then please hold on for a moment." He suddenly turned into a room at the side, brought out his ink and brush and started to draw quickly. A short while later, he walked over with two pieces of paper. "This is map for the route to Flame Mountain, this other one is the terrain of Flame Mountain that I drew based on my memory, it might be useful."
Lonemoon took a glance, the map was very detailedly drawn, even the location where they found the demon monster was marked out, it was indeed something they needed. "Thank you Wen Xuan."
"It's what I ought to do." He smiled, then pulled out a communication jade token. "If there's still anything you're unclear of, you can contact me using this jade token."
Lonemoon also took and nodded before leaving with Shen Ying and Chef.
Taking a detailed look at the map, the few of them headed in the direction of Flame Mountain. As they could not teleport, they could only sword-ride. Yet the closer they flew towards the north, the hotter it got. Even the terrains became increasingly barren, the ground a sea of withered yellow, even the occasional vegetation spotted were shriveled droopy, as if their dispositions had been killed by the sun.
They flew for a couple of days, the odd thing was that the scenery beneath suddenly changed as huge areas of green forests appeared. Though it was still scorching, but it seemed like the entire world had come to live again, the surroundings were breathing with vitality.
Yi Qing frowned and glanced down at the forest, then could not help but spoke up, "Father Niu, in this forest…"
Lonemoon's face also darkened beside him. "There is demonic auras everywhere in this forest, seems there's more than one demon monster that carries demonic aura."
The two of them exchanged a glance, then sped up in the direction of Flame Mountain, spending another half day's time before they arrived at their destination. From far they could see a huge volcano, fiery red flares could occasionally be seen at the peak, above it was clouds of black smoke. Before them was a boundless forest, filled with dense vegetation all around and it was blazing hot yet there seemed to be thick clouds of fog in the forest, making it resemble a fairyland. But all these were different in Yi Qing and Lonemoon's eyes, other than the white fog, the demonic aura in this forest was the most concentrated that they'd seen throughout the entire journey.
Though it wasn't like the demon realm they'd seen in their plane in the past, but based on the appearance of this forest, there were demon monsters that were at least eighth-level and above.
Lonemoon brought out the second map, after a careful comparison, he released his divine perception to sweep across the entire forest before pointing towards the right, saying, "That's where they found the spirit seed."
With that said, they turned and flew in that direction. Within moments, a small and clear lake appeared before them, though they called it a lake, it was actually not much bigger than a pond. Only in the middle of it was an island tens of meters wide. It was where Ling Wen Xuan marked out that they found the spirit seed. Three of them landed at once, indeed, once they touched the ground, they felt a hint of Qi of the original source rush over. This small island wasn't big, everything could be seen in one look. There was a massive nest in the trees on the island, the Qi of the original source came from there, but the nest was empty.
Lonemoon circled around the huge nest, it was evident that there used to be a demon monster here but now even the surrounding demonic aura was very faint.
"Chef, have you got any findings?" Lonemoon looked towards the person beside him.
Chef shook his head. "The Qi of the original source should be remnants from ages ago, the spirit seed hasn't been here for a long time."
Does that mean that this was another futile trip?
Lonemoon was slightly irritated, turning towards Shen Ying, he asked, "Foodie, can we reject this task regarding the spirit seed?" Anyway the spirit seed was Mi Le's it had nothing to do with their plane.
Shen Ying cocked her head to a side, only replying with a sentence moments later. "Flower is very close to my sister!"
"And then…" What has it got to do with your sister?
She then said in all seriousness. "Then he will be a tattletale."
"…" Motherf*cker!
This was the so-called friendship between classmates? Turns out it started from snitching to guardians and parents?
Chapter 594: Huge Rewards
"Father Niu." Yi Qing took one step forward and stopped the conversation. For some reason, he did not want to hear Master talk about that man. "Let's use the tracing spell to find out where the spirit seed is."
Lonemoon quickly activated his God Power and conjured a seal. In just a moment, a white eam of light appeared. It gathered to form an array on the ground. There were multiple beams of coloured light within the array, which shot out in all directions.
"The core aura here hasn't dissipated. We should be able to very quickly-"
Before he could finish speaking, the ground began to shake. There was a series of loud cracking sounds as huge cracks began to appear in the ground. All around them, the trees swayed. The crack under their feet widened until it formed a huge drain. They were going to fall through at any moment.
Yi Qing grabbed onto Yi Qing, as both he and Lonemoon mounted their flying swords and flew up into the sky. Vines shot up from the cracks in the ground and began to attack them.
Yi Qing immediately summoned his sword and waved it at the vines. In just one swipe, all the vines around him split into two. The remaining vines were not fast enough to catch the two of them as they shot up into the sky. Yi Qing had not even activated his sword Qi.
"Eh?" Chef paused. The vines were suspiciously weak. They did not even emit a bit of spirit Qi. it was like they were just a part of ordinary plants.
As they flew higher and higher, they turned around to see the island's plants all come to life. They were all uprooting themselves out of the ground. It was almost like this was a movie and there were real humans inside those trees. As if they had gone crazy, they began to wave at the three people in the sky, shooting vines up toward them.
"What is this?" Lonemoon hesitated. Were these trees all now having a life of their own? But they were nothing but ordinary plants. Even vegetation demons could only take on a spirit form. Their physical bodies could not be moved. And they were not vegetation spirits… Unless they had become immortals and their physical bodies had been destroyed in the lightning tribulation, their spirit bodies could not gather into a physical form.
"Tree demons?" Yi Qing stared blankly at the plants below. On cloesr inspection, it seemed like there was demonic Qi asurrounding their bodies. This proved that they were demons, but they had reall been buried within the soil. Right now, they were even walking toward them with their roots.
Lonemoon stared at the scene in front of him in absolute shock. This island… No, not just this island! He turned and saw that the entire forest of trees had come alive. Now, an entire dense forest was movng and swaying, just like the trees on that island. Among these trees, those that had vines whipped them at the group. Those that did not have vines used their roots to reach for the three of them, as if hoping to pull them down from above.
The quiet forest was now filled with the noise of leaves rustling about. The atmosphere was violent.
"What's going on?" "The spirit seed," Shen Ying suddenly said. ""The spirit seed has the power of light inside of it. Of course it can also create living spirits." The speed awakened the trees and gave them sentience.
"You mean the spirit seed is here?!" Lonemoon exclaimed in joy. He looked down at the trees that had come alive. But what should they do about them? What's more, he could not figure out the reason they were acting up now when they had been silent the entire tim.
The few of them flew even higher so that the trees' vines could not reach them. Slowly, the trees finally halted their attacks. Lonemoon heaved a sigh of relief. That was when one particular tree on the island rolled its vines up and plucked a fruit from its own head, before throwing the fruit at them.
Lonemoon dodged the fruit as it brushed past his body and fell back down to the water with a loud plop. The trees all around seemed to have realised this new method of attack. One by one, they began to pluck fruits from their heads and throw it at the group of three.
Holy shit! These trees were really demons now, weren't they?
""Two of you, quickly set up an array-" Lonemoon turned instinctively and wanted to instruct the two of them to set up a defensive array.
"Fruits!" Shen Ying's eyes brightened as she shouted, "Chef!
The stocks are coming in! Catch them, catch them!"
"Yes Master, no problem Master!"
The next moment, Chef darted around in the air. He cloned more than 10 more images of himself and caught every fruit that the trees threw up at them. Along the way, he even helped Shen Ying onto Lonemoon's sword.
Lonemoon: "…" Motherf*cker!
Thus, the master and disciple rejoiced at the harvest, and enjoyed the fruit-catching game they created. Chef did not even miss one of the fruits that the trees threw up. In a few minutes, their storage bag was full.
"Master, the storage bag is full. What should we do?"
"I have more!" Shen Ying quickly handed her own storage bag over before taking Lonemoon's one as well. "Father Niu, I'll borrow yours for awhile."
"Chef, on the right, on the right! That one's going into the water!"
"Chef, catch a few more of the yellow ones. Those are yummy."
"Chef, we don't need to catch the green ones! They're probably not ripe yet!"
Chef was darting around at top speed by now. "Yes, Master! No problem, Master!" All ten of his images split further until there were more than 50 images in the air. One batch was catching the fruits and the other was inspecting the fruits caught. This was called dealing with the job in an orderly manner.
Thankfully, there was an entire forest of trees. All three storage bags qquickly became filled. Chef set up a little mystic realm from out of nowhere and opened the entrance in mid air. He quickly emptied all of the fruits into the mystic realm. Yi Qing thus formed a transportation line on his own.
Lonemoon: "…" F*cking retards.
All of you are reallly taking this as incoming stocks! Lonemoon really wanted to act like he did not know these two wastrels.
The trees began to visibly slow down. There were fewer and fewer fruits being thrown up into the air. Lonemoon pursed his lips and activated his immortal Qi to form a rope, which he used to capture a small tree the size of a human up into the air.
The small tree panicked. It waves its branches and leaves vigorously, struggling to escape the rope's grip. Lonemoon's immortal Qi, however, was way too strong. The tree flew up into the air easily.
All the trees below stopped, as if shocked by what Lonemoon had done. Even those that still had fruits to throw paused.
The two people who were still busy collcting stocks also halted and turned to look at Lonemoon and the tree…
"What are you looking at?!" Lonemoon shot thema death glare. "That's enough from the both of you! You really want to pluck all the fruits off this little tree!" Did they still remember what they were here for?
The two of tehm exchanged a look and sighed. Then, they reluctantly locked up the small mystic realm and turned to face the little tree head-on.
Lonemoon inspected the tree very closely. It did indeed have a spirit and sentience, but it was obvious that the tree would not be able to talk. Thus, Lonemoon quickly conjured a seal to allow some immortal Qi to enter the tree's consciousness. Immediately, he felt a surge of rage rise up within him.
Chapter 595: Plant Demons
Lonemoon frowned and asked, "What are you? Why do you want to attack us?"
The tree's leaves trembled. A moment later, it sent rage into Lonemoon's consciousness once again. After thinking for a moment, Lonemoon finally understood what it was saying. "Bad man! You want to catch Boss! I won't allow it! Chase away!"
"What's your boss like?" Lonemoon asked in shock. Could it be that its boss really was the spirit seed? Was the spirit seed still in the forest?
The little tree stopped sending anymore emotions and messages over to Lonemoon's consciousness, so Lonemoon had no choice but to retract his spell and send the little tree back down. The forest below saw that the little tree was returning and burst into action once again. New batches of fruits were just about to be delivered to where they were.
Lonemoon pursed his lips and let out a suppressive force that shook all of them. It was a pity that the standard of the trees' consciousness was not high. Lonemoon was not able to seek the spirit seed's location from them. Thus, using both his hands, he conjured an array that spread out across the entire territory.
Since he could not ask them, he would have to look for it himself!
The next moment, a huge exploration array appeared in the sky. It was a white array that headed straight for the forest of trees. It spread out in the direction that the remnant aura was. Within seconds, it garnered a response.
"Over there!" Lonemoon pointed toward his right and turned to fly in that direction.
Chef quickly followed suit, carrying Shen Ying back onto his sword on the way.
When Lonemoon arrived, he saw that there was a pit in the middle of the forest. It looked like someone had gone there and dug about four or five metres into the ground. Inside the pit, there were all sorts of trees growing. Their leaves were dense, as if concealing something within. Lonemoon frowned. This was a tad obvious, wasn't it? Just as he was about to enter the pit, he found that the trees he had shocked earlier were now extending their branches toward the pit, forming a web of branches on top of it to stop him from entering
Alright, he did not need to locate the spirit seed now.
Lonemoon pursed his lips and summoned his spirit sword. A sharp gust of sword Qi headed straight down the pit that the trees were trying to cover up. Each time it hit the branches, the trees above shivered and retracted their branches.
Lonemoon flew downward. As he walked deeper and deeper into the pit, the trees above began to panic. They cut off the fruits on their heads and let them roll into the pit after Lonemoon. The other trees that stood by followed suit, until the pit became filled with their fruits.
Lonemon: "…" Do you really think your fruits are that powerful? Did they think he would not be able to see past them! The master and disciples' eyes lit up behind him.
Hey, that's enough from the both of you! Did you not pick enough fruits earlier!
Lonemoon glared at them, but was otherwise too lazy to do anything about it. He raised his hand and used a single spell to sweep all of the fruits out of the pit, together with the withered leaves and branches at the bottom.
Amongst the fruits, something eye-catchingly green flew up as well. That was it! He flicked his wrist and caused the green object to fly toward him. Then, with another flick of the wrist, all of the fruits flew toward Shen Ying and landed in front of her.
"Chef, keep the stock!" Shen Ying exclaimed, eyes twinkling.
She began to pick the fruits up in her hands.
Lonemoon looked in front at the object he captured using his spell. It was now waving its leaves, trying to escape. The top of this object was long and thin, and green in colour. Its lower half was pure white. It looked just like a…
"Spring onion?" The corner of his lip twitched.
"No!" Chef stood up after picking up all the fruits. Very seriously, he corrected, "It's a garlic!" He was expert at identifying vegetables.
Lonemoon frowned. "Can even garlics become demons these days?" These demons were too casual about their form, weren't they?
"Let me go! Let me go!" The garlic began to cry out in a sharp voice.
Hey, this garlic can talk!
"Shen Ying." Lonemoon turned to face a certain foodie. "Don't tell me this is the spirit seed?" This was a freaking spirit seed in foodie world, wasn't it?! "It's not." Shen Ying shook her head. "I think it's under the influence of the spirit seed, though."
For some reason, Lonemoon heaved a sigh of relief.
"You baddies! Let me go!" The garlic demon struggled for its life, but realised that it could not free itself from Lonemoon's spell. Thus, it began to wave its leaves madly and shout, "Bastard! Baddie! You caught my boss and now you want to catch me too! Just wait, I… I…"
The garlic seemed to be panicking. It raised up its white portion stalk and peeled off the surface layer, revealing the inner white portions of its own body. "I'll spice you to death!" Then, it charged toward their eyes.
Lonemon: "…"
Yi Qing: "…"
Shen Ying: "…" Heh heh, this really was… a scary threat.
o(╯□╰)o
Lonemoon pursed his lips and pushed the garlic demon slightly further away from them. "Talk, little garlic demon, who is this boss you speak of?"
"Who's a little garlic! I'm a huge garlic!" The garlic demon tutted. It waved its leaves and said, "I'm really spicy! You ugly man, if you know what's good for you, you would let me go immediately. Otherwise, you'll definitely regret it!"
"…" My foot! Who was it calling ugly! Did these vegetation demons graduate from the same school as Radish did? This garlic could try to insult Lonemoon again if he didn't believe that Lonemoon would hand it over to Chef to be fried in a heartbeat.
"You're baddies who bully Boss!" The garlic demon continued to struggle and shout, as if not realising that it was in grave danger. It continued to threaten Lonemoon. "Just wait and see, when I'm a little bigger, I will come out and rescue Boss!"
"Oh?" Lonemoon's eyes narrowed. His voice leaking with sarcasm, he said, "You, a weak little demon? You want to rescue your boss? Do you even know where it is?"
"Hmph!" The garlic tutted and waved its leaves to point at a volcano not far away. "Don't think I don't know this. I heard the little trees on the volcano discussing this. You've captured Boss and brought it onto Flame Mountain! Just wait and see. Wait until I train myself so that I'm no longer afraid of fire. I'll definitely rescue it. Don't think that you can capture Boss just like that. You ugly creatures don't deserve to even serve Boss!"
Flame Mountain!
Lonemoon and Yi Qing exchanged a meaningful look, then turned to see the Flame Mountain not far away, that spewed flames and sparks from time to time. So the spiirt seed was there? It was no wonder that they could not sense its presence.
"Go! To the volcano!" Lonemoon mounted his flying sword. "Wait!" Yi Qing suddenly pulled him back and shook his head while looking at the sky. "Let's eat!" If he didn't start cooking now, they would miss their meal. Nothing was more important than Master.
Lonemon: "…"
Why couldn't they be this punctual about everything else?!
It was indeed getting later, however, and the spirit seed would not be able to escape if it were really in the volcano. Lonemoon looked down at the garlic demon and narrowed his eyes. Nodding, he said, "We can eat! But I want to eat garlic prawns, garlic crabs, garlic white meat, garlic flowers, garlic white explosive beasts…"
Yi Qing: "…"
Shen Ying: "…"
The garlic demon: "…" Are you a demon?
Chapter 596: Spirit Seed's Manifestation
While waiting for the food to be ready, Lonemoon forced all the information he needed out of the garlic demon. The Boss it was talking about was indeed the spirit seed. The entire forest full of tree demons had indeed turned into demons because of the spirit seed. And this garlic was the first among all the plants to form a consciousness. That was why all the trees listened to its orders.
Not long ago, however, the spirit seed suddenly got captured by a foreign demon. These trees kept chasing the demons in order to snatch the spirit seed back. Those demons were forced into the volcano. Since the trees were afraid of fire, they did not dare to go near them again. That was why they had no choice but to wait where they were, so that the demons would not be allowed to escape. But doing that was not very effective. All it did was to put both sides at a standstill.
"So from the looks of it, the spirit seed has already manifested?" Lonemoon frowned. He thought back to the scene of the moving trees. Turning to Shen Ying, he said, "Not only could the spirit seed mimic other forms, it could also manifest?"
"That's right!" Shen Ying nodded. "The spirit seed has a sentience. Its true form is that of a human!"
You should have said so earlier!
Lonemoon pursed his lips and quickly kept all his cutleries away. "Let's go and find it quickly!" It was then that they flew toward the volcano. The closer they got to the volcano, the higher the temperature of the surroundings became. Even Lonemoon began to feel extremely heated up. However, the entire group sensed a familiar aura being overwhelmed by the thickness of the heat and ashes, mixed with some demonic Qi.
Lonemoon conjured an isolation array around the three of them. Immediately, the hot air dissipated. Lonemoon turned around and said to the other two, "Look at the demonic Qi within the volcano. There must be some high-level demons inside. Be careful!" With that, they entered the volcano.
Indeed, the moment they entered, the demonic Qi mixed with the essential Qi charged at them. Everything around them was a fiery red. From time to time, hot ash and lava spewed out of the ground. The few of them tried to dodge the ash and lava as they followed the essential Qi into the inner parts of the volcano. The further in they got, the wider the path became.
Everything was pitch-black. Visibility was deteriorating.
"Master, the stone wall…" Yi Qing suddenly said.
Lonemoon turned and saw that on the stone wall inside the volcano, there were many little caves. It looked like somebody had dug them up on purpose. His heart fell. Holy shit! Did the demons that captured the spirit seed dig those caves? That garnishing garlic demon was indeed unreliable!
"There's demonic Qi and essential Qi on this," Yi Qing said. It was obvious that these caves were dug by the demons.
"Shit!" Lonemoon cursed under his breath. There were so many caves - where were they supposed to begin? "Let's pick the cave with the thickest demonic Qi."
"Are we going to crawl in?" Shen Ying tilted her head and glanced at Lonemoon questioningly. "Nonsense!" Lonemoon instinctively replied. "If we don't chase after them, do you think the spirit seed will bounce out-"
Before he could finish speaking, he heard a loud crash. Something fell down below them. Immediately, the tallest pillar of ash and lava fell before their eyes. Two figures appeared underneath their feet. Strong demonic Qi rushed up toward the group.
"It's bouncing out," Shen Ying pointed below and replied.
Lonemoon: "…"
Yi Qing: "…"
It really did bounce out of its own accord!
(⊙_⊙) Lonemoon pursed his lips and looked down. There were two men standing underneath them, one taller and the other shorter. The shorter man was only teen, and he looked terrified. The taller man was dressed in a green robe. He looked extremely muscular - Lonemoon could make out the shape of his muscles underneath. He was holding the teen by the collar and raising his fist to his face.
The important thing was ever since the two men appeared, thick essential Qi and demonic Qi filled the entire volcano The strong man looked extremely angry. He kept dealing blows onto the teenager's face. With each punch, the essential Qi became weaker and weaker, and the demonic Qi around the muscular man became thicker and thicker.
"That's the spirit seed?" Lonemoon turned back to look at Shen Ying.
"Mm, yes!" Shen Ying nodded.
The teenager's Qi was getting weaker and weaker. The muscular man pressed two fingers onto his forehead. Suddenly, the essential Qi around the teenager's body charged straight into the muscular man's body. He was feeding on his essential Qi! Lonemoon's heart fell. He shouted, "Demon, stop it!"
Shen Ying jumped. She called out, "Father Niu…"
But Lonemoon was already flying over. At the same time, a strong surge of sword Qi flew toward the muscular man. As if realizing he was in danger, the man turned around. His eyes were filled with murderous intent. He was transfixed on Lonemoon.
The next moment, the muscular man flew backward and landed on the ground with a loud thud.
Lonemoon conjured another seal and caused the man to be pinned down where he was. He turned to look at the teenager on the floor. His breathing was already getting thin. Lonemoon frowned. He used his water-elemental healing techniques to cause the teenager to relax just a little more. The essential Qi around his body stabilized. He opened his eyes to scan the group standing in front of him and retracted backward.
"Don't worry," Lonemoon said soothingly. "We're here to bring you back!"
The fear in the teenager's eyes remained. He looked at Lonemoon even more cautiously, not daring to move after realizing how strong the aura around Lonemoon's body was.
The muscular man who had just been attacked, however, looked up in a rage. He wanted to charge at Lonemoon out of indignance, but he was being locked down by the spell Lonemoon cast on him. No matter how many times he tried, he could not get back on his feet. All he could do was glare in Lonemoon's direction, willing himself free.
Lonemoon glanced at the muscular man and caused his own sword Qi to press down on him even harder. "Beast, how dare you mess with the spirit seed!" It was a good thing that they had arrived just in time. Otherwise, all the teenager's essential Qi would have been swallowed by this demon.
The muscular man stared blankly at them, and a crazed look flashed across his face. He was struggling even more by now. His mouth was moving, but he could not speak. Once again, Lonemoon's sword Qi pressed down harder on him. Lonemoon frowned. The strange thing was that Lonemoon could not tell what the demon's true form was. This demon from the Void Land was strange indeed.
Without bothering to look further into it, Lonemoon turned to the teenager. After searching far and wide, they had finally found the spirit see. Suddenly, Lonemoon couldn't care less about whether the spirit seed wanted to or not. He picked the spirit seed up by the collar and turned to Shen Ying. "When can we open the plane gates and go home?" He needed to complete this task before doing anything else.
"Mm… tomorrow?" Shen Ying replied.
"Then let's get out of here first." Lonemoon retrieved his flying sword and mounted it, ready to leave the volcano.
But Shen Ying turned around to look at the muscular man.
Pointing at him, she said, "Chef, take him!"
Yi Qing hesitated, but picked the muscular man up obediently. "Yes, Master." "Why are you bringing this demon along?" Lonemoon turned to Shen Ying. If they could survive in the volcano for so long, it was likely that the demons were fire-elemental. They would be alright even if they left them there.
Shen Ying's lips moved, as if she wanted to say something.
"Forget it!" Lonemoon turned back around, not bothering any further. "Remember to open the plane gates tomorrow. I've had enough of this wretched place."
"…"
With that, the group flew out and toward the plains in the middle of the forest just outside. The tree demons were still there. On seeing them emerge from the volcano, even the garlic plant stood upright.
Before they could land, the garlic plant bounced toward the group. Agitated, it shouted, "Boss! You're finally back!" It bounced high up in the sky and buried its own head into… the arms of the muscular man that Yi Qing was carrying! "Boss, I've missed you to death!"
Huh?
Yi Qing: "…"
Lonemoon: "…"
Holy shit! What the hell?
(╯‵□′)╯(┻━┻
Chapter 597: Spirit Seed's Spirit Returns
"What's the matter? He's the spirit seed?" Lonemoon looked in confusion at the muscular man. How could this be? There was demonic Qi all around his body, and not even a bit of the essential Qi. What's more, if this was what the spirit seed looked like after manifestation, it had a bit too much nutrition in its body, didn't it?
Chef jumped backward and raised his hands to undo the sorcery around the muscular man. He released his divine perception to scan him and found that the demonic Qi was floating around his body. HIs expression darkened as he said, "This demonic Qi doesn't seem to be his."
With that, he conjured another seal and tapped the muscular man in the middle of his forehead so that all the demonic Qi around his body disappeared at once. He looked like a ruptured balloon. Immediately, he became thin. Even his muscles began to disappear. The spirit seed looked like it was going backward in time - from a grown and muscular man, he slowly turned into a little boy who did not even reach Lonemoon's waist. Immediately, his body emitted strong essential Qi that was several times thicker than that around the teenager. He really was the spirit seed!
"Boss! What happened to you?" The garlic jumped and exclaimed. He turned back to Chef and waved his leaves frantically. "What did you do to Boss?"
"I just helped it to recover its true appearance." It was bloated with demonic Qi earlier.
The spirit seed, that was now a child, looked at his own small body several times before finally looking up at Lonemoon. Suddenly, he scrunched up his nose and began to cry.
"Wah…. His wails were heart-wrenching - he sounded like he had been put through a lot of injustice.
Lonemoon pursed his lips. He had not recovered from the shock of seeing the muscular man shrink down to this little boy. Suddenly, he felt guilty. "Why are you crying?"
"Boss, don't cry! Don't cry…" The garlic demon was beginning to panic as well. It waved its leaves to comfort him. "Don't worry! If they bully you, I will… I will spice them to death! With that, the garlic bore with the pain of plucking off one garlic root from its own body and then threw it toward the group of three.
"Don't spice them!" The spirit seed suddenly snapped out of his crying, opened his arms and defended the group of three.
"Boss…" The garlic demon stared blankly at him.
The spirit seed turned around and hugged Lonemoon, who was standing behind him. In an indignant voice, he called out, "Father!"
Huh?
Shen Ying: "…"
Yi Qing: "…" Lonemoon: "…"
What the hell?!
w(゚Д゚)w
"Stinky brat, don't call just anyone that!" Lonemoon pursed his lips and tried to push the child away, but the child tightened his grip around Lonemoon's thigh.
As he hugged Lonemoon's thigh, he began to cry once again. Sniffling, he wailed, "Wah… Father, Father, don't you want me anymore?"
"Who doesn't want… Who are you calling Father?"
"Father…"
"Shut up! Stop calling me that! Wait…" He turned around and glared at the master and disciple duo next to him. "Why are the two of you looking at me like I'm someone who walked out on his own family? Wouldn't the both of you know better if I had any children?"
The master and disciple exchanged a meaningful look, then turned back to Lonemoon. In a voice that said they did not want to stir any trouble, they said, "We don't!"
"My ass!" Lonemoon's rage was rising up his chest and threatening to overwhelm him. His dharmic robes were becoming increasingly drenched from the little boy's tears. No matter how hard he tried to peel the boy off of him, the boy would not budge. Instead, he kept trying to climb up Lonemoon's body, determined to cling on to him. "What are you looking at? Hurry up and help me! If you want this month's allowance, you'd better help me peel him off!"
The two of them stepped forward and peeled the spirit seed off Lonemoon's body. As if suddenly thinking about something, Shen Ying asked, "Well… Father Niu, may I ask you who's the mother of this child?"
"Shut-" Before he could finish speaking, the little boy turned and buried his face in Shen Ying's arms. He began to wail again.
"Mom!"
Lonemoon: "…"
Shen Ying: "…"
Yi Qing: "…"
The next moment, Chef's expression turned extremely dark. With a swoosh, he drew his sword and emphasized each word as he said,"Master, I don't think this person is the spirit seed. Let's slaughter him!"
Who was he calling Mom?!
"…" —————
Lonemoon guessed that the spirit seed referred to himself and Shen Ying as his father and mother because he could tell that they were managers. He was this plane's spirit seed. He was meant to be able to sense their managers' aura. What's more, he had just manifested, so he was not yet mature. With the added unreliability of that big garlic demon, it was natural that he thought he was to address the plane's managers as the people closest to him.
The only person whom the spirit seed addressed unnaturally was Chef…
"Second Younger Brother!"
"…" What the hell was Second Younger Brother?
"Master, are we really not allowed to kill him?" Chef asked with a serious expression. "Why not I cut off both of his legs? He'll grow them again soon, anyway!" He would grow them every month! Shen Ying: "…"
Lonemoon: "…"
"Enough, enough, enough. Stop bullying the little child." It was rare to see Chef with the short end of the stick. Lonemoon quickly stepped forward to pull the child back before scanning him from head to toe. This was one fat and healthy child - how could he bear for him to grow up handicapped? "Talk, Little Spirit Seed. What happened? What's the matter with this guy?"
Lonemoon pointed at the teenager who still had essential Qi surrounding his body. Earlier, he had only sensed the essential Qi. On closer inspection, it was clear that this teenager was the real demon. Lonemoon raised his hand to conjure a seal, causing the teenager to take on its true form - a fiery red demon covered in scales. Although it was a high-level demon, it looked injured. Its true form was several times smaller than an average-sized human.
"He's a baddie! He wanted to eat me!" The spirit seed's little face suddenly became filled with rage as he spat, "When I was sleeping, he tried to eat me! That's why I wanted to eat him!" Eat?
Lonemoon hesitated and recalled the scene they stumbled upon earlier. Did he mean the demonic Qi? It was no wonder that he had so much demonic Qi in his body. He had obtained all of that by sucking demonic Qi from the demons. On the other hand, the essential Qi around the demons' bodies was obviously from the spirit seed
So the demons had consumed the essential spirit Qi in the spirit seed's body, so the spirit seed consumed their demonic Qi? Wasn't he putting himself at a major disadvantage then? It was no wonder that the demon they caught now looked so frightened of them. It had very little demonic Qi left in its own body.
"Who taught you to protect yourself so that you don't get cheated?" Lonemoon instinctively asked.
The moment he asked the question, the master and disciple both turned to look at him. "What are you looking at!" He glared at them. "Poke your nose out of my affairs!" Did they really think he was the child's father?
Yi Qing: "…" Heh heh heh, as long as you're happy…
Shen Ying tilted her head and studied the little child, as if deep in thought.
Unless…
——————
Now that they found the spirit seed, Shen Ying and the rest had no reason to stay any longer. Early the next morning, they decided to set off. Lonemoon forced the essential Qi out of the demon and returned it to the spirit seed, before throwing the demon back into the volcano. It was not easy to deal with the garlic demon, however. No matter what, it refused to let the spirit seed go. It was like it could not let the spirit seed be stolen out of its sight once again. The more it panicked, the more the garlic plant would throw garlic at the group of three. Since it was the first complete living spirit that the spirit seed produced, the group decided that it would not be good to leave the garlic plant behind. Therefore, Lonemoon produced a flower pot and placed the garlic demon inside. He allowed the spirit seed to carry the garlic back with them. After all, once they got back, Mi Le would be there to take care of it.
Once it was time, Shen Ying opened the plane gates. In a blink of an eye, they found themselves back in the divine realm.
Chapter 598: Classmates
"You're back!" The moment they landed, they saw Mi Le dressed in a tuxedo, seated on the sofa. He was smiling warmly at the few of them, as if he had been waiting a long time. "That was fast. You're Little Ying indeed - you found the spirit seed so quickly."
"You gave him the authorization to open and close the divine realm?" Lonemoon turned to Shen Ying.
"Mm." Shen Ying nodded. "I gave it to him the previous time."
"…" Lonemoon frowned. Even Chef's expression darkened.
Were they that close?
Mi Le set down the cup of tea in his hands and walked over to them. He was still smiling warmly as his gaze fell on the little child carrying the pot. He hesitated. "Eh? The spirit seed manifested so early?" He reached out toward the child.
Immediately, the little spirit seed took one step back to avoid his touch. He hid behind Lonemoon's legs, staring cautiously at the man in front of him. The spirit seed tugged at Lonemoon's robes. "Father."
Lonemoon pursed his lips and pulled the child out from behind him. He pointed to Mi Le and said, "That's your father!"
The little spirit seed stared blankly at Lonemoon, then at Mi Le. He looked absolutely confused as to what to do next.
Shen Ying stepped forward and asked, "Flower, what's the result?"
Mi Le looked at her, confused. "Little Ying, can't you call me by my actual name?"
"No!"
"…" He sighed and gave her a look that said he did not know what to do with her. Shrugging, he said, "I've already asked around, but I didn't get much. It seems like the other party isn't even clear about things either."
"So…" Shen Ying narrowed her eyes. "You came here empty- handed?"
"Er…" Mi Le hesitated, his grin widening. "Little Ying, don't say that. At least I confirmed that your previous guess was correct. It really did exist."
"Is that right?" Shen Ying broke into a grin. "Flower, we haven't met for a long time. Have you forgotten what I said before?"
"N-N-No, I haven't," Mi Le's face drained of all color.
"Wait!" The longer Lonemoon listened to this conversation, the more he could not help himself from stepping in. "What are the two of you talking about?" Why did this scene look like a failed business negotiation?
Shen Ying sucked in a deep breath and turned to address Chef and Lonemoon. "Both of you, wait for awhile. I'm trying to keep to the promise I made a long time ago."
What promise?
Before either of them could respond, Shen Ying walked toward Mi Le. Suddenly, a strong aura filled the entire divine realm. She picked Mi Le up by the collar and threw him toward the space in front.
"Wait, Little Ying! You're for real?" Mi Le's perfect and warm smile was wiped off his face. In its place was a look of horror.
"What are you trying to do? If you have something to say, say it nicely. You promised Older Sister Jing that you wouldn't hit me!"
"Doing this is wrong, Little Ying. How can you bear to hurt me? We were your only classmates… Ah!"
"Little Ying, I know I'm wrong. I'm wrong. But it's not my fault she didn't know. Ah ya ya…"
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts… Calm down, calm down, Little Ying… Wait, you can't kick me there! Ah…. Ah~!"
Shen Ying was over the top with rage. Each blow she dealt on Mi Le seemed harder than the one before. What's more, she was aiming right for his face. The entire divine realm began to shake from the impact.
All of Mi Le's poise and grace were gone by now. His screams and wails echoed throughout the entire realm.
Lonemoon, who was in the audience but could not understand what was going on, took one look at the man who was being beaten out of shape. He could not help but nudge at Chef and ask, "Don't you think that Shen Ying… is hitting him a bit too harshly?" They were classmates after all.
"I don't think so!" Yi Qing answered without hesitation. He walked over and retrieved his sword. "Master, you'll injure your hands if you keep this up. Why not use the sword instead?" Lonemoon: "…"
Chef was really kicking the man when he was down, wasn't he?
Indeed, when dealing with love rivals, even the most principled people would throw their own logic and ideals aside. Lonemoon had to say that Chef was doing the right thing.
Thus ,he summoned his own storage bag and threw it over. "If you don't have enough swords, there are more here!" Go for it!
Don't stand on ceremony - please hit him as hard as you can!
Mi Le: "…"
Are you devils?
o(≧口≦)o Shen Ying's beating lasted for an entire hour. The divine realm was threatening to fall apart before she finally stopped. Mi Le's face was so swollen that he resembled a pig. There was not one patch of skin untouched on his entire body.
He lay on the floor, tears streaming down his cheeks as he looked at the group of three of them. He wiped his cheeks as he whined disgustingly, "Little Ying, I've been so loyal to you. How can you bear to do this to me?"
Shen Ying's expression hardened. She tutted, "You're still itching to be beaten, aren't you?"
"No, no, no!" He trembled and wiped the disgusting expression off his face. Sucking in shallow breaths, he said, "You're still as violent as you were before. You didn't even bother to talk before you took action…" Mi Le trailed off mid-sentence as he reached up and touched his own deformed face. From out of nowhere, he pulled out a mirror and looked at himself before screaming.
"Ah!!! My face!" His expression changed immediately, he looked so angry that it was almost as if he could bring the entire sky down. Supporting his own heavily swollen face, he pointed at the group of them and said, "You… you… how can you bear to destroy my perfect face?!"
Lonemoon: "…"
Yi Qing: "…"
Damn it! Now even the two of them had the urge to beat him up!
"Little Ying, you're too much! You're just jealous, that's why you targeted my face." Perhaps he had been triggered by seeing his own deformed face. The gentlemanliness that he put on earlier was now completely cast aside - he was showing his true colors. Again, from out of nowhere, he pulled up a little white box. As he looked into the mirror, he stroked his own face gingerly in an attempt to regain his looks. "I'm so seriously injured. I don't even know how many hours it would take me to recover. All I can do is hide this. Little Ying, do you have concealer?"
"Shut up!" Shen Ying glared at him. "If you don't have concealer, foundation will work as well!"
"Do you want to die?"
"…" He finally sealed his mouth shut and turned around to retrieve a huge make-up bag. He began to work on his own face.
Lonemoon pursed his lips. He could not stop himself from asking Shen Ying, "Has he always been this way?"
"Mm." Shen Ying nodded. After pondering for a moment, she said, "Normally, he'll be like that after someone exposes his true colors." Otherwise, he could be quite the actor.
"…" Indeed, those from the administrative committee were all crazy!
Shen Ying seemed to have thought of something. Her expression darkened. "Back in school, whenever we went out on missions, he would always hide in a corner to touch up his make-up after fighting halfway." Not only did he cause Shen Ying to have to fight for two, she even had to drag him back home after she was done. If she did not do that, he would turn around and report all her misdeeds to her older sister! Shen Ying could graduate from the administrative committee so quickly, partly because she was so disgusted by Mi Le.
"What was the promise that Master was talking about earlier then?" Yi Qing could not help but ask.
Shen Ying's expression darkened. A moment later, she said, "When I graduated, I swore that I would beat him each time I saw him atfer that!" Hmph, she still owed him a beating from the previous time. Once the swelling went down on his face, she would hit him again!
Yi Qing: "…"
Lonemoon: "…"
Alright, that was Shen Ying! Lonemoon was beginning to doubt what the people from the administrative committee said earlier. These two people did not seem to have any affection for each other - instead, it seemed like all they had was vengeance! The fact that Mi Le could live to this day was already impressive.
Chapter 599: Mi Le's Lie
Mi Le took two whole hours to do his makeup. Midway through, Shen Ying gave him another meeting. He quickly used his own assistant's powers to heal the wounds on his face. He kept complaining the entire time that this was not good for the skin. He was complaining so much that even Lonemoon began itching to give him a beating. It could be said that the gentlemanly facade was completely gone and he was now at ease with being himself. To put it nicely, he was now a full high-class boy. Suddenly, they wanted to light a candle for the manager of his plane!
"He doesn't have a manager," Shen Ying said casually.
"What?" Lonemoon and Yi Qing stared blankly at her. How could there be an assistant without a manager?
Just as the two of them started to ask, Shen Ying stepped forward and kicked the person on the ground. "How exactly did you tell my older sister?"
"How else could I tell her?" Mi Le guarded his face like it was the most precious part of his body. Then, he continued, "I told her honestly about what you said about that Big Dao Organization the last time, that's all."
"You told my older sister about that!" Shen Ying clenched her fists by her side.
"No, no!" He quickly added. Taking one step back, he said, "Since when did I say I talked about you! I only said I chanced upon it. She asked around and said that there was no monitor there. But she did not tell me much about what a physical monitor looked like."
Shen Ying frowned and scanned Mi Le from head to toe. Mi Le trembled, then took another step backward, with his hands still guarding his face.
"Stop hitting me!" He quickly exclaimed. "You know what your sister is like. If she doesn't want to tell me something, it wouldn't matter how much I ask her. I've tried my best. You can't blame me for going back on my word."
Going back on his word? Lonemoon paused and turned to Chef. They both exchanged a meaningful glance. Did Shen Ying go all the way to the Void Land to find the spirit seed just so that Mi Le could go back to Shen Jing and find out more about monitors? How afraid of her own older sister was she?
"What would I want you for?" Shen Ying rolled her eyes.
"I've always been this useless!" Mi Le responded, looking at her as if to ask if this was the first day she had known him. He did not seem at all ashamed about his inabilities. In fact, he seemed proud of them. Mm, I want to hit him even more at this point. "Alright, alright. Matters have already turned out this way. If it helps, I can just send several boxes of makeup to you in the future, Little Ying. How's that?"
"Get out!" You freaking sissy.
"Alright, I'm getting out now then." Mi Le opened the plane gates, fully aware of what he needed to do next. After pausing for a moment, he walked toward Lonemoon. "I'll bring your spirit seed with me!" He made a move for the little boy who was the spirit seed, but the little boy avoided his hand and hid behind Lonemoon once again. The boy looked up at Mi Le with caution, then turned to Lonemoon and whined, "Father, I don't want to go with him!"
Lonemoon sighed, squatted down and touched the little boy's head. "Be good, listen to me. You belong to his world. Go back with him."
"No!" Perhaps because Mi Le was only an assistant and not a manager, the little boy wanted nothing to do with him. What's more, he seemed to have been terribly frightened. He had thrown aside the pot containing the garlic demon and hidden behind Lonemoon just to avoid Mi Le's touch. Now, he ran toward Shen Ying and clung on to her leg. The little boy began to wail. "Wah ah… I don't want to go! Don't give me away!"
"…" Was he trying to stick with them?
"Why have you become so disobedient after manifesting?" Mi Le sighed. He turned and walked toward the spirit seed. "Now you're making me look like a kidnapper." "Mother… Mother…" The spirit seed was crying even harder by now as he tugged on Shen Ying's sleeve.
"Mother? Father?" Mi Le's eyes widened and darted between Shen Ying and Lonemoon in shock. Then, he narrowed his eyes. It was a long while later before he spoke. "Oh~ No wonder you don't dare to approach Older Sister Jing. So-"
Lonemoon and Yi Qing's expressions darkened at once. "You can get out now!" Stop jumping to conclusions.
"Alright, alright, alright." He was looking at them with more suspicion now. He nudged Lonemoon and asked, "I'm just going to ask - is your third leg any good?"
Lonemoon: "…"
Shen Ying: "…"
Chef drew his sword. Indeed, it would be far better to kill this man! "I'm off." Seeing that Yi Qing was about to explode with anger, Mi Le immediately turned around and reached out for the little boy, prepared to leave.
"Wait!" Shen Ying suddenly stretched her hand out to stop them.
"What's the matter?" Mi Le paused. As if thinking of something, he grinned. "Can you not bear to see this handsome man leave?"
Shen Ying's expression darkened. "You can leave, but he cannot!"
"Why not?" Mi Le stared blankly at Shen Ying. "You're regretting this, aren't you? Hey, hey, hey, Little Ying, you cannot do this! Even if you're jealous of my good looks, you cannot take this spirit seed away. You cannot joke about these matters."
"Who says I'm joking!" Shen Ying narrowed her eyes and looked down at the boy who was still clinging on to her robes and wailing. "We've already talked about this before. If you find out about monitors for me, I would help you locate the spirit seed. You didn't keep your part of the bargain, so this deal has fallen through."
"Little Ying…" Mi Le frowned and said in a strict tone, "You knew that the spirit seed is important to my plane. Now he's already manifested. Huge changes will take place if he remains in this plane. He absolutely cannot remain here."
"What if I keep him here no matter what?"
"Little Ying!" Mi Le was getting anxious now. "His sentience is almost mature. He's only sticking to the both of you because you are managers. You cannot let your emotions get the better of you."
"Oh." She reached out and stroked the little boy's head. "But I'm not a manager."
"Huh?" He stared blankly at her. Something flickered across his face, but he recovered in a flash and frowned. "What did you say? Older Sister Jing already told us that you accepted this plane. How can you not be a manager? In any case, he cannot stay here. He must leave with me!"
Shen Ying lowered her gaze. "What if I refuse to give him over to you?"
"Little Ying, stop your nonsense!" Mi Le was beginning to look angry. As if recalling something a moment later, he raised his voice and threatened, "If you insist on doing this, then I… I'll have no choice but to tell Older Sister Jing about this. Don't blame me for that."
Shen Ying's expression darkened. She glared at Mi Le and did not say anything else for a long while.
Mi Le's grin widened. He was satisfied with himself. "Alright, Little Ying. Let's stop this. Take the spirit-"
"So this has something to do with my older sister as well!" Shen Ying suddenly exclaimed. "Huh?" Mi Le looked at her, confused.
"You didn't even ask my older sister about monitors." Shen Ying's expression darkened as she looked him dead in the eye. "No! I should say that right from the beginning, you wanted nothing to do with my older sister. The only reason for this could be that this thing about monitors is related to me."
Mi Le remained confused and said nothing.
"The spirit seed is not yours indeed. You're not doing this for his own good either." Shen Ying pushed the little child over to the two men behind her. Stepping forward, she said, "Mi Le, you've bluffed me into the Void Land. What exactly did you want to do?"
"…"
Mi Le stood rooted to the ground. The grin on his face was completely gone by now. A moment later, he sighed, looking defeated. "Little Ying… How can you test me like that?" Indeed, it was difficult to trick the school bully. "Actually, I-" "Say no more!" Shen Ying raised her hand to stop him from speaking. "Whatever you say can't be trusted, anyway. I'll ask myself."
The moment she finished speaking, she activated the communication button on her wristband.
Eh?!
Chapter 600: People Who Monitor
"Wait, Little Ying!" Mi Le paled, wanting to stop her but it was already too late, Shen Ying had dialed Shen Jing on her communications device.
In almost the next second, a lighted screen sprung up and a face that looked 80% similar to Shen Ying's appeared on it.
"Little Ying, what's up? It's rare that you would take the initiative to contact me." Shen Jing's voice sounded immediately, as her gaze swept over, when she saw Mi Le, her eyes stopped and narrowed on him for a moment before widening again. "Hey, Flower is there too! Are you guys having a gathering?"
"HI~~~~ Sister Jing!" Mi Le raised his hand trembly, his smile looking slightly strained.
"Sister, do you have time to come over?" Shen Ying went right to the point. "I have some things I want to ask you in person." "Why are you…" Shen Jing was about to ask what had happened when she glanced at Mi Le and seemed to be reminded of something. Her expression changed and she said, "Alright, hold on, I'll be there right away."
The screen switched off with a flash.
Mi Le's face became even paler. "You all chat, I have something on, I shall leave first!" With that said, he immediately turned and reached to open the plane gate but was pulled back by Shen Ying. "What's the rush!"
"Little Ying, don't be like this! I will really die!" Mi Le was miserable all over, looking like he was about to break out in tears. Your sister will really beat me to death!
Pity it was already too late, a white light flashed, Shen Jing walked out of the plane gate.
"Little Ying, why…" Before she could finish, Mi Le broke free of Shen Ying's arms like a runaway horse and charged towards her in the next second. Then with a thud, he was on all fours, fitting in perfectly with the ground before her and cried out loudly, "Sister Jing, I was wrong!"
Lonemoon: "…"
Yi Qing: "…"
Shen Ying: "…"
Such a strong desire to survive…
Shen Jing lowered her head to glance at him while asking subconsciously, "Your legs are broken?"
Mi Le shivered before he tittered and replied, "No no no Sister Jing. I just find that you look extremely pretty when I look at you kneeling down! Really!" The three others: "…" Where are your principles?
"What's going on?" Shen Jing looked up at Shen Ying and the two others.
The few of them exchanged glances before Shen Ying came forward, asking, "Sister, do you know what's a monitor?"
Shen Jing was shocked, her eyes widening abruptly. "How did you know…" She was reminded of something and glanced down at Mi Le on the ground. "What have you said?"
"…" Mi Le shuddered as he lowered himself even more.
"He tricked us to make a trip to Void Land!" Shen Ying replied.
"Void L…" Shen Jing thought for a moment then abruptly glared at the person on the ground, her eyes instantly becoming a bursting red as she spat out her next words, "You tricked her to go participate in the qualifications test!" For a few moments, the surrounding air stagnated, as if some terrifying energy was sweeping across the entire divine realm at once. Shen Jing looked like she'd been set on fire, the flames of her anger raging. The whole divine realm shook, cracks started to appear on the ground, as if it was about to collapse in the next second.
"Calm down, calm down, Sister Jing, listen to me. Isn't she fine now!" Mi Le trembled as he urged on. "Being angry isn't good for your body, wrinkles will grow easily. Besides, this is her divine realm, Sister Jing…"
"Sister!" Watching as the divine realm was about to collapse, Shen Ying could not help but called out.
The fury raging throughout Shen Jing was then slightly suppressed. She lifted the person on the ground in one hold and raised the other to draw open a special door, then instructed, "You all wait here for half an hour, we'll talk when I'm back!"
With that said, she walked into the door with Mi Le in tow, just as the door was about to close, Mi Le's quaking begging sounded faintly, "Sister Jing, I beg you, don't hit my face pl… ow~~~" In the next moment, the door was shut, leaving behind an indistinct trace of aura of chaos.
Lonemoon and Yi Qing: "…"
Sisters indeed? Even the way they beat people up was so similar.
"Shen Ying, the door that Sister Jing opened earlier…" Lonemoon could not help but ask, "Don't tell me it leads to Chaos?"
"… Mm." Shen Ying nodded.
"…" Lonemoon froze. Why was she able to open the entrance to Chaos so casually, back before he took over the plane, just dealing with a beast of chaos already exhausted all his efforts, they were both managers but this difference was way too big.
Indeed proving herself to be part of the cheat family clan! ——————
Shen Jing said to wait for half an hour, but they waited for a whole one hour, yet the two of them still did not leave the Chaos. Instead, waves of movement would hit the entire divine realm from time to time, even the two plane trees would shake occasionally, as if they'd been hit by some impact.
On top of that, the flow of time differed in the Chaos, none of them dared to think about exactly how long Shen Jing had beat up Mi Le for. Anyway, two hours later, they saw Shen Jing walked through the door to Chaos again, she was dressed in another set of clothes, but there was no one else following behind her.
"Where is Mi Le?" Lonemoon asked instinctively.
"Why? Are you very concerned about him?" Shen Jing's icy cold gaze swept over immediately.
Lonemoon froze instantly and chose his side immediately. "N… No." Shen Jing then turned and sat onto a sofa formed using a spell, took a sip of tea before answering, "Hmph! That bastard won't die for now."
"Sister, what exactly is a monitor?" Shen Ying also sat down and asked, "Why did Flower trick me into going to Void Land? What was the qualifications test that you mentioned?"
Shen Jing's brows instantly knitted together as she glanced at Shen Ying like she was a total letdown, her anger burning up instantly. "You're another one! Didn't you dislike him the most when you were young? Why did you go just because he told you to, have you got any brains?"
Shen Ying habitually became cowardly at once. "I was wrong!"
"Fortunately, the test wasn't really triggered this time, otherwise…" Her expression darkened, as if she was recalling something really dangerous, her hand tightened and the teacup in it turned into powder.
"Sister Jing." Lonemoon could not help but speak up. "Then what exactly is a monitor?"
Her eyes sank and she said slowly after a sigh. "Monitors are supervisors of plane management. People responsible for supervising and determining how to handle managers of each plane and their actions."
"Supervise managers!" All three of them were shocked at the same time.
"Why?" Shen Jing laughed. "Did you all think that managers were invincible?"
"…"
"Monitors are the only people who can pass through every plane without limit and will not be repelled by any. She continued to explain. "The capabilities of monitors are usually above managers. They're not responsible for the stability of planes, only examining the actions of managers." "Planes cannot invade each other, managers can evict invaders to maintain the stability of the plane. But if the invader is also a manager, it becomes a whole other story." She frowned. "And managers exist mutually with their plane, if the plane isn't exterminated, the manager doesn't die. It's not that every plane faces invasion, but when they're tired of the long life, there will always be some who tries to stir trouble."
"The existence of monitors is to restrict such situations." Shen Jing explained, "If managers exist to maintain stability of the plane, then monitors exist to maintain the stability of managers."
"They're responsible for supervising and examining all managers and intervening when managers present actions of invasion. And also helping to select succeeding managers!" She turned her head to look towards the three. "Mi Le, is a monitor!"
Lonemoon and Yi Qing were both stunned!
What? That sissy! "Sister." Whereas Shen Ying wasn't too surprised and looked to Shen Jing, asking, "How about you?"
Shen Jing faltered before chuckling. "Me too!"
"…"