Word Count: 2,789 Words
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Night had fallen deeply, shrouding the entirety of Shrek Academy. In a secluded corner of Sea God Island, a streak of fresh blood traced a tragic arc through the air.
Xiao Hongchen was half-kneeling on the ground, blood meandering like small snakes from his nose and mouth. He braced himself and lifted his head, meeting a pair of phoenix eyes that smoldered with black-red flames.
A sharp phoenix cry pierced the air the moment their gazes met. A buzzing sound filled Xiao Hongchen's mind as an intense suffocating sensation seized him. He clutched his mouth, his face contorted, as if dark clouds were endlessly swirling within his mind.
"Ma Xiaotao, what are you trying to do!"
Meng Hongchen stepped in front of Xiao Hongchen, glaring resentfully at Ma Xiaotao, who radiated a violent, almost savage aura.
"Where is Ling Bai? Tell me where he is!"
Ma Xiaotao roared. A streak of phoenix fire flashed past Meng Hongchen's cheek. The tender skin was scorched painfully hot by the flames, illuminating both of their now-pale faces as well as the group of figures behind Ma Xiaotao.
"Xiaotao, calm down. The Hongchen siblings have special identities..."
Seeing Ma Xiaotao nearly lose all reason in her fury, Gongyang Mo trembled as he tried to remind her. Yao Haoxuan slowly stepped forward and spoke softly to Meng Hongchen:
"Meng Hongchen, just be honest with us. The three of you went to Jialing Pass together for a surveillance assignment. You and Xiao Hongchen have been back for two days already. Where is my adoptive father?"
"I don't know..."
Meng Hongchen bit her red lip. "The Jialing Pass mission was completed smoothly. I easily killed the Soul Reaper. But afterward, we encountered two Super Douluo wielding Coiling Dragon Staffs, titled Fifteen Ton and Falling Devil.
They seemed to be acting under someone's orders to capture Ling Bai. My brother and I couldn't intervene in a battle between Super Douluo. Ling Bai told us to escape back to Shrek Academy while he stayed behind to hold off Fifteen Ton and Falling Devil..."
"Two Super Douluo..."
Ma Xiaotao's delicate body swayed. She unconsciously staggered back a few steps, nearly bumping into Ling Luochen, who stood behind her emanating a bone-chilling coldness.
"Ruoruo, Ruoruo, don't scare me!"
Wu Ming hugged Han Ruoruo tightly. Han Ruoruo's eyes were currently vacant, her black pupils resembling fragile glass, covered with web-like, blood-red cracks. She murmured:
"I was so stupid, really...
If I hadn't let him take Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen to Jialing City that day, he wouldn't have run into danger. He'd still be standing safe and sound before me. It's all my fault, my mistake..."
Wu Ming gently patted her slender back and said softly, "Sister Ruoruo, you can't blame yourself for this. Fifteen Ton and Falling Devil were Worships from Spirit Hall ten thousand years ago. Who could have imagined Jialing City concealed such a huge secret, that they would actually be resurrected?"
"The Spirit Hall is a power of the Angel God. Maybe Fifteen Ton and Falling Devil just wanted to catch up with Junior Brother Ling."
"That's right, Ruoruo. Junior Brother Ling is blessed by fortune. He will definitely return safely in a few days."
Hua Yao and Gu Fan spoke one after another to console her. They had once been sparring partners for the official Shrek Seven Monsters and had developed a rather friendly relationship with Ling Bai. As friends, they were also worried for his safety.
Meanwhile, Dugu Lin approached the Hongchen siblings. Her jade-green eyes transformed into dangerous vertical pupils, glinting with a desolate, cold light, like a venomous snake flicking its icy tongue.
"You destroyed my last hope of survival. If Ling Bai doesn't return, then you two can accompany him in death..."
"I hope he returns safely as much as you do," Meng Hongchen said stubbornly.
"I am going to Jialing City."
Han Ruoruo suddenly broke free from Wu Ming's embrace and walked unsteadily toward the exit of Shrek Academy.
How could Wu Ming allow Han Ruoruo to go out in this state? Not to mention, the enemy consisted of at least two Super Douluo. Going there would be no different from walking to her death. She quickly caught up, grabbed her hand, and tried earnestly to dissuade her. But Han Ruoruo refused to listen to even half a word, her only thought to immediately rush to Jialing Pass.
"Wait, I'm going too!"
Ma Xiaotao unfurled her phoenix wings. Dugu Lin and Ling Luochen followed behind her. Even Yao Haoxuan, Gongyang Mo, and Xi Xi gritted their teeth, ready to join the group heading for Jialing City.
Wu Ming was on the verge of tears. Usually, people said she was the Inner Courtyard's Active Volcano, impulsive and thoughtless. But now, this group seemed bewitched by Ling Bai, stubbornly determined to walk into a dragon's den and a tiger's lair.
Just as Wu Ming was lamenting that her words alone couldn't dissuade them, a golden electric light flashed in the sky. Chu Qingtian arrived, panting:
"Everyone, don't be hasty! A disciple from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan stationed in Star Luo City just arrived at the academy with news. Ling-ge is perfectly fine. He's going to travel for a while and won't be returning to Shrek Academy for the time being."
"Really?"
Wu Ming hugged Han Ruoruo and quickly asked for confirmation.
"Absolutely true!"
Meeting everyone's hopeful eyes, Chu Qingtian nodded vigorously.
Upon receiving this affirmative answer, the blackness in Ma Xiaotao's phoenix flames instantly vanished. Han Ruoruo's limpid eyes regained their luster. Dugu Lin and Ling Luochen's lips curved into smiles. Everyone laughed with relief, as if a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
"It's good he's not coming back. Saves me from being exhausted every night." Ma Xiaotao muttered to herself as she flapped her phoenix wings and flew away.
"Poor Sister Ruoruo, worrying herself sick for nothing," Wu Ming teased.
"It doesn't matter what happens to me. His being alive is more important than anything."
Han Ruoruo gently tucked her long hair aside, her beautiful eyes curving into crescent moons. Over the time they had spent together, Ling Bai's place in her heart had gradually become more important than her own.
"Go ahead, spoil him! Just keep spoiling him!"
Wu Ming pouted. "Look at all these beautiful women around, all that fellow's good sisters. If you continue with no boundaries, he'll have you wrapped around his little finger nine times out of ten in the future."
"I am his Senior Sister. Caring for a Junior Brother is only natural," Han Ruoruo replied, turning her head away.
Wu Ming shook her head and sighed. Even ten oxen couldn't pull back her best friend's infatuated heart. Then, her tone abruptly shot up an octave: "Chu Qingtian, spar with me for a while!"
"What?!"
Chu Qingtian clutched his face and wailed. The Golden Crow Holy Lady's anger had inexplicably shifted to him!
The Shrek crowd dispersed. Meng Hongchen carefully helped her brother up. Xiao Hongchen took a deep breath, drawing a massive amount of air into his lungs. An unnatural flush spread across his face, and he coughed in a somewhat wretched manner.
"These tigresses from Shrek are truly ruthless... Meng, I fully support you and Ling Bai being together, but none of these women are easy to handle."
Meng Hongchen gave a cold sneer and critiqued them one by one: "An old woman nobody wants, a block of ice who doesn't understand romance, a sinister and vicious viper, a short-tempered turkey...
Just wait and see. They are destined to be losers."
…
Meanwhile, in the Sun Moon Empire.
The capital of the Sun Moon Empire was called Sun Moon City, also known as Mingdu. As the political and economic center of the empire, the sheer size of this city far surpassed both Shrek City and Star Luo City, the capitals Ling Bai had visited before.
Night had fallen, making the impact even stronger. Ling Bai and the Snow Empress, flying concealed, looked down upon vast expanses of buildings stretching beyond sight.
This was a level of prosperity never witnessed in Shrek City or Star Luo City. Moreover, buildings of this scale were not an exception; it was impossible to count how many such tall structures existed at a glance. The technologically advanced Mingdu resembled the modern cities from Ling Bai's memories of his past life.
The lights of ten thousand homes illuminated the city so brilliantly it could rival the stars in the sky. Between the buildings, wide stone-paved avenues crisscrossed the city like a chessboard. Some main roads reached a hundred meters in width. Ling Bai could faintly detect subtle spirit power fluctuations among the countless lights.
Mingdu had no towering city walls. The entire city was instead fortified with advanced Spirit Guidance Devices.
The two made their way into the city. Mingdu, truly befitting its status as a nation's capital, displayed a bustling scene even though night had already fallen.
The pace of life in Mingdu was much faster than the leisurely rhythm of Shrek City. Most passersby appeared hurried, and few people stopped to linger.
Shops of every kind lined the streets in dazzling variety. Prices here were at least fifty to sixty percent higher than those in Shrek City. The high cost of land, where every inch was precious, meant high operating costs for merchants. In contrast, Shrek City was entirely managed by Shrek Academy, which had autonomous taxation rights. Most goods were sold to Shrek students, so the Academy did not overly burden merchants; taxes there were less than half of those in Mingdu.
Ling Bai led the Snow Empress through dozens of shops, reacquainting himself with the long-forgotten exhaustion of accompanying a woman shopping, especially since the Snow Empress, like any ordinary woman, had her subtexts.
"Anything is fine" = "I don't want it."
"Looks pretty good" = "I want it."
"Both are nice" = "I want them all, but I'm too embarrassed to say so."
"You've been very serious tonight. Are you struggling over whether to give the Star Luo Princess the High-Altitude Aerial Surveillance Spirit Guidance Device and the Humanoid Spirit Guidance Device?" The Snow Empress asked mildly as she took small bites of Mingdu's ice cream.
"The answer to that question is obvious. Xu Jiujiu employed every tactic, even resorting to seduction and bribery, but those two Spirit Guidance Devices still cannot be given to her." Ling Bai held the Snow Empress's free, fair, jade-like hand. By now, the Snow Empress had become immune to this level of intimacy.
The Sun Moon Empire might turn a blind eye to other matters, but it strictly controlled Class 9 Spirit Guidance Devices. This resulted in the three great empires, lacking Class 9 Spirit Guidance Masters, not possessing even a single Class 9 Spirit Guidance Device.
The Class 9 High-Altitude Aerial Surveillance Spirit Guidance Device was one of the crucial tools for future continental warfare, acting like numerous eyes surveying everything on the ground. War was fought with intelligence, and Xu Jiujiu's foresight was very accurate.
The Humanoid Spirit Guidance Device, even more so, was a super Spirit Guidance Device that concentrated the essence of the Sun Moon Empire's Spirit Guidance technology. It absolutely could not be handed over to the Star Luo Empire.
Ling Bai wished for those war machines to be in his own hands. The most perfect situation was for allies to be sufficiently strong, yet not exceed a certain limit.
Everyone was equally greedy and avaricious; no one was morally superior to another.
"Then what is it?" The Snow Empress frowned as Ling Bai's hand quietly came to rest on her shoulder.
Ling Bai sighed and said, "Now that I am in Mingdu, there is someone I do not wish to see, yet I must."
"A romantic debt?"
"...An elder."
Ling Bai was speechless. "But that elder's temperament... I don't know how to describe it. Anyway, she's quite difficult to deal with. She is one of my few childhood psychological traumas."
"I am a little curious now..."
Having said that, the Snow Empress slapped away the hot hand that had been progressively advancing and had already encircled her waist.
"Holding hands, an arm on the shoulder, an arm around the waist. I dare not imagine what's next." The Snow Empress shot him an exasperated glare, then dissolved into snowflakes and vanished.
'You seem to be enjoying it too.'
Ling Bai thought to himself. If the Snow Empress's heart were truly that cold and hard, she would have sternly refused long ago. She wouldn't have allowed it step by step, like a silent encouragement, enjoying the ambiguous tension.
"She is an elder, after all. I must pay her a visit regardless. Otherwise, if she truly causes a scene, my future days will not be peaceful..."
With the resolve of a hero heading off to certain doom, Ling Bai arrived at a magnificent palace within Mingdu.
Linglong Pavilion.
Linglong Pavilion had nine floors. The palace's decorations were resplendent and colorful; every ray of light that shone upon it would refract into nine different colors, as if a rainbow had descended upon the world.
On the surface, Linglong Pavilion seemed no different from the Treasure Gathering Pavilion in Shrek City, specializing in the sale of Spirit Master goods. Activities like smuggling rare metals and Sun Moon Spirit Guidance Devices belonged to its unknown, darker side.
Ling Bai stepped inside. The four walls were covered in brilliant, multicolored glass, making it feel as though he had entered a dreamscape. He found the Pavilion's manager through a welcoming young lady.
"Good evening, sir. How may I help you?"
The manager was a beautiful woman of about thirty, wearing a flawless smile that left no room for criticism.
"I want to see the Pavilion Master."
Ling Bai retrieved a token from his Storage Spirit Guidance Device and handed it to her. The token was made of Extreme North Cold Jade. Its front depicted a Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda glowing with colorful light, and its back was engraved with a six-winged angel showering light upon the mortal world.
"The Angel Nine-Colored Token! You are Young Master Ling!"
The beautiful woman's pupils contracted sharply. She immediately knelt on both knees, respectfully holding the token above her head.
The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan revered the Nine-Colored Token. The Glazed Nine-Colored Token represented the Clan Head, Ning Fengya, and could directly command all members of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. Special tokens like the Angel Nine-Colored Token or the Jianmu Nine-Colored Token, however, were symbols of status, signifying that the bearer was held in extremely high regard by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan.
Ling Bai took back the Angel Nine-Colored Token. Only then did the beautiful woman dare to rise. Her graceful body bent to a ninety-degree angle as she extended a hand in a welcoming gesture.
"Please come with me."
The two arrived at the ninth floor of Linglong Pavilion, the residence of the Pavilion Master. The beautiful woman gently knocked on the nine-colored door and said, "Pavilion Master, it is Young Master Ling."
"Let him enter."
A melodious female voice sounded from within the room, like the rustling of a spring breeze through willow branches.
Ling Bai walked through the door. The moment the beautiful woman closed the door behind him, a figure suddenly appeared before him. His entire face was immediately plunged into an extremely soft, fragrant, and ample area. A pair of hands pressed firmly against the back of his head, immobilizing him, while warm breath tickled his ear.
"My, who could it be gracing us with their presence∽
It turns out to be you, my adorable Xiao Bai Bai!"
Harbinger Zhen's left leg spirit bone skill, Void, activated!
Ling Bai instantly broke free from the woman's embrace. Before her second 'face wash' could descend, he placed his left hand over his right in a 'stop' gesture and shook his head, as if to clear the lingering sense of suffocation. He said righteously:
"Aunt Yu, if you ambush me again, I will turn around and leave."
"No fun at all…"
Ning Fengyu's full, rosy cherry lips pouted high. A pure white long dress was elegantly draped over her delicate figure, and her long, bluish-green hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall. Her exquisitely beautiful face could topple cities and nations. Her almond-shaped eyes held a soul-stirring luster, and her partially revealed snowy skin was as alluring as a languid white dove.
"You have grown up. Not as fun as before. I can no longer hold you in my arms and tease your 'little birdy' like when you were a child..."