Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Bai Ju emerged from the shell with Xiao Xuanwu. A short while later, a slight tremor came from below, and the heavy bottom mud collapsed, leaving a small crater on the seabed.
Without the Xuanming Plaque, the eggshell was just a fragile support, which only held for a short while before submerging into the seabed.
The rising sand from the seawater blurred the entire view. Bai Ju led Ling Zhuo upwards, quickly rising from the murky waters to clear water, where the surrounding corals… Seaweed, fish, and jellyfish had multiplied, and tiny, fluorescent creatures swayed and floated with the waves.
Ling Zhuo was mesmerized, his body swimming upwards with Bai Ju, his neck stretched out, looking around as if hooked, as if a rope was pulling his head away.
And this rope kept changing direction.
Bai Ju chuckled and stopped, beckoning Ling Zhuo to follow: “It’s even more beautiful on the surface. You can see not only vast areas of fluorescent jellyfish and fish, but also the lights of the entire island.”
“Really?” Ling Zhuo suddenly raised its head; without Bai Ju’s flames, the light in the sea was insufficient, and Ling Zhuo’s round pupils radiated utter cuteness.
Since hatching, its understanding of the outside world came entirely from the memories passed down from its parents and some scrolls depicting human scenes; it couldn’t yet transform or speak human language, so communicating with Bai Ju was no problem, but it was severely out of touch with the modern world.
Bai Ju suddenly felt a little worried.
This child might be a bit difficult to teach. Naturally arrogant, curious yet easily deceived, innocent yet cold-blooded, and with many preconceived notions hidden in its blood… It was unclear whether the River Dragon King could handle it.
…:Let’s take good care of this little thing then; after all, it’s one of the Four Divine Beasts, and its fortune will still affect Xiao Yao’s awakening of his Emperor’s Fate. Protecting Ling Zhuo would definitely benefit both him and Xiao Yao.
Perhaps the allure of the light was too strong, for Bai Ju didn’t expend much effort to quickly bring Ling Zhuo to the surface.
He just casually cast a concealment spell to prevent others from seeing Xuanwu’s true form, looked around, and instead of going ashore first, swam towards the sea area where Xiao Yao and Qu Lang were.
The merfolk’s formations could be used generation after generation because they were built using natural conditions such as terrain and rocks. These formations were not very flexible, but correspondingly, they were also not so easy to damage.
Not moving too fast, Bai Ju swam over while explaining to Ling Zhuo, “My partner is over there. Let’s go find him first and then find you a place to settle down.”
Ling Zhuo had no objections, but was curious about the partner Bai Ju mentioned, so he asked, “What is your partner? Is it also a dog demon?”
Bai Ju laughed: “It’s a human, a really good human.”
Ling Zhuo dipped his chin in the water, looking uninterested: “Humans are so small.”
Bai Ju: “…”
The problem is, you’re not that big either. Bai Ju thought with a headache, even demons like him were big guys, and Xuanwu was the biggest of the big guys, but Ling Zhuo himself wasn’t even as big as a human, so why didn’t he complain about himself first?
The two chatted for a few minutes, and Bai Ju looked up and saw Xiao Yao and Qu Lang sitting on the edge of the reef on the shore not far away, waving at him.
“See them? The one on the left is my partner.” Bai Ju waved to Xiao Yao and Qu Lang while introducing them to Ling Zhuo, “Come on, let’s go ashore.”
Bai Ju was overjoyed to see his Yao Yao. He pressed his palm against the sea surface and sprang out of the water with a splash, then ran towards Xiao Yao on the surface.
Ling Zhuo stood there, stunned, feeling that Bai Ju, now galloping away, looked more like a dog.
His tail was wagging almost to the sky.
Following the ripples left by Bai Ju, when Ling Zhuo swam to the shore, he saw the white dog with its head down, letting its mate take off its hair bun. The two hands that could easily cut through rocks hung by its sides, the fingertips not visible. The shadows of sharp claws were gone, replaced by a few round, adorable water droplets that clung together and dripped down, obedient and harmless.
Ling Zhuo: “Hiss…”
Dogs with companions are really strange; one moment they act like dogs, the next they don’t.
Bai Ju whispered a few words about the situation underwater to Xiao Yao. While Xiao Yao carefully dried his wet hair, and Bai Ju smiled as he lowered his head and kissed Xiao Yao’s nose. He then continued, “We’ve got the power center of Turtle Valley Island, which gives us an extra layer of protection for this operation. It’s just that Xiao Xuanwu needs to be settled first. I wonder if you have any suggestions?”
Xiao Yao glanced at the sea behind Bai Ju and didn’t see Xiao Xuanwu, so he knew that the old dog had probably set up a concealment barrier. He didn’t pay much attention to that and said, “China won’t complain about having too many auspicious beasts. In the current situation, any auspicious beast that can increase the nation’s fortune is always welcome. Xiao Xuanwu will definitely have a place to stay if he comes back to the mainland with us. I just don’t know if he’d be willing to join the Demon Management Bureau.”
Bai Ju glanced at Qu Lang beside him, and seeing his enthusiastic expression as he was brimming with words, he subconsciously shook his head and said, “The Demon Management Bureau should be alright, but forget about the Special Operations Bureau.”
Qu Lang couldn’t help but blurt out, “Why?!” A dignified Martial God! Why can’t their Special Operations Bureau even try?!
Halfway through his outburst, he realized he shouldn’t have spoken so loudly, and protested in a low voice, only to choke on his own words and burp.
Bai Ju touched his nose and said tactfully, “…Ling Zhuo is a White Xuanwu, not a Martial God.”
He was practically saying he was a complete weakling.
Qu Lang: “…”
Qu Lang wiped his face, his mood perfectly calm: “Goodbye.”
Bai Ju turned around, coughed lightly, and beckoned Ling Zhuo to come ashore: “Ling Zhuo, come on up.”
Xiao Yao chuckled and patted Qu Lang on the shoulder, then stepped forward to Bai Ju’s side. He cast a protective spell around the group, and Bai Ju promptly dispelled the concealment spell on Ling Zhuo. The white Xuanwu stood with its neck arched on the black reef, its milky-white scales gleaming subtly, its amber pupils pure and clear. Coupled with the inherent majesty emanating from its bones and the platinum blades on its four claws, Ling Zhuo’s appearance instantly captivated Qu Lang’s heart— white and gold, the color scheme exuded wealth!
Qu Lang unconsciously rubbed his fingers together, then leaned forward, offering his best attempt at a friendly smile: “Lord Ling Zhuo, my name is Qu Lang. Nice to meet you!”
Ling Zhuo tilted its head back uncomfortably, its forked tongue flicking in and out: “Hiss…”
Bai Ju: “…”
Qu Lang waited a while but didn’t hear Ling Zhuo speak. Only then did he belatedly pull Bai Ju aside and ask, “What did it say?”
Bai Ju relayed in words Qu Lang could understand: “Ling Zhuo thinks you’re a lecher.”
In reality, Ling Zhuo had already cursed a long string of words at a frequency Qu Lang couldn’t hear, but due to the majesty of a divine beast, it couldn’t back down, nor could it jump up and throw a tantrum, and it certainly didn’t want to bite the lecher’s flesh.
Qu Lang felt quite wronged for a moment and didn’t know how to salvage his image.
Xiao Yao knew Qu Lang’s nature well; this guy originally had little concept of money, but his Peregrine Falcon Squad often caused varying degrees of damage to buildings and property during operations due to violations of regulations, which usually required the squad members to pay for it out of their own pockets. Even a hero could be brought down by a penny, and after countless similar incidents, even the most money-obsessed combat maniac would become a money-grubber.
Captain Qu Lang was especially so.
Seeing Xuanwu’s golden and jade-like appearance and immediately thinking of money and thus him becoming particularly enthusiastic, wasn’t hard to understand.
Fortunately, Bai Ju didn’t let Qu Lang feel embarrassed but squatted down and gently explained to Ling Zhuo that times had changed, and modern etiquette was far different from what it remembered; Qu Lang, as a Chinese, was already being quite reserved by not immediately hugging and kissing him on the cheek.
Hearing this, Qu Lang’s lips twitched slightly. For some reason, even though Old Dog Bai was trying his best to explain, he sounded like a creepy uncle trying to abduct a child…
The scales on Ling Zhuo’s neck that had been slightly raised slowly subsided.
It still trusted Bai Ju quite a bit. After listening to Old Dog Bai’s explanation for a few moments, it looked at Qu Lang suspiciously and finally nodded silently.
Bai Ju breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, took Xiao Yao’s hand, and said to Qu Lang, “I need to trouble you to settle Ling Zhuo in first. Just put him at Jing Xia’s house for now. You happen to have a key; let’s tell Jing Xia when he comes back. Also, A Song might need Ling Zhuo’s help. Jing Xia can handle that too. For now, let’s leave it at that.”
Qu Lang naturally had no objections. After agreeing to the task, he persuaded Ling Zhuo to climb onto his back, then stealthily took the little guy and left.
When Xiao Yao had a moment to spare, he and Bai Ju sat down on the rocks and first discussed the matter of the merman’s magic array.
Earlier, Xiao Yao and Qu Lang had gone into the water and, following Bai Ju’s instructions, quickly found the location of the merman’s array.
The place was quite hidden; after entering a shallow area, one had to find a barely noticeable undercurrent on the seabed. Following the current, one could find a hidden passage about two meters in diameter; the passage led to the interior of Turtle Ridge Island, and emerging from the passage was a naturally formed cave within the island.
Inside the cave, seawater had accumulated to form a small lake, and the merman’s magic array was set up on the shore. Several narrow cracks in the rock ceiling of the cave were presumably for air circulation.
Xiao Yao and Qu Lang were quite fortunate that they had entered the cave at night, when the water level was higher due to the rising tide, making the magic array on the shore very close. The slippery, deep well-like passage thus hadn’t caused them any trouble.
“Qu Lang has the artificial spirit stones that Ji Yun and the others developed before. We studied that formation and installed the artificial spirit stones inside. They should be able to store quite a bit of stuff,” Xiao Yao said, taking one out of his pocket and handing it to Bai Ju. “Take a look, this is it.”
Artificial spirit stones were a rather theoretical thing; they were basically spirit stone shells that could store spiritual energy and a series of other things. However, since they were artificially synthesized in batches using formations and raw materials, their capacity and stability still needed to be investigated.
Bai Ju took the artificial spirit stone from Xiao Yao, examined it, clasped his fingers together, and tried to input spiritual energy into it.
Most of the time, Ji Yun’s products are quite reliable. Bai Ju tried them out and commented, “Not bad, the capacity is not small, and the stability is quite high. If we use the power from the seal, it should last at least a week without any problems, which is enough for us to find a way to deal with it. How many of these artificial spirit stones have you asked the array to use?”
Xiao Yao calculated, “More than two hundred, not many, still far from what we actually need.”
Bai Ju raised his hand to smooth the wrinkles between Xiao Yao’s brows and smiled reassuringly, “It’s okay, I borrowed the Xuanming Plaque from the Xiao Xuanwu, and allocated a portion of its space to store the power from the seal; I also have a way to absorb some myself, so there’s no need to worry about that.”
Xiao Yao raised his hand to hold Bai Ju’s paw, leaned in and kissed his chin, praising, “How can you be so omnipotent?”
Bai Ju smiled and lowered his head, kissing the right spot, his thumb rubbing the small mole below Xiao Yao’s ear, “I am the Mountain God after all.”
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