“I’ll grant you a stroke of fortune. The rest is up to you.”
Chen Bao involuntarily reverted to her original form. Dazed, she swam two circles around them. Then, seeming to understand something, she leaped out of the water in gratitude before swimming off toward the east.
Ye Yang was equally bewildered. “Where is she going?”
Shen Ming: “Chen Bao has a connection with the dragon race. I’ve pointed her toward the Dragon Gate. Whether she can become a true dragon is up to her.”
The legendary carp leaping over the Dragon Gate! Ye Yang’s heart stirred with excitement. “So she could become a real Dragon God?”
Shen Ming: “I don’t know.” There had been no word from the upper realm for a millennium. He had lost contact with his old friends long ago. He wasn’t even sure if the Dragon Gate still existed.
Ye Yang nodded slowly. After a moment, he said, “There’s one more thing.”
Shen Ming: “Hmm?”
Ye Yang reached out and grabbed hold. Caught completely off guard, Shen Ming felt Ye Yang seize his left elbow. “What’s with this wound?”
The injury ran from his wrist all the way to his shoulder—extremely long and narrow. The wound shimmered with a golden light, and while it looked rather beautiful, Ye Yang only felt heartache. That was Shen Ming’s blood!
The wound flickered—Shen Ming’s instinct was to hide it. But after a moment, he gave up.
Ye Yang had already seen it. Hiding it now would only make him angry.
Shen Ming was silent for a long time. Ye Yang didn’t speak either, just held on tightly as a steady stream of healing energy flowed into the wound.
Shen Ming let out a long sigh. “Alright, stop wasting your energy. It’s useless.”
Ye Yang didn’t move or look up. It was as if he hadn’t heard a thing. All Shen Ming could see was the stubborn back of his head. Shen Ming stared at the little cowlick in Ye Yang’s hair, and suddenly felt an impulse—to speak aloud everything he had kept locked inside for thousands of years.
And so he did.
Maybe it was because he had seen the Heavenly Emperor’s name today. Or maybe it was because the person standing before him, the one asking, was Ye Yang.
Gently smoothing down a tiny tuft of hair on the little sea hare’s head, Shen Ming spoke:
“This is an old wound. Today, when I came into contact with the tainted energy from the lives taken by Chen Bao’s people, the wound was aggravated and accidentally showed itself—just for a moment. I didn’t expect you to notice.”
Once the hardest words were out, the rest followed naturally. “I can’t even remember how many years ago it was. A divine war broke out in the upper realm. The Heavenly Emperor struck me from behind. I was gravely wounded and fell to the lower realm. This wound is from that moment.”
After millennia of recovery, the wound had shrunk considerably. But back then, it had nearly cleaved his enormous true form of the Black Tortoise in two—a merciless blow from the strongest being in the upper realm.
“…” Ye Yang opened his mouth, but no words came. He could only hold Shen Ming’s hand tighter.
“Honestly, it’s that simple. It’s all in the past. When I woke up in the lower realm, the upper realm had already closed itself off. Heaven and earth have been separated ever since.”
Shen Ming spoke lightly, as if it were nothing. But Ye Yang could feel it—this was a knot deep in Shen Ming’s heart.
After a long pause, Ye Yang asked softly, “What was the Heavenly Emperor like?”
“The Heavenly Emperor… He was the guiding light who led me onto the immortal path. To me, he was both teacher and friend.” Shen Ming had always respected and trusted the Heavenly Emperor. And yet, the Heavenly Emperor had nearly killed him.
Shen Ming had always been a homebody who didn’t like to move around. But it was only after the divine war that he became so extreme, unwilling to form any bonds with anyone.
After thousands of years, he still couldn’t understand why it had happened. He had always been close to the Heavenly Emperor, never made enemies with anyone. Even Bi Fang, who hated him the most, had never come to blows with him—though that might have had something to do with the fact that Bi Fang was no match for him.
Ye Yang had even less idea what to say. He regretted asking. He just held Shen Ming’s hand tightly.
Shen Ming felt the warmth—the healing power flowing from Ye Yang’s hand into his palm. The knot in his heart seemed to loosen just a little.
“Alright. Let’s get back to work.”
·
The two returned to the Dragon God Temple, retrieved all the bodies, and gathered evidence that the victims had not died from falling off a cliff but had been deliberately drowned. Ye Yang took the evidence to the city and, using his YCG credentials, contacted the Criminal Investigation Unit.
The YCG credentials proved quite useful in certain ways. Criminal cases even got priority. Before long, Ye Yang returned to the village with an entire criminal investigation team and a forensic examiner in tow.
No one tried to stop them. While Ye Yang was in the city, Shen Ming had stayed right there, ensuring no one in the village could interfere.
The evidence was ironclad. Several villagers, influenced by Ye Yang’s abilities, confessed to their crimes without hesitation. Once the other victims heard the confessions, they realized they had been deceived. Anger surged, and they provided even more evidence.
It turned out more than a dozen villagers had been involved in the crimes. This last one was supposed to be their final job—after extorting the white-haired old man’s savings, they planned to take all the money they had accumulated over the years and flee. They just happened to run straight into trouble.
Ye Yang felt a chill of relief. If the YCG patrol officer hadn’t been so meticulous and happened to notice something wrong, these people might have actually gotten away with it.
Remote, impoverished places like Suli County were not numerous across all of China, but they weren’t exactly rare either. Were similar things happening elsewhere?
This time, the Criminal Investigation Unit took more than a dozen suspects back in one go. The vehicles couldn’t fit them all—it took two trips to transport everyone.
The entire incident involved no non-human factors. It was purely humans committing evil deeds under the guise of a false god. The case was handed over to the city’s criminal investigation team, and Ye Yang’s mission was concluded.
There was no rush on the return trip. Ye Yang decided to treat himself and Shen Ming to business-class seats on the high-speed rail—a rare luxury. As luck would have it, from the second stop onward, they had the entire carriage to themselves.
Truth be told, it was because he had seen Shen Ming’s wound. He couldn’t help but treat Shen Ming like an invalid…
“The business class really is comfortable,” Ye Yang couldn’t help but sigh, sprawled completely in his seat.
Shen Ming let out a soft laugh. Ye Yang shot upright and stared at him. “What? Did I say something wrong?”
Shen Ming quickly stifled his smile and said with a straight face, “No, you’re absolutely right.”
Ye Yang narrowed his eyes at him for a moment longer, confirming he wasn’t lying, then lay back down leisurely.
The scenery outside the window blurred past, and the carriage fell quiet. Two more stops passed. Then, out of nowhere, Ye Yang, who had been staring blankly into space, sat bolt upright.
Shen Ming’s gaze immediately snapped to him: ?
Ye Yang’s face was full of panic. “Oh no, it’s been less than two days.” He finally remembered why he had taken this mission in the first place—to get out of town for a few days and escape all those annoying Xuan Lu matters!
How had he thrown himself into the mission so hard that he forgot all about that…
“What do I do? If I go home now, Xuan Lu will still come looking for me, right?” He looked at Shen Ming for help.
Shen Ming was about to say that he had hundreds of ways to keep Xuan Lu away. But then he thought better of it, and what came out was: “You can move back in with me.”
Ye Yang hesitated. Shen Ming lowered his eyes and continued, “Besides, Little Black Egg is about to hatch. At the slowest, twenty-something days. At the fastest… just a few days.”
Ye Yang’s eyes lit up. “I’m moving in!” All his other concerns flew out the window. Little Black Egg was what mattered most!
·
Five days later, after a total of forty-seven days, Little Black Egg hatched!
From the moment the first crack appeared, Ye Yang and Shen Ming stayed by the incubator, not leaving for a second.
“Do you think, when he sees me for the first time, he’ll think I’m his dad?”
Shen Ming was a bit speechless. “Logically speaking… he’d think you’re his mom.”
Ye Yang had his own reasoning. “I know that. But that’s for ordinary little snakes. Is this an ordinary little snake?”
Shen Ming was stumped. Fine. He didn’t know either.
Soon, more and more cracks appeared on Little Black Egg. Under the expectant gazes of two pairs of eyes, a little snake poked its head out.
It took Ye Yang three days to finally, tentatively, accept a fact—
The spirit snake had indeed become completely ordinary. It didn’t even have fangs. It looked just like the most common black-ridged snake—something even an ordinary person could keep as a pet.
Ye Yang tried repeatedly to talk to the little black snake but got no meaningful response. After a few days of fussing, he finally gave up—for now.
“I’ll try every day. Maybe it just hasn’t fully developed yet.”
He still believed that the spirit snake he knew would come back.
Shen Ming couldn’t give a definitive answer either. He could only nod silently. His feelings toward the spirit snake were complicated. It was his inner demon, yet it had saved him. He found it hard to define what the spirit snake meant to him.
But one thing he was sure of—he also hoped the spirit snake would return.
Ye Yang hadn’t completely lost hope. He held on to a sliver of possibility. He even brought the little black snake to work, thinking, “What if? What if being around Chi Lian, that big snake, jogs some memory?”
Chi Lian had nothing to say about it. He just had to accept the job—reading between the lines, it was basically babysitting.
The little black snake, mixed in with Chi Lian’s large group of red-and-black snakes, was immediately swallowed up in the crowd and too scared to move.
Ye Yang saw nothing wrong with this. Every few days, he’d take the little black snake out for a stroll, even when going on missions. The little snake followed him into the demon realm, across mountains and seas. Though it still hadn’t changed fundamentally, it had grown much bolder. At least it no longer played dead at the sight of Chi Lian’s true form.
And so, months passed quietly. The longer Ye Yang stayed at Shen Ming’s place, the more of his things gradually moved over. With the little black snake and the little crow added to the mix, Shen Ming’s home was lively and bustling.
Meanwhile, several things had happened in Dongzhou.
First, Luoyang City, which was connected to Dongzhou, was officially taken over by the Qingluan clan. The city lord was none other than Ye Yang’s old classmate from preschool—Ke Ranzhou.
Ke Ranzhou had broken away from her family, started her own lineage, and led the new generation of the Qingluan clan back to the demon realm, conquering six cities in rapid succession and completely quelling the chaos of war in the demon realm.
Ye Yang was stunned when he heard the news. He had always known Ke Ranzhou was strong, but he never knew she was this strong!
No wonder she barely kept in touch after graduation and never agreed to meet up. She must have been incredibly busy.
The other matter involved the Sword Sect. Qin Zhi’s eldest senior sister had returned, taking over the affairs of Ren Peak and Qin Zhi’s daily duties. Suddenly free, Qin Zhi—whether moved by Xuan Lu’s persistence or simply bored out of his mind—actually had a proper talk with Xuan Lu.
No one knew what was said, but when the conversation ended, Qin Zhi agreed to travel to the Silver Wolf Clan’s snowy plains with Xuan Lu.
After Qin Zhi’s master came out of seclusion, he was first overjoyed at his eldest disciple’s return, then furious that Qin Zhi had run off. In a fit of anger, he went back into seclusion again…
Just when it seemed life would go on peacefully without further incident, the inevitable finally arrived.
One day, Ye Yang had just finished putting Shen Xiujun’s latest delivery of seawater into the bathtub in the second bedroom when he received an urgent internal alert:
“Emergency—The Vermilion Bird has reappeared!”
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