“What is it, Teacher Shen? Is there something else?” Ye Yang had just advanced and was full of boundless energy. He had a faint feeling that his innate abilities had undergone some new change, and he was eager to go test them out.
Shen Ming took a deep breath, his expression turning very serious. “I’m going to ask you something. You must think carefully before answering.”
Ye Yang couldn’t help but grow serious as well. Then Shen Ming asked, “Have you ever seen this before?”
A drop of golden liquid suddenly materialized in the air between them. Ye Yang’s eyes flew wide open. Wasn’t this the very golden liquid that had changed his destiny?!
Teacher Shen actually knew about this too. Could it be that…?
Ye Yang’s expression said it all. Shen Ming sighed and withdrew the divine blood. “I see.”
Ye Yang asked urgently, “Was it you, Teacher Shen? Are you my benefactor?”
Shen Ming looked at him, his expression complex and unreadable. Benefactor? Once Ye Yang knew the truth, they would likely become mortal enemies, locked in an unending grudge.
Ye Yang, trembling with excitement, poured out his hidden past all at once.
Until now, he had strictly followed Director Tu’s teachings and never told anyone about these things.
Accidentally obtaining the golden droplet, receiving a vast amount of fragmented memories, inheriting part of a legacy, awakening his intelligence and transforming into human form, embarking on a journey to find his benefactor, reaching the shore with the help of kind strangers, only to lose track of his benefactor again… He had kept all of this bottled up inside for so, so long.
As Shen Ming listened, he suddenly realized something was off. “Wait, you’re saying the divine blood just melted into your body? You didn’t lose consciousness?” He asked tactfully.
“So that was divine blood? Ah, I get it—that was your blood, Teacher Shen!” Ye Yang tried hard to recall. “Hmm… honestly, I barely have any memories from before my intelligence awakened. I just remember an endless darkness lasting a long time, and then the divine blood fell.”
“What about your other kin?” Shen Ming asked again. “When the divine blood fused with you, what happened to them?”
“My kin…” Ye Yang looked more troubled. “I didn’t really notice. It’s possible they were already gone during the time without sunlight.”
“To be honest, before my intelligence awakened, I didn’t have any real thoughts or memories. Even that scene I just mentioned—I only recalled it after I gained intelligence.”
Shen Ming felt a stir in his heart and asked directly, “After you gained intelligence and before you left the South China Sea, did you ever harm any innocent beings?”
Ye Yang was shocked. “How is that possible?! How could I do something like that!”
Then he grew a bit angry. If anyone else had asked, maybe he could let it slide, but Shen Ming—after everything between them, everything that Ye Yang couldn’t quite put into words—he was really upset. “Teacher Shen! How could you think that of me? What kind of demon do you take me for?”
Shen Ming looked at Ye Yang and suddenly smiled.
His smile was faint, but very gentle, and his eyes shone brighter than ever before. It was as if he had put down a massive boulder that had been pressing on his heart for so long, his whole body finally relaxing.
Ye Yang: “??? Why are you laughing?” That only made him angrier.
…
Shen Ming spent the whole way home coaxing Ye Yang.
He couldn’t explain too much about the divine blood’s contamination—after all, the more one knew, the easier it was to be corrupted. The fact that Ye Yang hadn’t been contaminated was a good thing, but it was completely illogical. Shen Ming would have to figure out the reason later, so for now, he simply glossed over it.
But because Ye Yang kept pestering him like a broken record about repaying the favor, Shen Ming finally revealed a little: “The leaking of the divine blood was my mistake. If it had encountered anyone but you, it might have sparked a deadly struggle, or the being that absorbed it could have gone berserk, running rampant and harming innocents. That would have been my sin instead. You could say I’m the one who should thank you.”
As you sow, so shall you reap. Those who wield divine power also bear the responsibility of ensuring it is not misused. Therefore, any consequences from the divine blood’s leakage were Shen Ming’s karma.
“As you sow, so shall you reap…” Ye Yang chewed on those words, then suddenly realized: “So, Teacher Shen, since it was your divine blood that gave me everything I have today, that makes you my benefactor.”
Shen Ming wasn’t led astray by that logic. He firmly believed, “I helped you, and you helped me. That cancels it out.”
“But—” Ye Yang tried to argue, but Shen Ming quickly cut him off. “Alright, aren’t things pretty good between us as they are? Don’t waste any more time. We should head back. Your work is waiting for you.”
Ye Yang’s attention was easily diverted. He had left in a hurry, without even handing over his tasks. He vaguely remembered marking two quests before he left—he wondered if Chi Lian had finished them.
·
Inside the secret realm, there was no sense of day or night, no feeling of time passing. It was only when he got home that Ye Yang realized it was already November. He had been in closed-door cultivation for two full months.
“Oh my gosh, Teacher Shen! You’ve been guarding me for two whole months!”
Ye Yang, already fixated on repaying the favor, now felt even worse about it.
Shen Ming smiled. “Then how about baking me a Basque cheesecake?”
Ye Yang immediately rolled up his sleeves. “One cake isn’t nearly enough, Teacher Shen. Just wait!”
Since he was already so behind on work, a little more delay wouldn’t matter. There was no rush to go back—making cakes for Teacher Shen was the real priority.
Work, quests, debts—all of it could take a backseat now that he had finally found his benefactor.
Seeing Ye Yang like this, Shen Ming felt relieved and reminded him, “I have some things to take care of. I’ll be back later.”
Ye Yang called out an acknowledgment from the kitchen, but as soon as Shen Ming left, he immediately shoved the half-mixed flour paste into the fridge, took off his apron, and snuck out of the kitchen.
Shen Ming and Ye Yang had long stopped distinguishing between “your place” and “my place.” But this was the first time Ye Yang stood in Shen Ming’s living room feeling as guilty as a thief.
After secretly searching the entire apartment, Ye Yang found himself uncharacteristically at a loss.
The spirit snake wasn’t there. What exactly had happened?
Before leaving the South China Sea secret realm, Shen Ming had warned Ye Yang never to let the spirit snake know that he had absorbed the divine blood of the Black Tortoise.
Ye Yang found this strange. Ever since he first met Shen Ming, the spirit snake and Shen Ming had been one entity, sharing the same mind. Whatever one thought or did, the other would receive simultaneously. Yet now Shen Ming was saying something like this.
Shen Ming wouldn’t give such an instruction knowing full well that the spirit snake could sense everything he thought.
Thinking it over carefully, Ye Yang suddenly realized he hadn’t seen the spirit snake in a very long time.
The last time the spirit snake had come to his place to steal food was already… already half a year ago!
“Why can’t I tell the spirit snake? Where did he go?”
Shen Ming shifted his gaze slightly. “Well, he hasn’t been behaving lately, so I locked him up.” That wasn’t false—except this time, Shen Ming hadn’t confined the spirit snake within his own spiritual consciousness but in another, much more tightly guarded place.
He didn’t want Ye Yang to know that the spirit snake was actually a heart demon. He didn’t want Ye Yang to be hurt by the spirit snake’s deception, nor did he want Ye Yang to discover that he, the so-called strongest being on earth—the Black Tortoise—could also give birth to a heart demon.
Ever since realizing that the spirit snake was the embodiment of his own evil thoughts, Shen Ming had been trying every way to expel or destroy him. But a heart demon was not so easily dealt with.
After much struggle, Shen Ming had only managed to find a way to suppress it.
“In any case, if you ever run into him, don’t engage with him.” Regardless, without Shen Ming, the spirit snake could only use words to manipulate others—he couldn’t directly harm them.
Ye Yang nodded firmly in agreement, though curiosity inevitably lingered in his heart.
Since the spirit snake and Shen Ming’s minds were no longer connected, the spirit snake must no longer be inside Shen Ming’s spiritual consciousness.
Taking advantage of Shen Ming’s absence, Ye Yang had searched the entire apartment, but the spirit snake wasn’t there either.
Ye Yang sighed. “Teacher Shen doesn’t want to talk about it. Oh well, I’ll leave it for now.”
·
Shen Ming wasn’t too worried that Ye Yang might be deceived by the spirit snake.
After all, he was keeping an eye on the spirit snake himself.
After using the apartment as an excuse to leave, he went straight to the place where the spirit snake was being suppressed.
The moment he detected the spirit snake’s unusual movements, Shen Ming had contacted Yan Yungui. True to form, Yan Yungui had plenty of methods. He used a special technique to separate the spirit snake and suppress him within a small world at the YCG headquarters.
The core of that small world continuously drained spiritual power from the spirit snake, keeping the world running while ensuring the spirit snake had no chance to escape.
When Shen Ming entered the small world, there were no other living beings inside except the spirit snake.
The spirit snake, constantly drained of his spiritual power, had fallen into a deep sleep to preserve himself. Shen Ming stood there quietly for a while, but in the end, he said nothing and left directly.
·
Upon returning from his closed-door cultivation, Ye Yang’s strength had greatly increased. Xing Tian became interested and started sparring with him in the training room every day.
Fortunately, there weren’t many tasks over those two months—Chi Lian could handle them alone.
Speaking of which, they owed a debt of gratitude to Fu Ye. The moment news spread that this big shot would be permanently stationed in the Eastern Continent, many hidden forces dared not act rashly. Both the human and demon realms in the Eastern Continent had become much more peaceful.
At least on the surface.
Over the past two months, Little Crow hadn’t changed much, but Little Parrot had been completely transformed.
Robots have one advantage humans lack: patience. No matter how slowly Little Parrot progressed, the little robot’s tone and speech speed remained the same as at the very beginning, completely unaffected.
Although Little Parrot wasn’t particularly smart among budgerigars, after such a long period of learning, he had actually picked up quite a few things.
“Good morning,” “Love you,” “Kiss me,” “Mama”—those were nothing. Little Parrot could now even sing, “Little rabbit, be good, open the door~” Not to mention Ye Yang, even Shen Ming was a bit surprised when he first heard it.
At that moment, Ye Yang suddenly felt that buying the early-learning robot had been worth it.
Humans always have this kind of power, one that even gods cannot help but admire.
But there was also a side effect—it was too noisy.
Budgerigars were already loud by nature, and after learning to talk from the little robot, Little Parrot chattered nonstop all day long.
Ye Yang couldn’t stand the noise at home, yet he didn’t dare tell Little Parrot to shut up. What if the bird remembered his failed courtship attempt again?
With no other choice, he could only speed up the search for an adopter. Every day, he posted threads and videos. Over the past few months, he had even started making a name for himself in the pet blogger niche.
One day, as usual, he posted a new video of Little Parrot, but suddenly received a private message from the platform: “Blogger, can you take in a dog?”
Leave a Reply