Chapter 21 — The Cold Na'er and the Greedy Gu Yue!
Na'er looked at her bare self—and at his equally bare self.
There was no way to call this "innocent."
Sure, she called Tang Wulin "Brother" and Jiang Chen "Brother," but it wasn't the same. One came from genuine affection; the other was nothing but grudging coercion.
She hated calling Jiang Chen that. It made the word brother feel tainted.
Something about it just… felt wrong.
So why did her heart skip a beat?
Before she could process that uneasy thought, Jiang Chen suddenly scooped her up. She froze when she realized he had turned to face her. Their eyes met—and her face flamed scarlet.
"L-let me go!"
"Too… tight!"
"I can't breathe!"
Her small hands pushed feebly against his chest as she gasped for air, legs instinctively wrapping around his waist simply to keep balance.
Meanwhile, Jiang Chen's thoughts were elsewhere.
He had planned to awaken her martial soul, but after checking her condition, he realized something was off—something missing.
It seemed the Silver Dragon Spear martial soul Na'er used in the original timeline wasn't truly her own. It had been a mimic, just as the Auspicious Beast had simulated the Golden Dragon bloodline.
And that made perfect sense.
Even with all her brilliance, the Silver Dragon King, embodiment of the Dragon God's Wisdom, wouldn't split off such a powerful piece of herself just to "experience human life." Na'er had been nothing more than a small fragment, a pawn meant to rejoin the whole later.
To awaken Na'er's true power, he would need to obtain the Silver Dragon Spear.
But taking it from Gu Yue's grasp… yes, that was going to be a problem.
"You—let me go right now!"
Within moments, Na'er had bolted from the bath, wrapped hastily in a towel, stomping away in furious embarrassment.
Stupid perverted lolicon freak! she thought. You'll get what's coming to you!
When Jiang Chen returned to his room, she was already seated, wearing a dress, scribbling feverishly in her diary again.
Page after page. All about debts. Repayments. Never a single note about anything he'd done for her.
He sighed. He'd thought about peeking once, but no—this was one of the few private things she had left. He didn't want her to truly hate him.
Still, seeing her measure every gesture in terms of money… hurt more than he expected.
Did she really think his kindness had only a price tag?
Was she planning on running off the moment her debt was paid? Not happening.
He needed to think of a way to keep her bound—figuratively, if not literally.
"You're eating, sleeping, living in my house," he said. "Shouldn't that count as expenses?"
Na'er's pen paused mid-stroke. She tilted her head slightly and said softly, "You said you'd take care of me for free. Otherwise I wouldn't have come."
Jiang Chen fell silent. Damn. No arguing with that.
He picked up the hairdryer instead, gently drying her silvery hair. The strands shimmered under the warm air like satin. He couldn't help but murmur, "You'd look even better if you grew it long."
Na'er, without looking up, replied evenly, "Drying my hair doesn't count toward what I owe. You're doing it voluntarily."
Jiang Chen: …
She really knows how to kill a mood.
He turned off the hairdryer midway and tossed it aside. "Forget it. Go to sleep."
Later—
"Brother! You're pulling my hair!"
In Aolai City…
"So, this is the place?"
Outside Tang Wulin's home, Gu Yue stood with Di Tian at her side. With his position as Vice Tower Master of the Spirit Transmission Tower, tracking down anyone was child's play.
And since Jiang Chen was also here, he hadn't thought it necessary to keep constant watch—surely nothing could go wrong.
After all, half of his Lord was still his Lord.
"Hello? Can I help you?"
Tang Wulin opened the door, curious. Eastsea Academy was starting soon, and he'd taken some extra days off from forging.
But the moment Gu Yue saw him, her pupils constricted sharply. She turned on her heel and walked away without a word.
Di Tian blinked, bewildered, as she dragged him into a side alley.
"What—Master?"
Through gritted teeth, Gu Yue whispered, "The Golden Dragon King's divine core—it's inside him!"
Di Tian's face froze. "What?"
"I probed with my spiritual sense," Gu Yue said, brows furrowed. "Something blocked me—but I felt it. The divine core of the Golden Dragon King, bound by eighteen seals and restrained with a super-artifact."
Only one of the God Realm's five God Kings could accomplish that—embedding a God King's core into a human host with divine-level restrictions and a god-tier weapon.
But she didn't recognize the artifact. A new god, perhaps?
And this boy—no ordinary human.
The Silver Dragon King—master of all elemental forces—could see the truth within. His "Blue Silver Grass" carried the dormant blood of the Blue Silver Emperor, merely unawakened.
A strange fear crept across her heart.
It was the same fear that had driven her to flee when the Dragon God had first split—when the Golden Dragon King chose death before retreat.
The Dragon God, warped by interference from the twin godheads of Creation and Destruction, had fallen into grief and madness after his mate's death—killing his own heir in despair.
In the end, he split himself into two halves.
The Golden Dragon King inherited his body and destructive nature—the Godhood of Destruction.
The Silver Dragon King inherited his divine consciousness and command over creation—the Godhood of Creation.
They weren't clones. They were his children.
The Dragon God's consciousness had long perished. The Silver Dragon King's consciousness was a newborn, nurtured from the energy of the Star Dou Forest.
That was why she carried no memories of the true Dragon God.
But she knew: if she could devour the Golden Dragon King, she could resurrect the Dragon God herself.
And this time, it would be under her will—an intelligent, perfect Dragon God.
With true Wisdom.
Realization dawned on Di Tian as well, eyes gleaming with reverence. For ages, he had doubted his lord's plan. This was the Dragon God—his creator, his idol.
He remembered the Dragon God bestowing upon him the Dragon God Claw when he was still a hatchling, entrusting him with divine hope after the dragons' fall.
The thought of the Dragon God's rebirth filled him with trembling awe.
If this succeeded—the soul beasts would rise again.
A killing intent gleamed in his golden eyes. "My Lord… perhaps we should—"
"No."
Gu Yue cut him off coldly. "With a super-artifact involved, a God King's divine sense must still linger. I can't risk revealing myself yet. Not until I'm whole again."
If even one trace of that godly awareness still lingered inside Tang Wulin, confronting it now would be suicide.
Her other half, her missing soul fragment, was essential. She needed to recover it first.
"My other half isn't here," she said grimly. "We find her first."
Di Tian blinked. "Ah?"
"'Ah' what? It's your job to keep track of her! How could you lose her!?"
He scratched his head nervously. "Wasn't she staying with Jiang Chen? How far could she have wandered off?"
Besides, wasn't she technically your fragment? Shouldn't you sense her?
Gu Yue didn't reply. Her violet eyes burned with determination.
The name "Tang Wulin" etched itself into her mind.
The Golden Dragon King… belonged to her.
She would claim it.
(END CHAPTER)
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