NHWSG chapter 49

Sheng Zhao: “…”

Ten minutes later, Sheng Zhao changed his clothes and sat back opposite Hu Huanyang.

“I’m sorry, Xiao Zhao.” Hu Huanyang said with a pained tone as he wiped the table, “I’ll buy you a new sweater.”

—Was that the main point?!

Sheng Zhao silently watched Hu Huanyang’s actions, feeling as if even the clean table was going to shine.

“That’s enough, you’re about to wipe the paint off the table.” Sheng Zhao said calmly.

Hu Huanyang lowered his head silently, only then did he realize that the tissues in his hand had been crumpled, and the smooth table not only had no remaining juice, but even specks of dust were invisible, as clean as if it had just been taken out of the dishwasher.

Hu Huanyang: “…”

“Mainly, this news, it’s just—” Hu Huanyang made a struggling gesture, clearly unable to accept it, “It’s not a question of whether it’s surprising or not, it’s shocking.”

“Do you understand, Xiao Zhao? I originally thought you would be the hero of human-monster diplomacy, but I didn’t expect you to directly skip the ‘envoy’ status and go for a marriage.” Hu Huanyang said, “This is like the modern-day Princess Zhaojun going to the frontier or Princess Wencheng entering Tibet. Your historical status has suddenly been elevated. I see you shining behind, and my admiration for you is bursting out like a spring. This way of speaking makes me quite nervous.”

“Why is it me who has to get married him?” Sheng Zhao instinctively retorted, “Why can’t he get married to me?”

Hu Huanyang: “…”

“Xiao Zhao…” Hu Huanyang was silent for a while, then said slowly, “I didn’t say either of you is Princess Zhaojun.”

Sheng Zhao: “…Alright, let’s change the subject.”

Meanwhile, by the underground river in the Changning Development Zone, Xing Yingzhu suddenly sneezed without warning.

Zhang Jian and another middle-aged man, who were talking, stopped simultaneously and glanced at him with subtle expressions.

“…That Sheng Zhao, probably cursing at me behind my back again,” Xing Yingzhu muttered, pinching his nose bridge, his face looking somewhat unsightly.

“You’re the one who involved an ordinary person in this matter in the first place, it’s not right.” Zhang Jian couldn’t help but say, “And you blame others for cursing at you?”

Before Zhang Jian could finish speaking, he inexplicably felt his throat itch and couldn’t help but sneeze.

“Oh—looks like Hu Huanyang doesn’t have a good impression of you either.” Xing Yingzhu sneered, “But it’s understandable. After all, which monster wants to spend time with cultivators day and night?”

Zhang Jian lost some face in front of Xing Yingzhu, and rubbed his nose with a nonchalant expression, not saying anything.

“Alright, it’s probably just a coincidence.” The middle-aged man quickly intervened to defuse the situation, smiling and saying, “Live a long and healthy life, live a long and healthy life.”

Xing Yingzhu never bothered arguing with people he didn’t like. He took a few steps forward, stood by the edge of the riverbank, and turned back, “Step back.”

Zhang Jian asked for his help, so naturally, he wouldn’t be at odds with him over such a trivial matter. Without saying anything, he grabbed Zhang Yunfeng and stepped back more than twenty steps.

There was a stench emanating from the underground river, a smell that only demons could discern. It was extremely unpleasant, as if the river was filled with countless rotting fish and shrimp.

Xing Yingzhu wrinkled his nose in disgust, then folded his hands and seemingly pulled out a dark golden rope from his palms.

The rope shimmered with a glassy halo under the sunlight, looking extremely thin. It loosely coiled around his wrist like a decorative bracelet.

Xing Yingzhu circled around the big hole in the underground river and finally stopped on the east side of the river mouth.

Then, out of nowhere, the chain in his hand suddenly extended for tens of meters, with one end plunging into the water like a spear, splashing a bit of cold river water.

Zhang Jian frowned on the side.

As one of the few remaining inheritances of the Tianshi sects in the mortal world, the arsenal of weapons on the mountain was probably the most complete collection of its time. Zhang Jian had read all similar miscellaneous books in the library before he was ten years old, but he still couldn’t figure out the origin of the chain in Xing Yingzhu’s hand.

The chain swiftly retracted from Xing Yingzhu’s wrist, and when only the last loop was left, it suddenly stopped, then abruptly tightened, as if it had wrapped around something heavy underneath.

Xing Yingzhu put one hand in his pocket and casually pulled the chain, then glanced lightly at Zhang Jian and Zhang Yunfeng before exerting force on his wrist, pulling the thing up from the bottom of the water.

Overnight, the flesh on the dragon’s body seemed to have been removed, leaving it completely clean, with only a whole set of gleaming white bones left.

The skeleton looked to weigh at least ten tons, hanging loosely from the thin chain. When Xing Yingzhu threw the thing on the ground, it created a pit in the sandy soil.

“Just overnight, how could it decompose so badly?” Zhang Jian frowned.

“If you hadn’t thrown it into the water, it wouldn’t have happened.” Xing Yingzhu said indifferently, “But it’s a dragon after all. After death, entering the water, its flesh and blood naturally dissolve in the water.”

Xing Yingzhu retracted the chain in his hand to its normal length, loosely coiling it around his wrist five or six times.

“But—” Zhang Jian wanted to ask further but was pulled back by Zhang Yunfeng from behind.

Zhang Jian was talented in many areas, mastering everything he learned. He could control his clairvoyance since he was four years old and had an understanding of demons and ghosts. However, because of his young age, he tended to be straightforward in everything, so Zhang Yunfeng had to look after him more.

“According to what was said before, this dragon had preyed on humans.” Zhang Yunfeng hesitated, “But now…”

“Its core was shattered, so the method it used also disappeared.” Xing Yingzhu stomped his foot, gesturing, “The bones of those missing people should probably be in the mud at the bottom of the river. The illusion has been dispelled, so if you want, you can retrieve them.”

“What about those human spirits…?” Zhang Yunfeng asked.

“Gone.” Xing Yingzhu said straightforwardly, “I’ve told you before, those things are neither human nor souls, just objects for refining life. Now that the master is gone, they naturally dissipated into the world and can’t be found anymore.”

Zhang Jian had long understood this principle, but hearing Xing Yingzhu speak in such an indifferent tone still made him somewhat uncomfortable.

Zhang Yunfeng turned his head to look at him, his expression somewhat embarrassed, and whispered, “So Zhang Kaisheng…”

“No hope.” Zhang Jian sighed and said, “I contacted his family, saying they could come to the mountain to live, but Liu Ting refused and said she wanted to take the child back to her hometown.”

“There’s nothing we can do.” Zhang Yunfeng also sighed, “After all, they’re not relatives. It’s normal for them to feel incompatible with us.”

Xing Yingzhu wasn’t interested in listening to them discuss these trivial matters. He took care of the water droplets on the chain and then, with a flick of his wrist, collected the chain again.

With no more dragon haunting the underground river, the water flow began to slow down. Xing Yingzhu casually threw a stone into it, and soon heard the sound of the stone hitting the bottom, indicating that the river was no longer as deep as before.

After the dragon’s white bones had been exposed to the sun for a while, they began to emit a strange light blue color. Xing Yingzhu took a step forward and ran his fingertips over the dragon’s horn, lost in thought.

After a moment, he had some strange idea in his mind. He raised his eyebrows, took a step back, then took out his phone and snapped a picture of the large skull of the dragon.

… And then sent it to Sheng Zhao.

“What’s the big deal, I don’t mind.” Sheng Zhao was chatting away with Hu Huanyang, “I’d say, let’s just enjoy the moment. Who cares if he’s a monster or not, at least the boss looks good. As the saying goes, a peony—”

The mobile phone on the table emitted a short prompt sound, coincidentally interrupting Sheng Zhao’s lengthy discourse.

A chat window from Xing Yingzhu popped up on the screen, and Sheng Zhao glanced at it for a moment, hesitated for a moment, but decided to first deal with the childish temper of his boss.

Sheng Zhao temporarily suspended his impromptu lecture, but Hu Huanyang who was listening eagerly, hadn’t reacted yet; his eyes were already on the phone screen with Sheng Zhao’s movements.

Sheng Zhao casually opened the WeChat interface, thinking that Xing Yingzhu had something urgent to command him again, so he didn’t set up any defenses and directly opened his chat box.

Then, a high-definition, uncensored close-up photo of the excavated skeleton scene popped up.

The white sockets of the dragon’s eyes were facing the camera, and the gaping hole, as big as Sheng Zhao’s head, looked directly through the phone screen, accurately “staring” at him.

Sheng Zhao: “…”

Sheng Zhao took a sharp intake of breath, his heart skipping a beat, almost fainting on the spot.

Hu Huanyang obviously also saw this surprising picture too. He looked at Sheng Zhao with a face full of indescribable emotions, full of sympathy for him.

After all, Sheng Zhao had just boasted for about half an hour, like a proud peacock displaying his amazing and brave courtship process to him – interspersed with expressions of frustration towards single men and such admonishments as “young people must seize opportunities”. He didn’t forget to promote Xing Yingzhu’s “unknown gentle side”.

But now it seemed that the actual situation was somewhat different from what he had said, and dating Xing Yingzhu was clearly challenging.

“I understand, I understand.” Hu Huanyang sympathetically looked at him and said, “Men need face when they go out. It’s okay, I’ll just assume that when the boss is with you, he’s a gentle guy who secretly holds your hand with the tip of his tail!”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

Fortunately, the second message from Xing Yingzhuo popped up soon – “This thing may not be useful for anything else, but this dragon horn is pretty well cultivated. How about sawing it off and making a bracelet for you as a talisman against evil spirits?”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

Not great at all! Who wants to wear a bone as a talisman against evil spirits!

But apparently, this message gave Sheng Zhao confidence in his boasting. He straightened up and stubbornly said, “You’re too young to understand. This is his way of showing love for me.”