NHWSG chapter 22

Xing Yingzhu silently repeated to himself three times, “He’s a human, I can’t eat him. Eating him will get me struck by lightning,” before reluctantly suppressing the urge to throw Sheng Zhao back into the water again.

Sheng Zhao had no idea about the danger he had just narrowly avoided. He looked at his ID card doubtfully, then glanced at Xing Yingzhu. After hesitating for a while, he stammered, trembling, “Actually, boss, aren’t you a big monster? Shouldn’t you fly back?”

Xing Yingzhu: “…”

Xing Yingzhu suddenly turned his head, looking at him with an expression that seemed to say, “Are you even human?” and accused, “You should have seen me spitting blood just now.”

“Ah…” Sheng Zhao responded dumbly.

Xing Yingzhu gritted his teeth. “And yet you want me to fly!”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

Indeed, that was a bit thoughtless. Sheng Zhao earnestly reflected on himself. He couldn’t just ignore the fact that Xing Yingzhu had just finished fighting a dragon.

“The ID is real,” Xing Yingzhu said impatiently. “Consider it a special channel.”

Sheng Zhao understood—Xing Yingzhu probably used the green channel for undocumented immigrants, he thought.

The population census is indeed a good policy, Sheng Zhao sincerely marveled in his heart, allowing even ancient monsters to thrive smoothly in modern society.

It’s much easier when you have a real ID card. Regardless of the age stated on the ID, as long as it’s usable.

Sheng Zhao subconsciously touched his pocket, intending to take out his phone to book tickets, but belatedly realized that his phone had valiantly sacrificed itself along with his luggage earlier and was now over six hundred kilometers away from him.

Fortunately, his ID card was tucked in his pocket along with the door card, protected by a zipper, so it escaped unscathed.

Sheng Zhao hurriedly shook off the water on himself, intending to take out the contents of his pocket to assess the damage. However, when he took out the items, he suddenly discovered that the door card, which he had carefully kept in his pocket, was broken in half.

He anxiously held his ID card in his mouth, heartbrokenly examining the broken door card.

The card was inexplicably broken, with no signs of being cut or damaged at the edges, as if it had been sliced cleanly in the middle with a sharp blade. The once beautiful material now looked dull and dusty, and when Sheng Zhao touched it lightly, several fine cracks appeared on its surface.

Sheng Zhao was slightly stunned, feeling that something was amiss.

This card had been carried in his pocket day and night for several months, so he knew its hardness very well. Even a light touch wouldn’t leave a scratch.

At this moment, Xing Yingzhu had already walked towards the shore. Sheng Zhao, holding the fragile remnants of two card pieces in his hand, suddenly remembered what Xing Yingzhu inexplicably reminded him of before leaving the Shangdu.

Was he worried about my safety at that time, Sheng Zhao thought, so he asked me to keep the door card safe?

The more Sheng Zhao thought about it, the more possible it seemed. He carefully recalled that when he was in the water just now, he inexplicably felt protected by a layer of “film,” not only avoiding injury but also being able to breathe underwater.

Of course, he didn’t think it was his own mutation in a critical moment, gaining some kind of biological function like Spider-Man. After pondering for a while, he was eighty percent sure that Xing Yingzhu had done some mysterious tricks on him.

Sheng Zhao vaguely remembered that when he glanced down at that moment, it seemed that the faint glow came from his pocket.

—What exactly is this thing for?

In a flash of inspiration, his mind burst with several thoughts. He staggered a few steps to catch up with Xing Yingzhu and subconsciously blurted out the question.

Xing Yingzhu paused, turned his head, raised an eyebrow at him, and glanced at Sheng Zhao’s hand and face in turn, seeming surprised that Sheng Zhao suddenly mentioned this.

But perhaps because Sheng Zhao had already seen his “true form,” Xing Yingzhu didn’t bother to hide anything from him.

“It’s my scale,” Xing Yingzhu said.

Sheng Zhao suddenly felt a tightness in his chest, feeling a little uncomfortable.

What a good boss, Sheng Zhao thought, worrying about my safety, providing me with protection. Although he’s a bit sarcastic, he still reminds me in advance to avoid danger, which is much better than those unscrupulous capitalists outside.

And no wonder Xing Yingzhu didn’t want to replace the door card for him—pulling out a scale from his body would be quite painful.

The more Sheng Zhao thought about it, the more distressed he felt, even a little tender.

He was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes. He hurried a few steps to catch up with Xing Yingzhu and said to him with guilt and self-blame, “This time I didn’t listen to you, and it ended up getting you involved in rescuing me. Don’t worry about the door card, you don’t need to replace it for me. I can go out less in the future, it’s okay. Boss, don’t hurt yourself for my sake—”

“What?” Xing Yingzhu said inexplicably, “The reason I didn’t replace it is because I only replaced two scales last time.”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

Forget I said anything, Sheng Zhao thought.

Xing Yingzhu looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, as if he had been reminded of something by Sheng Zhao. He turned back and grabbed the collar of Sheng Zhao’s neck, pulling him along.

“Hey hey hey—” Sheng Zhao stumbled a few steps behind him, awkwardly reaching back to pat Xing Yingzhu’s hand off. “I’m fine, I can walk by myself, do I need you to drag me?”

Xing Yingzhu glanced lightly at him, released his fingers, and made an indistinct hum.

“Sheng Zhao, I haven’t finished asking you yet,” Xing Yingzhu said coolly. “You texted me two hours ago, saying you were on your way back—is this what you meant by being on your way?”

Here it comes, Sheng Zhao thought, the delayed reckoning.

“How did you end up there?” Xing Yingzhu continued, “Didn’t I tell you to avoid going there?”

Sheng Zhao rubbed his neck with a bitter expression. Xing Yingzhu noticed his movement from the corner of his eye. Although he didn’t say anything, he slightly slowed down and waited for him.

“I… I…” Sheng Zhao knew he was at fault, cleared his throat, and said guiltily, “I acted heroically.”

Xing Yingzhu fell silent for a moment before sincerely saying, “Then you probably owe an apology for those three words.”

Sheng Zhao also knew that mentioning “acting heroically” in front of Xing Yingzhu was almost like a joke. However, it was still a fact, regardless of whether Zhang Kaisheng was a human or a ghost, he had indeed found his whereabouts.

Annoyed and embarrassed, Sheng Zhao said, “Although my heroic act wasn’t successful, I had the motivation.”

“Alright.” Xing Yingzhu sighed as if tired. He had fought a battle tonight and had been angered by Sheng Zhao, so he was indeed tired. Now he felt a bit sluggish. “Then what happened?”

Sheng Zhao pondered how to start explaining this matter. After much thought, he decided to start from the beginning and tell Xing Yingzhu everything, including how he met Zhang Kaisheng on the plane, how he discovered the latter’s disappearance the next day, and how he saw Zhang Kaisheng in the car. He didn’t leave out any details.

Even the mysterious shadow that flashed over Zhang Kaisheng’s neck, Sheng Zhao told Xing Yingzhu about it.

It wasn’t until he heard this that Xing Yingzhu’s eyes flickered slightly, showing some reaction.

“You shouldn’t have chased after him,” Xing Yingzhu said. “He was trying to lure you, and you fell for it.”

Sheng Zhao later discovered this himself, but unfortunately, he realized it too late. By then, he had already fallen into the trap and it was too late to escape.

“But I don’t understand, why was he trying to lure me?” Sheng Zhao wondered. “What did I do to deserve being targeted by him?”

“You’ve been around me for too long and picked up my scent,” Xing Yingzhu said.

Sheng Zhao: “…”

This statement was really ambiguous. Out in the wilderness, just the two of them, and the boss suddenly said something like that, if Sheng Zhao didn’t know that he had lived for thousands of years and wasn’t human, he would have suspected him of sexual harassment.

“How did I pick up this scent?” Sheng Zhao said awkwardly. “I haven’t had any intimate contact with you.”

Xing Yingzhu gave him a strange look and asked, “Didn’t you notice that you haven’t had any injuries during this time?”

Sheng Zhao suddenly realized that it seemed to be the case.

Xing Yingzhu didn’t mention it, but he himself hadn’t noticed it. For the past few months, he hadn’t seen any “bloodlight” even once. Not to mention any wounds on his body, he hadn’t even experienced any minor bumps or bruises.

“…What’s the principle behind this?” Sheng Zhao seemed to have discovered a new continent and said in amazement, “Boss, are you exorcising?”

“Your original name is Sheng Zhao, and ‘Sheng’ sounds like ‘cut.’ Your aura is too heavy. If it can’t be suppressed, it’s normal to have accidents,” Xing Yingzhu said. He didn’t tease him this time, but said calmly, “There’s no one in this world with a heavier aura than me. You’ve been around me for so long, and your aura has naturally been suppressed by mine.”

If he had said this a week ago, Sheng Zhao would have thought Xing Yingzhu was talking nonsense.

But now that Sheng Zhao had seen how Xing Yingzhu “true form,” he almost immediately believed him.

“So, just because I’ve been with you for so long, it wants to eat me?” Sheng Zhao said strangely. “Does it want to eat me or eat you?”

Xing Yingzhu paused for a moment, not knowing how to explain the matter of interspecies relationships in a few words. So he simply said succinctly, “You can understand it as a compromise between these two situations.”

“What do you mean?” Sheng Zhao asked.

“Generally speaking, ordinary monsters that want to do evil will eat humans if they’re not strong enough, but powerful monsters, if they want to, can also eat lesser monsters,” Xing Yingzhu said.

“Understood.” Sheng Zhao filled in the blanks himself. “Survival of the fittest.”

“As for what you saw in the water, according to your standards, it is indeed a dragon—albeit a malformed one,” Xing Yingzhu said. “More than thirteen hundred years ago, there was a sorcerer in the mortal realm who sealed it underground in Shanghai.”

Thirteen hundred years ago—Sheng Zhao calculated back and asked, “During the Tang Dynasty?”

“Seems like it,” Xing Yingzhu said. “That sorcerer seemed to have the surname Li.”

Sheng Zhao wasn’t very clear about this occult history and found it all rather confusing. He couldn’t quite keep up and could only listen as Xing Yingzhu continued to explain.

“It’s different from ordinary monsters and classified as a monster beast, much more powerful than many big monsters,” Xing Yingzhu said. “Some time ago, the seal on it loosened a bit, which allowed it to resurface and cause trouble again. It’s eagerly killing people and searching for shortcuts to devour power, hoping to break free from the seal.”