Shen Family’s glass water dungeon was shattered. After this disaster, almost all the other prisoners confined there were nearly drowned, with Xie Chi himself escaping without a care for the others’ fate.
Fortunately, some servants noticed in time and scooped the water out bucket by bucket. Shen Tanqi, feeling partly responsible, didn’t just stand by and watch; he joined in scooping out the water too.
“Senior Brother.”
Yu Ce seemed to have something to say to him, as he had been staring at Shen Tanqi since a while ago.
“What’s up?” Shen Tanqi wiped the sweat from his forehead, laboriously handed the water bucket to a servant beside him, and asked, “How’s Goldfish doing?”
The nearby servant nervously took the water bucket from him, afraid that Shen Tanqi might strain himself. “Young Master, let us handle this.”
Shen Tanqi waved his hand and said, “It’s fine.”
Seeing him toil, Yu Ce silently scooped water alongside him. Noticing that his clothes were all wet, Yu Ce took off his own clothes and draped them over Shen Tanqi. “Goldfish is fine. He went to apologize to his brother. We didn’t see you when we came back.”
He asked where Shen Tanqi had gone. Consort Shen’s vague reply raised suspicions, so he quietly followed the servants sent by Consort Shen and ended up in the water dungeon.
It turned out Xie Chi was imprisoned here.
“Oh, right, I heard from Consort Shen…” Shen Tanqi mentioned this, feeling somewhat guilty towards Yu Ce, “Your Brother is locked up here, so I came to see. I originally intended to rescue him, but I didn’t expect him to try to strangle me as soon as he saw me.”
Hearing this, Yu Ce understood the truth, and his expression eased slightly. Before he came, there was a moment when he wondered if Xie Chi appearing in the Shen Family had something to do with collusion between Xie Chi and the Shen Family. After all, with Xie Chi’s current ability, it would be difficult for the Shen Family alone to detain him.
So it turns out, Senior Brother only wanted to rescue his brother.
After pondering for a moment, he spoke softly, “No need to rescue him. He’s grown arrogant and doesn’t care about anything anymore.”
If the Shen Family could truly keep Xie Chi in check and teach him a lesson, perhaps it would be considered a great deed in the world.
Xie Chi was indeed his half-brother from the same mother but different father, yet their relationship wasn’t as close as Goldfish and Taro Ball’s.
They didn’t grow up together; they were raised by different wet nurses. Xie Chi was completely different from him since childhood, mischievous and cruel, like a born troublemaker. Yu Ce felt it was the influence left by Xie Chi’s father.
His most vivid memory was when Xie Chi framed him and secretly fled the Hidden Dragon Valley, leaving him locked in a room for over three months with only leftovers to eat.
Yu Ce thought he was just a young kid who didn’t know any better and blurted things out.
But later, during a dragon clan sacrifice, Xie Chi deliberately tricked him into a vine cage with five locks, intending to let everyone, unaware of the truth, burn him alive as a sacrifice. Fortunately, Yu Ce broke through his boundaries in time and escaped from the vine cage.
At that time, Yu Ce was five years old, while Xie Chi was only three.
When asked why he did it later, Xie Chi, wearing a similar face to his, grinned and said, “Because it’s fun. Seeing you unhappy makes me happy.”
Yu Ce didn’t indulge him; he just beat him up.
Back then, Yu Ce wasn’t as gentle as he is now. His mother had just passed away, leaving him with nothing to lose. So every time Xie Chi provoked him, he would beat him up hard. In Yu Ce’s eyes, he was educating his Brother on behalf of their mother.
But in Xie Chi’s eyes, Yu Ce couldn’t handle it.
After enduring numerous beatings, Xie Chi grew both fearful and resentful towards Yu Ce. However, his innate cultivation talent couldn’t compare to Yu Ce’s prowess. He had been overshadowed by Yu Ce since childhood, which fostered wicked thoughts in his heart, leading him onto the path of demonic cultivation.
Demonic cultivation progressed faster than immortal cultivation. Before long, Xie Chi surpassed Yu Ce’s cultivation realm. He confidently laid down traps, waiting for Yu Ce to fall into them so he could swiftly kill him.
At that time, Yu Ce was ten years old, and Xie Chi was eight.
Yu Ce showed no mercy, directly stepping beyond his own realm to beat Xie Chi, who practiced dark and twisted arts, until he was bruised and bloody, unable to stand.
It was only when two wet nurses intervened that Yu Ce stopped. Following the ancestral teachings of the dragon clan, he sealed Xie Chi’s cultivation and banished him from the Hidden Dragon Valley as punishment.
At that time, he had said that if Xie Chi dared to practice demonic cultivation again, their brotherly bond would be severed, and he would show no mercy upon their next encounter.
Unexpectedly, after ten years, their reunion was in the water dungeon of the Shen Family, and Xie Chi still hadn’t heeded his warnings.
After listening to Yu Ce recount their past, Shen Tanqi tightened the clothes wrapped around him and said with lingering fear, “So he’s that bad…”
Yu Ce gently tugged at his sleeve, leading him out of the muddy water dungeon. “Not all daemons are like me. Senior Brother, you must be careful in the future.”
Sometimes he couldn’t help but think that the human disdain towards daemons wasn’t entirely baseless. A significant portion of daemons were indeed inherently cruel.
Derived from wild beasts, their cultivation was incomplete, retaining a bloodthirsty desire to hunt and kill.
Xie Chi was one such example.
Shen Tanqi chuckled. “You’re flattering yourself.” Yet he truly believed that the protagonist should be the only character in this book who would never turn to the dark side.
Xie Chi or Xiao Qingyu, they both have the potential to turn dark. They have indecisive personalities and a strong desire to compete. Only Yu Ce, with his flexible character and firm will, lacks extreme obsession with anything and adheres to the path of righteousness. For someone like him, attempting to corrupt him would be blasphemy.
In short, Shen Tanqi would rather believe in his own vulnerability to corruption than believe in Yu Ce’s.
Strange, why was he praising Yu Ce?
Shen Tanqi rubbed his nose, feeling a bit puzzled. He decided to change the subject, saying, “Oh, right, there’s something else. During the crisis just now, I heard the baby speak.”
Yu Ce raised an eyebrow slightly and naturally placed his hand on Shen Tanqi’s abdomen, asking, “What crisis?”
“When your brother was strangling me,” Shen Tanqi, accustomed to his odd focus, said, “I heard the baby telling him to back off.”
Thinking about it, Shen Tanqi smiled softly and lowered his gaze, saying, “He’s even calmer than you.”
Normally, he wouldn’t speak no matter what, but only when he saw his daddy about to be strangled did he speak. That’s what being calm means.
Yu Ce still couldn’t sense the presence of the little one in Shen Tanqi. It seemed like he was always being rejected by him.
Could it be because he disturbed him that day and earned his resentment?
He withdrew his hand awkwardly and whispered, “While you were away, reinforcements from the sect arrived.”
Earlier, when Xiao Qingyu discovered that Chen Gui was wreaking havoc in Shuoxia City, he had already sent a signal to the sect for help. Now, two powerful elders had arrived, and it’s likely the Chen Gui would be easily dealt with tonight without them needing to intervene.
Shen Tanqi nodded, pondering slightly. “That’s good. I also have something to report to the sect.”
“What’s the matter?” Yu Ce asked, puzzled.
Shen Tanqi pursed his lips, finding it difficult to speak as he faced Yu Ce’s gaze. “I plan to stay at the Shen Family for a while. I’ll definitely return before the sect’s grand competition.”
The sect’s grand competition was the most crucial plot point for his return home. He had to go back. Before that, Shen Tanqi felt it would be best to minimize his involvement with Yu Ce. If the main system on the other side noticed too much, they might be in trouble.
Hearing this, Yu Ce was momentarily stunned. He recalled how Shen Tanqi had left without a word before, seemingly to avoid him.
Now, with their third child on the way, was he still avoiding him?
He lowered his lashes and muttered, “What about Dandan and Erdan?”
Would Shen Tanqi really be willing to leave both their children behind?
At the mention of this, Shen Tanqi hesitated slightly, lowering his voice. “Dandan and Erdan can stay at the Shen Family. You said it’s inconvenient to bring them to the sect, and you’ll probably be busy with the competition, so you won’t have time for them…”
Unexpectedly, when Yu Ce heard this, he immediately rejected it without hesitation. “No, they’ve never been apart from me since they were born. If Senior Brother insists on driving me away, I’ll take them with me.”
Shen Tanqi opened his mouth slightly, seeming to realize that his suggestion wasn’t quite humane. After a moment of silence, he could only whisper, “Then… then can I keep one with me?”
Once again, without hesitation, Yu Ce rejected, “They are siblings with a deep bond. How can we separate them? Absolutely not.”
This was to force Shen Tanqi to make a choice. If he insisted on driving him away, then he would have to drive him and the children away together.
After a moment, Shen Tanqi hesitantly lifted his eyes to look at him and whispered, “But if you stay and it affects the sect’s grand competition, vital things could happen…”
Yu Ce glanced at him and said calmly, “Nothing could be more vital unless Senior Brother can give birth to my fourth child.”
The entire dragon clan doesn’t produce more than five young dragons each year.
Shen Tanqi: “…”
He took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, “You can rest assured, it definitely won’t happen.”
The idea of the little ones being treated like bugs and removed was something he couldn’t comprehend how to explain to Yu Ce. Even if he explained, Yu Ce probably wouldn’t believe him.
Shen Tanqi fell silent for a moment and whispered, “Well then, let’s return to the sect together.”
Staying at the Shen Family would only delay Yu Ce’s preparation for the sect’s grand competition. If Yu Ce couldn’t win the competition as he did in the original story, then the world line would truly be altered. It would be difficult for the main system to remain unaware.
Moreover, Shen Tanqi still had his nightly dependency period to endure every night.
Regardless, he couldn’t escape Yu Ce during this time.
But… he didn’t know how to explain things to the system.
After a pause, Shen Tanqi added another rule, “However, once we return to the sect, you can’t casually touch me, nor can you casually reveal our relationship to others. Even if the nightly dependency period occurs…” He recalled some unpleasant memories and gritted his teeth, “You can’t cover my mouth when I tell you to stop.”
“Alright.”
Yu Ce received the answer he wanted and looked at him with a smile.
Just because he said no covering the mouth didn’t mean he couldn’t continue. Senior Brother was really cute.
Thinking of something, Yu Ce suddenly took out a small windmill made of gold paper from his pocket and smiled meaningfully, “Oh, by the way, Goldfish gave this to me. Senior Brother, look, doesn’t it resemble you?”
Shen Tanqi: ?
Nonsense, why would he look like a windmill?
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
