Chapter 496 Guardian Beast

"Come here."

"I'm not going."

"Come here!"

"I'm not going!"

"Li Shimin!"

Li Yuan roared, startling the swallows that were perched under the eaves.

Li Shimin then walked over hesitantly. It wasn't that he was timid, but he was going to be emperor. What if he got beaten by his father again? That would be too humiliating.

Approaching cautiously, and only after confirming that he had no intention of attacking did Li Shimin breathe a sigh of relief. "What did Father send me here for?"

Li Yuan snorted coldly. He was a guy who had the guts to provoke others but not the guts to take responsibility. If he didn't have something to do, he really wouldn't bother with him.

“You sit here and watch.”

Li Shimin lowered his head. "I wasn't standing either."

"Shut up!" A vein throbbed on Li Yuan's forehead; he had no interest in joking with him.

"Oh." Li Shimin felt wronged. How come he was being scolded even more after becoming emperor? His father was really something, unable to catch any fish, and getting more and more irritable every day.

"Stop whispering in your mind, keep your eyes on the water!"

Li Yuan didn't even turn his head, and directly gave the order. Li Shimin felt a little guilty after hearing this, and muttered, "Father, you're too domineering..."

But she still looked at the water's surface, "What...what do you want me to see?!"

Li Shimin suddenly leaned back and turned to look at Li Yuan with surprise and uncertainty.

Li Yuan narrowed his eyes. Sure enough, he had guessed correctly; Shimin could also see it.

"It's Xuanwu, why are you making such a fuss?"

Li Yuan spoke casually, but inwardly he couldn't help feeling a little awkward. What kind of luck was this, getting involved with a divine beast, and of course, it had to be the Black Tortoise. Was it really... a reminder that he only had this because Erlang Shen ascended to the throne?

Li Shimin glanced at his seemingly calm old father, said nothing, and simply summoned the sleeping phoenix.

"Erfeng, what do you want with your father?"

Upon suddenly realizing that he could understand the fire phoenix's speech, Li Yuan turned and stared intently at Li Shimin.

"It's a misunderstanding." Li Shimin chuckled awkwardly and pinched the phoenix's beak. "Whose father do you want to be?"

"Ugh... Ugh..." Fire Phoenix struggled, then noticed Li Yuan beside her and froze.

Seeing this, Li Shimin released his grip, and Huo Feng chuckled to make amends: "Haha, I mean, what do you and your father want from me?"

As she spoke, she met Li Yuan's gaze, and the guilty-looking Fire Phoenix suddenly realized, "Wait, you can understand me now?"

"Look at the water!"

Interrupting the rambling fire phoenix, Li Shimin directly ordered it to lower its head.

Following his instruction, the fire phoenix instinctively looked down and exclaimed, "Black Tortoise?!"

At this moment, ripples spread across the water, first revealing the snake's head, then half of the turtle's body. Xuanwu appeared clearly for the first time, uttering a deep and steady voice, "Fire Phoenix, it's you."

The fire phoenix glanced at Xuanwu, then suddenly turned to look at Li Yuan. Li Shimin was so quick that he worried its neck would break.

"Are you Li Yuan's guardian beast?"

"yes."

As the two beasts exchanged questions and answers, Li Yuan couldn't help but interject, "Wait, what are guardian beasts?"

"Don't you know?"

Huo Feng looked at Li Yuan with a puzzled expression. At that moment, Li Shimin's voice, filled with gritted teeth, came from behind him: "I don't seem to know either."

Fire Phoenix froze, and Xuanwu added insult to injury at this moment: "Fire Phoenix, you are the guardian beast of the current Human Emperor, the king of all beasts. Didn't you appear long ago? Haven't you explained this clearly?"

"If I said I have a bad memory, would you forgive me?"

Huo Feng smiled ingratiatingly at Li Shimin.

Li Shimin snorted coldly, "Then let's see how much you remember."

To make amends, Fire Phoenix quickly explained, "Actually, it's quite simple. When the world faces a great calamity, we guardian beasts are born to save humanity and preserve humankind."

"Is there a great calamity befalling the world?"

Li Shimin and Li Yuan asked in unison, "How can such a big matter be simple?"

“Yes,” Fire Phoenix nodded, then comforted them, “You don’t need to worry too much, because we don’t know exactly what kind of calamity it is. If the calamity really comes, whether we live or die is no big deal.”

"You're really optimistic."

Li Shimin was speechless. No wonder the Fire Phoenix hadn't told him anything; it really didn't take it seriously! But considering its personality all along, that was indeed the case.

Li Yuan looked at the rogue-like fire phoenix that resembled Erzi, remained silent for a moment, and finally couldn't help but ask, "So, why are you the king of all beasts? Did you get it through fighting?"

Fire Phoenix gave Li Yuan an approving look, "That's right, I kicked the Golden Dragon and punched the Qilin, none of them could beat me, I came first!"

“You are indeed destined to be with Shimin.”

"Father, how dare you swear at me!"

Li Shimin refused to comply. What does that mean? He's a lot like Huo Feng... Okay, their paths to the throne are somewhat similar, but he's as... well, a bit shameless as Huo Feng, but... but...

"Let's talk about this great calamity of heaven and earth."

"I already said I don't know, what's there to talk about?" The phoenix shook its feathers, not wanting to pay attention to Li Shimin, and looked at the black tortoise in the water, changing the subject, "What are you doing in the water?"

“Oh,” Xuanwu said slowly, “because my master likes me to stay in the water.”

Meeting Xuanwu's gaze, Li Yuan hesitated and pointed to himself, "Me?"

Xuanwu nodded.

"When did I ever like you being in the water? Isn't this the first time we've met?"

Hearing Li Yuan's question, Xuanwu's snake eyes widened. "When I first woke up, I was just about to greet you when you threw me into the water with the pole."

"At the time, I didn't understand what it meant, but then I saw the school of fish gathering near the rod and I realized it."

"What do you want to understand?" Li Yuan had a premonition that the truth behind his inability to catch fish was about to be revealed today.

Xuanwu smiled憨厚ly, "Master must have been worried that I was hungry, so he specially served me food. Although I like to eat fish, I don't really need to eat so much. Besides, I can catch fish myself. Next time, Master, you don't need to bait the fish for me."

"puff"

Li Shimin couldn't help but laugh out loud. Facing Li Yuan's death ray, Li Shimin waved his hand and said with a smile, "Father, you've put in too much effort. You've put too much effort into Xuanwu. I'm touched."

Li Yuan closed his eyes and met Xuanwu's sincere and grateful gaze. What could he say? Could he say that he was fishing, not feeding Xuanwu?

"I'm glad you like it."

“Father, try to think more positively,” Li Shimin said, putting his arm around Li Yuan’s shoulder. “This at least proves that there is a reason why you can’t catch fish.”

Li Yuan smiled and gave him a light elbow. Caught off guard, Li Shimin clutched his chest and cried out in pain. Looking at Huo Feng, who was watching the show, he suddenly asked, "By the way, Father, you knew to ask me to verify, why didn't you ask Chengqian?"

"Chengqian has the White Tiger," Li Shimin said, before he could finish. But Li Yuan understood his meaning, giving him a sidelong glance and saying disdainfully, "Can you compare to Chengqian? What if there's danger?"

"Sure enough, once you have a grandson, your son becomes worthless."

"You're wrong, you've never been worth anything."