Chapter 28: A Reminder to the Fox

With the lizard demon's death, the restrictions placed on Jiang Huaisu also disappeared. She could once again freely use her magic, a discovery that relieved her.

Xiaotian was also mostly unharmed; the poison only made him faint, and his life wasn't in danger. After all, being used as food by the monsters meant that the residual toxicity of the drugs in his body would be too strong and affect his ability to be eaten.

Although he could wait for him to wake up on his own, Nezha didn't have the patience. He immediately helped Xiaotian sit up, aimed carefully, and struck several vital points with his finger, saying that he would use this method to directly force the poison out of his body.

After spitting out several mouthfuls of blood, Xiaotian finally woke up slowly, blood dripping from his chin, his eyes filled with confusion. His body ached terribly; he suspected someone had beaten him up while he slept.

After leaving the monster's cave, the three rode together on a cloud towards the True Lord's Mansion. During the journey, Jiang Huaisu explained the events to Xiaotian.

The dog's eyes gradually changed from confusion to anger. He never imagined that so much had happened while he was unconscious; he had almost been boiled alive!

He had only joined in the fun on the ring and gotten into a fight, but it led to his death.

Xiaotian was almost ready to roll up his sleeves and go fight those two demons, but when he heard that they had died at Nezha's hands, his anger was immediately dampened. With nowhere to vent his emotions, the dog drooped its ears listlessly.

Nezha sat cross-legged on a cloud, his back to them, without saying a word, and looked rather listless.

"Susu." Xiaotian's voice lowered, a rare look of guilt appearing on his face. "I was unconscious and didn't know anything. I'm sorry, I almost got you bullied." He then solemnly promised, "I'll never eat anything indiscriminately again!"

“You learn from your mistakes, especially when you’re alone. You should be more careful,” Jiang Huaisu reflected. “It’s not just you; I was also a bit too careless. If Nezha hadn’t arrived in time, we might have really been in trouble this time.”

Suddenly remembering something, she turned to Nezha and asked, "By the way, Third Prince, are you alright with your injuries?"

Xiaotian also glanced at him: "Huh? You're injured?" He didn't understand; even in a two-on-one situation, Nezha shouldn't be at a disadvantage. Judging from Jiang Huaisu's description, he won quite easily.

Nezha was equally puzzled: "I'm not injured..."

"Oh," he said nonchalantly, "It'll be fine soon, that level is nothing."

Xiaotian asked curiously, "What riddles are you solving?"

"It's nothing, just a little misunderstanding," Jiang Huaisu said somewhat guiltily. "The scene was chaotic at the time, and I accidentally bit the Third Prince..."

Nezha: "To describe it as biting is too mild. To be precise, you used my hand as a teething toy, holding it and biting it without letting go. I almost thought you were possessed by Xiaotian."

Xiaotian shook his head in disapproval: "Hey, what do you mean by being possessed by me? When have I ever really bitten you? And don't exaggerate, you just said that level is nothing."

Nezha patted the dog's head with a half-smile: "Hehe."

"What are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing at you for being heartless, treating your savior like this."

"...What do you want?"

"From now on, kowtow to me three times every time we meet."

"Get lost."

Kowtowing is out of the question; I would never kowtow to Li Nezha in my entire life. But... regardless, we really owe him a debt of gratitude for saving the day; otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable. If Jiang Huaisu had really gotten into trouble, not to mention anything else, the one in charge of the Peach Garden in heaven would definitely be furious.

Xiaotian blushed and hesitated for a long time before finally giving a reluctant thank you and lying on the cloud in silence. He knew he was in the wrong this time and could only obediently admit defeat.

Nezha tugged at the dog's tail: "Hey. Are you going again tomorrow?"

"Where to?"

"What else could it be? A martial arts contest to find a husband."

"...I'm not going!" That's really rubbing salt in the wound. This whole mess happened because of that marriage contest; I have no interest in joining in the fun.

Jiang Huaisu nodded and said, "It's best not to go. There are probably more than one character like the lizard demon."

After this incident, she finally understood that there is still a fundamental difference between a monster's marriage selection and the marriage selection process in human society.

The demon race acts much more freely and lacks proper government organizations and criminal records. Without background checks, the participants are naturally a mixed bag, making it highly unlikely that a good husband can be chosen from among them.

Thinking of this, Jiang Huaisu frowned.

"What's wrong?" Nezha's gaze swept across her face. "That expression, are you regretting that those two didn't die satisfyingly enough?"

"No, I was thinking..."

There was no point in hiding it, so Jiang Huaisu frankly expressed her concerns, saying that she was not optimistic about the outcome of this martial arts contest to find a husband.

Nezha: "Are you worried about that fox?"

“I wouldn’t call it worrying, I haven’t even met her yet.” Jiang Huaisu sighed. “But she’s gone to so much trouble just to find a reliable partner, and if it all comes to nothing in the end, it would be a bit of a tragedy.”

"We can send Xiaotian to give her a reminder."

Caught off guard by being called out, Xiaotian exclaimed, "Me?"

"Aren't you good at searching? Finding a fox shouldn't be too difficult."

"Who knows how many foxes are on that mountain? Am I supposed to search for them one by one?"

"Why not? That mountain isn't very big; how many foxes could there be?"

As a result, Xiaotian couldn't go against Nezha, who, as Nezha's savior, temporarily held a higher level of authority. In short, he was now in charge.

Jiang Huaisu also wanted to go, but Nezha and Xiaotian refused in unison.

Delivering a message wasn't exactly dangerous. But Xiaotian was extremely resistant to her returning to the scene of the accident, his tone firm, seemingly leaving no room for negotiation.

They first sent her back to the True Lord's Mansion before the two of them set off back to that mountain.

Standing at the gate of the mansion, Yang Jian watched them leave in a daze. When he came to his senses, he found that only Jiang Huaisu was left beside him, and they looked at each other blankly.

Although he didn't know where his dog was rushing off to, Yang Jian had no intention of digging deeper. He simply asked Jiang Huaisu, "Aren't you going to play with them?"

She quickly explained, "My Lord, they weren't going out to play."

Taking on the responsibility of explaining once again, Jiang Huaisu told Yang Jian the whole story, observing his reaction as she spoke.

The great god remained surprisingly calm. After listening to the whole story, he simply asked with a composed expression whether the two demons were truly dead and whether he needed to clean up the mess.

"Don't worry, he's absolutely dead!" she said firmly. "Nezha has confirmed that there's no possibility of him being resurrected."

Yang Jian pondered for a moment: "That's good."

"They're just going back to the mountain to warn that fox; they'll be back soon. Don't worry, True Lord."

Seemingly completely uninterested in the matter of foxes, Yang Jian paused for a moment, then changed the subject:

"If you hadn't bought them time, Xiaotian would probably be dead by now. Thank you. You've saved him this time, and he'll definitely not be so reckless again in the future."

Yang Jian's meaning is roughly that people can't teach you everything, but you can learn something quickly and easily.

But Jiang Huaisu still felt he was exaggerating. If it came to providing backup, it certainly wasn't her place. Judging from the great god's calm demeanor, even if Xiaotianzhen were truly swallowed by a monster, he should have a way to revive him, right?

"If you ever encounter any difficulties in the future, feel free to ask the True Lord's Mansion for help."

"My contribution wasn't that significant; I only held things off for a short while." Jiang Huaisu held up the distance of her little finger. "To be honest, I should thank you, True Lord."

"Me?" Yang Jian seemed somewhat surprised that she would say that. "I didn't do anything."

"Didn't you send Nezha back to find the dog?"

"No."

“I didn’t ask him to do that,” Yang Jian said truthfully. “He said that to use me as an excuse.”

So Nezha came back to find it himself?

Upon unexpectedly learning the truth, Jiang Huaisu fell silent.

I never expected Nezha to have such a quiet side, doing good deeds without making a fuss. Maybe he felt embarrassed?

However, since he didn't want her to know, she would just pretend she didn't know.

But she still kept this in mind. She thought that Nezha wasn't as indifferent to his companions as he seemed on the surface; he did more than he said, giving off a feeling of being all talk and no action.

Not long after, Xiaotian and Nezha returned from their mission, which took much less time than expected, indicating that the process went very smoothly.

It turned out that the little fox acting as referee had been waiting near the arena all along, and the two found it without much effort. Nezha guessed that it had a close relationship with Bai Yuan, so he simply asked it to convey a message.

After recounting the evil deeds of the lizard demon and the snake demon, Nezha asserted that the martial arts contest for marriage was unreliable. If the background of each demon could not be thoroughly investigated, there was a high chance of attracting wicked individuals like the lizard demon.

Xiaotian: "After hearing this, the fox was stunned. It seemed that it had not expected this situation."

Jiang Huaisu: "Judging from its young age, it probably hasn't experienced the dangers of the martial world yet."

Xiaotian answered quickly: "That little fox is Bai Yuan!"

"Huh? Did I see wrong? I thought it was a baby fox." Jiang Huaisu was dumbfounded.

Nezha, annoyed by Xiaotian's interruption, picked up the dog and tossed it into Yang Jian's arms. "She didn't watch. She's timid and wanted to watch the game but was afraid of being surrounded, so she pretended to look like that and went to the stands openly."

"Well, she was quite successful at disguising herself..."

No one in the audience expected that the person they were fighting tooth and nail for was both far away and right in front of them.

"This marriage proposal has fallen through. She said she won't stay here anymore and will go elsewhere to find her ideal husband, so there's no more fighting in the arena tomorrow."

Nezha stated calmly. At this point, the matter was considered completely resolved. He didn't care much about the outcome of the fox's marriage contest, but upon closer inspection, setting up such a grand arena was indeed inappropriate and could easily cause trouble. In the end, Yang Jian might have to handle it, since it was within his jurisdiction.

This is for the best. The fox has given up on the high-profile way of finding a husband and decided to let nature take its course and find his other half by fate, and to start a relationship in a more stable way.

Of course, those follow-ups were none of their business.