Chapter 62

The Bokanger volcano is the foundation of this sub-world. Millions of years ago, it erupted continuously for several years. The thick volcanic ash containing various substances became the basis for the growth of all marine life.

One day in a certain year, the Siren King conquered this sea area.

Later, he was recruited by the Lord God.

While losing some of his sovereignty, he also gained a high degree of autonomy: after the sea area was incorporated into the infinite space, he could transform his sub-world at will.

Qian Xing, who hated fire the most, first turned Bokanger from an active volcano into a dormant volcano.

However, Bokanger was formed long before he established the rules, and became the only outlier in the entire sub-world. He actually disobeyed discipline and struggled to wake up and move around from his suppression every hundred or eighty years, and he refused to change despite repeated warnings.

Qian Xing mobilized more power to suppress volcanic activity and even wiped out most of the magma inside; the boss's power was still effective, and Bokanger had not yet successfully erupted, and at most it was active inside.

It can't even be called a dormant volcano, it can only be said to be half-dead.

The emperor squid is one of the giant life forms born from volcanic ash. It lives on the seabed for a long time and prefers warm waters. The crater of Bokanger has become its best habitat.

Despite its limited intelligence, Tongxin could almost be considered a side quest boss. Qianxing had given it some authority to suppress Bokanger. Once it sensed that the activity of the lava exceeded the warning line, it would stretch out all its tentacles and lie on it, effectively paralyzing it and preventing it from becoming more active, thus intercepting the crisis.

With it monitoring and managing volcanic activities, diving can save a lot of trouble.

After so many years of performing his duties, Emperor Squid has become very skilled in dealing with this matter. Most of the time, he can solve the problem by himself, and there is no need to report it to Feihua, let alone pass it on to the monarch.

On the other hand, if even Tongxin felt the need to let His Majesty know, then Bokanger's situation must be very serious.

There's a big problem.

A few minutes ago, a family of four was still having a midnight snack, the younger ones were playing and the older ones were smiling, and they were having a great time.

A few minutes later, they were ready to go to a place of unknown danger.

Qian Xing knew that even if she didn't agree, the other three would not be willing to stay in the wooden house obediently, so she simply asked them to follow.

Dragons are born and hatched in fire, and going to a volcano is as familiar as returning home;

The authority of Little System and Little Free (yes, this is Ling Xi's new name for him) is so high that the volcanic eruption might swallow him and Finks, and the cubs would be unharmed.

...It seems that as the ruler of the ocean world, I am the one who is most vulnerable to volcanoes and fire.

Qian Xing felt like sighing.

Even though he clearly understood how strong the cubs' self-protection capabilities were, Qian Xing, as the temporary guardian of the adults and the small system, still felt worried.

"You can't run around."

"Follow behind."

"Don't get too close, or you'll get sucked in."

"Fire is very hot and it will hurt if you get burned."

…

"Remember?"

"Remember!"

The baby listened to the string of trivial matters without showing any impatience. Instead, he responded loudly and with the long drawn-out tone that children often use when answering questions. His milky golden eyes were bright, and he saluted in a formal manner: "I promise to listen to my brother!"

Ling Xi also took Li Jue's hand and said solemnly: "I will take good care of Jue Jue."

The Siren King was quite pleased, thinking that if all the little creatures in the ocean were so sensible, there would be no need to worry about managing this vast world.

He turned around and found that Finks was not only unprepared, but was also looking him up and down with an indescribable expression.

Qian Xing didn't like being stared at like that. It was offensive, so she said in a bad tone, "What?"

Finks smiled and said, "I never realized you had such great potential as a nanny. You're quite good at taking care of children."

Qian Xing: "I thought this evaluation belonged to you."

Finks knew he was mocking him and shrugged nonchalantly: "I used to feel insulted, but now I see it as a compliment."

After all, it is an honor to be a parent of a baby.

Given the Sea Monster King's personality, it's hard for him to win a verbal battle. Time is running out, so this isn't the time to discuss this. "Are you planning on leaving like this?"

Finks glanced down at his clothes. "Is there something wrong? Or should I wear a robe?"

Qian Xing: “…”

The arrival of the golden dragon had already caused a wave of gossip near the palace, with all kinds of speculation. Qian Xing would never allow Finks to appear in his territory again in the form of a large, dazzling dragon.

But if he maintains his human form, not to mention whether he can keep up with these aquatic creatures in speed, a pure human emerging from the sea and able to follow the king would not attract much more attention than a dragon.

Then...

Qian Xing raised the corner of her mouth in a good mood: "——This is the only way."

The infamous Golden Tyrant had to shrink to an unprecedented miniature size, almost the same size as the little seal that Ayaka transformed into.

If it weren't for the pair of small horns showing off, at first glance it would look like a cat with its hair cut and shell on.

Not long ago, he was raising a unique cat named Xiaoli in the dragon world, but this time he became the cat boy.

Finks was humiliated.

But there's no way.

People under the eaves have to bow their heads. The same is true for dragons.

Finks narrowed his eyes and looked up at Qian Xing for the first time; the latter's rare happy expression both annoyed him and scratched his heart like a kitten's claws.

The moment when the alpine snow lotus blooms is truly stunning.

His pupils erected and he had a good idea.

The miniature golden dragon leaped onto the mermaid's shoulder and said confidently, "I can't keep up with you guys right now. Your Majesty, do you mind giving me a ride?"

Qian Xing: “?”

No, he does mind.

When he returns to his original form as a siren, he will no longer wear the clothes he wore in human form. In other words, his upper body is naked except for the gorgeous beads that show his noble status.

Even though the little golden dragon stayed in the relatively less sensitive place of the shoulder, the red L that had never shown any abnormality in front of the people on weekdays became an extremely strange forbidden area.

Feeling the delicate texture under his claws suddenly become stiff, Finks intensified his efforts and tapped it with his claws happily, as if adjusting his position.

In fact, it is no different from A caressing the other person.

Yes, that's right, he totally did it on purpose.

When he looked at Qian Xing just now, it was definitely not as simple as just evaluating in his mind whether the other party was a qualified father.

Those beads that pass from the shoulders across the chest and abdomen, outline to the waist, and finally sway around the scales of the lower body are like extremely seductive ropes.

The shells and pearls sparkled with tiny lights, which were not so dazzling that they blinded the eyes, but instead caught the gaze more firmly.

Finks now had a completely different perspective. He looked down. It was even more fascinating than he had imagined, especially when the beads intertwined...

Then he was thrown completely down.

The little golden dragon fell headfirst, but luckily his head was strong enough, so apart from a dull pain in the dragon horn that first touched the ground, he was not seriously injured.

If it were someone else, he would have been furious at this moment, wanting to let the other person feel the wrath of a tyrant.

...But he is the one who is in the wrong.

Finks looked at Qian Xing who was glaring at him, and was about to say something when he was picked up by the waist.

Li Jue's two little arms hugged him tightly, and he rubbed his face excitedly: "Mimi, kitty, so cute——!"

The Golden Tyrant has probably never been praised for being cute, let alone treated like a doll.

It was just a baby, otherwise it would have been torn to pieces by him long ago.

Finks was helplessly tossed around by the little guy, thinking, first it was Qian Xing, then Li Jue, why was he so helpless against these two?

This is not a good sign.

In the end, it was Qian Xing who rescued him: "It's time to go out. You and Xiao Ling also need to change into a different form, okay?"

Li Jue nodded, mercifully let go of the little golden dragon, ran over, took Ling Xi's hand and spun around happily.

After the golden light that rose with them dissipated, the little jellyfish and the little seal came back.

The crayfish steward bowed humbly and saw them off.

As soon as the door opened, Tangbing rushed over.

"Your Majesty, Young Master, Young Master Xiao Ling, and uh, this...unknown gentleman, are you leaving now?"

The stingray excitedly shook its tail fin, like a puppy looking forward to being taken for a walk.

"us……"

Ling Xi hesitated.

It shouldn't be taken on such a dangerous journey, but who could bear to see disappointment in the little eyes of a happy fish like Sugarcake?

"Take it with you. This way, you guys can save some energy when riding it." Qian Xing chuckled, with a hint of meaning in her words, "Right, great golden tyrant?"

At this moment, Finks was neither great nor big. With his current size, the small night-shining pearl originally hanging around his neck became extremely heavy. But there was no way, as he could not do without it if he wanted to stay at the bottom of the sea for a long time.

"After I'm done with this," Finks said, smiling but secretly gritting his teeth, "I'll let you experience how great and big I am... dear."

Qian Xing didn't mind his affectionate name and tone this time, and uttered two words with the dignity of a winner: "Waiting."

The little jellyfish was confused: "What is my brother talking about?"

The little seal covered the place where his ears would grow in his human form. "I don't know. It must be an agreement between the adults."

"oh……"

*

Feihua led the way in front, followed by the monarch, and the manta ray followed behind, carrying the baby jellyfish, baby seal and baby golden dragon on its back.

Feihua was a lively and bold person. She couldn't help but turn her head several times to glance at the golden dragon, which was about the same size as a small seal. She smiled at the monarch and said, "Your Majesty, 'that' is more harmless in its current form."

Qian Xing knew what she was talking about without turning around. Her expression was surprisingly relaxed, almost as if she was smiling: "...Indeed."

The snail-shaped ear fins of Venus fluttered lightly, and besides that, it was like a cat's tail expressing its mood.

A golden dragon this size couldn't "bully" His Majesty anymore. Feihua thought to herself, sometimes she wondered if the monarch was being too indulgent...

Qian Xing didn't continue the topic: "By the way, you and Liuying should prepare in the next few days and go to the pirate ship to interview new people."

The only employees worth interviewing in SeaWorld are the small bosses.

The leader of a pirate ship is not static. It all depends on fighting and the winner is the king. Wannian himself got his current position by stepping on the head of the former boss.

Feihua was stunned for a moment: "Mr. Wan..."

"Given Xiaomei's personality, she might say 'borrow' but she won't return the person once she takes him away," Qian Xing said. "Also, complete the paperwork for Tongxin and Siling to transfer them to permanent positions. They must report to work regularly from now on."

Feihua understood that this was a change in the work system and waved her tail fin: "Yes, Your Majesty."

The hub lets the small systems convey the work goals for the new season and adjust the players' clearance rates, which cannot be too fixed.

The Siren King's solution is simple: recruit more than one new employee and let them set their own performance completion line, so that the player's assessment situation becomes much more flexible.

Sounds totally reasonable.

The terrain of the volcano was much lower than that of the palace. They swam towards the deeper trench. Nearly vertical cliffs stood straight on both sides, like silent guardian giants.

After descending a hundred meters, the shadow of the brightly lit palace was completely out of sight.

Further down, the extremely strong water pressure screens out more fragile species, and even the strange fish that run around with lanterns and can generate electricity disappear.

Fortunately, there is bioluminescent algae growing in the cracks of the rocks, and they also have a shiny little jellyfish here, so it is not completely dark.

It was pitch black and quiet all around, which should have been a terrifying sight. However, his closest brothers were all by his side. Surrounded by them, Li Jue was not afraid at all. He looked around excitedly, treating it as an adventure.

The waters ahead were relatively open, but the closer they got to their destination, the more the rock walls on both sides tended to close together. The sirens had to carefully bend their big tails to avoid having their scales scratched.

As we lined up to pass through an extremely narrow crevice, the little cubs (and one that wasn't a cub) all got off the ray.

Li Jue looked at the big, flat ray and gestured with his little hands to measure its length and gap, but it seemed too difficult. He asked worriedly, "What should I do with Bingbing?"

Sugar Cake chuckled and said, "I'm even thinner than your Majesty!"

It was not talking nonsense. After the tiniest jellyfish swam past easily, Sugar Pancake stood itself up.

It was not comfortable for it to maintain this posture and it might lose its sense of direction. Sugar Biscuit Crisp stuck itself to the slippery and cold mountain like a real pancake, flexed its pectoral fins and then spread them out, and crawled over.

This crack in the rock is smaller than the size of an adult. Fortunately, the bodies of the sirens are very flexible. Qian Xing and Fei Hua passed through it smoothly one after another, except for some traces of moss on Chi L's skin, which could not be wiped off for the time being and looked like a conspicuous tattoo.

The rock wall here is like a door to another time and space, behind which lies a completely different and vast world.

What comes into view is the giant main body of Bokange, whose rocks are dark, thick and rough, and the two adjacent peaks form a chain in the shape of an "8".

A volcanic crater is filled with lakes. The fresh water gathered from the center of the earth is blue-green, and the boundary between it and the dark sea water is clear.

The other mountain pass was shrouded in thick fog, like clouds on land, and the accumulated silver mineral crystals looked like a layer of falling snow, glowing faintly in the dark space.

Even from a distance, the little jellyfish was already choking on the pungent smell of sulfur and retreating straight away. It was only because the Siren King cast an isolation bubble for him and for everyone that he was able to escape.

The strong smell alone is enough to ensure that no resident will choose to live here permanently; even the emperor squid responsible for guarding the place spends most of its time resting on another mountaintop.

Occasionally, those who were playful or lost would stray in, but would be frightened away by the mist that looked like a heat stream and would quickly run away.

It seems to be sleeping here, and it seems to wake up at any time.

Awe is probably the first reaction of most people when they face Bokanger.

The little jellyfish stayed in the bubble and stared blankly. After a while, it lifted its bow-tie tentacles and murmured in a half-asleep voice, "Blue."

Finks heard him and asked, "What blue?"

"What?" Li Jue repeated subconsciously, confusedly as if those words were not said by him.

Finks found this strange, but Qian Xing understood the meaning and frowned. "The lava in Bokanger is blue." He used a very intuitive analogy, "Just like my scales."

This was somewhat unexpected. The human planet where the Golden Dragon Family worked on weekdays also had many volcanoes, which erupted once every few years on average, and the eruption was always red lava.

The magma of Bokanger is actually blue?

The first reaction of the dragons born from fire is, is it comfortable to take a bath here?

Qian Xing seemed to see what he was thinking: "Since you are here, why don't you go and take a look."

I just realized that inviting this guy over, besides making the baby happy, actually has this additional effect.

"That's no problem." Finks scratched his claws in the bubble, "But how will Your Majesty thank me?"

Qian Xing glanced at him nonchalantly: "What do you want?"

"That depends on your sincerity." Finks rarely took advantage of the situation and paused the ambiguous game between adults, returning his attention to the small system. "Can this little guy actually see inside?"

He was sure that there was no lava leaking anywhere in Bokanger. How did Li Jue know that they were blue?

Qian Xing sighed subtly: "Even if he can stop the volcano from erupting now, I won't be surprised."

They should have understood long ago that the baby could not be just a small system for communication.

There is more than one entrance to Bokanger on the seabed. Tongxin was waiting in the wrong place, so Feihua had to hum a light melody to summon it to the right place.

The Emperor Squid came over in a panic, pinching his shrill voice and saying, "Your Majesty, you are finally here. Oh, I was really scared to death..."

The little golden dragon shook its wings in disgust and turned away, not wanting to look at this strange guy.

The little jellyfish swam over enthusiastically: "Xinxin! It's Xinxin!"

Fortunately, the cub was a rare luminous organism, which allowed the giant squid to quickly notice the tiny boy and scream in surprise: "Little Master! Oh, why are you still so small? Come here and let me kiss you one by one..."

Li Jue giggled and swung around its outstretched tentacles: "Bobo is about to be eaten!"

"I won't eat you, little darling. You're not big enough to swallow in one bite." Tongxin laughed, "And His Majesty won't allow it. You're our only heir fish. It's great that we have you in the ocean world..."

Feihua had no choice but to use her mental power to restrain the string in its brain and stop it from talking nonsense.

Emperor squids and sea turtles have limited intelligence. They roughly know that they are in infinite space and not in a real natural ocean, but they don't understand the specific difference.

I understand, but not completely.

Within the framework of infinite space, the big boss is the top manipulator.

The monarch is eternal, so why would he need an heir?

Thinking of what His Majesty mentioned about letting these two big guys change jobs and become official little bosses, Feihua felt a headache. It was hard to imagine how difficult it would be to give Tongxin and Siling pre-job training.

The largest and smallest creatures were happily playing together. The Siren King gazed at the increasingly dense fog rising from the crater, like steam rising from magma. He sensed something was amiss and interrupted their interaction, asking, "Which indicators are showing abnormalities?"

"It's hotter than before." To prove his point, Tongxin raised a tentacle. There was a very obvious scar in the middle of the suction cup. He said aggrievedly, "It burned me and gave me blisters... My skin is very delicate. What if the volcanic mud tentacle mask can't be applied back in the future..."

Qian Xing ignored the look on Finks’ face as if he was about to vomit, and said expressionlessly, “What else?”

"The purring has increased in frequency," Squid noted another noticeable change. "Normally, it only purrs once every few months. When I need to suppress it, it happens once every few weeks. But lately, it's been happening almost every day, ever since..."

It thought about it seriously, and when it saw the little jellyfish, its eyes lit up: "That's right, it started from the day the young master came!"

Qian Xing and Finks looked at each other.

If the signs of activity in Bokanger are related to Li Jue, then the situation will be completely different from what was previously expected.

In order to have a close and whispered conversation with the Sea Monster King, the little golden dragon swam to the latter's side.

No matter how I look at it, I feel that staying on each other's shoulders like before is the most suitable way to communicate, but it is unlikely to be agreed, so I have to settle for the next best thing and float in front of Qian Xing.

"What's 'grunting'?"

"Magma activity."

"Are you, a little octopus, really smart enough to be a mini-boss?"

“…It’s a squid.”

"That's not important. Can this mountain sense the baby? Did you do that?"

"It's a relic of the primordial era." Qian Xing glanced at him. "Maybe it's older than you and me."

Finks was a little surprised.

The primordial era refers to the period before the establishment of infinite space. At that time, all parties were fighting each other until the gods descended from the sky and recruited several primordial monsters including him and the Siren King, and then unified the world.

He did not leave any remnants of the original era, cleaned them all up, and created a brand new sub-world, almost forgetting that these ancient relics had their own will.

The two of them simultaneously recalled the voice calling for "salt".

Is there any connection between it, Bokanger, and Li Jue?

Is it calling the sleeping Bokanger?

Is it luring the unaware little cub?

The adults were lost in thought when a clear and crisp voice suddenly interrupted them.

"Hey! Did you miss me~~?"

The little devil who appeared without warning really shocked everyone.

The black mist accompanying Mephisto's appearance happened to expand beside Finks, suddenly pushing the defenseless little golden dragon towards Qianxing, who was close at hand; the latter caught him completely subconsciously, and threw him away after reacting -

Finks had already raised his dragon claws defensively when he heard the voice. Although his body had shrunk, his claws remained as hard and sharp as ever. As he approached Qian Xing, the tips of his claws inevitably grabbed the intricate and gorgeous bead necklace, like plucking the deepest string of a guitar, instantly causing endless aftershocks.

The problem was that the Siren King's resistance did not free the entangled dragon claws, but instead the relative force directly broke the bead chain, which was not designed to be strong.

For the Sirens, the complexity of the bead necklace represents status; the greater the power, the more exquisite the decoration.

With this pull, the shells, pearls and crystals dotted on it shattered and scattered sadly in the sea water. The current pushed the tiny lights of stars slowly away.

Finks stared in amazement at the several glaring red marks he had left on the other's naked chest, some of which were already bleeding.

Everyone was silent.

Except for the little devil who is eager to create chaos in the world.

As both were original monsters, Mephistopheles was very familiar with these two people and was not unaware of the secrets between them.

He had no sense of being the culprit behind all this. His eyes widened, his tone half incredulous and half excited: "Brothers, what are you guys playing at?"