110 A Feast of a Hundred Devious Tales (4)

I'm really not your dad.

In the castle gardens.

A little phoenix, its body wreathed in flames, huddled up in a pitiful ball. Despite its young age, it earnestly pleaded with the villain who had kidnapped it: "You...you're going too far! My flames are very powerful! If you touch them, your whole body will burst into flames!"

"And, and you should have seen it before, there was a bad guy who wanted to eat me, but I burned him up very quickly, right?"

The little phoenix kept chattering away while peeking at the flickering candlelight through the window, anxiously waiting for its father to notice it was missing and come looking for it.

As a result, it chattered on and on with this terrifying rose vine for quite some time, but still couldn't catch a glimpse of its father.

Now that things had come to this, Little Phoenix had no choice but to console herself with a sense of grievance: It's okay, Dad must be tied up with other bad guys and can't get away, otherwise he would have come to save me long ago! As long as I hold on a little longer, I'll be able to wait for Dad!

Although that's what I thought, my body still instinctively curled up into a small ball, warily guarding against the flower vines that had cornered me, while also putting on a brave front and threatening them:

"Don't stab me! Let me tell you, my dad is amazing! He's incredibly fierce, and he loves killing monsters. He can kill a monster like you without even blinking an eye, it's terrifying!!"

"And I don't just have one father, I have three fathers and one mother! My biological father is the super powerful patriarch of the Phoenix Clan, and my mother is the most noble little princess of the Phoenix Clan! My father is an extremely terrifying divine beast demon! And another father... um, um... there's another father I've never met, but my father says his name is Xie Yunhuai. Do you know Xie Yunhuai? According to human terms, he's my father whom I've never met!"

"I'm not tasty at all. I'm less than a month old, and my fur hasn't even fully grown in yet. One of me wouldn't even be enough to fill your teeth, right? Why don't you just let me go? I promise I won't tell my dad about you, okay? Mr. Rose, Uncle Rose, Aunt Rose, Rose... please, I'm just a baby less than a month old..."

The fluffy little ball of fur, engrossed in its incessant chatter, didn't notice that when it mentioned having a father named Xie Yunhuai, the rose branches that had been surrounding it stopped moving completely. It didn't seem like it stopped voluntarily; rather, it was more like it had been struck by lightning and stood there dumbfounded.

Unfortunately, the little phoenix didn't realize anything was wrong. It was still threatening and backing down at the same time, with its wings on its chubby waist, making people wonder where it inherited its contradictory personality of being both arrogant and cowardly.

Xie Yunhuai was very puzzled at this moment.

He stared blankly at the strange bird chick he had trapped, and after thinking for a long time, he still couldn't figure out whether there was something wrong with his ears or if there was another Xie Yunhuai in this strange realm.

Otherwise, how could he not know that he had such a cub as his son?

And there's that ferocious demon father that this cub mentioned...

The cluster of roses secretly twitched its branches, and question marks of doubt were about to emerge from the flower buds.

A vine tentatively approached and gently poked the little chubby bird's wing with the tip of its antennae.

The next second, the bluffing fluffy ball flapped its wings and shouted "Daddy!" at the top of its lungs.

The cub's cries were so loud and its words so clear that every living creature with ears in the entire castle could hear them.

Even a rotting crow that had been standing atop the castle, gazing down at the night, was startled by the sudden cry of "Father" and nearly fell to its death.

Inside the banquet hall.

Qin Fu'an rubbed his ears helplessly, his spiritual energy condensing into a thread that connected to the ears of the cub who couldn't yet use his talent:

"Stop yelling and stay with your father. Haven't you been wanting to see him all this time? Cherish this time, because you'll have to wait until dawn to see him again."

The boy's voice, tinged with helplessness and a hint of indulgence, sounded like thunder to his adopted son.

The little phoenix stood frozen in place, as if struck by lightning.

After a long while, it looked up like a little robotic bird, staring at the rose bushes that seemed to block out the sky and almost swallow it whole, and then stiffly swallowed its saliva.

This? My dad?? Huh??

After a night of fear and anxiety, the little phoenix was on the verge of tears. It could have managed to comfort itself and hold on a little longer, but now it suddenly heard that the person who had scared it and threatened to eat it was its father, whom it had never met before...

Tears welled up in her eyes. Even a phoenix cub born with the fire attribute can have a torrent of tears when it really cries!

"Waaaaaah, Daddy..."

The little phoenix cried and wiped its tears with its fluffy wings, stumbling and rushing towards the rose branch in front of it, not caring at all whether the sharp, dense thorns on the rose branch would prick it into a fluffy hedgehog.

On the contrary, Xie Yunhuai, after his initial shock, subconsciously withdrew the thorns from the flower branches, and was caught off guard as the crying cub pounced on him.

"..."

[I'm not your dad.]

[Don't just claim any father.]

[Who are your parents? Where's your dad? Let him come and take you away.]

[...I'm really not your father, don't cry.]

[...]

In the pitch-black night, a large clump of roses stiffened all its branches and leaves, its bloodthirsty ferocity overwhelmed by the tears of its cubs, ultimately turning into a helpless compromise.

Xie Yunhuai still couldn't figure out what to do with the little one, even after the child had cried herself to sleep amidst the soft, fragrant rose bushes, her chubby little body curled up and trembling with sobs.

Even more absurdly, as he looked at the cub, an even more outrageous thought gradually surfaced in his mind:

Could it be... that it really is his own cub?

Is it a cub that I had out of nowhere with a bird?

The thought flashed through Xie Yunhuai's mind like an electric arc, disappearing in an instant, yet it sent chills down his spine.

Because it was the only bird he could come into contact with...

Xie Yunhuai slowly tightened the flower branches, as if he had the urge to strangle that stupid, noisy, greedy, and cunning crow to death.

Absolutely not!

He briefly regained his composure and immediately rejected the most unacceptable possibility.

So... it's most likely that they mistook one of the ghosts for another, right? After all, all the ghosts here wear masks, so mistaking one for another is understandable...

Xie Yunhuai secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He watched as the little cub, after crying, spread its round, furry belly and fell asleep peacefully in his body. After thinking for a moment, he gently placed the fiery red little bundle between his own roots, using the softest leaves and petals as a base. It was as if he had built a comfortable and warm nest for the little phoenix with pink, white, and green flowers and leaves.

-

"Who's calling for daddy?" In the hall, both players and monsters were whispering among themselves.

I guessed what was strange when it first came in; it was probably that fire-breathing bird. But... even such a powerful bird was scared and cried for its father. It seems this mission won't be easy to complete tonight.

Not to mention that everyone is now wearing masks, which can not only change their appearance and figure, but also conceal the aura of all living beings. At a glance, no one can tell who is who among all the people and the ghosts.

But perhaps it is precisely because of this environment that players and the supernatural are temporarily placed on a relatively level playing field.

Aside from a few who were already eager to kill and enjoy the bloodshed, most of the rest were observing and testing the waters.

Even a ghost is a living being; a ghost also has desires and thoughts.

Therefore, cooperation is possible.

There have been at least a dozen strange individuals who have sought cooperation with Qin Fu'an.

However, he rejected them all.

"You want to act alone?" The elegantly dressed woman in front of her raised an eyebrow and asked after being rejected.

Qin Fu'an glanced at her indifferently and replied, seemingly unrelated to her question, "Perhaps I have no intention of taking action at all, and am not interested in that so-called wish?"

"Then what are you doing at this banquet?" someone nearby mocked.

The conversation was interrupted, and Qin Fu'an turned his head to look at the other person. The other person raised his chin provocatively and looked at Qin Fu'an with the eyes of someone looking at trash. He even deliberately curled the corners of his mouth, as if afraid that his provocation and sarcasm would not be conveyed properly.

This was the first time Qin Fu'an had been so belittled and questioned. He didn't get angry; instead, he tilted his head and calmly replied, "I'm here to kill."

Then what are you doing at the banquet?

I'm here to kill.

"—What?!" The other person was stunned, wondering if they hadn't heard clearly.

But he never had the chance to hear those words clearly again.

With blood splattering everywhere, players and monsters at this stage basically don't need the light to illuminate them; they have excellent dynamic vision even in the dark.

So the foul-smelling blood splattered from the severed body, and instead of anyone screaming or dodging, more eerie shadows greedily pounced on the two halves of the corpse in the darkness.

Soon, the sounds of chewing and swallowing filled the darkness, and some of the night creatures lay on the ground, licking the blood off the floor.

Since the start of the banquet, Qin Fu'an has created two corpses.

His aggressive and unreasonable nature, which leads him to resort to violence at the slightest provocation, makes even the most eerie creatures prefer to keep their distance from him for the time being.

About fifteen minutes after the banquet began, the eerie atmosphere in the hall and the players, under the cover of masks and with their human-like appearances, finally formed their own temporary cooperative teams.

Regardless of whether they harbor malicious intentions, at least on the surface, the teams are able to cooperate peacefully for the time being.

Finally, the first team prepared to leave.

But some people got up faster than them, walked to the door, dragged a chair over and sat down lazily, sitting right in the middle, facing the densely packed "guests" in the hall.

Yougui tried to walk around him and go outside, but Qin Fu'an, who was sitting at the door, swung his snake tail and slammed him back onto the hall floor.

"……What do you mean?"

"Why are you blocking our way and preventing us from leaving?!"

"Do you intend to keep all the reward for yourself?"

"Are you crazy? We have so many tricks up our sleeves, do you really want to be our enemy?!"

"Get out of the way! Don't make me say it twice—"

Chaos erupted, and a sharper malice and ferocity rapidly spread and escalated among everyone and the demons, finally coalescing and rushing towards Qin Fu'an, intending to cruelly tear his body and soul into countless pieces.

Ironically, the one who started all of this was not frightened by them at all, and remained sitting there calmly.

"What exactly do you want?" one player asked impatiently. They desperately wanted to go out and exchange information with the new players, hoping to find a glimmer of hope.

"It's very simple." Qin Fu'an looked around at everyone and the ghosts present, nodded slightly, and said politely, "Please stay here with me until dawn."

[Author's Note]

Anzai: Protect my wife, don't even think about hurting a single leaf of hers!

Yunzai: ...When did you have a child? And you even made him call me Dad??

Little Phoenix: QAQ Parents' love is insignificant compared to their son.

.