Chapter 63 Signs of Infiltration (2) Xia Ying, how was your holiday...?
After seeing off the human girl he had been longing for, Charybdis happily packed away the carefully prepared scene from his dream.
Dark clouds obscured the clear sky, the gray sea level continued to rise, and even the giant whales were no longer so docile and cute.
He leaped from the whale's back into the deep sea, swimming toward the shipwreck that had been transformed into a nest. Charybdis entered his secret abode and activated the computer used to analyze magic.
"Let me confirm one more time..." He typed in an extremely complex string of runes, which were then transformed into exquisite spatial magic on the computer and displayed on the screen as a cityscape nestled between mountains and the sea.
This is the human city where Xia Ying lives.
Great, no problem.
Charybdis smiled contentedly.
His consciousness began to rise, and the dream slowly disintegrated.
Just as Hecaribdis's soul touched the surface of the material world and the dream cocoon was about to shatter completely, an external consciousness suddenly seized the moment when the defense was most vulnerable and darted into the siren's dream like lightning.
The lightning bolt plunged straight into the sea, easily finding the shipwreck. In the blink of an eye, a wet, tattered rag uninvitedly visited the siren's lair.
Taotie rudely dragged a long trail of water across the clean floor. He walked to the still-on computer screen, and the scene and magical runes that came into view made him pause in surprise. The dark matter under the hood then stirred up a wave of ecstatic tremor.
...
Within the crimson crown, Fafnir once again awoke alone on his golden bed.
He had lost count of how many days it had been. No one was there to braid his hair anymore, and no one was there to take care of his dragon horns and scales... But these things didn't really matter. What the dragon truly cared about was that he hadn't heard Xia Ying's voice or felt her body temperature for a long time.
In fact, Fafnir respected the outcome of the duel very much. He was more than willing to be imprisoned by Xia Ying as her subject. Even if Xia Ying herself was unwilling, he could deliver himself to her door.
However, after the ring domain allocation ceremony, Xia Ying disappeared without a trace, and Fafnir didn't even have the chance to force a sale, which made him feel very lonely.
For the dragon, it seemed like another dull day without any news from Xia Ying, but just then, his phone suddenly beeped with a notification that a new message had been received.
"drop!"
Favreil opened the chat interface out of boredom and found it was an anonymous message. Usually, anonymous messages are either sales advertisements or scams...
But after just one glance, his gaze was fixed on the message.
Anonymous sender (please verify the authenticity yourself): "Do you have someone you love, yet sleepless nights? Do you long to spend time with your sweetheart, but don't know where she is right now? Are you curious if there is a road that can lead directly to her... and her heart?"
Some of you have it! Now, simply click the link below to fulfill all your needs at once!
####
In the human world, Xia Ying opened her eyes in her own home.
The dream she had just experienced was still vividly imprinted in her mind, and Charybdis's last words still echoed in Xia Ying's heart.
She pondered for a moment, and like those humans who post online asking "Why does my cat keep making noise?", she unceremoniously replied:
"What do you mean you can meet me tomorrow? Has Charybdis suddenly decided to invade the human world?"
"What invasion?" Cerberus, awakened by the noise, asked sleepily, "Xia Ying, what are you talking about?"
Xia Ying picked up the black dog and placed it on her lap, then began to stroke its back, neck, and chin with ease: "Ker, have you ever thought about invading the human world?"
"I've thought about it." The Fiery Hellhound nestled obediently and contentedly on Xia Ying's lap, purring softly as it answered honestly, "Not long after arriving in the human world, when I was starving, I thought about killing all the humans on the entire commercial street and then taking over all the supermarkets and delicatessens..."
"Huh? You're so mean!" Xia Ying stopped what she was doing, annoyed. "If we kill all the humans, who will replenish the goods on the shelves and make fresh food?"
"So...so I didn't do anything, did I?" The dog rolled over, exposing its belly, and wagged its tail. "Later I realized that it would have been better to learn to cook myself."
"So you don't want to invade the human world anymore?"
Cerberus replied decisively, "I don't want to."
Xia Ying then asked, "What if other abyssal creatures were to invade the human world?"
Kernel didn't hesitate: "I will protect you."
Xia Ying pressed further: "What if I wanted to protect the human world?"
This time, Cerberus thought about it for a moment.
"Whoever is your enemy is my enemy."
Xia Ying picked up the black dog with great satisfaction and gave it a big kiss: "So good, so good, I'm glad I spoiled you!"
Held in Xia Ying's arms, the demon dog felt as if it were surrounded by happiness, its tail spinning rapidly like a windmill.
"But Xia Ying, why do you ask that? Is something trying to invade the human world?"
"Thinking about it carefully, it shouldn't be that bad." As her mind cleared, her emotional intelligence also began to kick in. "I guess I misunderstood."
Cerberus suddenly remembered something, its tail paused, and it burrowed out of Xia Ying's arms, starting to rummage through the blankets, before expanding its search to the entire bedroom.
Great, Fenrir isn't here today!
The demon hound howled and charged forward: "Wait, what are you doing?!"
A few minutes later, Cerberus regained control of the kitchen, and Xia Ying and Fenrir were kicked out and sat facing each other at the dining table.
"Fenrir, what was that plate of coke you just made?"
Fenrir said uncertainly, "Griffin eggs and mandrake leaves."
"Oh, eggs and vegetables." Xia Ying smiled. "Why are you interested in the kitchen? Is it because of Kernel?"
He nodded, full of confidence, and said, "I can learn it too."
Xia Ying recalled that the other person had said he wanted to change, and understood that this might be some of his efforts to integrate into human life.
“I believe in you,” she encouraged. “But I’m not very good at cooking, so I can’t teach you anything. But I can teach you how to eat…”
Cerberus placed a plate of tempting omelets in front of the two of them and glared at Fenrir: "I'm not teaching him, and he's never allowed to set foot in my kitchen!"
Xia Ying quickly finished eating, stood up and said, "Well then, I'm going out."
Kerr blurted out, "Wherever you go today, I want to go too."
"I'm going out with Lulu, are you sure you want to come?"
Even Cerberus fell silent for a second, but he quickly came up with a good idea: "Why not just not become human?"
As he spoke, he skillfully took out a dog leash from the drawer, transformed into a black dog, happily spun around twice, and then stuffed the leash into Xia Ying's hand.
It all happened so smoothly that Xia Ying instinctively gripped the dog leash.
Beside her, Fenrir opened the same drawer and glanced inside, then looked at Xia Ying for help: "Do you still have this kind of rope?"
####
As Xu Lu drove, she said, "So when did you get a new dog?"
Xia Ying, sitting in the back seat with a black and a white dog, chuckled dryly, "Hahaha, just a few days ago..."
Fortunately, Xu Lu didn't intend to ask any further questions and quickly brought up the next topic: "Then let's go to sweep Aunt's grave first, and then I'll take you to play. Where do you want to go?"
Xia Ying thought for a moment: "Amusement park."
Xu Lu scoffed mockingly, but her voice was gentle: "Kid."
They first went to the cemetery, and when they got out of the car, Xu Lu took out a bouquet of flowers from the trunk.
But when they arrived at Xia Kaiyun's grave, they found that it had just been cleaned and two bouquets of fresh flowers were placed in front of the tombstone.
They put down the flowers they had brought and each spent a few minutes paying their respects.
Then, Xia Ying squatted down and saw the words "Respectfully offered by Shen Jingting" on one of the cards.
The other bouquet didn't come with a card, but Xu Lu suddenly said, "This is a gift from my mom."
"Aunt Siyun?" Xia Ying asked worriedly, "You two aren't arguing about that anymore, are you?"
“It’s noisy,” Xu Lu replied decisively. “Who would drive away their helpless little niece without giving a reason?”
Xia Ying corrected, "It wasn't that I was being forced to leave, it was my own choice."
"Why? Do you not like me, or do you not like my parents?"
“Neither.” Xia Ying was speechless. “There’s a reason for this…”
Xia Ying interrupted her: "Because I always attract dangerous monsters, I can't live with you so as not to implicate you."
"..." Xu Lu was silent for a moment, then turned to look at her in disbelief, "Are you trying to fool me with that feudal superstition stuff?"
Xia Ying looked away, having anticipated this: "See, I knew you wouldn't believe me."
They walked together out of the cemetery, and even after they got back to the car, Xu Lu was still bothered by what Xia Ying had said: "No, couldn't you have come up with a better reason?"
"Believe it or not, it's true..."
Their car restarted and drove onto the cross-sea bridge a dozen minutes later.
Xia Ying rolled down the car window, letting the sea breeze blow into the car. The little dog, Kerber, barked excitedly and stuck his head out of the window. Xia Ying quickly picked him up and brought him back.
She glanced down at the sea and suddenly noticed a strange whirlpool on the surface.
Xia Ying's gaze froze as she watched the whirlpool grow larger and deeper... Then, a faint, silvery-blue light suddenly flashed in the darkening waves.
The color looked very similar to the tail of a siren.
"Lulu, Xu Lu!" Xia Ying hurriedly patted the back of the driver's seat, "Let me out of the car!"
Xu Lu glanced at her in surprise in the rearview mirror: "What's wrong with you? We're on a bridge!"
Before the word "danger" could be uttered, a faint rumble of thunder sounded in the sky, followed by a golden-red lightning bolt that sliced through the clouds, revealing the enormous and terrifying form of the dragon.
Before finding Xia Ying, the dragon and the siren discovered each other, and just like in Cocytus, they launched an attack on each other without any hesitation.
But this is the human world! These vulnerable humans are not protected by resurrection magic!
Xu Lu stared in disbelief as the pillar of fire descending from the sky was about to collide with the wall of water rising from the sea, even forgetting to grip the steering wheel: "What is that?!"
Xia Ying had no time to comfort her. She abruptly opened the door of the moving car: "Cher! Fenrir! Stop them!"
The demon hound and frost wolf transformed back into human form, but the reaction time they had was still too short. The pillar of fire and the wall of water collided, and the massive impact of the energy explosion shattered the bridge pillar.
The bridge ahead collapsed section by section at an extremely fast speed. Xu Lu snapped out of her shock, gritted her teeth, and swerved the steering wheel, trying to speed in the opposite direction. But even so, the collapse caught up with them in an instant. Just as the car and the debris were falling together, time stood still.
Xia Ying's movements froze at the moment she lunged towards the driver's seat, but her mind remained clear.
Her gaze passed through the slanted car window and looked up into the air... where her eyes fell, a jet-black feather was drifting down.
In the dead silence, Xia Ying heard a crisp snap of fingers.
Time began to rewind. The cross-sea bridge sections were reassembled, the bridge pillars were restored to their original state, and Xia Ying's car was driving smoothly on the road.
If it weren't for the siren and the dragon still appearing and disappearing in the sea and sky, Xia Ying would probably have thought that what had just happened was just her daydream.
However, there was more evidence than just those that reminded her of what had just happened.
Xia Ying looked up and saw that the previously empty passenger seat was now occupied by a stunningly beautiful primordial demon in a suit and tie.
"Long time no see, Xia Ying." He turned his head and greeted her politely, "How was your holiday?"
-----------------------
Author's Note: I unexpectedly had to work overtime today and can't update twice. I'm so sorry (kneeling).
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
