Chapter 231 Dragon Shadow, the Third Myth, Paradise (asking for monthly tickets)
In the Spiritual Library, the red dragon's spread wings blocked half of the window, and the remaining afterglow in the sky could not shine in.
It looked up at the boy in the hospital gown, its ruby-like dragon eyes sparkling in the darkness.
Ji Minghuan took a step back, stared at it curiously and vigilantly, and then asked:
"Did you just say, 'Qingping Xiaoer'?"
“That’s right…”
The crawling red dragon pondered and nodded slightly.
"You mean you know Li Qingping? Or, you actually know him from my memory?" Ji Minghuan babbled, "No one has ever told me before that strange fragments have self-awareness. Seeing it today really broadens my horizons."
"I am 'Red Dragon Wales'... To be more precise, I am just a remnant of consciousness that has been sleeping for many centuries until Li Qingping found me in the ruins."
The dragon raised its claws and scratched the pages with the tip, being careful not to tear the book.
After turning a page, it continued, "As you said... Qingping and I have known each other for several years. Not all strange fragments have consciousness, but it just so happens that part of my consciousness remains in this generational fragment."
"And in all these years, he never told me that there was a dragon living in his head?"
"Because you didn't ask him."
The red dragon raised his reading glasses and looked at him through them.
"Okay, now that we've talked about this, I think I understand." Ji Minghuan breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought Li Qingping had reincarnated as a dragon and was hiding in the library to steal my memories. Doesn't that mean he saw all my embarrassing moments? I was so scared."
Having said that, he pursed his lips, with a look of slight disappointment on his face.
"Qingping is dead."
"Oh, you don't need to remind me."
After a long silence, Ji Minghuan turned his eyes away from the red dragon and asked casually, "Since you know him so well, do you know if he regrets it?"
"What are you regretting?"
"I regretted risking my life for the third prince. How stupid."
The dragon was silent for a while, then lowered his eyes to look at the page, "He doesn't regret it..."
"Really?" Ji Minghuan said, "I don't believe it."
"To be precise, Qingping only regretted not telling you those things earlier in the moment before he died." The dragon paused, "But from these memories, it seems that you actually knew it a long time ago, but you unilaterally concealed it from him."
Ji Minghuan was slightly stunned, then he crossed his legs and sat down on the ground silently.
After a moment, he took a book from the bookshelf and read it nonchalantly without raising his head: "Otherwise... do you want me to tell him, 'Qingping Qingping, in fact, your only good friend is the dummy I made with my supernatural power'?"
The dragon groaned for a moment, "I don't really understand you humans. You always say one thing and mean another, and your words don't convey your meaning."
"Okay, I'm going to sleep." Ji Minghuan shrugged, "You're welcome to stay at my house. You can also mess around with my privacy, but remember not to wake up the three guys above your head."
As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed at the three bodies hanging from the ceiling.
"You can let them talk to me once in a while," the dragon said, "just to kill time."
"Grandpa Long, please let me go. I have enough things to deal with in reality, and this is the only place where I can have some peace and quiet. If you guys continue to do this to me, won't I become mentally ill?"
Ji Minghuan said this expressionlessly, sitting down against the bookshelf and looking sideways towards the floor-to-ceiling windows of the library.
Above the distant mountains, there is still a faint afterglow in the sky.
The scenery outside the library was passing by strangely, as if looking out from a moving train, with only a gradually fading outline of color left.
He was so sleepy that he couldn't be any sleepier, so he turned to the dragon behind him and said, "If you have time, tell me about Li Qingping. I don't know much about him."
The dragon looked up at him from behind his oversized reading glasses, was silent for a moment, and then snorted a cloud of hot steam from his nostrils, as if agreeing.
Ji Minghuan leaned his head against the bookshelf and pulled the rope hanging above his head.
The sun suddenly went down, and the last rays of light covered his face. He slowly closed his eyes, and could only hear the rustling sound of the dragon scratching the pages of the book. Soon after, his consciousness fell into a deep sleep.
"Restricted psychic, number 1002 - Ji Minghuan, your mentor is here to visit you, please get ready quickly." A cold metallic voice came from the broadcasting equipment.
Ji Minghuan drowsily opened his eyelids, blinked, and met the silver-white ceiling again.
For some reason, he always felt that he had been away from this prison cell for a long time, and he had hardly opened his eyes during this period.
Whenever he didn't want to eat, the Savior Society staff would anesthetize him and then inject him with nutrients, so he didn't have to worry about starving to death here.
It was actually quite convenient, as the days of the Whale Court War seemed as long as a century.
After all the busy work, I finally have some free time.
He got out of bed, picked up the plate, went into the bathroom to wash up, then stretched and sat down at the table, looking up at the metal door open.
The tutor walked in leisurely, pulled a chair in front of the table, sat down, and put down the thermos cup.
He got straight to the point: "Ji Minghuan, just yesterday, something happened in the outside world that really surprised me. Do you want to hear about it?"
"What's going on?" Ji Minghuan yawned, "Did the red light come back to life?"
"The whale's box garden has been destroyed."
"What is it?" Ji Minghuan raised his eyebrows. "You seem to have mentioned it to me before, but I don't remember it."
"In the headquarters of the Strange News Envoy, a shark of the Eternal Abyss, which was said to be extinct in legend, suddenly appeared and swallowed the legendary whale in one gulp."
"Oh, now I understand. Isn't it the little world in the whale's belly?"
"We don't know exactly what happened yet, but one thing is certain: the White Crow Brigade was also involved in this incident."
"The White Crow Brigade are the people we met in London last time. They really deserve to die." Ji Minghuan said casually.
"Yes, we are investigating them." The instructor said calmly, "But the leaders and members of this organization are mostly elusive. They don't have a base like the Exorcist Association or the Abnormal Association, so it's difficult to track their movements."
"If you hadn't brought a Muggle like me along that day, and had let Big Sister chase them on her cloud alone, we would have been able to catch them all in one fell swoop, right?"
“You are a team,” the instructor said. “Don’t say things like that.”
"Yes, every team should have someone who holds them back." Ji Minghuan shook his head and sighed.
Like the pee demon, he added mentally.
The instructor sighed, "This incident is of great importance. The destruction of a supernatural country will definitely have a huge impact on the balance that we, the Salvation Society, pursue. Moreover, the residents of the box garden have been transferred to the human world. Their existence is equivalent to the fact that the "Strange News Envoys" are a race that is made public. I am afraid that no matter how the authorities conceal it, they cannot stop the development of the matter."
"What should we do then?"
“We are still looking for a solution.”
"Wait, you're not going to..."
Ji Minghuan said this and looked up at him, "Let's kill all those people living in the whale's belly, right?"
He couldn't imagine how César would react if the Salvation Society really did this.
"No, doing so would only be a cover-up." The instructor said, "But we must carefully consider whether the strange news will have a huge impact on society after it officially enters the public eye, and whether this impact is within our acceptable range."
"What is the balance you are maintaining?"
"World peace."
"Is it really peace, not nuclear peace?"
The instructor smiled and said, "Besides that, we recently found a group of 'light-eating bees'."
"Light-eating bee?"
Ji Minghuan's heart moved slightly. Isn't this the magical animal race that Xizel intended to find that escaped from the box garden?
"That's right, the light-eating bees," the instructor said. "This is an extremely dangerous species. They have a human-like body shape and survive by absorbing sunlight. Their limbs are much stronger than humans, but once they are no longer satisfied with just absorbing sunlight, they will discover the terrifying potential of their own species."
"Why?"
Ji Minghuan asked tentatively.
The instructor took a deep breath and said, "They can awaken special abilities and enhance their physical strength by devouring extraordinary humans. Just imagine what would happen if a light-eating bee ate a calamity-level mutant."
Ji Minghuan was stunned.
Isn't this just me, Shark? He thought, Oh no, I'm just chewing on the scraps, eating people doesn't do anything.
"Then do you want the big sister to take action?" he asked, "Let Sun Changkong beat them to death with a stick."
"No, it's not yet at the level where the rescue team needs to take action." The instructor shook his head. "We will release some clues through channels to let the United Nations realize the seriousness of this matter."
The instructor paused and said, "Then have them send out the Rainbow Wings to completely wipe out the Light Devouring Bees on the island."
"Rainbow Wing?"
Ji Minghuan murmured softly and raised his eyebrows.
He thought: So, if Blue Arc joins Rainbow Wing this month, he might be sent to carry out this high-risk mission.
But by the same token...if Blue Arc and Ghost Bell were to take revenge on the Rainbow Wing member while the Light Devouring Bees were being exterminated, their chances of winning would be very high, after all, the Rainbow Wing members were focused on the mission.
Besides, I still have the fighting force of Yagubaru and Xizel at hand. If I let the Great Shark and its prince join in, maybe I can catch them by surprise and wipe out the Rainbow Wing members of the Savior Faction.
The idea has been come up with, so the problem now is how to get my brother to join Hongyi smoothly, and how to catch all the spies of the Salvation Society.
Thinking of this, Ji Minghuan raised his eyes and met his mentor's gaze.
"That's right, Hongyi." The instructor said, "The most powerful organization of superpowers in the world."
"So there's no need to send me out to slack off?"
"No need." The instructor coughed twice. "For example: unless a person with a mythical anecdote appears on Earth, and that person has bad intentions, then we may send you out. After all, Hong Yi may not be able to cure him."
"In other words, a holder of a mythical curiosity is even stronger than an entire rainbow wing?"
"That's not that exaggerated, but we can be sure that the mythical Qiwen can fight twelve alone and destroy half of the Rainbow Wing."
"Isn't this too abnormal?" Ji Minghuan sighed, "I know the big sister is powerful, but is she really that powerful?"
The instructor took a sip of the tea in the thermos cup and smiled: "Are you disappointed? I can't go out to carry out the mission."
"What are you disappointed about? I almost had a heart attack the last time I went to London." Ji Minghuan sighed and drew circles on the table with his fingers. "I might as well stay in the base and sleep."
The instructor nodded: "That's good. I can only say that it is not your turn to take action against an opponent of the Light Devouring Bee's level."
He paused for a moment, then suddenly raised his mouth: "By the way, what is the other legendary child in our Savior Society? Are you still curious?"
"Are you trying to keep me in suspense again?" Ji Minghuan narrowed his eyes. "I think I guessed it was 'Zeus' last time. Was I right?"
The mentor clasped his hands on the table, stared at him mysteriously for a while, and suddenly smiled.
He said, "You guessed it, but Zeus is only one of them."
"No way... I can guess this correctly?" Ji Minghuan's voice suddenly stopped here.
He was stunned for a long moment, then slowly raised his head and stared into his mentor's smiling eyes.
"Wait, you said, 'one of them'?" he muttered.
"That's right." The instructor said, "This child's mythical fragment is 'Zeus' in Greek mythology, the king of Olympus."
"Don't change the subject." Ji Minghuan was shocked. "What I mean is: besides 'Sun Wukong' and 'Zeus', is there a third mythical child in the Salvation Society?"
The mentor looked him in the eyes and nodded slowly.
"Yes."
"But didn't you always say there were two?" Ji Minghuan asked suspiciously.
"That's because we weren't sure at the time what the strange fragments in the child's body were, or even what level the fragments were at."
"Is it that exaggerated?"
"Her situation was very, very special, and it took us a long time to complete the observations."
The instructor paused and said, "And now we understand... the fragment in this child's body is the 'World Tree' in Norse Mythology."
"World Tree..."
Ji Minghuan's lips moved as he murmured in a daze.
How could he not have heard of this name?
Even though he knew very little about Norse mythology, as a player who had played many games, he naturally recognized the "World Tree" that frequently appeared in various fantasy and other-world adventure games.
The instructor said, "She is in the same unstable condition as the other child you have not met yet, and is deeply disturbed by the consciousness of the strange fragments."
Ji Minghuan was stunned, and pretended to be surprised and said: "Strange fragments have self-awareness?"
"Yes." The instructor nodded, "Especially mythical fragments. Mythical fragments are more likely to retain part of the consciousness of mythical characters. In comparison, the probability of this happening to generational fragments is much smaller."
Is it like Li Qingping's red dragon? Ji Minghuan thought secretly.
"You mean they can hear mythical beings talking to them?"
"Yes, Sun Changkong has the same problem, but she seems to get along well with the Monkey King, so it doesn't cause any mental burden."
"It sounds like it's not easy..." Ji Minghuan said softly, "No wonder they are mentally unstable."
"Let's stop chatting here. I want you to go talk to the World Tree. This will help stabilize her mental state. Ji Minghuan, you are a kind child. You should help me with this, right?"
"Am I some kind of problem child sitter?"
"As a reward for your help, our people have built a children's playground for you in the base." The instructor clasped his hands together and a kind smile appeared on his face.
"Amusement park?" Ji Minghuan narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"That's right." The instructor nodded. "This amusement park is on the upper floor. Do you want to go and see it now?"
"Yes, provided you don't lie to me."
"Then let's go." The instructor slowly stood up.
As soon as he finished speaking, the metal door of the cell slowly opened. Amid the rumbling sound, Ji Minghuan followed his mentor and took his first step into the corridor outside the cell. The light that hit him was so dazzling that he couldn't help but raise his arms to block it.
Ji Minghuan walked barefoot, dully and slowly in the corridor lit by cold white lights. The ground felt like cold metal.
This was his first time stepping out of the prison cell. As the other kids had said, the light in the corridor was so bright that he couldn't open his eyes at all. It was like walking in a pitch-black fog. But after walking there a few times, it shouldn't be difficult to remember the route.
"Didn't you say I had a younger brother? Have you found him?" Ji Minghuan suddenly asked.
"Not yet." The instructor said as he walked.
After a while, the instructor raised his hand and put his arm around his shoulders, motioning him to stop.
In the blazing white light, there was a sudden noise in front of us. It was the sound of the elevator door opening outwards.
The instructor gently pushed Ji Minghuan and took him into the elevator. The lights in the elevator car were still bright, but not so bright that it was impossible to open one's eyes.
Ji Minghuan slowly raised his eyelids and squinted at the elevator's operating panel. He saw only two blank buttons on the panel, and the top button was glowing orange.
With a slight bump, the elevator quickly reached the upper floor.
The elevator door opened outwards, and what came into view was still a space with cold colors, but it had all the facilities of a children's playground - slides, balance beams, swings, trampolines, mazes, and even a carousel.
There is a water dispenser next to it with plastic cups on it for children to use when they are thirsty.
Ji Minghuan raised his head and looked at this "paradise" in silence.
The next second, his sight suddenly fixed on a corner of the amusement park.
At this moment, a black-haired girl in a hospital gown was sitting on the swing. She had air bangs on her forehead and a teardrop mole at the corner of her eye.
The instructor put his hands behind his back and spoke slowly:
"Let me introduce her. She is the holder of the fragment of the World Tree, Shang Xiaochi."
(End of this chapter)
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