Chapter 107 Serpent Clan 3: Fusion
Nearly a month after returning to the Golden Serpent Palace, Yu Jingzi, who had been missing for days, seemed to have finally remembered that she had a granddaughter. However, when she arrived at the courtyard where Xu Xing was, she found her buried in a pile of materials that looked like limbs and torsos, fiddling with something.
"Hey~ what are you doing?"
Xu Xing was caught off guard by Yu Jingzi's sudden visit. He hurriedly hid the nascent puppet head behind his back. "What are you doing here?"
Is there any place in the Golden Serpent Palace that I cannot visit?
Yu Jingzi raised an eyebrow, but suddenly heard a stiff voice behind him.
"Your Highness, please have some spiritual fruit."
At this point, it was too late to get the puppet that usually served him spiritual fruits to leave. Xu Xing swallowed nervously, silently put away the materials in his hand, and hid himself under the corridor.
Yu Jingzi turned around and saw a puppet, whose figure and appearance were similar to his, kneeling on the ground with a fawning smile on its face and holding a fruit plate in its raised hands.
"Oh?" Yu Jingzi smiled enigmatically. "Interesting. Did you make this?"
He didn't seem angry at all. Instead, he stepped forward with great interest, pinched the puppet's limbs, circled it a few times, and carefully examined the puppet for a long time, his expression showing a strange satisfaction.
"Okay, I'll accept it."
With a flick of his wrist, Yu Jingzi ruthlessly pocketed the fruit-bearing puppet, leaving only a few spirit fruits rolling on the ground, unattended.
"I thought you'd be bored, but I didn't expect you to be so good at finding ways to have fun."
In the past, Shengqing also liked to do these things. Whenever he made her angry, she would make a puppet that looked a lot like him to vent her anger.
Yu Jingzi looked at Xu Xing and asked, "Can you still make some? Make me a few more to play with."
To Xu Xing's surprise, he wasn't angry at all.
Her eyes darted around, and a troubled expression appeared on her face. "It's possible, but I don't have enough materials. There are too many materials needed to make a puppet."
Yu Jingzi waved her hand dismissively, "You are a princess, the Golden Serpent Palace is all yours. Just give the order if you want any materials."
Xu Xing thanked her verbally, but in his heart he thought: Everything is hers? She says it so nicely, but if she wants to leave the Golden Serpent Palace, Yu Jingzi will probably turn on her immediately.
She had already tried it several times during this period. Although she seemed free in the Golden Snake Palace, countless eyes were watching her from the shadows as soon as she left the small courtyard.
Moreover, there are restrictions here, so ordinary magical artifacts are almost useless. If she wants to leave this place, she will have to refine a stronger teleportation artifact.
If there are enough materials, there's no problem in crafting it. However, if the new teleportation artifact doesn't have a pre-set spirit seal, she might be teleported to some unknown place...
If I'm unlucky enough to be transported to the Abyss of Corruption again, that would be terrible.
"Come on, let me introduce you to the guests."
Yu Jingzi was unaware that his adopted granddaughter was plotting her escape. He waved to Xu Xing, signaling him to follow.
Seeing Shen Du follow closely beside Xu Xing so naturally, Yu Jingzi revealed an ambiguous smile and said meaningfully, "It's probably not appropriate for your male favorite to show up on this occasion."
Yu Jingzi was clearly using the term "male concubine" on purpose. Xu Xing had long known that he had a perverse sense of humor, so he pretended not to hear and walked out side by side with his senior brother.
Yu Jingzi stood in the courtyard watching the two figures from behind, and smiled to herself. But when she looked down at the pile of scattered materials, her smile vanished instantly.
"Such talent in weapon crafting is truly worthy of being your daughter, Qingqing..."
"Your Majesty, it's been a long time."
In the main hall of the Golden Serpent Palace, the High Priest of the Deer Clan, Fuzhu, was dressed in a white robe, his head and face covered by a white veil. He exuded a holy and ethereal aura, making people forget the mundane world upon seeing him.
Xu Xing curiously observed the high priest, who seemed to be glowing, and then looked at Tian Li behind him, who had lowered his eyes and was also dressed in white robes. With the two of them there, the hall was much brighter.
She thought to herself, "Do all the deer people like white? They all look like celestial beings, and they're quite pleasing to the eye."
"A mere few decades is not a long time at all for the long-lived demon race."
Yu Jingzi leaned back lazily in her seat, one hand propping up her head and the other resting on her knee, and said casually, "What, are you here to persuade me too?"
"I dare not."
The man in white robes suddenly turned to look at Xu Xing, his gaze sweeping over Chen Du beside her, and said with his head bowed, "The Deer Clan has come today to discuss the marriage alliance between our two clans."
Xu Xing was lost in thought when her right hand was gently squeezed by her senior brother. She snapped out of her reverie and realized that everyone present was looking at her.
Confused, she looked around, when suddenly Yu Jingzi's abrupt laughter echoed through the quiet hall.
After a long while, he stopped and asked with a suppressed laugh, "We're discussing your wedding date with the Deer Clan's Junior High Priest. Do you have any thoughts on that?"
Wedding date?
Xu Xing was startled and quickly waved his hands, "No, no, no! I didn't agree! This marriage contract is invalid!"
"Um, Grandpa..."
Xu Xing got goosebumps all over. She suppressed her embarrassment and smiled ingratiatingly at Yu Jingzi, "Arranged marriages aren't common these days, right?"
Upon hearing the word "Grandpa," Yu Jingzi laughed even harder, his whole body trembling, completely losing any semblance of the Demon King's majesty.
His behavior made Fu Zhu glance at Xu Xing a few more times.
Tian Li suddenly spoke, her words carrying a hint, "After we get married, you can come with me to the Deer Clan and won't have to stay in the Golden Serpent Palace anymore."
Xu Xing shook his head vigorously, "The Golden Snake Palace is great, I like it very much."
She noticed that Yujingzi was still smiling, so she added, "Grandpa is very good to me too, I don't want to go to the Deer Clan."
"Since the princess is unwilling, let's put this matter aside for now."
Seeing that Yujingzi was almost laughing so hard he was slapping his thigh, Fuzhu finally spoke.
His voice was calm and had a soothing quality that made people feel as if they were bathed in a spring breeze.
"Your Majesty, the demon race cannot remain leaderless for long. When will you return to the throne?"
They seemed to be discussing some important matter concerning the king or the demon, but Xu Xing grew impatient and hastily made up an excuse to drag her senior brother away. Yu Jingzi didn't even stop her.
In the small garden, Xu Xing sat on the swing. Although her senior brother seemed normal, she still earnestly assured him, "Don't worry, senior brother, I only want you."
Shen Du pushed the swing for her. "Yes, I know."
Tian Li, who came out right behind the two, watched them silently for a long time before stepping forward. When he saw Xu Xing looking over, he said in a low voice, "Marry me, and you will be free."
"Haven't we already talked this out?"
Xu Xing didn't think Tian Li was the type to pester someone relentlessly, and she asked, puzzled, "What exactly is the purpose of your visit this time?"
Tian Li was silent for a moment, then smiled helplessly, "I still can't hide it from you."
He raised his hand, and a golden scale on his palm shimmered in the sunlight. "Keep this safe."
"This is a token given to us by the Snake King Shengqing when he made our engagement. It's a dragon scale, and I think you'll find it useful."
Xu Xing took it and looked at it against the sunlight, then suddenly asked out of the blue, "How many scales does a dragon have?"
Tian Li paused for a moment, then quickly understood her true meaning. "I don't know, but I do know that only five pieces remain in the world."
Five pieces...
Xu Xing thought to himself, "She already has two pieces. I wonder what will happen if she collects all five pieces, and summons the dragon?"
The golden dragon circled twice in her mind's eye, grumbling, "You wish!"
Summoning monsters is more like it!
With her current cultivation level, if she were to actually collect all five pieces, she wouldn't be far from death.
Tian Li had no idea what Xu Xing was thinking, but seeing the smile on her face, she couldn't help but smile back.
He noticed a cold gaze on his side and his smile vanished.
"The Demon King..."
Tian Li hesitated and said, "He is no longer the Demon King he once was. Although he seems approachable now, you must be careful in the Golden Serpent Palace."
The high priest foresaw that a demonic star was about to arrive in the demon realm, and that the demon king who failed his tribulation back then was likely no longer a demon.
If Shengqing really has an accident, I'm afraid Xu Xing will also...
"Thanks."
Xu Xing sincerely thanked Tian Li, who had indeed helped her a lot. She handed over a storage bag containing some specially made pills and magical artifacts, saying, "Here, consider this a thank-you gift."
The deer-like creature seemed mysterious and knew a lot, so Xu Xing asked, "By the way, do you know where Sheng Qing went?"
"she……"
"Li'er".
Fu Zhu's voice suddenly rang out.
He looked at me calmly. "It's time to go."
"yes."
The deer clan arrived and left quickly, but Xu Xing keenly noticed that Yu Jingzi seemed to be in a bad mood, and even her usual carefree smile was gone.
Afterwards, the unlucky snakes who reported on the affairs of the snake clan were all punished and left covered in wounds. Only then did Xu Xing realize that Yu Jingzi's gentleness was just a facade.
She immediately retreated to the courtyard, and even the materials needed for refining weapons were delivered by puppet maids, completely avoiding any trouble from Yu Jingzi.
After spending half a month crafting a new "Jade Capital" puppet, Xu Xing sent it to a maid and then began to focus on researching teleportation artifacts.
According to Yunxi, many of the snake clan members who were loyal to Shengqing during this period have been secretly purged. Rather than waiting passively, it is better to find a way to leave on your own.
That night, after Xu Xing fell asleep, Yu Jingzi appeared in her room like a ghost, her dark red eyes flashing with an eerie light in the darkness.
He was surrounded by demonic energy, as if he had become a completely different person, and his previous carefree and casual demeanor was no longer visible.
He bent down to look at Xu Xing's sleeping face. When those unique golden eyes closed, she looked even more like Sheng Qing. She was Sheng Qing's only child...
Yu Jingzi slowly stretched out her hand, but a cold voice came from behind her.
"Don't touch her."
"How dare you, a mere Nascent Soul sword cultivator, speak to me like that?"
Yu Jingzi turned to look at Chen Du expressionlessly and sneered, "If it weren't for her, you wouldn't even be qualified to see me."
Shen Du remained silent, but his gaze darkened. In the darkness, the Xuan Yue Sword, even blacker than the night, was suddenly drawn, and a golden sword light flashed across the night sky in an instant.
“If you were still the incomparably powerful demon king of yesteryear, I naturally could not, but you are not.”
"Ha, ignorant yet audacious cultivator, you..."
The words were cut off, and Yu Jingzi suddenly clutched his chest, a look of pain appearing in his eyes. He gasped for breath and gave Chen Du a cold look, "Consider yourself lucky today."
With a flick of his sleeve, he vanished from the room in an instant.
After Yu Jingzi left, the golden dragon phantom suddenly appeared and reminded Shen Du in a deep voice, "He won't be able to endure for long. If you really want to help Xu Xing form his core, you must do it as soon as possible."
"I understand, thank you, senior."
The next day, when Xu Xing checked the memorial stone, he learned that Yu Jingzi had come in the middle of the night.
Damn it! It turns out this cheapskate grandfather really is a pervert!
Xu Xing placed many recording stones in this courtyard. The recording stones she refined were very well hidden. Apart from being able to record images, they were no different from ordinary stones. The extremely slight fluctuations of spiritual energy were difficult for people to detect.
Often, these seemingly insignificant things can play a big role, which exposes the true nature of Yu Jingzi.
Noticing that his senior brother seemed to have said something to Senior Jinlong after Yu Jingzi left, Xu Xing immediately asked in his mind, "What did you and your senior brother talk about? You're not hiding something from me, are you?"
"Of course it's nothing. My remnant soul is being restrained by you, what could I possibly say to him? If you don't believe me, you should at least believe your good senior brother, right? Would he really harm you?"
Xu Xing remained silent. If there really was nothing wrong, Jinlong wouldn't have explained so much. The more it acted this way, the more it meant that it was hiding something from him.
The only thing Jinlong mentioned repeatedly was the matter of dual cultivation.
"Of course my senior brother wouldn't harm me."
Xu Xing said nothing, pretending not to know, and only sped up the refining of the teleportation artifact.
However, before leaving the Golden Serpent Palace, Xu Xing needed to find an opportunity to visit the burial ground.
A few days ago, she asked Yunxi to find a way to place her spirit seal somewhere in the burial ground so that she could teleport there directly.
While Xu Xing was refining magical artifacts, Shen Du would quietly practice his sword in the courtyard. One of his male concubines was indeed a sword cultivator, and he would occasionally appear to spar with him.
But most of the time, Shengqing's male favorites were nowhere to be seen, and they never appeared in front of Yujingzi, as if they were avoiding something.
"Strange, it seems like my spiritual energy is being consumed faster lately? Is it just my imagination?"
Having only refined half of it, Xu Xing felt hungry. He seemed to be deep in thought, feeling that something was wrong with his body lately.
The Golden Serpent Palace is filled with demonic spirits, even more so than her master's Frost Peak. Logically, she shouldn't get hungry so easily.
The golden ball of light in the dantian lay dormant. Senior Golden Dragon said it was not a dragon pearl, but just a wisp of dragon bone energy.
Xu Xingzhen didn't know what it was for, but since he couldn't get it out, he could only leave it inside his body.
The fact that Senior Wei Sheng had specially hidden it in the Guixu Secret Realm should mean it was a treasure. Xu Xing was completely baffled, and whenever he asked Jinlong, he would only give vague and ambiguous answers.
"You'll know when you reach the Core Formation stage."
But Xu Xing was very skeptical. At her incredibly slow cultivation speed, when would she ever be able to form her core?
She had consumed a lot of pills, including the high-level pills left by Senior Wei Sheng, but she hadn't even reached the peak of Foundation Establishment, let alone formed a core. It was as if the spiritual energy disappeared as soon as it entered her body, having no effect whatsoever.
Wait! It disappeared?
Xu Xing probed his spiritual energy into his dantian. Could it be that it was being absorbed by this ball of true energy?
After searching around, she not only found nothing, but also made herself even hungrier.
After the puppet maidservant finished serving dinner, she quietly withdrew. As Xu Xing ate, he grew hungrier and hungrier, and the feeling of emptiness in his body seemed to be something other than hunger.
Seeing her frown, Chen Du asked, "What's wrong? Is it not to your liking?"
"no……"
Xu Xing put down his chopsticks and took out a few more spirit-replenishing pills, saying, "I probably used up too much spiritual energy today."
Why didn't even the elixirs work?
Xu Xing tossed the empty bottle aside in frustration. "Maybe I should take a nap? I might not be hungry if I fall asleep."
Thinking this, Xu Xing turned to go to the bed, but Shen Du grabbed his wrist, "Let me replenish your spirit."
Replenishing spirit? How do I do that?
Only when he was completely enveloped by his senior brother's aura did Xu Xing finally feel some relief from the strange emptiness in his body.
"May I?"
In her dazed state, she heard her senior brother's hoarse voice whispering in her ear.
Xu Xing was unable to say anything, only knowing that she seemed to nod haphazardly, and then she felt her senior brother's spiritual power slowly invading her body.
As a continuous stream of pure spiritual energy poured in, her whole body became hot. The golden light in her dantian greedily absorbed everything, growing brighter and brighter until it finally condensed into a perfectly round golden core.
...
Xu Xing's complexion gradually regained its color, while Shen Du's expression grew paler. He allowed his spiritual power to flow into the body of the person beneath him, and lingered on Xu Xing's lips with a kiss.
Once she forms her golden core, she will be able to break free from her fate of being controlled. As long as she travels safely, enduring the pain of her nascent soul slowly dissolving is nothing.
After an unknown amount of time, just as Shen Du was about to leave, Xu Xing suddenly grabbed his hand. She was perfectly clear-headed, showing no shyness or displeasure, clearly intending to indulge in all of this.
She hugged Shen Du's neck and pressed the obviously stunned man down a little.
The two touched forehead to forehead, and Xu Xing's primordial spirit tentatively knocked on the heart gate in front of him, which contained boundless sword intent. His pale golden divine sense tightly wrapped around the already dim golden sword light.
He kissed Shen Du's slightly cool lips, then transferred something from his mouth to hers, whispering, "Senior brother, dual cultivation is a matter for two people, isn't it?"
...
In a corner of the courtyard, a maid noticed that a puppet's recent behavior was rather strange, often entering and leaving the Snake King's library in the middle of the night.
Worried that the puppet might be controlled by someone with ulterior motives, she examined it carefully and found several books in the puppet's storage space.
The Essentials of Dual Cultivation
The Great Method of Merging the Primordial Spirit
...
Could it be that Her Highness reads these books all the time?
The maid secretly made a mental note of it: he must have been corrupted by that seemingly abstinent and indifferent swordsman who actually stared at His Highness all day long! When the King returns, she will definitely give him a good thrashing!
Thunderclouds gathered briefly above the Golden Serpent Palace, but quickly dissipated as if nothing had happened.
Yu Jingzi stood in the pavilion, expressionless, watching the lightning flash across the sky. After a moment, he realized something, frowned instantly, and flew down, heading straight for the small courtyard deep inside the Golden Serpent Palace.
The courtyard was deserted, with only faint traces of spiritual energy remaining, indicating that an extremely sophisticated spatial teleportation artifact had once been used here.
She actually escaped right under my nose?
Yu Jingzi raised his hand slightly, and countless black shadows suddenly appeared behind him. Two of them held a snake clan member in their hands, who was none other than the unconscious Yunxi.
"Go to the burial ground."
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed an unfinished puppet in the corner, only half a body. Yu Jingzi stared at it expressionlessly for a long time, then suddenly reached out and crushed the puppet's neck.
Why do they all want to leave him?
"It's nothing but a puppet..."
They absolutely cannot escape his grasp.
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Author's Note: Thank you to 44201549, Sleep a Little Longer, Happy Meow, Sleepless Night, Ribs Stuffed Bamboo Sun, and Green Cord for the nutrient solution! Please, my little cuties! [Please!]
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